Dominic, pedantry, like all tools at a thinker's disposal, can prove beneficial when used correctly, or extremely harmful when used
incorrectly. No tool is good or bad
per se: the trick, what distinguishes the great thinkers from the poor ones, is to know which tool to use in which case.
In this case, it would of course be technically correct to say that "every port necessarily has differences to the original version". But this truth is useless to us, because... well, technically, even two PCBs OF THE SAME GAME have differences. Recap has mentioned this somewhere on gamengai: there are often tiny manufacturing differences even between two PCBs of the same goddamn game -- differences which are of course indistinguishable by human beings, but can of course be determined by examining the board and/or analyzing its performance with appropriate software or hardware tools.
But what does all this have to do with the issue of reviewing games and their ports? Absolutely nothing, that's what. Because reviews are written by human beings for human beings -- not for machines. If a human being can't tell a difference -- then as far as that human being is concerned THERE AREN'T ANY. Technically, there are always differences of course. Practically there often aren't. And that is why I am justified in saying that "a port does not necessarily have differences to the original" -- HUMANLY PERCEIVED DIFFERENCES, it goes without saying.
Doctor Fugue wrote:Even if the differences were indistinguishable to me, I would still consider a port to be changed
And no one would really give a shit :) Not even you, in fact, because you wouldn't be able to tell the differences.
