A better Galaga?

[holygrailvideogames.com]

Who thinks that Atari could have done a better job with Galaga? I saw this and it made me think that Galaga could have been better:

 

http://my.stratos.net/%7Ehewston95/RTM26/RTM26.html

 

Is there anyone on here who think that they could hack the current Galaga and make it more like the arcade?

[Cousin Vinnie]

Oh hell yeah. The 7800 version was marginal at best. It's a shame.

 

Redoing Galaga 90 (Turbographix-16) for the 7800 would be awesome

 

Cousin Vinnie

[shadow460]

Sure they could have, but I'm not complaining.

Now if anyone wants to go hunt me up a NES Galaga cart and just amil it to me, I'd okay with that. Point being that the NES version is much harder to get.

[NE146]

Sure they could have, but I'm not complaining.

Now if anyone wants to go hunt me up a NES Galaga cart and just amil it to me, I'd okay with that. Point being that the NES version is much harder to get.

 

Funny since NES Galaga was sitting on the shelves all over the place when I bought it because no one was interested in it.. probably since it was already an old game by then. Heck, I picked it up at Sears at the Toy Department

[candiru]

That's a pretty good write-up. Just a few nights ago I put in an evening of Galaga. First on the NES and then the 7800. I'd had them both for awhile but never put much time into them. The 7800 version is OK, but if you've got the NES version, well the 7800 cart is bound to get dustier.

 

I was surprised that the 7800 pulled off the music as well as it did, given its limitations. Still, it could have been so much better in the gameplay and graphics department.

 

I'd have to give the advantage to the NES version for #5, the "Anything Else" category. You can use a very common accessory, the Game Genie, with the NES version. My apologies to the purists.

[8th lutz]

Nevermind about getting a better Galaga, I think a better karateka should be the priority first.

Edited July 27, 2006 by 8th lutz

[gdement]

I've never seen a NES Galaga cart, so my experience with the game comes from the few times I've tried it in emulation. But it really seems overrated to me, I'm surprised how consistently it gets rave reviews.

 

The animation is horrible, it appears that they had to render the enemies as background tiles or something. I find the choppiness of the NES version to be very distracting and irritating to look at.

 

The music is good, but why is the ship explosion so wimpy? I'm guessing that might be an emulator issue.

The graphics are better than the 7800, but it's too crowded for me to enjoy the game. Maybe this is arcade accurate, but I don't think I ever found the arcade version so difficult to maneuver in.

 

To me the NES version is as much a mixed bag as the 7800 version, and I find the 7800 version more fun to play. But yeah, it could be improved graphically.

 

Nevermind about getting a better Galaga, I think a better karateka should be the priority first.

The 7800 port of Karateka is just plain lazy. They didn't even bother to use hi-res in the status display or the title screen. It's inexcusable that the A8 version has better graphics.

[BrianC]

I've never seen a NES Galaga cart, so my experience with the game comes from the few times I've tried it in emulation. But it really seems overrated to me, I'm surprised how consistently it gets rave reviews.

 

The animation is horrible, it appears that they had to render the enemies as background tiles or something. I find the choppiness of the NES version to be very distracting and irritating to look at.

 

The music is good, but why is the ship explosion so wimpy? I'm guessing that might be an emulator issue.

The graphics are better than the 7800, but it's too crowded for me to enjoy the game. Maybe this is arcade accurate, but I don't think I ever found the arcade version so difficult to maneuver in.

 

To me the NES version is as much a mixed bag as the 7800 version, and I find the 7800 version more fun to play. But yeah, it could be improved graphically.

 

The key word is emulation. I didn't find the NES version to be choppy at all. Also, the ship explosion looks like it does in the arcade.

[gdement]

The key word is emulation. I didn't find the NES version to be choppy at all. Also, the ship explosion looks like it does in the arcade.

 

I meant to refer to the sound of the ship explosion, not the graphics. I wouldn't be surprised though if the sound isn't emulated accurately, as that is a pretty common issue.

But if the real NES version isn't choppy, then fine, that's my biggest complaint whenever I've tried it in Nester or FCE Ultra. The ships that are attacking you mostly look fine, but the rest of the ships are choppy.

 

I just tried it again, and was reminded of another problem I have with it. They play the music while you sit there and wait, rather than playing it while the game is starting. So instead of the music feeling like part of the game, it instead just feels like a forced pause. That's a relatively minor thing, but the startup of a game shouldn't be annoying.

 

I hope I don't sound too picky. My first impression of the NES version was that it played badly despite the good graphics, and my impressions never much improved. So I've been surprised how much love this game seems to consistently get, and feel obliged to put out my criticisms.

[godzillajoe]

I had an Atari 7800 and Galaga and brought it over a friend's house because we always hung out there and ended up playing games. Galaga got a lot of action.

 

Then the friend got a NES and after playing the NES Galaga, the Atari one was forgotten about

 

Nintendo Hockey and Baseball also contributed to killing any interest I had in the 7800 and 2600 for years.

 

Still, when it was the only Galaga available it was OK for what it was.

 

But no where near as good if you do a side by side comparison.

[shadow460]

Still, when it was the only Galaga available it was OK for what it was.

 

That, IMO, is exactly what the 7800 Galaga was designed for.

[godzillajoe]

Sadly, it seems a lot of Atari titles got the "screw it, it's good enough" treatment

 

And of course that wasn't going to cut it once the NES came out

[Lord Helmet]

Still, when it was the only Galaga available it was OK for what it was.

 

That, IMO, is exactly what the 7800 Galaga was designed for.

 

Exactly. The 7800 was never designed to compete with the NES.

[racerx77]

If I remember reading correctly, its graphical capabilities were technically better than the NES.

[DracIsBack]

If I remember reading correctly, its graphical capabilities were technically better than the NES.

 

 

It's an apple and orange scenerio.

 

Both are 6502 based systems. How they make graphics is entirely different. As a result, they each have certain strengths and weaknesses the graphics they create.

[Godzilla]

from a gameplay standpoint, i've always prefered 7800 galaga to the arcade game and to the nes version. the nes may be more like the arcade, but in this case, that's not winning it anything for me.

[godzillajoe]

What is wrong with the arcade version as far as gameplay?

[+Allan]

A lot of people don't like 7800 Galaga but what is really wrong with it. Can we list it's problems so that if somebody wants to hack it or reprogram it, they know what to change? The more detail the better.

 

Allan

[BONK]

Well i personally i think the 7800 version is an ok port the NES one looks like the arcade version. Except the 7800 port is way to easy i got past level 99 alot and it brang me back to level 1 which i gusse repeated games do and had a score of 1 million but they coulda made it a little harder and done a better job on the graphics, if a game is too easy wheres the fun in bragging that u got a higher score then the other guy if he can do it too

[gdement]

A long time ago, somebody posted a hires demo on the 7800 mailing list using the arcade Galaga graphics as standins. They looked great. It had massive flickering problems, but that was because of a design flaw in the code. Galaga doesn't need very many colors, I believe the graphics would come out the best using one of the hires modes.

[Shawn]

7800 Galaga is a very good game. I am VERY picky with the games that I buy for my collection and of the 25 or so 7800 games I own Galaga is proudly one of them.

[Godzilla]

as far as it being easy, that is why it has difficulty settings. :-) as far as arcade galaga vs 7800 galaga, read my recent post in the 5200 forum as for why i prefer the 78 to the arcade http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...90356&st=50

[urborg]

For me Galaga is one of the best 7800 games if not the best one. Graphics are good, sound also is OK. Animation is smooth and gameplay is very close to the arcade version. If someone camplain about difficulty - there is 3 difficulty levels. The third one is as difficult as arcade. Other are for noobs who could complaint that it is too difficult for them .

 

The only real thing about this version is the graphics. Altough it is very good, NES had better graphics and I think this is a case of most complaints. NES Galaga runs in high resolution what make graphics look just arcade perfect. There is a little sprite flicker sometimes on NES version though, but it is no big deal.

 

For me 7800 Galaga is good enough and I don't care about graphics beeng slightly worse then in NES. I'm afraid that if Galaga were running in hi-res it could be worse game as it is, becouse it can loose smoothness and gameplay. There is known that rendering hi-res mode cost Maria a lot of it's power. I'm not sure if 7800 has enough power to run a smooth action in this mode.

Edited September 1, 2010 by urborg

[Austin]

I like 7800 Galaga quite a bit, but it's far from arcade perfect. It could use completely redrawn sprites, a POKEY (I'm guessing it doesn't use one), and some fine-tuning would be nice, such as fixing the speed issue. For instance, the second you hit stage 10, everything makes a large jump in speed. In other versions of the game, everything speeds up gradually as you progress as opposed to one huge, sudden jump. Also, once the speed kicks up like this, the game starts chopping up a bit as if the system can't keep up with it. Again, far from perfect.. but pretty good considering it was made in 1984. I still really enjoy it today.

[DracIsBack]

Nevermind about getting a better Galaga, I think a better karateka should be the priority first.

 

Totally, totally agree.

 

7800 Karateka remains my biggest video game disappointment when I brought it home expecting to see the Apple II version I knew and instead getting those pared graphics, missing parts and one second joystick delay!