The Sega Genesis is better than you think

The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive is a very capable console for its day and perhaps even beyond its lifespan. Although there were some features present in The SNES that were not a part of the Genesis through direct hardware support... Sega's console was versatile enough to brute force many of the higher level graphical effects of more advanced technologies.
The SNES required additional processing help to run many of it's best games. The Genesis could handle everything all on its own.
This system was truly on another level for its day.
Let's take a quick look at just some of the ways in which The Genesis was able to achieve the impossible and how some clever hackers have proven that this may indeed be the ultimate 16 bit video game experience.
G-Zero Demo:
www.retrorgb.com/genesis-mode...
Starfox Demo:
gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/v...
Remute: Technoptimistic
remute.bandcamp.com/album/tec...
• REMUTE - RED EYES
Sega Genesis Specs:
segaretro.org/Sega_Mega_Drive...
Channel Rules:
#1 - Don't Be a Jerk: Please be respectful of one another. Treat others reasonably fair and try to be polite.
#2 - Trolling Can Get You banned: I will tolerate fun trolling and just messing around because we all want to have fun and sometimes it can be good to give your friends a hard time or mess with them a little... but once trolling crosses over into harassment or if the trolling is designed to do something underhanded or masks some other intent that I deem to be covertly or overtly nasty then you may end up getting blocked and/or banned here. I'm just not not going to let that sort of thing dictate the spirit of this channel and how we converse here. Hope you understand.
Super Mega Grafx 64 - Retro video game videos and live streams.

[@StRoRo]

I cant remember where I read this. During a gaming convention / conference Sega where showing pre-release versions of the Mega Drive. Nintendo higher ups saw Sega's new console and what it could do, went back to the office called the Super Nintendo engineers and said , "start again". People tend to forget for 2 years Sega had shown Nintendo their cards. What the Mega Drive was like and Nintendo had 2 years react to that as well as 2 years technological advancement to work with. Technically the Mega Drive/Genesis was an 80s games console (although late 80s). The SNES was a 90s games console. It is amazing what people now are doing with the Mega Drive/Genesis. Bad Apple demo blows my mind evert time I see it.

[@JD.78]

The Mega-Drive as it's known everywhere except in the USA was a powerhouse in Europe, it consistently outsold the SuperNES because Nintendo treated Europe like a wicked stepmother, releasing games a year after their USA versions even though the English localisation was already complete. But Sega welcomed Europe with open arms and knew the type of games European players wanted to play, namely hardcore shooters, tough Euro platformers (we were used to the 8-Bit hardcore computer game scene after all, no video game crash over here, that was an American thing) arcade conversions, and RPGs...yes we do love playing RPGs, though Nintendo had no idea and didn't release any of their monster hits for us to play which could have changed Nintendo's fortunes in Europe. Sega's marketing in Europe was genius, targeting a slightly older audience than Nintendo's kid friendly advertising, so Sega dominated in the 12 to 18 year old market that had a bit more money to spend and absolutely cleaned up against Nintendo. The Sega Master System even outsold the NES by 4 to 1, which is practically unheard of anywhere else in the World except Brazil. The Mega-Drive had two years of complete unrivaled dominance in Europe before the SuperNES appeared on the scene, but by that time Nintendo's box of tricks was so far behind Sega's behemoth it wasn't even a competition, the Mega-Drive still outsold the SuperNES head to head. Europe was the true 16-Bit battleground that the USA and Japan claim to be, but the USA was dominated by Nintendo's stranglehold on publishers, and Japan was dominated by the SuperNES as the Mega-Drive never really made a huge impact over there. But in Europe things were different, both consoles were on an even keal going head to head with each other, though Nintendo's persistance on releasing games later than the rest of the World hurt any chance the SuperNES had at taking Sega's crown. Sega flooded the market with quality titles that gamers wanted to play, and were relatively uncensored compared to Nintendo's offerings (Mortal Kombat's blood being a good example of this). All on all, the Mega-Drive was a great console building on the fantastic legacy of the Master System's domination in Europe, taking things to the next level with aplomb. Great video, quite interesting too.

[@joeb2588]

I'm at work in a company wide call. Just listening to them...no wait, I'm watching and listening to this instead!

[@firestriker3580]

Nope this video sucks

[@theonly1msbinny]

The Sega Genesis is one of my favorite consoles of all time, and I feel like people don't give it as much credit as it should!

[@vicentereisdacruz1915]

My heart and soul are with my Sega Genesis, AKA MegaDrive....love this console more than any other console I have. Love the pixel art....and thing was a shame the the 32bits Era was more about 3D graphics.... thanks for the video

[@falksi3182]

The SEGA Genesis/Megadrive is the greatest console ever made, with the best library too for me. The speed of the games blows the SNES out of the water, especially with SHMUPS & BEUs, the Yamaha sound chip is metal AF (which I way prefer to the orchestral stuff the SNES specializes in), and the library is diverse and deep too. King of the consoles.

[@paratext]

I don't even understand how people have a consensus that the Genesis is anything but the greatest system ever made. In particular, it seems like Nintendo fanboys go out of their way to denigrate everything about the system on completely false grounds. If anything, the SNES needs to be put in its place even more for being the second rate, kid brother '90's console that it was.

[@falksi3182]

@@paratext Well said mate. I'm now over 400 games into both systems library, and the claim that the SNES is remotely in the same league, never mind better, is laughable. Most SNES games are either too slow or too easy, and tons are clearly geared towards young kids only. Honestly, I think Nintendo's fanboys culture is almost poisonous with the lies the spead. The amount of times I've discussed these games with said fans, and they've claimed that SNES games invented stuff which they clearly didn't is unreal. E.g. tons of people cite Chrono Trigger as inventing things such as multiple endings, and combo attacks which games such as Phantasy Star had years early lol. Honestly, it's reputation is built on morons and lies.

[@ridiculous_gaming]

The Sega CD was an amazing add-on that could provide amazing results, but most Sega CD titles were merely Genesis ports that used very little of the Sega CDs advantages.

[@supermegagrafx64]

I have to say that I have not been the biggest fan of The Sega CD but I have been spending a lot more time with it lately and there are really some great games there. Thats the focus of my next video. As a TurboGrafx fanboi I was on the other side of that fence lol.

[@khululyp]

Gamesack released a Sega CD vid recently, some great looking titles on it.

[@maroon9273]

Sega did not know how to program the hardware. They should've made it plain add-on or with its own large color pallete and more colors. Sega cd Add-on was a waste of money.

[@pweddy1]

So… the 68000 was used in the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST and the Mac 1/2 a decade before the Genesis came out. European devs had been doing 3d graphics on 68000s for the better part of the 80s when the Genesis was released. And even the mighty Amiga didn’t have the graphics capabilities of a Genesis. The Sega CD added a second 68000 running at 12MHz, that system could do some impressive 3d graphics if the right people were programming it.

[@TheLastLineLive]

Damn that Lost World Jurassic Park looks pretty cool. A little janky with how the dinosaur is animated but definitely very impressive.

[@maxducoudray]

All this salty Nintendo anger in the comments is ridiculous. For those of us there at the time who had both, these were both amazing machines. The Genesis was older, so had less technological advancement, but in practice it was close and Genesis did some things better. It comes down to Sega's arcade background, as Genesis' architecture is stronger for fast moving gameplay. Also, its sound was harder to program for but not inherently bad. Japanese composers were used to it and did great work, but a lot of foreign studios struggled to get good music, which the SNES made easy with the use of sampling. Every one I knew had favorites on each console.

[@Tigerhawk1981]

i had both

[@iwanttocomplain]

Actually the SNES was designed in 1985-87 (in 2 years) and the Genesis was designed in 1986-88 (in 18 months).

[@maxducoudray]

@@iwanttocomplain Still made later, which affects components.

[@ostiariusalpha]

@@iwanttocomplain They were still making design changes to the Super Famicom right up till early 1989. The S-SMP was a late addition to the architecture, and several hardware features were only committed to that year. It was a slow-cooked console, and it really benefitted from the care taken in its design.

[@mikeg2491]

IMO most Sega’s music libraries hold up better with its 80s/industrial synth tables, so many SNES titles with their low-sample rate orchestral hits and “mario paint sound” come off as a bit cheesy today. It’s trying to poorly replicate real music while Sega stayed within its other-worldly sound palette.

[@Kevin_40]

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 was mind blowing in 1991 1992. Convinced me to buy Genesis over SNES.

[@antwango]

noway sonic was pish.... had an amiga, amiga held its own, had the better version of lotus, lemmings syndicate etc..... then super mario, street fighter 2,, zelda, chrono trigger single handedly made the SNES the console to own...... sonic has always been overrated overplayed left to right run roll to the end of the level as quickly as possible game, evident in how it hasnt survived the transition to 3d..... not saying megadrive was bad.... we had all 2 consoles along with the amiga.... but the snes was seen as superior, and i think thats were segas marketing and branding came into it.... sega was selling cool..... nintendo had the quality and the games.... then sony came along that combined the 2 and thats history..... sorry just cant stand sonic...... i could never get into any of the sonic games back then and even now retro gaming i dont see the appeal and didnt back then in the character.... the sonic movies have highlighted that fact too for me in terms of the character.......

[@thrillington2008]

I love the fact that the system was the first to do games differently and we're keeping the legacy alive in multiple ways.

[@redcrimson1028]

And how are we doing that? Because after the 360 Era I really want to say after the ps2 Era really, all systems became the same, with the same games,same graphics and features. They are keeping nothing alive in this modern day.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@redcrimson1028 you can play the fictional Pico 8 retro console. Or the homage to Contra Hard Corps, Blazing Chrome.

[@Sinn0100]

The Sega Genesis can do every effect the Snes can through software. That's rotation, scaling, polygonal graphics, tilting tiles, tile mirroring, line breaking, and sprite warping. The only thing the Genesis (and Saturn) struggled with were transparencies. Fun Fact: Even though the Sega Genesis could not create transparent objects on screen developers knew how to fake it. The first method or most well known was dithering. Which can be seen in games like Sonic The Hedgehog (the Snes also has games with dithering). The second fix is the one I find far more fascinating. That method is called sprite flashing. Developers would essentially flash a sprite on and off so fast that our eyes connect the two creating a transparent effect. Fun Fact: The Snes started its life with the same 68000 Motorola 16-bit/32-bit hybrid processor found in the Sega Genesis. It was said to be clocked at 10MHz. Nintendo cut the microprocessor to save money. Had they ran with their own 68000 with helper chips the Snes might be able to stand toe-to-toe with the mighty Neo Geo AES/MVS. Fun Fact: While many publications of the day and Nintendo themselves loved to say the Sega Genesis only had 6 channels of audio...that was incredibly misleading. The Yamaha YM2612 does in fact have 6 audio channels but the Genesis also included an 8-bit Zilog Z-80 inside its case. This co-processor had 4 audio channels which brings the grand total to 10 simultaneous channels (2 more than the Snes). Fun Fact for the guy that made this sweet video- You stated a few times in your Sega CD video that you were a TG-16 guy so...Did you know that the original Mortal Kombat was supposed to be a TG-16 exclusive. Unfortunately, TTi did not want to pay high royalties on an "unknown" IP.

[@athos5359]

mode 7 is not possible in software at 60fps with 8 ai players on screen.

[@Sinn0100]

@@athos5359 Sure it is.

[@kyma1999x]

z80 has no 4 channels....z80 simply controls two sound processors inside genesis in a way similar to arcade boards at time, yamaha chip has channels, the other 4 come not from z80 but from psg which is the same as in master system, psg retains compatibilty with sms titles along with z80 cpu and can be used in parallel with ym chip in megadrive mode to get 10 channels.

[@Sinn0100]

@@kyma1999x Yes....and it's far easier to type what I did than to breakdown how the SN76496 *Master System sound chip was used. Most people (that's 99.9%) that are into retro gaming like we are know what I was saying from the get-go. In my many, many, many years of being involved with the community I have never had someone attempt to explain how it all works from what I typed. While I thank you for stepping in and trying to help someone you may have felt was lost, it wasn't necessary. Although I will say that I have never heard anyone talk about "Mega Drive Mode" before. I of course know how "Blast Processing" came about and what that means but never "Mega Drive Mode." Neat.

[@Sinn0100]

@@kyma1999x Too be sure, I'm not mad at you or trying to mess with you either. I don't want you to think I'm trying to put you down or anything.

[@madyak6669]

Red zone always impressed me with an fmv intro and in Game rotation and scaling in the helicopter levels.

[@dr.charlesedwardflorendobr3952]

there is something so beautiful about these non-textured 3D polygons. I really like them.

[@gc3k]

Kawasaki Superbike Challenge is a really impressive polygonal racer for Genesis (stock hardware, no add-ons, commercial release)

[@iwanttocomplain]

This game really doesn’t play well, sadly. The other drivers are actually scaling and rotating. But they have no side image so look a bit like cardboard cutouts when you get close. You can play this game at double speed too, for some reason.

[@afronautexplorer144]

SEGA DOES WHAT NINTENDON'T! GET OVER IT NINTENERDS

[@Sabundy]

Except the one (Nintendo) still makes consoles/hardware and sells millions of them (the Switch has now sold 110 million) while the other (Sega) is a shadow of itself. Doesn't make consoles anymore and its mascot ....Sonic.....kids today think he is a Nintendo character because their experience is playing any Sonic game on a Switch. So.... Nintendo won.

[@afronautexplorer144]

@@Sabundy SEGA DOES WHAT NINTENDON'T GET OVER IT NINTENERD

[@Sabundy]

@@afronautexplorer144 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.....what an intellectual argument 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. I see you really HATE facts. Nevermind I will be over here playing my modern Nintendo OLED Switch while you have no modern Sega device at all. Maybe I will even download Sonic Frontiers and play Sega's mascot on Nintendo hardware 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Sabundy]

@Dean Satan I have a PS5 thanks (loving it). And I grew up playing PC gaming. The Switch is the only Nintendo device I've ever owned. And it's just so I can play the Nintendo exclusives I want (in particular Legend of Zelda). You should not make assumptions. So I'm sorry to spoil your narrative. I'm no Nintendrone. I an merely making fun of the original post quoting an advertising slogan from 30 years ago as if it's in any way relevant today. Especially as..... Nintendo won. Nintendo is a multi billion dollar company that sells millions in hardware and games, has theme parks, and soon movies. Now please tell me which part of that statement is incorrect. Are you going to tell me that SEGA won? Btw....I had a Genesis as a kid. Grew up playing Sonic. But I'm not intellectually dishonest like the moron original poster and deny reality. Sega lost big time....

[@afronautexplorer144]

@@Sabundy what a joker. sega does nintenDIES

[@ryananderson5202]

Sports gamers knew the sound and look was just a little bit better than SNES

[@TheLastLineLive]

That Red Zone looks really cool, it uses that gimmick but to great effect since it looks like it still plays pretty well.

[@thegamecorner2275]

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. Sure, what developers nowadays can do with the Genesis is extremely impressive - that Star Fox demo being among them, but who's to say that developers now couldn't make superior use of the SuperFX chip compared to what was literally its first ever game? I also agree that the F-Zero demo is impressive for being done completely in software on the Genesis CPU, but of course it is more blocky than F-Zero, and in fewer colors (a limitation that the Genesis cannot overcome without additional hardware).

[@iwanttocomplain]

There are ways. Secret and strange ways.

[@matrixman7706]

The star fox demo was very skeletal. If they tried to completely program the game, the Genesis wouldn’t be able to run it. There wasn’t much to the demo at all.

[@Kuikkamies]

"Known as Mega Drive in Japan in few other places." By "Few other places" you mean in the rest of the world, right?

[@felipematias3162]

yeah, in Brazil we call it Mega Drive as well, it was really more of a USA only deal, maybe Canada too, idk.

[@jayplay8140]

AKA everywhere

[@CarinoGamingStudio]

mega drive 2 is way better

[@supersexysega]

Genesis is the better name 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@Kuikkamies]

@@supersexysega No, it really isn't. It was also a name Sega themselves didn't come up, as it was coined by Atari.

[@segajukebox]

Sega made some great choices back in the day when they developed the Mega Drive / Genesis. Thanks for the episode!

[@ostiariusalpha]

They also made some very unfortunate choices that eventually made it less competitive with the SFC/SNES. Removing the sprite scaling hardware for the original design was a big one: while the SNES had its "Mode 7" that could scale and rotate a single background layer, it lacked any sprite scaling features; Sega cheapskated themselves out of a real advantage there. The Genesis is also inherently capable of displaying a 32,768 color palette, just like the SNES, but it requires two 64 KB VRAM chips; Sega's management was only willing to pay for one VRAM chip per console, so the system is stuck with a tiny 512 color palette instead. 😓

[@segajukebox]

@@ostiariusalpha that is true! However I wonder how much more we would have had to pay for the console if every feature would have been included.

[@ostiariusalpha]

@@segajukebox Probably about $230 USD at launch, with price drops afterwards. The actual Genesis came in at $189 USD at launch, but that was hardly a magical price-point though. Games sell consoles, and it was Altered Beast, Strider, and especially Golden Axe that people bought the Genesis to play. Heck, Sega could have taken Tom Kalinsky's philosophy of selling the console at a loss, and price the fully featured Genesis at $189, and would still have made a profit off the now superior quality games; Super Thunder Blade, OutRun, Afterburner II, and Space Harrier II would have sold substantially more copies if the scaling hardware and better color had just been available.

[@skins4thewin]

How cool would it be to get a Star Fox homebrew that uses the SVP chip? Or perhaps the SVP chip emulated in FPGA at least? That would be SUPER dope! Hope we continue to get cool stuff like that.

[@johneygd]

The sega genesis cpu is actually 32bits but with such restrictions that it hardly could perform better then a 16bit cpu and it also needs more cycles to execute 1 instruction whereas the slower 16bit cpu inside to snes just could execute 1 instruction per cycle,also the genesis has a 16bit bus whereas the snes deals with an 8bit bus,also eventrough the snes does have more powerful features builtin like mode 7,4 background layers and a higher higher resolution and colorpallet etc,,,,BUT it sadly cannot do it all atonce,so no matter how advanced it all sounds like for what the snes could do on paper,it’s not sooo powerful as it seems to be,most snes just uses 90 colors with 3 backgrounds along with muffled and stretched audio,yes that’s another thing,most snes games just uses cut down and stretches those remained samples resulting in that awful dryed up muffled audio,all because most snes games didn’t use sound swapping and extra memory space,whereas fm & psg audio can sound very clear on the genesis,no muffled dry stretched audio but just crystall clear regardless it’s limitations of wich type of sound can be created with it, So tome it doesn’t much matter whether you system you had,it’s all about programming stuff,still trough,eventrough i did discovered that the snes was more limited and underused in many ways i never tout it was ,i still will love the snes more then the genesis because of the fond memories i had with it.

[@MaxAbramson3]

The SNES offered more colors, and mode 7, and much better sound. The Genesis had a more powerful processor, more bandwidth, and much larger cartridge capacity. NINTENDO insisted on selling every console at a profit, while SEGA tool a risk and overbuilt their machines.

[@EatingCtrlV]

The Strike series is always good for a system pusher in those days, and I like Zero Tolerance as a game that maxed out the hardware. Jurassic Park was really impressive. The Genesis was a really good console for bare metal programing, where the Snes it feels like devs played within more strict rules.

[@iwanttocomplain]

Ocean software pulled off a ray-tracing game in Jurassic Park, then Traveller’s Takes with a mini game in Toy Story and finally Wolfenstein 3D. Otherwise you had transparency for spooky mist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Colour overlays for bombs in Contra 3 or mode 7 for a rotating floor or one rotating and scaling thing. Otherwise best keep it simple. Programming for SNES is a nightmare.

[@Ryan.Lohman]

What is even more impressive is the fact that the Genesis did this without float point capabilities or branch predictions. If the 68k back then had floatpoint then it would have a larger color palette instead of blending colors via interlacing.

[@CarinoGamingStudio]

but it needs more cpu speed to processs that

[@RetroDawn]

FPU has nothing whatsoever to do with color palette.

[@litjellyfish]

What has the CPU to do with colors? That is the VDP that handles that. Totally separate things.

[@Freshbrood]

I had both consoles, and I prefered the Genesis library a bit more. Their games seemed "more mature". SNES had greats too.

[@kyles8524]

i had no problem with the genesis except the sound,it was like half the quality of the snes

[@Freshbrood]

@@kyles8524 I acknowledge the Genesis sound hip sounded way more "electronic" but it was also much louder, and with the plenty of good composers they had I still preferred to pump up that console on good speakers. SNES always did better voices, but voices aren't what we jammed to.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Take the SNES, double it's CPU speed, throw in the DSP from Pilot Wings in the console, add some more VRAM to allow an increase in the resolution to 320 X 224 and we could have had a no compromise console in 1990. However, what we ended up with is two main consoles with different strengths and weaknesses and has made for some 32 year old arguments.

[@Gambit771]

I always find it peculiar that when talking abut the Mega Drive they always bring up the colour pallet as if it is a stick to beat it with but never do the same with the nes or gameboy. I did laugh at the Mohammad Ali game with 'Franko Bruno' and him being italian.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

They certainly do talk about Gameboy colours, it is a pretty defining trait of the original Gameboy, those 4 shades of green. If you are discussing Gameboy as a product or technical device and miss out on the screen, you've fucked up. The NES I would agree on.

[@TheBrokeDiggerGaming]

The stupidest decision one or the designers made with the MD to limit the colors to 64 / 512 so that it could scale down well for the master system ane gamegear. Apart from that the megadrive could do and did more than the snes ever could because the devs who were passionate about their projects could make it it happen lots of examples i mean tons.. start with ranger x

[@skins4thewin]

You really should have shown the overhead run & gun parts of Red Zone where you control the soldier. Those are by far the most impressive parts of that game!

[@supermegagrafx64]

Sorry about that. You are 100% right. What a game!

[@iwanttocomplain]

The Adventures of Batman and Robin, at certain points fills the screen with bouncing gnomes that are genuinely rotating. No sprite swapping and no slowing down. That’s the greatest feat I’ve ever seen on the Mega Drive. The Road Rash games also feature sprite scaling on the other riders and scenery, hence the low frame rate. But still manages to play very well.

[@gpturismo]

When the Mega Drive was designed, it was suppose to have a better graphics processor but then it was decided to use co-processors and/or possibly an expansion through the expansion port (like the sega cd,) but two things hurt them, the 1986 processor shortage and the 1988 ram shortage. They made cuts in design to save costs during the design phase in 1986, and in 1988 they had to make changes for that to make sure the console was competitive against the PC-Engine and Famicom. I think things started falling apart when Sega Japan didn't cooperate with Sega America and SoA released the 32x, and some bad decissions were made during the Saturn design phase, which btw did amazingly in Japan. People try to ask why the SFC had these features included, but when being designed Nintendo focused on using co-processors to cut system costs and two years is a pretty large gap in technology, even back then.

[@ssppeeaarr]

ya sega of america really messed up with going on to create 32X. in spite of sega of jap discontent. then all the in fighting within the company kinda ruined them too. sad if only they had better understanding and commuincations. instead of trying to outdo one another. major reason saturn failed in usa too while it thrived in japan.... amazed the dreamcast got to see its existence but sad it also had to fade away. just when sega seem to being doing things right. :(

[@maroon9273]

@@ssppeeaarr SOJ was on board with the 32x until the sucess of the saturn in 94. Craziest thing soj never order soa to cancel the add-on and focus on better software titles for the genesis before the saturn release the following year in September 2nd.

[@ssppeeaarr]

@@maroon9273 oh wow thats interesting. i never knew that part of the lore. been awhile since i did research into saturn and 32x. that is odd sega of jap told them it was ok do go on to create 32x and never axe'd it. i thought sega of jap wanted only one 32bit system tho. which would be the saturn. and i believed sega of america rushed out the 32x cause they were scared of snes market share at the time or something. not wanting to wait around for saturn. i think they also rushed out saturns american launch as well...

[@atomicskull6405]

Someone should design a Megadrive cart with a inexpensive STM32F7 coprocessor or similar. With companies like JLPCB around having small batches of the PCBs made for homebrew games wouldn't be all that expensive either.

[@absalomdraconis]

You'd want a Super8 I think, as that's what was in the 32X and the Saturn. And yes, those chips are available new. Then throw on some more RAM, an SD or MicroSD slot (for save games), and finally a CPLD (preferable) or FPGA to implement bus arbitration, two FIFOs (one from cart to console, one from console to cart), and a pair of R-2R based DACs for stereo sample-based audio. Maybe some modem-control drivers in it's boot ROM to make online gaming easier (both controller ports are configurable enough to allow low-speed RS232 modem control).

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@absalomdraconis what is a Super8?

[@atomicskull6405]

@@absalomdraconis An STM32F7 would be cheaper and WAY easier to implement. It's a self contained 32-bit MCU with it's own internal RAM, flash ROM and has built in ports DACs and ADCs. Nothing else needed externally save for some random caps and resistors and a 3.3v regulator. You would need a voltage shifter to interface to the 5v logic of the Megadrive but that's simple. It's also dirt cheap (less than $1) and far, FAR more powerful. What I'm talking about is using it in a similar way to the Virtua processor, or the scaling ASIC in the Sega CD. you really can't increase the colors or anything over the cartridge bus of the Megadrive that's why the 32X needed a video patch cable. EDIT: And the STM32 chips also have extensive (and very good) development tools available.

[@The90sGamingGuy]

I grew up with my own snes, didn't get a Genesis until much later. Both systems are great in my opinion.

[@iwanttocomplain]

Shit or get off the pot. Nobody cares if you liked both. One is better and you need to choose a side ffs.

[@supermegagrafx64]

Why would anyone need to choose one or the other?

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@supermegagrafx64 just for fun. Also because they are opposites. Finally because everyone who publishes anything at least always shits on Sega from a great height and says the SNES is unequivocally better in every regard. I need to know of you’re one of them. Also, you said “both systems are great” when the video only mentions one system. If you’re replying to the comments which are all about she’s bs Genesis because everyone is right and entitled and won’t back down. What’s even the point in chiming in with “I like everybody”. It’s so weak. What is it you like about each console, specifically? Edit: just realised I’m talking to the video poster, adjudicating. I get very tired of people saying they like both. It’s not going to get everyone to stop arguing. Why doesn’t he or she take a post in the UN and say “hey, everyone, you’re all great” and everyone will put all their troubles aside. You realise there’s an imbalance on the internet that’s egregious? Genesis never wins. Ever. It’s insane! Just wading into an argument to say your above everyone else is frankly rude.

[@supermegagrafx64]

@@iwanttocomplain I have owned both consoles for a long time and love each for different experiences and shared memories with family and friends. Neither is perfect but both are fantastic. As an example, I like Aladdin much more on Genesis but I think Street Fighter 2 was better on SNES. Each had amazing exclusives and I love them for what makes them each so unique. I may prefer 1 or the other depending on the day or my mood but that changes because each is so compelling. I just love great games.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@supermegagrafx64 if you don’t think one is arguably better then do you find it strange that I can’t find an article or video that wades into this dispute in favour of the Mega Drive / Genesis?

[@gpturismo]

Expansion Chips really helped pushed the SNES ahead. Color space and lack of some graphics effects that were standard in Sega System16 arcade games like rotation and scale really hurt it. The fact with modern code they have the first level of Star Fox running without an expansion chip/vsp is amazing. There were some games, like Sunsoft games, that used special proprietary audio expansion chips. I remember seeing Panorama Cotton when my friend got it from JP.

[@iwanttocomplain]

About 30 SNES game’s used a co-pro chip and they were used for things like game logic or in one case, converting an Atari ST game’s ‘packed pixel’ graphics into the SNES’s old fashioned ‘planar’ style. Super FX polygonal games aren’t great. The Super FX and similar chips were more of a crutch to allow games which ran without issue on the Genesis to run at all or quite often, to curtail issues programming for the awkward SNES architecture. No expansion chips were ever present in SMD carts apart from Virtua Racing. Did not having rotation and scaling hurt the Genesis though? Maybe a little bit. Considering it launched with pretty ropey versions of Space Harrier and Super Thinderblade, games designed for the superscaler tech in the arcade machines. But if you think about it, hardly any games really used scaling, even in arcades, and if they did it was neo-geo games that were zooming the whole screen in and out fir dramatic effect. 99% of games really didn’t have much use for it. On the Super Nintendo it was used to good effect in exactly two cart racing games and very poor effect in other racing games. Also there was Pilot Wings. Then it could be seen looking out of place here and there and looking kind of ropey and not exactly wowing.

[@ostiariusalpha]

@@iwanttocomplain This is not a very accurate assessment though. Those super scaler games were not the majority of arcade games, but they were far more profitable for Sega than non-scaler games were for other companies; Sega just about printed money with Hang-On, OutRun, Space Harrier, and Afterburner. They seriously hurt early sales of the console and (more importantly) games by not producing adequately faithful ports of a big portion of their most profitable arcade games. They had Altered Beast, Strider, and Golden Axe to fall back on, but the Genesis would have been substantially more profitable both before and after the SFC/SNES debut if Sega had committed to the Mark V scaling hardware and 32,768 color palette (which every Genesis VDP has sitting completely unused inside it).

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@ostiariusalpha didn’t you read my quote from Sega retro? There’s no 15bit colour palette hiding anywhere. Colours aren’t handled by vram but by cram which is way more fast and expensive. Castle of Illusion was a fancy game. In the end, no-one else had scaling. There are only around 30 games that scale anyway. It would’ve been cool but you know what? Super Monica GP, Super Hang On, Road Rash, Afterburner, Lotus Turbo Challenge all play amazing. They don’t look at all crap. If you want to see Space Harrier 2 with scaling chip buy a Genesis 2 Mini. What hurt them most was not putting all those scaling games onto the Mega CD.

[@ostiariusalpha]

@@iwanttocomplain I should have been more clear, but the internal CRAM of the VDP can be bypassed in the higher color mode. The Sega System C arcade board uses the exact same VDP as the Genesis, but has a separate CRAM unit, giving it a 12-bit master palette to draw from; 15-bit color depth is the upper limit for this mode that I've seen described, as that is what the System C2 uses. All the VDP units can access this mode, but it is hardcoded to use dual VRAM chips.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@ostiariusalpha where did you read that?

[@zmbdog]

The Genesis audio I'd describe as artful machine noise.

[@rovervitesse1985]

To al the haters from team snes i just want to say: Aladdin ;P Having watched this and for what i have known i believe it comes down to this: snes had more gimmicks build in like the scaling and rotation and FX chip BUT sega had just the raw power to sort of pull of these feats at another way to punch its way back in the ring. I had both: I lustersd after a SNES for i believe 1993 Christmas. My dad tried to nudge me to a megadrive constantly “you should go for sega. Sega is for big boys and nintendo is for kids”. I didnt listen, I sooooo wanted mario world. But then, on holiday just before that christmas, in the hotel there was a sega genesis demo cabinet with sonic the hedgehog running on it and the guest could play the full game for free for as long as they wanted. I watched this guy play through it and played some myself and i was instandly hooked. Few months later i got my genesis 2 Sonic 2 bundle. I was team sega and have been since. I got so many games in my collection that love still and wouldnt want to have missed. Years later i also bought a snes for my mario world itch. Also got donkey kong trilogy and mario kart and yoshis island. And that was all i needed from the snes. For the genesis there were way more must haves FOR ME so i am glad i switched to sega right on time.

[@TheLastLineLive]

23:57 wow that Star Cruiser game took a pretty unexpected turn 😳 Didn't expect it to actually be a F1 racing game.

[@Aaron-lr1di]

as a brit i appreciated the semi decent imitation of how we pronounce atari jaguar lmao

[@AuroraxPhilic]

To everyone in the comments saying that the SNES is still better... I'm sorry but this debate was put to rest as far back as 2017. Objectively and by literal measurable fact... the Genesis has much better hardware. I'm going to copy and paste a comment I made on another video where the same topic was talked about. This shouldn't even be a thing people say anymore. lmfao If the links in my copypasta or things this video shows still don't convince you... you need to be evaluated by a doctor or something. Don't get me wrong, I love the SNES... but... stop. Stop saying it's better. It's factually not. It's just not. Anyway here's my dumb copypasta with links... lol (extend the comment to see it): "No... the SNES is not stronger than the Genesis. In fact, it's not even close. This debate was put to rest several years ago, in considerable fasion: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYi5noOqp56CZsk Nobody has even come close to toping Overdrive 2. It was all done on stock hardware. As for sound. Lmfao... again not even a contest: Orchestral - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGPSqpKXrrWod6M , kzbin.info/www/bejne/naq4gHlqZ8ZlaMU Metal/Rock - kzbin.info/www/bejne/q166Ynpue7dog68 , kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWqVaHaXa6uemJo Electronic/EDM - kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp20fnykmM6rp8k , kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJfKhIKDjpKGfrs The Genesis does it all, and outright better. It's not a contest." To close this comment... talk to anyone from the demo scene, who know how the hardware for both systems work better than literally even developers... and they will almost all tell you the genesis is better. Objectivity and measurably. I'm tired of seeing this misconception even 5 years after it was proven false.

[@maxesreal]

I love it when nintendo people say "Genesis looks and sounds like shit" and show the worst out of the library to prove thier point. But when you do the same with the SNES they mald and everything. Anyway that Titan demo still amazes me and I still can't decipher how they achieved all those tricks. As for the music, the orchestral selections are great, and they break away that "Genesis can only do Streets of Rage 2 music" cause they apparently didn't listen to Beyond Oasis, which is from the SAME composer of SOR2.

[@y0gafire]

i'd love to see genesis handle KI snes beta version which straight up had arcade graphics. yes which looked like a direct port. only thing missing was the fmv understandable n the combo announcer. that demo/beta is lost to time and it was insane!! should not be possible right. its 64bit game. with the arcade sprites running on a stock snes. n looking beautiful. yes there is a video of it floating around on utube tho. for all those curious of it. rare was great. for if that got released instead of the scaled down version we got. ya hands down that beta ki the best looking. playing. sounding. game of the 16bit era and only on snes!! :D but ya both gens and snes are great. they had their showcase games which showed off their systems strengths. ...the war is over. i respect both. i enjoy'd both systems. and i am fan of both companies to this day. still bitter that dreamcast suffered an early demise tho. its too sad. those links were neat. i liked genesis take on starfox ost. its cool. if only sega also tried to make a rival franchise to starfox tho. and the sound issues with both systems comes down to the dev and the games. some sound better on snes some on genesis. it also it just comes down to ones own personal taste here. like with street fighter 2 turbo snes to sf2 champion on gens. vastly differnce is noticeable. but it comes down to preference. tho sf games on genesis are more true to acrade then snes. snes had its own unique sound too. there is undeniable beautiful osts from that. donkey kong country a fine example. gens always had that gritty edge to its music tho. which i liked. there isnt a superior but there will always be fan boy isms. lol. but with a certain amount of talent and dedication im sure the same desired result could be achieved on either console. ppl do gotts stop hating on gens tho saying it couldnt keep up. it sure could have. this SDK stuff also proves this and some homebrew hack games. and the titan demos was really amazing. mind was blown. lol. wow. but it is sad this potential of genesis was never realized back in the day.

[@AuroraxPhilic]

@@y0gafire Can you give a link to video? I am curious myself. The Genesis has also been shown on occasion to be able to do high res pixel art that looks like arcade quality but I’m sure it would require someone who knew what they were doing to look extremely good… but I’d like to know what this SNES K.I beta looks like.

[@y0gafire]

@@AuroraxPhilic kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaunc4uvpbFop5Y if it dont show. search this Killer Instinct - Beta SNES (more animation frames) - Arcade [ E3 1995 Promo Footage ] i do think gens could do arcade style pixel work good also. saw some SDK sfa2 n kof stuff. looking arcade perfect too. its amazing what these 16bit consoles could really do with the right devs. ✌

[@litjellyfish]

Well SNES has higher palette depth. And more hardware tile layers. Basically it’s GPU has features that MD does not have. Then MD have mire sprites and a bit faster CPU. So you can’t compare apples and pears

[@GetLostGames1]

The final boss in “The lawnmower man” on genesis had incredible scaling. Great video. I still play on my model 1

[@yoshisonlyworld]

This can't be right. Nintendo told me that I was playing with power, not Sega!

[@supermegagrafx64]

I'm starting to think Nintendo might not always be telling us the whole truth. lol

[@yoshisonlyworld]

@@supermegagrafx64 blasphemy!!

[@MasterSystemMarceau]

SEGA does what Nintendon't

[@yoshisonlyworld]

@@MasterSystemMarceau that's what I've heard lol

[@G.L.999]

@@supermegagrafx64 To be fair, neither was Sega back then with its hardware add-ons and the "promised support they'd give them". Never happened sadly!

[@TheLastLineLive]

Love the genesis BTW, so many good games. And I really love the sound chip, some of the games do sound like absolute ass, but when they knew what they were doing with it they made some amazing sound effects and music. The snes was great but the much smoother synth allowed lazy tunes to get away with it.

[@dieferman]

Great video on my favorite system of all time! Thanks for taking the time to make it. One cool thing you forgot to mention was that Zero Tolerance, besides the cool graphics for its time, could even be played in co-op (two-player) mode using a Link Cable that connected two Genesis consoles using a Zero Tolerance cartridge each. I did enjoyed Zero Tolerance, Light Crusader, and many other great games in my Nomad, back in my NAVY days, and gave them away when I left. I wish I still had the console and my game cartridges.

[@Ashitaka0815]

There also was Kawasaki Superbike challenge, wich used the same engine as the formula game. Very impressive considering it's running on a stock mega d drive. It looks even better than Virtua Racing in some aspects.

[@supermegagrafx64]

Oh I gotta check that out. Thank you for that!

[@eliotcole]

g-zero looked FAST!

[@salvadorkda5758]

There's one of the developers of those gems on youtube, telling how to achieve those effects. Truly remarkable for the era.

[@SouthernMenace]

Nice vid, thanks for putting it together.

[@enigmathegrayman2953]

As a kid I remember I got a Saga Genesis for Christmas back in 1991

[@ESEJESEJ]

Same here, with Sonic 2 as the pack in game. Might have been 92.

[@peppercornsauce5067]

I really enjoyed that, brought back some great memories. Thanks ma dude.

[@jaysherman2615]

To sum it up. The Genesis had more flexible hardware. With proper skill you could program things that outclassed what you could do on the SNES. The Genesis had better maximum potential. The SNES had the maximum potential available right out of the gate. Me personally though. I don't like to play the game of which console is outright better. One has advantages over the other in many departments. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you prefer.

[@twood1130]

A balanced opinion based on hard facts? I'm impressed.

[@tedgregersenvalasko2375]

"Known as Mega Drive in Japan and few other places". No, it's called Mega Drive in MOST countries and Genesis ONLY in the USA :-)

[@joshuaplotkin8826]

I'm Canadian and we still call it the genesis

[@tedgregersenvalasko2375]

@@joshuaplotkin8826 So in reallity it's called Genesis in few other countries ;-)

[@cosettapessa6417]

@@tedgregersenvalasko2375 true

[@Nobunaga1983]

Usa is where the genesis/mega drive system was put on the map and got popular

[@tedgregersenvalasko2375]

@@Nobunaga1983 Here in 💘 Europe💘 as well.

[@unlimitedgaming7872]

Well the Genesis hardware was designed by the arcade engineers team and the home team as well . They both worked together in this system....

[@MaxAbramson3]

What all of those "bits" mean: The 16-bit data path was just that. Although the 68000 had 32-bit registers (later used in the 68020, 030, and 040), loads and stores were limited to just two 8-bit bytes at a time. Yes, the CPU had 24-bit addressing, but that just allowed machines built on it to address 4MB of RAM at once, and the Genesis/Megadrive only had 64KB of RAM plus 64KB of VRAM, though it was designed for 128KB. Another interesting fact is that the 68000 can be overclocked to 10MHz, improving the frame rate on 3D games like Hard Drivin' because the CPU and VDP were kept separate. Had SEGA simply built the Genesis 32 (same machine, but with 128KB of RAM, 256 colors out of 32,768 video mode, and a 32-bit 68020, possibly even a Hitachi SH2), they could've released that into the marketplace for the 1993 Christmas shopping season for about $150 and kept the platform going for a few more years without the infamous 32X/32X-CD/Saturn/Jupiter/Neptune/Pluto debacle.

[@matiasd.7755]

Wrong: Loads and stores are not limited to bytes. You can load a 32 bits word on the 68000. It reads a half, then reads the other half. Even if it accesses the memory two times to read the number, you read only one instruction. You can perform 32 bit operations on the data. The processor reads the ADD instruction and then adds the low 16 bits, and then adds the high 16 bits plus carry. Again, only one instruction. Moreover: Genesis has 64 kB RAM but has 4 MB of ROM being that the maximum size for cartridges without MMU's (banking). Super Street Fighter II was way bigger than that using banking. You can have RAM in the cartridge if you really want to, but 16 bits games rarely would need more than 64 kB of variables.... Sonic 3 included SRAM in the cartridge... Those 32 bits Genesis specs for $150 is not realistic for the pricings of the time.

[@MaxAbramson3]

@@matiasd.7755 The 68000 had a 16-bit data bus, meaning that loads and stores required that you pumped the memory bus twice. So move.w took 16 cycles, while move.l took 20 cycles. On the 68EC020 (which SoA wanted to move to), 'move' timing is 4 cycles (6 worst case) for byte, words, and longs.

[@mk93_h]

Pocahontas, Lion king, Alaadin, Road Rash, Earthworm Jim 2, Desert Demolition. Sylvester & Tweety in Cagey Capers, Scooby doo mystery (Uncle Blake's hotel & Haha Carnival), Rolo to the rescue & many more games which i played in my childhood 😍Sega Genesis is da best 🤩🤩🤩

[@TheLastLineLive]

The Duke Nukem iirc is one of those Brazil exclusives from Tectoy. Pretty interesting.

[@iwanttocomplain]

Totally unplayable.

[@PilaCiu]

Genesis might be my favorite system of all time. I took time to learn 68000 programming for ROM hacks and homebrew on the system, it's a surprisingly easy architecture to figure out and its assembly code is quite simple and extremely readable.

[@jermainepalk1832]

Awesome! Thanks for making this video.

[@MOVIEMADNESSENTERTAINMENT]

Wow, amazing work Cyrus. Your vid is blowing up

[@supermegagrafx64]

I am clueless as to what is happening. This is amazing. I am just so grateful for everyone that has been supporting the video and channel.

[@EnjoyArtwork]

Pretty impressive stuff 👍🏻

[@ronsilk6212]

I was in my early 20s when star fox came out on the snes. I hated star fox. It's so slow and the fps is terrible. My bro had snes and i had genesis so i did have the best of both worlds though. Im 53 noe so I've lived the whole gaming lifespan from the beginning and im so happy to have been a part of them all. My favorite generation is the 6th generation.

[@skins4thewin]

The sound chip in the Genesis is very capable but tough to get the most out of. Many devs ended up using the GENS sound engine which is pretty much crap. It's a shame that so few games really got the most out of the Genesis sound chip, but some really did & showed off how amazing it could be, like the Gauntlet 4 soundtrack which is absolutely stellar & sounds like something you might hear on a Playstation 1!

[@maxesreal]

GEMS aint bad actually, its pretty good. The composers are the ones who arent utilizing it well enough, but its a pretty damn versatile AND user friendly driver that allowed musicians in the 90s to make music without to have to code or program anything in. There's plenty of games with good GEMS music like Earthworm Jim, Comix Zone, Vectorman, X-Men 2.... I could go on. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking its crap with Sonic Spinball's Options music as their only proof. It has been misused severely and gave the YM2612 a bad name.

[@skins4thewin]

@@maxesreal Sonic Spinball is definitely not the only example of GEMS sounding like crap tho. Lol funny thing is I always rather liked the music in Sonic Spinball, never understood all the hate myself. I suppose in the right hands it can sound good but there are far more examples of bad GEMS sound vs good.

[@maxesreal]

@@skins4thewin For sure, I personally like Toxic Caves and The Machine. I just mentioned the options music since it seems like the go-to track that most people use as an example of how "horrible" YM2612 music is. The rest of the soundtrack is dope tho.

[@skins4thewin]

@@maxesreal LOL that's the funny part tho as that's actually the one song I was going to say is my fav. I just don't get it... I freaking LOVE the option screen music in that game! I mean it's nothing special but I think it effing slams for how simple the melody is. I mean what is it that ppl don't like about that song? I really don't get it. Lol I guess it's subjective cus I dunno man I just don't see anything wrong with it at all. Oh & I also freaking LOVE the boss music!

[@maxesreal]

@@skins4thewin its the tesla coil instrument, which is really buzzy and abrasive and could use some better mixing

[@demonology2629]

Leading the 16-Bit Revolution🌐 🎛🔉🎵🎮🤘🤩📺🎮🤯🎧🎚🔊🎶 SEGA GENESIS

[@domdingle311]

This vid stir the pot, I love it and your channel is growing Cyrus! You da mannn..been with ya from the start. Your content is awesome dude. Keep it goin and Cowabunga 🤟

[@hardstyleeric]

Like your content bro keep it up! Awesome stuff!

[@MasterSystemMarceau]

Agreed! And the Master System too! 🤘😅 And great video man. I wish I had your talent for editing.

[@funkydmunky1]

Genesis was older so lacked the later tech advancements of the SNES. That said they were quite close overall. Sega did push the Genesis hardware hard upon its release and given its superior choice of CPU it gave it certain advantages to equalize the playing field compared to the better co-processors of the SNES. Also the earlier release date of the Sega unit allowed programmers to learn and exploit the hardware advantages. The trick of that era was NOT to be a fan-boi and enjoy both for the best of each library!

[@CharlesHepburn2]

Genesis had a Yamaha 6-channel (with one channel able to do PCM samples if needed) FM sound chip, but it also had the 4-channel PSG abilities of the Master System / Mark III built directly on the VDP chip.

[@RWL2012]

Yep it was odd he didn't mention the PSG. Also when he says "Model 1" that doesn't mean anything by itself because of the different motherboard revisions.

[@skins4thewin]

Dude, what happened? Why didn't you show more of that Star Cruiser game aside for the intro?? It just cut off all of the sudden into a racing game. Strange...

[@cahmercier]

Genesis wins

[@skins4thewin]

Ya know, I always wondered if the 68000 CPU in the Genesis & Sega CD could be used in tandem. It seems to me like the Sega CD was never really utilized to it's full potential of what it could do. It had a scaling chip built in yet we never saw any ports of Sega's Super Scaler Arcade titles which should have very much been possible on the Sega CD! The other scaler based games on the system showed that they could have done some amazing ports of those games on the system! VERY strange that Sega never did that & I wish I knew why.

[@absalomdraconis]

I think the Sega CD got pigeonholed as a cheaper LaserDisk pretty early, because everyone was thinking "Dragon's Lair on console!", and then it mostly got abandoned by the market.

[@iwanttocomplain]

I say that every time. The only explanation is that they had their heads firmly located in their rear ends and that they hate money. A lot of people say that Sega hate money.

[@Kaido_928]

Great video! For me, i like the snes and genesis both.

[@supermegagrafx64]

for sure. Love them both!

[@iwanttocomplain]

Get off the fence, you’re blocking my view, I’m hunting SNES fanboys.

[@mickmook1317]

Mega drive always had the type of games that pushed your imagination. I loved the splatter house series. Nintendo was and is a great system as well.

[@Retro-Fez]

The megadrive was the very first console i bought myself when i was 18 way back in 1991 and is my all time number one games machine, i had a snes some great games too the 16 bit era was such an amazing time and i still play them and many more retro consoles today ❤

[@dr.charlesedwardflorendobr3952]

I wondered why candy for the Sega Genesis became a 3D shooter while for other systems they were side scrollers. This especially for the SNES which I would have expected to be a pseudo-3D one owing to Mode 7

[@justyviews6731]

I came here because of you being a super technical person, then the 4:15 mark. Anyway, GG!

[@supermegagrafx64]

lol thankie

[@zekb6382]

The Mega Drive my fav console of all time

[@phrtza]

Street racer most definitely uses plain old scanline shifting, known from Master System etc.

[@supermegagrafx64]

Thats kind of amazing if you think about it. They made some great looking games with the restrictions they had for sure.

[@piratesephiroth]

Yeah, Street Racer uses the same technique from Outrun and the other 2D racers from and the 80s and 90s, only they added more detail but made the track completely flat.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@piratesephiroth actually you can have hills. Outrun has hills. It’s called ‘line scrolling and can be pretty legit. It’s last use was probably in the original 3DO version of Need For Speed.

[@piratesephiroth]

@@iwanttocomplain yeah Outrun has hills, even the first 8 bit racers that came after it like Rad Racer had them too. Street Racer doesn't, certainly because they tried to make it look like it was on the SNES where it used mode 7.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@piratesephiroth well Vivid Image put that game on the Amiga too, maybe they made that version first. They also put it on the Saturn and PSX but I digress. Maybe they just didn’t want hills.

[@demonology2629]

Yeah because it's pretty amazing the Mega Drive was built from off the shelf computer parts, Motorola 68000 processor for the 16-Bit brain they put a Yamaha 10 Channel stereo synthesizer sound chips in it. And voila it was leading the 16-bit Revolution. Even though the colors took the hit compared to the other 16-Bit systems because of backwards compatibility with the 8-bit Sega Master

[@48hourrecordsteam45]

All sega had to do was put a 12-but palette in that ting instead of a 9 bit. Threw in 32k of ram to handle all the colors 😢

[@RWL2012]

the YM2612 is a 6-channel chip, the other 4 sound channels come from the SN76489 PSG.

[@iwanttocomplain]

Well the cpu was off the shelf but Yamaha designed that sound chip custom for Sega, even though it got used in a couple of other machines. But the vdp was Sega’s own thing (based on the Master System vdp) and Yamaha also designed something called the IC6 (integrated circuit) to tie it all together. The rest was existing chips like dac, memory, the z80 sound controller, resistors...

[@demonology2629]

@@iwanttocomplain yeah Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis and NEO-GEO AES houses Yamaha sound, it's really phenomenal especially NEO-GEO that's exactly why YAMAHA is my favorite stereo company and motors company. 🎛🔉🎵🕹🤘🏻🤩📺🕹🤯🎧🎚🔊🎶 thanks for the insight

[@48hourrecordsteam45]

@@iwanttocomplain what you think it would have sounded like with 24 kbt of ram for less compression And 2 extra channels . A but faster like 5 mhz 🤔

[@vetodrom]

The demos by the group Titan are quite a show (for PAL Mega Drive though). Overdrive: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXinpYmfhdOan5o Overdrive 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYi5noOqp56CZsk MD-NICCC: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpS3Yot_p9CfnrM

[@MunkiZee]

I've been wondering if stuff like this existed. Cool to think that the KZbin videos probably run into the hundreds of megabytes but the code will be only a couple of meg at most

[@donkeyparadise9276]

What a channel name

[@Alexander-ix2jp]

SEGA DOES WHAT NINTENDON'T.

[@slimnim1753]

I want to spend a little time talking about... 43mn later... Yup. There's that much to talk about.

[@TurboXray]

Remute isn't "polygon" per se. They're just streaming 2D points and doing "fills" on them. Think of FMV, but points and some solid blocks, instead of still frames. It's an old demo trick.

[@villalazalejandro]

I think the genesis had better potential than the snes, but I think the snes had a better and more solid game library, I had a snes growing up, in recent years a purchased a genesis and some games so I still have more 16 bit awesomeness to discover

[@TheSultan79]

How did you come by a sega genesis without modifying it or whatever you were talking about so many games do you have other systems on there as well

[@supermegagrafx64]

If you are asking how I have so many games, the games are on a cartridge called a Mega Everdrive. You can find those on several retailers online then just add the games you want to try. Check archive.org for genesis roms. You should fibd what you need

[@TheSultan79]

@@supermegagrafx64 thanks for the advice

[@TheSultan79]

@@supermegagrafx64 I see you can cheat on those games how can you do it to cheat on those games could you show us

[@TheSultan79]

@@supermegagrafx64 what type of sd card does it take

[@supermegagrafx64]

@@TheSultan79 microsd

[@Shannon-ul5re]

The loved the MD back on the day, it kicked ass.. I just wish the mega cd upgrade included a new colour chip!

[@yamatotakeru9078]

I HAD A MEGA DRIVE WHEN I WAS A KID AND I LOVE IT! I STILL LOVE THE SEGA MEGA DRIVE!

[@nickblackburn1903]

Stop shouting lol

[@skins4thewin]

The CPU in the Genesis is so beefy that it kind of gets wasted a bit when compared to the more lackluster Graphics setup it has. It's kind of a shame that so much attention & budget was given to the CPU side of things instead of the Graphics side, as the system REALLY would have benefitted from a chip with a bigger color palette & more colors allowed on screen. Colors were really the weakpoint of the system & kind of held it back a bit in what it could do. No doubt though that the CPU was VERY powerful for the time & probably moreso than it really needed to be.

[@absalomdraconis]

Another poster mentioned that the VDP actually _is_ capable of more colors, but requires twice the memory to do it.

[@ostiariusalpha]

The VDP chip on the Genesis is actually a 15-bit (32,768 color) palette, just like the SNES. Every single Genesis model inherently has this color depth sitting completely unused on it because it requires two 64 Kbit VRAM chips to access, and Sega's management was only willing to pay for a single VRAM chip on each console. Which is why the Genesis is stuck with a pathetic 9-bit 512 color palette instead.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@absalomdraconis yeah it’s this guy ^ but it’s not true.

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@ostiariusalpha you might be thinking about how it was initially designed with double the memory. I don’t know if it was video or work ram but you can still see the spaces on the pcb where they were originally meant to fit. It was also going to be faster memory. 9-bit colour was decided on quite early on I gather, though. It’s not puny if you know how to use it.

[@muttBunch]

I miss my original from when I was 12...why did I throw it out :( I kept it super clean too and always kept a towel over it to prevent the dust from getting to it when I was done playing. Mine had the "16-bit" in gold writing...I SUCK!!!

[@hexapusink]

Just buy a new one. I did the same thing, sold my launch version Genesis around 1996, box and everything for like $20. A couple of years ago I got a launch version Genesis for $50 on ebay but I've seen them for cheaper as well. I have 4 model 1s that need a little work, like new controller ports. I bought them because they were like $12. Not sure you'll find one with gold, (maybe Mega Drive?) but you don't have to live with the regret of getting rid of a great console for the rest of your life.

[@stevec00ps]

Enjoyed this video thanks! Subbed #800 :)

[@RWL2012]

"Model 1" but no motherboard revision (VA number) given. OK, now I know what level we're at. Also why did you skip over the PSG when talking about the sound, only mentioning the YM2612?

[@dyscotopia]

Strangely, I had that cyber cop game on Amiga. It was called something else but I remember being amazed by the real time scaling of the monster sprites

[@TheTurnipKing]

Corporation, iirc. I seem to recall there was supposed to be some kind of feature where you could send Core a photo and they'd send you back a customised game disk with your face on the in game id.

[@TheSteveTheDragon]

@@TheTurnipKing CORPORATION! The goofy game for goofy CEOS! Seriously though, I always wanted to get into it on the Amiga but it was just confusing. Cool enemies though.

[@ma-yuansgameroomchannel9917]

Good video :)

[@rinner2801]

Thanks.

[@keeper7keys2003]

The Lawnmower Man - The last boss is even more impresssive.

[@dimitrimoonlight]

I didn't know that Star Cruiser for MD. I used to play a lot on x68000 PC.

[@fitnessabcvideo]

Love both genesis and SNES, variety and console nuances are what makes sense so spread your net wide, to get the best of all.worlds, I will say shcmups were mostly slow on SNES, this is where genesis games like thunderforce 4 or hellfire just blow everything else away

[@iwanttocomplain]

Only shmups?

[@fitnessabcvideo]

@@iwanttocomplain Ok.... Run and gun, frantic action genesis did best overall. I love my SNES especially it's RPG library, genesis couldn't compete with that area, but in terms of speed, c hunky graphics genesis was top tier, streets of rage 2 also, still the best beatem up to this day

[@danielmclaughlin2190]

my stock m1 md outputs scart n looks very clean on crt

[@AxelDragani]

You forgot one little unreleased game called Wacky races, it replicates super well the mode 7 effect 👌🧐

[@greenkoopa]

Well now I want to play that

[@iwanttocomplain]

Lol. It doesn’t do anything of the sort! The ground is just a dithered gradient that doesn’t even move! The game is so bad it’s unbelievable. I read a comment from one of the developers say he “thought it was fine”. It’s completely unplayable. The intro is cool though.

[@AxelDragani]

@@iwanttocomplain I think it looks good, the real floor is like some kind of wireframe plane that runs with a different framerate, I like it 😊

[@iwanttocomplain]

@@AxelDragani can you even NOT finish in last place in that game? Even if you like the graphics, which is weird because they’re so bad, it moves at around 7 times the speed of a normal cart racing game.

[@AxelDragani]

@@iwanttocomplain bro, it's just a game, chill 😅 and yes, it's a tough game but I personally suck at mode 7 racers, my all time favorite is Super Worms for DOS ❤️

[@mattmmilli8287]

Having both was the best 😎