Sega's old arcade games

[Zeether]

I've started to take a liking to Sega's back catalog of arcade games in the past couple of years, mainly because I frequent some forums where the games are discussed for almost hours on end and praised greatly. After Burner and Space Harrier have become some of my favorites. Anyone else fans of Sega's old stuff?

[Junker Woland]

Probably won't go so far as to say I'm a fan of SEGA's old arcade games, but certainly they made quite a number of good titles.

My best memories are probably more from the late 80s and early 90s, once you get into the likes of Shinobi, Altered Beast, Golden Ax, etc. Then, of course, you have the coming of 3D and stuff like Virtua Fighter and Virtual-On (which remains my favorite 3D fighting series). Actually, I still remember how blown away I was the first time sitting down to play Virtua Racing, in the deluxe cabinet that kinda resembled an F-1 car. "It was, like, totally the future!"

As for Space Harrier and After Burner, much as I enjoyed those games in the arcades, they always lost a lot of their charm when ported to a home console (part of which was definitely not having the stick controls). On a related note, I always wish I had a chance to play Planet Harriers.

[DiGiKerot]

I like Space Harrier in ten minutes bursts, but it gets a little too tedious after that point. As far as the old super-scale arcade games go, I'm really more about Outrun than I am the shooters. I really liked Shinobi and Shadow Dancer as well.

Altered Beast, on the other hand, is a crime against humanity.

[Suwako Moriya]

The main one I remember is Altered Beast and mostly I remember the transformation thing and the amusing "Rise from your grave" line. I should note any arcade games I may have played from Sega were likely console ports.

[Suwako Moriya]

Altered Beast, on the other hand, is a crime against humanity.

Heh, now part of me is curious to see how well or poorly the game aged. I say that, but I probably end up not bothering with the effort to try it again.

[Junker Woland]

Altered Beast, on the other hand, is a crime against humanity.

Heh, now part of me is curious to see how well or poorly the game aged. I say that, but I probably end up not bothering with the effort to try it again.
AB is basically trash nowadays. The graphics didn't stand-up too long after the original arcade release, sprites are huge, character/enemy animations few in number, and controls stiff. Besides the transformations, there's no other gimmick, so once you tire of becoming anthropomorphic, the game doesn't have much more to offer. The music was always fairly mediocre ("Wise fwom your gwave" is still a classic, though).

I do think AB's designs are still pretty good, particularly some of the backgrounds, and enemy & transformation sprites.

[Suwako Moriya]

AB is basically trash nowadays. The graphics didn't stand-up too long after the original arcade release, sprites are huge, character/enemy animations few in number, and controls stiff. Besides the transformations, there's no other gimmick, so once you tire of becoming anthropomorphic, the game doesn't have much more to offer.

Ah, it sounds like the type of game that might have worked better when one was younger and didn't have much else to play. Which I think is sadly true of quite a few games.

[Junker Woland]

Well, AB was cool when it first hit arcades. The graphics were big and looked good, the premise was interesting, and the machine talked. Arcade/console titles were still generally straightforward at the time, so it didn't take much for something to standout. I think AB just got plowed-under because arcade titles were advancing at a fast pace.

Still, the Genesis version followed quickly on the arcade release, plus it was a very good port for its day, so that probably has a good bit to due with the game's lasting notoriety.

[Zeether]

I have to agree with the ports not being that good for some games. After Burner and Space Harrier got good 32X ports but After Burner had control problems (autocentering was off or something), and it took until the Saturn to get arcade-perfect ports. Galaxy Force didn't get a proper port with a 60FPS frame rate until the PS2 Sega Ages version (even the Saturn version wouldn't get to 60)

I have to sympathize on Planet Harriers. I've seen screenshots and it looks cool, sucks that it was arcade only.

[Junker Woland]

Galaxy Force was a visually impressive arcade title back then, so I always thought SEGA did a respectable job with the Genesis port. I can't comment on the SEGA AGES release, since I haven't played it (the Saturn version was OK).

But, yeah, Planet Harriers looked and sounded cool. It probably wouldn't have been the same, but even a port would have been appreciated.

[Betenoire]

Loved the multiplayer version the arcade had and remember dumping quite a bit into one with my brother at a restaurant in a town that you could almost see the end of civilization from.

[Mazinkaizer]

The SEGA Arcade that i want the most to be re-released in a collection or even PSN download is the Michael Jackson-Moonwalker game. That goes for the Master System & Mega Drive versions too. I was hoping to see the 3 versions in one of SEGA Ages releases, but i guess that won't be the case for now at least.

Another Game that i also would like see getting the same treatment is the animated cut sequences-shooting game: Bad Lands (Laserdisc video game).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZ2B6GFolY&feature=related

[Talyn]

Would Double Dragon be considered a Sega Arcade Game? I remembered playing the damn game for hours at the arcade....

[Betenoire]

Would Double Dragon be considered a Sega Arcade Game? I remembered playing the damn game for hours at the arcade....

It was made by Technos Japan and distributed in the US by the Taito Corporation (who is owned by Square Enix according to Wikki) so it doesn't qualify as Sega but boy did they get some of my cash back in the day anyway as well.

[Chief Wahoo]

Only reason I bought a Dreamcast was because at the time it was generally assumed that Star Wars Trilogy Arcade would be released alongside Crazy Taxi and the other games that used Sega's arcade engine from the late 90s.

Instead we got the horrible Star Wars: Pod Racer.

Still my favorie rail-shooter ever and if I ever get $1500 and enough space in my house, I'm buying one from an arcade vendor.

[Zeether]

Only reason I bought a Dreamcast was because at the time it was generally assumed that Star Wars Trilogy Arcade would be released alongside Crazy Taxi and the other games that used Sega's arcade engine from the late 90s.

Instead we got the horrible Star Wars: Pod Racer.

Still my favorie rail-shooter ever and if I ever get $1500 and enough space in my house, I'm buying one from an arcade vendor.
I guess it was because it was more exciting in the arcades, kind of like After Burner Climax, although that may be getting ported.

The original After Burner was also great in the arcade, and its unofficial sequel G-LOC was in a cabinet that could go upside down.

I'm shocked Daytona 2 has never been ported, instead we got Daytona USA 2001 which isn't the same. In fact we never really got a perfect Daytona port; the initial Saturn release ran at 20fps and had bugs and bad clipping, and Championship Circuit edition ran at 30fps with better clipping but unless you got the Japanese version or the PC version you'd have different physics and be stuck with some pretty meh remixes of the music. Someone should bug Sega about releasing the original and 2 on XBLA or something.

[Junker Woland]

Someone should bug Sega about releasing the original and 2 on XBLA or something.
Well, it's not a decent port, but they are releasing a wonky HD arcade version of Daytona 1 in the form of SEGA Racing Classics...because, ya know, the company really has nothing better to do with either of their two new arcade boards.

In terms of Star Wars, I never had much chance to play the Trilogy cabinet (always too expensive and surrounded by children), but I loved me Star Wars Arcade (1993/1994) back-in-the-day (the 32X version, not so much).

[jigoku panda]

I like the game gear's shinobi games I wish they were made into a fuller game on a full console though since they would be better to me playing it on a tv than a 5 in screen ^.^;

and theres a rumor of a new shinobi game using bayonetta engine so here's hoping sega can keep up competition with ninja gaiden this generation!

[Junker Woland]

The only thing I'd say about the Shinobi rumor is that, if there is going to be a new title based on the engine running Bayonetta, hopefully Platinum Games (Bayonetta's developer) would actually make the game and not SEGA themselves.

Though if SEGA were to be the developer, one would hope they do a better job making a game from scratch then they did porting Bayonetta for the PS3.