Odd, my disk certainly has the CD Graphics marking, but I can't get anything out of my Sega CD or my Saturn. I found rips of the images, but that's not the same experience...
Odd, my disk certainly has the CD Graphics marking, but I can't get anything out of my Sega CD or my Saturn. I found rips of the images, but that's not the same experience...
LR and Start to reset the n64 joystick after you discovered your friends were dicking around with their joysticks while plugging in their controller
upgradeable ram for N64... and saturn
3 ways to hold a N64 controller!
dreamcasts amazing copyright protection
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Selling gaming accessories. Click
... So did the GBA.
Well, some games did.
I like both of these features. However, the PSP goes one step further.
If the battery on the PSP dies, once plugged back and the system is turned back on, it will also be at the same point you were at. This works with any game or homebrew that has the option of sleep mode.
This is the only portable system I know that has the feature. I've had my PSP die on me a few times which I haven't saved for quite awhile, so that feature has saved me from having to play back to the point I got up to.
Auto saving while not interupting gameplay is another good feature. It's only based on certain games and not consoles themselves however.
I'd have to say the Game Shark and Game Genie devices. I especially like the one's that allow import games to play on region-locked systems.
My Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GamingTheSystems/featured
controllers that give a nice confirming click when you push them into the console
colored plugs on controllers so you know who to hand what controller to
the controller expansion slots on n64 controllers
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I always thought the Neo Geo Pocket's horoscope,calendar, alarm features in the system was quite unique.
I just thought of something. It seems it hasn't been named because it's become sort of the norm now, but the CD format.
Regardless what system it is, CD technology on a console was a major breakthrough. Nearly all of the early released CD format systems fell through and sold pretty bad. The reason was because almost all the systems were add ons(almost.) It wasn't until the Playstation that the CD format really took off.
So yeah. No one thinks about the format now because we've been using it as the standard for almost 15 years. When you look at a great system like the Sega CD and what it could have did between that time to when the PSX came out, but it didn't get the support. Even Nintendo tried CD games but didn't have much luck.
I think it was underrated with PC Engine and early PC. After all, the Atari ST tried to be the first with home computer CDing in the mid 80s, but we weren't ready for it yet.
Last edited by tom; 05-30-2010 at 06:39 AM.
The "Directional button" on the Neo Pocket Color was just awesome for the Neo Geo portable fighters. A great addition on a portable system. It is like having a joystick for your thumb. No other portable has had one like it.
Along the lines of the mention of older CD consoles being able to play music CDs, I have a similiar nomination of the PS2 and 360's ability to play DVDs. They were terribly expensive at the game, so the ability to play them on a game system was my only salvation.
I also second the mention of the Super Game Boy. I never understood why the never made a Super Game Boy 64 considering that they had a GB transfer pack for the N64, for the Pokemon Stadium games.
Also, the Dreamcast's modem and web-browsing features. I ended up buying a DC Keyboard just so I'd have an emergency web box if my computer went kaput back then.
I had no idea the GG had a TV tuner. I wish I had known about it years back, I would have grabbed one and my poor GG would have seen a LOT more usage. Hell, I'd probably try to track one down now and use it, were it not for the tragic death of analog.
Ditto. One of my biggest lamentations with modern consoles is the lack of this. How are we supposed to see neato programmer's rooms now or play as General Leo?
To add to this, I like the 360's ability to open/close the tray with the controller. When you buy a lot of used games like I do, it's nice to not have to constantly get up and down while trying to get them to work.
Amen, brother. This has really expanded my DC's usage during the down seasons.
CDs brought some negative aspects along with them, however.. As mentioned earlier, some cartridges had extra chips or such in them, which CDs cannot do. CDs also introduced noticible load times and fragility to video games.
Even someone who is particularly careful with their games often finds new scratches(in fact, sometimes the system running alone scratches them), and buying used games can be a total crapshoot.
In buying dozens of catridge games over the years, I've only had three or four used ones with problems, while when it comes to CD-based games it's infinitely worse. (I'm STILL looking for local copies of Star Wars: Battlefront or Xenosaga that work.)
A great, and completely underrated, feature of the Sega Saturn: direct-dial online gaming.
The Sega Saturn's NetLink modem peripheral, one of the world's first console-based online gaming devices, didn't use servers to facilitate online play. Instead, you entered the phone-number of your friend with a NetLink, and your NetLink dialed them directly over a regular telephone connection.
The advantage to this? As long as you still have a phone-line, it STILL WORKS. You just have to know somebody with a Saturn and a NetLink, and tolerance for high phone-bills.
Unfortunately, very few, if any, modern consoles use a feature even remotely like this. This is bad, because as soon as the latest generation of online games loses their servers, they'll be useless.
One thing I forgot to mention, and I've not seen anyone else bring it up, was the fact that in 1981 you could go online with an Intellivision and download exclusive games via cable broadband. It was an idea that was what? Twenty years ahead of its time?
the sega genesis modem, hands down.
Yeah... except it was only released in Japan and Brazil.
You wanted online play for the Genesis stateside, you had to by Catapult's XBAND modem, which, in itself, was pretty awesome. No direct-dial though.
HOWEVER, another AWESOME feature on the Sega Genesis, Sega Channel. Basically, it was a cable subscription service that let you download games for a monthly fee.
At its peak, it had something like 250,000 subscribers. The only reason it was eventually taken down, in 1998, was because nobody was putting out games for the Genesis anymore.