NovaCoder wrote:
I'm a coder (and user) who simply wants to run the best versions of games on platforms that don't natively support them.
My impression is that in most cases where we support different versions, the other versions are quite similar internally. At worst, data may be stored in a different byte order, graphics may be compressed differently and the sound may be completely different, but those are all things that should be fairly easy to handle so that the different versions don't interfere with each other. Of course, the more common versions are still the ones who will receive the most testing. I don't see the harm.
Also, who decides which version is the best? I've heard people claim that at least musically, the Amiga version of
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is the superior one. After listening to some YouTube clips of it, I'd say they're deranged but it's still a valid opinion. Even in the cases where almost everyone agrees, the best version may be prohibitively rare and expensive. For instance, the 256-colour version of
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mind Benders for the FM-Towns is currently going for $600 on eBay, and no one I know has even
seen the CD version of
Future Wars for sale anywhere.
I would guess that a far greater source of regressions are the engines which support a large number of
different games. We could probably simplify the SCUMM and SCI engines a lot by deciding to only support the "best" SCUMM and SCI games. Obviously, that would be
Day of the Tentacle and
Gabriel Knight Sins of the Fathers. Whew, I'm glad we're all in
complete agreement on that!
