Editing Porting (section)

== {{Anchor|Porting in gaming|conversion}} Porting of video games ==
{{Redirect|Video game port|the hardware connector|Game port}}
Porting is also the term used when a [[video game]] designed to run on one platform, be it an [[Arcade game|arcade]], [[video game console]], or [[personal computer]], is converted to run on a different platform, perhaps with some minor differences.<ref name="Wolf2008">{{cite book|last=Wolf|first=Mark J. P.|title=The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XiM0ntMybNwC&pg=PA315|year=2008|isbn=978-0-313-33868-7|page=315|chapter=Glossary|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic}}</ref> From the beginning of video games through to the 1990s, "ports", at the time often known as "[[Video game conversion|conversions]]", were often not true ports, but rather reworked versions of the games due to the limitations of different systems. For example, the 1982 game ''[[The Hobbit (1982 video game)|The Hobbit]]'', a text adventure augmented with graphic images, has significantly different graphic styles across the range of personal computers that its ports were developed for.<ref name="port vs conversion">{{citation | last1 = Grabarczyk | first1 = Pawel | first2 = Espen | last2= Aarseth | title = Port or conversion? An ontological framework for classifying game versions {{!}} DiGRA Conference 2019 | date = 2019}}</ref> However, many 21st century video games are developed using software (often in [[C++]]) that can output code for one or more consoles as well as for a PC without the need for actual porting (instead relying on the common porting of individual component [[Library (software)|libraries]]).<ref name="port vs conversion"/>

Porting arcade games to home systems with inferior hardware was difficult. The ported version of ''[[Pac-Man]]'' for the [[Atari 2600]] omitted many of the visual features of the original game to compensate for the lack of [[ROM]] space and the hardware struggled when multiple ghosts appeared on the screen creating a flickering effect. The poor performance of the [[Pac-Man (Atari 2600)|Atari 2600 ''Pac-Man'']] is cited by some scholars as a cause of the [[video game crash of 1983]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nicoll |first1=Benjamin |title=Bridging the Gap: The Neo Geo, the Media Imaginary, and the Domestication of Arcade Games |journal=Games and Culture |date=2015 |doi=10.1177/1555412015590048|s2cid=147981978}}</ref>

Many early ports suffered significant gameplay quality issues because computers greatly differed.{{r|bunten198412}} [[Richard Garriott]] stated in 1984 at [[Origins Game Fair]] that [[Origin Systems]] developed video games for the [[Apple II]] first then ported them to [[Commodore 64]] and [[Atari 8-bit computers]], because the latter machines' [[sprite (computer graphics)|sprite]]s and other sophisticated features made porting from them to Apple "far more difficult, perhaps even impossible".<ref name="cgw198410">{{cite magazine | title=The CGW Computer Game Conference | magazine=Computer Gaming World | date=October 1984 | access-date=31 October 2013 | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1984&pub=2&id=18 | pages=30 | type=panel discussion}}</ref> Reviews complained of ports that suffered from "Apple conversionitis",<ref name="info198701c64">{{Cite magazine |last1=Dunnington |first1=Benn |last2=Brown |first2=Mark R. |last3=Malcolm |first3=Tom |date=January–February 1987 |title=64/128 Gallery |url=https://archive.org/stream/info-magazine-13/Info_Issue_13_1987_Jan-Feb#page/n13/mode/2up |magazine=Info |pages=14–21}}</ref> retaining the Apple's "lousy sound and black-white-green-purple graphics";<ref name="aw1984">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/Atari_Software_1984#page/n21/mode/2up | title=The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software | publisher=Addison-Wesley | year=1984 | pages=12,21,44,126 | isbn=0-201-16454-X | editor1=Stanton, Jeffrey | editor2=Wells, Robert P. | editor3=Rochowansky, Sandra | editor4=Mellid, Michael}}</ref><ref name="bernstein198505">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/1985-05-anticmagazine/Antic_Vol_4-01_1985-05_New_Super_Ataris#page/n81/mode/2up | title=Beyond Castle Wolfenstein | work=Antic | date=May 1985 | access-date=8 January 2015 | author=Bernstein, Harvey | pages=83}}</ref> after Garriott's statement, when [[Dan Bunten]] asked "Atari and Commodore people in the audience, are you happy with the Apple rewrites?" the audience shouted "No!" Garriott responded, "[otherwise] the Apple version will never get done. From a publisher's point of view that's not money wise".{{r|cgw198410}}

Others worked differently. [[Ozark Softscape]], for example, wrote ''[[M.U.L.E.]]'' for the Atari first because it preferred to develop for the most advanced computers, removing or altering features as necessary during porting. Such a policy was not always feasible; Bunten stated that "M.U.L.E. can't be done for an Apple",<ref name="bunten198412">{{cite magazine | title=Dispatches / Insights From the Strategy Game Design Front | magazine=Computer Gaming World | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1984&pub=2&id=19 | date=December 1984 | access-date=31 October 2013 | author=Bunten, Dan | pages=40}}</ref> and that the non-Atari versions of ''[[The Seven Cities of Gold (video game)|The Seven Cities of Gold]]'' were inferior.<ref name="buntengamedesignmemoir">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ozarksoftscape.com/the-game-collection.html |title=The Game Collection |last=Bunten |first=Dan |website=Ozark Softscape M.U.L.E. |access-date=2017-10-04}}</ref> ''[[Compute!'s Gazette]]'' wrote in 1986 that when porting from Atari to Commodore the original was usually superior. The latter's games' quality improved when developers began creating new software for it in late 1983, the magazine stated.<ref name="Yakal198606">{{Cite magazine |last=Yakal |first=Kathy |date=June 1986 |title=The Evolution of Commodore Graphics |url=https://archive.org/details/1986-06-computegazette/page/n35 |magazine=Compute!'s Gazette |pages=34–42 |access-date=2019-06-18}}</ref>

In porting [[arcade game]]s, the terms "arcade perfect" or "arcade accurate" were often used to describe how closely the gameplay, graphics, and other assets on the ported version matched the arcade version. Many arcade ports in the early 1980s were far from arcade perfect as home consoles and computers lacked the sophisticated hardware in arcade games, but games could still approximate the gameplay. Notably, ''[[Space Invaders]]'' on the [[Atari VCS]] became the console's [[killer app]] despite its differences,<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Ultimate History of Video Games]] |first=Steven |last=Kent | authorlink = Steven L. Kent |page=190 |publisher=[[Three Rivers Press]] |isbn=0-7615-3643-4 |year=2001}}</ref> while the later [[Pac-Man (Atari 2600)|''Pac-Man'' port]] was notorious for its deviations from the arcade version.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Ultimate History of Video Games | last = Kent | first = Steven | year = 2001 | chapter = The Fall | publisher = [[Three Rivers Press]] | pages = 237–239 | isbn = 978-0-7615-3643-7}}</ref> Arcade-accurate games became more prevalent starting in the 1990s as home consoles caught up to the power of arcade systems. Notably, the [[Neo Geo (system)|Neo Geo]] system from [[SNK]], which was introduced as a multi-game arcade system, would also be offered as a home console with the same specifications. This allowed arcade perfect games to be played at home.<ref name="port vs conversion"/>

A "console port" is a game that was originally or primarily made for a console before a version is created which can be played on a [[personal computer]]. The process of porting games from console to PC is often regarded more cynically than other types of port due to the more powerful hardware some PCs have even at console launch being underutilized, partially due to console hardware being fixed throughout each [[History of video game consoles#Console generations|generation]] as newer PCs constantly become even more powerful. While broadly similar today, some architectural differences persist, such as the use of [[unified memory]] and smaller [[Operating system|OSs]] on consoles. Other objections arise from [[user interface]] differences conventional to consoles, such as [[gamepad]]s, [[10-foot user interface|TFUIs]] accompanied by narrow [[Field of view in video games|FoV]], fixed [[Saved game#Checkpoints|checkpoints]], [[Online game|online]] restricted to official [[Game server|servers]] or [[Peer-to-peer|P2P]], poor or no [[Video game modding|modding]] support, as well as the generally greater reliance among console developers on internal [[hard coding]] and [[Default (computer science)|defaults]] instead of external [[API]]s and [[Computer configuration|configurability]], all of which may require expensive deep reaching redesign to avoid a "lazy" feeling port to PC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/stop-making-horrible-console-ports-a-guide/ |title=Stop making horrible console ports - a guide |publisher=[[PC Gamer]] |year=2013}}</ref>