Games That Push Hardware Limits 11 - Game Sack

[@GameSack]

What are games that you feel push hardware limits of the platforms they run on. And how do you feel those limits are pushed??

[@moonbilal707]

@@GameSack Valkyrie Profile II, Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II on PlayStation 2. Those games are massive for one DVD especially Final Fantasy XII.

[@antonchereshnev2375]

Star Fighter for 3do

[@jrj1994]

I would say HALO Combat Evolved on the Original XBOX was impressive when it was released. It is still one of my favorite video games ever.

[@MrJechgo]

I keep thinking that some Wii, Wii U and Switch games should be in there... Maybe the Xenoblade Chronicles games?

[@Vulpas]

Pokemon Red, sheer size and storage.

[@mkirkby1967]

Hey, Gameboy Road Rash... I wrote that! Originally I just created a road engine as a demo to try and recreate Stunt Car Racer before Gary Bracey from Ocean asked us to turn it into Road Rash. Still have that original engine including jumps and holes to fall down

[@rsmith02]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing the history of it!

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

That was you??!

[@ItsMeBarnaby]

The preservation community would love to have that engine if you're open and able to share it.

[@mkirkby1967]

@@ItsMeBarnaby it's on my list to put it on Github so will probably do it sooner but would rather get it assembling with a modern system first

[@turnbasedtoddy7664]

This channel better never go away. It’s just as good as it was 13 years ago. Been here since the beginning!

[@NickTaylor-Phantom-Works2]

Wow! I feel same mate. Think I've been subbed, through one profile or another, for about 11.

[@maxxdahl6062]

Joe has some really, really odd neo geo takes though. Cyber-Lip was so early it was almost a launch title. (Heck, I think it's NGM-010. The 10th release.) of course it isn't going to look or be as good as another game made years later half way through it's life time.

[@Kunigun]

one of my favourites

[@Autotrope]

​@@maxxdahl6062I don't think what he said contradicts what you said

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@Autotrope Didn't say it did. But he does this regularly with the neo geo. Compares early games to the much better looking, better playing, better sounding later life stage games. Constantly complains of the pricing, as if nobody knows the pricing of the neo geo hardware/software, duh Joe, ALL arcade hardware and software were way more expensive than the home consoles of the time. The neo geo could more than likely do that batman returns game, the sega cd was weaker than the Neo Geo in almost every category. CPU, graphics processors, sprite capabilities, etc. He tends to REALLY like the games commonly thought of in the neo geo community to mediocre-to-bad, then dislikes and rates games as bad that can sometimes actually be good-to-great. Compared SNK vs. Capcom Chaos, a game made by playmore after the original, good SNK had already died off and were bought up by Playmore, basically a pachinko company looking to make video games and were game developing newbies to Capcoms efforts and said "So obviously capcom were the better game devs." yeah no crap. lmao if it were the original SNK it would have been a much closer competition.

[@ChristerReitan]

I never comment on videos, but I just have to shout out the fact that you're calling mini-bosses for Assistant Managers. I love this so, so much! 16:43

[@SaekiM]

You know it's gonna be a good one when even the Neo-Geo, the strongest machine ever conceived by human beings, is being pushed to its limits!

[@SeveredLegs]

I'm not sure it's ever happened before......

[@MrXabungle]

Supposedly when SNK shut down from the bankruptcy, all dev kits were destroyed and outsourced devs that did KOF 2001-2002, Metal Slug 4-5, and all versions of Samurai Shodown V were worked off of decompiled ROMs of previous installments.

[@juiceweezer]

All Hail the Neo Geo!

[@arcadianlhadattshirotsughW33Z]

no human being had the power to create *the* neo geo ..

[@SmilingLavenderFields-ns5uh]

That is the winner of ww2

[@michaelmacorso4479]

I never get tired of you talking about Parallax scrolling

[@Bubba__Sawyer]

It's a beautiful thing.

[@MGForums]

Even better is Parallax scrolling in TATE MODE.

[@gamebit9063]

I parallel that comment!

[@mastropieros]

I think Game Sack pushes the limits on what a YT channel should be. How is that you don't have 10 times more suscribers? Seriously, what is wrong with humanity!? You rock paper scissors, Joe 🙌🏼

[@TonyLikeGames2]

No weekend is complete without a fresh Sack.

[@Naturd420]

Alr I took that wrong the first five seconds after reading

[@leemitchell7528]

Pause

[@michaelmacorso4479]

When gamesac uploads I know my 3 day weekend is ending. But at least gamesac helps migrate it.

[@poil8351]

ummm intresting that could be easily misconstrued 😅

[@thisisnotachannel]

Speaking of which... I need a shower.

[@animalhouse8849]

Making me want pulled pork at 12:00 AM is unforgivable in any circumstance other than a Games that push the hardware limits release.

[@yamigekusu]

I made pulled pork for breakfast lmao

[@CS-ep3ku]

0:40 Metal Slug 3 - Neo Geo 4:15 Road Rash - Gameboy 6:34 Street Fighter II Champion Edition - PC Engine 10:47 Batman Returns - Sega CD 14:07 The Adventures of Batman & Robin - Sega CD 15:18 Thunder Force IV / Lightening Force - Genesis 18:58 Soulcalibur III - PS2 21:49 Prehistorik Man - Gameboy

[@sidearmsalpha]

Dang, Joe turned up the sarcasm and snarkiness for this one! 😆

[@videostash413]

hm

[@Sarahm2261]

Cheeseburger​@@videostash413

[@jordanhoughton1948]

Only in Metal Slug 3 do you get the "rocket lawnchair". Take that Cyber-Lip!!

[@IDHLEB]

Stop! It's already dead!

[@Iliek]

Can't forget the Eyeron Lizard.

[@KillThad]

Batman Returns on the Sega CD really makes me wish the Sega CD version of Road Rash actually took advantage of the extra hardware instead of just recycling the engine from the Genesis game.

[@f.k.b.16]

I was just thinking... The Batman SEGA CD games may not need to be in a "pushing the hardware limits" video... More like "Using the hardware the way the hardware designers hoped it would be used" in episode 😂

[@jrod75]

Too bad John O’Brian was not available for EA to do a proper Sega CD Road Rash. Wonder if he is available now to work on one.

[@f.k.b.16]

@@jrod75 ohhh that's a great point!

[@osurpless]

Yep, the woman from that NEO-GEO ad Brandy Ledford has quite the history in geeky/sci-fi stuff, from Demolition Man to Andromeda to Stargate Atlantis to the Invisible Man (2000s).

[@OllyDee123]

I still think the soundtrack to Thunder Force IV might be one of the best OST's ever made. It's certainly my favourite.

[@thehumbleone1983]

Definitely agree and it’s my favourite too 😊

[@SharifSourour]

Man the literacy corner had me crying!! 😭

[@JumpingSpiderDesign]

16:43 From now until I die, mid-stage bosses are Assistant Managers! Thanks Joe!

[@jessragan6714]

The Legend of Karens

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

Funny thing about the Game Boy version of Road Rash, it uses a quirk of the original hardware to render the road and sky that makes it one of the only Game Boy games to _NOT_ be compatible with the Game Boy Color or Advance! If you wanted to play Road Rash on your Game Boy Color, you'd have to buy the version specifically made for it, which is in fact a port of Road Rash II and not the first game. At least it has better music and of course better graphics, though I'm not sure if I'd say RR GBC is has hardware pushing as RR GB.

[@Guyait]

Man, "did you just say tits" never fails to amuse me

[@MrThunderwing]

Great to see Thunderforce IV getting a shout out here. One of my favourite shoot-em-ups ever.

[@marshinz5696]

The Neo Geo's 4D Power is still unmatched today. Every Neo Geo came with a pair of oven mitts.

[@tobykassulke2385]

Soulcalibur 3 pushes the hardware so hard that it corrupts your memory card

[@ilikecurry2345]

Oh, THAT'S the game that would kill your memory card just by being played on it.

[@AlexRN]

@15:18 I was legitimately floored by Thunder Force 4. I had never seen that game before and I didn't expect a Genesis game could blow me away in 2024 but here I am. This should be in eveyr conversation about the best looking Genesis game of all time for sure.

[@azazelleblack]

It really is kind of ridiculous that SEGA thought 64 colors on-screen was fine for its hardware launching *after* the PC Engine. That's the one real weakness of that hardware. An extra $50 on the price certainly would've let them bump the RAM and enable 128 colors, which would have gone a long way toward closing the visual gap between the Mega Drive and its two closest competitors.

[@nicolasjonasson4820]

These ending skits are now on a very high level

[@JoeStuffzAlt]

Goodness. The source code for the Batman Returns game driving parts was released. It's written in assembler. The Xbox 360 got a few Japanese arcade ports. One strategy was that the game would slow down when there's a lot of action, so they actually programed the game to slow down when this happens.

[@videogameobsession]

It's crazy to think that I paid nearly the same amount for my AES copy of Cyber-Lip in 1990 ($220) that I paid for my copy of Metal Slug 3 USA/AES in 2001 ($255). I love both games. I might have more great memories with Cyber-Lip in fact since it looked and sounded amazing for a 1990 game, especially on a home console. Early Neo•Geo games (Cyber-Lip, Top Player's Golf, NAM-1975, Baseball Stars Pro definitely had an insane amount of high quality speech. SNK was wearing out poor Michael Beard! 😂 Also, I had blood in Metal Slug 3. The mighty Jeff Kurtz installed an Arcade debug BIOS. It had an option to play the home version w/blood. It was nice because I didn't like to play with unlimited credits and blow through an expensive game. It took and friend of mine and I about a month to get through it with only 3 credits each. Jeff also installed svideo and gold stereo rear jacks. Fun times!

[@RetrOrigin]

There's a patch for the PS2 version of Soul Calibur III that implements all the changes from the arcade version. You can find it as "Definitive Edition" or "Arcade Edition" and it's current version is 1.20

[@GameSack]

That's awesome. I didn't know there was a patch for the home version.

[@616Entertainment]

New Game Sack. What a great day.

[@thisisnotachannel]

Ian!

[@616Entertainment]

@@thisisnotachannel What's up, DanDan

[@skywalkerranch]

Joe knocks it out of the park once again. Cheers, Joe.

[@forcedfeedbackclassicgamer5499]

Thunder Force IV is simply incredible from top to bottom, one of the best games on MD/Genesis, period.

[@tveye363]

Man, I'm surprised that you didn't show any of the bosses in Prehistorik Man. They're also very impressive. Not to mention the music! One of the best soundtracks on the entire Gameboy library.

[@JJKoester]

11:05 - Careful there, buddy. You might just conjure Sega Lord X with that footage.

[@WillieNelson-qc7zd]

Is there room for an episode of the most trippy games out there..... Like extremely trippy games

[@KaysAnimus]

MSlug 3 can be polarizing (believe it or not) among some of the completely fanatical, but, at face value you gotta respect the fact that that game is probably the magnum opus of the OG R-Type/Item/Nazca team. I see the end credits of the game at the end of a playthrough and always figure that the entire team had to have known they'd never work on anything as epic as that again.

[@oscarzxn4067]

I still find so weird that after SCII sold well in all 3 consoles it was released for, they made 3 a PS2 exclusive, especially because Namco didn't stop supporting the GC and Xbox or anything, other releases from them kept appearing on them until 2006 like Pac Man World Rally.

[@GameSack]

Yeah wasn't that strange??

[@alessandrobaggi6129]

Sony pulled an He-man: "by the power of $... I, HAVE, THE POWAAAH!" 😂

[@Daftanemone]

My friends in high school were so confused with sc4 was announced since they all got the GameCube sc2. 3 was so unknown because of the ps2 exclusive

[@3dmarth]

@@Daftanemone I knew of 3's existence, but it still felt like some weird side game, thanks to being stranded on a single, 5-year-old console. Many games did well as PS2 exclusives, but SC3 was just not a good fit!

[@a.mirandahsr]

Sony didn't liked that the Gamecube version sold more than the PS2 one, hence they dropped the truckload of $ to Namco

[@VideoGameStupidLC]

9:25 Did Blanka just dodge that high Tiger Shot by WALKING?! Hacks, CPU is hackers!

[@GiggaVega]

This is the absolutely best sack related gaming Channel. I always love the pushing console limit videos. I try to see how many I have played or never seen.

[@lachainedeladose7195]

I'm from France, I've been following you for so many years now that I feel like I've grown old with you. I miss the time when there were two of you but that's how things are. That time also reminds me of happy times in my life. I'll keep following you, be sure of that

[@thedugal1373]

What in the world are 4 dimensional graphics? Was the NeoGeo so powerful it had access to a dimension that still elude modern hardware?

[@Dwedit]

Prehistorik Man is famous for being very hard to emulate correctly. Notably, it uses precisely timed writes to the palettes to display low-resolution text on top of the screen. Yes, while the video raster is moving, it's changing the palette in real time just to draw some big text letters.

[@DJ_InYourFace]

Episodes That Push Laughter Limits! This one was extra funny, I love Game Sack.

[@RVGM]

Thunder Force IV is an amazing game that I still enjoy playing now, I remember how amazing it looked when i played it on my mega drive back in 1994, I finishied it on all diffculties inculding 'Maniac' to get all the ending ... good times.

[@michael_crow]

Joe, your joekes are not horrible. No no no, they are funny and we love them.

[@tangreen7267]

Thanks for including ThunderForce IV ! I had never heard of it back in 92, but somehow ended up with a used copy. I thought it a major contender for best graphics on Genesis at the time.

[@MzuMzu-nx1em]

The Snes should have an episode dedicated to his numerous chipsets graphics enancher soldered on the cartridges like kirby Dream Land 3 , can't believe isn't a 32bit

[@jsr734]

Or Tales of Phantasia, Siken Densetsu 3, Chrono Trigger, Terranigma, Rendering Ranger, Turtles in Time, the Goemon games, Parodius 1,2 and 3, Wonder Project J, Gundmam Wing Endless Duel,etc. None of them use any extra hardware (except for Parodius 3)

[@aaronmarko]

I'm only commenting to encourage the algorithm to boost this video as I have not seen it yet

[@malvessidrums]

Same here

[@cinnamondan4984]

Bless your righteous desire.

[@amielite]

Just get to finish Lightning Force 4 a couple weeks ago after 6 years of trying and the score screen blew my thong away. Great video as always

[@DarkReturns1]

Probably my favorite series of yours Joe, awesome job as always!

[@Quimbyrbg]

As a "literate" person, I love the literacy corner.

[@ChiptunedRaijin]

I remember asking an old Technosoft dev on Twitter some years ago about why TF4 slows down. I was told it was intentional when a certain number of objects is on screen.

[@jsr734]

Yep. The same happens in Gradius 3 on SNES.

[@ChiptunedRaijin]

@@jsr734 Gradius 3's slowdown isn't intentional though...

[@Ephesians-yn8ux]

I’d throw my neo geo into the toilet to play with that full page ad smokeshow

[@GVX32]

Power Strike II on the Master System should be mention on one of these episodes.

[@cax1175]

Like I said in my comment you read, the Neo Geo is the most powerful thing mankind has ever created. It was made in 1990 and still has some of the most beautiful 2D sprite-work of all time.

[@avalond1193]

Compared to Sega Saturn neo geo is an Atari 2600

[@ultimateman55]

@@avalond1193 Oh yeah then why does the Saturn need a ram/rom expansion just to be able to run some Neo Geo titles? And don't give me that "CD technology versus cartridge rom" nonsense because we all know it's really because the Saturn is a weakling compared to the unprecedented arcade power of the Neo Geo!

[@SilverOver9000]

@@avalond1193 We're talking about a machine from 1990 that runs King of Fighters 2003. Show me the Saturn doing that with no expansion cart

[@tommylakindasorta3068]

I think you mean 4-D sprite work. My hot girlfriend told me about it the other night when I was playing Neo Geo in my 1980s stockbroker outfit.

[@luckrequired5382]

22:00 I always thought those two pixels (meant for his nose) were his eyes. To me he had permanent derp face.

[@vitamind.d.fishinsea8570]

Just when im having a bit of a retro crisis wondering what to play and feeling a bit like ive seen and played em all before along comes the sack with inspiration, another angle to appreciate the artform and some impetus for a sunday session with some classic games. Cheers Joe!

[@tec5x5]

that ad read at the end top tier

[@somethingoriginal1707]

Thunder Force IV might be the best game I've never beaten legitimately

[@thehumbleone1983]

Yea definitely the best shooter on MD/GEN and the music is burnt in my brain

[@arcadianlhadattshirotsughW33Z]

@@thehumbleone1983 i agree its in the top three, but i really like gleylancer, gaiares and the japanese only trouble shooter sequel (battle mania daiginjoh).. ah but your probably still completely right.. that music is absolutely incredible, like most technosoft osts, but damn, ive really gotten into the music from hyper duel..

[@tommylakindasorta3068]

@@arcadianlhadattshirotsughW33Z There are even some rad bonus music track not used in the game that you can unlock by beating it and then accessing the hidden options screen.

[@HereticHydra]

I beat the Switch version. I don't think it counts because you can turn off slow down.

[@tommylakindasorta3068]

@@arcadianlhadattshirotsughW33Z Yep

[@Justin-rv7oy]

I still love Cyber Lip in a cheesy late 80s / early 90s way. 😅

[@MyRetroLife]

Great episode! Love the Batman Sega CD coverage… that game means a lot to me

[@kabukimanindahouse]

rudra no hihou. fully animated battles, characters and bosses and i only ever saw it flicker once when casting a demanding spell during a very graphically complex and segmented boss. everything just looks great and it doesn't even have a chip inside to help or compress.

[@RetroSegaDev]

I always forget TF4 was 8MEG. Seems bonkers to me given the quality of the art.

[@rickyspanish4792]

Come for the games, stay for the post-credits scene 😁

[@victorvilla4896]

My favorite show before a good night of sleep 🙃

[@Wourghk]

Ironically ahead of its time, Prehistorik Man had a happy hardcore soundtrack.

[@cloudtx]

As a Contra fan, that Cyber-Lip game actually looks pretty good! Thanks!

[@taipion64]

Your GameBoy footage looks like GameBoy footage and I am all for that.

[@shadowflash705]

Fun fact - Road Rash for GB freezes after track select on GBC and GBA and AFAIR SGB and GB Pocket. So it's original GB (DMG-01) or emulation.

[@gabrieldias3479]

I'm wondering which episodes took Game Sack to the limits. The ones that required extra effort like research, video capturing, editing, script writing etc.

[@etay2k]

Prehistorik man for GB is based on prehistorik 2. One of the best exclusive dos platformers... The SNES version is more of a sequel. But it's also very impressive.

[@mattshuey1]

Time to listen to Light(e)ning Rides Again on loop for 10 hours again.

[@noobtuber10]

That push pull joke was def a stretch, leaving it in the same condition as the pork

[@cainmarchenoir4986]

Metal Slug 3 is a pure work of art.

[@ElComanche]

I don’t know how Joe keeps this quality for so long. He is a legend.

[@Cabbitania]

idk if previously mentioned or covered, but the music of the underwater levels in Donkey Kong Country is technically not supposed to be possible to achieve on the SNES, and yet, there it is. lol

[@jsr734]

Not only DKC, Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy III/VI, The intro song from Tales of Phantasia and all its soundtrack, Super Turrican, Far East of Eden Zero, Chrono Trigger´s soundtrack, and anything made by the Follin brothers as Spiderman and X-Men in Arcades Revenge, Plok, Super Off-Road, Equinox, etc.

[@HefTV]

Joe-been watching for years and I just wanted to say thank you for everything. You are part of my Sunday ritual aka "GameSack Sundays"😂

[@MarkKrauth]

"The soundtrack of Thunderforce IV will turn your blood into gasoline" is the most accurate description of anything ever.

[@jonathan2950]

Wow. Metal Slug 3 really does look amazing, even today. I don’t think I’ve seen a modern game with retro pixel art look as impressive as this does. If anyone knows of any, please let me know!

[@chrismarrow9639]

Appreciate you man don't ever stop doing this channel . I've learned alot about old games and new from over the years thank you. I always look forward to new game sack videos.

[@JaredConnell]

Can't wait for the next installment of book sack!

[@Godsgood111]

WTH is a book? Like EGM or gamepro?

[@Swordslinger-hb1ns]

Would really like for a console focused episode on either the bestselling and loved PlayStation 4 or the flailing and lowly Xbox One Joe. Maybe next episode in two weeks?

[@1-eye-willy]

the mega CD and those driving sections of the batman games were amazing looking. but like you said nobody was ever able to get through it to see all those details. and i think this is even true today that, you can make a game look technologically impressive but if it doesnt play good all that stuff is for nothing

[@projectmayhem6898]

Oh yes, brother, keep these videos coming!

[@GameSack]

Will do!

[@MuJoNeSs]

The ending was GOLD! One of the best of all time! 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

[@1973Lee]

Definitely my favourite retro games channel on KZbin, always look forward to your videos Joe! You have a talent for making such entertaining and informative content. Absolutely love your humour, you are so sarcastic you could almost be a fellow Brit. Hope you could find the time to visit a retro games convention in Old Blighty sometime, I’ll be there!

[@disconinja108]

That outro scene was something 😂👍

[@papridi7672]

Joe i must say that your passion and humour is top notch..i watched many many years this shows🙂 and they take to memorylane...thanks do much and keep on going even Greendog is watching you closely😄..i started to play videogames by Vic-20 or what they call it! Greetings from Finland

[@Andres33AU]

I would watch an entire video of you talking about classic video game ads. I miss those types of ads, and how much they would push them as well. The way the dude's leaning in that ad, plus the boss on screen was no accident, they knew what they were doing, haha.

[@pam8352]

about cyber lip and metal slug 3 we should also talk that metal slug is built using more memory and a lot of late neogeo games have additional hardware on the cart (also used for encryption)

[@OhMyPoBoy]

My favorite series on the channel since the beginning!

[@videogameobsession]

I loved how the driving stages of Batman Returns looked on the Sega CD, but they probably weren't as fun as the driving areas in the Konami Batman Returns, or the Batmobile / BatWing stages of Sunsoft's Batman.

[@superdave3093]

Ok so literacy corner is 🔥. 😂 Seriously though I’m REALLY impressed by the parallax scrolling on original Gameboy, like how!? It’s always so impressive how some companies could get so much out of limitations. 😃

[@PurpleRevolutionMusic]

Thank you for that, Joe! I'm writing my master's thesis on Gamergate and have this exact ad as one of my image sources but couldn't find the magazine where it belonged to and now I know. Thank you!

[@BygoneUser1]

Pong (1972)... search your feelings, you KNOW it to be true...

[@MaxiusTheGod]

I am actually eating pulled pork right now so your intro really caught me off guard 😂

[@jong2359]

KZbin channels that push Hardware Limits: Game Sack

[@DemomanX614]

I love the Titus running gag

[@REzado63]

This is my favorite game sack series. Thanks Joe.

[@MelRetro]

*I knew Metal Slug was Taxing, but Dang* 😮

[@wadewilson5712]

Soul Caliber 3 was great , it let us make our own characters or add ones from other games . I put Magus in from Chrono Trigger.