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View topic - It is weird that the MSX port of Fantasy Zone is explicitly based off the SMS version

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It is weird that the MSX port of Fantasy Zone is explicitly based off the SMS version
Post Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 7:11 am
In the 80's, lots of Sega games got ported to other computers and systems, but they were almost always the arcade ports of the game. The only major exception people know about is the NES version of Shinobi, which is based on the SMS version with a life bar instead of the arcade version. Nearly every other game is explicitly a port of the arcade versions of Sega games, not the Master System port. For example, Wonder Boy -- on nearly every computer, it has the arcade status bar which the SMS version lacks. Or Choplifter, the NES version is a port of the Sega arcade version which is slightly different than the SMS version (the SMS version lacks level 4, which the NES version has).

The biggest example of a game series which has seen numerous unique ports is Fantasy Zone. Fantasy Zone got *two* NES/Famicom ports, plus ports to loads of computers like the x68000. And all of those are based on the arcade version, because the SMS version is actually quite a bit different.

It is likely that Fantasy Zone might have been the very first Sega Master System game made, and was definitely made in-house at Sega of Japan. Because of this, it features a number of pretty unique differences, such as:

*The generation bases in Level 1 Plaleaf are drawn very differently from the arcade version. In the arcade (and all other versions), the bases are circular and animated, their bottom half of the base blooms outward and opens up to release enemies, like a flower. The SMS version has no animation for the bases, so they instead drew them with the bottom base always opened, but in redrawing it this way, the bottom of the base is shaped in a way completely unlike any frame of animation in the original. They now resemble spikes turned downward instead of hinging pedals. Also note that the background is different, the patterns shown on the mountains and flowers don't exist in that exact arrangement in the arcade or any other port, but are identical on the SMS and MSX (and this goes for all backgrounds in the game):

*Volanda, the boss of Level 2 Tabas, only has 3 rotating weak points in the SMS version, instead of the 8 of the arcade version:

*Level 3 La Dune features numerous different enemies from the arcade version. Bol-Bol, the enemy that the generators drop, seemingly does not exist in this port, and instead the generators drop Puyolon, the enemy dropped in level 6 Mockstar. And patas, bird-like enemies not found in this level in the arcade version, are also present.

*Crabumger, the boss of level 4 Dolimica, has been completely changed owing likely to sprite limit. Instead of a boss with two long multi-sprite arms, it is instead a square shark-looking bright monster that shoots teeth at you

*Winklone, the boss of level 6 Mockstar, is also omitted. Instead of being a cloud with multiple arms, it is replaced by a turtle which shoots bullets of its back

*every boss's backgrounds change to a solid color. While multiple ports did this, the SMS port has each boss background change to a different, unique color.

*the SMS and MSX endings sequences are different than the arcade and other port endings. All endings to Fantasy zone feature the same text, but the arcade endings features a static screen with a graphic for the word "the end" at the bottom and no credits. The SMS and MSX versions feature scrolling text, with no "the end" graphics, and immediately are followed by credits listed in the same order (Staff: Programmed by, Designed by, Music By, Directed By, Special Thanks, Produced by {Pony /} Sega). The only difference is the pseudonyms used in each credits.

All these changes are revered in every other home port of Fantasy Zone, *EXCEPT* the MSX port. The MSX port contains all these same weird oddities, but is *NOT* identical to the SMS port. It is very clearly a different port, because it has it's own unique features:

*Obviously all the color counts for sprites is massively reduced owing to MSX hardware

*Poppoos, the boss of level 5 Polaria, is different. Instead of multiple rows of increasingly sized snow men, you now fight one single snow man, who shoots other smaller snow-men out of it's beak.

*Ida 2, the boss of Level 7 Pocarius, is similarly different. Instead of scaling in and out of the screen in multiple sprites, it now is one solid object that shoots smaller versions of itself out of it's mouth.

Other than these changes, all the unique changes to the SMS version is included in the MSX version, including the background colors for the bosses, and weird changes like the enemy changes and unique not-in-arcade enemy in La Dune.

The MSX version is made by Pony Canyon, who made lots of other Sega ports to the MSX. Unlike Fantasy Zone, though, all those ports are based on the arcade versions of the Sega games, not the SMS version. Indeed, it seems like this MSX port of Fantasy Zone is very unique among other Sega ports.

Some might mention that the MSX and SMS share a connection in Korea where games were often ported from the MSX to SMS, like Super Boy. That's pretty different than what's happening here. The SMS-MSX Korean connection is really a connection between the SG-1000 and MSX, the same overlap that the colecovision shares with both. In the case of Korea, it's MSX games being adapted to the SMS as SG-1000 games through VDP Mode 0, where the SMS basically becomes an SG-1000, which is a clone of the Colecovision just like the MSX. So the work flow there is MSX -> SG-1000 -> SMS. That's why, for example, Super Boy on the SMS uses tile-width scrolling, because the MSX lacks horizontal scroll registers.

In this case, it's the opposite. It's an SMS game, one that uses the VDP mode of the SMS that the MSX lacks, and is ported backwards. This is SMS -> MSX, and it's important to note that this is the *original* MSX, not the MSX2 as is the case with the SMS -> MSX2 port of Fantasy Zone II or Outrun also by Pony Canyon. It is significantly much more work to go from the SMS -> MSX, as opposed to going from the MSX -> SMS. That's what makes the port so curious, the amount of work it takes to go from the SMS -> MSX is significant enough, that you'd expect them to just rework the bits from the arcade version instead, since it's tantamount to the same amount of re-engineering on the VDP side of things. There's no real hardware benefit of going from the SMS VDP assets to the MSX like you'd get from the opposite direction conversion.

Why was Pony Canyon allowed to follow the SMS version when all others didn't? Why did Sega share their in-house changes for Fantasy Zone with another company? Very strange stuff indeed.
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 10:53 am
One inaccuracy there: it would be incorrect to consider MSX and SG-1000 as Colecovision clones: what really happened was that all of them happened to use a combination of Z80 processor, one of the most popular 8-bit CPUs at the time, plus Texas Instruments VDP and PSG, which existed since the tail end of the 70's, and where very cost-effective at the early 80's. This combination allowed a nice capability at a low cost, which meant that a few computer and consoles arrived at those 3 chips quite independently. In fact, the only similarities between MSX, SG-1000 and Colecovision would be those three chips, given that they are interconnected in very different ways, not because they were purposefully designed to be different, but because they were designed more or less in the same period, without knowing or caring about each other.
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 11:08 am
haroldoop wrote
One inaccuracy there: it would be incorrect to consider MSX and SG-1000 as Colecovision clones: what really happened was that all of them happened to use a combination of Z80 processor, one of the most popular 8-bit CPUs at the time, plus Texas Instruments VDP and PSG, which existed since the tail end of the 70's, and where very cost-effective at the early 80's. This combination allowed a nice capability at a low cost, which meant that a few computer and consoles arrived at those 3 chips quite independently. In fact, the only similarities between MSX, SG-1000 and Colecovision would be those three chips, given that they are interconnected in very different ways, not because they were purposefully designed to be different, but because they were designed more or less in the same period, without knowing or caring about each other.


The convention of calling off-the-shelf computers of the time "clones" is well known. Example of this is how the Tandy 1000 is often referred to as a "clone" of the IBM PC Jr, despite exhibiting the exact same differences re: address mappings as the MSX/SG-1000/Colecovision (and truthfully even deeper discrepancies). When you are talking about 80's computers which used off the shelf parts, you tend to use the term "clone." Perhaps "compatible" would be a better term to use.

Regardless, the exact birth of the MSX/Colecovision/SG-1000 isn't important at all to the point I was making: porting titles between those model computers is much less difficult than porting something from the SMS to those computers, owing to the deeper architectural differences. It is common to see MSX ports to the Colecovision, and Colecovision ports to the SG-1000, and SG-1000 ports to the MSX, and all other permutations. It is not common to see SMS ports to the MSX, Colecovision, or SG-1000.

Worth noting re: MSX Fantasy Zone, the packaging for the game completely lacks any reference to Sega, despite Sega being mentioned on the title screen and credits. Compare this to, say, Dempa's release of Fantasy Zone for the x68000 in Japan, and Sega's name is all over the box.
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 2:20 pm
This MSX box mentions Sega:

https://segaretro.org/File:FantasyZone_MSX_JP_Box_Back.jpg
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