Great Fighters on Inappropriate Systems | Nostalgia Nerd

[@foreverhungry84]

i can remember when street fighter 2 first came out on the snes. one kid on our block got it and invited around ten of us round. all huddled round a 14 inch portable tv absolutely astonished at the colourful graphics and arcade like sound. mortal kombat didn't have quiet the same impact but sf2 was just epic at the time to an 8 year old.

[@retro7924]

It still holds up as an incredible port and also the Alpha games they ported also.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@retro7924 They only ported part 2 to the SNES.

[@retro7924]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 yes Alpha 2 was what I meant not 1 . Typo 😅

[@Marzimus]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 Glad to see your name holds up. 👌

[@rickyray2794]

Its funny you say that because in my neighborhood nobody really liked SF2 but everybody was super into Mortal Kombat 2

[@RichardServello]

That Spectrum SFII looks like a tiger LCD toy.

[@NorthernStar1982]

The different port screenshots on the back of some boxes always felt like a "look what you could've won". Especially if you knew your system was shit Lol

[@canonballkid8829]

Mortal Kombat on the Master System was very impressive IMO. It had all the special moves, all the fatalities plus a blood cheat. It only had 2 stages though and had no Kano. I spent plenty of hours on it.

[@P5ychoFox]

Mortal Kombat on the Gameboy, now that’s an input lag nightmare.

[@seamusquain2706]

MK II However, Was Pretty good.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@seamusquain2706 Killer Instinct also proved that you could get a responsive, combo heavy fighter on underpowered hardware. But Takara were the real standouts. Samurai Shodown and Battle Arena Toshinden are both great demakes, that aim to be more than just compromised ports. And KOF '96 and World Heroes Jet aren't far behind.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 The GB ports of SNK titles feel like precursors to the stuff we'd see on the NGP, which has the best controls for fighting games I have ever felt. That control pad is superb. I want something like that for the Switch.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

@fizdog Pretty sure high attacks were done with forward and an attack, and block was select. Going from shakey memory here.

[@seamusquain2706]

@@nicksrandomreviews MK II Did it pretty well. If i must say.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

The early to mid 90s was an interesting time for 8-bit systems as many of the games trying to be made for them were based on either games from 16-bit systems and vastly superior arcade hardware. If it wasn't for 32-bit systems starting to come out in 1994 who knows how long commercial games would have still been coming out on some of them.

[@FIXTREME]

Probably until 1996 for 8-bit and 1999 16-bit

[@lssjgaming1599]

Brazil still gets some weird 8 bit ports

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

The C64 only stopped production because Commodore went bust

[@damonsteward8609]

My first experience with street fighter was on the c64 and I hated it so much.. I never thought it would be the monster it became just 3 years later

[@Nostalgianerd]

My commiserations.

[@H0lyMoley]

I had the US version (which is weird 'cause I'm in the UK) of the original "Street Fighter" on the C64 as a kid. It's a bit of a nightmare to control (the characters don't walk smoothly, they "hop" to predestined positions, so half of hitting your opponent is timing your hops). But honestly... it wasn't as bad as it's known for. Beating Adon (it didn't have Sagat, Adon was all you got) was a huge early gaming achievement for me because that guy was tough. (On the opposite side of the coin, the second US fighter Mike, who was apparently based on Tyson, literally could not hit you if you crouched. He didn't have an attack that hit that low. So the difficulty level was a bit questionable.) The opponents all had their own individual quirks / cheats (Eagle and his freakin' swords!) It wasn't good. Beating it largely consisted of finding the best way to "cheese" each opponent. But still, I have some fond memories of this game. Also I had Pit Fighter on the C64. And beat it. Quite liked the soundtrack. Which is good, because there's one battle music track and you hear it a LOT.

[@ChunkSchuldinga]

Considering that even the arcade Street Fighter is also kinda dogshit, I find it surprising myself to see the series spawn the modern 1v1 fighter genre.

[@billybobs1705]

@@Nostalgianerd you are up your own rectum telling people the sky is blue. Some of those versions were incredible for the 8 bits

[@bigstackD]

I remember the first time I played Pit fighter it absolutely blew my mind , me and my friends could not believe the graphics👍🏻😁

[@venom74799]

Same here. It was mind blowing at the time.

[@jimmydean2490]

Yeah well kids are stupid....

[@4ArchieLee]

Southside Jim wuz right here!!!!!!!! 👇🏾

[@kgrfirdjy]

i remember getting thoroughly enraged at Pit Fighter and its horrible controls at both the overpriced arcade game and the sega genesis port after playing street fighter 2 and mortal kombat. the graphics in the arcade seemed ingenious to a 9-11 year old me at the time, but no matter how much bread is on it, a turd sandwich is a turd sandwich, and tons of us took a huge bite.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Biggie here ? Wow great ! =)

[@jeromezone]

I remember getting SF2 (and knowing how bad it was) on the Atari ST then, about 3 months before getting a 486DX2 66 and moving to games like Doom. The overnight change in capabilities has never been matched again in my life

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

Showing my childishness here but that upgrade for me was being unable to get a solid 5 FPS on Team Fortress 2 at 1024x768 to being able to max it out at 1080p 60 FPS.

[@A-1-Sawce]

As an old arcade rat I absolutely devour any information like this. I'm endlessly fascinated with terrible ports of good Fighters to home consoles, something about them being crammed onto something they clearly shouldn't be is great to me.

[@zeoxbg]

The NES/Famicom had another unlicensed SFII that eventually was modded to include characters from SF Alpha. It looked and played quite nicely. Also there is an unlicensed MK bootleg, it is not as nice as the SFII one but still, it was something... It had Goro as a playable character, and he had a projectile :)

[@FhargaZ]

For us as kids having Yie Ar Kung Ku on the Speccy was pretty good.

[@saratov99]

Yie Ar Kung Fu was my first Dendy game!

[@HYPERMASCULINE]

This guy needs to go back to the gadget show innit

[@AcornElectron]

I had it on Electron. Undoubtedly one of the originals. It didn’t run anything like the C64 version but I still loved it. Imagine!

[@clovenbullet]

i could never get hold of Yie ar i only had Way of the exploding fist

[@lessonslearned2569]

C-64 and it was quite spot on, like Kung-Fu Master.

[@KingofPotatoPeople]

The disappointment of the c64 Streetfighter 2 is burned into my soul for eternity

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

I never had the misfortune of buying it but I did end up with the pathetic port of G-Loc

[@Lynxx377]

MK2 on the Master System was the first MK I ever played. It was amazing how many games there were available to MS here in Brazil...

[@KilgoreTrout1212]

Master System ruled Brazil, didn't it?

[@KLUTCHdot58]

Sometimes it's easy to loose perspective with these ports. In '93 I was over the moon to get MK on the Master System!

[@boss862]

I can't believe I been seeing your videos pop up on my KZbin recommended for a few years now and I never subscribed to your channel. Your presentation and pacing inside each and every video is absolutely masterful. The way you educate and talk about every topic is awesome. The pacing is never dragging on and I find myself being very engaged every minute. I hope you forgive me skipping past the sponsor portions though hahaha. Please keep up the good work!

[@SoulPoetryandOtherWorks]

The only fighting game I played on the Spectrum was "Way of the Exploding Fist" which I enjoyed.

[@SteveFusionX]

Fist 🤜 still a great game to this day!

[@williambrown3063]

I think you were unjustly harsh on the Master System version of Mortal Kombat. I had MK and MK II on my Game Gear and I loved them. I was bloody obsessed with them. I managed to master all the special moves apart from Liu Kang’s death move from a Mega Drive guide in Sega Power magazine. I still enjoy firing them up on the GG every now and again.

[@NeoGeoNinja81]

Only just watched this now and, I don't think he was harsh at all in respect of MK fot SMS. In fact, I got completely the opposite vibe! I thought he was actually commending the effort as, arguably, it could be the best Arcade 90s Vs Fighter to 8-bit system conversion of its time (as long as we don't include the PCE/TG16 in any of this 🤭). Simply, you needed the next generation 16-bit hardware in order to properly facilitate these new gaming trends; multi-faceted, complex "vs" fighting games and also digitisation too 👍

[@AlexTenThousand]

If you ask me, the Master System Pit Fighter port was already quite impressive - it definitely showed how capable at handling sprites and smooth animations the system was.

[@pepperachu]

I'll never forget how the final fight minion with the blue beanie would lay down and hold his beanie over his heart every time you knocked him down

[@ratspike8017]

I had my beloved A500 back in this era (88 through 93) and I lived in hope that it would get good arcade conversions. The existence of a few excellent conversions (Rainbow islands, Gauntlet II, etc.) meant that you knew that conversions COULD be good on the A500 but the reality often fell short of this. Of course these days I consider MAME to be some euphoric kind of dream...

[@vebxenon]

I enjoyed A LOT Mortal Kombat on Master System and I still have it.

[@maggoty]

@Stefano Pavone Same. Still have my original copy. Played the heck out of it back in the day. I'd say it's not a bad port for the limitations of the system when you think about it. :-)

[@darklordojeda]

I was lucky to have it on Genesis. Great memories.

[@kris_0520]

@@maggoty It sure is impressive from a technical standpoint.

[@k29king1]

Love this channel, I was a video game nut 30 years ago and still am. I often think how my 9 year old self would react to what games are like now. I think my head probably would have exploded.

[@thaismagalhaes5928]

The Master System version of Mortal Kombat, isn't good if you look through today's eyes. But in the 90's for poor kids like me and some of my friends who couldn't afford any other console, it was awesome!

[@Truxzord]

Yes! I have many fond memories of playing It with my friends after school. We were just kids having fun.

[@djdublo]

Ah yes the mythical SF2 on the Amstrad. I remember lots of talk at the time about how great it was going to be, but never appeared!

[@skylined5534]

I have to say that looked like a lovely conversion!

[@blueowl0708]

As bad as Final Fight is on the Spectrum, it has all three characters and (I think) 2 player mode, which the SNES did not 😂

[@kenrickeason]

SNES version made up for that in Final Fight 2 and Final Fight 3

[@RogueBoyScout]

Yes, yes it did. So out of the 2, which one would you get if you could only have one in your life. Saying your Datsun 240 comes with Chrome hub caps doesn't make it luxury car.

[@azuremateria]

I can't get over how oddly positioned those row of buttons are at 9:28. It must be difficult to do moves like Zangief's lariat!

[@mchenrynick]

Limitations on home consoles back then is why arcade games succeeded so well. Once video game consoles got better and more capable, arcades struggled more and more...

[@Louis-wp3fq]

I remember associating U.S. Gold with great games because of the Genesis port of Flashback. Which is funny because I don't think I've ever seen their name on anything else that was ANY good.

[@Rando1975]

Yeah, when I think about US Gold I think about lousy ports.

[@juniorbcm5375]

Road Rash on the SMS looks and plays great, giving the system's limitations.

[@colinwatt9387]

The ST and Amiga could have had much better versions if they had used decent optimized code.

[@CricketEngland]

“Way of the Exploding Fist” and “Barbarian” played ok on my Amstrad CPC 6128 and my a friends Commodore 64 with no issues as well as “Yie Ar Kung Fu” so I was happy

[@fizzlepop9451]

Target Renegade on Spectrum in 2 player Coop was one of the best experiences on the Speccy! Meanwhile, C64 double dragon, where the main character had a 1 pixel gap between the upper and lower body sprites was appalling.... there was even an explanation in the manual 😂

[@TeruteruBozusama]

8:43 I and my mother had a good laugh for 5 minutes, they're so tiny!

[@RanFire]

I'm still waiting on Daytona and Ridge Racer getting a spectrum port

[@Eichro]

"This isn't a computer game, it's the poor reception you get during a thunderstorm!" dang

[@SabretoothBarnacle]

Nothing will ever beat BMX Ninja..

[@AcornElectron]

I dunno, Ninja Golf comes pretty close..

[@Glass-vf8il]

Love the “what we’re they thinking?!?”

[@haziqnoorhan6052]

Classic AVGN

[@RUOK2000]

What are we thinking

[@hdestotallyunoriginalgamin3555]

Best use of the Alien Resurrection flamethrower scene EVER.

[@petercorr784]

Agreed 😂🤣😂

[@CSLucasEpic]

The Master System also had Mortal Kombat II developed for it exclusively in Brazil. And I remember the Game Boy having an official released version of Pit Fighter.

[@christschin3708]

Remember playing Pit-Fighter on a Ferry to France in around 1991. Up until that point, I’d never seen anything like it. Played Street Fighter 2 for the first time, in June of 1991, at Watford Gap services. Was terrible at it, but loved every second. Next to it was Atari’s Rampart, with the trackball.

[@jennoscura2381]

I remember the local arcade had Rapart for like 5 cents a play. Ready, aim, fire!

[@sammylane21]

I can devastate Andore and Sodom in the SNES and Arcadegame of this very same game but I often struggle with Andore and Sodom encounter #2 in Mighty Final Fight.

[@cholom2003]

I grew up playing "Master Fighter II" and a bootleg port of "Street Fighter III" (yes, "3") on the Famicom (NES). Great times, despite their issues. Can't afford the home console version at the time so I had to do with them.

[@kidsfriends8269]

I remember a version that had “GUILI” and “VIGA” as characters on the SF. We used to make fun of the classmate that had it.

[@listerofsmeg884]

Had SF2 on C64. That endless music loop became drilled into my brain. Think it was the last game I bought for the beloved computer and started saving up money for a SNES

[@angusmclaren6257]

I remember the thumb pain from the Master System 2 Mortal Kombat combos. Man, that game punished your thumbs on the MS controller.

[@julien2983]

Your videos are so cozy, I love experiencing nostalgia for a time and place I never was.

[@theboycee1]

I remember our family computer. The amstrad cpc464. With a magical black and green monitor. I will never forget the sound of an 8bit micro loading a game, it is permanently burned into my eardrums 😁

[@incognitro7634]

Pit Fighter on the ZX Spectrum looks like a Tiger Electronics port.

[@moomah5929]

Always loved how they put screenshots of other platforms on game boxes of mostly lower platforms. Like Atari ST screeshots on the Spectrum cassette case... *sarcasm off*

[@dingo4010]

Apart form SF2 and the mortal combat series, even the 16 bit consoles struggled with doing arcade ports. The old 8 bit ones had no chance.

[@KJohansson]

We had a saying.. "It looks like its done in STOS" if it was sluggish on the ST. Also, knowing what the demo scene could do many games was a dissapointment..

[@worldofretrogameplay6963]

STOS could produce high-quality, commercial software when used properly.

[@marke996able]

I got Street fighter 2...... for Christmas (i went to the hall phone and told all my friends that i had it in hand...... proceeded to play 'All my life' by kc and jojo in the background as I waited for the game to load) ...... after a full on epileptic fit with additional tinnitus. I readied myself, with 1 buttoned joystick in hand for this magnificent magical moment..........needless to say fortunately I survived the subsequent suicidal mental breakdown and only hated my parents for about 2 to 3........ years with residual resentment lasting a mere decade. Thanks Commadore 64. Back to chucky egg I guess.

[@Disthron]

About *Mighty Final Fight* I think that was actually a really fun game. Discovered it in the early 2010's and really loved it. It was fast paced and fluid, carrying over all the things that really made Final Fight a blast to play. Also, they didn't have to go with the Chibi style sprites, they could have gone the Double Dragon style rout and it still would have been a fun game.

[@Realunmaker]

I had both mortal kombat and street fighter for famicom (both being either bootlegs or pirated versions) and I always sat down and said to myself "all the grown ups are playing the arcade versions I bet if I get good at home I'll wipe the floor with them". Not only did the skill set never translated from console to arcade, but it was always such a horrendous experience. I always ended up playing mario bros 3 or something after an hour.

[@grex9101]

01:00 Cabinet says "Street Fighter". The game being shown is Street Fighter 2.

[@paulcathcart7896]

Reminds me of my Spectrum 48k and looking at the Amiga version box art.

[@FarmerSlideJoeBob]

Dear Nostalgia Nerd, I really appreciate your subtitles in the video, cos of I'm hearing impaired and it made me easier to understand the words even as the fact that english is my 2nd language I can understand as a german potato😆 thx man 🙂🤗

[@lessonslearned2569]

I played the heck out of the US version of Street Fighter on the C-64. I didn't know better back then.

[@thavashgovender4345]

We didn't have the internet or KZbin back then - when you saved up your pocket money and bought a stinker , that was that , you were screwed. I bought a "fake" version of SF2 for the NES (not knowing it wasn't official) , and thinking it would be the same as the arcade.... that stings even today

[@Incense3]

I have Street Fighter 2, Pit Fighter and Mortal Kombat on my Game Boy. I wish I could see the stats on Pit Fighter because I’m pretty sure I played hundreds of hours on it. It’s so hard having a single life, and it felt amazing to progress. SF2 was really fun on the GB though.

[@McCoy-00]

I don’t blame these ports for being piss poor, it’s a bit of an impossible job to port some of these arcade games to the C64 or ZX Spectrum among others. I know it could be possible through homebrew, but those developers are doing it as a labor of love and not out of obligation, money, or being forced to.

[@LusRetroSource]

The first game I ever returned was Street Fighter 2 for DOS. Boy was that a big WTF moment for me.

[@sammylane21]

Can't believe the ole NES pulled off a heartier version of TMNT the Arcadegame but so many other companies failed to do so for other Arcadegame.

[@baalfgames5318]

6:41 If the Super Nintendo couldn't give us a playable port of Pit Fighter, what chance did the ZX Spectrum have?

[@keyaamabrahams7984]

Here in South Africa, we got what seems like dozens of unlicensed SF2 games on the fake NES/Famicom system. All called Streetfighter turbo some of them was pretty good.

[@madfinntech]

9:56 What the hell they did to Chun-Li's beautiful face?! That can't be the official Capcom art, tell me that it isn't!

[@PartyDude_19]

She looks like a slightly annoyed mother at a grocery store after waiting in line for too long.

[@montgomeryfitzpatrick473]

My town in Eastern Washington State got SF2 long before Pitfighter, shocked it came out first

[@josephfranzen5626]

Being born in 86 to a middle class family the gaming hardware I had as a kid was generally from this era up to the Sega Genesis and eventually the N64 in high school years after it’s peak. Regardless I used to love the arcades as the one local to me was always bringing in new games and therefore new experiences. Sadly like the games on this list I would pester my parents to buy me the latest port of whatever game and power it on to utter disappointment and regret.

[@revanche1431]

I loved playing as Chun Li when SF came ount. Her wall jump/toe tap combination was simple, yet extremely difficult for the other 10 year olds to defend against.

[@paulnash9851]

Fres Fighter for the CPC 464 was mighty impressive. I still load it up occasionally even today. Home brew, but a good one.

[@hfric]

The magic of game porting ... by many in the game dev scene called Interpretations , when you tried to remake the game on a new hardware with mixed results ...

[@Boogie_the_cat]

I had forgotten how janky the jumps were in Street Fighter 1. I only ever played it on one arcade unit that also had a damaged joystick. Needless to say, it was unimpressive. I enjoyed your video and it has some things I never saw like the "Mighty Final Fight".

[@bradlord4440]

I must admit.it felt good back then running to your nearest China town store to go and buy your very own street fighter cartridge for your NES.but that's about it really.u would still run off to the arcade to waste your precious pocket money on it..

[@leiaute]

Just to let you know, was released in Brazil the Master System 6 buttons joypad controller to play MK e SF II.

[@mdedes9891]

Well, at least the box art warned us. On the front it did say '"It's out to get you." And on the back, it continued to say "The 'monster' has been released." And if that didn't convinced us, Chun Li definitely looks like a 'dope fiend.' She's breaking the 4th wall like, 'does anyone got some CRACK? 9:51

[@KennethDPedersen]

Well that Alien: Resurrection clip came out of no where, but was still pretty dam accurate

[@gameshack1985]

ahh I remember renting MK and MK2 for master system from my video store many times lol

[@lewzero]

I'm suddenly reminded of "stickman kombat" running on q basic for ms dos in the 486SX-25mhz era. With a math co-processor you could get a solid 20fps

[@jonathonbird861]

Love the Avgn reference!!!

[@SOK39]

9:59 Da Fuk!? "Ryu" is just Ken with dark hair!

[@StargliderGaming]

Teque only did the music for Castle Master, not the game. The game (as was all the Freescape games) were made by Incentive Software.

[@loadretro]

You have to hand it to all the 8 bit micros and the coders who made them that they tried to bring a custom hardware arcade game to our bedrooms 😊

[@Richie016]

Popular video gaming characters have been playable with less popular systems over time, which explains the fondness for gaming.

[@natecw4164]

I wanted a SNES so badly. My parents refused. So I got TMNT Tournament Fighters for Xmas. Simple, limited by the hardware, next to no special moves... but I played that cartridge *way* too much. The NES showed its age when the fighting and beat em up genres took off.

[@DavidWonn]

The Master System ports of SFII look quite good for an 8-bit console. It’s unfortunate that the system didn’t do well enough here, as everyone had moved on to the SNES and Genesis by that point, which is where most of us played SFII for the first time outside the arcade.

[@djameseddah8570]

How come you forgot to mention International Karate and International Karate+, those games were great on both 8 bits and 16 bits (ik+ being much more faster and fun though, but the first time I saw International Karate in my ST, I was in chock. The emulation doesn't do justice to this game while in a CRT monitor, graphics were absolutely stunning)

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Julian Gollop created Laser Squad and wasn't part of the Pitfighter team and there's a gulf of difference between a turn-based strategy game and a 1-on-1 fighter featuring digitised sprites and sprite scaling, you can't simply say Teque, they had a lot of coding teams.

[@modernretro5383]

Shame you don't do system documentaries anymore. That was, by far, your best content. This stuff is alright, but I would definitely love to see you do some more documentary style videos like you used to.

[@jmah1710]

7:19 love the AVGN reference

[@ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

Me: "The SNES port of Pit Fighter is the WORST!" (Sees the ZX Spectrum port gameplay) "Never mind..."

[@donkeytonk]

Killer Instinct on the gameboy was amazing. Fast gameplay and smooth FPS

[@SmokeyChipOatley]

Pit Fighter character walking animations are reminiscent of someone with a bout of diarrhea so bad a minor hiccup could cause a catastrophic release of pressurized bowel secretions. It’s hilarious only when you’re anyone but the guy concentrating every synapse in their skull into Jedi-level “force” clenching sphincter muscles, attempting to singlehandedly prevent a biohazard Chernobyl. We’ve all been there at one point or another

[@Corsa15DT]

The ZX Spectrum was too ambitious

[@salvatronprime9882]

The Ken toy looks like he's slam dunking a burning basketball. NBA Jam crossover?

[@bunnybreaker]

Killer Instinct on the Gameboy is what got me into fighting games.

[@RetroGameNova]

I feel the ZX Spectrum just hanged in there as long as it could lol

[@iantellam9970]

It's kind of crazy seeing as it was a budget system from 1982 that they even tried with most of these games. It was one of the least powerful systems on the market even when it was released. I guess there were still just enough of them floating around in the 90s that paying one bloke to knock out a quick port still made sense. I mean I picked up a second hand Spectrum in 1990, and I basically considered it retro even by that time, lol.

[@darklordojeda]

That review about Pit Fighter had me dying laughing so hard. Lmao, I'd be right cheesed off!

[@napoleonfeanor]

In my country, we didn't even know what an arcade was. They were treated like slot machines legally and therefore limited to places for adults so they never became a thing here

[@krashd]

9:04 Streetfighter was the predecessor of Streetfighter II, not it's prequel. Pedantry aside, great stuff, though this video makes me wonder how I ever managed to play Renegade on the Spectrum for hours at a time...

[@ecthelionv2]

Ah I remember the days where I had one of those weird bootleg UMK3 CARTS for the NES.