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Retro Gamer Issue 61

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    #31
    The additional capability that the MegaCD added (such as sprite scaling/rotation effects) were obviously great, but the MegaDrive was clearly able to do without it. However, the features that a CD-based hardware would really benefit from, such as an increased colour pallet and hardware video decoding capability, were absent.

    I love the MegaCD because of it's software lineup and what it offered in addition to the MegaDrive's own capabilities, but it's feature set does seem misguided in retrospect.

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      #32
      Originally posted by Shakey_Jake33 View Post
      The additional capability that the MegaCD added (such as sprite scaling/rotation effects) were obviously great, but the MegaDrive was clearly able to do without it. However, the features that a CD-based hardware would really benefit from, such as an increased colour pallet and hardware video decoding capability, were absent.
      I don't get this think over more colours , not when the CD Rom for the PC or the PC Eng , added any more colour to thier host machines . The Mega Cd was just a add on , to me FMV on the PC CD Rom wasn't that great , and latter Mega CD FMV games looked really good .

      The FMV in Dracula Unleashed , and Batman and Robin is of very high quality






      I've seen many Saturn game with poorer quality FMV
      Last edited by Team Andromeda; 05-03-2009, 08:29.

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        #33
        interesting to read the sales figure for the mega cd, I was a SNES owner at the time and probably swayed by the nintendo press etc but I also had always regarded it as a huge flop and the beginning of the end for Sega regarding hardware.

        I guess 5m sales isn't a flop in terms of penetration (don't know if units were sold at a loss though) but as a non sega fan there was never anything on it that made me look over enviously and actually feel I needed one.

        Comment


          #34
          The Mega CD was designed as a competitor for the PC Engine and was in design from the start of the systems life. I think that the problem was that it was merketted as an answer to the SNES, but that's not what it was intended for. It also was not intended to be an FMV player.
          If the compliants are that SOJ did not support it then it could be understood as the Megadrive in Japan was in 3rd place and the installed base must have been tiny in Japan. Where are you going to put your resources? You'll get better returns making cartridge software.

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            #35
            Originally posted by Fastware View Post
            If the compliants are that SOJ did not support it then it could be understood as the Megadrive in Japan was in 3rd place and the installed base must have been tiny in Japan. Where are you going to put your resources? You'll get better returns making cartridge software.
            It was , but you could still make money from the system and produce fine software for it , GameArts did this better than anyone . SOJ did support the Mega CD with some fine software , but most of thier best output came in 93/94 way after the system launched .
            It wouldn't have taken a huge Team , big money to port the Likes of Space Harrier, Out Run , Super Hang-on ECT to the Mega CD .
            If SOJ did that early on, I think the system would have been better received, not a massive seller , but more with its general image

            Comment


              #36
              Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
              It wouldn't have taken a huge Team , big money to port the Likes of Space Harrier, Out Run , Super Hang-on ECT to the Mega CD .
              The problem with this would have been that these games were some ten years old and had already been ported to most consoles/computers at the time. In addition, they wouldn't exactly have used the media to their advantage as they all could fit onto a cartridge quite easily.

              I maintain my argument that the failure of the Mega CD was down to Sega's high pricing of the unit and poor marketing strategy. A couple of people here have mentioned that there were no games worth buying the system for at the time; had Sega highlighted games such as Snatcher and Lunar: The Silver Star as the next level of gaming rather than FMV games or a jazzed up Sonic, more people may have took notice.

              The purpose of the system was its increased storage capacity, not its 3D effects, and it's the games that took advantage of this that would not have been able to appear on other formats barring the PCE-CD in Japan and the US. Anything using sprite scaling/rotation could have easily been released for the SNES, or Sega could have designed a chip similar to the DSP chip to perform such duties in cartridge games.

              The ASIC chip and PCM chip were merely a bonus for developers to use. In fact, if their inclusion was the cause of the gargantuan price of the unit, they could well have been detrimental to its overall sales. I think that one only needs to look at the success of the PCE CD-ROM to prove that CD technology was right for the time but only at the right price, and only by games taking advantage of the extra capacity.

              Comment


                #37
                For those of you who argue that there was little or nothing worth buying the system for at the time, are you telling me you wouldn't have w*nked over this had it been localised?

                Edit: You must watch it with sound for the full effect

                Last edited by samanosuke; 05-03-2009, 11:08.

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                  #38
                  I've still got the video that Mean Machines gave away promoting the Mega CD. It seemed like the future had arrived. There were loads of game previews after it too, including Streets of Rage II, which just looked intense when I watched it!

                  Moving on to the cover star, is it just an article on the original Pac-Man or a gaming family tree? I love that little yellow guy and love some of his games especially Pac-Land.

                  I remember finding the hard hat behind the hydrant and so on. Made you feel elite knowing little tricks like that!

                  I toyed with the idea of collecting Pac-Man clone LCD games for a while, y'know - Puck-Man, Munch Man and so on...

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Originally posted by samanosuke View Post
                    For those of you who argue that there was little or nothing worth buying the system for at the time, are you telling me you wouldn't have w*nked over this had it been localised?

                    Edit: You must watch it with sound for the full effect

                    Record of Lodoss War also came out on the PC Engine CD-ROM. I had it and TBH, aside from the video, it was a pretty poor game.

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Originally posted by Duddyroar View Post
                      Record of Lodoss War also came out on the PC Engine CD-ROM. I had it and TBH, aside from the video, it was a pretty poor game.
                      The PCE cut-scenes truly suck in comparison though:



                      Try spotting that big f*ck off dragon that appears in the MCD version.

                      Edit: Sorry I posted the wrong video!
                      Last edited by samanosuke; 05-03-2009, 13:21.

                      Comment


                        #41
                        The problem with this would have been that these games were some ten years old and had already been ported to most consoles/computers at the time. In addition, they wouldn't exactly have used the media to their advantage as they all could fit onto a cartridge quite easily.
                        1st Off I must say its a real pleasure in talking to you , and well any fans of the Mega CD , makes a nice change .

                        I take the point you're making , but no home console port of OutRun was ever done that well (at the time) The Mega CD version would have nailed the scaling and the soundtrack (that fact alone would have made it a must buy) also I'm sure a port of PowerDrift with the coin ups scaling and rotation would have been a massive deal at the time .
                        Yes I know the Mega Drive/MCD could never have handled the a perfect port, but it would have been far closer to anything other machines could have offered at the time


                        I would have been all for Strider ect being ported to the Mega CD, with all the Arcade speech , intro's and music . Simple stuff that SEGA could have done to really make those that got the system , be all the better for it . I would have loved to see more PC ports , more so after the fantastic work GameArts did with Wing Commander and Rise Of the Dragon (a overlooked classic ) . Was gutted when the rumoured ports of Monkey Island II and Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis never made it to the Mega CD

                        The ASIC chip and PCM chip were merely a bonus for developers to use. In fact, if their inclusion was the cause of the gargantuan price of the unit, they could well have been detrimental to its overall sales
                        The high price was down the CD-Rom left face it, and the fact that the Mega CD used (for the time) massive amount of RAM . What was it , 6 Mbits for game data (bigger than most carts alone) the same amount of sound ram as the Saturn used , and another chuck for the Bios (still the best front end imo) . In those days RAM and Memory were hugely expensive

                        Comment


                          #42
                          Originally posted by Team Andromeda View Post
                          1st Off I must say its a real pleasure in talking to you , and well any fans of the Mega CD , makes a nice change .
                          Same here mate. It's nice to talk to anyone on this board - at times it can seem like this place is deader than Naf-Naf jackets - but to have a good debate over one of my favourite consoles makes it all the better

                          Comment


                            #43
                            Originally posted by merf View Post
                            interesting to read the sales figure for the mega cd, I was a SNES owner at the time and probably swayed by the nintendo press etc but I also had always regarded it as a huge flop and the beginning of the end for Sega regarding hardware.

                            I guess 5m sales isn't a flop in terms of penetration (don't know if units were sold at a loss though) but as a non sega fan there was never anything on it that made me look over enviously and actually feel I needed one.
                            I felt exactly the same at the time. The MegaCD arrived - and most serious gamers were very interested in what it could offer. I know I was extremely curious to see if its games would blow-my-mind. Sadly.. none of them did.

                            I mean.. where were the big games? ..Where was the F-Zero, or Mario Kart killer? .. Where was the Pilotwings type game? ... Where was a Castlevania that beat 'Rondo of Blood' .... Where was the shooter like 'Axelay' ? .... The anwser is: "Nowhere" ... Only SonicCD ever really had a AAA vibel; and even then.. many MD owners moaned that they preferred Sonic & Knuckles.

                            I'm not someone who cares about technical wizardry - if the actual game experiences are lacking. The MegaCD had a sort of 'Shadow of the Beast' vibe about it: A reason to get excited on the surface, but.. pretty "Meh" .. once you actually think about spending money on it.

                            The MegaCD was bought on the basis of 'hope' . People truely believed that Sega & its third-parties would deliver the games of their dreams. It's a real shame that those dreams were dashed - to a point where people would hype-up any reasonable game to the point of calling it "AAA" .. even if.. in reality it was not that great really.

                            When it comes down to it, if the MegaCD had been great, I would have been happy and the machine would have a positive reputation across the board. Sega would have been the envy of Nintendo - and gamers would have been playing loads of great games. That didn't happen.

                            That's not to say that some MegaCD games aren't worth owning these days. Of course they are. No one is expecting to be amazed by them now. They aren't going to spend tons of cash on a dream. No, people who play SonicCD, Batman, Keio Flying Squadron etc... are going to have good old fashioned gameplay to enjoy with some attractive 16-bit visuals.

                            I would have loved a SuperCD add-on for the SNES. I will certainly be dreaming about what Nintendo would have done with that. Would they have done better than Sega did with 16-bit CD games? I think so. ....
                            Last edited by Leon Retro; 06-03-2009, 21:47.

                            Comment


                              #44
                              I mean.. where were the big games? ..Where was the F-Zero, or Mario Kart killer? .. Where was the Pilotwings type game? ... Where was a Castlevania that beat 'Rondo of Blood' .... Where was the shooter like 'Axelay' ? .... The anwser is: "Nowhere" ... Only SonicCD ever really had a AAA vibel; and even then.. many MD owners moaned that they preferred Sonic & Knuckles
                              A lot of people say that , and they tend to be the ones that never owned the system, and I don't agree just because something didn't sell great does not mean it didn't have big games or AAA games . Master System sold like sh8t in most parts of the World , so did the Saturn and they're some of the best gaming systems I owned , the DC didn't really set the world alight in sales , what that's poor too ?, one could say the same about the PC-Eng , Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo Pocket , 3DO


                              Where was the F-Zero, or Mario Kart killer?
                              No one ever come up with a Mario Kart Killer, but Batman Returns killed F-Zero in the graphics and sound dept , and was equally as good as game to play







                              No, people who play SonicCD, Batman, Keio Flying Squadron etc... are going to have good old fashioned gameplay to enjoy with some attractive 16-bit visuals
                              There's more to the Mega CD that that . You had some of the best RPG's in the Shape of the Lunar's and Popful Mail , had one of the best strategy games ever in the shape of Third World War, The likes of Snatcher, and Rise of The Dragon (just as good imo) Jurassic Park , Some brilliant shooters with Battle Corps, Soul Star, Bari Arm, Robo Aleste and Wing Commander (the best consoles version around at the time , some decent Platform games , one of the best Arcade ports ever with Final Fight , some ace sports games
                              and one of the best games ever made in Switch

                              Comment


                                #45
                                Originally posted by Leon Ahoy! View Post
                                I know I was extremely curious to see if its games would blow-my-mind. Sadly.. none of them did.
                                None?!? Watching that Batman Returns vid TA posted blew my mind when I watched it today, never mind my reaction back in 1993 or whenever it was released.

                                Originally posted by Leon Ahoy! View Post
                                I mean.. where were the big games? ..Where was the F-Zero, or Mario Kart killer? .. Where was the Pilotwings type game? ... Where was a Castlevania that beat 'Rondo of Blood' .... Where was the shooter like 'Axelay' ? .... The anwser is: "Nowhere" ... Only SonicCD ever really had a AAA vibel; and even then.. many MD owners moaned that they preferred Sonic & Knuckles.
                                Should the Mega CD have been a SNES killer? I thought Sega's intention was to embrace the next step in console technology - comparitively unlimited storage space - even it it was only properly realised in a handful of games.

                                And I don't know many that wouldn't consider Snatcher to be an AAA title...
                                Last edited by samanosuke; 07-03-2009, 14:07.

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