
Metal Slug 2 – reducing the slowdown (2015) - shawndumas
http://blog.system11.org/?p=1442
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justinjlynn
It amuses me that the author seems to think offering a flash/mod service for
people who don't want to or can't modify their carts is abhorrent and yet
still knowingly acquires, owns, and modifies an illegally distributed and/or
resold cartridge.

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anjc
He could have just bought a Chinese copy, but rather bought a genuine cart.
What's the problem? The game is 20 years old.

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NTripleOne
double standard

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mikeash
The author doesn't like people profiting off of other people's unpaid work. I
don't see any double standard there.

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donatj
They're both paying for something some people think are wrong, and he even
acknowledges it.

Claiming essentially copyright to an unauthorized fix of someone else's code
though is dubious and more than a little distasteful to say the least.

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mikeash
"Double standard" is about what _you_ think is wrong, not what "some people"
think is wrong.

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mikejmoffitt
Actual details on the patch by Trap15:
[http://daifukkat.su/blog/archives/2015/03/30/its_turbo_time/](http://daifukkat.su/blog/archives/2015/03/30/its_turbo_time/)

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ringaroundthetx
The slowdown was one of the coolest parts of the game though.

So much action that the framerate drops and you are still surviving the chaos.

This kind of "glitch" was formative for a lot of slow motion in films.

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arketyp
>This kind of "glitch" was formative for a lot of slow motion in films.

I like that, that's a fantastic idea. Are you referring to something in
particular?

I remember this effect from childhood gaming, back when you could not really
distinguish bug from feature. And I'm sure developers let that distinction
slide as well. The slowdown is such a natural fit in an adrenaline filled
state.

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Narann
Goldeneye 007 explosions on N64.

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distantsounds
Emulators are able to overclock to run the game in a smooth 60fps. Along with
full mouse and keyboard support, as well. It's like a whole new game.

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ionwake
Absolutely fantastic post. I loved this game and completely understand the
motivation behind improving MS2 FPS rate, it always looked superior to MSX.

My one question is whether the slow down was present on the arcade machines ?
I just dont remember the slow down in the arcade ( only on my emulators ).

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polpo
The arcade hardware (MVS) and home hardware (AES) on the Neo Geo have the
exact same specs. And in the linked article the author is applying the fix to
an MVS cartridge (which can be used in an AES system with an adapter).

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ionwake
Thanks!

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Razengan
The Metal Slug series, especially MS2, has still now some of the best 2D
animations in any video game ever.

There is so much painstaking frame-by-frame detail in everything, with tons of
different effects depending on the status of enemies (frozen, zombified, etc.)
and the weapons you use on them (e.g. flamethrower, electricity, etc.)

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ZenoArrow
> "tons of different effects depending on the status of enemies (frozen,
> zombified, etc.)"

Maybe you're thinking of Metal Slug 3? Don't think Metal Slug 2 had zombies,
though to be fair they all look visually similar so it's hard to tell them
apart.

[http://metalslug.wikia.com/wiki/Zombies](http://metalslug.wikia.com/wiki/Zombies)

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anfractuosity
Out of curiosity, I've got a Neo Geo Pocket Color, with 'Metal Slug 1st
Mission', is there any remote similarities in the hardware between the arcade
machines and the pocket console out of interest.

Like I'm wondering if they could possibly use some of the code from the arcade
machines, but maybe not?

~~~
breadmaster
Both 16-bit machines, but vastly different CPUS. Motorola 68K vs a Toshiba of
some sort. They bot have Zilogs for sound though, so maybe SNK used some code
sharing there?

End of the day, SNK wisely chose to create unique experiences based on their
arcade games for the system, but it was ultimately crushed by the Gameboy
Color and Pokemon.

~~~
anfractuosity
Cheers for the reply. That's interesting about them both using Zilogs for
sound.

It's been a while since I played with it, I'll have to dig it out again.

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denisehilton
Where can i get the new version of Metal slug?

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badlucklottery
Most Neo Geo romsets will have it.

If not, just google for "metal slug 2 turbo" and you should find it on the
first page.

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Asooka
But if you're playing emulated, you can just overclock the emulated Neo Geo
and play without slowdown, right?

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badlucklottery
Probably. I play on a consolized MVS system so overclocking is a bit more
involved and tends to cause issues in some games.

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Nexxxeh
Does this need to be tagged as [2015]? Still, interesting quick read. How did
the error pass QA? It would seem like something d be spotted...

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badlucklottery
>How did the error pass QA? It would seem like something d be spotted...

I don't think the devs were happy with the final product either. They released
Metal Slug X soon after which is just a tweaked version of MS2 with much less
slowdown, more enemies, more weapons and some small changes to the art and
music.

It's also a bit more difficult while being more "fair" overall IMO.

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smcl
The article says that X is more than a tweaked version in when it comes to the
engine/slowdown - "the reason MSX is so much faster is because they’d actually
re-written the engine rather than just fixing MS2"

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badlucklottery
While I'm sure there was some engine work since the desert and train levels
are actually playable now, much of the art is just palette swapped, the level
terrain is mostly identical and there's still a lot of slowdown overall (at
least for the Neo Geo version).

