Nintendo's SNES/SFC cartridge prices shaved some character rosters?

[madman]

Oh yeah, I think the reason stuff was cheaper on the genesis was because they used normal eproms, whereas Nintendo has mask roms with custom pinouts. I'm sure they were more expensive to produce.

Genesis carts did not use EPROMs. If they had, that would make them more expensive than similarly sized mask ROMs.

 

[GohanX]

His terminology was wrong, but he is correct about the genesis using standard mask roms. It's one of the reasons so many people make Genny repros, they are dead simple.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Simple, but still a little complicated. A lot of tiny Genesis games use 40 pin ROM chips. To use a 42 pin ROM, you'd have to hook up the extra address pins. Also, some 42 pin ROM cartridges only support 16Mbit by default. To do 32Mbit, those would require pin 32 to be disconnected from VCC and connected to the Genesis edge connector. Then of course there are games that save data. Some used EEPROM and some used SRAM + battery. Don't forget the occasional game that used two ROMs tied together with a bit of logic, either.

 

[cat]

This was my favourite out of the funny shaped megadrive carts, we didn't realise how spoilt we were back then, 4 player action without a multitap or 8 if you did, i used to rock this game with my mates.



Still got mm military and mm 96 as well and they're the same, shame i don't have enough mates anymore lol.

 

[@M]

I don't have any of those Genny carts with the extra controller plug-ins. I think, in the US, the only one of those that got released was Pete Sampras Tennis. That's definitely a novel way to bypass getting a 4-player adaptor, that's for sure!

 

[cat]

Yeah they're great games as well M, don't know which one is my fav, either the one i took a pic of or micro machines military. I still got my multi-tap as well, used to play 8 player with my buddy's and a few beers back in the day in my old flat, swell times.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Genesis carts did not use EPROMs. If they had, that would make them more expensive than similarly sized mask ROMs.

Yeah, my bad. Sometimes I get all those damn chips mixed up, lol. I guess I should say they're mask roms with a standard pinout?

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Yeah, my bad. Sometimes I get all those damn chips mixed up, lol. I guess I should say they're mask roms with a standard pinout?

They're Mask ROMs with EPROM-compatible pinout, but for all intents and purposes, that can be called standard. The odd thing here is Genesis and Neo Geo use what is called Non-JEDEC pinout.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Hoo boy... guess I better not dig too deep if I don't want to go all the way, lol

 

[@M]

Lacking anything more constructive to do with myself early this morning, I pulled all of my cardboard boxes of Sega Genesis games out of storage and rooted around to see how many different sized/shaped cartridges I could find (given which forum this is, I gave Neo Geo ports preference in my selection process for the comparison photo). Accolades' carts (Universal Soldier shown here, or, as one reviewer once more accurately dubbed it: "The Rape of Turrican 2") were similar to EA's, but, without that gaudy yellow tab, they look a lot nicer in my opinion. I seem to recall reading, in one of those famous gaming history books, that EA's prototype reverse-engineered Genesis carts wouldn't have worked properly if they were mass produced (something with Sega's security features I think?), and that they were lucky that Sega caved when confronted with their bluff and EA got the technical specs that they needed to correct the situation.



Didn't the Genesis port of Virtua Racing cost about $100 when it first came out (due to the special chip needed to render the polygon graphics)? Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with the high retail price of Phantasy Star IV, I dunno. I didn't pay anywhere near that for my copy--if memory serves, I got it for around $10 when one of the local video rental chains was liquidating their 16-bit stock during the PSX/N64/SS age (those were great times for snagging SNES/Genesis games that's for sure). At the time, I suppose Sega was feeling the pressure from Nintendo's Super FX chip games and felt that they needed to respond in some fashion--too bad the darn thing cost so much.

Oh, and be wary of buying the SNES version of Super Baseball 2020, because, in one of the zaniest bits of censorship I've ever seen, they completely removed the "Cracker" landmines from their rendition. Did Nintendo and/or the developer doing the porting seriously think that kids were going to see said crackers and then, during the summer, proceed to make improvised explosives and seed the local playing field with them prior to their next little league match? Who knows, even though SB 2020 is an unlicensed fantasy sport, maybe the MLBPA had something to do with them being removed from the Nintendo version too (the gaming giant did had pretty tight ties with them after all)? Speaking of which, 2020 is getting closer, where are all of our baseball-playing robots? SNK wouldn't lie to us about that, would they?

 

[cat]

After looking at the picture you posted M i went back and had a look through my sega carts and found these, top 2 are megadrive carts, left one is another micro machines but without the extra joystick ports, right one is double dragon and the same shape as your universal soldier cart.
Bottom 2 are game gear carts right one is normal but the left one is huge for a game gear cart, what is it with the micro machines carts lol.



Here's a close up of them, never seen a game gear cart like that and i've got a good few (60-70)

 

[FilthyRear]

Accolades' carts (Universal Soldier shown here, or, as one reviewer once more accurately dubbed it: "The Rape of Turrican 2")...

Am I the only one that liked Universal Soldier?

Didn't the Genesis port of Virtua Racing cost about $100 when it first came out (due to the special chip needed to render the polygon graphics)? Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with the high retail price of Phantasy Star IV, I dunno.

IIRC, they both cost around $100. I liked Virtua Racing a lot in the arcade, and my parents wouldnt buy it because it was so expensive, so I rented the shit out of it.

 

[@M]

@Giltygear: I don't hate Universal Soldier, but it was disappointing that we got that altered version instead of a straight port of Turrican 2. And the Jean-Claude Van Damme/Dolf Lungren movie it's based on is okay.

@Cat: I didn't even know that there were any oversized carts for the Game Gear like that, thanks for sharing the pic! Is there any apparent purpose/reasoning for the cart being that large? Reminds me of Pokemon Pinball, for the GBC, which is oversized like that to incorporate the rumble feature.

 

[madman]

Didn't the Genesis port of Virtua Racing cost about $100 when it first came out (due to the special chip needed to render the polygon graphics)? Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with the high retail price of Phantasy Star IV, I dunno.

Yeah, they were both $100 originally. Virtua Racing on the Genesis is quite impressive, not sure I would've paid $100 back then for it though. It's not quite as good as the 32X version, but a very nice port in any case.

 

[oliverclaude]

Am I the only one that liked Universal Soldier?

Well, guess it's a half empty, half full glass type of game. I see it as half empty, because of what it could have been. For a full glass though, I'd go with Mega Turrican anytime. Amazing little gem and best console based Turrican to date.

 

[cat]

I didn't even know that there were any oversized carts for the Game Gear like that, thanks for sharing the pic! Is there any apparent purpose/reasoning for the cart being that large?

No problem M, TBH my game gear bit the dust many years ago and needs a cap change so i can't even remember the game properly, it's been like 15 years since i played it but from memory i can't remember it being any different to a normal game gear cart.

 

[@M]

@oliverclaude: Yup, Mega Turrican is pretty awesome, although I never did manage to beat that one. I've got all three Sega Genesis Turrican games (the original, Universal Soldier, and Mega Turrican). The first Turrican has a larger Accolade cartridge like Universal Soldier.

Super Turrican on SNES is pretty nice too, although I've always found it to be buggy--has anybody else had the same experience? The game has a tendency to lock-up/crash and the music cuts out or starts buzzing too--I had the same difficulties with two completely different Super Turrican cartridges (I returned and exchanged the first one I got, but the second one did the exact same thing)]. The rest of my SNES carts play fine, so, it's not my console.

@madman: Yeah, I agree, considering the age/capabilities of the Genesis, that port of Virtua Racing was pretty impressive--if Sega could have gotten the costs down, it would have been interesting to see them try porting some other fully polygonal games with that special chip. I never bought a 32X, but I did pick up the Saturn version of Virtua Racing. I haven't played it in years, but I seem to remember that they added three more tracks and some more cars to that incarnation of the game.

@cat: My Game Gear is in sorry shape too (the screen is shot and the speakers work inconsistently), so you're not alone. With the Game Gear Micro Machine games, couldn't you play two players with just one Game Gear (I believe the control pad controlled one vehicle and the buttons the other)?

 

[Ip Man]

I actually was quite impressed with SFC/SNES Doom for what it was, especially given how much more power you could get out of a PC.

same here.for a lot of people without a pc,at the time the snes was the only way to play doom.

 

[RabbitTroop]

Yeah, they were both $100 originally. Virtua Racing on the Genesis is quite impressive, not sure I would've paid $100 back then for it though. It's not quite as good as the 32X version, but a very nice port in any case.

I remember having that game, but I wouldn't have paid $100 for it either. Though, I definitely forget sometimes that Genesis games were typically $50-60 back then, and SNES were in the $60-70 ballpark. So, I probably grabbed it when the price was dropping down to normal Genesis cart levels. That game was totally rad, too. Lots of good memories of Virtua Racing on the Genesis.

 

[oliverclaude]

@oliverclaude: Yup, Mega Turrican is pretty awesome, although I never did manage to beat that one.

Super Turrican on SNES is pretty nice too, although I've always found it to be buggy--has anybody else had the same experience?

Mega Turrican is worth it for the sound alone. There's probably only one other composer compared to Chris, that is a greater Mega Drive FM genius... and that would be Yuzo Koshiro.

Regarding those Super Turrican bugs, that seems to be a common problem. The reason could have been the short time Factor 5 was given to deliver it and/or the cuts they were forced to apply on the finished product in order to squeeze it into a 4 meg cart instead of an 8 meg one. Debugging was never their strong side though.

 

[Alpha Skyhawk]

Mega Turrican is worth it for the sound alone. There's probably only one other composer compared to Chris, that is a greater Mega Drive FM genius... and that would be Yuzo Koshiro.

Regarding those Super Turrican bugs, that seems to be a common problem. The reason could have been the short time Factor 5 was given to deliver it and/or the cuts they were forced to apply on the finished product in order to squeeze it into a 4 meg cart instead of an 8 meg one. Debugging was never their strong side though.

Factor 5? The Rogue Squadron people?

Also, I just figured Bam Bam Bigelow and Yokozuna were cut from the SNES WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade Game due to performance issues. The SNES version, with the 6 characters it does have, is probably the worst performing version of the game. I figured trying to run big sprites like Yokozuna when there were three wrestlers on the screen would have taken too much of a toll on the performance. I forget if the SNES version allowed four wrestlers on the screen, but it slowed down considerably when there were three.

I've played most of the versions of the game out there in one way or another, too. I think the only version I never played at all was the PC version.

 

[cat]

Am i the only one that hate's that you can't shoot up in turrican, it bug's hell into me, seem's a common thing in run and gun's.
I've not played all the versions of turrican but the amiga one definately didn't let you shoot up and i'm certin the megadrive one didn't either, didn't spoil the game but made it a pain.

 

[BLEAGH]

Am i the only one that hate's that you can't shoot up in turrican, it bug's hell into me, seem's a common thing in run and gun's.
I've not played all the versions of turrican but the amiga one definately didn't let you shoot up and i'm certin the megadrive one didn't either, didn't spoil the game but made it a pain.

It's like using the heavy machine gun to shoot in eight directions in metal slug. Just a little quirk to the game. I think it would be less interesting if you could shoot up.

 

[oliverclaude]

Factor 5? The Rogue Squadron people?

Exactly, they were based in Koeln, my home town . Check their wikipage.

 

[Professor Denim]

Mega Turrican is worth it for the sound alone. There's probably only one other composer compared to Chris, that is a greater Mega Drive FM genius... and that would be Yuzo Koshiro.

Regarding those Super Turrican bugs, that seems to be a common problem. The reason could have been the short time Factor 5 was given to deliver it and/or the cuts they were forced to apply on the finished product in order to squeeze it into a 4 meg cart instead of an 8 meg one. Debugging was never their strong side though.

Mega Turrican is fantastic. Great visuals, sound, controls and stage layout. Also amazing cover art.