The SNES's horizontal resoultion is smaller than the Sega Genesis, meaning that if I use the Genesis sprites directly, they will appear stretched out onscreen.  Should I resize the sprites to compensate for the resolution difference, or leave sprites alone?

Here are some pros and cons of both:

resized sprites:
-sprites have correct aspect ratio
-less taxing on hardware
-more enemies can be onscreen without feeling clusterphobic

original sprites:
-less work for the programmer
-sprites are porportional to the bg layer
-sprites are more detailed

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. shit dont make me explain things...

For real tho

Seems like part of porting something is trying your damnedest to make it feel right at home on its new platform. Otherwise why bother with it at all. You know?


*Edited for mistake(s)

Well to be fair, Genesis sprites actually were smaller than SNES sprites in some regards, mostly due to the fact that there's less room for detail and, ironically, the Genesis can't handle as many sprites as the SNES on screen. So unless the normal sprites are massive, they should be fine.

Gunstar Heroes is one strange game, and honestly felt there was a lot of room around.

If you (or someone) is actually looking to do a port of the game to the SNES... god bless you.

That's one of the handful of games the Genesis had the SNES simply never got that was legitimately very, very good.

Why don't you guys just buy a Genesis and Gunstar Heroes? You guys make it sound like the Genesis having good games is a bad thing.

Fooking Nintendorks...

I cannot stand the Genesis.

Even though I know it's got a handful of good/great games on it, I just always thought it was such an inferior system to the Super Nintendo, (and even the Nintendo in some aspects), that I never could bring myself to sit down and purposefully play it.

I've been to flea markets + retro game stores and they always say the Genesis games are the toughest sells of their 8-16bit games, so I know I'm not alone in how I feel about the system.

And a mindset like that is why we have such a problem these days with revisionist history that revolves around Nintendo exclusively...

People like you make me feel like a moron for being a fan of Nintendo hardware. No wonder Nintendo fans are the butt of jokes in other communities...

Doing a creative project is fine and well, but when it has a negative connotation behind it (that the Genesis sucks and doesn't deserve good games), it's completely pointless.

Well, I'm a big Sega fan, and yes I do own the game, but I think it'd be cool to play the game on another console. Not that's it's any lesser on Genesis, but to me, it's just fun to compare.

And yeah, we could use that SNES to Genny Retrogen adapter, but that don't count. I would love to see what the OP can come up with.

The Genesis got to where it is today because of the sheer amount of crap games that glutted the system. Fittingly enough, most of the glut came from American developers, which was where the Genesis did the best in sales. Had the Genesis had better Japanese support (like say, the SNES), it would've fared better by having better games, much less better games with the best music ever composed in that generation.

More revisionist history, thanks... We really needed that.

SNES is home to a metric ton of garbage too. However, this being a Nintendo site, nobody talks about it. Just go stroll through the selling forum and look through the big lists of SNES carts for sale, there's plenty of crap to go around.

The Genesis did actually have good Japanese support, but most of it ended up in Europe and Japan, not America. I'm just gonna assume by Japanese support, you mean Square and Enix RPGs. Why not, you're assuming too.

The Genesis has it share of shit games, but anyone who is passing on the system is missing out on some great games. There are dozens and dozens of reasons to play on the Genesis, and most will cost a fraction of what you pay for Nintendo games. Shoot, the system can be bought for next to nothing, why not own one?

A Good game is a good game, doesn't matter what system it was on.

Cool, I ruffled someone's feathers! I especially liked the "people like me comment". Way to generalize a person you're accusing of generalizing.

Just because I don't care for the Genesis, (and remember this is a Nintendo themed board...?), doesn't make me a dufus or simpleton.

It just makes me a fan of Nintendo.

No, I wanted more companies like Toaplan, Treasure, or Technosoft to jump aboard and take advantage of the system's capabilities.  Instead, all the Genesis got was crap like Sword of Sodan or Dark Castle with a healthy dose of SANIC SANIC SANIC SANIC SANIC SANIC SANIC.

Square was always overrated, anyway.

The fraction of a cost is true for sure; gamestores in my area cannot give away their Genesis titles, while their NES, SNES + N64 stuff flies off their shelves. That's the only reason I've ever considered getting a Genesis system + a handful of games to give it a go, how cheaply and easily they can be gotten.

That being said, it doesn't make a person a hipster retro gamer to sing the praises of that underappreciated SEga console out there (master system/genesis/saturn/dreamcast)... anymore then it makes a person a sell out for wanting and loving their Nintendo retro system of choice (nes/snes/n64/gamecube).

It's all subjective, I can dig it.

Doesn't mean I wouldn't love having a Gunstar Hero's port on the SNES though.

Being a Nintendo fan makes you completely intolerant of non-Nintendo hardware and games, gotcha.


Let me guess... You bought a cheap Genesis bundle, played a few crummy games and swore off the system entirely? You need to explore the Genesis more, it has lots of great hidden gems, just like SNES. It's in no way a lesser system than the SNES, they both have strengths and weaknesses that balance the two out.

I used to hate Sega up until the Dreamcast and used to feel like the Genesis was an inferior hunk of garbage, even back in the day when i owned one side by side with the SNES. Now that I've had the chance in my adulthood to really explore the library I love my Genesis. My Genesis and SNES collections contain very different games from one another, but both have an exceptional array of excellent games. Just goes to show you, don't believe the hype! And different doesn't necessarily equal inferior.

Having said all of that I think this idea of porting Gunstar Heroes is pretty interesting and am curious to see how it pans out.

I personally love good games. Doesn't matter who makes it or what system it is on. I held off buying a Jaguar, yes a Jaguar. Guess what? I play that system all the time. I love Tempest 2000(got to have the rotary controller) and Power Drive Rally. I have a great time with it.

Most systems offer games that are not on other systems. If the cost isn't too great, I go for it. Like I said, I love GOOD games. I do have 20+ systems hooked up at all times, so I guess that says a lot.

I have a much wider appreciation for different types of games than most. I think that plays a big role in this debate.
There is no way I want to miss out on a great game cuz "Company A" makes it and I only like "Company B" stuff. Not saying anyone here does that, it just simply my statement on how I view games.

I never was big on the Gen, because we never got it in Mexico. I know my friends had one on the late 90's when the N64 was already there. and They were the only ones that ever had it in the town.

With that as a background, I always passed on Gen consoles and games. Never cared, never even bothered to check if they were rare.

Last year I passed on a Castlevania Bloodlines CIB cause It was a sega game and I did't cared.

Until last weekend, I bought the beauty and the beast CIB for My girlfriend; and I kind of felt like I wanted to start collecting GEN.

so I probably star buying those games, but I need to start familiarizing with the prices and which games are good etc.


As far as porting a Gen game to the SNES, well it is always cool to have a new game for the SNES, I collect obscure carts for the SNES, Unlicensed, Pirates, Hacks, Etc.

and a Gunstar Heroes for the SNES cart would be crazy!

Are you for real? Go look up the system's back catalogue properly before you bash it to save yourself looking like a tool.

Genesis has some amazing games on it, but the amount of crap really is hard to get through, really seems like a lot of the games for were made for marketibility rather then being actually good, style over substance basically.
My biggest gripe is the soundchip, composers rarely used the thing right so it sounded like crap most of the time.
System is the god of shmups though, nothing comes close in that regard.
Seriously though, if a port of this could be made, that would pretty freaking awesome.

I agree with the fact that the Genesis has a lot of crap, but who cares. With the invention of this new thing.....the interweb, everybody has their own youtube review channel and there are a ton of great Video Game Critics online. Just take 10 minutes and do alittle research. You can find some spot-on reviews that will make your game hunting much more enjoyable.

more important, is there a way we can see the comparision? o:

I would like to see a snes resized version (larger isn't?)

You can say the Genesis has a lot of crap games, but so do other systems. The NES, SNES, and N64 all have lots of crap and the Jag, 3DO, and Wii especially have a lot of crap.

As for the OP, I'd say whichever looks and works better. Probably re-sized.

How about getting some of the game running before you worry about the sprites? Gunstar Heroes really pushed the Genesis to its limits, if you can manage to actually port the game to the SNES without severe compromise I'd like to hire you immediately, you're one of the most gifted programmers in the world.

I've Pmed a couple of times the developers about hiring him, with no response. :/