For my entire computing life, I’ve had an irrational hatred toward the Amiga. Not because there was anything wrong with them—in fact, I wanted one very badly—but because every time I’d go to buy a game for a crappy old 286 PC, the pictures on the box of the box would remind me of what sort of amazing graphics I wouldn’t be getting.
Those tearful memories of silent ache inside a dusty Babbages washed over me again as I read this hilarious thread over at gaming forum NEOGaf, in which gamers posted screenshots of games that were ported to less-than-capable systems.
Above is the Capcom classic Street Fighter II, on the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. So many enraptured British children loaded those onto their computers to be assaulted by a vomitous phantom of their longed-after game, bowed their tiny heads, and passed away.
Insanely Downgraded Ports Thread [NeoGaf via Game|Life]
Holy dogshit! I can’t believe you remember Babbage’s. I worked in a Babbage’s from ages 16 to about 20. God I was a putz. But my friends and I had every game that ever came out due to their liberal check out policy…
Dude, I loved Babbages. (And Software, Etc., too, although we didn’t have but one in our town.) There was something about the way they displayed the games, face out on wide, white shelves, like each one was an important, unique product, that was really appealing. The image of the X-Com box up against those white shelves has, for whatever reason, been seared in my mind for all time. I knew that was going to be something special, and unlike most of the game purchases I made, it was.
On a related but 180 degree flipped around note, the PC Engine (Turbografx 16) version of Street Fighter II CE is quite an achievement. Sounds better than the Genesis/Mega Drive version, actually.
(found via Racketboy)
@A New Challenger: That’s quite impressive! It’s hard to tell from the YouTube rip, but it looks almost better than the SNES version.
I actually have a copy of Sinclair User from 1993 sitting not that far from me right now which includes a review which piles praise on the ZX Spectrum version of Street Fighter II. You can read their “SU Silver” review over at World of Spectrum here and here (Oh and that issue’s classic cover) Even in ’93 such a review seemed to be a tad over the top. Then again the magazine folded after the next issue.
Joel Johnson – I seem to have the same memory of that x-com box just high enough to be special. Ohh the hours wasted to that game. Thanks for the memory!