How good did these console ports do regarding handling the engines of each game? I've heard lots of qualms with the Origins collection and was wondering if I'm already sitting on the definitive collections. I'm under the impression Gems made Sonic R playable.
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>I'm under the impression Gems made Sonic R playable.
it definitely did, I own gems myself, and it feels perfectly fine.
I''m pretty sure it's one of the best versions of sonic CD too, and it has vectorman + streets of rage, which are great additions.
Why were these random games added to these collections?
Because these collections were made during a time when video games were still good.
I had both collections in high school and I never noticed anything wrong with them (I had previously played the games on Mega Drive as a kid, except for CD). They all run fine, there's no noticeable problems with he emulation. CD is the PC version, so the cutscene video is the full version and not the choppy vertical strip from the Sega CD. Sonic R is also the PC version.
I had both, and the cutscenes for CD in Gems were still choppy and slow compared to the same ones in Mega Collection's Extras menu.
Solid on all fronts, apparently people say theres "sound emulation problems" but i havent noticed anything going back to them recently. Ironic those complaints ive only heard coming out in the wake of origins releasing.
They're still probably the best ways to play those games on a console, willing to say that as someone that owns the originals on genesis/CD/saturn.
*And yes, gems made sonic r very playable. Had an on the spectrum friend as a kid that literally 100%'d R in an afternoon one day, blew my mind how good he was at the game. Only figured out as an adult the entire secret was treat the game like a proper racing game and drift as much as possible + take the corners slowly.
>entire secret was treat the game like a proper racing game
How is something so obvious supposed to be a secret?
Can only speak for mega collection, but it’s perfect. I love the GC version specifically, the games are great to play with the oversized “A” button
just not great for directionals, that stick and d-pad is a mess.
>console ports
not ports, emulation
>handling the engines of each game
middling emulation. it works, but it's not the best. really though, it just means the sound is kinda shit. physics work just as youd expect.
actually, quick correction: gems collection uses ports of the windows versions of sonic cd, sonic r, and sonic the fighters. everything else is emulation.
*sonic the fighters is a port of the arcade version whoops lol
I'll load them up tonight on a wii for capture, last I checked mega is an ugly 480i package.
iirc you can force progressive with nintendont
Too bad you cant force 240p on the wii for all the crap locked at 480i.
Yeah you can. Get a gamecube memory card SD adapter and load the .iso through SWISS, which has a force 240p mode. I wish they would just add it to Nintendont but probably won't happen
water is fricked in Sonic CD, surprised no one has mentioned it. It doesn't have the tint it's supposed so when you go under, so you don't have the cool purple water in the bad future, just looks kinda bland/boring.
Because everyone who played these were kids who can't accept these ports arne't as good as they think they are.
It's emulation.
Sonic Jam on Saturn is actual ports, pretty good ones too
I would rather play Mega Collection than Sonic Jam.
Why? Spinball and 3D blast aren't that good, and mean bean machine isn't a preferred version of puyo pop.
theyre decent but the music and sound is fricked
Sonic 3 fixed the glitches from the original in ice cap 2
what glitches?
Ice Cap Act 2 on original Sonic 3 omits a sound channel and can't play both the music and sfx at the same time.
Not sure about Fighters or R, but Sonic CD on Gems Collection was a port of the old Windows version, which sucks because it has extra loading time screens (and I also noticed worse controls)
>can't play both the music and sfx at the same time
that's not a glitch, that's just a limitation of the hardware. generally, the least important channel of music in a given track would be assigned to play sound effects instead of music when needed.
since the sega saturn has 32 PCM sound channels, this limitation no longer existed. however, the sounds are fricked up. i must be misremembering about the music though, it sounds fine albeit a bit more muffled than usual.
>that's not a glitch, that's just a limitation of the hardware. generally, the least important channel of music in a given track would be assigned to play sound effects instead of music when needed.
okay, call it limitation, but it's a level that particularly feels crude in the sound when played on the mega drive because of it, the rest of the levels are fine.
Sonic Jam ports's sound is a bit different and it has the CD quirk of not being able to play dynamic sound like the speed shoes, instead having to reload the track from the beginning. But that's kind of a nitpick, the same way you say the hardware limitation is not a "glitch", I'd also say the CD sound limitation isn't a problem either, it's just how CD audio works. Sonic CD stops and re-loads the music track in levels, but people never complained about that, and in fact, back in the day, it was a novelty, it felt "ooooh, CD", kinda like the novelty of watching highly compressed FMVs and getting excited about it despite them looking worse than high quality VHSs of the time, but it was the novelty of it.
But yeah, Sonic Jam ports are worth playing, they have a few minor shortcomings but also have some pros and unique features.
Also just being able to play the 4 classic 16-bit Sonics in a comfy compilation using the Saturn's controller just makes it worthy already.
Weren't Sonic the Fighters, Sonic R, and Sonic CD ports in the Gems Collection though? Not emulation?
the one on the left is great
I think they are fine. They are definitely emulated, though the experience is almost unnoticeable to the average anon who hasn't spent thousands of hours in the games.
The presentation in Mega Collection is superb, and the comics and UI is full of Soul, the only thing keeping it from being a perfect collection, is that they held over CD to sell shitty gamegear games, Sonic R, and Sonic the Fighters. I still really liked it though.
>ports
They're literally emulation. And they're ok but they have the classic sound issues the old megadrive emulators struggled with so why going with a subpar experience when you can have the exact same thing in retroarch, just better and free. Plus you know
>paying for emulation
Or you can literally boot up Genesis Plus GX on the gamecube or the Wii and play with better emu experience, since the Wii is just an overclocked gamecube.
something is wrong with the high pitch notes in music, sfx, and overlapping sfx clip nightmarishly in the mega collection. Also it's 480i only. Sonic Gems supports 480p but the image is way too dark for some reason and the sfx are compressed worse than jam, picking up rings sounds awful.
mega collections forced 480p looks fine, still no proper 240p. the sign spin sfx is also completely wrong.
also the color dots are misrepresented as weird tile junk at the bottom of the screen and it's real distracting.
That's actually a bug that's always been in the game. It's only present in Emerald Hill
The PAL version is horrid. Forced 50hz despite that having been left behind in the previous generation otherwise (all the other Sonic games for the Gamecube gave you the option to choose between 50hz and 60hz), AND the US soundtrack for CD despite Europe having the JP soundtrack in all other releases.