Sega genesis - SHADOW DANCER genesis vs arcade question

Author

SHADOW DANCER genesis vs arcade question

THE SPACE BOSS

2004-12-25, 6:45 am

I play Shadow Dancer at my local laundermat, and I have the genesis version.
Why is it that in the arcade version, you have to dismantle bombs and in the
genesis version, you have to save hostages?

What other differences are there? And why didn't they make the genesis version
a perfect copy of the arcade game?

Thanks.

Scott H

2004-12-25, 5:45 pm

THE SPACE BOSS wrote:

quote:

> I play Shadow Dancer at my local laundermat, and I have the genesis version.
> Why is it that in the arcade version, you have to dismantle bombs and in the
> genesis version, you have to save hostages?
>
> What other differences are there? And why didn't they make the genesis version
> a perfect copy of the arcade game?
>
> Thanks.

Well, accusations from game magazines at the time were that Sega's
early on Genesis offerings were too short and too simple, or more
specifically too arcade, and Sega was still struggling with Nintendo's
monopolistic 3rd party contracts keeping the bulk of the 3rd parties off
the Genesis. So they made a home version of Shadow Dancer that was more
complex in level design and longer in length than the, relatively short,
arcade version. The difference in sprite sizes is just a memory issue,
cart memory was significantly more expensive in 89-91 than it was later
on, so most Genesis games stuck to 4Mb, or 512KB, carts, which were less
than 25% the size of most arcade ROMs.

--
Scott

Game Pilgrimage
http://users4.ev1.net/~sheath

BelPowerslave

2004-12-26, 5:45 pm

> I play Shadow Dancer at my local laundermat, and I have the genesis version.

quote:

> Why is it that in the arcade version, you have to dismantle bombs and in the
> genesis version, you have to save hostages?
>

There are a *lot* of changes in the Genesis version of the game. Though the level
layouts are kind of similar...and you have the dog, that's about the only things
that made it.

quote:

>
> What other differences are there?

There are far too many to mention, trust me. Just think of them as two different
games.

quote:

> And why didn't they make the genesis version
> a perfect copy of the arcade game?
>
> Thanks.

I'm not sure....though to tell you the truth, I actually like the Genesis version
a little more(though I love the arcade/MAME version as well). SD was still a
relatively early Genesis title, I think, and it only weighed in at around 4
megabit...so I'm betting porting the arcade version(as they attemped in the
ultra-slow SMS version) was right out. What they did was just pack what they
could into it, and base it loosely off the arcade game.

Bel
--

Whip XXX Gaming: http://www.whipassgaming.com/

"Suddenly aware of my presence, the Elder Gods transformed me into their servant
and gave me a new purpose: To prevent the Dragon King from merging the realms."

- Scorpion, Mortal Kombat: Deception

2000man@wongfaye.com

2004-12-26, 5:45 pm

quote:

>
> I'm not sure....though to tell you the truth, I actually like the

Genesis version

quote:

> a little more(though I love the arcade/MAME version as well).

yea i like the genesis eswat way better also home versions were
supposed to be more than just a quarter sucking monster

BelPowerslave

2004-12-27, 12:45 am

> > I'm not sure....though to tell you the truth, I actually like the

quote:

> Genesis version
>
> yea i like the genesis eswat way better also home versions were
> supposed to be more than just a quarter sucking monster

Yeah, Genesis ESWAT was was better than the arcade version(even though
the arcade version was pretty cool).

Bel
--

Whip XXX Gaming: http://www.whipassgaming.com/

"Suddenly aware of my presence, the Elder Gods transformed me into their
servant and gave me a new purpose: To prevent the Dragon King from
merging the realms."

- Scorpion, Mortal Kombat: Deception