It is perhaps not such a thing these days, partially because Sony and Microsoft go some way to ensuring near identical offerings of games between their platforms, but where games get ported between platforms you usually end up with one of them being the lesser port.
http://retro-sanctuary.com/Comparisons Main.html covers a few of them.
The internet archive's recent adding of several thousand DOS games, including the DOS version of Toobin', got me thinking though. In that case the DOS version usually ended up being the definitive version, or if not that then the similarly open Amiga tended to find itself on par.
Equally the last go around saw the rather technically inferior DS go up against the PSP, but sometimes have the same games, and the PSP even saw remakes of several GBA games. GBAtemp's IRC also saw many people seek assistance in playing the Wii version of Call of Duty for reasons we were never able to fathom, it happened often enough that I have to think there might be something there.
This is not about which is best though but which versions of games did you find yourself really enjoying or attaching to the "lesser" version of.
Did you know it was the lesser version at the time? Quite often the NES and SNES would see ports of arcade or games on consoles that were "Big in Japan". This even goes right up to games like Castlevania.
Was the console you were playing it on your only console? Though DOS might have been superior there was a time where a PC was considered one of the bigger investments a family was set to make.
I am accepting "well the PS1 got ??? but at the same time there was also a GBC version named exactly the same and telling the same story that I really liked and played for hours". GBAtemp recommends revival often featured handheld games that did surprisingly well for being named the same as a far shinier console or PC game.
Ideally your picks would not be "I just like the GBA form factor more than the DS" but it is valid. It can come the other way as well as many consider the DS and andrios ports of some of the earlier Final Fantasy titles to not be good, however for others it might well have been your first experience of it, or at least first experience of it on a then current console.
For me
Street Racer on the megadrive/genesis. The SNES version was quite different but I still enjoyed this.
Bomberman on the megadrive/genesis. Mainly as I did not know about the PCE/TG16 version at the time, indeed even the SNES version was something I missed out on.
Tetris 2 on the NES. Mainly as this is what I had.
Talespin on the NES.
Probably quite a few things on the C64 if they appeared elsewhere.
Forsaken on the N64, it is actually one of my favourite N64 games. However I still need to do the PC version properly.
Though Streets of Rage is one of my favourite franchises there is a certain level of amusement that I derived from the master system/game gear (I had a master system adapter available) versions.
It looks like despite best intentions I have waffled over the top of a simple discussion setup so I will leave it there for now.
http://retro-sanctuary.com/Comparisons Main.html covers a few of them.
The internet archive's recent adding of several thousand DOS games, including the DOS version of Toobin', got me thinking though. In that case the DOS version usually ended up being the definitive version, or if not that then the similarly open Amiga tended to find itself on par.
Equally the last go around saw the rather technically inferior DS go up against the PSP, but sometimes have the same games, and the PSP even saw remakes of several GBA games. GBAtemp's IRC also saw many people seek assistance in playing the Wii version of Call of Duty for reasons we were never able to fathom, it happened often enough that I have to think there might be something there.
This is not about which is best though but which versions of games did you find yourself really enjoying or attaching to the "lesser" version of.
Did you know it was the lesser version at the time? Quite often the NES and SNES would see ports of arcade or games on consoles that were "Big in Japan". This even goes right up to games like Castlevania.
Was the console you were playing it on your only console? Though DOS might have been superior there was a time where a PC was considered one of the bigger investments a family was set to make.
I am accepting "well the PS1 got ??? but at the same time there was also a GBC version named exactly the same and telling the same story that I really liked and played for hours". GBAtemp recommends revival often featured handheld games that did surprisingly well for being named the same as a far shinier console or PC game.
Ideally your picks would not be "I just like the GBA form factor more than the DS" but it is valid. It can come the other way as well as many consider the DS and andrios ports of some of the earlier Final Fantasy titles to not be good, however for others it might well have been your first experience of it, or at least first experience of it on a then current console.
For me
Street Racer on the megadrive/genesis. The SNES version was quite different but I still enjoyed this.
Bomberman on the megadrive/genesis. Mainly as I did not know about the PCE/TG16 version at the time, indeed even the SNES version was something I missed out on.
Tetris 2 on the NES. Mainly as this is what I had.
Talespin on the NES.
Probably quite a few things on the C64 if they appeared elsewhere.
Forsaken on the N64, it is actually one of my favourite N64 games. However I still need to do the PC version properly.
Though Streets of Rage is one of my favourite franchises there is a certain level of amusement that I derived from the master system/game gear (I had a master system adapter available) versions.
It looks like despite best intentions I have waffled over the top of a simple discussion setup so I will leave it there for now.