PCE Golden Axe

[OldRover]

Put a donation page and I guarantee your wish will come true. Well close enough at least.

Such a thing feels wrong to me for some reason... I'm not quite sure why.

[Keith Courage]

I don't know much about programming. It's too bad you can't just take the original pc engine game and update the character sprites and backgrounds.

[Xak]

I never realized how bad the PC Engine CD port was untill seeing the pics , I remember how bad it was letterboxed.  I forgave it due to the cool looking cut scenes, then the gameplay was unaccpetable

[OldRover]

I don't know much about programming. It's too bad you can't just take the original pc engine game and update the character sprites and backgrounds.

Would be a waste of time to try, really. The gameplay is broken, and the sound is broken too. There is nothing salvageable in the original PCE game... the whole thing needs to be tossed and started anew, so that's what I did.

[Tatsujin]

so that's what I did.

I thought, that's what your doing?

or can I buy it already?

[OldRover]

I tossed it and started anew... that's what I did.

[munchiaz]

**posted in wrong thread

[RyuHayabusa]

This looks amazing! Telenet did such a horrible job on the original PCE port so it's cool seeing what could've been done. Of course the original was a pre-Super System Card CD port and not an Arcade Card port but still it's terrible. This is an example of something that I always wonder about: How much better could lackluster ports have been with better programmers? For instance, Final Fight on the SNES or Strider PCE. Could a 16meg port of Final Fight made later in the SNES' life have been 2 player, included Guy, and had all the missing stuff put in? Could Strider PCE have been made to look better and play smoother had it been handled by different developers? Just from what has been shown in these preview videos it shows that the PCE could've had a much, much, much better port of Golden Axe. Can't wait to see how this progresses. Great job so far!!

[imparanoic]

I am impressed with this homebrew remake

[SegaSonic91]

Wow, very impressive results there.  I was always pissed that SEGA never made a proper MEGA-CD version of GA ( and sooooo many others!) so this looks like a nice alternative, even with the Wii/360 versions I have.

It's a damn shame that NEC Home decided not to make the arcade card/SFII' combo in '93.  By the time the arcade card arrived, it was far too late and apart from Hudson's very impressive NEO-GEO conversions, it was wasted.  Other AC only games such as Mad Stalker and of course, the giant turd that is Strider Hiryu, wasted their potential.

Strider could most certainly have been a hell of a lot better if NEV had not given it to the crappy, inexperienced team that made it.  Just as an 8-mbit Daimakaimura on the MD could have matched the SGX version.  Whether ACD version of SH could live up to the MD version, I am not sure.  It could have been close though.

As for a 16-mbit Final Fight on the SFC being better than the original, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.  The SFC would NEVER be able to touch the MEGA-CD version anyway.  That shitty, ancient Famicom processor they stuck in the SFC could never compare to the CPS-I or MEGA-CD.  Every beat em up/fighter on the SFC ran at a greatly reduced resolution with only 2 or 3 enemies on screen at a time because that's all it could handle.  All the colour in the world could not make up for that processor and it never had a hope in hell of an arcade quality game like Bare Knuckle II.  Maybe if the CD system had been released but the arrogant morons decided against that because CD was not the future.  That worked out so well for the N64, lol!

[ccovell]

Strider could most certainly have been a hell of a lot better if NEV had not given it to the crappy, inexperienced team that made it.  Just as an 8-mbit Daimakaimura on the MD could have matched the SGX version.  Whether ACD version of SH could live up to the MD version, I am not sure.  It could have been close though.

As for a 16-mbit Final Fight on the SFC being better than the original, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.  The SFC would NEVER be able to touch the MEGA-CD version anyway.  That shitty, ancient Famicom processor they stuck in the SFC could never compare to the CPS-I or MEGA-CD.  Every beat em up/fighter on the SFC ran at a greatly reduced resolution with only 2 or 3 enemies on screen at a time because that's all it could handle.  All the colour in the world could not make up for that processor and it never had a hope in hell of an arcade quality game like Bare Knuckle II.  Maybe if the CD system had been released but the arrogant morons decided against that because CD was not the future.  That worked out so well for the N64, lol!

Um, while some of us here would agree with a few things you say, your arguments are scattershot.

[CrackTiger]

Wow, very impressive results there.  I was always pissed that SEGA never made a proper MEGA-CD version of GA ( and sooooo many others!) so this looks like a nice alternative, even with the Wii/360 versions I have.

It's a damn shame that NEC Home decided not to make the arcade card/SFII' combo in '93.  By the time the arcade card arrived, it was far too late and apart from Hudson's very impressive NEO-GEO conversions, it was wasted.  Other AC only games such as Mad Stalker and of course, the giant turd that is Strider Hiryu, wasted their potential.

Strider could most certainly have been a hell of a lot better if NEV had not given it to the crappy, inexperienced team that made it.  Just as an 8-mbit Daimakaimura on the MD could have matched the SGX version.  Whether ACD version of SH could live up to the MD version, I am not sure.  It could have been close though.

As for a 16-mbit Final Fight on the SFC being better than the original, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.  The SFC would NEVER be able to touch the MEGA-CD version anyway.  That shitty, ancient Famicom processor they stuck in the SFC could never compare to the CPS-I or MEGA-CD.  Every beat em up/fighter on the SFC ran at a greatly reduced resolution with only 2 or 3 enemies on screen at a time because that's all it could handle.  All the colour in the world could not make up for that processor and it never had a hope in hell of an arcade quality game like Bare Knuckle II.  Maybe if the CD system had been released but the arrogant morons decided against that because CD was not the future.  That worked out so well for the N64, lol!

How many enemies do you need at once in a <2 player game?

If you really need more than 3 on-screen, here you go:

SNES Longplay [150] Ghost Chaser Densei - Denjin Makai

SNES Longplay [185] Ninja Warriors Again


At least many SNES beat em ups have huge sprites and unlike Final Fight CD, decent color.

[Psycho Punch]

more enemies at once does not necessarily mean better game.

[OldRover]

This is an example of something that I always wonder about: How much better could lackluster ports have been with better programmers?

Better programmers are just one of the many details. It normally takes several people to make a successful game. Each person focuses on their specialty, which has the potential to raise the overall quality of the product. You also have to have someone who can manage this team of specialists. Whoever was working on the Telenet version of Golden Axe clearly didn't have a lot of skill. The in-game graphics and sound effects are deplorable, and the cutscenes, while interesting, are very basic. The gameplay is downright broken and that comes from horrible coding. So you've got at least three areas where their production was a total failure, and one where it just barely makes the grade. Paranoia Dragon's sound and music expertise will ensure that our version sounds great, Black Tiger's pixel wizardry will make sure it looks great, and my coding experience will make sure it plays great. We don't have a deadline for this, so we are not forced to work under pressure, plus we don't have to cram everything into 128KB (I'm sure the Telenet version used the ADPCM RAM for things other than ADPCM data, considering I never heard a decent sample in the whole game). We could technically do this on the normal System 3.0, but utilizing the ACD means that not only can everything be preloaded, but we can also display more complex tilemaps, load more samples, and greatly reduce (maybe even eliminate) load times, making it feel so much more like the arcade game (only without the obnoxious bugs the arcade game has in it).

[geise]

What is BT working on graphic wise?  Is the game mostly sprite/ background rips?  I take it a lot of rework?

[CrackTiger]

The background in the PCE version is converted, the sprites are not.


Arcade<---------> PCE



MD:

[OldRover]

BT is doing the background graphics. They are taken from the arcade game, but he spruced them up and did PCE-friendly recoloring to make them bright and vibrant. The sprites didn't need any modifications; they're direct copies from the arcade ROMs, although the colors have been aligned to PCE specs.

[OldRover]

Wow, I just realized how horrid the MD version looks compared to ours.

[GohanX]

I ordered some white two CD cases so that I could have original disc and one translation/hack in the same case. I'm throwing Golden Axe in one in anticipation.

[ToyMachine78]

Man that looks spectacular! What is your estimated release date?

[OldRover]

"When we finish it."

[geise]

That's looking really good!  I remember the quick demo you showed me Rove.  It really is exciting to see the concept and how it "can" be done.  BT I really like the touch to the background at the character select screen.  Some details stand out a lot better.

[PukeSter]

MD:

[Radtastic89]

That looks amazing! Give me, give me now.

[pixeljunkie]

The background in the PCE version is converted, the sprites are not.

Arcade<---------> PCE


MD:

quoted for HOTNESS

[OldRover]

One detail I should point out that most people tend to miss about the character select screen is that the player sprites on the arcade original scale in and out. That is missing from the MD conversion. I fake it for the PCE remake, so it looks like it did in the arcade original.

[Sadler]

One detail I should point out that most people tend to miss about the character select screen is that the player sprites on the arcade original scale in and out. That is missing from the MD conversion. I fake it for the PCE remake, so it looks like it did in the arcade original.

Any chance you want to show it off, perhaps via youtube?

[OldRover]

Not without a working title screen... still working on that part. Soon... patience, grasshopper.

[ToyMachine78]

When you are ready rover, just send me a copy and I'll play the hell out of it and post everything on YouTube 

[EvilEvoIX]

An amazing effort.  All we need now is a time machine.

[ccovell]

One detail I should point out that most people tend to miss about the character select screen is that the player sprites on the arcade original scale in and out.

I didn't miss that!   Also, Gilius' thunder magic scales as well; don't forget to put that in! ;-D

[OldRover]

I didn't miss that!   Also, Gilius' thunder magic scales as well; don't forget to put that in! ;-D

It does? Even I must have missed that one... I know the earth magic does, but I didn't notice the lightning magic doing it too.

[ccovell]

Whoops, I meant Ax=Battler's then.  Tyris' scales a bit too at each level except for max.

[OldRover]

Yeah, I just checked out Tyris Flare's magic and it does appear to scale on most levels. Level 4 was hard to tell for sure, but I'll check the sprite collection and compare them against some screenshots and see what's up. Level 2 appears to scale vertically, but those may be sprited to do that already... not 100% sure. The rest (except 6 of course) all have scaling. Ax Battler's level 4 magic scales both the mushroom cloud and the rocks that fly out of it.

[Tatsujin]

I'm so excited!!

[GohanX]

I put my Golden Axe inserts and CD into a two CD jewel case in anticipation

[Dyna138]

Wow very impressive work! Good luck to you guys in finishing the project. Golden Axe is one of my favorite games and the pc engine version just makes me...sad.

[GohanX]

True story: The reason I even own Golden Axe is because I was up too late on the computer and bit on a last minute auction at like 3am. I barely remember it, and a few weeks later I got a package with Golden Axe in it and I was all "WTF? Why did I order this?"

[whisper2053]

I bought it with some foolish notion that maybe, just maybe, all those internet reviews couldn't be right...could they? I mean, it's the PC Engine...what could be so bad?

*cradles face in palms*

Oh how wrong I was...   

[Funknflowturbo]

I cannot wait for this!!!

[GMO]

The only reason I got this game is the game store had it for $20 bucks and I just wanted to make codes for it. Games are games but I have definitely seem worse ports than this

[pixeljunkie]

any updates?

[CrackTiger]

any updates?

Lucretia is the priority for now.

[esteban]

any updates?

Lucretia is the priority for now.

As it should be 

[Tatsujin]

but don't neglate the best goldenaxe there ever will be for consoles!!!

[HyperionAlpha]

 

[Psycho Punch]

but don't neglate the best goldenaxe there ever will be for consoles!!!

Yep. My body is ready for the Arcade Card obey.

[OldRover]

but don't neglate the best goldenaxe there ever will be for consoles!!!

We aren't. It will get finished, don't you worry.

[HyperionAlpha]

Maybe I missed it but what is the planned distribution for this? Just a torrent or a download or, what?

[OldRover]

Don't know yet. This is still a hot property and Sega isn't likely to just sit around and let it go. I doubt we will be able to actually physically press it, unless we somehow convince them to give consent... for a significant royalty, I'm sure. It will just be a download otherwise... a torrent is probably the best way to fly.