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The following messages, compiled by Bobby Tribble (btribbl@eis.calstate.edu) [send him big "thank you" notes because it was a great idea to compile them all!], is the unofficial FAQ of the Summer '93 Consumer Electronics Show as far as video games are concerned. The contents are replies to messages I received regarding the show; some of the questions came from InterNET users who wrote me with terrific inquiries before the show. I hope it's all informative and useful. - Jer Horwitz (V089L3S3@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu) -------- I literally *just* got back from the CES and I have answers to every question I was asked in mail... I'll try to answer anything else you want to know, but don't burden me, please, and keep it public. I won't respond to any more private questions. Here we go. Atari Jaguar (Question by: btribbl@eis.calstate.edu) Beyond Games clued me in to see the demo of the Atari Jaguar (on videotape) [and a word of special thanks to the great BG guys - BattleWheels is great!] that was being given by Gerry Tramiel of Atari. I have a non-specific spec sheet on the unit, which is 64-bit (uses a custom American-made RISC processor -- a 64-bit address line and two 32-bit processors - 5 custom chips in all, DSP for sound). Tramiel was calling the system a 3DO competitor at $200 (MSRP). Beyond Games and I both left the demo with an "Atari" feeling; the tape showed individual scaling visual effects being demoed and a few games in production (a polygon flight sim, a Gates-Zendacon like shooter, etc) but was not wholly impressive, the software will likely be great with good programmers. They're not signed yet to develop; only Telegames is as of so far. Sega's Rating System (also btribbl) Their rating system will definately have games that push the outer limits of each letter. They will be lenient for adult games and some games will be made for adult audiences. Mortal Kombat, I believe, is still at the medium rating level, not for adults only. There was talk of even censoring the Sega MK. TurboDuo softs (arromdee@blaze.cs.jhu.edu -- always a great guy!) [Regarding EGM's list of "TTI Future Releases" in their Winter CES booklet] Certain releases: Battle Lode Runner, Beyond Shadowgate, Bonk 3, Cotton, Dungeon Explorer 2, Dungeon Master: TQ, Macross 2036 + Simulation, Madden Duo Football (cool!), and Sim Earth. CD Zonk wasn't shown but will come out, Exile 2, King of the Monsters 2, Vasteel and Magical Chase were all there. World Heroes is coming and graphics are ported but not all programmed or showable. Working Designs reports that some background movement will be cut (no movement in the Brocken stage's elevator), no character v. character, but they're trying to get a new opening cinema and will certainly have rescored and better music. Sherlock 2, yes; Cosmic Fantasy 3 is in negotiations. Terraforming, Riot Zone, Bomberman 93, Lords of Thunder, Camp California, Blood Gear, Might and Magic 3, Godzilla, Jim Power, Blackhole Assault, Xak I+II, Nexzr, Wizardry I+II and perhaps (bad memory here) Mystic Formula and Gao were shown. A Train 3 wasn't shown but is announced to be coming out. The others are not coming, for certain, I was told. 3DO: Plans for Europe ... Worth the $? (cspas164@sus.edu.eur.nl) Panasonic plans to get 3DO to Europe as of 1994, close to (but likely after) a Japanese release. The system rolls out in the US in October '93. It seems like a very neat system; great video compression, but there are a lot of caveats to discuss, like a lot of the demo works (which looked terrific) were done on Silicon Graphics workstations and then spooled off the CDROM with compression. Although impressive (very), they're only video. There were 25-40 games/products on display for the system, some of which used very detailed texture mapped scaling (and were knockout). I'd say it'll be terrific, personally. Capcom / Konami (jbagley@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca) Capcom Breath of Fire: Nope. The guy told me that it wasn't doing well in Japan. I know it's not true, but he said it's not coming out. I'm pissed too, but Mega Man X (like Japanese anime, but playable) and SF2Turbo were totally terrific. Konami's Castlevania 5: Yes, it's being worked on. No, there's no plotline. It will be 12-16 megs, perhaps with an SFX chip, although Konami doesn't have one for development yet. It won't be based on any of the other games besides the visual format (in other words a new plot). Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis) has a female and male Dracula and OK graphics; no relation between the SNES/Genesis ones. It wasn't shown (SNES). Baton / NEC / Commodore (nugget@genesis.nred.ma.us) [1] Baton: Teleplay - I have a list of four or five games. It's 2400 BPS, Keyboard is for a term program, I played Terran Wars (space combat) and a tank game which had some neat ideas. Graphics on the games were not great but usable; they had working SNES/Genesis/NES modems up and running. More details later if you want. Terran Wars: Small enterprise-like ship flies around, turns 360 degrees looking for enemies (your opponent). Armada, Sea of Vengence: Two battleships square off (not shown) Battle Storm: Tank commanders face off - ad says that there are aircraft and attack helis, but I didn't see them. Cool features like hiding behind walls (and not being seen by your opponent until he finds you), jeeps with special weapons like cruise and homing missiles, and multiple levels. All not shown: Siege and Sorcery (RPG), Classic Strategy (Chess/Checkers/Othello), Droids of War (SciFi RPG), Battle Sports ("Shopping mall sports action game"), Lenny the Lizard (?), Mayhem! (Handtohand), Huddle (Football - may have a 14-player server in the future), Corridor of Doom (Gauntlet-like), Motor Psycho (Racing Game Deadly), and Poker Face (Poker/Gin/Blackjack/Cribbage). None of the above games were shown except Terran Wars and Battle Storm, only those and Armada are shown in pictures. * Hook up any IBM keyboard to the system, as well as any disk drive, printer, etc, using a special serial adaptor (which may include a free term program and *will* be the same for each system; no need to buy 2 if you have 2 game systems). * Compuserve Support Group will set you up with other players in your area. A server is being conceptualized to allow 14 players to compete in football at one time, with each person controlling a player. * Cartridges plug into the back of the unit, phone lines to the left, and serial adapter/flash cards (for backup storage) to the right. Keyboard to the front. * SNES/Sega/NES versions available; all shown although the SNES version had a temporary casing. PROBLEM: AT&T's "The Edge 16" will be 4800 baud (Teleplay is 2400) and will also allow for talking between two people (with voice) while they play over the phone. The games include a one-on-one fighting game (simplistic; like Captain America and the Avengers type characters) which has special Flash cards (not 1+1=2, but new technology allowing the games to use new characters when you plug a card into the unit; it saves their stats too). Sega supports this system, not the Baton one. [2] NEC/TTI: Ironman (or the new name; not "Ironman", they said) will launch in Japan in fall supposedly. US release will be planned for after that. No Mortal Kombat for the system as of yet, said Acclaim... [3] Commodore: Not on the floor. American Sammy (x92wheeler1@gw.umich.edu) Yes, they are in business. Might and Magic 2 for the SNES is coming out when their US negotiations are complete. Sammy has NO stockpile of Viewpoints - none at all - and they no longer do Neo-Geo development. Note that recent rumors have described SNK as ready to release another run of Viewpoint games on their own. Capcom's SF2CE for the Genesis (many people, tehyang, etc.) What's going on? Well, it was delayed because of several things. The first is that the show demo only had the option to play (player 1) as Ryu or Ken, and (player 2) as Guile or Chun Li. The graphics were very pixelized and not very impressive, but the sound was absolutely horrible. Music was a little below the SNES (I have audio samples I'll upload here) and the voices were scratchy and terrible. They will redo the voice. Everybody hinted that it would go from 16 to 24 megs, and it was labeled Super Champion Edition. Capcom flat out denied that it would have extra moves not found in the arcade games, but didn't talk about it going to Turbo edition, so who knows exactly...? Only one background was on the playable demo (Ryu's) and it did control reasonably. Parallax on the backgrounds is limited; the line scroll is there for sure. Fireballs don't have to be two sizes either, I think (unlike a picture I saw). The SNES version was absolutely terrific, but I'll write more when asked specifics. Nintendo SNES CD (tehyang@scf.usc.edu) A hoax. No developer kits have been sent; one big named company [rep] off the record told me that the whole thing was a sham, and that many Nintendo developers were pissed. Oh well. Sega DSP Chip (tehyang again) Not at the show; only game I know of with the chip is Virtua Racing, a cart; the chip's specs are unspecified but I talked to a (great) Sega programmer who claimed that it could scale and rotate objects and that the arcade VR team would do the home VR game with little loss (their belief). He said it would be very, very fast and powerful. He wasn't able to guess on the percent amount that would be retained or lost in the translation. Sega General Q's (hashman@cis.ohio-state.edu) PowerDrift is still undetermined. The above programmer said that DSP was the best hope for it - they want to do a "Better than arcade" translation and they can't do it on CD, he said. The VR goggles can be used with other hardware, programmed with an Amiga, IBM or Mac (like the Sega games of today; no special kits) and it plugs into joystick port 2 and the AV port in the back of the Genesis. Ask for more details. Sega/Duo (sjsbh%cunyvm.bitnet@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu) Landstalker: Yes, at the show in English. King Colossus - not yet at least. Dragon Slayer 2: Not shown but a future release if TTI's around. :) Pioneer (in my mailbox earlier) Not at the show. > >Was SNK there? > Nope. The Game Lord and another person or two were on the show floor, looking around, but the word was that the Neo-CD was *never* coming out and that were was some good reason for SNK not being there - no software. :( That info is not from SNK, but a second hand report I heard. > >O.K. I'll bite. Any news about some newer sega titles? Anything about >Eternal Champions or Raider-X?(E.C. is another sf2 clone and Raider-X is >supposed to use that new color programming thing. Is raider just the > Eternal Champions was shown as a 2-characters, 6-backgrounds demo which also had a fact briefer to explain the other 9 characters. 24 Megs, very large (1/2 screen) characters and good music and background art, uses "OverKills" which are Sega's versions of Fatalities. If you find the right place in each level and use a joystick move, the background will kill off a dying character. One example: In a prehistoric world, vines will come out from the ground with spikes on them, snatch a character, take him into the ground, and you'll hear the sound of falling and a crunch. A moment later, a dinosaur's head will come up with the character in his mouth, chomping away. The designer and I talked for 10 minutes about the game. 365 moves total, 35 per character or thereabouts, uses the 6-button pad. Characters come from all time periods in Earth history (I have their information on an audio tape; I'll print it when I find it). Looks terrific and futuristic and quite like the art done by Image Comics. Ranger-X is Exranza. It was very nice; hi-res and 128 colors on screen (through interlacing or quick screen updating) but had a little flicker, but it was still really neat. The first level seemed a little pointless and boring, but I can't judge it that easily. It will be released in the US soon, I'll get a date if you want.. Actually, I just found it - 8/93. >American release of exranza?) Also, is that VR set-up for the regular >genesis or the sega-cd? Also, was sega really down about the SF2 delay. VR is for the Genesis, no SCD required. Sega didn't say much about SF2; it wasn't looking all that hot and they had Eternal Champions right near it, with Mortal Kombat on a big screen right behind it at one point. >Finally, how was that Super Mario collection thing.(The one with all the >old super mario games.) Terrific. I'd buy it in a second. The best part (besides the 16-bit graphics) was the "Game Select" screen - digitized photos of the SMB boxes - SMB1, SMB2, then a translated Japanese box for SMB: The Lost Levels (Jap. SMB2) and then SMB3. 4 save slots for each game; the characters all look like 16-bit versions of their original selves. In other words, Mario in SMB1 looks different from Mario in SMB3, because the NES games looked different. SF2 Turbo news (Shihtape) OK... Obviously you all care about this one, and I did too... I spent more than one hour playing the game, and at one point played all the way through the game and watched Guile's ending to see if it was different. Details: The official name of the game is Street Fighter 2 Turbo [Hyper Fighting]. The Capcom logo goes up, then the distant words SF2 are in the background (full words, not initials). The whole screen fills with giant letters which are screen height moving from right to left, "TURBO", which all scroll off to the left. The words SF2 then scale in like they did in the SNES version, and "Turbo" is drawn (as if by a marker) onto the lower right of the words. "Hyper Fighting" (looks like arcade text) then fades in below the logo. Press start, and there are three options: Turbo, Option and Normal. When you move to turbo, the background color is green. You can press the joystick left and right to have 0-4 stars next to the word "Turbo" - that's how fast the game will go. Playing this game gives you all of the Turbo colors and moves, and I saw almost everything. The only noticable missing thing was Balrog counting from 1-6 when charging, but [A] it *was* very loud in the room and [B] it may not have been totally complete, although they said that it was. Chun Li has her fireball, Honda has the Buttafuoco [divine wind], etc. The Turbo speeds are nicely paced and very responsive, up to the speed of the illegal SF2 boards or thereabouts. The colors are like the arcade, etc. When you play Turbo and go back to a slow speed, it really feels quite odd - slow is almost boring. Normal will let you play Champion Edition with all of the colors, moves and the normal speed, plus the ending restriction (no Winner's Box). The Turbo moves are all taken out. Obviously, everything necessary to make this just like the Champ and Turbo games has been done; all the missing animation -- EVEN Guile's jump (rotating), Honda's jump, Honda's knee, and best yet, the character select and Versus screens have the correct fonts -- under the pictures; "VS" is written with blood in the background. Only font unfixed is on the lifebars (but the font does change color when you pick another costume); I asked a Capcom rep why they didn't fix that and he said that it was a "Nintendo font" and that "they liked how it looked; it was a minor detail that no one cared about." What else has been fixed: Ryu's dojo has moving bats coming out of it (but no parallax clouds), Guile's boxes are larger, more bicyclers in Chun Li's background, Balrog may be a little larger. What was missing: Ken's stage only had one barrel now, I didn't see a palm tree in Sagat's stage, there is still a letterbox on the screen, and Vega's dancers still stood in one spot. Ask specifics and I'll elaborate. The music has been fixed (YES!) and I taped a bunch of it from the SNES and Genesis, so I'll digitize it today. It did sound *much* better; the arcade's depth and energy was there. SF2T announces country names (USA! - JAPAN! etc) and "You lose" and "Perfect" etcetera. I thought the game was a quantum improvement over the first game, and I would totally endorse it. They fixed 90% of the problems, and put in everything from the arcade games. It's not flawless, but it's very fun and the bosses are all there. Sega VR / Silpheed (Jpe1) Silpheed was exactly as I expected. Sega *was not* hyping it as a Starfox beater as EGM claimed they would - the game consists of a polygon drawn ship which nicely moves in perspective over an overhead 3-D game, and it's a shooter in the vein of Blazing Lazers and the like. The backgrounds are *entirely spooled off the CD with full- screen compressed video*, and moving to the left or right *does not* move the background at all. You go straight and things come to you. There were scenes with less detailed polygon asteroids that flew out at you, and they were impressive but nowhere near as detailed as the scanned backgrounds. (The asteroids were being moved by the SCD, not spooled off the CD as background art, I believe.) There were some terrific scenes done through the background spooling mechanism, and some nice levels - it will likely be among the best overhead shooters ever - but it's not a polygon Starfox beater because it's not truly a polygon game except for some occasional things. They had nice headphones hooked up to hear the music; it was good but not dynamic, and the sounds were a little scratchy against the CD tracks. I think there were 20 selectable stages, and the opening polygon stuff wasn't being demoed and supposedly wasn't even on the demo CD... I did reset the machine to see if I could get it to come up, no luck. Virtua VR: I had the opportunity to use the goggles and hear a little about their design. Notes: The head tracking isn't great (at least in the prototype); the tracker is mounted from your top/back of your head to the very back of your head. The screens on the inside look like a little better than Game Gear screens; same resolution as the Genesis, I was told, would be in the final version. The prototype had an odd thing in the screens where there were missing pixels in a pattern like one out of 5 horizontally, every 4 or 5 vertical lines. The first game (Iron Hammer [I think]) didn't use the set all that well - it looked like a Game Gear title with small psuedo scaling sprites. The theme of the game was that you were in a ship on the ground in a desert littered with bushes; you have a radar screen and you have to move forward and backward, left and right, to shoot things. The problem was that you would turn left to look around, and if you found something, you couldn't shoot it until you used the joystick to turn. Also, looking up and down wasn't really virtual. I wasn't overly impressed; again, more specifics if you ask for them. [Note that I've heard subsequently that the head tracking will be fixed in the production model.] Sega CD: Best games: JVC's AH-1 (I think) Thunderhawk -- a terrific helicopter game that looks like a Mode-7 ground with scaling objects on it, somewhat like Sega's Air Rescue. Great music, too. Final Fight CD looked great, as did the new Spiderman / Kingpin (a very different map layout, with many great animated/voice scenes - even when you stop the man from stealing the woman's purse). The CD stuff wasn't great overall, but Sega was showing the CinePak, software which allows for compressed full-motion and full screen video. They used it to digitize and play back the entire promo trailer for Jurassic Park (the movie), and it looked grainy but MUCH better than the old stuff. Dracula was the low point; large pixeled full screen scenes from the movie were the best part of that game, but it played horribly. No Mortal Kombat CD was shown, but it could be good... Turbo Stuff (Arromdee) "Were shown" means that they were at the show and were supposed to be coming out, and they had release dates. I have the dates here, I think. Dragon Slayer: If you mean part 2, they said it was still in negotiation. Ranma is, also, and they're not sure quite yet. Your list is correct otherwise. Notably King of the Monsters 2 was there, with a reduced character size but a similar colored background (only one background and one character on the screen). I don't know if this is like the arcade (I don't think so), but you can only pick 3 characters in this one, it said. Oh, well. - Jer ------ Response Below From E. Conty -- > > Game Copiers (icelord@u.washington.edu) > > This is not a topic that was discussible... Sorry. Back near the "Multimedia Pavillion" area, there were the remains of what appeared to be an abandoned booth. A few chairs, couple of tables. I pulled up a chair, and was about to rest my weary feet on the table, when I noticed the brochures: Are you paying too much for your SEGA and NINTENDO games? Then get a GAME COPIER!! [etc...] What I want to know is: what idiot thought they could get away with putting a booth with Nintendo and Sega around, and what bigger idiot let them in... > Baton / NEC / Commodore (nugget@genesis.nred.ma.us) > > [1] Baton: Teleplay - I have a list of four or five games. It's 2400 BPS, > Keyboard is for a term program, I played Terran Wars (space combat) and > a tank game which had some neat ideas. Graphics on the games were not > great but usable; they had working SNES/Genesis/NES modems up and running. > More details later if you want. At the Sega area, AT&T was demoing a similar system. Same thing (even had the keyboard port), but this one runs ar 4800, and allows simultaneous voice-and-data transfer. > [2] NEC/TTI: Ironman (or the new name; not Ironman, they said) will launch > in Japan in fall supposedly. US release will be planned for after that. Tetsujin 28, maybe? > Sega DSP Chip (tehyang again) > Not at the show; only game I know of with the chip is Virtua Racing, a cart; > the chip's specs are unspecified but I talked to a (great) Sega programmer > who claimed that it could scale and rotate objects and that the arcade VR > team would do the home VR game with little loss (their belief). He said it > would be very, very fast and powerful. Uh-huh. Their "Virtua Racing" display had a videotape of the arcade game someone made with a camcorder. Feh. On the positive side, Sega had some neat arcade games like a revised Virtua Racing (with a commentator in the upper-right corner, and new tracks) and Megalo 500 (an American Gladiators clone starring Sonic the Hedgehog). - E. Conty ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to my (Jer's) response: >Ok, any news on the Genesis 4-controller adaptor? Last I heard it was to >come out in Japan, but there was no information whether or not it would be >brought to the USA for sure (games planned included Gauntlet). > >I'd love to see this available here. Yes, it's coming. It was at the show at Tengen's booth, it has a 5-way switch (a/b/c/d/ALL) and plugs into port 2. The switch determines what stick is being inputted into the controller slot -- 'all' only works if you're using a 4/5-player game. It won't sell with Gauntlet, but it will come out. No date. - Jer > ---- From E. Conty ---- > > This may seem kind of a dumb question, but could there theoretically be > compatibility between the Baton and AT&T carts/modems? The modems will be compatible. The games... that's a guess, although my gut instinct says "no". > Also, is the AT&T one being made for the SNES as well? I didn't see any indication of that. ---- Jer, again: --- A list of all the games shown/not shown at CES follows: [Only unreleased games appear here] Games Shown / (*=Games Not Shown or I didn't see) [Rating Scale: $ = Good. $$ = Very Good. - = Average. Z = Bad. ZZ = Very bad. ? = Uncertain. $- Avg. Plus / -Z Below Avg. $$- = Good Plus.] SNES Absolute Home Improvement: ? ... Saw only the title screen and packaging. Super Battletank 2: $ ... Much better looking graphics in every way. Turn and Burn: No-Fly Zone: $- ... Looked like a somewhat impressive flight sim. *Redline: F-1 Racer Acclaim Mortal Kombat: $$ ... Graphics look excellent, seems to play like arcade. *Champions' League Soccer *Simpsons: Itchy and Scratchy NBA Jam: $- ... They simply cannot translate the arcade game given the memory limits and SNES' hardware. Still early tho. T2: Judgment Day: ? ... The show demo was crowded, watched and looked good. T2: The Arcade Game: $- ... Early show demo was buggy but like the Genesis game; everything redrawn looking. *The Incredible Crash Dummies NFL Quarterback Club: $ ... Looked like a pretty good football game. Accolade Pele'! ? ... Can't remember what it looked like. Brett Hull Hockey Announced by Al Michaels: $$- ... Not final, but could wind up as a very excellent game. Had NHL license. *Speed Racer in The Challenge of Racer X: ? ... IBM demo was on display with a video tape of dopey early cartoon. IBM had fluid 3-D driving scene. Al Michaels Announces Hardball 3: ? ... Don't recall if the SNES one was being shown or not. Activision Biometal with 2 Unlimited: $$ ... Totally excellent shooter w/ great music by Techno group 2 Unlimited. Kaboom! The Mad Doctor's Revenge: - ... Looked OK with same play as 2600 version. Pitfall Harry: The Mayan Adventure: - ... New play mechanics for the old Pitfall game, so-so visuals. River Raid: Mission of No Return: - ... Another so-so 2600 Update. *Rodney's Funscreen (5 games for kids 3-8) Amer. Sammy Football Fury: - ... Used to be a personal fave, but much better games were being shown. Battle Blaze: - ... So-so weapons' fighting game is still so-so. * Might and Magic 2/3 eventually * No more Neo-Geo / Viewpoints Amer. Softworks Corp. Snow White: Happily Ever After: -? ... Only vaguely remember that it was mediocre action. Super Troll Islands: - ... Based on "Trolls" characters, looked so-so. Super James Pond: Operation RoboCod: -Z ... Pretty stupid action game, repetitive. * Chavez Boxing Asciiware Spellcraft: - ... Looked like a new version of The Immortal with less detailed and better animated graphics. Ardy Lightfoot: ? ... Don't recall anything about it. Dominus (Mouse): - ... A strategy/RPG that was incomplete, short demo of Sega version given by an employee didn't look 'amazing', but might satisfy genre lovers. Atlus GP1: -Z ... One of two motorcycle racing games (2-pl. simultaneous) which used oh-so-flat Mode 7 and looked competant but boring. RunSaber: $- ... Too easy and short, but a good 2-player sim. Strider. Super Widget: -Z ... An action game starring the cartoon character, didn't rouse any great emotions inside of me... AT+T Edge 16 Peripheral: $- ... A 4800BPS modem shown with a cartridge (can't recall the name) that looked like Capt'n America and the Avengers' (Genesis version) two- player combat mode, graphically and playably. Modem allows two people to talk on phone while playing in a game against each other, but quality (at least at the show) was scratchy. Software will drive it, and early game looked below average. A promising idea, though. BPS Yoshi's Cookie: $ ... A good looking puzzle game using Mario characters. More to learn than Tetris. Obitus (RPG): $ ... Technical innovation award for the first-person scaling of the outside world in this RPG/Action game; it's RPG outside and side-scrolling 3-D in the inside. (Inside description is accurate but may make it sound better than it looked.) Could be big. * Bad News Re: Tetris 2 + Bombliss -- Nintendo decided that *they* wanted to design a SNES Tetris 2, bypassing the super BPS game. Write your senators and congressmen! Capcom Aladdin: $$- ... Looked like it could be a good game when it comes out, a more action filled, less puzzling Prince of Persia. Final Fight 2: $- ... Better than pt. 1 graphically and sonically, but not playably. 2 button fighting feels very old. Street Fighter 2 Turbo Hyper Fighting: $$ ... Almost perfect arcade translation which comes far closer than original SF2 for the SNES, tons of options and great play. Goof Troop: - .. Unimpressive (visually) Disney license that has overhead Lolo-style play. Seemed OK. Eye of the Beholder: - ... Little animation in Dungeon Master clone. Mega Man X: $$ ... Early but awesome. Great backgrounds, character animation and ideas. *Capcom's MVP Football Culture Brain Ult. Fighter: - ... They brought the "Hyper Edition" of Golden Fighter to the states, making a Z game much better. Data East ABC Monday Night Football: $- ... Looked like a better than competant football title with oft-cloned interface, Sengoku: - ... 2-player sim. translation of Neo Geo title with the biggest visual changes thus far in a NG -> SNES game. Plays somewhat the same (I didn't see any swords in the playable demo) but looks weaker... *Side Pocket DTMC Lester the Unlikely: - ? ... A few minutes of play revealed a good idea (go from a loser in early stages to a cool guy late in the game) and good rotoscoped animation to make the character look like a loser when he moved. Do *you* want to play as a loser? Nice but not overly unique backgrounds. Rocky Mountain Sports: Z ... Exceptionally glitchy demo didn't look or play all that great. *Gordo #106: The Mutated Lab Monkey EA *NHL + NHLPA Hockey '94 John Madden '94: $$- ... Finally, they programmed the game for the SNES, and it looks to be much better and smoother than the last game. Have to play it longer (that's the minus up there) before I can judge play value. *Bulls v. Suns: The NBA Season Runes of Virtue: Darkwatch Warriors: $ ... Large pixel characters in a full-screen Ultima game, looked promising. ElectroBrain Boxing Legends of the Ring: $$ ... In the few minutes I spent with it, it looked to be an amazing boxing game. Control seemed very good, huge characters. World Wide Soccer: ? ... Don't remember any details on it. Asterix - The Gaul: - ... Small character action game, not terrific. Hockey - Park Place developed: ? ... Not-playable demo had skaters skating around the rink. Future Zone: - ... Looked like an OK action/shooter/puncher. *Metal Masters: ? ... Was it there? If so, it was average. :) Enix Paladin's Quest: - ... The pastel-colored "SNES Phantasy Star" game with a really weird style of art, formerly known as Lennus in Japan. The 7th Saga: $- ... While the Mode-7 rendered battle scenes had good animation and great perspective, the normal overhead RPG stuff looked like more of the same, plus a radar to let you avoid battles. AKA Elnard. E.V.O.: $ ... A very playable action/biting game where you evolve over time. Starts out simplistic but gets better. Actraiser 2: $$ ... Exceptionally good update looks like what you would expect given a couple years to make the backgrounds and play mechanics better. New music by Yuzo feels like '93 evolution (only one or two tracks were new that I heard; other ones will be in the final version). Extreme (formerly BigNet) Riddick Bowe Boxing: $- ... Seemed like a good SNES boxing game, like Holyfield for the Genesis. Choplifter 3: $ ... It may just be that I liked the old game, but this update had much nicer graphics and looked very promising. *Warrior of Rome 3 FCI WCW Super Brawl Wrestling: ? ... I don't remember many details, but I think it looked so-so... I may have this game confused with another title. Ultima: The False Prophet: $- ... Reasonable translation of the IBM Ultima 6. Missing some opening. Might and Magic 3: ? ... Don't recall seeing it. Gametek Family Feud: ? ... Don't recall any details. Kawasaki Caribbean Challenge: Z ... 12 Megs. Yeah, right. Lots of digitized art, no game. Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing: $ ... The Super Monaco GP of the SNES, with much better psuedo-scaling and terrific Mansell tutorial. Still no Virtua Racing. Hi Tech Expressions Beethoven: -Z ... Looked like a kids action game with the dog from the movie. Not terribly well designed. We're Back: A Dinosaur Tale: -Z ... Another kids action game with similar comments as above. Barbie Super Model: ZZ ... Looked like a real hack way to "play as Barbie" - type of stuff that belongs on NES in all ways possible. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? - ... Like the computer game. Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? - ... Like the computer game. Hot-B Super Black Bass: $- ... If you like fishing, then reel it in. (Hahah) Hudson Beauty and the Beast: - ... Early stage demo with reasonable looking play. Super Bomberman (w/ 4-player Super Multitap): $ ... Didn't play it, but it looked like a very fun multi-player game. People who were playing it seemed to be enjoying... Inspector Gadget: - ... So-so action game, nothing astonishing. Dig and Spike Volleyball: $$ ... Among best sports games in history, great design, technique and graphics. *Elfaria Interplay Clay Fighter: $ ... Looked like it would be good, I played as one character only through one round and found it a little slow. Rock and Roll Racing: $ ... Looked like a visually enhanced version of R.P.M. Racing (2-pl. sim) + voice commentary. Lord of the Rings: ? ... Didn't get a chance to look at it. Claymates: $- ... Had interesting concepts for an action game (like morph your character into different characters) but not much pizzazz. Not finished, I think. IREM * No Street Combat display: Heh heh. Why? :) * No RTYPE3, it will be 12megs. Hammering Harry: -Z ... Seemed like a one-dimensional kids walk/hit game with Irem graphics (well shaded + cartoony). Rocky Rodent: - ... Imaginative gameplay which isn't overly exciting. Rocky's hair transforms into weapons and accessories; action. Undercover Cops: $ ... Hot looking 2-pl. sim walking/punching action translation of the arcade game. Still pick up the huge pipe and swing it, etc. Looked VERY similar to the arcade game visually in what I saw. Jaleco Utopia (SNES Mouse): Z ... Boring Populous + Sim City mix. Pro Sport Hockey: - ... Was better off before the competition; has play + graphics a little better than NHLPA '93 for the SNES, but not close to any other new hockey. Tuff E Nuff: $- ... Good SF2 clone would have been better if it had come out at the same time as the Japanese release. Now, it has to compete with World Heroes, Clay Fighters, etc. Super Bases Loaded 2 (3-D Baseball): $ ... Didn't look much like the old Bases Loaded games at all, in fact, it looked like Human's new 3-D Baseball game. Nice camera perspective of the whole stadium from batter to outfield, shifts to Mode 7 movement when you're running bases. Operation Logic Bomb: - ... Overhead running/shooting is so-so. Not overly awe-inspiring. *Goal! TWO JVC Jaguar XJ220: - ... By no means the Sega-CD version, choppy psuedo- scaling. Dungeon Master: $ ... A nice translation of the old DM, a bit late on the release (it's a year old in Japan and there's so little text to translate) considering it's done... Magic Boy: ? ... Don't remember details. Super Empire Strikes Back: $$ ... Scrolled through all the backgrounds in the demo. An unprecedented number of different types of scenes from 3-D flying to side-scrolling flying to good running and shooting. Much better graphics than #1. *Syvalion Kaneco Chester Cheetah 2: Wild, Wild Quest: ? ... Was it shown for the SNES? Fido Dido: ? ... Was it shown for the SNES? Socks the Cat Rocks the House: ? ... Was it shown for the SNES? Kemco The First Samurai: - ... So-so action/sword game which could have been really good with smoother visuals and pacing. Top Gear 2: $- ... Looked promising for the 5-10 mins. I spent looking at it over two days. Smoother than first game, with 2-pl. option got a little more jittery. *G2 Koei *P.T.O. Pacific Theater of Operations ... I didn't go to this booth. *Genghis Khan II Sorry. *Romance of the Three Kingdoms III Konami NFL Football: - ... Didn't play it for very long, but it seemed like there was some unnecessary scaling and rotation in the part I played, and the scaling of the characters was very noticably artificial. It did have nice sidebar ideas like the ref, though. Sunset Riders: $ ... Played for a few mins and it was a fun walking/ shooting translation of the arcade game. Nice cinema opening, too. TMNT Tournament Fighters: $ ... Only a few characters to use in the early demo, but the moves and pacing were good. Rocket Knight Adventures: $ ... Seemed like an interesting action game where your character has a sword and a jetpack and can charge up to go flying in a direction on the current screen (to smash something) or run along and jump to move to the right. A mix of fantasy with some sci-fi. Zombies Ate My Neighbors: $ ... A 2-player walking/shooting overhead with more speed, fluidity, etc. than Operation Logic Bomb, but it's not a $$ Smash TV like the hype reads. McO'River (formerly Video System) Aero Fighters: $ ... A very nice overhead shooter that looked pretty close to the arcade game (aka Sonic Wings) except of course for the wider screen and slightly less detailed backgrounds. Has many endings and characters. Hyper V'Ball: -Z ... Sequel to the Video System arcade/Genesis game Super Volleyball, nothing compared to Hudson's. Microprose Airborne Ranger: - ... An average multi-aircraft flight sim where you practice aerial techniques, I believe... Mindscape Captain America and the Avengers: ? ... Didn't see it, was there. Super Battleship: ? ...Didn't see it, was there. Out to Lunch: ? ... Didn't see it, may have been there. Wing Commander Secret Missions: ? ... Didn't see it, maybe there. Alfred the Chicken: ? ... Didn't see it, maybe there. Namco Battle Cars: - ... A not so awesome 2-pl. sim driving/battle game. Mode 7 is reasonable. Pac Man 2: - ... Sequel to the TG-16/Arcade "Pac Land" with the original Pac-Man game built in "as a bonus". Looked like Pac Land. Pac Attack (PacTris): -Z ... Not overly exciting American convert of Namco's Japanese Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle. Fill a board with ghosts, find puzzle pieces with Pacman and they eat part of the ghosts depending on which direction Pac's mouth is pointing. Metal Marines: ? ... Don't remember seeing it. Suzuka 8 Hours: - ... The other so-so motorcycle racing game, this time based on the far superior (visually) arcade game. Tennis [License to follow]: Z ... Really weak graphics. Being held up until a person is found to license it, and even *I* wouldn't endorse it... Natsume *World Championship Wrestling Nintendo Battle Clash 2 (SS6): $ ... 2-pl. sim version of old Battleclash with 16 megs and more enemies; one player controls the boss if you want. Looked almost the same as BC1. FX Trax: - ... Nintendo's backfiring publicity stunt. Eager to show another Super FX game, they showed the 40% complete racing title here where you "can stretch your car to fit through obstacles"... although there weren't any that I needed to squeeze through. Too slow, nothing special play and weak polygon stuff w/o (much) texture mapping. No photos allowed. If they can improve it in that 60% to the Starfox level, I'll be shocked, but it's possible with Nintendo. As far as play on the version I played goes, I'd give it a -Z. It won't be that bad in the final version, though, I'm certain. Mario & Wario (Mouse): -Z ... A puzzle game for the SNES mouse where you control an angel trying to save Mario characters from untimely fates by constructing floors under them. NHL Stanley Cup: $$ ... My favorite hockey title at the show because it had NCAA-like Mode 7, goalie closeups, real teams and smooth action with easily decipherable symbols. Super Mario All-Stars: $$ ... One of the ultimate values in SNES carts, you get (for $60 retail) 16 megs of Mario games with 16 battery-backed save slots (4 per game). Lost Levels (Japanese SMB2) are really neat, but so are all the other SMB games with new art and music (if you haven't played them to death). $15/game is a great value. Yoshi's Safari (SS6): $ ... While it wasn't unanimously liked, this Super Scope game had an inventive idea - ride on Yoshi's back through various roads, shooting enemies, jumping over rivers and fighting bosses. Certainly a good kids' game. *Ken Griffey Jr. + MLB Baseball: Not shown, but Nintendo promises larger characters (15-20% [?]), real parks and uniforms among other good features. Ocean [Note that these guys were the only people at the show to be rude to me, although I shan't allow it to affect my coverage of their games.] Jurassic Park (Dolby): $- ... An unimpressive overhead walk/shooter based on the movie. Has other modes, too. Dennis the Menace: $ ... Looks to be quite similar to the Addams Family games, with good graphics and play. The Untouchables: $ ... Only saw a screen or two of the game, but it looked like a well done walking shooter. *Eek! The Cat Mr. Nutz: - ... Large sprites in this game about a squirrel. Very nice color but game looks somewhat boring. Rayasystems Captain Novolin: - ... Diabetes education game, a superhero educates kids on how to live healthily with food + insulin. Doesn't have much use outside of the target group, as there are lots of specific messages that slow play down. Action/walking/punching. OK graphics. Rex Ronan - Kick the Habit!: - ... Smoking education game. Better looking than Novolin, but still not a great game. *Splat the Cat Renovation Arcus Odyssey: - ... If you liked the Genesis game, this is supposedly an exact duplicate. I played for a while and it looked the same (but 12 megs) and didn't play terrifically. The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne: - ... Formerly the Japanese Neugier, this is a too-easy action/RPG which is really like a less complex Soul Blazer. Not great. Seika Troddlers (SNES Mouse): $? ... A puzzle game I played for a few mins. and found confusing but visually interesting. It looked like it would be playable if I spent more time with it, so benefit of the doubt ... I believe you were moving blocks around on a screen with creatures walking around. Super Aquatic Games Starring the Aquabats: -?: Only looked at it for a few minutes and didn't play it. It looked like you were just hitting buttons fast to move, not really impressive. Legend: $$ ... Played this one for a few minutes and was really impressed. Two medieval warriors armed with weapons walk around fighting in side-scrolling 3-D; like a much larger character Magic Sword with 3-D movement. Son of Chuck: Chuck Rock 2: $? ... Saw only briefly, but it looked to be a more playable version of the first Chuck. *Bubba 'n' Stix *Pinkie Seta Cacoma Knight in Bizyland: Z ... Played before the show, this colorful and musical Qix-alike isn't very good. Kendo Rage: $ ... Seta ignored the critics and decided to release this excellent Japanese-flavored Makeruna Makendou without taking out the neat Japanese style humor. Action like the Valis games with a good female hero. The Wizard of Oz: -Z ... I wasn't overly impressed by this side scrolling action game. It actually played "Follow The Yellow Brick Road" music with a dopey Dorothy questing to save Toto. Colorful but not great. F-1 ROC 2: $$ ... For the few minutes I played, it seemed a LOT like one of the all-time best, F-Zero. As fast (if not faster) than F-Zero, with nice cars and many tracks. Still no on- the-fly refuel pit, though. Desert Sword: ? ... Don't remember much about this one. *Nosferatu *Sofel *TKO-2 Super Championship Boxing Sony Imagesoft Last Action Hero: - ... A slightly playable demo had a slow-moving Arnold against 1 repeating OK background scrolling. In early stages, but looks limited in the demo. Bram Stoker's Dracula: Z ... Just a weak walking/sword game. Doesn't feel or play all that well. ESPN Baseball Tonight: $ ... Looked like an impressively animated and TV-looking Baseball title. Would have been one of the better non-revolutionary BB games if Sega's World Series hadn't been there. ESPN Sunday Night NFL: $ ... Seemed like a nice football game with good views and options. Still very early.0 Firehawk: $$- ... I played for a few minutes and liked this Strider/ Hook combo a lot. It was faster than Hook and had a good sword swinging action theme. Equinox: $- ... Because of control, this pretty interesting 3-D over- head action/RPG was really hampered. Cliffhanger: - ... Seemed like a recolored version of Taito's Growl (Runark) ... 3-D walking and punching with occasional weapons, but not impressive or novel. *King of Karura Square Secret of Mana: $$ ... Renamed Final Fantasy Adventure 2, has a 3-pl. simultaneous feature if you use the Hudson Multitap. Very nice graphics and action in this overhead RPG/ Action game. Best looking Square game for the SNES. *Final Fantasy 3 Spectrum Holobyte Star Trek: The Next Generation: ? ... Incomplete demo didn't have a lot to show. Screens of the inside of the Enterprise with parallax scrolling in the bridge.. Soldiers of Fortune: -? ... Seemed like an jumpy-moving overhead strategy shooter. AKA The Chaos Engine. Beastball: -? ... I watched this for a few minutes and wasn't struck. Sunsoft Aero the Acrobat: $- ... Hard for me to judge. I did play it, and my initial impression is that it tries to be a Sonic type action game with circus themed obstacles. A lot of the things seemed like diversions instead of obstacles (go through hoops for points). May be more complex than I thought. Better gfx than Sega... Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage: $- ... Based on The Animator, seemed like yet another nicely animated action Warner Brothers license, with not-too-intense platform movement. Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions: $ ... Another well animated WB game, with Duck Dodgers. Much more intense, cool chars. World Heroes: $$ ... If they keep on working out the bugs, it will be very playable and visually/playably close to the Neo-Geo original. Interface like SF2. Taito Lufia: - ... Seemed like an OK RPG with more small characters. Super Chase HQ: $- ... Less than 1/2 of the screen is used for the driving in this better than nothing rendition of CHQ. You're inside the car this time. SuperNova: $ ... Darius 3 renamed, looked very impressive and much improved from the old SNES shooter visually. Flintstones: $- ... Looked like it could be a fun platform action game with time. I played part of the first level and it seemed competant and had better than average graphics. * Super Arkanoid * Estpolis Takara Art of Fighting: $- ... Is this your concept of the ultimate fighting game if it has the scaling? Well, it does. (I *think* that they achieved the effect by making 2 backgrounds into movable characters - the characters at maximum height were far smaller than the Neo-Geo's...) The demo had nice music, some of the moves programmed (Couldn't do Ryo's Kin-shite Kick) and the scaling, and you could pick from all of the game's characters (Except you couldn't use the very final boss in the demo). Gameplay is still not terrific, though, and the embellished animation of fireballs etc. was gone. Technos Super Dodgeball: - ... Lots of different places to play dodgeball, like on a grating and in water. Too bad dodgeball is a weak game to begin with. *Popeye Tecmo *Tecmo Super Bowl Titus Prehistoric Man: $? ... Looked like a visually improved, more adult version of Joe and Mac or Congo's Caper, but I only played for a few minutes if even. Lamborghini American Challenge: -Z ... Among the least impressive driving games of the show, with choppy psuedo scaling. Toho Mecarobot Golf: - ... An average looking golf game which I watched a friend play. Looked like a not-so-vividly colored oddly Japanese conceived golf game, where you and your family (?) square off against a robot. Super Godzilla: - ... A more embellished version of the older games for the NES, with more "Godzilla walking around and looking menacing" scenes. T*HQ Lawnmower Man (SNES + CD): $- ... Yeah, you read it. Sales Curve, the developers, say that they're ready to release a SNES-CD version upon the system's release. No details except the price... In British pounds, listed as To Be Announced. The normal SNES version, rated above, has neat 3-D Space Harrier battles with Cyberjobe and some fake V.R. scenes yet to be programmed. Looked like a technical innovation in the making. Ren and Stimpy: Veediots!: $- ... I would have liked to play more. Each level is based on an episode (1 was the Boy Who Cried Rat with Ren in mouse ears collecting dollars and cheese from a very John K. house, and Stimpy popping up from parts of the background looking (humorously) stupid.) Play seemed a little flat but still OK. Nice graphics. Another level, Ren's Toothache, is really sick looking (but neat) and I think there's an In the Army level too. Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends: For really, really young kids, a puzzle (thought) game. Played for a minute or two, looked like a kid's strategy game... *Sports Illustrated for Kids: Hot Shot Challenge Sports Illustrated Football and Baseball: $- ... Color me very struck by the full-motion video (in this *cartridge*) which is used to help you choose between baseball and football in the options screen. Baseball has FMV of a pitcher throwing, and the batter hitting. Football has a pass completed to a received. Small window but still good. Game itself looks like a competant BB and Football cart. Operation: Aliens: - ... I don't remember if this was a video tape or playable demo, but in either case, I only watched, not played. Based on a cartoon or something with the Aliens characters, had dopey looking American-drawn sprites and backgrounds in a side scrolling walk-shooter. *Time Trax *Time Killers: A video tape of the arcade game was shown. Total Carnage: $ ... I played for a few minutes with a friend. Looked like a pretty good translation of the arcade, even had 2-pl., bodies flying up at screen (not quite as large or bloody) and people running around on fire. It seemed like it would be good when it's complete. Family Dog: - ... A flat, limited side-scrolling game based on the oft-delayed cartoon. Graphic style of the cartoon allowed programmers to draw a flat looking game. Tradewest Super Off Road: The Baja: $$ ... Jer's vote for technical innovation for the SNES at the show. Has vertical and horizontal controlled Mode 7, with GREAT hills, mud, water, roads, grass. It's truly a mix of Out Run and the Super Off Road game, in feeling. Like it. Plok: - ... A weird platform game with a weird main character. Color abounds but the game seemed very average. Need more play time. Super Baseball 2020: $$- ... A very close translation of the Neo-Geo future baseball game complete with some voices and very, very similar graphics. Not my favorite playing B-Ball game, though. *Troy Aikman's Pro Quarterback BattleToads and Double Dragon: - ... A SNES version of the NES/Genesis combo game, with some neat ideas (like hanging off the edge of the flying spaceship) but not overall all that great. Not a great visual improvement from the NES game. UBI Soft *Indiana Jones + Last Crusade US Gold *Putty *Flashback - The Quest For Identity *Winter Olympic Games - Lillehammer '94 Vic Tokai Lost Mission: ? ... Don't remember details, it's a 12m RPG. Time Slip: $ ... A nice looking Contra-type game. Lock On: $ ... Super Air Diver, renamed. Features a DSP chip and looks to be a nice flying simulator. Didn't play it for too long. *Interceptor (Was it there?) Virgin Games Robocop Versus the Terminator: $$- ... Looks like a very neat Robocop game, faster than Robocop 3 and has better graphics. Didn't play for long enough to certify it as a $$. Wolfchild: - ... An average walk/punch/shoot game translated from the Sega-CD game. No real thrills, small characters. Super Caesar's Palace: ZZ ... A very bad (especially compared to Vegas Stakes) casino game with a weak interface and low-class renditions of casino games. The Greatest: Boxing With Muhammad Ali: ? -- Pictures look good, but I don't remember seeing any of the game itself. Young Merlin: ? ... Don't recall seeing this one. Cool Spot: $$ ... Terrific action/shooting game with better graphics than the Genesis version. Super Slap Shot: ? ... Don't recall seeing it. SNES version of Mario Lemieux (Genesis) and Lynx Hockey. Super Slam Dunk: ? ... Don't recall seeing it. Genesis Absolute: *Goofy (?) The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: -Z ... Looked real mediocre. Played for a little while and it seemed to be pretty stupid. It had Mr. Peabody and some other chars. from the series also. Super Battletank 2 (CD): $ ... Assuming the play is like the SNES version, this should be pretty good. The demo they were showing (don't recall if it was video tape or the game itself) had some nice full-motion video of the tank rolling along. Home Improvement: ? ... Didn't see the game. Acclaim: Mortal Kombat (G/CD): $ ... The Genesis version of the game had smaller characters, less complete looking backgrounds (the Sheng Tsung throne room didn't have all the stuff on the walls, etc) and sound that wasn't all that great. Some people were disappointed with it; it looks to be as good as the Genesis can do with the game, though. The "CD" was a video tape of the arcade game; no system with a real MK CD was on display. WWF Royal Rumble (G): ? ... Don't recall seeing it. Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare (G): $ ... Looked like the SNES version. Spider Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (G): $ ... Looked like the SNES version only with less colors and more pixelation. Champion's League Soccer (G): - ... Don't recall details but all the show's soccer games were generally quite average. T2: Judgment Day: ? ... Don't remember details or seeing it. Crash Dummies: ? ... Don't think it was actually displayed, just video of the cartoon series. Photos I have of it look avg. *NBA Jam: ? ... Don't recall seeing a Genesis version of this. NFL Quarterback Club: ? ... Don't recall details on it. Robocop 3: ? ... Don't recall seeing it. Genesis ver. of Ocean's SNES. The Addams Family ... Don't recall seeing it. Genesis ver. of Ocean's. *Rage in the Cage (CD) *Simpsons: Itchy and Scratchy Accolade: Jack Nicklaus Power Challenge Golf: ? ... Don't recall seeing it. Summer Challenge: - ... Looked very similar to the computer game of the same name, summer Olympic events. *Brett Hull Hockey *Speed Racer in the Challenge of Racer X Pele'!: ? ... Don't remember details, but see Acclaim's description. Activision: *Return to Zork CD *River Raid: Mission of No Return *Pitfall Harry: The Mayan Adventure *Kaboom: The Mad Doctor's Revenge *Aliens v. Predator *Mechwarrior *Shanghai 2 *Rodney's Funscreen (5 games for kids 3-8) *American Laser Games *Mad Dog McCree *Mad Dog II, the Lost Gold *Gallagher's Gallery *Space Pirates *Who Shot Johnny Rock? Amer. Sammy (Formerly Treco) Sorcerer's Kingdom: ? ... Don't remember seeing it on display. RPG. *Might and Magic 2/3 ... Eventually Asciiware Asciiware World Sports Pro Moves Soccer (6 button pad): - ... OK, first soccer game to use the 6 button pad for all different types of shots. Dominus (Mouse): - ... Early demo of Strat/RPG was OK, same as SNES. *Black Pearl: *Total Carnage Capcom Street Fighter II: Super Champion Edition: - ... Hard to judge. As a translation of the arcade game, it's really pretty limited and had very pixelated graphics. The show version was restricted to Ryu's background, and player one could choose Ryu or Ken.. P2 could use Guile or Chun Li. The control and animation seemed pretty much like the SNES version of SF2 (not HF), missing some frames but reasonable. The voices were scratchy and the music was limited by the Genesis' sound chip. Is the greatest *game* of all time "bad" because the graphics and sounds aren't great? That's your decision. Data East *ABC Monday Night Football Dashin' Desperadoes: $- ... Two cowboys on a split screen display, racing against each other to get to the end of a level, and trying to stop each other with weapons like bombs. Fun. High Seas Havoc: ? ... Don't remember details, platform/action. Dynamix Stellar Fire CD: -Z ... Among the least impressive Sega CDs at the show. Had terrific music, but the graphics were limited to moving dots on the ground to simulate scaling and other cheesy stuff like that. Supposed to be like Stellar Seven. EA Bill Walsh College Football: $ ... Larger characters than Madden, some new and unique motion video inserts, and different plays. Looked to be another good EA sports game. *John Madden '94 NHL Hockey '94: $$ ... Carries both the NHL and NHLPA licenses, offers goalie control, fluid screen movement, real rink specs, players and teams. Very good. EA Sports Soccer '94: - ... Another average soccer game, with overhead 3-D perspective. Jungle Strike: $ ... Only saw it, didn't play it, but it looked like a much improved version of Desert Strike with better everything (specifically, more of it). 16M. Mutant League Football: ? ... Watched it being played. Looked like a unique football game, but couldn't try it. Mutant League Hockey: ? ... Can't remember any details. *Super Baseball 2020: ? ... Don't believe I saw it on display. General Chaos: - ... You control soldiers in a war from an overhead 3/4 perspective. Move between them and plot moves in realtime, but it didn't seem all that fun. Haunting Starring Polterguy: ? ... Only saw it briefly. Technoclash: - ... An overhead 3-D Gauntlet type game with two player simultaneous, walk through buildings shooting. A less fluid and gorey Smash T.V. James Pond 3: Operation Starfish: ? ... Didn't see it. Blades of Vengeance: ? ... Don't recall any details. ElectroBrain Boxing Legends of the Ring: $$ ... Slightly smaller characters (but still huge) and slightly fewer colors, but still a great game of Boxing. Both games have 8 middleweight heroes. (The other game I'm referring to is the SNES version.) *Hockey: ? ... Didn't see a Sega demo of it. *Future Zone: ? ... Don't recall seeing a Sega demo of this either. Extreme (BigNet) Battletech (G/CD): - ... A small char. overhead 3/4 perspective walk/ shoot where you control a Battletech robot from outside of the suit. No CD version to show. The Third World War (CD): ? ... One screen of this long-delayed game was shown; it's non-3/4 overhead Populous and Sim City type stuff. Graphics were like futuristic Populous. *Warrior of Rome 3 *FCI: *Might and Magic 3 *WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling Gametek: Jeopardy: - ... Another not-so-exciting TV show translation. It is, however, nicer graphically than the SNES version. Wheel of Fortune: - ... Again, nicer graphically than the SNES one. The Humans: ? ... Saw but didn't play. A puzzler like Lemmings. Gadget Twins: ? ... Don't recall details, but I believe it's a so-so 2-player action game. Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing: - ... Unlike the SNES one, this has a much choppier visual look which is not impressive at all. *Family Feud Hi Tech Expressions Barbie Super Model: ZZ ... See SNES comments. We're Back: A Dinosaur Tale: -Z ... See SNES comments. Beethoven: -Z ... See SNES comments. Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics: - ... Like the older SNES game, a so-so action game, best for kids. JVC: *Secret of Monkey Island CD Star Wars: Rebel Assault CD: $$ ... A potential super-hit. Multiple perspectives from inside and outside of various Rebel fighters from the Star Wars movies, with intermissions as good or better than those on the IBM PC. It was an early demo, but it was running, and there were neat scenes with large multi-scaling background objects (like stalagmites and stalagtites) you had to fly through. *Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis CD Wolfchild Cart: ? ... Didn't see it, but it's assumedly like the CD game minus the intermissions (or like the SNES cart). AH-3 Thunderhawk CD: $$ ... Another potential super-hit. This has also been referred to as AH-3 Firehawk, but Firehawk is also a Sony game, so we'll see what happens. It's a helicopter shoot and flying game, where you have unlimited ability to fly within an area and terrific scaling sprites and backgrounds (which look like SNES Mode 7). Amazing cinemas and terrific control, too. *Dungeon Master: Skull Keep: ? ... Not on display, but this is the true sequel to Dungeon Master, also being programmed for the IBM. Kaneco Fido Dido: - ... Looked like an OK platform game based on the soft drink endorsing white character. It's no Cool Spot. :) Has some interesting touches like pencils coming out to change things on screen. Socks the Cat Rocks the House: - ... A one-level demo with a cute opening (the President playing saxophone while the White House bops back and forth). The one level was plain side- scrolling, and Socks ran back and forth tripping Chelsea (!) and evading Secret Service officers. Supposedly, you're on a quest to wreak havoc with Bill's allergies. Chester Cheetah: Wild, Wild Quest: ? ... Only a title screen. Koei *PTO Pacific Theater of Operations *Genghis Khan II Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters: $- ... Didn't play, but saw different characters from the SNES version and graphics that weren't as good. Note that the SNES game actually uses all six buttons and I'm not sure if this will do the same. Lethal Enforcers CD: $$ ... One of the better technical innovations at the show. A less-colored but generally intact translation of the arcade game, which was very playable and will include a real arcade style gun. Buy extra guns for $10 each. Better than the Menacer, eh? Castlevania Bloodlines: $- ... A short playable demo was on display, and unfortunately, the graphics in this series are generally not improving over time. Very pixelated, and play mechanics which weren't as involved as the SNES Castlevania. There were some neat special effects, though, like fire burning on dying enemies. Zombies Ate My Neighbors: $ ... Seemed to be quite like the SNES version with reduced screen size. Rocket Knight Adventures: $ ... Just like the SNES version. Mentrix Championship Bowling: - ... Looked very similar to, but not as smooth as (control), the older SNES Super Bowling. *Microprose *F-15 Strike Eagle 2 *Pirates! Gold *Ancient Art of War in the Skies Mindscape *Super Battleship Namco Rolling Thunder 3: $ ... Minus the 2-pl. simultaneous feature of the last RT, still has extremely similar graphics and gameplay, similar cinemas, and now an ammo limit. I would have liked to play it longer. Star Quest: $- ... The long overdue American release of NCS/Masiya's Star Cruiser. It's an 3-D shooting/flying/RPG where you command a spaceship through different planets; a lot of the graphics are pretty good (but primitive) polygon stuff. It's 3 or so years old. Splatterhouse 3: $- ... I'll be quite honest, I've always thought this series sold to the lowest common denominator of game players - people who like to see things explode into a mess of fluids. The game play has only slightly improved (pick up power-up weapons) but it's still a 2-button fighting game. Very nice cinemas, though. Psygnosis (Sony?) Wizzy N' Lizzy (Wiz N' Liz): ? ... Saw but don't remember details. Puggsy: ? ... Saw but don't remember details. *Lemmings 2 *Razor Soft *Keeper of the Gates *Hooves of Thunder *Readysoft *Dragon's Lair *Renovation *Speedway Pro Challenge Saddleback Graphics My Paint (CD): $ ... A far more impressive painting program than has ever been released for a game system before (except Konami's Japanese Picno). Lots of options, animations, and with the CD, something like 20 megs of art and music pre-stored on the CD to play with. Sega Dinosaurs For Hire: - ... One of the few unimpressive Sega games at the show, this side-scrolling walk and shoot game features comic book stars but looks like an old Sega game in that it doesn't do anything novel. Shining Force: $ ... A mix of strategy and RPG (strategy in some of the battle movement) with nicely drawn battle scenes. Very big in Japan, but real late in coming to the US. NFL Football '94 Starring Joe Montana (CD/G) [Players License]: $$ ... Both versions were looking very good. The CD version had nice background and sprite scaling (although the sprites were blocky) plus many features like Sportstalk, FMV of Montana and lots of plays. I didn't see the Montana FMV personally, but I was told that it was quite cool. The cart version has the players license and the NFL license, (no word on the CD re: players, although it's coming out five or so months earlier) improved Sportstalk, a psuedo 3-D (so so), etcetera. Has the AI been fixed? Dunno. NBA Action '94 Hosted By Marv Albert (Name may carry winners of NBA): - ... Another of the unimpressive Sega titles. The game looked like the (really not so impressive) David Robinson basketball of last year, plus Sportstalk. Jurassic Park (CD/G): $- / $ ... The CD version features Cinepak, a new software video compression technology which allows for true full-screen full-motion video (with the same limited palette). The CD was still incomplete, but you walked around inside a building and saw video of the building while you moved. Walk straight and you see frames of the room moving forward, turn left and watch the room turn left. The CD is an adventure, and reportedly won't contain the cart game. The cart was a somewhat impressive platform/shooting game which looked stronger on play concepts than graphics, which were still good. Play as either Grant or the Raptor (!!!) and fight either dinosaurs or humans respectively. A terrific idea, long overdue. Special artificial intelligence allows the game to auto-adjust to your play level. Another great idea. Desert Demolition starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote: $- ... Looked very similar to the SNES Road Runner game mixed with Sonic, more interesting obstacles and slightly better graphics than the SNES game. Same color palette. Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones (CD/G): - ... Both versions didn't strike me as being overly great. A short and a long version of an action (walk and punch/shoot/jump) side scroller with so-so graphics and control. Ecco CD: - ... Rating primarily because of the medium. It has more levels (30 total) than the cart, and new music. That's it. The music is Q-Sound though, and very "Sounds of the Sea" like. Sonic Spinball: ? ... Only a video tape, but Sonic is going to be in an action/pinball game. It will have cinema type screens, plus a pinball game where Sonic can de-ball and teeter on the edge of things, etc. Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron: $ ... Played for a few minutes. I didn't like TJ&E, but this side scrolling 2-pl. sim action game had some great ideas. Walk around and shake trees to find items -- retains the "presents" theme from the last game and some great animation and artwork. Spider Man Vs. The Kingpin CD: $$ ... Could be very good. Had great cinemas with great voices, 30 (?) levels, new bosses and play like the cartridge. When you stop the old lady from being robbed, there's a cinema. Neat. Star Trek: The Next Generation: ? ... Only a few screens, I think. I stuck around for a moment and saw a parallaxing Enterprise just like the Spectrum Holobyte SNES version. Landstalker: $$- ... A 3/4 overhead action/RPG high on the Japanese charts, looked very good and playable. Sega's Zelda. Gunstar Heroes: $$- ... A two player game like the Neo-Geo Cyber Lip, but with more color than most Genesis games. Good weapons and action. Had a scaling effect on the title screen. By Treasure, to be released by Sega (?). Shadowrun: $$ ... A good looking RPG based on the futuristic FASA series. Looked like a fully futuristic Phantasy Star II with much more detail... 16 megs. *Dark Wizard CD *Phantasy Star IV ... Not there. Ranger-X (6 button): $ ... The renamed Exranza strategic shooting game with 128 colors and detailed graphics. The play seemed interesting but I didn't have the time to try it at length - seemed like a greater challenge than many other games, but the color didn't look tons better than others. *Monster Hunter (Menacer) [There but I didn't see it.] *Body Count (Menacer) [There but I didn't see it.] Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master: $- ... I was disappointed to see that the Shinobi series has deviated as much from the arcade games as it has. The first level was primarily walk, walk, walk, shoot, repeat. Less strategy in the action, it seems, with drearier but detailed backgrounds. Music seemed nice (sonic quality) but not overly inspired, with a flute solo. Not intense enough. *Bounty Hunter/Air Drums (with the Activator) [There but I didn't see it.] Final Fight CD: $ ... Seemed just like the arcade game, plus cinemas and nice/audible music. Obviously 2-pl. sim fighting. *Rise of the Dragon CD World Series Baseball (G/CD): The Genesis game was my favorite b-ball game of the show - the first to have a new perspective in 5 years. HUGE characters and two simultaneous camera views. The CD was supposed to be even more detailed and better overall, but I don't remember seeing it. *Virtua Racing (taped arcade demo) *Greatest Heavyweights *Real Fighters CD (Listed on Sega forms, but is it Eternal Champions?) Silpheed: $$- ... A very impressive CD visually, but it really is just a FMV background with polygon enemies and asteroids being generated in realtime. Don't believe the hype. It played a lot like a much better Truxton mixed with Zaxxon (tough to imagine, eh?). The backgrounds were neat. Music was good/ Sega Virtua VR *Nuclear Rush (Pack-in) Iron Hammer: -Z ... The demo game for the Virtua system was not very impressive - 1/3 of the screen used for the playfield of a "3-D battlefield where you seek out enemies and destroy them". Small sprites, not very fun or impressive. *Matrix Runner *Outlaw Racing Sony Dracula (G/CD): Z ... Don't get me started. The CD game had motion video backgrounds with the weakest punch/kick play of any game at the show. Also, low res (but full screen/full motion) scenes from the movie. I liked only those scenes. The Gen. version was like the SNES game... just plain bad. *Last Action Hero (G/CD): Video tape. *Jeopardy (CD): Video tape. *Wheel of Fortune (CD): Video tape. Cliffhanger (CD/G): - ... Read the SNES comments, no CD on display. ESPN Baseball Tonight (CD+G): $ ... Read the SNES comments, no CD. ESPN Sunday Night NFL (CD+G): $ ... Read the SNES comments, no CD. *Journey to the Center of the Earth (CD) *Microcosm (CD) - Psygnosis Spectrum Holobyte Soldiers of Fortune: ? ... Don't recall details. Beastball: ? ... Don't recall details. Sunsoft Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest: - ... An early demo of a more girls-oriented action game. Hop, skip and jump around in an RPG-ish side-scrolling action game. Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast: $- ... Another early demo, but the game was more male-oriented with an attacking Beast in a side-scrolling action game. Aero the Acrobat: $- ... See SNES comments... Not as colorful. Bubble and Squeak: ? ... Don't recall details. Blaster Master 2: $ ... Is it out yet? Smallish sprites but high background detail, good play control and good mechanics. Taito Flintstones: $- ... Seemed like a less vivid (colorwise) version of the SNES game, or vice-versa. Tengen Awesome Possum Kicks Doctor Machino's Butt!: - ... Tengen's attempt to do a Sonic game with slightly "off" pacing and lots of meaningless digitized speech. (But a nice opening digitized song.) 16 megs. Davis Cup Tennis: - ... Another so-so tennis game. Like the rest. MIG-29 Fighter Pilot: - ... Blocky non-descript polygons, but many views of your plane, etc. F-1A Formula 1 World Championship: -Z ... A poor-ish racing game. Robo Aleste (CD): - ... Although it's the first shooter for the S-CD, it looks just like MUSHA Aleste with a few scaling elements. Dick Vitale's "Awesome Baby!" Basketball: $ ... AKA College Hoops, looked like a nicely done large character basketball game with Vitale's voice-overs. Race Drivin': - ... Like Hard Drivin, a too slow polygon driving game that can't quite duplicate the arcade's polygons. Gauntlet 4 [4-Tap]: $- ... Saw the game in progress for only a moment, tried to reset and had to sit through minutes of uninterruptable scrolling text, then left. The game looks just like the Gauntlets before it, but had the dragon bosses I remember only from Pt. 2. Not quite sure how original the content of this version is. Pit Fighter 2: - ... Something like 7 or 8 characters to choose from but still as boring playwise and small spritewise as the first Genesis game. Nice to have the new guys, tho. *Grindstormer *Dragon's Fury 2 *Prince of Persia Cart *Harrier Assault CD [Domark] Road Riot: $- ... Still uncomplete (I think) but looked much closer to the arcade game than the SNES version... Larger cars and better intermissions, but still none of the scaling.. TecMagic Pink Panther: - ... Looked like the average platform game with a licensed character. *Sylvester and Tweety: Was this at the show? Steven Seagal: $- ... Fully digitized animation of Seagal and his moves, along with a (female?) partner in a martial arts game. Very incomplete demo, but it did have 3-D movement. Odd that there's no movie endorsement - just Seagal. THQ *Operation: Aliens *Time Killers *Time Trax *Total Carnage (Gen / CD) *Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends Wayne's World: -Z ... A more pixelized version of the bad SNES game. *The Lawnmower Man Tradewest Battletoads and Double Dragon: - ... If I recall correctly, it was there and about the same as the SNES version. Fun and Games: -Z ... A whole bunch of stupid little games tossed into one cart. Shoot hoops, etc. Also has a music maker. *Troy Aikman's Pro Quarterback US Gold Winter Olympic Games - Lillehammer '94: ? ... Don't remember details. The Incredible Hulk: $ ... Although less than 20% complete, the Hulk was doing some pretty cool moves (with nice graphics) in this side-scrolling action/puncher. Journey From Darkness: Strider Returns: $ ... A good looking and playing semi-translation of the computer game Strider 2. New weapons were neat, plays a lot like an expanded Strider. Gunship: Was it there? Don't remember details. *Putty Vic Tokai Socket: - ... Although Die Hard is trying to hype this game, which was called Time Dominator, it's kind of like Sonic-without-a-clue. Keep on moving through round-walled rooms. Not too exciting. Mazin Saga Mutant Fighter: $- ... A mix of one-on-one and side-scroll 3-D attack/walk genres. Stay in a somewhat repetitive world fighting in a robotic armor suit with a sword, then go into a one-on-one weapons fighting scene with a boss. Nice animation especially in the large scenes, with big chars. Virgin Robocop vs. the Terminator (CD/G): $ ... See SNES comments - didn't see a CD on display. *Dan Marino's Touchdown Football (Park Place) [Possibly there] Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis (Sega Mouse): ? ... Only saw a few screens - strategy/RPG, like PC + Gen. Dune 1. *Wrath of the Gods (Sega Mouse) (Populous 2) [Possibly there] Dune I (Sega CD): ? ... Again, only saw a few screens. Terminator CD: $ ... Although the control and gameplay have been hyped to be extraordinary, it played a lot like an expanded version of the cartridge (with new graphics). A lot of ladder-climbing and shooting at robots, but I liked it. Out of this World I and II: The Second Beginning (SCD): ? ... I didn't see anything from part 2, but pt. 1 was like the cartridge game. Likely will be a $$. Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck (Gen + CD): ? ... Only saw for a few secs, but it looked like a more playable version of part one with more ambitious, console-like graphics. Caesar's Palace: ? ... Didn't see it, but hope it's not like the SNES version. *The Greatest: Boxing With Muhammad Ali [Possibly There] Working Designs *Lunar: The Silver Star CD 3DO Hardware: *Sanyo (Mock-Up only) Panasonic REAL 3DO Interactive Multiplayer FZ-1 *AT+T Amer. Laser Games Mad Dog McCree: ? ... Didn't play it, but it was only slightly more grainy (looking carefully) -- in motion, it was great. Crystal Dynamics Crash 'N Burn: $$ ... Visually among the best driving games at the show, with fully texture mapped polygons (which had many surfaces for greater realism). I'd like to see more. Total Eclipse: $$ ... A good 3-D space-flying shooter which had extremely intricate (but not as nice, resolution wise) texture mapped surfaces on polygons in neat patterns. Dynamix *Aces Over Europe *The Incredible Machine *Stellar Fire Electronic Arts Road Rash: Blood of the Couriers: ? ... The demo kept crashing over and over again because the game was being spooled off a Mac hard drive or CD player or something like that. The game, when running, looked to play just like the Genesis games with realistic looking streets and characters. John Madden Football: ? ... Don't recall seeing it or any of the other games listed below at any length, except.. PGA Tour Golf: ? ... Looked a lot like the golf game being shown for the CD-I, with tall golfers and realistic backgrounds. Shock Wave (Maybe there?): ? Twisted: ? Worldbuilders, Inc. (Maybe there?): ? Intellimedia Intelliplay Baseball: Hitting Tom Kite: Consistent Golf Intelliplay Football: Defensive Backfield Intelliplay Cowboy Casino Interplay *BattleChess Out of This World: ? ... More detailed backgrounds will go into this rerelease, but will it have part 2?... MCA Jurassic Park Interactive: ? ... Not sure how far along the demo was, but it looked like a Night Trap game where you control cameras to save park people... Snore.. *Universal Studios Orbital (very early screens) MicroProse CPU Bach Park Place Productions 3DO Football: $$ ... The best looking football game at the show, with a realistic looking field and characters who scaled properly. How will it play? A few seconds seemed like playing the Sega-CD Montana. 3DO Adventures (maybe there?): ? Psygnosis *Lemmings (maybe there?) *Microcosm (maybe there?) *Advanced Battle Systems ReadySoft Inc. Dragon's Lair: ? ... See comments for Mad Dog McCree. Sanctuary Woods Shelley Duvall's It's A Bird's Life Spectrum Holobyte Star Trek: The Next Generation: ? ... A demo where you could see 6 or 7 animations (drawn on Silicon Graphics Workstations) was there, but no gameplay yet. The animations were very neat, but we'll see. The Software Toolworks The San Diego Zoo Presents...The Animals! The Software Toolworks Presents Oceans Below Trilobyte *The 7th Guest Part II: The 11th Hour Virgin Games Demolition Man: $$ ... Amazingly impressive 1st person shooter makes the Wolfenstein 3-D type games look like a joke. The whole world scales and moves realistically as Stallone (movie license) walks around toting guns and moving through a dynamic 3-D world. Non playable. Atari Jaguar *Battlezone 2000 *Tempest 2000 *Cybermorph *Alien vs. Predator *Jaguar Formula One Racing Polygon Futuristic Flight Simulator on Planetscapes (Not real name) [tape] Gates of Zendacon Deluxe (Not real name, looked like it) [tape] TurboDuo Hardware: Intelligent Link Wireless Pad Mouse 128K Memory Backup Karaoke Ninja (Nikkodo's Karaoke device) Software: [For descriptions of the notables here, check the other parts of the text files.] Blood Gear Robotech: Macross Love Song *Mystic Formula [Maybe there?] *Gao [Maybe there?] *A-Train 3 Jim Power Blackhole Assault Xak 1+2 Nexzr Wizardry 1+2 Godzilla Legend of Hero Tonma World Sports Competition Sim Earth: The Living Planet Riot Zone Dungeon Master: TheronUs Quest Magical Chase Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure Sherlock Holmes Volume 2 Dungeon Explorer 2 Battle Lode Runner Camp California Cotton Robotech/Macross 2036 (Shooter) Might and Magic III Beyond Shadowgate Vasteel [Working Designs] Exile 2: Wicked Phenomenon [Working Designs] Syd Mead's Terraforming King of Monsters 2 [Working Designs] *World Heroes [Working Designs] John Madden Football CD This CES Report is Copyright 1993 Jer Horwitz. All Rights Reserved.