Did any Neo-Geo game ever have close to 4096 onscreen colors?

[dragonboy]

A few years ago I played an Neo Geo arcade machine at a Pizza Hut. It had about four games on it and I remember noticing slowdown on some of them. I didn't know what Neo Geo was until I researched it at home, but I originally thought it had similar hardware to the Snes.

[dragonboy]

I've yet to play a Genesis game where the slowdown made the game unplayable.

The Sega Seal of Quality has a slowdown policy that states if a game has too many unexcusable slowdown the game doesn't get released. That's why you didn't see as many Capcom games on Genesis as on the Snes, and why Konami didn't release any games on Genesis until 1993.

Gradius 3 was originally going to be ported on the Sega Genesis, but it didn't pass Sega's quality control, so Konami released it on Snes instead. Konami had to practice their programming skills so for a few years they exclusively made games for the Snes, because Nintendo had no such policy. Once Konami's programmers became masters of speed coding, they were developing games for Sega nonstop.

[17daysolderthannes]

The Sega Seal of Quality has a slowdown policy that states if a game has too many unexcusable slowdown the game doesn't get released. That's why you didn't see as many Capcom games on Genesis as on the Snes, and why Konami didn't release any games on Genesis until 1993.

Gradius 3 was originally going to be ported on the Sega Genesis, but it didn't pass Sega's quality control, so Konami released it on Snes instead. Konami had to practice their programming skills so for a few years they exclusively made games for the Snes, because Nintendo had no such policy. Once Konami's programmers became masters of speed coding, they were developing games for Sega nonstop.

really? wow, never knew that. Does make you wonder about Sol Feace though because there was lots of slowdown after the first 2 or 3 levels, and inexcusably so considering the graphics were no where near the capacity of the Sega CD. Personally I always thought slowdown was pretty cool because it was like the game went into slow motion when everything got too crazy and gave you that "Matrix" effect. I find it helps more than it hurts (usually).

[Aarzak]

Actually, I thought it was just because Konami and Capcom were pussy-whooped by Nintendo, and it wasn't until 1992 (Konami) and 1993 (Capcom) that they were able to squeeze out a contract with Sega............and we all know how many Mega Drive titles they developed compared to their Super Famicom efforts. Nintendo & Konami had a one-year exclusivity clause for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time" (hence why the Genesis port was the altered "Hyperstone Heist", complete with the first instance of Konami's trademark "Mega Drive border" which took up ample real estate in most of their MD titles ("Rocket Knight Adventures", TMNT "Tournament Fighters", "Contra: Hard Corps", all while their SNES titles had no such border), and Capcom & Nintendo had a one-year exclusivity contract for "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior". Both of these contracts were agreed upon in 1992, but this is all just trivia.

Konami & Capcom..........two of Nintendo's biggest brown-nosers back in the 16-Bit era. Boy, they sure showed them when they mostly defected to Sony and even Sega (Saturn) after being bossed around for two console generations (LAWL cart format).

[Joe Redifer]

really?

Uh, no. Please don't seriously believe that.

[dragonboy]

Okay, I think I'll conduct an experiment: all I need is for someone to type up any code that will do something you always find in video games (common things like scrolling and collision and jumping ect) in 68000 assembly. Just tell me what the code does, type the code out, count the cycles, and use side notes when needed.

The reason I'm asking you for the code, is to prevent me from cheating on my own experiment, and it is a specific kind of experiment that involves other people.

I'll tell you more about what my experiment is after someone gives me some code, because a big part of my experiment is the surprise of what my experiment is.

[Joe Redifer]

What the hell does this have to do with the Neo Geo? You need proper headers and whatnot to even get the code to run on different systems. Genesis 68000 assembly won't run on a Neo Geo.

[tomaitheous]

Actually, I thought it was just because Konami and Capcom were pussy-whooped by Nintendo, and it wasn't until 1992 (Konami) and 1993 (Capcom) that they were able to squeeze out a contract with Sega

I would say that it had more to do with Nintendo having a huge user base in Japan. It wasn't till the Japanese game companies started taking the US market (and probably EU as well) seriously that they started doing more development for MegaDrive. It might have been a distant 3rd in Japan, but it sure as well wasn't in EU and US. I'm sure the law suit against Nintendo also helped

Japanese companies were often misunderstanding the US and other over seas gamer markets. Hell, NEC in the US was offered exclusive rights to MK 1 before any other company, but turned it down because the Japanese managers who were running the US market for TG/Duo thought US gamers were tired of fighting games!? Not to mention the passed on SF2:CE. Look how long it took for traditional JRPGs to come out here state side just for NES. Dragon Warrior originally was either a $5 mail in offer or free originally with a subscription of Nintendo Power (I forget which promotion).

[Gentlegamer]

I wish the Genesis was 24-bit. Too bad it's not. Only the Neo Geo which is based on a completely different architecture is 24-bit.

The Genesis doesn't even compare.

[dragonboy]

What the hell does this have to do with the Neo Geo? You need proper headers and whatnot to even get the code to run on different systems. Genesis 68000 assembly won't run on a Neo Geo.

Okay for anyone dying to know what my experiment was: I wanted to see if I could take a code of something in 68k, and translate it into 65816 and see if I can do it using less cycles.

I know Sega's cpu is clocked twice as fast, but with having 80 onscreen software rotating sprites with no slowdown, compared to having 4 sprites with massive slowdown, that's way more than just twice; add to that the Neo is clocked about 3/2 of Sega but it slowsdown much more often, something has to have been put into Sega's Seal of Quality contract that deals about slowdown in games.

[playgen]

Neo Geo slows down much more often than megadrive? What games are you talking about?, none of the Neo games I have slow down. Metal Slug 2 is notorius for slow down, they re-released it as Metal Slug X with slow down removed.
Of course Sega would have picked up on extreme slow down as part of their quality control testing process.

[retrospiel]

something has to have been put into Sega's Seal of Quality contract that deals about slowdown in games.

Unlike Nintendo's Seal of Quality which actually stands for heavily tested games and high restrictions on the maximum amount of games per year that a publisher could release, the SEGA Seal of Quality never meant anything at all. Just a marketing gag to keep people happy/confused/whatever.

- I can give you a SEGA Seal of Quality if you like.

[Phantar]

The Sega Seal of Quality has a slowdown policy that states if a game has too many unexcusable slowdown the game doesn't get released.

Where the heck did you get THAT info from? Can you give us a source?

That's why you didn't see as many Capcom games on Genesis as on the Snes, and why Konami didn't release any games on Genesis until 1993.

And here I thought that was because of Nintendo´s binding, if not crippling, licensee guidelines, like "Licensees were not permitted to release the same game for a competing system until two years had passed."shakes head sadly

[dragonboy]

I thought that had been lifted in 1990 by several Nintendo vs 3rd party lawsuits.

[Tanegashima]

Neo Geo slows down much more often than megadrive? What games are you talking about?, none of the Neo games I have slow down. Metal Slug 2 is notorius for slow down, they re-released it as Metal Slug X with slow down removed.
Of course Sega would have picked up on extreme slow down as part of their quality control testing process.

I am referring to the Neo Geo CD, not the cartridge system...