Something I never understood is why they kept making these after so many failures. First was the Famicom Disk System, which may be the only exception to this. Of course the US doesn't receive it at any point, but that is irrelevant. Then we had the lovely add ons below: *Sega CD (and the 32X but that isn't a CD unit) *Jaguar CD *SNES CD(didn't even release, just created PSX and CDi as a result) *N64DD WHY! Did no one, (especially Nintendo who with there last disk add on created there competitor (PSX) and the worst Zelda games of all time (CDi)). If you think about it, the disk systems still exist on modern consoles (AKA digital downloads) I guess the problem game corporations had was making a decent piece of hardware. Any thoughts on this?
Well look at the PC-Engine CD-ROM which has VERY successful. The Sega Cd and Famicom Disk System were not flops. They ultimately didn't last but they did better than Jaguar CD or N64DD. And better than the 32X. Part of this is the issue of add-ons. Add-ons tend not to work very well because it splinters your consumer base. Sega went crazy having Game Gear, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. Nintendo was able to get away with a great add-on with the SNES in the inclusion of extra hardware inside the game cartridges like Star Fox. It was sort of an add-on but invisible to the consumer which was great. Add-ons seem like a great way to breathe new life into a console but they usually turn out to be a curse. The only true add-on that I think was highly successful was the PC-Engine CD-ROM which mainly worked because of how things were in Japan. It did not do so well in the United States but then again marketing and other issues made it very different. Super Nintendo showed that it was a good idea not to splinter or confuse your base. With SNES and the line of Sega products basically being at opposite ends. As others have said, part of what makes consoles so great is that they are streamlined/standardized. You just get the console and a game and play. You don't have to check to make sure your system meets requirements of some sort. Another issue with add-ons was they were expensive. So they really had to amaze to justify their existence. Anyway, these attempts at adding on will always be an interesting subject about what could have been. You can easily side step into what-ifs about system upgrades/changes. My favorite is what if the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis had supported 128 colors on screen at once rather than just 64.
never had a single problem with my famicom disk drive, still need to find a jaguar cd add on which is working ootb hah.
I did write how the Famicom Disk System was an exception to the others. It is what may have started the idea that add ons like this were smart. And the Sega CD wasn't a flop, but I wouldn't call it a success
The biggest issue for the Mega CD Especially from western game designers were shit cartridge ports that offered nothing extra apart from a crap opening video and CD audio. Only Core Design in the UK did anything good with the Mega CD as far as western developers go. Game Arts in Japan did great things too. Silpheed may be FMV but it took years before anyone figured that out. They also made the first Mega CD game with FMV and the amazingly good Urusei Yatsura digital animated adventure RPG. Sadly, most Mega CD games were shit due to developers being lazy. At least the Japanese had a lot of RPGs to keep them happy.
I had a few shitty Mega CD games I got in an eBay lot. I really hated then. Seemed like someone threw some pictures, music, and tiny bits of game play onto a CD. At least Sonic CD was good.
Add-ons are terrible for the companies that produce them, but awesome for collectors. People tend to forget them, though. Does anyone remember the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive, for example? I really want to own a 64DD. They've actually gone down a bit on eBay, and they're even cheaper on Yahoo Auctions. I'll probably get one, one day. When I get a job, maybe.
These accessories were meant to address the perceived weaknesses of their respective consoles. By the mid 16 bit era some games were becoming to big to be placed on carts economically or in some cases even technically, Sonic 3 had to be split into 2 games. The SNES was much more expandable in that it could just add a spare CPU on the cart. The others weren't built with that in mind. Most games really didn't need that though so most developers couldn't grasp how to make good use of 100x the capacity at a fraction of the manufacturing cost. The TG16 and NeoGeo (which seems to have had an aborted CD addon) were special examples in that their cartridge designs left a lot to be desired, capacity in the case of TG16 and affordability for the NeoGeo. The one that really puzzles me is the Atari Jaguar CD. The Jaguar has the worst controller ever made and a library more pathetic than the Sega 32x even if it is larger. I am not sure what inadequacy Atari was worried about but the cartridge capacity was the least of their problems.
The 32x would of been great if Sega continued support on it by releasing the Neptune. Mega Drive / Genny games would of ceased and it would of prolonged the life of the console and games like Mortal Kombat 3, Sonic 3D etc, would of been more colourful, better sounding on the Neptune than what was actually released on the Mega Drive / Genny. Dare I say even the Saturn Games.
How could they have been better than on the Saturn? The Neptun would have just been a Mega Drive and 32X in one. The Saturn is a far more power system.
I realise this. I just meant those games I mentioned. The 32x Version of Virtua Fighter and Mortal Kombat 2 were supposedly better than the Saturn versions. I could not see why Sonic 3D or even UMK3 would not match the Saturn versions (maybe except the 3D bonus stages in Sonic 3D) If the programmers tried hard enough. Though I am not technically minded so they may not of been possible on the 32x.
No idea where you got this from, MK2 had a really bad Saturn version IIRC, but VF on the Saturn is miles ahead of the 32x version.
Something I read somewhere on the internet. I guess its true not to beleive everything you read on the internet.
I think the reason people say the 32X version is better is because it doesn't suffer from the graphical glitches of the Saturn version. It does use lower-poly models, though.
I don't have problems with them, but they do split the consumer base, making the whole thing a bit poinless. But i do understand these companies trying to keep interest by releasing an add-on for their products. The only acceptable add-on for consoles nowadays is bigger HDD space. But i consider stuff like Kinect, Move, Wii Balance Board and so on to be add-ons as well. Anyway, the PC Engine might be the only case of true success and there's probably an easy explanation for this. It was the first CD-Rom add-on system in a country that is always eager for new technologies. Of course the games for it helped to keep it successful, but the new technology really hyped it. I remember reading game magazines talking about it as being something truly fantastic. Same happened with the Sega CD. Unfortunately the Sega CD was from an era of FMV crap. The 64DD was Nintendo trying to produce a cheaper media when they should've gone for CD-Rom in the first place. I won't even talk about Jaguar CD since Tokimemofan already describe it perfectly.
@Johnny Well that is what the Wii Balance Board, Kinect, etc. is: an add-on. Things like that are designed to give the user of the X console more choices to play their video-games nowadays since things that Nintendo originally released for the Nintendo 64 like Rumble is basically built right into the controller. @La-Le-Lu-Le-Lo I can mostly agree and understand what you're saying but here's my question: do lower-poly models really matter? I would think the way that the game plays and how well it does its job would be the crucial point to finding which version is better. I've only ever played VF on the Saturn and I can't really say much for the 32X version since I have no desire to play it since VF is not my kind of game; however, I would bring it down to which one plays a lot better instead of bringing it down to poly-count. I guess it just boils down to personal preference.
Sonic 3 was not split into 2 games because of being "too big" necessarily. It has been cited that development time may have been a factor. They may have not had time to do everything they wanted to do with Sonic 3 and that's why S&K and the lock-on exists. When Sonic 3 came out they could have made one single cart with the whole game. Except that the game wasn't done yet. If perceived weakness was what add-ons should address, the Sega Genesis and the Sega CD should have addressed the lack of colors on screen at once. I'm not sure if the electronic design of the Sega Genesis would have allowed for adding a replacement VDP with support for DMA and such but it would have been a big boost to get a more featured VDP. I don't think storage space was such a critical issue but then again looking at Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis they had much better animation on the Sega CD version. I disagree that the 32x would have been great. I like the concept in certain ways but in practice it was a doomed idea. What you could actually get out of the 32x was not worth it. I recall one of the developers responding to people saying they were just slightly enhanced Genesis games by saying that people were expecting too much from the 32x. The 32x really didn't help the Genesis out that much except for being able to display more colors, and do 3D games. The 32x VDP is just a frame buffer. It doesn't have hardware background layers or sprites. Mortal Kombat II and Primal Rage look better than the Genesis versions because the 32x draws the character sprites to it's frame buffer and leaves the background the whole Genesis VDP to use. In other words you actually get 64 colors for your background to use and your character sprites are drawn by the 32x and can use whatever colors you want at no penalty. The Genesis versions have to share the tiny 64 color resource for both characters and the backgrounds. It just gets back to my point that the Genesis if it needed anything from an add-on it was just a slight video enhancement and maybe audio and memory. Part of why the Genesis started to look dated compared to the SNES was because of this disadvantage. If instead of creating the 32x they had made a similar device that just added a enhanced Genesis VDP, additional sound hardware, and maybe some extra workram it would have probably been cheaper and better. And introduce it sooner than when the 32x came about. Sure you wouldn't have the 3D games like Star Wars Arcade, but I don't think that's a big loss. And if they really wanted that, going the route of something like the SVP or Super FX was a better idea. Having colors/graphics more on par with the Super Nintendo and improved sound and some extra memory would have really helped out. You'd still have to deal with the issue of splintering your consumer base though. That's why the Sega CD should have been the only add-on and should have included a VDP enhancement for the color issue. The Saturn version of MK2 was ok from what I remember but unlike the 32x version you had load times to deal with. I'm not sure but I also seem to remember thinking I liked the music from the 32x version better as well.
I'd say that they both play pretty much the same, but the glitches get in the way of gameplay, sometimes, in the Saturn version. I personally think I enjoy the 32X version more - it's just a more consistent experience.
