A Litany of Hate: Ports are Awesome! (Radio Edit?)
During New York Comic Con a new release named Darkstalkers Resurrection was announced. This release would be a port of Vampire Hunter and Vampire Savior (Night Warriors and Darkstalkers 3 in one downloadable package. The community took this announcement with much rejoicing and much chagrining. Some rejoiced for the opportunity to play a game in an easily accessible manner. Some chagrined because a port has the opportunity to be another botched attempt at replicating an arcade perfect experience.
Ports are crucial to our community. In those moments of honesty found at the end of a bottle, we know that the history of fighting games in the United States is built around ports. As Iron Galaxy Studios works on their third project, we need to reexamine our relationship with arduous task of porting. Because without these ports, the long term viability of fighting games as a hobby becomes incredibly shaky.
Why we need these ports
Ports are games which were originally created for one device (console, arcade, cell phone) but are made to play for other devices. In the case of Darkstalkers Resurrection, the games were originally on arcade and are now being ported over to PS3 and 360. The issue of ports is one inherent to the world of video games. Many games were created to play on one specific device. Books, movies and music have the fortune of being playable on multiple devices or easily transferred on media forms. These versions may have nuanced changes from version to version (cassette to cd, vhs to dvd, paper to eBook etc) but have moved over perfectly for the most part (although Han shot first, damn it).
If you love video games, you have to accept that the games are on a limited lifespan; they are playable until the console or their physical storage dies. For Marvel vs Capcom 2 players the life cycle of a console became a real issue. Dreamcasts were known to die before, during and after tournaments. While ports are sometime criticized as a way to make quick buck, they keep games alive by moving them to newer devices. The new devices mean years of extended availability from their original incarnations.
Our fighting game communities are in need of these ports. There are two primary reasons for needing them: arcade cabinets are subject to the limited lifespan of hardware and some games are only attainable in legally questionable ways. Resolving the legal issue is one small benefit of a port; keeping the games alive outside of the cabinets is imperative. There are also some important secondary and tertiary benefits that stem from the release of a port. These benefits are sometimes forgotten in the sudden explosion of emotion ports create.
The first benefit we get is in the form of exposure. A brand new port comes with advertisement for it. Advertisement leads to curiosity; curiosity leads to google searches; google searches lead to fighting game community side…hopefully. A series of searches on youtube can lead to a massive amount of suggestion on related games. Take the topically popular Gangnam style. I’ve seen the video a couple of times. By doing so my youtube suggestions are now filled with related kpop artists, kimchi recipes and starcraft matches. The interconnectedness between google searches, Wikipedia articles and youtube video makes it incredibly easy stumble on one of the different fighting game communities such as Shoryuken.com, Tekken Zaibatsu or Shaq Fu in Gamefaqs. It may not take them directly to Vanguard Princess or Melty Blood; but it gets them at the door.
Tournament Organizers benefit greatly from ports because they consolidate the hardware needed for a tournament. Running tournaments on arcade cabinets is pretty cool; it is actually pretty damn bad ass. Unfortunately driving cabs to various tournaments is not feasible. Ports help those tournament organizers and communities which have no access to arcade cabinets. Marvel vs Capcom 2 received an ultimatum based because of this logistics problem: either play on PS3 or no tournament at Evo. The console juggling act is a real problem alleviated by ports.
It also helps people stick with fighting games. This is because people don’t really choose a game: they fall in love with it. The more options people have, the closer they are to finding a sweetheart. Finding those games on PSN or Xbox marketplace cannot be understated. The same box that plays Uncharted or Halo also has the awesome old games with netplay. This isn’t x-band either, this is GGPO; We made that (well Ponder and Inkblot but you know, community folks, our folks). People can go on internet dates with fighting games which have good netcode all from the comfort of their home. The future is kinda mind blowing.
Why we care about arcade perfect in the first place
Many of the games in the fighting game library were made for the arcade. Hardware differences between consoles and arcades make porting games a hard task for developers. Due to budget and development time, the ports have certain compromises. These compromises came with missing frames in animation (Marvel vs Capcom 2 for PS2, PSX Alpha 2 and Alpha 3), versions which fixed things in the game (dreamcast version of Third Strike), the game played at a different speeds from the arcade (PS2 version of Third Strike), or it had noticeable lag and other issues (Super Turbo for PS2 and SF2 Anniversary Edition on PS2). These weren’t necessarily an issue until arcades started shutting down. Once playing on the arcade versions became a real logistic issue, the fighting game communities were forced to look at consoles as the future of the hobby. Suddenly finding the best home version of a game becomes a very serious issue.
For our fighting game communities, an arcade perfect port represents two valuable things: it preserves our history and maintains competitive continuity. Much of our understanding of fighting games comes from playing many of these games at the arcade. Our history of tactics, strategy, theoretical analysis (both of mechanics and “theory fighting”) is locked in those arcade environments. If we were to discuss the validity of unblockables as a tactic, both Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Third Strike could be considered books on the subject. But if the only copies of the games available lack the unblockables, it becomes a lot harder to understand the context and impact they had on their games. In a very real sense a less than arcade perfect port is very much like rewriting history.
Competitive continuity is important because we want fair competition. If possible we want no difference between the game as it was played in 1998 in the arcade and as it is played on console in 2012. Multiple ports with gameplay differences lead to unpleasant situations. Using Capcom vs SNK 2 as an example, if you have an arcade play against a gamecube player the first thing you have to decided is which version they will use. Gamecube had a port of Capcom vs SNK 2 which fixed roll canceling (this is a glitch that allowed you to cancel the initial frames of a roll into any move which would result in the move used to cancel the roll gaining invulnerability frames). If they play on an arcade cabinet then arcade player has an advantage through the use of roll canceling; play on gamecube and the arcade player has to adjust his game for the lack of roll cancel. An accessible Arcade Perfect port protects the integrity of tournaments by keeping the game consistent. It also saves us argument over which version to play.
And if it is not arcade perfect?
Many of the console ports used in tournaments were not arcade perfect; the roms used in GGPO are not arcade perfect either. Console ports greatly outnumber arcade cabinets. This means that arcade perfect is the exception and not the rule. Any time there is a Street Fighter 4 tournament on PS3, the arcade perfect version of the game is not being played; this has been true of Third Strike, Super Turbo, and some versions of Guilty Gear on the PS2. We did not arcade perfect versions as much as we play a tournament standard. This fact has not stopped us from playing the games.
Will you refuse to play on something less than arcade perfect? This is an incredibly important question. The Super Turbo and the Third Strike communities could be in a better place had they answered differently. Both games had ports which were condemned as hot trash by their respective communities. What makes the decision tragic is that neither game has had an arcade perfect port. The PS2 versions of both of the games had issues (from random slowdowns to running faster than the arcade); even then they were still used for tournaments. In the case of the current ports, people outright refused the version which made a tournament organizer’s life easier. This left newer players with nothing. We have brand new ports have nothing to show for it.
Third Strike: Online Edition somehow turned us into the biggest pile of entitled children in the land of gaming. They work their hardest at bringing us a much needed port and we worked hard at saying: “Screw this version, Derek Neal. We were better off with the PS2. This comment would’ve been E-Xed but it didn’t come out.” I could say we are backwards; not many groups work so hard against their self interest as we have. Thankfully this spirited reception did not stop them from porting other games. This nasty reception could have left us without them. Their work on Marvel vs Capcom: Origin has given us plenty reasons to be happy with Iron Galaxy Studios. They did a great job with the port, the netcode and they are actively seeking community feedback.
Where is our community left in all this?
Iron Galaxy Studios wants to listen and we should be more than happy to speak. By keeping the games alive, the communities surrounding the games turned themselves into accidental experts. These communities have the most play times. They need to spend less time worrying about the possible quality and lending a hand with it. In the long run a good port is in the best interest of all parties. We may not necessarily end up exactly at arcade perfect, but “really damn good” is a great compromise. The Third Stirke community created a list of things which should be patched; similarly the Darkstalker community is already at work on a list of suggestions. We need to continue this open communication because as we’ve already experience, the alternatives are significantly worse.
P.S. Now that we know Darkstalkers Resurrection is based on a PS2 version of the game and not two direct ports, are you still going to bitch and refuse to play? Because I’m not.
P.P.S. Only people really suffer through an unplayable port were the Arcana heart people. Arcana Heart 2 Sugoi! was terribad with multiple slowdowns which made the whole thing an unfun experience. Thankfully it hasn’t been that bad for us Capcom folk.
P.P.P.S the Jedpossum correction:
