The Version Question

[Mirage]

The PS1 ports of the SNES classics usually are hated by fans more familiar with the originals. In comparison to other PS1 games at the time, the lag on FFIV-VI isn't so bad but for people who played the lag free versions on the SNES tend to notice pretty quickly. VI wasn't as bad as CT dear god...

It is a bit worse than original PS1 games too, mostly because those games were made with the limitations of the disc based storage system in mind, and therefore had data such as the main menu stored in RAM at all times. FF4-6 however, which were programmed with a cartridge in mind, did not attempt to do that at all, because the game assumed it would get instant access to the data needed without access times worth mentioning. With a disc and considerably slower access times, that wasn't possible, but the game wasn't modified to take that into account.

While this is mostly guesswork based on newer sorts of storage types similar to what cartridges used, I would say that access times for a SNES cartridge could be as low as a millisecond (modern day SSDs can get below 0.1 ms). Compare that to a modern day hard disk, which are still at around 8-14 ms, and a 1x CD drive (found in the PS1) which has got at least 150 ms (that's a theoretical minimum, in many cases it could be more than 300 ms).

While a few milliseconds doesn't seem all that slow to most people, you gotta remember that it's 150 milliseconds *each time* the game needs data that isn't prefectly lined up after the previous chunk of data it needed. This quickly adds up to quite a bit of time.

[Levian]

The slow loading times on the PS were very noticeable and very annoying.

I've played all three versions and I'd recommend GBA.

[ChaosPearl]

Fabulous, thanks people. Don't know about the OP but I took everyone's advice and gave up my RPGone game for the GBA. The translation is so much better it hurts -- you can tell even in the opening scene!

I'm a little sad that the music quality sucks, but the sacrifice is well worth it for the ability to stuff the game into my back pocket and play it in the comfort of, well, anywhere I happen to be. I have the CD soundtrack anyway, I might just listen to that and play with the game volume off.

[MJN SEIFER]

I have a second model of the PS2 (the small grey one as apposed to the big black one), and the non-anthology version of FFVI if that makes any difference to there being a lag. I have heard talks about the lag before, and if it exists, I must have just managed to avoid it all this time.

[KainHighwind]

Fabulous, thanks people. Don't know about the OP but I took everyone's advice and gave up my RPGone game for the GBA. The translation is so much better it hurts -- you can tell even in the opening scene!

Yeah, I've checked out the well-known fan translations, thinking they were going to be amazing, and they didn't do much for me. I especially hated the font used for one of them (I forget which, but you could probably guess).

SNES version is still the best in my opinion. For what Woolsey's translation supposedly lacks in accuracy, it makes up in charm.

Oh, and FWIW, I played through the Anthology version on a PS2, and wasn't terribly bothered by load times. Some of the sound effect changes annoyed me, however, as did the misspelling of "Narche," but overall, I think it's a worthwhile version.

I'm a little sad that the music quality sucks, but the sacrifice is well worth it for the ability to stuff the game into my back pocket and play it in the comfort of, well, anywhere I happen to be. I have the CD soundtrack anyway, I might just listen to that and play with the game volume off.

FYI, there is a ROM hack available that offers improved sound. Just Google it. Of course you need a GBA flashcart to play it. I have checked it out, and it's an improvement. Maybe it's not an option for you, but I have a DS/GBA flashcart combo, and I must say it was a very rewarding purchase, for reasons like this.

Actually, the GBA version is going to be my next playthrough - It is a lot easier for me to play handhelds these days, because we have a six month old baby, and most of my gaming time takes place on the crapper. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. The gaming, I mean.