Final Fight for Sega Genesis

[O Ilusionista]

MXRetroDev released a demo of his port of Final Fight for the Sega Genesis.
It's a working in progress so some bugs may occur, but I think its a solid start!

Also kudos to Master Linkuei and MIDI Cover for their amazing work

Preview and download:
[youtube]

 

[O Ilusionista]

Testing the new demo of the incredible project that is bringing Final Fight to Sega's most beloved console.
There are a few things to fix here and there, but overall it's a pretty solid experience.You can choose the number of enemies on the screen at the same time (4 or 6) and the fps that the game runs (30 or 60fps).

Full video and download:

 

[DCurrent]

Testing the new demo of the incredible project that is bringing Final Fight to Sega's most beloved console.
There are a few things to fix here and there, but overall it's a pretty solid experience.You can choose the number of enemies on the screen at the same time (4 or 6) and the fps that the game runs (30 or 60fps).

Full video and download:

Not surprised at all to see this.

I'm sure there's a bit more color loss, but otherwise the Genesis architecture is much better suited for Final Fight and beat em ups in general. The SNES's slower bus speed, only allowing two sprite sizes per frame, and most of all its really weird VRAM layout (64KB total like Genesis, but only allows 16KB for sprites) are serious bottlenecks for the genre.

DC

 

[O Ilusionista]

I'm sure there's a bit more color loss,

Even with the color loss, the result is great. They made a better job than the Sega CD version, for example.

 

[oldyz]

Even with the color loss, the result is great. They made a better job than the Sega CD version, for example.

that is what i was wondering,
why they did not just take the sega cd's sprites and use them.

the music definetely would need a master megadrive composer if they want to match the OG as much as possible, altho i would prefer something more original (like the finalfight cd sountrack of sorts) so the game stands apart from all other ports...

 

[O Ilusionista]

why they did not just take the sega cd's sprites and use them.

Because they did a better job

I have nothing to complain about the music, to be honest.

 

[oldyz]

@O Ilusionista
about the sprites, i remember haring about this project a while ago,
at first my first thought was - why in the heck, if there was the sega cd version already, and my first impression was that they would probably take the assets of the sega cd version and make them fit on the largest cartridge size they could find.

i feared that the sega cd assets would somehow be incompatible tho, since the sega cd version could probably run with more colors or such because some games (i believe) where able to get expanded palettes and such....

about the music
have heard some really elaborate ym2612 music pieces, but i think music on that level will probably take too much space...
and so, would probably not be realistic for a console compatible project

i found some info that could help the devs in case they did not know about it, so i made a thread :

Mega Drive's FM synthesis instrument recreations

here is a video that showcases bunch of instrumetns recreated on the Megadrive.... DC mentioned it before, and these comments on the video elaborate bit more on the lost potential... @michaelbuckers hace 10 meses Fun(sad) fact: the reason why the full potential of the Yamaha chip in the SMD...

www.chronocrash.com

 

[DCurrent]

i feared that the sega cd assets would somehow be incompatible tho, since the sega cd version could probably run with more colors or such because some games (i believe) where able to get expanded palettes and such....

@oldyz,

It doesn't work that way. The Sega CD does add some effects like scaling and rotation by preprocessing the pixel data, but video output still routes through the Genesis VDP, and thus has the same color limits. Four palettes, 4bit each, drawn from a 9bit master palette.

In fact, in some respect CD games are more limiting. Cartridge games can pull some DMA tricks from the ROM to try and bypass color limits, but that's nearly impossible to do with the CD unit's very limited (16KB) cache.

DC

 

[O Ilusionista]

have heard some really elaborate ym2612 music pieces, but i think music on that level will probably take too much space...
and so, would probably not be realistic for a console compatible project

Ah, I know this type of synthesis very well: I worked for years in musical instrument stores as a product specialist for some keyboard brands (I'm a keyboard player too) and I used to give classes about this when I was younger. I had a lot of contact with the sound chip from which the Mega Drive chip was derived: The Yamaha DX7.

Surely, you have heard a lot where DX7 was used

I usually say that FM Synthesis is like Assembler: It's not for everyone, it's very complicated but incredible when used well.

 

[DCurrent]

Ah, I know this type of synthesis very well: I worked for years in musical instrument stores as a product specialist for some keyboard brands (I'm a keyboard player too) and I used to give classes about this when I was younger. I had a lot of contact with the sound chip from which the Mega Drive chip was derived: The Yamaha DX7.

Surely, you have heard a lot where DX7 was used

I usually say that FM Synthesis is like Assembler: It's not for everyone, it's very complicated but incredible when used well.

Indeed. That little chip could kick a**, and the Genesis had everything you needed to back it up. It's just that the interrupts were a little fiddly and Sega made (gasp) a boneheaded decision with support. Quoting myself from my "Fix Classic Console" thread:

The Z80 CPU and Yamaha chip were actually a sweet setup in the right hands. It's just that FM synth and interrupt timing for samples were hard to program, and instead of proper documentation SEGA created the horrid GEMS format. My fix? Print a dang manual, ship it to the devs, and have a guy waiting on the phone to help out. Problem solved. Output stereo to the RF signal and omit the headphone jack from day one.

DC

 

[oldyz]

@DCurrent , @O Ilusionista

now i am conflicted, on the one hand, a lot of genesis games, in this case Final Fight, could have a soundtrack that resembles a more "proper" 80's/synthwave quality

but on the other, a lot of the music instruments we immediatly associate with with the genesis would have been completely absent or barely used at all....

in the case of final fight, using all the tricks possible would end up with a sountrack that not only would probably sound superior to the Original arcade, it would end up resembling in a lot of pieces the sega cd soundtrack...
this would be surreal to hear coming out of the original genesis.

forget MSU patches, now i wish to see games remade with recompositions with fm synthesis used to the max