Do you think Sega-CD achieved its primary purpose?

[Team Andromeda]

Second: The cinemas in Lunar 2 are not FMV. Sorry. But the PCE can do FMV:

I know the PC Eng CD Rom can do FMV, one of the 1st games I ever saw on CD was Sherlock Homes on it. I've seen no standard PC Eng CD Rom game stream in an intro or do FMV anywhere near as good as the Mega-CD.
They're usually all loaded into Ram and just play when the CD plays the CD-DA audio track, like with Lunar on the Mega CD or most of Wolfteam games Mega CD games

I never cared for the colour pallet of either the PC Eng or Mega Drive. In the end, I just got used to the limited pallet and really didn't care if Final Fight CD looked washed out, It was just such an amazing port, I couldn't careless

And here's a couple more Mega-CD games that showed off the system better than the PC Eng CD Rom

[Black_Tiger]

I think it is not a matter if it was capable or not (all the heavily scaling of course not, the 2D games definitely yes) but is simply the fact that, no matter the hundreds of titles, some STYLES never appeared over PCEngine.

Take the example of FMV games.

For NEC the CD was mostly just a different media for games + audio.

For SEGA, especially N/A, it was also bringing home the FMV/CD-rom unique experiences.

FMV games never been amazing and, today, are just ridicolous but back then were something people wanted and SegaCD was offering.

I think this is "natural" as the NEC was strong in Japan but not relevant outside and SegaCD catalogue has really different weights on the styles of games if you look at the regions.

All in all this is the reason why, to me as kid, when I was looking in a shop of imported consoles, was more attractive the SEGA CD then the PC Engine + CDRom.

Even Johnny Turbo knows that Sherlock Holmes was on Turbo-CD before the Sega-CD even existed.

Off the top of my head I can think of 8 PC Engine games with fmv, but even within a year of the Sega-CD launch fmv heavy titles had become a joke and remain so among "retro" game fans.

If that's what you're into it's cool that you were able to import the kind of games you wanted. They just seem very set apart from everything that we love about 16-bit games nowadays.

[McValdemar]

Is there a reason for such washed out palette and poor color? There are weakness of MD not of PCE.

[turboxray]

Washed out devs hahah

[Black_Tiger]

Is there a reason for such washed out palette and poor color? There are weakness of MD not of PCE.

The Western developer used an automated single palette. Even the "pixelart" segments look very poor and unprofessional.

Here is a low quality video of some high quality PCE fmv:

[Team Andromeda]

Even Johnny Turbo knows that Sherlock Holmes was on Turbo-CD before the Sega-CD even existed.

That was the 1st time I ever saw FMV running on a system, it was quite increabile to see a real human in motion on a video system back then (no matter how silly its sounds now). It should also be noted mind that the FM Town Mary played host to a lot of the FMV games, but some for reason never gets labelled with the FMV heavy titles like the Mega CD. The system for FMV games really was MS-Dos, I lost count of the nunmber of heavy FMV games back on DOS.

Also I disagree with you a little . Some of the games that use FMV are very good. Dracula Unleashed is brilliant, so is Jurassic Park and used FMV very well to drive the story. Night Trap was quite original and very good for it's time, Road Adv is utterly brilliant, Slipheed is ace fun . The trouble was SEGA just went far too much into FMV and got caught into the FMV fad and spent far too much time and money in just that one sector.

I don't care what most people say. I very much enjoyed the games on MS Dos and Mega CD that were FMV heavy back then and now.

[McValdemar]

Even Johnny Turbo knows that Sherlock Holmes was on Turbo-CD before the Sega-CD even existed.

Off the top of my head I can think of 8 PC Engine games with fmv, but even within a year of the Sega-CD launch fmv heavy titles had become a joke and remain so among "retro" game fans.

If that's what you're into it's cool that you were able to import the kind of games you wanted. They just seem very set apart from everything that we love about 16-bit games nowadays.

Well the topic was mostly if SEGA-CD succeded in his purpose, so is not a matter of evaluating today.

To me the fact that I was capable of juping from a very japanese Rpg to a Sewer Shark to a Wing Commander to a Mansion of Hidden Souls was fantastic.
I loved SouldStar and Battlecorps to the point that I bought a 3DO to play Total Eclipse that looked like the next step of such shooters.
And when I was able to play Monkey Island without buying a new PC? Or Shadow of the Beast 2 in a version better than the Amiga?

Disapoointed? Only once: Ernest Evans. really a pile of smoking crap.

So, yes, to me was a successful add-on as I remember 4 years of titles where I could really pick many interesting ones that were offering things not possible on a cartridge. And, actually, it lasted a bit more than that as I couldn't buy everything on day one.
So, for an add-on, was possibly between the best add-ons I experienced.

Maybe SEGA would have been more smart to make just a CD player like NEC? Possibly, but for what was my experience, I am glad the system came with all the features they gave to it.

(Contrary for instance to 32X)

[Black_Tiger]

I loved the Sega-CD and 32X while they were current. Like all libraries they both have disappointing games.

Monkey Island is just a 2D game like Loom and Beyond Shadowgate. Doom for 32X was the real "without buying a new PC for" game and singel handedly justified the hardware. But titles like Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter really justify the extra processing power. From a technical standpoint, the 32X provides much more of 'not-possible-on-Mega Drive' bang for the buck than the Sega/Mega-CD.

People here are more interested in the business side though and if something doesn't top workdwide sales then it "bombed".

[Mega Drive Bowlsey]

I loved the Sega-CD and 32X while they were current. Like all libraries they both have disappointing games.

Monkey Island is just a 2D game like Loom and Beyond Shadowgate. Doom for 32X was the real "without buying a new PC for" game and singel handedly justified the hardware. But titles like Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter really justify the extra processing power. From a technical standpoint, the 32X provides much more of 'not-possible-on-Mega Drive' bang for the buck than the Sega/Mega-CD.

People here are more interested in the business side though and if something doesn't top workdwide sales then it "bombed".

You seem to be suggesting that the 32X made more sense from a consumer point of view, with regard both add-on's games library. I have to disagree. There was a point to the Mega CD. It enhanced the 16-bit market for Sega by adding enhancements to existing games, and producing entirely exclusive games, in a way that was unique to that platform. The 32X, by comparison, was a poorly thought out, and poorly supported, attempt to provide a cut-price entry to 32-bit gaming. With the Saturn literally just around the corner all the 32X succeeded in doing was confusing and alienating existing consumers. In short, the Mega CD had a purpose, the 32X did not.

[Black_Tiger]

How did the Mega-CD enhance existing games?

[Mega Drive Bowlsey]

How did the Mega-CD enhance existing games?

Many Mega Drive titles had definitive ports on the Mega CD. Batman Returns, Earthworm Jim, Eternal Champions (although technically a sequel), Mortal Kombat, Hook and Ecco the Dolphin, to name but a handful. The system proved it's worth, and had it not been for the, in hindsight, silly fad of FMV games, would be far more graciously remembered than it is.

[Skullkid]

Just curious did Sega CD have any of those pirate strip poker games? Apparently Bin Laden loved them.

[crazyteknohed]

Just stoking the fire...

[Black_Tiger]

Many Mega Drive titles had definitive ports on the Mega CD. Batman Returns, Earthworm Jim, Eternal Champions (although technically a sequel), Mortal Kombat, Hook and Ecco the Dolphin, to name but a handful. The system proved it's worth, and had it not been for the, in hindsight, silly fad of FMV games, would be far more graciously remembered than it is.

Taking existing Mega Drive games and re-releasing them with varrying levels of upgrades is exactly what the 32X did as well.

You were responding to my response to the notion of Monkey Island saving the purchase of a new PC. But the game wasn't ported great to Mega-CD, could have been done on cart and even SMS could handle a decent version. I think that the Mega-CD library is great as-is. I don't judge libraries or hardware by their poorer games and there is loads of great CD games.

Doom for 32X is the perfect example of saving the need to buy a PC and it was still a new cutting edge game when it came out for 32X. Until I got it with the 32X, I'd only played Doom on PCs purchased in recent years for thousands of dollars and it ran at <10 fps with no soundcard. Doom eventuallu came out for SNES and even with a powerful extra chip and was still unplayable.

Just stoking the fire...

I was lucky enough to get a Japanese Mega-CD and quite a few imports during the late 90's. I bought Record of Lodoss War brand new and was excited to play it, as I assumed that it was an enhanced port of the PCE version, similar to many other Mega-CD games.

It turned out to be the best example of how superfluous features can lead to SNES style reverse engineering games around using gimmicks and then trying to piece them together into a game.

FMV clips from the anime was a great idea... but the quality wasn't great by Mega-CD standards and the scenes chosen looked like they'd be perfectly doable in realtime.

After initial disappointment that it didn't play like Lunar as the PCE game does, I was relieved that the battles were similar to Shining Force... until a unit attack another. The scaled sprites in a black room with a spotlight really killed the atmosphere.

All they needed to do was go art heavy, but they went in the opposite direction and it feels like such a waste of the CD format.

[Team Andromeda]

How did the Mega-CD enhance existing games?

Maybe more than with the PC Eng CD ROM and you have to put into context too. Other that better sound FMV intros and more animation. How were PC DOS games enhanced on the PC CD Add on compared to the floppy versions

That's to overlook how much better the likes of NHL 94, FIFA, Earthworm Jim, Chuck Rock, Sensible Soccer, PitFall, Mortal Kombat, Batman Returns, Ecco were over the base MD versions.

The use of the Mega CD sound chip in PitFall and FIFA was stunning, never mind the 3D sections to Batman.

I think the CD Add On for the Mega CD, PC ROM and PC Eng all had their merits ..After all it really was about the storage and less costs per disc, compared to carts, rather than brining in a age of new gameplay.