View Full Version : Best Console CD Player Visuals
Ascending Wordsmith
05-09-2005, 10:25 PM
For those of you fortunate enough to own a Sega Saturn, you may or may not know that placing a music CD into it brings up the coolest music player menu in console history. Not only is it full of useful options such as pitch and tone adjustment, and vocal muting, but...
http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/IMAGES/4/DIY/segasaturn/saturncdmenu2.jpg
the menu buttons would sink offscreen, to show a spaceship navigating through the cosmos with a galaxy in the distance.
http://www.dcshooters.co.uk/sega/saturn/images/satship.jpg
In a dark room at night, it's pretty neat to see it onscreen as the Saturn plays the Gradius III soundtrack. 8-)
Anyway, what are some other consoles that have pretty cool CD player modes?
EDIT: Changed the topic title for more clarity.
MegaDrive20XX
05-09-2005, 10:31 PM
PS1 (Dual Shock model) has a kick ass CD player scene that you can change by using the four main buttons.
Just once you start playing the music CD, just press Select and it'll pop up.
Yet I do feel that Saturn's CD player screen was always fun to watch
Ed Oscuro
05-09-2005, 10:32 PM
Ditto on PS1.
The Mega/Sega CD has a neat CD/G player. I haven't gotten it to play the cutscenes from The Ninjawarriors, but it should play karaoke CDs :)
Ascending Wordsmith
05-09-2005, 10:34 PM
The Turbo Duo has a very cut and dry music player mode, but you can change the colors of the menu screen. :)
maxlords
05-09-2005, 10:34 PM
3D0 had the best one with the psychadelics that change with the music. 3 or 4 different visual modes...at least on the Panasonic model.
Lost Monkey
05-09-2005, 10:57 PM
For me, the Jaguar CD's VLM wins this one easily.
atomicthumbs
05-10-2005, 12:58 AM
I'd have to go with the 3DO scenes! Freakin' hypnotic!
robotriot
05-10-2005, 03:20 AM
The CD32 and CDTV have pretty ugly ones colour- and designwise, but they've got a semi-realistic looking rotating CD with a laser that reads it and moves along the tracks, that's kind of cool ;)
For me, the Jaguar CD's VLM wins this one easily.
Ditto. Especially getting to play the Metellica Tiles game.
InsaneDavid
05-10-2005, 04:57 AM
For me, the Jaguar CD's VLM wins this one easily.
Hands down, the VLM was the whole reason I got a Jaguar CD and the one reason I took me awhile before I could really settle on parting with my Jaguar collection. The VLM puts the PS1 DualShock system lightshow to shame. (alas I needed the money and it was just taking up space and collecting dust - another time, another time).
vulcanjedi
05-10-2005, 09:14 AM
Hmm
I have to go with the Saturn because it does karaoke.
Although I did hit some button the other day on the xbox while playing a music CD that turned on some strange visualization just like media player.
My vote for the lamest would go to the dreamcast.
VJ
s1lence
05-10-2005, 10:58 AM
I'm going with the 3do, it has some sweet images.
goatdan
05-10-2005, 11:09 AM
The Jaguar, as was already mentioned, is great. The NUON in the models that actually properly reply to sound trump it though, but you could claim those to be a DVD player...
Jeff Minter is a genius when it comes to that type of stuff.
CreamSoda
05-10-2005, 02:06 PM
Best
Sega Saturn, this one is still the best(IMO). Between the Spaceship, and the little pulsing spheres(when the menu is on). This one is the best.
Worst
Sega Dreamcast, it's just plain and boring, a spinning Dreamcast disc with small waves in liquid at the bottom of the screen. The Dreamcast is still my favorite system though. :p
PlayStation 2, this is a tie, does the music player even do anything other then have some floating cubes you can pick the tracks from?
howdoin
05-10-2005, 03:34 PM
For me, the Jaguar CD's VLM wins this one easily.
I'll second that Jeff Minter is/was a precursor and genius with the VLM.
sharp
05-10-2005, 04:55 PM
Virtual Light Machine All The Way, only reason to own a Jaguar CD (only liked Iron Soldier 2 for the system). Yes the Nuon version is even better, but I don't see it as a real console, more like a CD-I.
towerofsong
05-10-2005, 05:47 PM
The CD32 and CDTV have pretty ugly ones colour- and designwise, but they've got a semi-realistic looking rotating CD with a laser that reads it and moves along the tracks, that's kind of cool ;)
I used to have nightmares about that spinning CD comming to get me...
I spent way too long staring at that thing
But yeah, Saturn has the best player I think, loved messing round with pitch settings and such.
goatdan
05-10-2005, 06:03 PM
Sega Dreamcast, it's just plain and boring, a spinning Dreamcast disc with small waves in liquid at the bottom of the screen. The Dreamcast is still my favorite system though. :p
Ah the bad ones... Yeah, Dreamcast takes the cake, although oddly enough, I've listened to more DVDs on it than anything else.
I'd also nominate the Xbox as one of the worst ones. I bought it for the built-in music capability, and the display that it makes is so bland that I almost never leave the TV on with it.
bargora
05-10-2005, 06:45 PM
Ditto on PS1.
You mean the smaller redesigned kitty-sized PSone? I like the visuals and cheesy sound effects on that one a lot. I've fallen asleep with a PSone/screen combo sitting on my chest listening to a CD through headphones just watching some goofy effect.
SuperNES
05-10-2005, 06:55 PM
Although I did hit some button the other day on the xbox while playing a music CD that turned on some strange visualization just like media player.
you push Y then X or push info on the DVD remote.
i'd say xbox and ps1 are coolest, DreamCast is the lamest.
Algol
05-10-2005, 07:42 PM
How do you get to the spaceship in the Saturn player? I've NEVER noticed that. Is this only on the later models?
Lost Monkey
05-10-2005, 11:06 PM
How do you get to the spaceship in the Saturn player? I've NEVER noticed that. Is this only on the later models?
Click on the "play" button to start the CD playing and then click on the "hide controls" button.
I have both an early model and a late one and both have it.
Ascending Wordsmith
05-10-2005, 11:15 PM
The Neo Geo CD music player screen is painfully lame. At least the Dreamcast had some kind of visual, but the NGCD screen is totally without eye candy. The usual function buttons, track number, and track time are always onscreen in a typical CD menu layout with nothing else.
InsaneDavid
05-10-2005, 11:23 PM
Hmm
I have to go with the Saturn because it does karaoke.
So does the JVC X'Eye. :D Has a decent mic input too.
The Jaguar, as was already mentioned, is great. The NUON in the models that actually properly reply to sound trump it though, but you could claim those to be a DVD player...
Jeff Minter is a genius when it comes to that type of stuff.
After seeing that the main selling point of both was their Tempest games (due to visuals) and the CD visualization stuff - I'm surprised he still hasn't designed a stand alone CD player that pounds out trippy graphics like the Jag CD and NUON DVD players do.
Virtual Light Machine All The Way, only reason to own a Jaguar CD (only liked Iron Soldier 2 for the system). Yes the Nuon version is even better, but I don't see it as a real console, more like a CD-I.
...this thread is making me miss my Jaguar. :(
Jorpho
05-11-2005, 01:09 AM
It's not a CD player, but the Japanese SMS bootup screen is quite hypnotic, I think.
Ascending Wordsmith
05-11-2005, 09:25 AM
Maybe my head's not in the right place, but I think if a console has the ability to play music CD's, then it should have some graphical/visual qualities to go along with the music. If I were smart enough to understand coding and related fields of study, music player graphics and visual would be my highest interest.
Oh, and all this talk of the Jaguar's Virtual Light Machine is nudging me closer and closer to getting one just for that reason.
http://jagcube.atari.org/vlm14.jpg
Oooh...
http://jagcube.atari.org/vlm69.jpg
Aaah...
There's an equation I'm now interested in figuring out....
Dark room + Vice City soundtrack + Jaguar CD VLM + hemp cigarettes = ???
I'll have the answer when finances permit. :D