As I do with these Four Play videos now, here is my summary of my thoughts after playing all 4 versions to record the video. The best is undoubtedly the FM Towns, there's no contest really, it wins in every single area. In second place I'd actually pick the Atari ST as it does a better job of faking the scaling effects than the Mega Drive and also seems to have a better frame rate. I was also surprised by the much better quality speech samples on the ST too. The Mega Drive version has amazing music and plays well, so it's a solid 3rd. The Amiga version is by far the worst of these. It seems to be based on the ST version but it's much slower, not as smooth, plays in a letterbox at the top of the screen and also manages to have worse sound!
There's no contest here: FM Towns is the best in every area indeed. By looking at the textures of the fortress' stages, you can see why it's a technically superior adaptation of Sega's arcade. Of course, it's a technically superior machine too, having CD-ROM with a larger storage space than a cartridge or a diskette... I suspect that the Mega Drive came before the FM Towns' version. If so, CRI have improved themselves on FM Towns. I'm safe to say, though, that the Mega Drive is my 2nd place; you can feel the difference, it's like a more economic version of the beast that is the FM Towns. Also, the sound chip of the console makes a great service for the jazz-fusion music of this game. I'm surprised about the qualities of the Atari ST version, specially in the zooming effects, the music feels great in its sound chip as well as the graphics are really good for the system. But I don't think that the crop of the resolution was a nice touch, despite the cinematic impression and better results of the processing power. Too bad that the Amiga version is derived from the Atari ST, being slower... Despite the Amiga having a serious advantage in sounds, the weird sudden drops of processing issues affect exactly what it has at its finest.
There are loads of really weird quirks in the Amiga version that you probably didn't notice in the video. For example the sound totally cuts out when it plays the speech samples but even then they sometimes either don't play at all or they then get cut off half way through as the main sound comes back in. It's not often the ST has better sound than the Amiga but in this game it does.
@@TheLairdsLair Yeah, I didn't notice such technical failures of sound coming from the Amiga version, and I will while watching the video again or playing it, comparing it with the Atari ST performance.
The FM Towns was an AMAZING machine, and games like Galaxy Force II show why - sublime sound, graphics & gameplay, and it's the only port to have an opening cutscene!
Overall I'd say Sega Mega Drive. The FM Towns port has better background graphics, but it has a lower resolution and a more restrictive view that's largely obscured by your humongous player sprite. The Amiga and Atari ST ports also have relatively restrictive views, even though they have the same resolution as the Mega Drive ports. They have superior width of view to the FM Towns port, but inferior vertical view due to letterboxing.
The Amiga version is by far the worst of these. It seems to be based on the ST version but it's much slower, not as smooth, plays in a letterbox at the top of the screen and also manages to have worse sound!
Um....made me google Fujitsu FM Towns. Wow. Fm was clear winner. I guess it's just me, but I thought the ST variant was practically the same graphically and the music was inferior to Amiga. IMHO the ST sound effects were awful. Mirror copy of the 2600 Asteroids sound effects.
As I do with these Four Play videos now, here is my summary of my thoughts after playing all 4 versions to record the video.
The best is undoubtedly the FM Towns, there's no contest really, it wins in every single area. In second place I'd actually pick the Atari ST as it does a better job of faking the scaling effects than the Mega Drive and also seems to have a better frame rate. I was also surprised by the much better quality speech samples on the ST too. The Mega Drive version has amazing music and plays well, so it's a solid 3rd. The Amiga version is by far the worst of these. It seems to be based on the ST version but it's much slower, not as smooth, plays in a letterbox at the top of the screen and also manages to have worse sound!
Fujitsu FM Towns is 32-bit, just for the record. ;)
Many argue this, because it only has a 16-bit bus, but that's a whole other video!
I still think the MD version is decent, and plays well.
That FM Towns, though!
There's no contest here: FM Towns is the best in every area indeed. By looking at the textures of the fortress' stages, you can see why it's a technically superior adaptation of Sega's arcade. Of course, it's a technically superior machine too, having CD-ROM with a larger storage space than a cartridge or a diskette... I suspect that the Mega Drive came before the FM Towns' version. If so, CRI have improved themselves on FM Towns. I'm safe to say, though, that the Mega Drive is my 2nd place; you can feel the difference, it's like a more economic version of the beast that is the FM Towns. Also, the sound chip of the console makes a great service for the jazz-fusion music of this game.
I'm surprised about the qualities of the Atari ST version, specially in the zooming effects, the music feels great in its sound chip as well as the graphics are really good for the system. But I don't think that the crop of the resolution was a nice touch, despite the cinematic impression and better results of the processing power. Too bad that the Amiga version is derived from the Atari ST, being slower... Despite the Amiga having a serious advantage in sounds, the weird sudden drops of processing issues affect exactly what it has at its finest.
There are loads of really weird quirks in the Amiga version that you probably didn't notice in the video. For example the sound totally cuts out when it plays the speech samples but even then they sometimes either don't play at all or they then get cut off half way through as the main sound comes back in. It's not often the ST has better sound than the Amiga but in this game it does.
@@TheLairdsLair Yeah, I didn't notice such technical failures of sound coming from the Amiga version, and I will while watching the video again or playing it, comparing it with the Atari ST performance.
The FM Towns was an AMAZING machine, and games like Galaxy Force II show why - sublime sound, graphics & gameplay, and it's the only port to have an opening cutscene!
Always loved the ST version, that Towns version is legit amazing though.
Fujitsu has the best sound.
Overall I'd say Sega Mega Drive. The FM Towns port has better background graphics, but it has a lower resolution and a more restrictive view that's largely obscured by your humongous player sprite.
The Amiga and Atari ST ports also have relatively restrictive views, even though they have the same resolution as the Mega Drive ports. They have superior width of view to the FM Towns port, but inferior vertical view due to letterboxing.
FM Towns version seems way superior. What about playability? Although I'm a huge Amiga fan, I bet its version sucks.
The Amiga version is by far the worst of these. It seems to be based on the ST version but it's much slower, not as smooth, plays in a letterbox at the top of the screen and also manages to have worse sound!
@@TheLairdsLair Worst sound on Amiga version?! Who coded this? A deaf guy?
Um....made me google Fujitsu FM Towns. Wow. Fm was clear winner. I guess it's just me, but I thought the ST variant was practically the same graphically and the music was inferior to Amiga. IMHO the ST sound effects were awful. Mirror copy of the 2600 Asteroids sound effects.