When it debuted in 1987, Double Dragon ran on a board that was miles beyond the capabilities of any home console available at the time. except back then developers targeted the powerful arcade hardware first rather than up-converting games from consoles. Think of the difference between a console and PC version for a modern game. Whatever the case, arcade-to-console conversions made for tricky business back in the ’80s and ’90s. Technos' own conversions came off as thoughtful variations on a familiar theme, like a great live band improvising on its most popular song, where other developers' works demonstrated the desperate longing for authenticity you hear from a middling cover band. Double Dragon for Nintendo consoles follows the same beats as the arcade game without feeling like an attempt to copy the coin-op slavishly the way outsourced ports did.

So perhaps they simply demonstrate the confidence of a creator iterating on its own work. Then again, maybe the difference is that franchise creator Technos Japan seemingly developed the Nintendo renditions themselves. That may have had something to do with Nintendo's imperious edict that publishers had to create unique versions of multiplatform games for NES and Game Boy every other system saw more-or-less direct arcade ports, while Nintendo players ended up with fundamentally similar but heavily altered renditions. Both Nintendo conversions had a style quite unlike any other take on the game. Not surprisingly, Double Dragon on Game Boy most closely resembles the NES adaptation of the game. Ive played many incarnations of Technos' classic arcade brawler through the years, from the coin-op original to the tacky-but-fun Double Dragon Neon, but somehow had never bothered with the series' first portable conversion until I stumbled through it as part of my ongoing personal journey through the Game Boy's entire library. I recently played Double Dragon on Game Boy for the first time, and it presented me with a genuine learning experience.

After all, game developers today face many of same challenges as designers of bygone eras, just in different forms. Playing a dusty old archival release is fun, sure, but often it helps me to see the successes and failures of modern games more clearly. I never cease to be amazed by how much I can learn from classic video games.

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