NHLPA '94
Brad Lascelle
awaiting the Super NES translation, the SNES game is scheduled to be
released on November 15th, so you'll have to wait a little longer. This
game has been completely reprogrammed, and is much improved over the
original NHLPA Hockey '93. Let's hope that EA hasn't done another
hatchet job on a SNES conversion of a popular sports genre.
Makes me wonder how most Genesis E.A. Sports games turn out better than
their Super NES counterparts, when the Super NES has better technical
specs, aside from the CPU. Every other programmer has turned out decent
material for the SNES, so why have the expert programmers at E.A. let
slowdown butcher many of their SNES sports games, (most recently, NBA
Showdown Basketball, due out in November). Makes me wonder... :)
* Brad Lascelle * -- The Electronic Gaming Industry Analyst
John Stiles
> Makes me wonder how most Genesis E.A. Sports games turn out better than
> their Super NES counterparts, when the Super NES has better technical
> specs, aside from the CPU. Every other programmer has turned out decent
> material for the SNES, so why have the expert programmers at E.A. let
> slowdown butcher many of their SNES sports games, (most recently, NBA
> Showdown Basketball, due out in November). Makes me wonder... :)
My guess would be that sports games rely on the CPU more than, say,
Street Fighter or Super Mario Universe. You have over 10 players on the screen
(well, not all sports, but usually) and each is supposed to act realistically
and respond to the puck, which is flying around and ricocheting off things at
different velocities.
Certainly the support chips in the SNES do a lot, but they don't do the
numbercrunching, and this shows in a few areas -- sports, polygons (the SFX has
entered the arena to fix that), slowdown, etc. Whether this tradeoff is worth
it to you is your choice. Unless EA has done something drastic with their SNES
programming department, I expect to see little real difference, rewrite or not.
*Stils
>
> * Brad Lascelle * -- The Electronic Gaming Industry Analyst
___________________________________________________________________________
John Stiles <lta...@academic.csubak.edu>
"That was beyond the limits of good taste." -- Beavis
Philip Wu
>In article <blasce...@realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca>, blas...@realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca (Brad Lascelle) writes:
>> Makes me wonder how most Genesis E.A. Sports games turn out better than
>> their Super NES counterparts, when the Super NES has better technical
>> specs, aside from the CPU. Every other programmer has turned out decent
>> material for the SNES, so why have the expert programmers at E.A. let
>> slowdown butcher many of their SNES sports games, (most recently, NBA
>> Showdown Basketball, due out in November). Makes me wonder... :)
> My guess would be that sports games rely on the CPU more than, say,
>Street Fighter or Super Mario Universe. You have over 10 players on the screen
>(well, not all sports, but usually) and each is supposed to act realistically
>and respond to the puck, which is flying around and ricocheting off things at
>different velocities.
> Certainly the support chips in the SNES do a lot, but they don't do the
>numbercrunching, and this shows in a few areas -- sports, polygons (the SFX has
>entered the arena to fix that), slowdown, etc. Whether this tradeoff is worth
>it to you is your choice. Unless EA has done something drastic with their SNES
>programming department, I expect to see little real difference, rewrite or not.
I agree with you to a point. But the fact is EA rushed into releasing
NHLPA '93 on SNES for the Christmas rush and so the game was not all that
it could be. This years will be much improved although I still dont think
it will be as good as the Genesis version.
Phil
Brad Lascelle
> My guess would be that sports games rely on the CPU more than, say,
>Street Fighter or Super Mario Universe. You have over 10 players on the
>screen
>(well, not all sports, but usually) and each is supposed to act
>realistically
>and respond to the puck, which is flying around and ricocheting off things
>at
>different velocities.
> Certainly the support chips in the SNES do a lot, but they don't do
>the
>numbercrunching, and this shows in a few areas -- sports, polygons (the SFX
>has
>entered the arena to fix that), slowdown, etc. Whether this tradeoff is
>worth
>it to you is your choice. Unless EA has done something drastic with their
>SNES
>programming department, I expect to see little real difference, rewrite or
>not.
Well, you make a valid point, and I would agree with you completely,
except for the point that other programming teams that are less or as
recognized as Electronic Arts have pulled off some of these intense games
on the Super NES without any slowdown. A good example is Super Smash
T.V. by Acclaim, with dozens of enemies attacking and blowing up on
screen at once. Konami has released plenty of titles (since Gradius III)
without slowdown, such as Contra III and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. The
rapid and hectic play of Super Bomberman by Hudson Soft moves along
rapidly on a measly 4 Meg cartridge, with as many as 4 players at once
moving around. It just makes me wonder why Electronic Arts has not
surpassed the programming difficulties of the slow SNES CPU, that these
companies have managed to do so successfully.
Also, it's not just the playability that usually makes a Genesis E.A.
Sports title better. The graphics have been consistently better on the
Sega, along with the scrolling, despite the fact that the Super NES can
outmaster the Genesis in these two areas without problems. Another point
is why does the Sega version of NHL '94 utilize a battery back-up, and
have the ability to save user files and stats, whereas the SNES game
lacks these features, and is obliged to use a password feature. I don't
see a valid excuse for Electronic Arts here. Are SNES batteries more
expensive? Something about E.A. Sports programming seems fishy, if you
analyze it all...