R-Type is the greatest game ever made, right? Right? No? Then get off my land, you pervert. It just is.
The 8-bit ports of the game were mixed: the Amstrad got a terrible, slow, drab port. The C64 got a fun shooter that felt loosely based on the source, but which loses points for straight up doing it’s own thing (as the C64 often did).
But it’s the ZX Spectrum port that really shines. More colourful than it had right to be, fast, faithful, fun. It was a weird kind of miracle: so accurate you could even use your arcade learnings to do well at the game.
So, for the 8-bit micros at least, clear Speccy win!
…
But they were, all of them, deceived, for there was another 8-bit computer R-Type made.
On the internet, in the coding forums, homebrew coders forged in secret an Amstrad port to beat all the others. And into this port they poured colour, accuracy, music…
And the result is pretty great. Amazing to see what the Amstrad can really do when it isn’t getting stinky Spectrum ports. I would say this one ties with the Spectrum port for playability.
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The ZX Spectrum port was legendary. Couldn’t believe I was playing R-Type in my home back when the arcade machines were so far ahead of what home computers could pull off.
Our local pub had a little arcade section for the kids with R-Type as one of the machines and I remember pumping in plenty of 20p coins into it.
Another fond memory is the excitement of getting R-Types on PSX back in the day.
I guess I need to try out this Amstrad port to see how good it is…
The coder who converted the Spectrum version (Bob Pape) wrote an excellent memoir about how he went about it, his life at the time (he was basically a teenager) and his interactions with the weird, nascent world of gaming development companies. It’s really fascinating and well worth a few hours. And it’s free! It’s Behind You: The Making of a Computer Game
The Sega Master System version is pretty impressive.
I added a Yamaha FM chip to my console, similar to the chip in japanese consoles. It turned out, the game uses the added sound channels when it detects the chip.
Indeed, the SMS port looks pretty good:
Omg I loved R-Type on SMS, and after decades I bought it for iOS, don’t play it regularly anymore but here’s a quick screenie
I used to love this game even though I was terrible at it.
It would be perfect now, though, to emulate the arcade version and enjoy without going through a million quarters.
Cool shit, I had no idea there were all these ports of the original R-Type.
IMO R-Type Complete for PC-Engine CD is the absolute best version of this game available. Better than the arcade version even.
Now that’s the sort of quality content I’m here for! I’ve never really gotten into shmups back in the day, on account of them being so God damn hard.
Ever since I’ve got an Anbernic 35XX on my nightstand with every game under the sun on it I’ve been going through the various shmups, and R-Type just is the best of them all. I love the SNES version, personally. That being said, no genre makes me rage quit more, and basically every loaded R-Type save state will greet me with a Game Over screen, but it is what it is.
So, across all retro console generations (Arcade, 8/16/32), which is the best R-Type in your opinion?
PC-Engine CD version, R-Type Complete.
IMO it’s better than the original arcade version. That soundtrack is amazing.
I mean, the arcade is clearly the best version… (if you’re talking the original game).
For the ports… the Spectrum is great for sheer chutzpah, but the PC Engine port is probably the most faithful of all the versions that weren’t running an emulator. The Sega Mastersystem is also extremely good, on much less powerful hardware.
Was hoping I’d see some shmup discussion on Lemmy! I’m a massive fan of Cave STGs myself. More please!
The PC Engine version is nearly arcade perfect: https://youtu.be/ZRbw_sRDPWU&t=510
Yeah, it’s incredible! The only thing that lets it down slightly is the vertical scrolling (and the fact that they split the levels on two separate releases - I think the TGX16 version got them all in one).
