eh , I don't think the sega cd was a disaster. I think it was the 32x the real issue.
Sega Saturn vs N64 hardware wise
- Thread starter jackal256
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Well some are more disasters than others
Well some are more disasters than others
Listen , Sega were just really big fans of Voltron. There is no shame in that !
Now we are cooking with fire .If we are talking about commercial viability, didn't the 32x outsell Jaguar something like 3 to 1? I also think the best looking 32x games are more impressive than Jaguar.
I was suggesting an alternative to the master / slave arrangement that might have worked, though with the downside of added complexity.
You can't just arbitrarily assign lanes from a memory chip to a processor and say job done. It's not that simple,
The Megadrive was a different system, and the Z80 had the 8KB of audio ram to use as Master System work ram, with some way of correctly mapping memory for MS mode. It could act as CPU while playing Master System games - there was a specific Master System mode that the Megadrive switched into, effectively disabling the Megadrive only elements.
The Saturn sound CPU appears to see a different memory map to the CPU in the MD, and the Saturn sound CPU seems to be very low priority in terms of sound ram access. Even if Saturn didn't have an incompatible chip, I don't think you could do what the MD did for MS backwards compatibility.
It's not to say that would be the only problem with BC of course. Lacking everything else in the MD was pretty big too, but falling at the CPU seems like a good place to start.
It's not about the performance. Plus where have you seen that developers can run their own code on the CD-ROM subsystem's SH1?
How do you propose replacing these two very different processors, in very different blocks within the system, with different interfaces, with a single SH2?
Ignoring for a moment that some of your alterations seem to be unworkable, yeah they could have launched at the same price but that's because sale price and BOM are rarely the same thing.
I don't think these changes would have made any real impact on sales, but they would have hurt even more as Sega tried to compete on price with Sony.
The MCD had some good games in the end, but blimey in the UK the price was eye watering. I wanted one so much when it came out but I'm glad I waited till a few years back to get one for nostalgia's sake. Sega dropped the ball on software support really.
Unfortunately the MCD was held back by the Megadrive, particularly as the MD had a limited colour palette which was made worse by its 64 colours on screen being broken up into 4 x 16 colours. And on top of that, the MD could only move something like 7 KB a frame across into VRAM during vblank, so you'd often get stuff drawn or decoded on the MCD limited to 16 colours and low frame rates (or small FMV windows). Same goes for the Virtua Racing cartridge with the Sega Virtua Processor - something like 15 fps and all the polygons are drawn from the same 16-colour palette.
I think this was probably down to the MD inheriting the Master System VDPs 4-bit palettes - they just doubled them up from 2 x 16 to 4 x 16 for the MD (from a total of 512).
laymanpigeon
Newcomer
32X is simpler and cheaper to produce thus easier to make supply to satisfy demand.
Another that it is add-on for Genesis/Mega Drive that has few dozen million owners.
Despite selling more it has considerably fewer games released for compared to Jaguar.
Honestly some could genuinelu say why Saturn exists when is there close enough.
"Mommy, daddy! I want Saturn! Boy, we already had Saturn at home."
Genesis + CD + 32X in unison just needs Extended RAM Cartridge with 2MB of DRAM.
Compare 32X version of Virtua Fighter to Fight For Life on Jaguar.
FLF is rendered at 320x240 and has more consistent framerate.
Also characters have some texture applied to them unlike VF.
32X would not be able to handle a game like Skyhammer.
It would have crashed and burned trying to render such.
Also no super scaler games on 32X that come close to Super Burnout.
Lol. That's a good one.
But still failed. It was commercially not viable even though it allowed to do more
laymanpigeon
Newcomer
Clarify part about "allowed to do more"...
I m not sure why you are asking this or how its relevant. But since you asked, do more in terms of graphics and gameplay.
Regardless, "cheaper and simpler" werent enough to make commercially a success
I was always more pc focused and between the saturn and dreamcast I really switched focus. The dreamcast was the last really big console launch for me. Maybe the 360 after that since it was a way for me to play a lot of great online games with friends who weren't interested in the pc platform.
I think a lot of the younger generation forgot how vastly different console gaming was prior to the dreamcast with its online gaming (hell sega built an isp) and the xbox / xbox 360.
Nah it was when the XBox came along and I saw people doing LAN parties with it thanks to its ethernet port that I knew the end of days was at hand.
You were late to the party. Used to play Sega rally with my friend in japan back on my saturn. Then we moved on to playing games on the dreamcast.
Yeah I didn't do Saturn or Dreamcast. In college the Xbox really kicked up the multiplayer component though thanks to ethernet. Halo LAN parties. I didn't partake in it though. I was a PC guy for multiplayer and still am. Mostly RTS games though I loved playing CS, UT or Quake 3 in a LAN setting.
If I remember right, I felt like it went from 4 player N64 everywhere to Halo parties. I do remember watching one guy playing RE Code Veronica at one point though. I did buy a DC around 2010 to play with when I saw a pile of them at the second hand games store.
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Yea college for me was dreamcast / n64 and some halo.
I actually took the demo unit from kiosk from gamestop for the dreamcast tv and all. Had it on our front porch and we'd all play on the front porch. We actually all chipped in to buy a used dreamcast to mod chip so we could play all the games
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