SegaCD = Greatest CD add on?

[kool kitty89]

Well if that's 2.5 million US/NA (most of those figures seem to be for NA or US), and 3.92 mil for Japan, I guess (based on the 10 mil figure) 3.5 million for the rest of the world isn't out of the question, though that would seem a little high. (where else was it popular?)

[Da_Shocker]

I want a Turbo Duo so bad........

[tomaitheous]

Well if that's 2.5 million US/NA (most of those figures seem to be for NA or US), and 3.92 mil for Japan, I guess (based on the 10 mil figure) 3.5 million for the rest of the world isn't out of the question, though that would seem a little high. (where else was it popular?)

None really. Just North America and Japan. There was an official PAL TG released in a few select EU countries, but it's almost non existent (from what I've heard of PCE fans in France and a lesser extent UK, the system was imported and mod'd for PAL output but that still puts the sales in Japan). Korea also had a very small release as the Vista-16, but I believe that was done using existing US PCBs and a whole new case, and much later as a value system (some time in the late 90's I think). But neither the PAL or Korea systems are really considered when talking regions. So just US and JP.

The link that showed 3.92mil for the PCE base system seems a bit off. Considering the sales numbers of the NES in Japan, and that we know that the PCE base unit out sold the FC every year since its release in '87. And 1991 being the japanese release of the Duo, with a logical assumption that the majority of sales would be either CD addon or for the all-in-one system, 3.8million seems a little low (1993 is the farthest they go back on that one link). Are they including Core Grafx and Core Grafx 2 sysems into those sales numbers (or even the Shuttle Grafx)? But if we take that number as fact, then it's not hard to imagine that the Duo/Duo-R/RX sales took up the difference from the 10 million number. But then, do you separate the Duo as an "addon" because it was release as a single system and the software was virtually all CD sales (a small amount of hucards being release because of support for the portable PCEs)?

And... it boils down to a whole lot of (logical) speculation.

[Black_Tiger]

This site list 2.5Mil sold for TG-16
http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=14306

That's just a post on a forum, the same as if I were to say on this forum that 25 million units were sold. The post even begins with "I haven't found much data for this, but I'll keep looking".

But even if it had been listed on a regular website, that still doesn't mean that the info being posted is accurate. I know this may be hard to believe, but not everything you read on the internet is true.

But then, do you separate the Duo as an "addon" because it was release as a single system and the software was virtually all CD sales (a small amount of hucards being release because of support for the portable PCEs)?

You'd also have to separate the CDX, X'Eye and Laseractive modules.

[tomaitheous]

You'd also have to separate the CDX, X'Eye and Laseractive modules.

Even for the CDX and X'Eye, the main software sales never switch completely over to CD like what had happened with the Duo. I've always thought of the Duo and the TG16 as separate system because of this. The few releases of hucards after the Duo validated the TG Express (well, in my mind anyway) and to a lesser extent the few remaining gamers in the base that did/could not upgrade to a Duo or CD addon - though I'm sure they lost almost all of the gamers that didn't upgrade to Sega or Nintendo by then.

[gamegenie]

That's just a post on a forum, the same as if I were to say on this forum that 25 million units were sold. The post even begins with "I haven't found much data for this, but I'll keep looking".

But even if it had been listed on a regular website, that still doesn't mean that the info being posted is accurate. I know this may be hard to believe, but not everything you read on the internet is true.




You'd also have to separate the CDX, X'Eye and Laseractive modules.

look at this stage you have to work with what you get. Im sure if sales were great there would be a lot more post of sales for this system, maybe even an official post like Nintendo did for SNES.

Wiki backs it up too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbografx_16

[madcrow]

There were maybe 10 or 15 truly first rate games for Sega CD. It's certainly worth getting, but compared to the Turbo CD/PCE CD, it was MUCH less important to the platform. Lots of the best TG16/PCE games came out as CD exclusives. Only a small part of the Genesis's best games were CD-only. Thus I would say that Sega CD was not the greatest CD add-on.

[mrbigreddog]

Sega CD is amazing... But 32xCD games could have been freaking Awesome!!! 32x was great in alot of ways. But that with the CD addon never came close to being what it could have been!

[kool kitty89]

Problem with the 32x CD is that it can use almost no hardware on the CD unit other than basicly the CD drive. (for game data transfer, and video + audio streaming) Basicly it's just the satandard 32x hardware that's available (so most Genesis hardware available too), but the CD's graphics ASIC, added 8-channel PCM sound chip, and than nice amount of RAM (double the 32x's main RAM) are unavailable.

[Chilly Willy]

Problem with the 32x CD is that it can use almost no hardware on the CD unit other than basicly the CD drive. (for game data transfer, and video + audio streaming) Basicly it's just the satandard 32x hardware that's available (so most Genesis hardware available too), but the CD's graphics ASIC, added 8-channel PCM sound chip, and than nice amount of RAM (double the 32x's main RAM) are unavailable.

It can't directly access them, but it can send commands to the Genesis 68000 via the communication ports, which can then send commands to the CD 68000 via ITS communication ports. A two step process, so you wouldn't use it for something really time critical, but you still have all the CD stuff available in some manner.

[otaku]

tell ya what if its not the best cd add on (probably is) its certainly better than the jaguar cd they seem prone to breaking, cost an arm and a leg and have damn near no games for them

[kool kitty89]

Are you basing that on AVGN's review... They are expensive but not that prone to breaking, and the parts that do aren't that expensive to replace.

And some of the best games of the Jag are on the CD, the library is small but most are pretty good, without a lot of those sloppy games, and amiga ports seen earlier. (and Doom could have had CD music...)

[zetastrike]

The Sega CD was a great experiment for gaming in general. It was the first real taste gamers got of the compact disc medium. However, Sega did not handle it well at all. Personally, I would have never paid full price for one when it came out. To me, the game experience was little improved. It was capable of great games, but Sega wasn't keen on utilizing its true strengths. They were content to churn out more and more FMV junk. They could have at least had it add more colors. I always thought it would have been cool if the SCD and 32X technology were originally in the same unit. That would have been so kickass. The price would have been sky-high probably. Can you imagine it, though?

[kool kitty89]

FMV had a short fit as a ~2 year fad through 1993 (trickeling off in 1994), it was quite popular, and these titels comprised much of the CD's killer app's in the West (Sewer Shark, Night Trap), however like it's laserdisc arecade counterpart of the 80's it didn't last very long and crashed with a steep loss of interest it its conclusion.

It was unfortunate that so much of the CD's market was built on this genre (not the majority, but still disproportionately high), and that it was hyped too much over the other games. They should have been wareygiven the Laserdisc arcade fad.

And even then you've got a lot of titles that are just upgraded ports, some simple ports with minimal improvements (music, maybe an intro) that play about the same, others that actually expand on the original title, or are different overall, or were worse than the Genesis version. (there were also a number of ports from other platforms like home computers, some of which were good, others marginal, and revamped classics like Silpheed and Snatcher being excellent)

The ASIC was generally underutilized, a few games used it to good effect (probably being counted on two hands), others used it sparingly as a little added feature (lik Sonic CD, which even then it's use was limited in the bonus level), some games used it for some added effects, Android Assault used it in some of the scrolling background layers I think. Soul Star made good use of it, as did BC Racers (though the game was not amazing). Stellar Fire even showed some of its polygon pushing power (some site Silpheed, though others have claimed that all the models are buffered into ram as sprite tiles; the backdrop being streaming video)

It's a shame that no Wolfenstein style FPS's were developed for it. (it should also have been capable of some nice ports of some of Sega's earlier Arcade stuff, like better ports of some of the System 16 genesis ports, particularly the 16B stuff with scaling like AfterBurner and ThunderBlade, maybe cut down versions of some of the System 18 or maybe System 32 titles)

[Milkymagic]

I love the Sega CD, it had over 20 titles I thoroughly enjoyed on it, with a handful of games in particular that remain big all-time favorites (Snatcher, Lunar 1 and 2, Sonic CD, Robo Aleste, etc). I thought the FMV games were fun on it too, I was a fan of Road Avenger and Time Gal in particular, especially the former for its hilarity.

I do own a Jaguar, but I've never gotten around to the CD yet, it's usually around $250 and I'd rather save some more money first before I ever get around to buying one as of this moment (especially since it has only 15 games).

I'd like to get a Turbo Duo one of these days too.