Curious About Megacd...

[reiboul]

Hi!

I'm not wanting to start a flame war or a SegaCD vs "your favourite console" post, but I was wondering about the MegaCD... It does have a 12Mhz CPU working with the 7Mhz one, and with some rotation/graphics subsystems, right? so why are the game so bad looking? I mean, 12Mhz+8Mhz, graphic hardware and CD games is more than NeoGeo with 12Mhz + hardware graphics + cartridges... But the game looks worse than most Genesis games... The only thing is CD sound!

I tested Sonic CD, Snatcher, Lunar 2, Shinning Force CD, Heimdall, Earthworm Jim but they all look badder or equal to any other Megadrive game... I'm not talking about gameplay for I haven't play those games enough, but still I wonder why games looks so bad when the hardware is much more powerful, with great storage capacity! Do I try the wrong games?

Any idea?

 

[craigix]

You need to try some of the 3D games, that is where the hardware had advantages, think mode7 * 2

 

[gaterooze]

Well, I don't think any of those games you mentioned look bad at all. They all have quite excellent graphics, in fact. How do they look worse than regular Genesis games?

 

[Rivroner]

Sonic CD:I think this game is the best Sonic game in graphics.It has some details like bonus etc, that Genesis (Megadrive) Sonic games haven´t.Althought Sonic CD is not taking full advantage of Mega CD hardware is better than Megadrive ones.

Snatcher:This game could have been programed for Genesis easily but not the soundtrack.Mega CD sound quality is the difference in this case.

Eartworm Jim SE:Only OST is better, graphics are the same and of course worse than SNES ones, but Genesis and SNES graphics differences in this game are not huge.

I have not play the rest of the games.

I think that in general Mega CD wasn´t taking full advantage, but thereis a lot of games that are imposible in Megadrive, and i am not including FMV games

 

[Blah]

It could've been one of Sega's greatest consoles, but then the SNES came along and dominated the market.

 

[DaveC]

Hi!

I'm not wanting to start a flame war or a SegaCD vs "your favourite console" post, but I was wondering about the MegaCD... It does have a 12Mhz CPU working with the 7Mhz one, and with some rotation/graphics subsystems, right? so why are the game so bad looking? I mean, 12Mhz+8Mhz, graphic hardware and CD games is more than NeoGeo with 12Mhz + hardware graphics + cartridges... But the game looks worse than most Genesis games... The only thing is CD sound!

I tested Sonic CD, Snatcher, Lunar 2, Shinning Force CD, Heimdall, Earthworm Jim but they all look badder or equal to any other Megadrive game... I'm not talking about gameplay for I haven't play those games enough, but still I wonder why games looks so bad when the hardware is much more powerful, with great storage capacity! Do I try the wrong games?

Any idea?

NeoGeo had a larger color pallette than MegaCD and also could display more colors on-screen. Neo had those massive ROM carts that could be accessed alot faster as well. You could page sprites and graphics right off of the ROM where as SegaCD had to load everything into RAM first. More limiting.

 

[reiboul]

Well, I don't think any of those games you mentioned look bad at all. They all have quite excellent graphics, in fact. How do they look worse than regular Genesis games?

Well they don't especially look THAT bad (except for Heimdall lol) but I expected more of the SegaCD, because the games I tried looks like any Megadrive games... Of course music CD is a plus (at the cost of 50-100mo a rom) but none of the games I tried impressed me... But I haven't tried Sylpheed or 3D games

So, kind of dissapointed... A simple CD extension without the extra hardware could have done the same

Ant idea of what I could test to see the real MegaCD capacities?

 

[sbock]

So, kind of dissapointed... A simple CD extension without the extra hardware could have done the same

No, wrong. The Sega CD contains a grafic chip with scaling and rotating. There ist also the ability to do FMV.
Then there is a 8 channel PCM sound source. It is used often in games like Snatcher for the voice acting.

Ant idea of what I could test to see the real MegaCD capacities?

Thunderhawk, Battlecorps, Rebel Assault, Wing Commander, Jaguar, Batman, Silpheed, all FMV Games (I know, the gameplay of the FMV games is often crap...)
All these games are not emulated yet for the GP2x.


A word to Earthworm Jim SE. It's the best version available. Passwordsystem, new Levels and a lot of details are changed.

And to answer your question: Yes, the Sega CD is a great console without doubt.

Regards,
Stephan

 

[DynaMight]

Back in the day, all I could see was FMV!! Never bought any platform style games as they looked much like the megadrive games but games like Sewer Shark, Road Advengers, Ground Zero Texas, Night Trap, Dracula Unleashed etc etc just seemed so awesome!! or any game that had a 15 rating (I think I was just hoping for some nude scenes )

 

[reiboul]

No, wrong. The Sega CD contains a grafic chip with scaling and rotating. There ist also the ability to do FMV.
Then there is a 8 channel PCM sound source. It is used often in games like Snatcher for the voice acting.

I was just talking about the games I tried I knew for the extra hardware, but have seen no game using it I hope Picodrive will one day get good enough to let us play the best MegaCD games Because as I say, the ones playable look more like Genesis games with high quality music, rather than a 2 or 3time more powerfull system

 

[Shadowsithe]

The Sega CD is like the N64. It's a terrible console with enough good games to make it worth getting, because it really boils down to the games. I bought mine for Snatcher... and that's it, and I don't feel hosed in the least.

 

[PokeParadox]

OT but the N64 was a GREAT console. The only limiting factor was the capacity (and price) of cartridges. But the N64 was basically a cut down Silicon Graphics workstation.

Anyway I keep seeing Snatcher being mentioned, so I should try to give that some playtime seeing as I've never played it.

 

[Draken]

Although Snatcher isn't graphically intense at all, and the graphics could've easily been on the megadrive, the higher quality music and especially the voiceacting are what make the game so great.

After having played through Snatcher, I can say that that game is worth enough to own a mega cd. (but I'm a big fan of dystopian and cyberpunk stories)