I think Hiryu's sprite on the Mega Drive looks cooler than even the arcade version.

Mega drive port is legend

Sooo glad you made clear Tiertex handled the Master System version. For years, I tried pointing this out to RetroGamer magazine, even going as far as to name the coder, yet they still insisted it was done by Sega.

I remember Strider being highly hyped by Tec Toy back in the day. It was one of the killer apps they used to push Mega Drive consoles in Brazil around 1991. Damn good times. How I miss those days.

The key thing to remember with Tiertex is that they were cheap and handled multiple platforms at once, so publishers loved them. They would pay people the same to port ST code to the Amiga, as they would code specifically for the Amiga hardware, so of course people took the easy route and Amiga owners paid the price.

Tiertex, the LJN for Homecomputer.

Strider is one of those classic games that never gets old. I love both the Arcade and Mega Drive versions, all the good memories that comes back playing the shit out of that game back in the day.

The rotating title logo on the Master System version is pretty cool

I love how the PC combination of music and sound effects sounds like a drum and bass track.

The Megadrive version was Amazing for its time.

My favorite port would have to be the Mega Drive port. Aside from being the first ever version of Strider I played, it was really the first game that convinced a friend's dad to buy him a Mega Drive. Even after playing the original game (via the arcade compilations), the MD port still holds up extremely well.

I always thought that 32 bit ports of many arcades are just emulation, and thanks to this channel I discovered that they're truly ports. Megadrive one is a masterpiece, amazing!

You've come a long way since that first Strider video. Love your videos!

"Pah Pah Pah Pah Pah." That is all.

Great remaster, Mark. I'm torn on Strider. I didn't play the CPS version until with the Callus emulator at the end of the 90s because I simply never saw a cab for it even at the big mall arcade. I also remember distinctly that it was one of the games that I couldn't run on the older family PC on Callus because that PC didn't have enough RAM (could run Final Fight, Magic Sword, UN Squadron, and maybe one or two others); instead, it was one of the games I was excited to try when I had worked enough and built my own PC in late '99 for Unreal Tournament and Quake3. I had played the Genesis port a little bit near to its release when my uncle rented it before I had a Genesis. But, that just a couple of times, and I never rented nor bought it myself after I got my Genesis until I picked up a copy in a bundle lot on ebay in the 00s. So, I didn't have much memory to compare it to, but I had a blast with it in Callus (and I didn't have to have the frame-skip sky high in the games on Callus on that slot-1 Athlon 650MHz compared to the lowly AMD K5-PR133 of our family PC). And, I played quite a bit of the PS1 version because my friend/roommate had Strider 2 (this had to be earlier than '06? since we were roommates in '01). The PS1 version was very good, and the Genesis port was good too. Besides what you show with the X68000 port, the other ports seem very poor (I don't expect much from Tiertex though). I've not played it, but the PC-Engine port seems especially disappointing, especially given it uses the arcade card. I swear there was at least a magazine preview in GamePro or EGM of upcoming Japanese releases that showed screenshots of a PC-Engine port that looked massively better. Maybe I'm misremembering, but if that was the case, I don't know what happened to end up with this final product. I've probably actually played Strider the most on that Capcom collection on the PSP, but I have to admit that I probably haven't played the original Strider in 15+ years. Anyway, I do really enjoy the arcade/Genesis Strider (and quite liked PS1/arcade Strider 2 and the 360 game was fun if not amazing), but I'll be honest: I liked NES Strider more. That probably comes 100% down to nostalgia, since though I only played the Genesis Strider port a couple of times, I played the NES Strider game dozens of hours back then. It's a very different animal, and I do appreciate how good and fun arcade Strider is, but the fun memories of playing the NES game draw me back to slap that cart in every couple years while I just don't have the same kind of draw back to the arcade and Genesis port even though I did very much enjoy them when I finally got to play them more.

It's an absolute travesty that there's versions of the arcade that don't have the proper music. The arcade machine I used to play in 1992 had the same music as the MD. Part of Strider's charm was the wonderfully atmospheric music. I can't imagine missing out on tracks like Gravity Unusual, Strider Hiryu and Theme for the Counter Attack. I first fired it up in MAME in 2001 and thought the music repeating was an emulation glitch. When I bought Strider 2 on the PS1 it seemed to have the proper music. Sadly Capcom Collection for the PS2 has the version of Strider with the missing music.

I had (and still have) the Japanese megadrive port and it totally blew my mind how close to the arcade it was. An excellent game at the time especially with the rare for the time character physics. Great episode👍

Yep, the Megadrive version is so impressive for when it was released considering the cart size.

The X68 version is almost "near Arcade" at the point that even the speech of the characters in cutscenes are still doing *audio jungle* with each other before one is finished.

This was personally one of the best action/platformers ive ever played!!!

The person that did the sf3 3rd strike wide screen hack is doing all the cps1 and cps2 games now, goes by bank bank on youtube. Also the people that ported final fight to the cps2 (which is easily one of the best hacked games i played in 2023 through HBmame, and needs it's own mame driver) are working on Ghouls and Ghosts now, hopefully this will be their next project. I'd love too see a widescreen strider with cps2 enhancements.

Nice to see a remaster of Strider, although, it's nice to clearly see the great graphics of the arcade and MegaDrive version but even more painful to suffer the terrible ones of the micro ccomputers ports (except for the X68000 obviously). Tiertex was obviously the kiss of death for any license and it's almost comforting to see them using the same old methods for every game: • 100% CPU handled scrolling even on machines which support hardware scrolling (Amiga), except for the C64 (*), • gigantic useless HUD to reduce the amount of screen estate they have to scroll every "frame" because of point 1, • approximative collision detection (one of their trade secrets! No one did bad collision detection as well as Tiertex), • the color choices ... how high were they when they were making those? And so on. I don't know how anyone who worked for Tiertex managed to keep their self esteem intact. The coders, artists, audio people must have known the end result was garbage and unworthy of the sales those massively hyped games had because of the attached license name. It must not have been a pleasant and rewarding experience to work for such a result and likely in very bad conditions. (*) isn't it funny how the C64 version is the only microcomputer one which uses hardware scrolling? Wel, that's because they did not have a choice. Everyone and their grandmother knew how to use hardware scrolling on the C64 very early on in the machine's life so even Tiertex learned it. But on the Amiga? Not a chance. There was the Atari ST all CPU version that they simply could copy without making any changes and you bet they did. Thanks for the video Mark!

I loved the Megadrive port as a kid, it's actually why i bought the PC/ps3 remake that was reliesed in 2013 ❤ and dang what an epic game !

Good video, the attack sound sample in that lousy Amiga version was about to drive me bananas before you moved on to the next version, and in the PC Engine version it sounds like Hiryu should be playing professional football. Arcade, Genesis (the version that I played the most), x68000, and especially the PS1 remake are all very nice. The PC Engine CD is not optimized but it at least has a redeeming quality here and there. The rest of them I'd rather play the NES platform/adventure game instead. The new Mega Drive remaster is coming together very nice and I'm looking forward to that being completed.

Some history regarding the Tiertex Home Computer versions: ST and Amiga: Since Capcom only provided Tiertex with an Arcade cabinet, none of the game's source code to work with, both conversions were programmed basically from scratch, with their sole programmer John Prince writing them based on "lengthy playing sessions" and gameplay videos. ZX Spectrum: The ZX Spectrum port was coded by Chris Brunning, who wanted to include as many of Hiryu's acrobatics as space permitted, a compromise was reached to reduce the original six angles of incline to only two, which led to the extra work of redesigning the mapping on each stage. C64: Coder Paul Cole, tried to get visuals close to the original but in doing so stretched the system too far. There was also a planned, but never released, SAM Coupé port, Chris Brunning supposed to have coding duties. U.S. Gold development manager David Baxter said "supposedly it’ll only take two weeks using our existing Speccy code and ST graphics, but we’ll have to see"

There is (kind of) a reason Strider is pink on the Amstrad version - if he was blue all the enemies would have to be blue as well. Mode 1, four colour graphics in a screen region.

Nice to see an updated video for this iconic game. Tiertex really planned ports out with a one size fits all philosophy. Why are the sprites so tiny on every version? So we can use the same base sprites but just recoloured for every single version! 16 Bit owners will surely love getting the same sprites as Spectrum and Amstrad owners! Plus we can build around the ST version which runs everything in software, ideal for porting. Amiga and PC owners will never notice the tiny play area, bad scrolling and lack of hardware sprites. It's the perfect crime. With their crap porting powers combined, team Tiertex triumphs again! Seriously, that's probably how they got so much work, they had multiformat development well figured out long before it became an industry standard. The drawbacks of such a generalised approach on hardware that's underpowered compared to the arcade original are very apparent. *edit* One correction, the PS1 version of Strider 2 was released in 2000, not 2006.

Loving the redos :)

Fun Fact: Capcom USA wanted to rename Strider to "The Falcon" in the West, to the point the alternate title screen is still in the arcade's code. Luckily they didn't get their way.

i already know this is going to be an excellent episode before i hit play

Thank you!

I always enjoy these classic episode remakes. Gives us a chance to revisit some of the really popular titles. Strider is a very interesting game. I've never been that great at it though. It's a shame so many of the ports got the Tiertex taint to them. 😵

My favorite arcade game of all time.

Had the C-64 version as a kid. I must confess, I kinda liked it, but I didn't know the arcade version at all back then.

Megadrive Strider was also the first 8 megabit console cartridge ever produced.

This is a work of scholarship. and UGH all those Tiertex crap, and then the beauty of the MD version. IIR, the MD port was considered "huge" at the time at 8Mbits. Also, I never would have noticed the major differences between the arcade and the X68000 version until this video, always assuming it was pixel perfect!

One of my fav games.. Grew up playing the Genesis version.. Played the arcade a few times. I own the Playstation version which I think is near arcade perfect. Good job on the video . Thanks 👍

Wow, doesn’t time fly. I watched your original battle of the ports for strider probably back in 2015 and is probably my most watched battle of the ports from you because it was one of my favourites, even without the VoiceOver and I remember reading the scroll in text along the bottom, in fact, most of your early shows had no VoiceOver and just scrolling text, as for the ports, The Mega Drive, X68000 and PlayStation ports are the only versions worth playing and the only versions you need and Sega did not learn the lesson because they allowed to Tiertex to develop games on their systems more than once and the less said about the rubbish home computer ports the better , anyway, great battle of the ports, and this is probably like maybe the 10th time. I’ve probably watched this battle of the ports, I’m enjoying these remasters, greetings from the UK from a fellow Brit.

21:55 According to Playstation DataCenter, Strider was released for PS1 twice: in 2000 together with Strider 2 (all regions) and in Japan in 2006 as "Strider Hiryuu - Capcom Game Books", where the game came bundled with a hardcover book.

You also have to take into consideration the kit Tiertex was using for SEGA game development. Tiertex Master System and Game Gear Dev kits we're effectively a circuit board that had all the MS/GG chips on it. It also had a connector with which you could plug on a miniature LCD screen just like the GG. Although you could also view the GG screen on a normal monitor also. For such a big and expensive piece, of kit, it was apparently a little lacking in features. The debugger was particularly awful. It also took ages to download code/data to it (partly because it only recognized a certain type of file which was effectively hex data but in ASCII!!!! This made the files more than twice the size they needed to be, which in the days of 20meg hard drives must of been an absolute nightmare

Another good update. I always thought Strider looked cool whenever I saw screenshots back in the day, but then I never got around to playing it until about 10 years ago. Just one of those things. Without experiencing it growing up, one way or the other, I prefer just the metallic sound sample when attacking. Now, I know Strider seems a bit primitive to some, and it is extremely straightforward, but there's always been something about the presentation that makes it into something much cooler for me. I have a similar feeling about Splatterhouse. The Mega Drive port really was impressive. The only major issue I had with that port was significant slowdown during the jungle stage. The way the vines bend probably requires some math that taxes the CPU. Last year, I tried the NES version of Strider. I had high hopes because I love those old NES action platformers with tiny sprite heroes like Power Blade, Shatterhand, Shadow of the Ninja, Ninja Geiden, etc. NES Strider looked very similar. I liked their approach in making a totally different game. In fact, my understanding is it's more in line with the manga(yes, it was a comic tie in). It has good ideas and isn't awful, but it's also an unfinished and glitchy mess. I could tell just from playing it how buggy it was, but I recently saw a video that dove into the technical side of the game and it apparently has fundamental programming issues with the way it displays sprites. And if that's not weird enough, they made the game to be like the manga in terms of narrative, as I said, but then never released the game in Japan making that aspect irrelevant. I wonder if someone got the idea that they could recoup some of their costs by releasing what they had, a game that was maybe 85 percent complete and needed major play testing it never got, in the US. I think it could have been really good with just a bit more work.

Wow, more versions than I realised

2014... was it really that long ago that i watched the first? I do love these remastered episodes.

Is it wrong I actually liked the Amiga version? Bare in mind I played it before I saw either the Arcade or MD version. Once I’d played the MD version and realised the Amiga version had half the original content missing things changed 😅 the Arcade and MD versions are amongst my favourite games of the era, the design of the stages and enemies and use of changing music to create atmosphere are impressive even now.

It really is amazing just how close the Genesis version is to the arcade original. Even seeing it side-by-side it fares well, the only real giveaways are some slight color differences and the pauses for decompression. Of course the PS and X68000 ports were even closer to the arcade, but those are both far more powerful machines. As for the rest.. well at least the PC Engine version wasn't developed by Tiertex, though I have to wonder just what the hell the arcade card is being used for. The PC Engine could do so much better in the right hands, just look at After Burner II, Outrun, and Street Fighter II' CE, all of which were released on hucards! Everything else is about what you expect from Tiertex. I remember trying out the SMS version on an emulator and thinking there was something very wrong, but the other Tiertex ports are even worse! It's a shame Sega didn't handle the Master System version instead, as that would have made a world of difference.

i was obsessed with this game since i was a kid. i even bought and played strider returns. and yes....i loved the nes game.

Strider, this game was at my 7-11 next to the Street Fighter 2 machine during the early part of the 90s and I must have wasted at least 30 bucks on it over 4 years Excite.

Strider always reminds me of the almost crazed push to have as arcade-perfect home version as possible- the true high water mark of any home console or comp. And while the NES version of this (and several other) arcade classics was remade as a totally different game, I thought sometimes they were better. It wasn't until years later that I realized just how shallow many arcade games actually were.

5:10 speaking of the Amiga port the game received incredibly well with many magazine reviewers gave it an almost perfect score, the Master System port which came later though didn't received as well as the Amiga one

A cracking remaster here thanks Mark, I remember getting that 8mb cart for the Megadrive and been blown away as I'd only recently played it in a arcade, I loved console gaming in those 16bit days were you'd get something really special a few times a month, I hardly play or complete any new games nowadays. Could you remaster your old Double Dragon battle if you haven't done so already, so many crap versions to play but I love the game all the same.

I remember when you did the first Strider video Mark. Man, how time flies when you're having fun bro. Looking forward to the next video from you bro. 8^) Anthony...

Strider. The first and only arcade game I can 1cc. Love that game Also, some other things to note: The X68000 port, like the Mega Drive version, borders the HUD. Some MD physics isn't 100% accurate. The jump to skip the first mini boss is no longer possible, for example. You can even choose the skip the PCE's extra stage LOL

Never let Tiertex anywhere near Strider Hiryuu, be it porting on other platforms NOT named the Mega Drive and Sharp X68K or create a sequel outside Capcom’s jurisdiction. And yet they got away with it big time, so they’re still in business today!

Strider has always been one of my big favorite action platformer games and the Mega Drive's version is very dear to me. What a luck to be grown with this version! The original arcade I've found later and looking at it made me admire the Sega's reprogramming work for the Capcom original even more. As for the Tiertex' works... I feel very pissed by such a piss-poor effort they made in almost all the systems! I say "almost" because I can find some little positive points. 1 - I prefer the Atari ST version rather than the Amiga due to its processing power and fine work on the soundtrack for the quite limited chip of the computer. 2 - Master System's version has to be the best 8-bit for the game... But that's not saying much due to the reasons you've pointed out in the video. After all, that was the one I've known back in the day. I've felt really amazed about the Sharp X68000's version, also about the PlayStation One's... I felt very intrigued about why on the Earth the Strider for the PC Engine CD has such weird physics, even having such great features for the system. It made me admire the care about Strider that Sega had even more again, despite its limitations...! (And you were very reasonable in putting the Japanese version of it as well!)

The Mega Drive version beats even the arcade, because it has the coolest ending.

Brutal Drive.

The Amiga version scored a bewildering 96% by some Commodore rag back in the day! 🤣🤣🤣

Strider! What a Classic. im goin' ta need to watch this one on my bigger screen... my old phone screen wont do this one any justice im sure! Btw nice one on the remaster 😁✌️

thats messed up that women isnt shown to he who composed the music. im glad you mentioned the artist

The C64 version has some decent renditions of the arcade's tunes. That's about it for that one.

I forgot how grating the sound design was in this

It's sad Tiertex handled the Master System port. I bet Sega could've done miracles if they had handled it and we could have a really good SMS Strider!

The PlayStation version is also the last game released for the PlayStation.

I'm pretty sure I left a comment on your first video when I first discovered your channel 3 years ago so I probably don't have anything valid to add that you, myself or anyone else hasn't already said LOL Except for great video Mark! And, thanks for nothing Tiertex! Seriously, I swear they had dirt on someone high up within US Gold or Capcom or something. How did these dunderheads get so much work back then?

I have both the Genesis (Mega Drive) and the PS1 versions. And if I can be honest, I've never played the home computer versions and for good reason. Cant have a good port when Tiertex is involved.

i still feel the mega drive port is marginally better than the arcade. the sprites and colours just seem to look better but that's just my opinion.

I’m going to have to boot up my CPS-1 multi and play some Strider to take away the bad taste of those Tiertex ports! 😅 The Megadrive port really is amazing, its plays so closely to the arcade it’s really well done. The only thing I don’t like about it are those gravity chambers where you orbit that sphere thing, I find it much harder than the arcade version for some reason. The PS1 port is excellent too, especially as you can unlock the ability to edit Hiryuu’s outfit to different colours.

Oh man, I feel the complete opposite way about the attack sounds. Being in the states I grew up with the north american version so the "shing shing shing" sound is iconic to me. "Huh huh huh" sounds dumb by comparison. To each his own I guess lol

Great video, as always. I’m sure I’m in the minority, but the grunting sound that Stryder makes while throwing his weapon irritated the crap out of me.

I remember Sega touting the Genesis version and saying 8 mega power and such when I was little kid in 1990. I have played the Pc Engine CD version and I agree it's terrible compared to the Genesis Version. I should try the PS1 version sometime. I played the remake on PS4.

Tiertex at its peak: even the ZX port looks faster than the Amiga port. Did they have any QA team?

I grew up playing the Mega Drive version. I saw you mentioning the speech languages of the arcade/X68000 versions, you forgot to mention the pirate boss, which speaks Portuguese.

It looks like the SEGA version is the top one!

Surprised at the poor quality of the Amiga version. That thing could run Shadow of The Beast II. Looks like a lazy ST port that doesn't use the Amiga's custom hardware maybe?

i heard someone is working on another Genesis version to improve it closer to the arcade

I think this might be my "magic wand" choice to obliterate every home conversion of this awesome arcade game. I'll never forgive Tiertex for sharting out the c64 and amiga versions in particular. Unforgivable, especially since it was released around the same time as Turrican and a glut of other properly programmed fast platformers.

I admit I grew up playing the Amiga version. Living in the UK I never saw the Megadrive version, or any of the other console versions; my only comparison was the 8-bit computers, and I guess Amiga / ST owners felt fairly happy with how much better their version was... I guess it can be quite hard to swallow that the Amiga version was in fact fairly rubbish next to certain consoles, but it is clear in this video. Ah well, c'est la vie. Come to think of it Retro Core's comments about Tiertex do ring very true. I think they had a reputation for churning out arcade conversions that looked like the arcade version on the back of the box, but in a quick time and for a cheap price. So the various publishers would keep hiring them. Looking at what other more meticulous developers produced (such as Team 17's Assassin) it is easy to try and imagine what the Amiga version could have been. Sigh.

Even weird, the Mega Drive version has a different ending from the Arcade version.

Fantastic genesis version. Some like it more than the original.

I'm still in awe with Strider after all these years. It only works in the Coin Op and Sega consoles.

Man, I had to mute this one just to ward of an encroaching headache.

You stated in the comments you wagered Tiertex outsourced Master System Paperboy and Gauntlet, as they were surprisingly good. You'd loose that wager 😂 Gary Vine coded Master System Paperboy· Former Console development manager at Tiertex · Former Programmer at Binary Design Tony R Porter did MS Gauntlet.. He's a British programmer most notable for having ported Gauntlet to more systems than anyone else, which adds another dimension to his last name.

For me the sword grunting sounds annoying and perfer the versions without it since thats how the Mega Drive version sounded for me back then. Still find this game looking and sounding really good. At least the arcade - Mega Drive versions. But my memory and skill have severly deteriorated on these games I used to beat easily :O

Megadrive's Strider is better than the arcade one. The arcade one looks cartoonish, the Megadrive one he looks Badass.

Has anyone picked up an Evercade EXP that has Capcom games built-in?

Think Disney would aprove of the Amstrad and PC Striders graphical Makeover, seems to fit their modern 📍portfolio.

2006 for the PlayStation? huh feels like yesterday

It’s a shame the only decent port is on the Mega Drive. Damn you US Gold.

Nice episode remaster, thanks! The ps1 era ports are really curious since the processors were not strong enough for emulation (or at least it would be a nightmare to implement even in assembly).

It's official. Strider gets yet another remastered Battle of the Ports treatment. But, if there is only one version missing in this video, then it's on Tiger LCD handheld system.

I can safely say the PS1 version slaughters the PC Engine version in comparison, as is the case with most PCE to PSX conversions.

Whoever thought "hahahahaha" should be the only sound the main character makes clearly never sat down to play it. That'd get annoying really quick.

I've heard something about an American C64 version. Apparently it was originally going to be a separate port entirely, but that got cancelled, so they just released Tiertex's garbage in the states instead. Also, come on, the PC Engine CD versions sucks, but you really can't sell any one on that after showing it after ever Tiertex version. I would've shown the Mega Drive, then PC Engine, then Tiertex ports IMO, but that's just a personal nitpick. Honestly, I found the ZX Spectrum and DOS versions somewhat playable, more so than Tiertex's other efforts. Not to say they're good, but at the very least they are playable.

I if I ever learned anything from your videos it don't try to play arcade games on random 80's PCs Ive never seen in real life before

Arcade and Mega Drive/Genesis are both GOATs. The Tiertex ports are about as fun as having car batteries hooked up to one's nipples and testicles at the same time...

Maybe you could do an interview with Tiertex sometime?

I really love do love this game, but Tiertex? Oh, fuck no. Here we go again.

Are you sure the Playstation version came out in 2006? I swear I played it earlier. Plus 2006 seems very late for a Original Playstation release.

Wait, the C64 version slows down every time you attack?

Tiertex