My thoughts on the emulation

[BloodHawk]

So I just purchased this on GOG, and right before buying it I was trying to find more info on how good the emulator is and what options it has but since this is a newer release obviously there isn't much out there yet, so I wanted to put this post on Steam as well for others who are curious. Since this is priced similarly to the Arcade Archives (ACA) releases by Hamster ($7 vs $8 USD) I am going to be referencing those ports a few times for comparison.

With that said, here are what I view as the “Pros and Cons” of the game’s emulator (as of version 1.01):

Pros

- An “okay” conversion of controls from the original LS-30 stick configuration. The original arcade required you to twist the stick in order to rotate your character. In this version they have changed it to two assignable buttons, one to rotate left and the other to the right. More on this later…

- Can rotate the display to accommodate vertical setups.

- Can add scanlines via “CRT” mode.

- Has a small 3D rendered arcade outside of the emulated game and an option to change your view to be further back so you can see the cabinet around the edges of the screen while playing.

Cons

- When you compare the controls against similarly priced arcade ports (Arcade Archives releases by Hamster) such as Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, and Guerilla War which also originally used the rotatable LS-30 stick you realize this port is missing some important options that those others have. Most importantly autofire and right stick aiming. Also, there is an option in the ACA Hamster ports to have the rotating buttons be either single presses where each press rotates 1/8th of a turn, or “turbo” where if held down you will continue rotating (with the speed being adjustable). This port forces the latter and offers no adjustment to the speed at which you rotate.

- Forced bilinear filtering with no way of disabling (I even dug around the game’s files to try to find a config file with no luck). If you are like me and love sharp pixels this is going to annoy you to no end. Similar to the terrible Johnny Turbo Data East arcade ports on the Nintendo Switch you HAVE to deal with bilinear filtering, which makes it look like someone smeared Vaseline all over your monitor.

- If you want scanlines, you have to use the “CRT” mode which not only adds those scanlines, but it adds the “bubble” effect of the older tube TV’s so the edges of the screen are rounded. If you like that then great, but for those who don't I wish there was an option to have scanlines without that.

- No way to restart the game within the emulator. You have to exit the game entirely or die on purpose and wait for the timer to run out in order to restart.

- No save states, which I don’t count too much against this port as the ACA Hamster releases only allow 1 temporary save state. EDIT: So about that... The trailers for these games on the Nintendo eShop (the versions in the combo packs that are made by 612Games, not the individual Johnny Turbo Arcade titles) specifically show Save/Load Game options in their menu interface. So why don't these PC ports which were released months later not have that?!

- No way to exit game with a controller

To address the lack of autofire and the inability to exit the game using a controller I made a shortcut to the game on Steam and enabled the controller configuration. Just remember the autofire will only work at the default turbo speed. If changed it will conflict with the game's refresh rate and won’t work as a result.

Even though this is not an expensive port, I am still disappointed that other similarly priced ports of LS-30 stick arcade games have a lot more to offer. Yes, those ACA releases are not on Steam so you could argue the validity of those for comparison, but at the very least they could enable an option for autofire and the ability to get rid of that awful bilinear filtering.

[Firehawke]

It's basically what I was most afraid of. A vaguely upgraded version of the Switch releases, but not fixing most of the major problems with those. Damn. I was hoping for a bit more.

[rehtroboi37]

About the only good thing I can say is they've at least dropped the Johnny Turbo tie-in.
Data East deserves so much better. Hamster (OG Burger Time, Burnin' Rubber, Darwin, and even Trio the freakin' Punch) and M2 (Shottriggers with Metal Clash and Oscar etc.) are at least trying to do that for them.

[themazingness]

A big pro is you can resolve a lot of the cons by running the hbarrel file in MAME. You can't do that with the Hamster ports.

[rehtroboi37]

Originally posted by themazingness:

A big pro is you can resolve a lot of the cons by running the hbarrel file in MAME. You can't do that with the Hamster ports.

That's true, but it would've been even better if they worked with more recent versions.
I think the Hamster ports are even closer to the originals than MAME. Mat Mania and Contra are both excellent examples IMO.

M2 ports take forever because they add very highly detailed features and scoring/hit point status break-downs. These ports take even longer en route to North America (if they even come here) because of the translation process. Also worth noting is that M2 worked on the last-gen Capcom Arcade Cabinet. Their versions of Avengers, Speed Rumbler, and Gun.Smoke are much closer to the arcade than MAME. Though I could barely tell the difference for the other games in that app.

I do like MAME and understand it's importance among retro-gamers. But the fact is this: the bar has been raised for "legal" emulation.