When Lack Of Pixelation Leads To Consternation

Thanks to GameSpy for its 'Pixel' column discussing the problems inherent in translating classic remakes to modern consoles. The author argues plaintively: "For reasons both technical and probably cultural, most video game companies not giving their reissued classics the polished, flawless presentations that they deserve." He explains of Mega Man 2 from the forthcoming Mega Man Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 2: "The low-res, 256x224 graphics of the original NES game have been line-doubled for display on the PS2, are run in an interlaced (flickery) screen mode." He also laments: "Believe it or not, things were a good deal better back on the original PlayStation and Saturn... Looking back, the 32-bit era was a golden age of classic game reissues, with great products like Irem's R-Types, the Namco Museum line and the Capcom Generations series offering 99% accurate renditions of dozens upon dozens of classic video games", although it's suggested "the 32-bit renaissance was more likely due to technical limitations than actual care on the part of the developers."

Comments

Why didn't they

[foidulus]

just make the mega man collection a ps1 game instead of a ps2 game(like Final Fantasy origins), I find it hard to believe that they could not pack all the data onto a cd. Plus, releasing it for the ps1 would have reached a larger audience, maybe not your core audience, but when you have backwards compatability and no need to put a game on a DVD, why bother?

Re:Why didn't they

[Guppy06]

"Slightly harder to pirate on ps1 vs ps2?"

From my own experience they're both pretty damned easy to pirate on. I'm against having to open a console case for any reason on philosophical terms but I've managed to boot burned code on both of these consoles.

You can pirate software on the PS2 exactly the same way you do it on a PS1: You change disks without letting the machine know you changed disks. You can do this either electronically (install a mod chip that lies to the rest of the hardware) or you can do it physically (defeating physical switches that let the machine know the drive is open).

With the PS1, the lid pushes in a button that indicates to the hardware that the lid is open. A spring works well in the original PSX while the PSOne requires a little more creativity with a small, plastic tab. Once you've got that, all you need to do is insert a disk you know will eventually stop spinning so you can make the swap. The ol' Action Replay disk works well for this (but not Game Shark). And now you can play your favorite NES games through an emulator to your heart's content without ever cracking open the case.

The PS2, with its front-loading mechanism, is a bit trickier. The easiest way to do it (without opening the case) is to carefully remove the front of the disc tray so you can then slim jim the tray open. If you look on the bottom side of the tray you can see a groove in which a locking arm moves through. The trick is to move that locking arm back out of the way. Once you do that, the trick again is to get a disk that you know will stop spinning. If you're trying to play PS1 softawre, you can use the PS1 flavor of Action Replay (as before). If you're trying to run PS2 software (say, an SNES emulator) things are trickier and unfortunately the PS2 flavor of Action Replay won't help you (it never stops spinning as far as I can tell). You can find proper boot disks in the Hong Kong gray market, but note you'll need a boot CD and a boot DVD, using the proper one for the media you're aiming to run. Once you've done that, all you need is a Super Wild Card to dump your SNES carts and you can then put all your SNES periphernalia safely into storage.

The PS2 will read music CD-RWs but not PS1 code on said CD-RWs. I haven't had the opportunity to try PS2 code on a CD-RW, though. The PS1 doesn't seem to want to read CD-RWs at all, no matter what's on it.

What I don't understand...

[th1ckasabr1ck]

I realize that when rereleasing a game on a new console, they want to keep it as true to the original as possible, but they should give that a second thought when it comes to load times.

This is definitely noticible in Final Fantasy Anthologies (FF5 and FF6), and Final Fantasy Chronicles (FF4 and Chrono Trigger). After hitting the menu button there is a good two or three seconds of black screen before the menu itself actually pops up. I find it hard to believe that my PS2 (or PS1) really needs that much time.

Re:What I don't understand...

[Thedalek]

Why isn't there a moderation option for "blatantly false?"

No, The PS1 re-releases in Final Fantasy Origins and Chronicles were not emulations of the SNES originals. Yes, Chrono Trigger (and possibly some of the FF series) included the SNES original on the disc. However, this was used only for retrieving sprite graphics. This was demonstrated by the fact that, back before Square announced that they were going to release the re-issues in English speaking parts of the world, many rom-hackers tried inserting English-translated snes roms into the disc image. This resulted in nothing noticably different occuring. All text was still in Japanese.

Simply put, at 2 megabytes, the PS1 didn't have enough RAM to successfully emulate the SNES. True, the SNES didn't have all that much RAM itself, but the contents of the cartridges themselves were locations in memory. Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger both exceed this limitation.

And no, you couldn't stream the data. Not without putting your framerate in the toilet.

Re:What about the Gamecube?

[Bloomy]

If Capcom or Atomic Planet had used Nintendo's emulator, I'm sure similiar complaints would be made. From what I've read, Nintendo's emulator for the Gamecube might emulate the NES too perfectly, down to the scanline flicker when too many sprites are at the same vertical line on the screen. The easiest example of this is the graveyard in the original Zelda, let out as many ghosts as possible. I haven't played it yet on my Zelda Collection disc, and I haven't cracked Animal Crossing to unlock it, but I've seen it mentioned enough to give it some credence.

According to the IGN review, "slowdown and flicker from the original cart versions have been almost entirely eliminated (it's still in there, but it's only noticeable a few times per game)". IGN didn't do separate reviews for the GC and PS2 versions, and the person that reviewed it is one of their PS2 people.

Re:Load Times

[mausmalone]

I recently tried out the *achem* less than legal PSO gamecube hack (lets you run ISO's across 10 MBit ethernet). I'm quite shocked that Zelda: Four Swords runs ::gasp:: really well across it. The little video clip in the menu runs at like 1 fps, but the actual game's load-time is barely affected at all.

But Nintendo's great at that. Take Animal Crossing, for example... it's done loading by the time it finishes saying "Nintendo!" at the logo. Try it for yourself, you can take the game out after the logo and boot it on another system. One copy is good for a whole party, since the entire game finishes loading before the title screen is displayed. :)

Classics on Modern Hardware - Zelda Collection

[extrarice]

The GameCube Zelda Collection, released this past Christmas, is a good example of the proper way to release older games to a nostalgic audience. The sprites are the same, the music is the same, and most importantly: the games have the same slow-down in the same places they did in the original releases. It seems like the Zelda Collection disc just has a real-time NES emulator that loads on the cube and runs a ROM, keeping the speeds the same as the original.

Though FFOrigins for the PS1 is a fantastic remake, I would not want to see the same treatment done to the MegaMan Collection.