Blast Processing

[hadjiquest]

Which are the games on the Sega Genesis that fully utilise Blast Processing?

[StealthNinjaScyther]

Uh, any game that can push a lot of sprites and or special effects(scaling, rotation, etc.) without any significant slowdown. It's really hard to say since blast processing isn't a hardware feature, it's just the clock speed. You might as well ask which games have the best graphics.

Oh, and as for that list, I don't feel like writing one up now. :P

[crazyjoedavola]

I used to argue that blast processing was a marketing gimmick, but I would suggest that any game that moves fast, like Sonic, is what Sega would claim is Blast Processing. Still think it was all just an advertising tool though since that term isn't really used in regular computing language.

[GeckoYamori]

I think it was just a feature which ignored off-screen objects for increase in performance.

[Electroman]

Which are the games on the Sega Genesis that fully utilise Blast Processing?

None. It was very simply a marketing strategy. Sega of America knew the SNES was putting the heat under their aging Genesis hardware with their solid Nintendo titles, quality RPG's, and Mode 7 effects while the best the Genesis could do (and we all love it) is move sprites around really fast and have countless amounts of paralax effects. Sega thought this blast processing up in conjunction to how fast Sonic 's screens scrolled (due to efficient programming) and thunk it all up.

As a director of marketing said once in a meeting where I work, "The marketing department is "The headlights of the company".

Fortunately for Sega, people bought it.

[j_factor]

Are you serious? Quality RPGs? The SNES didn't see a significant number of quality RPGs until much later in its lifespan. Earlier on it had like two.

I also find the phrase "aging Genesis hardware" a bit peculiar when discussing the SNES. SNES uses the hoary old 65816 as its main processor; the 65816 was outdated even before Genesis launched. It would have been feasible to use the 68020, which would've blown Genesis out of the water. But Nintendo chose instead to go with an 80s throwback, for reasons unknown to me. All SNES has going for it are better video and Mode 7.

[Mel]

Are you serious? Quality RPGs? The SNES didn't see a significant number of quality RPGs until much later in its lifespan. Earlier on it had like two.

I also find the phrase "aging Genesis hardware" a bit peculiar when discussing the SNES. SNES uses the hoary old 65816 as its main processor; the 65816 was outdated even before Genesis launched. It would have been feasible to use the 68020, which would've blown Genesis out of the water. But Nintendo chose instead to go with an 80s throwback, for reasons unknown to me. All SNES has going for it are better video and Mode 7.

I agree. I beleive the blast processing strategy was used to off-set the snes release, which had a greater color palette, but was much slower than the genesis in regards to cpu.

So it was speed vs color variety.

[Electroman]

By 1991, the Genesis hardware was already 3 years old. That's why I called it "aging hardware". The public, being graphic whores they are saw all the pretty colors the SNES could do, and quickly flocked to it. Sega had to think of something. The one thing that the Genesis could do (and still could) is pump out sprites.

Believe me, I'm a Sega fan to the core but having worked at a software store from '91 through 1996, I saw and heard everything to this effect.

SNES had a horrible start, IMO with most of its games running in slow motion and such but I do still count the SNES hardware to be at most, a 1/2 a generation ahead of the Genesis hardware.

[GeckoYamori]

The difference in colour amount was never that apparent anyway. If you have any artistic sense whatsoever you'd know it's not good with 256 different colors cluttered over the screen, and you'd end up using a selected theme of colours which severly drags down the notable difference between 64 and 256 colours. That, and both consoles could only have a max of 16 colours on a single sprite.

[Electroman]

The difference in colour amount was never that apparent anyway. If you have any artistic sense whatsoever you'd know it's not good with 256 different colors cluttered over the screen, and you'd end up using a selected theme of colours which severly drags down the notable difference between 64 and 256 colours. That, and both consoles could only have a max of 16 colours on a single sprite.

True this. Artistic ability > raw color usage.

[j_factor]

And it wasn't hard to get around the color pallette. Genesis has some dedicated color memory (I believe it's the only console to do so), which is good for pallette swapping and some other tricks. It's also really not hard to put a red on top of a blue to make a purple and use all three colors, although it only actually "uses" two.

[Drixxel]

The colour limitations of the hardware were barely limitations at all in the hands of an able and creative developer, but you must admit that many Genesis games show palette weakness compared to SNES games, specifically multi-platform releases. A primary difference between the most noted weakness of the Genesis compared to that of the SNES is that the Genesis could more or less weasel its way colourful to compete, unlike the processor speed issues of the SNES where the Genesis had the clearcut advantage. I think we can more or less agree that the SNES dominates the Genesis in terms of audio, though. The good thing about hardware limitations is that they demand developer dexterity, and working within these kind of boundaries can make for the most inventive of software. Boundaries are something the modern gaming era lack, for the most part... PC gaming especially.

SNES RPGs really didn't pick up much steam in North America until '93 and beyond, but there were still a number of decent role-playing titles within a year of its launch (Drakkhen, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Lagoon, Soul Blazer, Ultima: The False Prophet, Wizardy V, Ys III, Zelda III). Still.. other than FFII and Zelda III, this genre wasn't too popular, so I don't think the RPG library at the time did much for system sales and Genesis/SNES competition. Soul Blazer and Ys III rock, though.

[GeckoYamori]

think we can more or less agree that the SNES dominates the Genesis in terms of audio, though.

I wouldn't be so quick on jumping to that conclusion. Yuzo Koshiro's work for Streets of Rage owns anything I've ever heard on the SNES. Jesper Kyd's complex electronic scores were very cool from a technical perspective and let's not forget Technosoft's efforts in Thunder Force IV.

[Electroman]

I'd like to comment on the audio topic also.

I, as a lover of good audio effects hated the muffled sound of many of the Genesis's PCM/FM sounds. BUT... and this is especially common in 1st year releases where the audio was superior than later releases. Listen to the Capcom conversions, Ghostbusters, Rambo III, Altered Beast, etc. Clean, almost wavetable synthesis-like audio. Its like Sega had their best team(maybe their arcade teams) develop the first run games?

Then Yuzo came on board and blew us away with some high fidelity musics on various games.

Plus, the Genesis's bass abilities rivaled SNES's 6 ways from Sunday. I recall being very turned off on SNES's tinny and conservative sounds, especially in its first couple years.

COme to think of it, TG16's music's are also a bit tinny as well. Only the Genesis seemed to offer low-end acoustic fidelity.

Of course, the NEO GEO hardware blew all the consoles out of the water sonically.

[GeckoYamori]

The SPC chip had some sort of primitive filter, I think that might have contributed to the tinny sound. I don't like those early filters at all, it takes away all the crispness. Sounds much better without it even if it's a bit raw. Luckily you can disable it using emulators :P