The Underutilization Of The SNES

[Kitsune Sniper]

Now is the time for all the SNES lovers to really make the world's most loved console sing !!

It is said that homebrew "FX" chip games are a way off 'cause of the difficulty with drivers & stuff.
Not anymore ....

Behold the "FX2 Development System" !!!!!
Click here ta see it > "FX2 Development System" (http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8931)

Enjoy !


Later!
:) :) :)

I guess asking that guy to scan the manual and give it to emulator authors would be too much? ^^;

[Steven]

I think the system was maxed out. The chips and stuff was a nice attempt to further push the system, but unless they added on some add-on's the system as itself was maxed out I believe.

Also, look at its retail shelf life. It went up to what, the winter of 1997?

It lasted a good six years, a lot longer than most systems do today. (Dreamcast anybody?)

[Leo_A]

Longer than that, last game was released in 1998 in the US. The redesigned SNES was still widely available that Christmas. Players Choice and Majesco rereleases could easily be found in many retail locations for several more years after that,

[Juganawt]

The Snes was a great machine, and a very powerful one...but the programmers, especially at the end of the Snes' life, squeezed every last inch of power from that sucker. Great machine yes. Powerful machine, oh yes... could it be utilized further than it was? Probably not.

Saturn on the other hand was just getting into it's stride when the Dreamcast came out... Look at some of the late saturn releases - PDSaga, Final Fight Revenge, House of the Dead etc etc. I reckon 2 or 3 more years on that system and we would have seen some truly mind blowing stuff.

Same with 32x and Mega / Sega CD before it. They never really got the chance to use their full potential.

[Steven]

Saturn on the other hand was just getting into it's stride when the Dreamcast came out... Look at some of the late saturn releases - PDSaga, Final Fight Revenge etc etc. I reckon 2 or 3 more years on that system and we would have seen some truly mind blowing stuff.

Final Fight Revenge? LOL

Sorry, I just had to chuckle.

I love that silly game, but graphically, it was NOT impressive. Graphically I found it disappointing. It was NOWHERE in the class of Dead or Alive, graphically.

[playgeneration]

the snes was pushed to the limit, the slow cpu was a real limitation for it, its only 3.58MHZ. It was the first poor design choice in a long line of stupid decisions made so that nintendo can make profits on console sales, a strategy no-one else uses.

Virtual boy - only uses one color, off-putting blood red
N64 - no cd drive prevented loads of cool games being released, metal gear 64 anyone?
Gamecube - no dvd drive, no built in modem, things which really helped ps2 and xbox
DS - with better 3d hardware could be really killing the psp
Wii - too underpowered to be a proper next gen machine???

[CaryMG]

I don't mean so much that could be done more, per se ....

Take oil painting , for example.
Instead of saying, "Well -- that's it. We can stop now 'cause there's nothing better ....", you could take that level of achievement & go with it ....

Can ya imagine a free roaming 3D polygonal first person adventure -- not an FPS -- done with "Donkey Kong Country" raytraced textures ?

WHOAness ....


Later!
:) :) :)

[Jorpho]

the snes was pushed to the limit, the slow cpu was a real limitation for it, its only 3.58MHZ.

What has that got to do with anything? Are you familiar with the CPU market at the time? (And please don't start blabbing about the clock speed of the Genesis CPU ; that was a completely different architecture.)


Take oil painting , for example.
Instead of saying, "Well -- that's it. We can stop now 'cause there's nothing better ....", you could take that level of achievement & go with it ....

Can ya imagine a free roaming 3D polygonal first person adventure -- not an FPS -- done with "Donkey Kong Country" raytraced textures ?

This doesn't make much sense either. Oil painting? Raytracted textures? First person adventure? x_x

[badinsults]

Now is the time for all the SNES lovers to really make the world's most loved console sing !!

It is said that homebrew "FX" chip games are a way off 'cause of the difficulty with drivers & stuff.
Not anymore ....

Behold the "FX2 Development System" !!!!!
Click here ta see it > "FX2 Development System" (http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8931)

Enjoy !


Later!
:) :) :)


That is incredibly cool. Getting the development manual out there would be the kicker.

[SirDrexl]

I don't know if it was pushed to the absolute LIMIT, per se, but I think it certainly was pushed enough. I know, we could have seen more impressive things from the 32X, Saturn, and Dreamcast than what we did see, but the SNES got plenty of development. At some point it just makes sense to move on to more powerful hardware.

About DKC looking too good to be 2D:
The reason why you think that is because you're comparing it to hand-drawn 2D graphics. The hand-drawn graphics are always going to have little imperfections, like the arms/legs/whatever having slightly different sizes and shapes, and the frames may not be "captured" at just the right moment in time. I'm not criticizing it by saying this, after all, that "human touch" is what makes 2D animation charming.

With DKC, they took 3D models and captured the frames of their movement at just the right moments in time, with just the right proportions, and even with a lighting effect because of the light hitting the 3D models just right. This level of perfection is what makes it "look 3D." Compare a 2D cartoon to a CGI cartoon: both are made up of 2D frames, but because the CGI one was animated precisely by computers rather than drawn by hand, it looks more fluid and realistic.

[hydr0x]

Can ya imagine a free roaming 3D polygonal first person adventure -- not an FPS -- done with "Donkey Kong Country" raytraced textures ?

1) PLEASE go out and read some basic stuff about the technical aspects of games, you're talking way too much crap because you don't really know the stuff. There's nothing wrong with not knowing those things, but if you want to discuss them, understand them first.

2) DKC does not use textures

3) it's impossible for the snes to do textured polygons

[Rob2600]

it's impossible for the snes to do textured polygons

No, it isn't. Star Fox and Stunt Race FX feature some textured polygons.

[LucidDefender]

No, it isn't. Star Fox and Stunt Race FX feature some textured polygons.

I'm pretty sure they used gouraud shading; there were no textures on the polygons at all.

[Rob2600]

I'm pretty sure they used gouraud shading; there were no textures on the polygons at all.

In this exmple, there's an emblem on some of the polygons. That's a texture, not shading. See for yourself:

Mobygames - Star Fox SNES screenshot (http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/star-fox-/screenshots/gameShotId,164499/)


In this example, some of the road signs have textures. How about that "Super FX" logo on the overpass? The audience is a texture, too. Again, see for yourself:

Mobygames - Stunt Race FX SNES screenshot (http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/stunt-race-fx/screenshots/gameShotId,84628/)


Like I said, Star Fox and Stunt Race FX feature some textured polygons.

[c0ldb33r]

That star fox image was the exact same thing I was thinking about.

I believe unreleased Star Fox 2 also had (more) textures on its polygons.

[Ed Oscuro]

Rendering Ranger looked as good as Pulstar or Blazing Star for the Neo.
Old threads, always good for a laugh.

There's nothing in RR that approaches the overgrown crater intro to Blazing Star, although there are some looping FMV environment games on the SNES (can't think of any names at the moment, sorry).


I'm pretty sure they used gouraud shading; there were no textures on the polygons at all.
Aside from the proof given right below this post, there's another issue.

Gouraud shading is a sort of smooth shading from light to dark; you can see it applied to an entire environment in Turok II on the N64 via cheat code.

Most polys in those games are flat shaded.

Funny ol' topic, I say.