History PortingDisaster / Computers

* The original ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' is notrious for having several game-breaking problems which are caused by having an uncapped framerate. These include extremely slow aiming, randomly getting killed in the zero gravity sections, and [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable broken scripted sequences that completely prevent you from progressing]]. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' has a far more functional port, but it has an infamous bug that prevents you unlocking the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Handcannon]] for being hardcore mode unless you ''beat it in a single sitting''.

* ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'' had two [=C64=] versions -- one by Capcom USA and one by Software Creations UK, both based on the arcade version. The Software Creations version is a [[ArcadePerfectPort glorious aversion]] of this trope, pretty much porting the game as well as the C64 would allow, and sporting a superb remix of the soundtrack by Tim Follin. The Capcom version is astoundingly half-assed. There's only one music track, much blockier graphics, jerkier scrolling, sluggish movement, and absolutely no swing physics.

** Last, the landscape was altered slightly, causing one of the jumps in a late-game level to be impossible to clear.

* The PC release of ''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Origins]]'' turned out to be a disappointment in comparison to the otherwise [[SoOkayItsAverage mediocre]] at worst console versions. Performance issues and slowdown are more rampant on the PC version than the Nintendo Switch version, even on hardware technically surpassing the Switch, most in part due to [[MediaNotes/DigitalRightsManagement Denuvo]]. A bilinear filter smears the image poorly (in comparison to the sharper console versions and the razor-sharp ''VideoGame/SonicMania''). And lastly, the PC version also has no HDR support which the [=PS5=]/Xbox Series X versions do.

** And this was also the case with numerous other games, too, as they now make use of the [=XInput=] [[UsefulNotes/ApplicationProgrammingInterface API]]. Especially the ones released alongside the Xbox 360 versions.

* The PC release of ''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Origins]]'' turned out to be a disappointment in comparison to the otherwise [[SoOkayItsAverage mediocre]] at worst console versions. Performance issues and slowdown are more rampant on the PC version than the Nintendo Switch version, even on hardware technically surpassing the Switch, most in part due to [[UsefulNotes/DigitalRightsManagement Denuvo]]. A bilinear filter smears the image poorly (in comparison to the sharper console versions and the razor-sharp ''VideoGame/SonicMania''). And lastly, the PC version also has no HDR support which the [=PS5=]/Xbox Series X versions do.

* In general, Linux ports released in response to Steam announcing support for it tend to be optimized for the latest version of Ubuntu at the time, and no other distro/version of Ubuntu. The further you get from that Ubuntu version, the better it would be to just run the Windows version via UsefulNotes/{{WINE}} or gaming-optimized forks of it like Proton.

* The Amstrad conversion of ''Los Angeles SWAT'', an urban ''VideoGame/{{Commando}}''-like game which originated on Platform/Atari8BitComputers, is notably incompetent even by the low-budget standard of Mastertronic (who released this game under their Entertainment USA label). The continuous upward scrolling slows gameplay to a crawl, the controls are stiff, sound is outright nonexistent, and shooting one type of person can crash the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Interstate 76}}'s'' UpdatedReRelease on Website/GOGDotCom came with a plethora of issues due to the game's update from Windows 95 not being particularly good; the game was originally designed to run on the "Glide" video wrapper (versus [=DirectX or OpenGL=]), which was last updated more than a decade before the GOG version's release - instead, the GOG version runs without any wrapper by default. TechnologyMarchesOn causes the game to run in what is essentially turbo mode on modern [=CPUs=] to the point where everything from physics to the AI breaks: jumps are impossible, flame weapons [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck have absolutely no range]], and NPC characters drive at 10mph while their wheels spaz out. It's (mostly) playable with a [[http://www.gog.com/forum/interstate_series/updated_new_i76_arsenal_launcher_with_automatic_workarounds_2_versions/page1 fan-made launcher]] designed to counter the issues.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man X|1}}'' had a pretty spotty PC port, having lower-grade music and sounds than the SNES original, as well as removing the various Ride Armors around... despite being on CD-ROM and not limited by cartridge space. It also came with a gamepad modelled after a Sega Genesis 6-Button controller for whatever reason. The ''X3'' PC port thankfully avoided these problems, not to mention had high-quality remixed music. The original did have a Windows port, but it was released only in Japan.

** The music is especially bad because the person responsible for writing the MIDI versions apparently didn't know how to use the drum channel, resulting in all the drums being random thumping on various melodic instruments. This, in turn, causes a bizarre situation where the music actually gets worse the better your soundcard is. The real reason for this is technically caused by lazy porting and hardware limitations of the PC: The [=SNES=]' [=SPC700=] is a wavetable synthesizer, while most PC sound cards only have an [=OPL2=]-based FM synthesizer (similar to that of a Sega Genesis, but much more limited in that a Genesis also has a PSG for percussion -- which the PC doesn't have, and could also use the [=OPL2=] for digital audio -- which the PC can't). Combine that with the fact that some games are optimized for the [=AdLib=] sound card (which has an even more crippling limitation of not being able to handle percussion well) and you have an audio-centered porting disaster in the making. Yes, there were better sound cards on the market (and even wavetable synth cards) when that game came out. For some reason, though, many PC game developers and porting houses just didn't care until the mid-'[=90s=].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has a Steam release that takes up an alarming amount of space (60 gigabytes. This was in ''2014'' when games surpassing 30GB was considered huge), has no graphical settings whatsoever, is locked at 720p, barely has rebindable keys at all, and pressing Esc exits to desktop while in fullscreen (pressing Esc while windowed brings up a confirmation menu) and you're expected to know this already. On top of all this, all of the game's logic runs on a single thread, meaning the game doesn't take advantage of multi-core CPU's that are ubiquitous in [=PCs=], which combined with other issues ([[DarthWiki/IdiotProgramming Such as the HUD being unoptimized to the point where having the minimap open can cause the framerate to tank]]) means it runs abysmally on most hardware configurations. And the Asian release has one extra gotcha- it's only available in Japanese in the region when the [=PS3=] version was available in English in the region.

* ''VideoGame/FromDust'' shipped with the same maligned DRM scheme as other contemporary Ubisoft PC games, ''even'' after the developers had previously announced that it wouldn't, deleting and rephrasing their original announcement on the game's own forum. Coupled with minimal visual options (no choice for anti-aliasing or any way to disable the 30 FPS limit on the display) and some baffling performance issues and {{Game Breaking Bug}}s (one level is very nearly UnintentionallyUnwinnable because the tides change much faster than on the console version), the PC release was a public relations disaster for Ubisoft, with Steam giving out refunds to disgruntled players for the first time since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''.

* ''VideoGame/GhostReconFutureSoldier'' had a PC port which was delayed several times, was actually cancelled at one point (with the free-to-play ''[[VideoGame/GhostReconOnline Ghost Recon Phantoms]]'' at one point envisioned as the "PC version" of ''Future Soldier''), and finally came out a full month after the 360/[=PS3=] versions. Despite the long development time, it has laziness written all over it. The launch-day problems are so numerous that a necessary list includes but is not limited to:

** Even if you get the mouse to work in-game, it's handled poorly, especially with additional mouse buttons (or even the mouse wheel button) not working in-game. This is made even worse during the ForcedTutorial early on where it requires you to view through the scope (you cannot even just ''fire'' at all until you'd somehow get to do it), which is bound to the aforementioned third mouse button that doesn't work in-game. Coupled with the impossibility of control remapping and you get a port which anyone without a gamepad [[UnwinnableByDesign is rendered incapable of progressing through the first mission]].

** XP users who preordered the game were screwed over even worse -- until the game had actually been released, there was absolutely no word that the game required Vista or Windows 7 to run (hell, most sites that aren't Steam ''still'' listed XP as supported for months on end), leaving the aforementioned users paying [[BribingYourWayToVictory at least]] 50 bucks for a terrible port that ''they couldn't even play at all''. Ubisoft did originally promise a patch that will allow the game to run on Windows XP, but this naturally devolved from "three weeks after release" into nothing but [[ScheduleSlip broken promises of release after "the next title update"]] -- it took nearly a year since the console versions' release for that to finally come out.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is a particularly infamous PC port. At release, it not only had noticeable performance issues and a clumsy mouse and keyboard interface, but Rockstar also decided to package the game with an extra piece of software known as the Rockstar Social Club, a utility created to handle the game's multiplayer connectivity, which in its original iteration would run on top of the game (along with [=SecuROM=] ''and'' the infamous Games for Windows Live) and nag you to log into it not only whenever you wanted to play, but on startup as well. The controls couldn't be changed (a feature that has been standard even in the DOS era). It was so bad that Platform/{{Steam}} gave out ''refunds''[[note]]To clarify, Steam '''never''' gave out refunds before that point. Before they set up a new system in June 2015 where anything could be refunded if it's been owned for less than two weeks and played for less than two hours, they only did so five times including here - twice for other games that were the epitome of this trope like ''From Dust'' and ''Ghost Recon: Future Soldier'', and twice for games that were advertised entirely on BlatantLies like ''The War Z'' and the "remake" of ''VideoGame/ColinMcRaeRally'' (which turned out to be a port of the ''[=iOS=] game'').[[/note]] to angry gamers. Since the game's launch in December 2008, many of the game's performance issues have now been ironed out, and Rockstar Social Club has been integrated into the game software itself... almost a year and a half after launch.

* Compared to the PC port of the first game (which only lost the co-op mode and has minor visual bugs regarding shadows, but gained a new weapon in multiplayer and a free demo that people are ''still'' playing almost two decades later), the PC version of ''VideoGame/Halo2'' by Microsoft Games Studios was damn poor. Many keys couldn't be bound to commands because they were pre-reserved by Games for Windows Live functionality (almost a big "screw you" to all non-WASD keymap users), and network connectivity was patchy (another big thank-you for Games for Windows Live). Worst of all, the game could ''only'' be played on Windows Vista, and even though Windows 7 and up are technically able to run it, they still require the same sorts of workarounds as XP needed since Microsoft quickly dropped support for this game and the concurrent ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. The most infuriating part is that this being a port of a 2004 game that uses a much older version of [=DirectX=] than Windows Vista offers, ''nothing'' in the game code requires Vista to run except for one small line in the installer that prevents people from installing and running the game on any other OS. To compound the issue, the "Halo 2 Editing Kit" was extremely gimped. The ability to modify vehicles, weapons and tons of other functionality were removed, including creating custom tags. This means it's impossible to use the official tools to make new single-player content, and greatly reduces the amount of map modification possible; one of the few reasons why you might prefer the PC version of a game over a console version. Oh, and it's terribly optimized. This port was so badly botched it's probably the primary reason it took a solid ''decade'' for any main-line ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games to make it to PC again, with the only offerings on the platform between the 2007 port of ''Halo 2'' and the 2018 remaster of ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' being [[VideoGame/HaloSpartanAssault ports of mobile games]]. The ironic contrast here was that ''Halo 2''[='=]s PC release, alongside the cross-play-compatible 2007 ''Shadowrun'', was intended to headline ''increased'' support for PC gaming from Microsoft, but both performed so badly (whether in and of themselves or because they required Vista in its early, heavily-buggy days) that it instead resulted in the opposite situation, with first-party Microsoft-published games remaining exclusive to the Xbox until nearly a decade later, with the advent of Windows 10 and the Platform/XboxOne, and even then the fact that several first-party Xbox One games are also available on PC through the Windows Store is [[InvisibleAdvertising never actually brought up]] unless they sell through Steam as well (compare the almost-unadvertised PC releases of the ''Halo Wars'' remaster and its sequel to the hype surrounding the PC port of ''The Master Chief Collection'').

* ''VideoGame/{{Interstate 76}}'s'' UpdatedReRelease on Website/GOGDotCom came with a plethora of issues due to the game's update from Windows 95 not being particularly good; the game was originally designed to run on the "Glide" video wrapper (versus [=DirectX or OpenGL=]), which was last updated more than a decade before the GOG version's release - instead, the GOG version runs without any wrapper by default. TechnologyMarchesOn causes the game to run in what is essentially turbo mode on modern [=CPUs=] to the point where everything from physics to the AI breaks, causing jumps to be impossible, flame weapons to [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck not have the range they're supposed to]], and NPC characters driving at 10mph while their wheels spaz out. It's (mostly) playable with a [[http://www.gog.com/forum/interstate_series/updated_new_i76_arsenal_launcher_with_automatic_workarounds_2_versions/page1 fan-made launcher]] designed to counter the issues.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has a Steam release that takes up an alarming amount of space (60 gigabytes. This was in ''2014'' when games surpassing 30GB was considered huge), has no graphical settings whatsoever, is locked at 720p, barely has rebindable keys at all, and pressing Esc exits to desktop while in fullscreen (pressing Esc while windowed brings up a confirmation menu) and you're expected to know this already. On top of all this, all of the game's logic runs on a single thread, meaning the game doesn't take advantage of multi-core CPU's that are ubiquitous in [=PCs=], which combined with other issues ([[DarthWiki/IdiotProgramming Such as the HUD being unoptimized to the point where having the minimap open can cause the framerate to tank]]) means it runs abysmally on most hardware configurations. And the Asian release has one extra gotcha- it's only available in Japanese in the region when the [=PS3=] version was available in English in the region.

* ''VideoGame/FromDust'' shipped with the same maligned DRM scheme as other contemporary Ubisoft PC games, ''even'' after the developers had previously announced that it wouldn't, deleting and rephrasing their original announcement on the game's own forum. Coupled with minimal visual options (no choice for anti-aliasing or any way to disable the 30 FPS limit on the display) and some baffling performance issues and {{Game Breaking Bug}}s (one level is very nearly UnintentionallyUnwinnable because the tides change much faster than on the console version), the PC release was a public relations disaster for Ubisoft, with Steam giving out refunds to disgruntled players for the first time since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''.

* ''VideoGame/GhostReconFutureSoldier'' had a PC port which was delayed several times, was actually cancelled at one point (with the free-to-play ''[[VideoGame/GhostReconOnline Ghost Recon Phantoms]]'' at one point envisioned as the "PC version" of ''Future Soldier''), and finally came out a full month after the 360/[=PS3=] versions. Despite the long development time, it has laziness written all over it. The launch-day problems are so numerous that a necessary list includes but is not limited to:

** Even if you get the mouse to work in-game, it's handled poorly, especially with additional mouse buttons (or even the mouse wheel button) not working in-game. This is made even worse during the ForcedTutorial early on where it requires you to view through the scope (you cannot even just ''fire'' at all until you'd somehow get to do it), which is bound to the aforementioned third mouse button that doesn't work in-game. Coupled with the impossibility of control remapping and you get a port which anyone without a gamepad [[UnwinnableByDesign is rendered incapable of progressing through the first mission]].

** XP users who preordered the game were screwed over even worse -- until the game had actually been released, there was absolutely no word that the game required Vista or Windows 7 to run (hell, most sites that aren't Steam ''still'' listed XP as supported for months on end), leaving the aforementioned users paying [[BribingYourWayToVictory at least]] 50 bucks for a terrible port that ''they couldn't even play at all''. Ubisoft did originally promise a patch that will allow the game to run on Windows XP, but this naturally devolved from "three weeks after release" into nothing but [[ScheduleSlip broken promises of release after "the next title update"]] -- it took nearly a year since the console versions' release for that to finally come out.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is a particularly infamous PC port. At release, it not only had noticeable performance issues and a clumsy mouse and keyboard interface, but Rockstar also decided to package the game with an extra piece of software known as the Rockstar Social Club, a utility created to handle the game's multiplayer connectivity, which in its original iteration would run on top of the game (along with [=SecuROM=] ''and'' the infamous Games for Windows Live) and nag you to log into it not only whenever you wanted to play, but on startup as well. The controls couldn't be changed (a feature that has been standard even in the DOS era). It was so bad that Platform/{{Steam}} gave out ''refunds''[[note]]To clarify, Steam '''never''' gave out refunds before that point. Before they set up a new system in June 2015 where anything could be refunded if it's been owned for less than two weeks and played for less than two hours, they only did so five times including here - twice for other games that were the epitome of this trope like ''From Dust'' and ''Ghost Recon: Future Soldier'', and twice for games that were advertised entirely on BlatantLies like ''The War Z'' and the "remake" of ''VideoGame/ColinMcRaeRally'' (which turned out to be a port of the ''[=iOS=] game'').[[/note]] to angry gamers. Since the game's launch in December 2008, many of the game's performance issues have now been ironed out, and Rockstar Social Club has been integrated into the game software itself... almost a year and a half after launch.

* Compared to the PC port of the first game (which only lost the co-op mode and has minor visual bugs regarding shadows, but gained a new weapon in multiplayer and a free demo that people are ''still'' playing almost two decades later), the PC version of ''VideoGame/Halo2'' by Microsoft Games Studios was damn poor. Many keys couldn't be bound to commands because they were pre-reserved by Games for Windows Live functionality (almost a big "screw you" to all non-WASD keymap users), and network connectivity was patchy (another big thank-you for Games for Windows Live). Worst of all, the game could ''only'' be played on Windows Vista, and even though Windows 7 and up are technically able to run it, they still require the same sorts of workarounds as XP needed since Microsoft quickly dropped support for this game and the concurrent ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. The most infuriating part is that this being a port of a 2004 game that uses a much older version of [=DirectX=] than Windows Vista offers, ''nothing'' in the game code requires Vista to run except for one small line in the installer that prevents people from installing and running the game on any other OS. To compound the issue, the "Halo 2 Editing Kit" was extremely gimped. The ability to modify vehicles, weapons and tons of other functionality were removed, including creating custom tags. This means it's impossible to use the official tools to make new single-player content, and greatly reduces the amount of map modification possible; one of the few reasons why you might prefer the PC version of a game over a console version. Oh, and it's terribly optimized. This port was so badly botched it's probably the primary reason it took a solid ''decade'' for any main-line ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games to make it to PC again, with the only offerings on the platform between the 2007 port of ''Halo 2'' and the 2018 remaster of ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' being [[VideoGame/HaloSpartanAssault ports of mobile games]]. The ironic contrast here was that ''Halo 2''[='=]s PC release, alongside the cross-play-compatible 2007 ''Shadowrun'', was intended to headline ''increased'' support for PC gaming from Microsoft, but both performed so badly (whether in and of themselves or because they required Vista in its early, heavily-buggy days) that it instead resulted in the opposite situation, with first-party Microsoft-published games remaining exclusive to the Xbox until nearly a decade later, with the advent of Windows 10 and the Platform/XboxOne, and even then the fact that several first-party Xbox One games are also available on PC through the Windows Store is [[InvisibleAdvertising never actually brought up]] unless they sell through Steam as well (compare the almost-unadvertised PC releases of the ''Halo Wars'' remaster and its sequel to the hype surrounding the PC port of ''The Master Chief Collection'').

* ''VideoGame/{{Interstate 76}}'s'' UpdatedReRelease on Website/GOGDotCom came with a plethora of issues due to the game's update from Windows 95 not being particularly good; the game was originally designed to run on the "Glide" video wrapper (versus [=DirectX or OpenGL=]), which was last updated more than a decade before the GOG version's release - instead, the GOG version runs without any wrapper by default. TechnologyMarchesOn causes the game to run in what is essentially turbo mode on modern [=CPUs=] to the point where everything from physics to the AI breaks, causing jumps to be impossible, flame weapons to [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck not have the range they're supposed to]], and NPC characters driving at 10mph while their wheels spaz out. It's (mostly) playable with a [[http://www.gog.com/forum/interstate_series/updated_new_i76_arsenal_launcher_with_automatic_workarounds_2_versions/page1 fan-made launcher]] designed to counter the issues.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' had ''several'' issues when the PC port came out in 1998. The music was all converted into MIDI format, making the instruments sound worse than the SNES version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (the most jarring result is that "One-Winged Angel" doesn't have lyrics unless your sound card is from a particular wavetable sound card family -- namely, either the [=SoundBlaster AWE32 or AWE64=] line. People who don’t own a wavetable card, or even if they owned wavetable cards from other companies, were pretty much screwed out of the experience). The pre-rendered cutscenes -- which didn't always sync properly with the in-game sprites in sequences where they overlapped -- needed a special Windows 95 codec to run, and yet this codec isn't on the install disc. The game itself had rather high system requirements for something meant for a Windows 95 machine (Windows 98 would be another matter, except the game wasn't made for it). It only gets worse from there: On more modern systems, there are game-code/OS compatibility issues, crashes (before/after [=FMVs=], on quitting...), speed and graphic artifact/rendering issues, and basically the whole thing is a mess unless you use a handful of fan-created mods. These issues normally wouldn't be held against a game of its age, except that it was ''still'' being sold in this format as part of the EA Classics line as late as 2010.\\

** The digital re-release in 2012 also has its share of issues. Occasionally, the game doesn't detect saves, several users had trouble with activating the game, and the music is ''still MIDI-quality'', despite being released fourteen years later and space not being an issue. Fortunately, the latter is relatively easy to fix, but it makes one wonder why Square Enix didn't do ''anything'' about it.
** It also had rare but noticeable problems with certain textures and models. The textures used for the ''Quake IV'' spell may sometimes glitch out and the models for JENOVA Synthesis and Bizarro Sephiroth may glitch out to the point where you have two models overlapping with each other and when you kill them, only one of the models goes through its proper death animations while the "extra" model is left alone.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' ironed out most of the problems with the PC port of the previous game, but there are still two issues: firstly, the game does not work with video cards newer than a Radeon 9000 or [=GeForce=] 6800 in hardware acceleration mode, which means most modern hardware. Secondly, like ''VII'', the game also has unusually high requirements for something meant for a Windows 98 machine (requiring a 233 [=MHz=] Pentium MMX with 64 MB of RAM minimum and a 300 [=MHz=] Pentium II with 128 MB for optimum performance). The biggest problem was that like ''VII'', it's still being sold on store shelves as an EA Classics title, even as of 2010. Most of the problems are corrected with a fan-made launcher, which also allows you to play the game with custom resolutions. Coupled with the fact that the PC port featured much better quality character models, the game ends up looking ''much'' better than the original, although it still needs a relatively high-end system.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' had ''several'' issues when the PC port came out in 1998. The music was all converted into MIDI format, making the instruments sound worse than the SNES version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (the most jarring result is that "One-Winged Angel" doesn't have lyrics unless your sound card is from a particular wavetable sound card family -- namely, either the [=SoundBlaster AWE32 or AWE64=] line. People who don’t own a wavetable card, or even if they owned wavetable cards from other companies, were pretty much screwed out of the experience). The pre-rendered cutscenes -- which didn't always sync properly with the in-game sprites in sequences where they overlapped -- needed a special Windows 95 codec to run, and yet this codec isn't on the install disc. The game itself had rather high system requirements for something meant for a Windows 95 machine (Windows 98 would be another matter, except the game wasn't made for it). It only gets worse from there: On more modern systems, there are game-code/OS compatibility issues, crashes (before/after [=FMVs=], on quitting...), speed and graphic artifact/rendering issues, and basically the whole thing is a mess unless you use a handful of fan-created mods. These issues normally wouldn't be held against a game that's over 10 years old, except that as of 2010 it's '''still''' being sold in this format as part of the EA Classics line.\\

* ''VideoGame/SplinterCellDoubleAgent'' had a PC version that, while technically not a port, was clearly based on the Xbox 360 version. Considering that the game was based on the UsefulNotes/UnrealEngine, that Ubisoft had released plenty of PC games before (including every other ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' game before then, no less, with no issues inherent to the games themselves on systems back then), ''and'' that it was a pretty high-profile game, you'd think it would've gone fairly smoothly. Wrong. There are so many problems with this port that a list is necessary.

* Games running with [[UsefulNotes/UnrealEngine Unreal Engine 4 & 5]] are criticized for stuttering issues, even with high end machines such as ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade]]'' (it was priced at $70), ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkspRdejBSM Sackboy: A Big Adventure]]'', ''VideoGame/EvilWest'' and ''VideoGame/HogwartsLegacy'', mainly due to the shader compilation for not enough to precompile enough to all shaders in the draw distance with certain builds. It is matter worse when any GPU driver updates requires to reprecompile the shaders for restuttering process.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III: Reforged]]'' promised to be a high fidelity remaster of one of Blizzard's most beloved games, and instead became a [[ObviousBeta broken, buggy, bloated disaster]]. [[TrailersAlwaysLie The marketing promised]] new cinematics, a revamped UI, and an enhanced storyline to better fit the lore of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Upon release, none of these new features were included, and several essential features from the original (Ladders and Clans, Custom Campaigns, etc) were totally gone. Instead of being a new game, it was a mandatory patch for the digital version of the original game and mandatory for the disc version if you wanted to continue using Battle.net for multiplayer. This massively bloated the file size and doubled the system requirements. As of this writing, [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion Reforged is the only "official" version of the game you can play.]] Even stuff as simple as the game's menu system was made more cumbersome and buggy. The game is so glitchy that the first and only tournament was ruined by connection issues. Despite promising to fix everything in patches, only incremental updates were released until development stopped entirely and the team behind it was dissolved. An internal company report revealed that the project's budget was cut midway through development and outlined why it ended up as it is.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III: Reforged]]'' promised to be a high fidelity remaster of one of Blizzard's most beloved games, and instead became a [[ObviousBeta broken, buggy, bloated disaster.]] [[TrailersAlwaysLie The marketing promised]] new cinematics, a revamped UI, and an enhanced storyline to better fit the lore of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Upon release, none of these new features were included, and several essential features from the original (Ladders and Clans, Custom Campaigns, etc) were totally gone. Instead of being a new game, it was a mandatory patch for the digital version of the original game and mandatory for the disc version if you wanted to continue using Battle.net for multiplayer. This massively bloated the file size and doubled the system requirements. As of this writing, [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion Reforged is the only "official" version of the game you can play.]] Even stuff as simple as the game's menu system was made more cumbersome and buggy. The game is so glitchy that the first and only tournament was ruined by connection issues. Despite promising to fix everything in patches, only incremental updates were released until development stopped entirely and the team behind it was dissolved. An internal company report revealed that the project's budget was cut midway through development and outlined why it ended up as it is.

* The PC port of ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'' was slammed with an overwhelmingly negative reception at launch due to severe graphics stutter, even when being played on high-end machines. It was theorized that the poor optimization was caused by Unreal Engine 4's shader compilation with certain builds, compounded with the required use of the performance zapping anti-piracy DRM tool, Denuvo.

* Games running with [[UsefulNotes/UnrealEngine Unreal Engine 4 & 5]] are criticized for stuttering issues, even with high end machines such as ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade]]'' (it was priced at $70), ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkspRdejBSM Sackboy: A Big Adventure]]'', ''VideoGame/EvilWest'' and ''VideoGame/HogwartsLegacy'', mainly due to the shader compilation for not enough to precompile enough to all shaders in the draw distance with certain builds. It is matter worse when any GPU driver updates requires to reprecompile the shaders again for restuttering process.
** ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'' has come under heavy fire for having severe lag, causing users to leave very negative reviews on Steam.

* Not only did the original Windows port of ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak'' require the divisive Windows 10 to run due to running in [=DirectX=] 12, it performed terribly even on very high-end systems, especially with NVIDIA cards. [=PCs=] with AMD graphics cards would run the game better, but the performance still isn't great by any stretch. Also, any efforts on part of users to mitigate them were hampered due to how restrictive the Universal Windows Platform, or Games for Windows - Live 2.0 as some would derisively call it, is. The developers eventually gave up on UWP and released a new port on Steam, this time built around [=DirectX11=] and so compatible with older versions of Windows, with considerably better results.

** The Steam release of the PC version also displays a bizarre issue where, unless both the client and the game are installed to the C: drive, the game will run, but only show the opening titles and not progress past the loading screen that comes immediately afterwards, which would ordinarily lead to the main menu. Oddly enough, years later the Steam release of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'', a ''vastly'' superior port, would suffer from the same issue; the [[Website/GoodOldGames GOG.com]] version works on any drive with another, vastly more minor problem instead: graphics settings will revert to default upon the next launch if the game is installed on the C drive, probably because of a protected write area.

Ports on computers can be disastrous either due to older computer systems lacking certain capabilities that consoles or arcade machines have, developers, undermining the higher-end capabilities of newer ones, or simply not bothering to program the game in question to run properly on a computer.

* ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'', a port of a UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game, tried to stretch the levels and jumping distance to fit the C64's higher graphical resolution. The result was oddly asymmetric JumpPhysics and HundredPercentCompletion being impossible. You could still technically reach the ending sequence, except that the porting team didn't program that in.

* The ZX Spectrum version of ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula II'' is hideously ugly, especially considering its 1992 release date. The UsefulNotes/Commodore64 version is actually quite colorful, but on the Spectrum everything that moves in the main PlatformGame section is black on solid white backgrounds, even the tomato juice that can be fired into enemies' faces. While such graphical compromises were typical of the system, in this case they don't really make things move more smoothly. Instead, the already sluggish gameplay becomes a flickering nightmare, with the jack-in-the-boxes actually skipping some of their animation frames.

* ''VideoGame/PsychoSoldier'' on the Amstrad had graphics like the UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} version (though slightly brighter). The gameplay, however, was unbearably slow and choppy, even with the replacement of continuous scrolling with FlipScreenScrolling.

* The Amstrad conversion of ''Los Angeles SWAT'', an urban ''VideoGame/{{Commando}}''-like game which originated on UsefulNotes/Atari8BitComputers, is notably incompetent even by the low-budget standard of Mastertronic (who released this game under their Entertainment USA label). The continuous upward scrolling slows gameplay to a crawl, the controls are stiff, sound is outright nonexistent, and shooting one type of person can crash the game.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderI'' was originally developed for the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and [=PlayStation=]. When it was ported to PC, the quality of the pre-rendered cutscenes was severely decreased, the reflection effect on Golden Lara was removed, and worst of all, '''all of the game's music was removed''' except for the title screen theme and cutscene dialogue (which was stored as CD audio). Ambient sound was added to the levels as a compromise, but an entire game published without its music was ridiculous. This was made even worse when the Sold Out Software version of the game was released, some copies of which were missing the few remaining CD audio tracks. So, during cutscenes, gamers would be "treated" to the characters silently bobbing their heads at each other. This was remedied by a patch that not only restores the missing tracks, but also all the tracks from the [=PS1=] and Sega Saturn versions of the game. Justice has finally been served!

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Outrun}} Turbo Outrun]]'' was a turkey of epic proportions, with abysmal frame rates and utterly failing to give any sense of movement or speed - the road and scenery seemed to move around your car rather than vice-versa. The ineptitude of the conversion was emphasised both by the fact that the concurrent and similar ''Lotus'' series of racing games on the same platform was light years ahead in quality and that reviewers who'd played the UsefulNotes/Commodore64 version as well ranked it ''higher'' despite it being a full generation behind in power and graphical ability. The Atari ST version suffered from the same issues.
* Creator/{{Sierra}} was a serial offender in its heyday. The company's Amiga ports of its classic games were notorious for failing to take advantage of the machine's graphics and sound capabilities. To wit, A lot of the games were straight ports of the PC version with the music and sound effects ported from the ''PC Speaker'' code base instead of the marginally better PC Jr. PSG, Game Blaster or even the [=AdLib=] code base, causing them to completely misrepresent the true audio capability of an Amiga. Although some games would later receive updates to have better audio on said port (for example, Space Quest III, which started out sounding like the PC Speaker version but later received an upgrade to improve the music to use 4 channel polyphony with MT-32 samples), it would have been too late and the reputation of the port would have already been tarnished. Additionally, they used the EGA graphics code, which means the EGA palette limitation was retained, instead of seeing a higher resolution palette befitting the Amiga's graphical chipset. This is in contrast to their UsefulNotes/AppleII GS and UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh ports, which are often ''rewrites'' that can take advantage of the system's enhanced capabilities instead. Lastly, a lot of the ports are written with NTSC Amigas in mind and do not offer a PAL mode, meaning these games actually run ''slower'' on PAL Amigas. While the Atari ST version shared the weaknesses of the graphics and integrated sound, it had the saving grace of being able to spit out better quality music through the ST's integrated MIDI out ports, meaning if you have a Roland MT-32 hooked up, the music is just as good as the PC version with the same sound device. The Amiga, lacking integrated MIDI ports, does not offer this luxury. Additionally, PAL Atari [=STs=] do not exhibit any slowdown playing Sierra games that PAL Amigas do[[note]]Although NTSC titles do stutter when the machine is busy loading scenes from disk on PAL machines, this can be fixed by installing the game to a hard drive[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'''s PC port, released in 2006 (three years after its original UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube release), suffers from poor optimization, which causes framerate issues on many video cards, severe screen-tearing problems (due to having no V-Sync) and very limited controller support. The sound mixing is also inferior to the [=GameCube=] version of the game due to using different audio code. The launcher's settings are too basic, the only graphics settings to change the framerate to 30 FPS or 60 FPS, resolution and a clipping option which doesn't seem to do anything. Most controllers are incompatible with the game, as it doesn't support analog triggers and many analog pads. For example, the Xbox 360 controller's analog triggers will not work. There are also missing visual effects from the original release. For instance, the fog that obscures the player's view in a few of the later levels is absent which makes the level too easy.

* On its initial launch, the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} version of ''[[VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense Bloons Tower Defense 6]]'' was a clear example of hastily rushed port. It hosted a multitude of bugs, ranging from [[GoodBadBugs good]] (such as the multiple heroes glitch, as the developers forgot to accommodate that the shift key, which lets you place down multiple towers at the same time, also done the same to heroes and you can only normally place one of them down per game) to [[GameBreakingBug bad]] (like the game failing to load beyond the title screen unless you delete the game folder inside your Steam user data folder) and design issues, such as how the UI for the game isn't designed in mind for [=PCs=], has a [[{{Microtransactions}} micro-transaction]] for double cash mode that costs ''$18''[[note]](which, to be fair, is the same as in the mobile version, but that doesn't excuse its insanely high price that's almost twice the price of it)[[/note]], among other complaints. Thankfully, the developers have patched them out and it's much on par with its mobile version.

** Note that GFWL on ''Dead Rising 2'' and ''Off the Record'' has since been disabled in favor of [[UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Steamworks]]. However, you still cannot change (or even look at) key bindings (except when combination attack cards and tutorials were shown).

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is a particularly infamous PC port. At release, it not only had noticeable performance issues and a clumsy mouse and keyboard interface, but Rockstar also decided to package the game with an extra piece of software known as the Rockstar Social Club, a utility created to handle the game's multiplayer connectivity, which in its original iteration would run on top of the game (along with [=SecuROM=] ''and'' the infamous Games for Windows Live) and nag you to log into it not only whenever you wanted to play, but on startup as well. The controls couldn't be changed (a feature that has been standard even in the DOS era). It was so bad that UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} gave out ''refunds''[[note]]To clarify, Steam '''never''' gave out refunds before that point. Before they set up a new system in June 2015 where anything could be refunded if it's been owned for less than two weeks and played for less than two hours, they only did so five times including here - twice for other games that were the epitome of this trope like ''From Dust'' and ''Ghost Recon: Future Soldier'', and twice for games that were advertised entirely on BlatantLies like ''The War Z'' and the "remake" of ''VideoGame/ColinMcRaeRally'' (which turned out to be a port of the ''[=iOS=] game'').[[/note]] to angry gamers. Since the game's launch in December 2008, many of the game's performance issues have now been ironed out, and Rockstar Social Club has been integrated into the game software itself... almost a year and a half after launch.

* Compared to the PC port of the first game (which only lost the co-op mode and has minor visual bugs regarding shadows, but gained a new weapon in multiplayer and a free demo that people are ''still'' playing almost two decades later), the PC version of ''VideoGame/Halo2'' by Microsoft Games Studios was damn poor. Many keys couldn't be bound to commands because they were pre-reserved by Games for Windows Live functionality (almost a big "screw you" to all non-WASD keymap users), and network connectivity was patchy (another big thank-you for Games for Windows Live). Worst of all, the game could ''only'' be played on Windows Vista, and even though Windows 7 and up are technically able to run it, they still require the same sorts of workarounds as XP needed since Microsoft quickly dropped support for this game and the concurrent ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. The most infuriating part is that this being a port of a 2004 game that uses a much older version of [=DirectX=] than Windows Vista offers, ''nothing'' in the game code requires Vista to run except for one small line in the installer that prevents people from installing and running the game on any other OS. To compound the issue, the "Halo 2 Editing Kit" was extremely gimped. The ability to modify vehicles, weapons and tons of other functionality were removed, including creating custom tags. This means it's impossible to use the official tools to make new single-player content, and greatly reduces the amount of map modification possible; one of the few reasons why you might prefer the PC version of a game over a console version. Oh, and it's terribly optimized. This port was so badly botched it's probably the primary reason it took a solid ''decade'' for any main-line ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games to make it to PC again, with the only offerings on the platform between the 2007 port of ''Halo 2'' and the 2018 remaster of ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' being [[VideoGame/HaloSpartanAssault ports of mobile games]]. The ironic contrast here was that ''Halo 2''[='=]s PC release, alongside the cross-play-compatible 2007 ''Shadowrun'', was intended to headline ''increased'' support for PC gaming from Microsoft, but both performed so badly (whether in and of themselves or because they required Vista in its early, heavily-buggy days) that it instead resulted in the opposite situation, with first-party Microsoft-published games remaining exclusive to the Xbox until nearly a decade later, with the advent of Windows 10 and the UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and even then the fact that several first-party Xbox One games are also available on PC through the Windows Store is [[InvisibleAdvertising never actually brought up]] unless they sell through Steam as well (compare the almost-unadvertised PC releases of the ''Halo Wars'' remaster and its sequel to the hype surrounding the PC port of ''The Master Chief Collection'').

** The game was originally released exclusively on the Xbox 360, but was ported to the PC about half a year later (and also to the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 PS3]] about ''four more years'' after that). While there were actual gameplay improvements, such as ten hotkeys for abilities over the 360's three, and generally better controls, rumor has it that the game was tested on one graphics card and one sound driver. The released game was exceptionally buggy, with sound effects and background music dropping out and the game regularly crashing between the transitions of unskippable cutscenes (which were made unskippable because skipping them also crashed the game). It took over a year and a combination of game and driver patches before the game was stable. It also had rather high system requirements for an Xbox 360 port, although [[TechnologyMarchesOn most PCs you can buy or build today]] will run it fine.

* ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}: Munch's Oddysee'' and ''Stranger's Wrath'' are horribly unoptimized for the PC, despite being released at least five years after the original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} versions, to the point where people with competent gaming [=PCs=] (ones that can run ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' smoothly at high graphic settings) regularly get less than 30 FPS -- and the actual graphics are unchanged. ''Stranger's Wrath'' has no visual customization options apart from the resolution settings, ranging from "Low" to "Medium", to "High", and "Ultra", with the latter three being 1024×768, 1280×1024, and 1600×1200, respectively. Both games also have noticeable issues with the Xbox 360 controller, which is the default recommended joypad for both: In ''Munch'', the left stick changes the direction that the character faces, but ''doesn't actually move the character'' -- the arrow keys on the keyboard are apparently still needed for that. In ''Stranger'', the game completely fails to recognize the right thumbstick's button press, which is supposed to toggle the switch between first and third-person -- a ''[[ForcedTutorial mandatory step in the in-game tutorial]]''. Both games are also ridiculously crash-prone: You'd have to be ''very'' lucky to even get to the second stage in ''Munch'', and as of the first week after release, only a third of the player base had managed to pass the tutorial in ''Stranger''. And keep in mind, the Xbox itself already has very similar hardware to an IBM-based PC, so you have to be ''incredibly'' lazy to botch a port this badly.
** ''Stranger's Wrath'' is now fixed, as of the 1.1 patch. Performance is nigh-flawless on a Q6600[=/=]8800 GT[=/=]Windows 7 64-bit system at 1600×1200, like it should have been from the start for a five-year-old Xbox port, and you can now select which controller you want and rebind it through an .ini file. Unfortunately, wireless UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} gamepads are not configured properly by default (which is baffling when the game clearly shows Xbox 360 gamepad controls), and in-game control configuration is still not present. Still, a hell of a lot better than the state it was in at release, and actually quite playable.

* ''VideoGame/MafiaII'', ported by Feral Interactive was just as disastrous as the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 version, not because of the lack of grass and blood but because it was ill-optimized compared to the PC version, churning out 15-20 FPS even on a reasonably powerful Macintosh.

'''A Administrivia/{{No Recent Examples|please}} rule applies to this trope'''. Examples shouldn't be added until '''six months''' after the ported program is released, to avoid any knee-jerk reactions.

* Compared to the PC port of the first game (which only lost the co-op mode and has minor visual bugs regarding shadows, but gained a new weapon in multiplayer and a free demo that people are ''still'' playing almost two decades later), the PC version of ''VideoGame/Halo2'' by Microsoft Games Studios was damn poor. Many keys couldn't be bound to commands because they were pre-reserved by Games for Windows Live functionality (almost a big "screw you" to all non-WASD keymap users), and network connectivity was patchy (another big thank-you for Games for Windows Live). Worst of all, the game could ''only'' be played on Windows Vista, and even despite Windows 7 and up are technically able to run it, they still require the same sorts of workarounds as XP needed since Microsoft quickly dropped support for this game and the concurrent ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. The most infuriating part is that this being a port of a 2004 game that uses a much older version of [=DirectX=] than Windows Vista offers, ''nothing'' in the game code requires Vista to run except for one small line in the installer that prevents people from installing and running the game on any other OS. To compound the issue, the "Halo 2 Editing Kit" was extremely gimped. The ability to modify vehicles, weapons and tons of other functionality were removed, including creating custom tags. This means it's impossible to use the official tools to make new single-player content, and greatly reduces the amount of map modification possible; one of the few reasons why you might prefer the PC version of a game over a console version. Oh, and it's terribly optimized. This port was so badly botched it's probably the primary reason it took a solid ''decade'' for any main-line ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games to make it to PC again, with the only offerings on the platform between the 2007 port of ''Halo 2'' and the 2018 remaster of ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' being [[VideoGame/HaloSpartanAssault ports of mobile games]]. The ironic contrast here was that ''Halo 2''[='=]s PC release, alongside the cross-play-compatible 2007 ''Shadowrun'', was intended to headline ''increased'' support for PC gaming from Microsoft, but both performed so badly (whether in and of themselves or because they required Vista in its early, heavily-buggy days) that it instead resulted in the opposite situation, with first-party Microsoft-published games remaining exclusive to the Xbox until nearly a decade later, with the advent of Windows 10 and the UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and even then the fact that several first-party Xbox One games are also available on PC through the Windows Store is [[InvisibleAdvertising never actually brought up]] unless they sell through Steam as well (compare the almost-unadvertised PC releases of the ''Halo Wars'' remaster and its sequel to the hype surrounding the PC port of ''The Master Chief Collection'').

** In October 2019, Volition announced that they had found the lost source code and are working on an official patch that not only fixes performance issues but also adds the console-exclusive [=DLCs=] to the game ''and'' several of the extras from Gentlemen of the Row (since the effort is being headed by [[PromotedFanboy the mod's creator, IdolNinja]], who is now a Volition developer). Sadly, [[DiedDuringProduction IdolNinja died of cancer in 2021]], leaving the remaster in limbo.