EGM's last big feature on the Sega Genesis. <scan>

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Originally Posted by Sticky Note

I thought the FX chip created polygons, and the SNES could scale and rotate sprites on its own... I know there is scaling in Super Mario Kart, and that definately didn't have an FX chip.

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The scaling in Super Mario Kart is just the ground, and that's just the overused Mode 7 which scales a BG layer. The sprites are redrawn for each size... you can see them changing, just like a bad SMS or NES game.

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Originally Posted by dragonboy

Everybody says "Super Nintendo was still around well into the 32-bit era." If you think Snes was still around "well into" the 32-bit generation, so was Sega Genesis. First of all, DKC1 and DKC2 were not made in during the 32-bit generation, they were made 1994 and 1995, which were the transitional years. By late 1996 Super Nintendo manufacturing factories stated closing down, and the system was being sold in less and less stores throughout 1997. For anyone who can't remember clearly, the Sega Genesis was also being sold in most stores until late 1996, and then started fading away throughout 1997 just like the Super Nintendo did. The last Sega Genesis was sold in the December of 1997, while the last Super Nintendo was sold in the February of 1998, a TWO MONTH DIFFERENCE.

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I had thought that Majesco (or Sega for Majesco) kept manufacturing and selling Genesis consoles (Majesco Genesis 2 and Genesis 3) well into 1998. Hell, I got a new Genny 3 in Toys R' Us back in the Spring of 1999, where they were selling them for $20 a pop and there were loads of them. Maybe that's because they didn't sell much.........

I also read elsewhere that Nintendo stopped production of the SNES(2) in the U.S in 1999.

And yeah, after the last major third-party releases during the 1996 holiday season, all that was released for the SNES & Genesis throughout 1997 were:

- EA Sports titles.
- Re-releases (Nintendo's Player's Choice, Sega/Majesco's "Mega Hits Series")
- A handful of third-party efforts (Kirby's Dream Land 3 & Space Invaders for SNES, NFL & World Series Baseball '98, "The Lost World" Jurassic Park for Genesis)

After that.......it was "Frogger" for both of them and then kaput. However, both systems were engaged in a sort of bargain-bin, 16-Bit war revival from about late 1997 (when Nintendo fired the first shot by releasing the SNES 2) to around 2000ish, thanks in part to Majesco who cranked out dozens of re-releases for both consoles.

The problem with scaling and rotation was that Nintendo only used it when you didn't need it. Whenever there's at a part of a game where you know it would've been really cool if they used scaling and rotation, Nintendo doesn't use it.

For example, Some kid is playing a Nintendo game and tells Nintendo "You see this big scary monster boss, it would be soooo awsome if you made all his body parts and joints rotate and his sword rotate when he's trying to slice me in half; and when he explodes make his flaming head zoom in at me!!!" Then Nintendo says "Okay, you want scaling and rotation, we'll make the moon shrink in the background of the next level."

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

I had thought that Majesco (or Sega for Majesco) kept manufacturing and selling Genesis consoles (Majesco Genesis 2 and Genesis 3) well into 1998. Hell, I got a new Genny 3 in Toys R' Us back in the Spring of 1999, where they were selling them for $20 a pop and there were loads of them. Maybe that's because they didn't sell much.........

I also read elsewhere that Nintendo stopped production of the SNES(2) in the U.S in 1999.

And yeah, after the last major third-party releases during the 1996 holiday season, all that was released for the SNES & Genesis throughout 1997 were:

- EA Sports titles.
- Re-releases (Nintendo's Player's Choice, Sega/Majesco's "Mega Hits Series")
- A handful of third-party efforts (Kirby's Dream Land 3 & Space Invaders for SNES, NFL & World Series Baseball '98, "The Lost World" Jurassic Park for Genesis)

After that.......it was "Frogger" for both of them and then kaput. However, both systems were engaged in a sort of bargain-bin, 16-Bit war revival from about late 1997 (when Nintendo fired the first shot by releasing the SNES 2) to around 2000ish, thanks in part to Majesco who cranked out dozens of re-releases for both consoles.

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I guess that the "console life span" really depends on the stores in your area. Where I was living I remember buying both Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game paks in 1997, and I remember noticing in the fall and winter of '97, that the 16-bit games were becoming harder and harder to find.

Whoever wrote that, the Sega Genesis died in 1994, and the Super Nintendo lived on as a main competitor in the 32-bit generation war, on Wikipedia should shoot himself.

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Originally Posted by dragonboy

words

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The reason Nintendo didn't use scaling and rotation like you suggest is because the system was incapable. It would have been awesome if it could do stuff like that, but we had to settle for the scaling moon because that's the limit.

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The problem with scaling and rotation was that Nintendo only used it when you didn't need it. Whenever there's at a part of a game where you know it would've been really cool if they used scaling and rotation, Nintendo doesn't use it.

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QFMFT! I got a Super Nintendo not too long ago and they always use it in un-necessary places while neglecting to use it in areas where it would be cool.

In addition, someone forgot to tell the SNES developers that not every single game had to have Mode 7.

Example, the Mode 7 stages in Contra III are completely unnecessary and not that much fun.

EDIT: Joe, when some of the bosses in Super Mario World seem to rotate and zoom in on the screen, what is that called? Thats what I meant by the "scaling and rotation". Is that just Mode 7?

Yup. Just a simple, animated BG layer being Mode 7'd.

Is there any difference in the way an animated BG layer being mode 7'd would look vs. a scaling/rotated sprite?

I'm just interested in spotting the difference.

Usually, when large objects and enemies (placed in the BG layer) are being scaled and/or rotated, the background scenery is reduced to......nothing. Just a pitch black or single color background. See: Bowser in "Super Mario World", the crack rock boss in "Super Castlevania IV", the worm boss in "Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts" and others.

Another drawback of Mode 7 was that it was completely flat when it came to racing games. No hills, bumps and whatnot.

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Originally Posted by dragonboy

I guess that the "console life span" really depends on the stores in your area. Where I was living I remember buying both Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game paks in 1997, and I remember noticing in the fall and winter of '97, that the 16-bit games were becoming harder and harder to find.

Whoever wrote that, the Sega Genesis died in 1994, and the Super Nintendo lived on as a main competitor in the 32-bit generation war, on Wikipedia should shoot himself.

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Well, beginning in late 1994 and continuing throughout 1995, third-party developers abandoning the Genesis en masse, either jumping to the shiny-new 32-Bit consoles (Saturn, Playstation) or continuing to support the SNES. As a result, Genesis releases started becoming spotty and inconsistent in 1995, with only a handful of developers outside of Sega themselves producing or releasing Genesis software. By early 1996, the well really started becoming dry, and Sega of America was the only one supporting the Genesis. Sega of Japan unofficially dropped support for the Mega Drive in late 1994-early 1995, and the worldwide fall 1995 announcement that all Sega consoles outside of Saturn were canceled confirmed it.

Yes, I do recall new and to a lesser extent used Genesis/SNES games becoming harder to find into 1997, but Majesco singlehandedly flooded the market w/ dozens of Genesis/SNES re-releases in 1998-2000.........but yeah, by then the good, valuable games were long scarce.

16-bit's last "big" Christmas was Winter 1996. 1997 was a very dry year. Frogger was SNES' last US release (1998).

So sure, 16-bit was around while 32-bit thrived, but '96 wasn't exactly a year of many titles, though some of the best came out then, as well as mediocre forgettable titles that look like the '93 middle of the road games we got for SNES and Genesis.

It's weird, but I can't actually remember the Genesis' point of death. For me, it just never seemed to die.

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Originally Posted by Joe Redifer

The scaling in Super Mario Kart is just the ground, and that's just the overused Mode 7 which scales a BG layer. The sprites are redrawn for each size... you can see them changing, just like a bad SMS or NES game.

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Throwing a foot soldier at the screen in "Turtles in Time".

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

Usually, when large objects and enemies (placed in the BG layer) are being scaled and/or rotated, the background scenery is reduced to......nothing. Just a pitch black or single color background. See: Bowser in "Super Mario World", the crack rock boss in "Super Castlevania IV", the worm boss in "Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts" and others.

Another drawback of Mode 7 was that it was completely flat when it came to racing games. No hills, bumps and whatnot.

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What was that shitty basketball game that was all Mode 7 but the entire background was a solid blue color?

I also hated that the ground was completely flat in "Pilotwings"...buildings and all. It was fine when you were parachuting, but when using the jetpack...it really looked like unappealing.

There was a hockey game in Mode7 too... NHL Stanley Cup IIRC.

Mode7 worked great in Mario Kart... flat or not it was great!

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Originally Posted by Rusty Venture

Throwing a foot soldier at the screen in "Turtles in Time".



What was that shitty basketball game that was all Mode 7 but the entire background was a solid blue color?

I also hated that the ground was completely flat in "Pilotwings"...buildings and all. It was fine when you were parachuting, but when using the jetpack...it really looked like unappealing.

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"NCAA Basketball". Actually owned that turd for awhile. It was a pre-cursor to EA's early 3D basketball games though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR9L7resxA0