Metal Slug 2 – reducing the slowdown (2015) | Hacker News Reader

Metal Slug 2 – reducing the slowdown (2015)

blog.system11.org

166 pointsshawndumas37 comments

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.

I think the disclaimer was more about avoiding a takedown notice from SNK.

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

double standard

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

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.

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

hypocrisy is a highly effective strategy of improving and retaining your standing in society

Just like stealing and other forms of deception, it usually only works if you don't get caught.

Actual details on the patch by Trap15: http://daifukkat.su/blog/archives/2015/03/30/its_turbo_time/

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.

>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.

Goldeneye 007 explosions on N64.

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.

Max Payne.

PS2 Shadow of the Colossus

The slowdown in MSlug2 was basically a bug. The game is "supposed" to slow down in some situations, but not as much as it does in the original.

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 ).

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).

Thanks!

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.)

> "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

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?

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.

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.

Where can i get the new version of Metal slug?

There is an official emulated version available on the PS3 PSN store. It was developed by a supremely talented small Japanese company called M2. In the game, they included an option to overclock the CPU and it makes a big difference. My favourite way to play the game.

M2 was also responsible for the 3D Sega classics on 3DS which are incredible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_(game_developer)

On the Nintendo Switch there are plenty of Neo-Geo/SNK titles in the eShop, including Metal Slug, Samurai Showdown, Fatal Fury and others.

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.

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

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

I don't recall any slowdown in Metal Slug 2 playing the rom in MAME in the early 2000s so you are probably right.

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...

>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.

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"

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).

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

Tight schedule, limited budget. This wasn't a huge-production project like today's AAA titles.

Obviously they noticed it was framedropping, maybe they figured they couldn't do anything about that in the time they had, and missed that they were actually dropping one frame too many.

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