On May 22, 1:08 pm, AirRaid <airraid1....DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=289737
>
> best comparison of Virtua Racing I've ever seen.
Really? I think comparing emulated versions invalidates whatever
arguments you could make for or against any of the various ports and
the original coin-op. Emulation is not the be-all-end-all of arcade
perfection and even the author admits that Virtua Racing (and it's
parent hardware/software platform) only recently became usable via
emulation -- a huge red flag there since even the best emulation will
always have bugs and quick fix shortcuts to get the game running (or
running faster). For the average person who wants to play the coinop
an emulator is serviceable but for this type of scrutiny you might as
well throw all of that hard work out the window.
Additionally, you are viewing the game and its various ports on a non-
interlaced VGA monitor which is trying to duplicate the arcade monitor
(which I believe was interlaced, but I'll have to check) which will
never get the look right. Some effects that relied on the fuzziness
of the interlacing will be rendered so perfectly by a VGA monitor that
the effect falls apart. No amount of tacked-on anisotropic filtering
will achieve the original monitor look, though as I said above for the
purposes of casual gaming it's a sufficient shortcut.
The most important point the article makes is buried deep near the
end:
"The 32X version is probably the most arcade accurate overall,
gameplay-wise."
....which actually validates the opinion of the 32-X game a Time-Warner
Interactive (Atari) employee expressed to me in the mid-late 90's (I
didn't believe him at the time because I felt that the Saturn version
trumped it, mainly based on system specs and no other real tangible
reason). TWI used the real arcade code as the basis for the
underlying game, BTW.
The whole "arcade perfect" argument is flawed because it really means
that you need the exact hardware as the arcade (duh) -- and this only
serves to fluff up the egos of the NeoGeo diehards. It only
reinforces the same stupid console rivalries that have always existed
and accomplishes little else.
A port is a port is a port, so liberties will always be taken in
translating the game (due to time and console power). Do we really
care that 4 blades of polygonally rendered grass are out of place
between the arcade and another version? If your enjoyment of the game
depends on whether the ferris wheel in the background is accurate then
I suggest you take up another hobby. I'd rather play the version that
*plays* more like the arcade original; If I want eye candy I'll look
at some porn
I can only imagine what things you would accomplish if you spent the
amount of effort involved in something like this towards high energy
particle physics or cosmology. (The debate over the usefulness of
pure fundamental science versus applied science notwithstanding).
>> Stay informed about: Virtua Racing comparison: Arcade - PlayStation2 - Saturn -.. 
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