TEXAN*s SEGA enthusiast thread - past and future hardware choices

[TEXAN*]

I was reading some old articles and I came across the following information.

It would seem that SEGA was initially to use a JVC GPU for the SEGA SATURN but in the end ditched it in favour of the underpowered dual VDP's which ended up costing SEGA the 32-Bit console war -

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/22/b...o-use-hitachi-chip-in-video-game-machine.html

 

[grandmaster]

No comment on the Daytona remake on RingWide essentially being the original Daytona running under emulation?

 

[Nesh]

I was reading some old articles and I came across the following information.

It would seem that SEGA was initially to use a JVC GPU for the SEGA SATURN but in the end ditched it in favour of the underpowered dual VDP's which ended up costing SEGA the 32-Bit console war -

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/22/b...o-use-hitachi-chip-in-video-game-machine.html

How do you know that JVC was more powerful? The article doesnt say much about the JVC technology or how much it would contribute

Sega was originally planning for a 32-bit console AFAIR dedicated mostly in 2D that will also have 3D rendering capabilities.

When Sony announced their console specs with dedication in 3D visuals, Sega went back to the drawing board. They were presented with various options but at the end they chose the one they believed that was "more powerful". That was more expensive and also exotic in design with lackluster library tools that only Sega had the people with the programming know how to develop for it.

In other words they aimed for higher theoretical performance by combining off the shelf parts, but ended up increasing their manufacturing costs and programming headaches.

One of the other options they had was a technology from Silicon Graphics, which according to Sega wasnt as powerful as the final design we got. It was more traditional in design and was easier to develop for it though. Sega didnt want that though because they thought it wasnt powerful enough

Some say that if they went by this design they might have been in a much better position

 

[Grall]

More evidence to prove that SEGA made the wrong choice by choosing PVR2 over Voodoo 3.

Evidence, but not proof...

Evidence doesn't actually have to be correct.

Pretty funny to see a die-hard Sega fanatic dis the perhaps best aspect of the Dreamcast...

The PVRDC chip was far, far better all things considered than the misfit that was Voodoo3. Texture compression and higher texture res, internal 32-bit rendering, overdraw elimination... PVRDC *owns* the crappy old Voodoo 3 from pretty much every angle except a few raw spec points, and who can say if the relatively wide memory bus (for its time) with quite fast video RAM the V3 used in PC add-in boards would have been economical for a console. It might have needed a nerf to be economical.

No, Sega did the right choice there, that's for sure. The failure of DC lies elsewhere, and be certain, with a V3 graphics chip, DC would not have had better looking games. Quite the opposite in fact.

 

[V3]

No comment on the Daytona remake on RingWide essentially being the original Daytona running under emulation?

That's the only way they can keep all the Daytona magic intact I guess.

 

[function]

That's the only way they can keep all the Daytona magic intact I guess.

Then they need to use CRT displays too!

I recently did some comparisons between my IPS monitor and my old Trinitron CRT monitor. Overall the picture on the CRT just seemed nicer - little things, like the lighting in Halo 3, just had more depth, or richness, or something. I'm not quite sure how to describe it really.

For SD stuff like the DC I found that even my old crt portable television looked better than the LCD monitor through VGA (as long as I used an RGB scart cable).

 

[TEXAN*]

No doubt, CRT is still king after all these years.

That's the reason I can't wait for SED.

 

[V3]

Then they need to use CRT displays too!

Yeah, but I don't think they can get HD CRT for cheap. So I guess tradeoff.

I recently did some comparisons between my IPS monitor and my old Trinitron CRT monitor. Overall the picture on the CRT just seemed nicer - little things, like the lighting in Halo 3, just had more depth, or richness, or something. I'm not quite sure how to describe it really.

I am sure you're referring to better contrast on CRT.

For SD stuff like the DC I found that even my old crt portable television looked better than the LCD monitor through VGA (as long as I used an RGB scart cable).

You might like Plasma better than LCD. Have you given Plasma a chance ?

 

[specwarGP2]

No doubt, CRT is still king after all these years.

That's the reason I can't wait for SED.

LOL SED is dead in the water. The next generation display technology will be OLED.

 

[Grall]

No doubt, CRT is still king after all these years.

If you say "king of shit", then I agree with you...

I so can be without having to manually adjust my screen to every custom resolution so it fills out to the edges, having to fuck around in the menus to deal with pincushion and other geometry issues, trying to tweak the convergence so only ONE corner is miscolored versus the others, dealing with the massive power draw and heat output of a large screen (and the half-broken back when having to lug it around), and so on and on and on. Not to mention the issues stemming from running high resolutions and refresh rates as analog signals over the video connector...

CRT screens are the work of the devil. They are a bad technology that was perfected only because it was cheaper than actually developing something proper (sort of like the internal combustion engine).

That's the reason I can't wait for SED.

Sed's dead, baby. Sed's dead.

Never gonna come out, ever.

 

[TEXAN*]

It's very much alive -

http://www.oled-display.net/canon-still-working-on-sed-tv-filed-two-new-patents

 

[Grall]

SED's most definitely dead, perhaps it (and Canon) doesn't quite know it yet though. Developing it further is a waste of money, it'll never go anywhere. SED screens are far more expensive to manufacture than say, OLED for example, and have no genuine advantages over OLED either once that tech matures.

 

[function]

You might like Plasma better than LCD. Have you given Plasma a chance ?

I can't justify a HD telly due to the Xbox 360 being the only "hi-def" (sort of) thing that I'd use on it, so I guess that rules a Plasma out.

From what I've seen of Plasma televisions though, I prefer them to LCDs for watching DVDs.

I so can be without having to manually adjust my screen to every custom resolution so it fills out to the edges, having to fuck around in the menus to deal with pincushion and other geometry issues, trying to tweak the convergence so only ONE corner is miscolored versus the others, dealing with the massive power draw and heat output of a large screen (and the half-broken back when having to lug it around), and so on and on and on. Not to mention the issues stemming from running high resolutions and refresh rates as analog signals over the video connector...

CRT screens are the work of the devil. They are a bad technology that was perfected only because it was cheaper than actually developing something proper (sort of like the internal combustion engine).

My Trinitron CRTs cost what felt like a small fortune at the time, and while the set-up, transportation, and having six inches of your desk left for mouse, kb and textbooks was a pain in the ass, the picture was worth it. 120hz at 800 x 600 - smooth and crisp like a fine ale that's been chilled to perfection on a summer's day. (or something)

The later one even had switchable VGA inputs so I could go on my DC and gamefaqs at the same time. They never let me down. Not like my IPS LCD, which now has a piece of damn TAPE hanging down inside the screen (between the LCD and backlight) in the top corner. God damn you, Samsung. Why did you have to make the tape YELLOW ffs, and why did you encase the panel in steel armour that I can't get into?!?

A CRT would never do that to you.

 

[zed]

Heres something most ppl would not have heard of
making screens out of this which they are researching at present

http://www.gns.cri.nz/services/ionbeam/whiskers.html

I heard for the first time on the radio on thursday, theyre sucessfully been able to emit light now (there main advantages are they use much less electrity than existing methods, lcd,oled etcs)

 

[grandmaster]

SEGA's grand vision - um, adding a Wiimote to... er, Mega Drive?

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31177/new-sega-console-hitting-summer

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They're seriously playing hardball. I'm not surprised the other console companies are sweating at the thought at a fourth player in the hardware industry.

 

[grandmaster]

Turns out to be a licensed thing available for £15 from eBay.

http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/2010/02/zone-sega-in-secret-not-by-sega-past/

 

[function]

It's very sad to see the company that created analogue thumbsticks and triggers, and that pushed things like online consoles, console to handheld connectivity and motion controllers onto the world reduced this kind of "console partnership".

On a different and slightly facetious note: with Sony finally about to push 3D glasses onto the console world once again, that's just about all Sega's back catalogue of hardware innovation raided by people who actually know how to make money from it.*

Who's going to do all the hard work now?

*Sony just forgot for a while.

 

[Grall]

Seeing that piece of crap makes me wonder what kind of hardware is inside, and how it is re-creating the games. Did they rip off MAME and run the games through emulation or what...?

 

[flynn]

Man, what a joke Sega has become