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[Zaratustra]

In which I (and you) make a list of games that never got released in the NES, Genesis, etc. or got released in inferior ports.

First: the MSX. Not the MSX2, that'll come later.

10: Bokosuka Wars: Yes, that very same. This game actually makes -sense- in the MSX release.
9: Ale Hop: A nice obstacle-course game.
8: Lazy Jones - A silly collection of minigames.
7: The Goonies: The best version of the original Goonies game is on the MSX.
6: King's Valley: Konami puzzle game.
5: La Abadía del Crimen: Complicated and entirely in Spanish, but one of the best developed games for the platform.
4: Thexder: Also had a NES version, but the MSX version is superior.
3 & 2: The Castle & The Castle Excellent: These two games use the same engine - first one is action, second one is puzzle. The NES port was miserable. I remade them but the remake crashes all the time so I should probably remake them again.
1: Maze of Galious: The gigantic Metroidvania that inspired La-Mulana. Has a rather decent PC remake.

[Burrito Al Pastor]

The only obscure-system game I can recommend with sincerity is Tails Adventure for the Sega Game Gear. It's a great game, and possibly the world's most obscure Metroidvanialike.

[JDigital]

Most succesful Amiga games were ported to the PC or other consoles. I can't think of ten.

5. Tanx 'n' Stuff, a freeware split-screen multiplayer  where you shoot each other with tiny tanks
4. Circuit Wars, a freeware turn-based game where you place wire and electronic components to try and send a spike from your base to your opponent's
3. Odyssey, a platform game where you start as a swordman and gain the ability to transform into different animals to use their modes of movement, combat abilities and night vision. Metroid-like, in that one of the forms is a rock monster who rolls around to enter tight spaces.
2. K240, an asteroid-colonization sim, which was remade on the PC as Fragile Allegiance, but the original is still an excellent game.
1. Knights, a fun two-player freeware game where you run around hitting each other with swords and looking for specific treasures (also setting traps on doors and chests, smashing doors and chests with hammers in case they're trapped, smashing tables for no reason, and stepping on pentagrams repeatedly when your opponent is about to escape with the objective in the hopes of randomly teleporting to him)

[Zaratustra]

I'd suggest Silkworm, too.

Alright, MSX2. the MSX2 had more "big-name" games and less garage companies than the MSX1, so pickings are a bit slimmer. Also, I didn't have a MSX 2, so descriptions will be lighter.

10. Penguin Adventure: The sequel to Antarctic Adventure has some nice effects for the time.
9: Hino Tori/Firebird: Scrolling shmup.
8: King's Valley 2: Gigantic puzzle/action game.
7: Aleste 2: Also a shmup.
6: Space Manbow: This time, a horizontal shmup.
5: SD Snatcher: Parody of Snatcher with super-deformed characters.
4: Xak II: The Rising of the Red Moon: A japanese RPG. Has english translations on the webnet.
3: Treasure of Usas: Another Maze of Galious-like.
2. Vampire Killer: The original Castlevania.
1. Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake: -the- game most people get MSX emulators for.

[Beat Bandit]

Revenge of the Nerds - NERDS!

seriously why don't we have an :ogre: yet?

[fullmooninu]

i don't have a list... but i have this cool thing: http://www.racketboy.com/guide/hidden-gems

[Thad]

Yeah, I've been using Racketboy's "Games that Define" and "Hidden Gems" lists pretty extensively in racking up games for consoles I'm not really familiar with.

I had a Game Gear but not a Master System, so I played the first few SMS/GG Sonic games and some stuff like that.  The Golden Axe Zelda clone looks interesting, and I've played a bit of the original Phantasy Star and concluded I probably want maps.  (Pity the PS2 version with automap never came to the States.)

From my reading, out of the myriad rereleases of Ys I&II the Turbo CD version is the one to play.  I guess it's available on VC?

[Brentai]

Yes and yes.

America got the absolute best and the absolute worst ports of the game.  Of course it's the worst port, the SMS one, that more people got exposed to, which accounted for much of the game's notoriety.

[Thad]

Slightly off-topic: man, is there a console that sounds better than Sega CD?

I mean, it's like, okay, you just spent a bunch of money on this thing.  And it plays CD's.  What are CD's for?  Music.  And these games aren't that damn big; five megabytes is still a pretty huge damn game at this point in time.

So we are not going to fuck around with that MIDI shit.  We are going to give you goddamn uncompressed Redbook audio.  You can stick this in a CD player.  It is a CD.

And we are going to use whatever mixing tricks we can to make your two speakers sound like surround sound.

So, I dunno.  I don't have a PS3/360.  But seriously, PS2/PSP/Wii on down...I mean, their games have some great damn tunes on them.  But they just don't feel like their designers cared as much about the sheer damn aural experience of the thing.

Guess I've played some PC games with pretty great audio.  So probably PS3/360 are similar with the right kit.  But if that's true, still, damned if it isn't ridiculous that it took 4 hardware generations to catch back up.

[Bal]

Weirdly PSone had Redbook audio and all that, but most of the best soundtracks still used the on board sound. Case in point, Castlevania:SotN is all on board sound.

[Thad]

Well, in most cases it was a question of prioritizing the video over the audio.  It was the era of games taking up three or four discs just for speckly FMV.  Something like FF7 with Redbook audio would be impossible (on CD -- perfectly doable on Blu-Ray).

Course, that doesn't excuse games like SotN, FFT, and the original Suikoden stacking completely superfluous FMV's on when they could have been using that space for better audio.  (Suikoden 2 and, say, DQ7 are a different story; their FMV's were largely superfluous but they have enough music tracks that you wouldn't be able to fit them all on one disc uncompressed.  MML could have probably gotten away with compressing its voice tracks but using Redbook for the music.)

[Brentai]

I'm going to assume from the fact that you're praising the Sega CD and not the JOHNNY TURBO CD for its use of Redbook that you have not yet gotten around to playing Ys Book I & II.

Ys I & II PCE - Ruins of Moondoria

[Thad]

Well, yes (though does it still sound that good on the Wii download, or have they MP3'd everything up?).  Point is, early-1990's-vintage CD-based consoles still equated CD's with audio.  I've never even seen a Turbo CD, so yes Sega CD is my go-to example, but I expect Turbo's pretty similar, and probably 3DO and maybe even Jaguar CD.

[Pacobird]

Additionally:

Ys I & II PCE - Noble District of Toal



This is as good a place as any to remind everyone that Ys 7 is so good it's hard to remember it's part of the same series.

[Zaratustra]

ZX Spectrum had a shitload of games made for it, but a lot of them are poorer clones of other platforms.

1. Head over Heels - Ocean Software - This puzzle game is in a shitload of platforms, but it might as well be put here to represent all the bloody isometric puzzle games for the spectrum.
2. Manic Miner - Bug-Byte Software Ltd - The predecessor to Jet Set Willy.
3. Knight Lore - Ultimate Play The Game - OH WAIT THERE'S ANOTHER FUCKING ISOMETRIC PUZZLE GAME.
4. Back to Skool - Microsphere - An interesting school adventure.
5. Lunar Jetman - Ultimate Play The Game - Sequel to Jetpac, first game by the team that'd eventually become Rare.
6. Jet Set Willy - Software Projects Ltd - And here is the fucker. Pretty much the first metroidvania.
7. Ant Attack - Quicksilva Ltd - Isometric adventure.
8. Deus Ex Machina - Automata UK Ltd - This is one bizarre game.
9. Rebel Star - Firebird Software Ltd - Strategy game.
10. Monty on the Run - Gremlin Graphics Software - Another slip-screen fucker.