Sega CD-Bad technology or bad development?

[Blanka789]

I love my Sega CD, and some games like Lunar and Sonic, are great. However, there are some truly craptacular games on this system. A lot of people will say that this is because of all the FMV games, but that is not completely true. Some, like Revenge of the Ninja and Time Gal, are great.

[chrisbid]

the sega CD was not a failure. it was the most successful console add-on ever on the market. while it wasnt a runaway success, it certainly laid the groundwork for upcoming generations

[Rabid Peanut-Butter]

I think it was clearly bad development. The Sega CD has quite a few treasures that shows what's possible with vast amounts of storage. Revenge of the Ninja is great fun, but games like Snatcher and Popful Mail were amazing with so much spoken dialogue and sprite based cutscenes (and if I remember correctly, next to no load times).

[tritium]

Some developers didn't know how to work around load times (Mortal Kombat CD). Others weren't sure what to do with the extra space, and did the whole FVM thing.

Ultimately, people still like the same sort of games, RPG's, Platform games, Shooters. The CD storage served to enhance these titles, also opened up the possibility for incredible sound tracks.

It was a trial and error thing, as it was one of the first cd consoles around.

[fishsandwich]

the sega CD was not a failure. it was the most successful console add-on ever on the market. while it wasnt a runaway success, it certainly laid the groundwork for upcoming generations

The PC-Engine CD is the most sucessfull add-on in history so far. Not in the US, for sure, but it was a major hit in Japan.

The Sega CD had the ability to do some pretty advanced games... the extra CPU and the cool graphics chip certainly boosted the power of the Genesis. Great scaling and rotation effects! Too bad developers/publishers ignored the power of the hardware and went the FMV route. Some of the new releases (Bug Blasters) suck ass!

[Blackjax]

uh, fishsandwich, one thing you have to remember is these 'new' games coming out were canned games from back in the day. I have all of the GoodDeal Games first releases, and I don't think BugBlasters is all that bad, its certainly better than some of the FMV games put out by other companies.

Citizen X was cancelled for a reason..... yeesh that thing was bad.

However, I have to agree with everyone else, it was a great system with potential, but a lot of half-assed development went on and tainted the system.

[Bratwurst]

It was both I say. Sure you had developers that didn't know what to do with it, but look at what came out on CD for personal computers of the time, which comparitively were more open-ended to develop for and resulted in more complex software.

The bulk of the cost behind the add-on was the CD drive itself, and that left little room for anything else. What few hardware improvements that did get added suffered from a serious bottleneck like the slower clockspeed of the Genesis CPU and absolutely no color boost.

A great deal of the good games mentioned earlier could be pared down to play on the Genesis alone and the gameplay wouldn't be affected. Swap the voices for text in Snatcher, strip the audio and special stages from Sonic CD.

[XxMe2NiKxX]

Nothing was wrong with the Sega CD except its price. It was and still is the most sucessful N.A. addon of all time.

[fishsandwich]

uh, fishsandwich, one thing you have to remember is these 'new' games coming out were canned games from back in the day. I have all of the GoodDeal Games first releases, and I don't think BugBlasters is all that bad, its certainly better than some of the FMV games put out by other companies.

I knew that. I should have mentioned it. There hasn't been a truly "new" Sega Cd game for a long, long time. All the games that have come out in the past few years (Citizen X, Star Strike, Bug Blasters, Marko, Battle Frenzy) were either never released until recently or were only released overseas (Battle Frenzy came out in Germany or something under another name.)

I'd have to disagree with Bratwurst about the hardware... you're right about the color issue (it would have helped had the Sega CD offered more colors!) but the extra processor (which ran in tandem with the Genesis 6800) certainly helped with overall processing power and the custom ASIC processor added scaling and rotation abilities that the Genesis hardware simply couldn't do. There's no way the Genny could have handled the graphics of Battlecorps or Soulstar or AH3 Thunderstrike or either of the Batman games (the driving portions, specifically) on its own. The real problem is that developers never pushed the Sega CD hardware to its limits. Its lifespan was too short and most developers were just putting out FMV games or mildly enhanced versions of Genesis games (MK, Earthworm Jim, Pitfall, et all.) Gotta give Core props for trying to get more out of the hardware.

Word.

[Blackjax]

Actually, there was one homebrew



It should be kinda obvious what game they ported

[suppafly]

THey shouldve hired the team from CORE to develop and maybe teach other programmers how to make kickass games with really really good 3d

Core made some games with awesome graphics for segacd: soulstar, battlecorps, and that chuck rock racing game.

[Anthony1]

The biggest error made with the Sega CD, is the fact that they didn't include someway to boost the colors up to 512 simulatenous colors.


Both the TurboDuo and SNES could do 512 simultaneous colors, and the Genny and Sega CD can only do 64. I think had the color gotten that boost to 512, it would have been a much different story for the Sega CD.



Also, in response to the comments made on the Full Motion Video games in the Sega CD lineup. I personally feel that Ground Zero Texas and Night Trap are both excellent games, and they both should be in every Sega CD owners library. In fact, I should add Sewer Shark to the list as well. I think Sewer Shark is a damn good FMV game as well.

Now, are those games cheesy as hell? Yes.


Are they very interactive? No.


Are they fun if you really give them a chance? Hell, YES!!



Everbody can call me crazy, but I actually enjoy some of these full motion video games. Ground Zero Texas is probably my favorite, but Night Trap is right there, and Sewer Shark is right there too.



Of course, my overall favorites for SEGA CD are:


1. Batman Returns (driving levels)
2. Popful Mail
3. Sonic CD
4. Ground Zero Texas
5. Ecco The Dolphin
6. Night Trap
7. Final Fight CD
8. Silpheed
9. Jurassic Park
10. NHL '94
11. Sewer Shark
12. The Misadventures of Flink
13. Hook
14. Flashback: Quest for Identity
15. Earthworm Jim: Special Edition
16. Keio Flying Squadron
17. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
18. Robo Aleste
19. Sol-Feace
20. Wonderdog

[suppafly]

The biggest error made with the Sega CD, is the fact that they didn't include someway to boost the colors up to 512 simulatenous colors.


Both the TurboDuo and SNES could do 512 simultaneous colors, and the Genny and Sega CD can only do 64. I think had the color gotten that boost to 512, it would have been a much different story for the Sega CD.



Also, in response to the comments made on the Full Motion Video games in the Sega CD lineup. I personally feel that Ground Zero Texas and Night Trap are both excellent games, and they both should be in every Sega CD owners library. In fact, I should add Sewer Shark to the list as well. I think Sewer Shark is a damn good FMV game as well.

Now, are those games cheesy as hell? Yes.


Are they very interactive? No.


Are they fun if you really give them a chance? Hell, YES!!



Everbody can call me crazy, but I actually enjoy some of these full motion video games. Ground Zero Texas is probably my favorite, but Night Trap is right there, and Sewer Shark is right there too.



Of course, my overall favorites for SEGA CD are:


1. Batman Returns (driving levels)
2. Popful Mail
3. Sonic CD
4. Ground Zero Texas
5. Ecco The Dolphin
6. Night Trap
7. Final Fight CD
8. Silpheed
9. Jurassic Park
10. NHL '94
11. Sewer Shark
12. The Misadventures of Flink
13. Hook
14. Flashback: Quest for Identity
15. Earthworm Jim: Special Edition
16. Keio Flying Squadron
17. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
18. Robo Aleste
19. Sol-Feace
20. Wonderdog

AFAIK the snes only displays 256 simultaneouis colors.

But thats not the problem for the sega cd. All those crappy FMV games wouldnt´ve been more popular if they´d had 256 colors. Theyre just a bad idea.

[Zexmaix]

I don't think it's bad technology. If you tweak and push as much power as you can out of the Genesis, 32x, CD combo you get something that is just short of a Sega Saturn. The hardware while not being able to do 512 colors, could push out up to 256 with certain techniques, and only one game does that, Eternal Champions for Sega CD.

As for pure CPU processing power, it's a beast. It is just held back by its graphics processors. If you want to see GOOD games and not the truck-load of FMV ones that we witnessed here in the states, check out some of the Japanese RPGs and Strategy games that never made it stateside.

Everyone in the US was swept up by the fact that "Oh, it's like a movie! Such great graphics!" thinking back when the Sega CD was in its hay-day. If developers would have just ditched their stupid FMV urges and programmed games purely based on gameplay and playability, we would have seen some amazing games I believe.

I did infact notice that Chu Chu Rocket homebrew for Sega CD and am looking into picking it up. I love Chu Chu Rocket for the Dreamcast. Now if only I knew how to homebrew for a Sega CD and tinker with some coding... I'd love to create my own games unlocking some of the hidden potential the system holds.

Wrap this around your brain too, what if a homebrewer knew how to take the X-Band modem, program a personal network connection application for Gen/CD, and a simple yet fun MMORPG for Sega CD, and create a network off of it? My mind just runs wild with how fun and great of a thing that would be. The game would be in Sega CD format, with the custom network application packaged onto the same disc and basically is the game's front-end connection menu. The Sega CD is able to access the X-Band modem, much like it would the Sega CD RAM Cart, and connect through to the network. Users log in, and bingo, we have a connection and online game. (And if you're thinking, hey I have broadband, so what? You can connect the 56k line to your computer and route it through your computer, or buy a simple converter. Everyone is happy then.)

So Programmers, GET TO IT! We want to bring this system back to LIFE!!

[Melf]

The Sega CD was not very well designed for several reasons:

- It did nothing to increase the Genesis' color palate (256 in total, 64 onscreen at a time)

- Slow CD-ROM drive (1x)

- Used both its CPU and the Genesis', but wasn't designed to use them both in tandem. This meant longer load times and a huge waste of CPU resources.

- Most of the games were basically cartridge versions with redbook soundtracks because Sega delayed shipments of development kits to Western licencees. This meant few or no quality original titles for the first year or so.

The Sega CD could have been a SNES-killer, but of course, Sega screwed it up.

[pragmatic insanester]

i finally bought my fist sega cd game the other day. rise of the dragon. $5. i can't believe how hard it is to find a copy of "ultraverse prime". all ebay has is the standalone microcosm, and none of the offline stores i've frequented know wtf i'm talking about.

<3 beat'em ups, no matter have far i have to reach for one.

[suppafly]

i finally bought my fist sega cd game the other day. rise of the dragon. $5. i can't believe how hard it is to find a copy of "ultraverse prime". all ebay has is the standalone microcosm, and none of the offline stores i've frequented know wtf i'm talking about.

<3 beat'em ups, no matter have far i have to reach for one.

BTW the music on "Ultraverse prime" is REALLY GOOD. I ripped the music to mp3 and listen it on my car. It kicks ass

[Melf]

"He's gonna get himself some justice!"

[PDorr3]

I just got my tray loading sega cd in the mail today, and the moment I played eternal champions I noticed just how similar it was the the genesis game. It basicaly does nothing to improve the graphics.

Nevertheless I simply cannot wait to play some sonic cd