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Well, Nintendo did try add-ons as well. Theirs were just such colossal failures that they never released them outside of Japan...
Add-on chips I'm kind of torn on saying they're equivalent to the Sega CD and 32X. Yeah they were expensive, but they didn't require a new console from the players point of view. And it's not like Sega didn't try it with Virtua Racing and it's not like it was uncommon either when we look at the Famicom/NES. Especially if we say Mappers count in that argument. Personally I agree that the 32X was a bad idea and shouldn't have been done. Those games and resources should have been thrown into the Saturn instead to make it have a better launch and possibly more polished hardware. Sega CD though I thought was fine, Sega just needed to push it more in the way NEC pushed the PC-Engine CD.
They didn't push anything with the Sega CD other than a silly Marky Mark music video.
It can do a bunch of things the stock Megadrive can't do and hardly any games take advantage of it, so what you really have is an expensive add-on that has a handful of games with CD quality audio that ultimately sold far less than it should have, meaning by not owning one you didn't miss out on anything big in the first place.
Imagine if SOR2, Sonic 2, Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes were all Sega CD exclusive? It may of pissed off a few Genesis owners sure, but they would of sprung for it eventually.
The Mega/Sega-CD provided massive games that were impossible to do on carts at the time for a reasonable retail price. The extra audio sample hardware and redbook sound also provided experiences that transcended stale cart games and especially pixelization-as-a-style. Look at how many retro fans still make out SNES RPGs like Chrono Trigger and FFVI to be such a big deal, while combined they contain only a fraction of the assets and artwork found in games like Lunar Eternal Blue, Shining Force CD and Keio Flying Squadron and they, along with the big left-in-Japan JRPGs all use pixelization as filler in-place of actual artwork.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
Dismissing the CD format for not milking gimmicky effects is like saying that Neo Geo games would be better off on 16-meg carts and full of Mode-7. Except that CD games which make decent use of the format provide both plentiful volume and variety of assets, along with the many benefits of the additional audio.
You had the exclusive Sonic CD as well as Shining Force CD. There were also some pretty cool exclusive games from CORE.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
There's also The Terminator, Robo Aleste, Final Fight, Batman and Robin, Snatcher, Monkey Island. Upgraded versions of Batman Returns, Earthworm Jim, Spider-Man. Some of the Genesis ports like NBA Jam, Mickey Mania, the Ecco games, NHL 94. There's probably others that I'm missing, but I'd say that's worth owning a Sega CD if you can find one that works and is at a decent price now these days.
and heres aguy who clearly didn't live in the early 90s....Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
If I was wrong, the Sega CD would of been successful, and it wasn't. So yeah.
I never said it didn't have good games, it just doesn't have any games to make you spring for it, Final Fight and Robo Aleste were cool and all but a handful of upgraded Genesis titles isn't a reason to drop £200.
It was successful. And you're wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
There were a couple games like the Lunar ones, Road Avenger, Snatcher, Wing Commander, etc. which would easily justify buying it for those who could afford it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
Those kinds of experiences you simply couldn't have with cartridges but hindsight is 20/20 and revisionism is a helluva drug!
People underestimate how big it was to have fmv cutscenes in games. I mean a game would literally become better if it had voices and cutscenes. you may laugh at it today but that's how it was. It was a very expensive add-on but good luck finding a cheaper cd-player in the early 90s. they didn't exist. besides the sega cd was a big succes until holiday 1993 with the senate backlash and nintendo screwing them.
Sega CD was a missed opportunity for me. They pushed FMV games too much while they could have near arcade perfect ports of sprite scaling arcade games like Outrun, Space Harrier, After Burner, etc (they did release a crappy After Burner game that didn't make good use of the hardware). AFAIK, the Megadrive + Sega CD combo offers two very capable 68000 processors, sprite scaling capabilities and some extra RAM. So i don't see why they had to wait for the more powerful 32X to do decent ports of these arcade games (and they aren't even arcade perfect since they run at 30fps only). The arcade boards also have 2 68000 CPUs so i thought it wouldn't be a problem porting them on Sega CD. And there are some other Sega CD games that prove it was capable.
Most of the stuff was either FMV games (grainy, low res video with minimal gameplay) or Mega Drive looking games/ports with CD audio and cut-scenes. The games that actually used the hardware to produce more impressive real time graphics than the standalone Mega Drive were few and far between.
My cousin sold his SNES, bought a Genesis and got a Sega CD for Christmas, after he played my Sega CD.
It did ok for a Add-On, but it really wasn't that successful, or at least not nearly as successful as SEGA would have hopped. It did ok in the USA but it didn't sell that great in Europe and the Software support wasn't there and the release schedule dire, much like it software sales (for most games).Quote:
Originally Posted by Barone
Its such a shame, because it was a fantastic system with such potential
To be fair to TOM and SEGA Americam they did and they really pushed the system and did well at the start. Its just a shame that SOA caught up so much in the Night Trap hype and media coverage and thouht that's what everyone wantedQuote:
They didn't push anything with the Sega CD other than a silly Marky Mark music video
Yep spot on. We chould and should have had ports of the Outrun and the likes using the ASIC chip to give us a much better port over the MD version and while not Arcade perfect much better than what consoles around at the time could offer . I'll never forgive CRI for the sh8t AB III port on the Mega CD, it really should have been a showcase for the systemQuote:
Originally Posted by Soulis
The other big miss, especially if FMV was to be pushed, was adding additional colors available. That would make 32X even more unnecessary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soulis