PCE vs Sega CD

[zetastrike]

I've been pondering on this for years, actually. What makes the PCE CD so much better than the Sega CD? When you look at it, the systems don't seem all that different. Did the CD attachment even give the PCE any extra abilities, like the SCD gave the Genesis? What did Hudson do right that Sega did wrong? Was it just the glut of FMV garbage on the SCD? Not as many of those saw release in Japan and the PCE still handed Sega its ass. As much as I like and want a Sega CD, I'd pick up a Turbo Duo over it if I had the opportunity. I've always thought it was a shame that both systems failed in the US.

[Karakasa-Obake]

Whoever told you that the PCECD is better than the SCD is obviously lying. The PCE CD lacks a blast processor, which made it obsolete and junky the moment it came our. Plus,it doesn't look as good as the SCD does when it's attached to a Genesis.

All joking aside, they are both pretty neat. A guy I knew who ran a game store back in MO had a PCE CD, and it was pretty fun. I don't remember what some of the games we played were called though.

[kool kitty89]

There was a thread on this alreay more or less. (though it also included the Jag cd...)

As for the BP, I don't think they included that in the CD, probably one of the resons it failed too...

Now had they used a marketing gimick promoting the graphics ASIC as the super BP, things might be different. And note: coupling a BP with Super BP does not result in the same catostrophic problems as couling 2 BPs as previously discussed. :mrgreen:


Oh, and: http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6767

[Iron Lizard]

The only thing that makes the PCE CD better is the amount of awesome games that came out for it and the better color palette of the PCE. The CD system itself technically inferior as far as I know, no processor ,less ram etc..

[Christuserloeser]

Original Japanese games vs FMV junk.

[Guntz]

As far as availability goes, Sega CD is better. PCE CDs are damned expensive, whereas Sega CDs are at the very least plentiful, if not reasonably priced. There are lots of great games available on Sega CD so it's a win/win. If you have the budget for it, obviously the PCE CD is a better choice. So essentially:

Low budget = Sega CD
Large budget = PCE CD

I still think no Genesis owner should be without a Sega CD. It's an essential piece of equipment. ;)

[ooXxXoo]

Original Japanese games vs FMV junk.

Is it sad to say that I enjoy "Tomcat Alley" quite a bit?....

[chinitosoccer]

There's no need for the Megacd, the Megadrive alone is better than the Megacd and the PCEngine+CD togheter, the PCEngine is overrated, multi-platform games are always better on the Sega console in those cases when both versions are developed by the same company.

And the PC Engine wasn't lacking on the RAM department, late on the PCE life span NEC released the Arcade Card wich provided the System with 2MB of extra RAM, the MegaCD only has 256kb or something like that.

PC Engine CD Arcade Card:
World Heroes 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBJiauwiUk0

Art of Fighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exPJbtSlxUc

Fatal Fury Special
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ85OcZBWu8

Mad Stalker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPgcUNq5yU

Kabuki Ittoryoudan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZvbusR8F74&feature=related

[Iron Lizard]

They barely made any games for the arcade card so it doesn't really matter. The Super CD games still had less ram than the Sega Cd.

[tomaitheous]

There's no need for the Megacd, the Megadrive alone is better than the Megacd and the PCEngine+CD togheter, the PCEngine is overrated, multi-platform games are always better on the Sega console in those cases when both versions are developed by the same company.

This, coming from the guy that commented on my Gates of Thunderforce youtube video - who thought it was a shmup maker ;) GoT is only one of the most famous/popular PCE CD titles among its fan base (mostly owning to the fact that it was thee pack-in game for the US Duo launch system). Me thinks you haven't really checked out the whole library of games (hucard or CD).



And the PC Engine wasn't lacking on the RAM department, late on the PCE life span NEC released the Arcade Card wich provided the System with 2MB of extra RAM, the MegaCD only has 256kb or something like that.

PC Engine CD Arcade Card:
World Heroes 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBJiauwiUk0

Art of Fighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exPJbtSlxUc

Fatal Fury Special
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ85OcZBWu8

Mad Stalker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPgcUNq5yU

Kabuki Ittoryoudan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZvbusR8F74&feature=related

So, 5 games makes it not short on ram? I think you've gotten to use to the SegaCD and/or 32x. Because 5 games is less than 1 percent of the total PCE CD library.

As far as OP, I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole (I've had enough of these type of threads that degrade into spec fights, theoreticals, sensitive personal opinions, etc). But I'll state for the record, relative to the SegaCD - the PCE CD addon didn't add much of anything to the main system arch. One more sample channel (ADPCM with its own private ram - port based. I.e limited use for anything else but that because the slow port read/write access). Just one and mono at that. CDDA of course. Nice audio upgrade there (but that's to be expected of a CD system). And.. that's it. Well, more space on the CD verse carts - but very limited ram that really hindered that extra CD space advantage. Original CD system card with 64k of ram (cart space) was incredibly crippled and yet companies still continued to dev on it (Valis 4 and Spriggan 1 are both original CD 64k games and very impressive, but the rest are mostly very-very-very limited looking). Super system card 3.0 added 192k of ram for a total of 256k of ram (simulated card space). In 1991, this was ok - but still not up to snuff. And it showed it's aged as carts started getting bigger, having an advantage over CD games again (instant access to the whole range of the cart). ACD was developed early on and quite ambitious too. It started dev working prototype in 1992. But due to whatever delays, wasn't released until about the end of Feb of 1994. A little late in the game. 1993 would have been a much better target release date and there would have been more softs developed for it. Some games were "bi-compatible" for SCD/ACD. But they don't really add any noticeable differences when run on the arcade card.

[kool kitty89]

As far as availability goes, Sega CD is better. PCE CDs are damned expensive, whereas Sega CDs are at the very least plentiful, if not reasonably priced. There are lots of great games available on Sega CD so it's a win/win. If you have the budget for it, obviously the PCE CD is a better choice. So essentially:

Low budget = Sega CD
Large budget = PCE CD

I still think no Genesis owner should be without a Sega CD. It's an essential piece of equipment. ;)

That's from an importer's perspective (and assuming no piracy), in Japan, the PCE CD was WAY more popular than the MD or MCD (and more popular than the card based PCE) So the situation would be quite different in the major region for that system.

This has all been discussed in the thread I posted...

[QuickSciFi]

There are just so many awesome Sega CD games I don't even look at the FMV junk. I've never played a single PCE CD game, but I know they would be awesome too based on what I've seen. Just remember one thing, it's not just the music on the Sega CD, but the graphics as well. You get more memory to improve on cutscenes and whatnot, and that adds to its awesomeness too. ;)

[chinitosoccer]

This, coming from the guy that commented on my Gates of Thunderforce youtube video - who thought it was a shmup maker GoT is only one of the most famous/popular PCE CD titles among its fan base (mostly owning to the fact that it was thee pack-in game for the US Duo launch system). Me thinks you haven't really checked out the whole library of games (hucard or CD).

Lol, how can I not know about Gate of Thunder?? it's one of the most well known shooters for the PC Engine, I just got confused by your video because I did'nt know it was a hack, ( and a pretty good one actually).

I dont have the 3 in 1 pack for one simple reasson, i dont own a Turbografx or a Turboduo but a PC Engine:?, the only shooters of wich I have original copies are Winds of Thunder and Spriggan, i also have Gunhed and Air Zonk on Hu-Card, and a ton of CD-R "backups".

[Guntz]

That's from an importer's perspective (and assuming no piracy), in Japan, the PCE CD was WAY more popular than the MD or MCD (and more popular than the card based PCE) So the situation would be quite different in the major region for that system.

This has all been discussed in the thread I posted...

And how many of us live in Japan? If I'm not mistaken, everyone here IS an "importer", so your argument is rather pointless.

[kool kitty89]

It seems a bit odd that they used DRAM for the original system card, but SRAM for the added 192 kB in the SCD for the additional memory... For 1991 is seems like they could have gone to 512 kB DRAM fairly easily. (which should have been much less limiting)

One other odd thing (which Tomaitheous has addressed before) is that they never added Supergrafx functionality to the duo systems.
That, and due to the extensive expansion interface, it seems odd that the supergrafx wasn't done as an add-on rather than only a standalone unit. (rather ironic that Sega attempted such enhancements with add-ons in spite of much greater interface limitations than the PCE, and NEC didn't exploit the very capable expansion bus)

Had they designed it to work as an add-on in the first place, it should have been straightforward to integrate with later CD units too (like the Super CD), that's assuming that the current supergrafx isn't designed in such a way that already facilitates an add-on form factor.

[JRedmond3]

Dracula X beats pretty much anything on the Sega CD.

[kool kitty89]

Except those who aren't big 2D platformer/sidescroller fans....

I've got a bunch of games I really like on the Sega CD, some I like more than most Genesis games. (Silpheed is pretty awesome, and unique -I like the 80s PC version too, not so much the PC version)
I'm not goign to go into listing games and personal preference though, that's silly.

I'll say that the PCE CD was far more successful as a platform and had more games, if not better games released for it.

FMV isn't that big a part of the sega CD (in the context of interactive movies or laserdisc type games). It's just that Sega advertised it as such too strongly. (the laserdisc arcade fad should have been a warning)
Nothign wrong with capitalizing on the FMV fad (both the gimicky ones and genres using streaming video in other manners -in game or cutscene), but they overemphasized it when there were plenty of other attributes to push -like the graphics ASIC. (which was underutilized -could have had Sega Arcade ports, possibly a real competitor to Mario Kart, etc --the latter could have been done on the MD alone too -and much better than the mediocre Drift games)

[JRedmond3]

Except those who aren't big 2D platformer/sidescroller fans....

:confused:

Dracula X transcends the platformer/sidescroller genre.

[tomaitheous]

Except those who aren't big 2D platformer/sidescroller fans....

I think that would be one of the main reasons why someone would own a Genesis/Megadrive in the first place (i.e. you need one to play the CD addon).

[Deo]

I'm sure if Strip Fighter was ported to the Sega CD it would have sold better.
Ok maybe not.

[kool kitty89]

I think that would be one of the main reasons why someone would own a Genesis/Megadrive in the first place (i.e. you need one to play the CD addon).

Virtua Racing on the Genesis was a big reason for me actually, that was the first ROM I downloaded for Fusion and the first Genesis game I bought. ;)

I'm not a big 2D sidescroller/platformer fan, but a moderate one, in part because I kind of suck at those games and only a few really make me want to play in spite of this. (or play all the way through) Yoshi's Island and several sonic games are among those exceptions. (among the few 2D platformers I enjoy on the level I do my favorite 3D platformers)
Super Mario World might not even make my top 10 SNES games... Yoshi's Island and Star Fox certainly would though.

The Sega CD OTOH isn't riddled with 2D platformers by comparison, a few shmups (which the genesis has in abundance), some RPGs, a fair amount of interactive movies, and a fairly large portion of racing/flying/simulator games including rail shooters.

I wish more games took advantage of the ASIC... Actually I wouldn't mind so much if CORE's games weren't so frustratingly difficult (especially Soul Star). If some developer had made an all rail-shooter game on the level of Soul Star, I'd be very happy... As it is, Soul Star isn't quite my cup of tea: a bit like Incoming, awesome, fun, good-looking game that has too steep of a difficulty curve and not a real easy difficulty setting, it makes it all the more frustrating. (Star Fox has a very acceptable difficulty system)
Sigh...

[FamiDriveDuo]

I like both, but the PC Engine CD blows the Sega CD out the water IMO, thanks to it's plentiful library of shooters, platformers, and arcade ports.

[OldSchool]

:confused:

Dracula X transcends the platformer/sidescroller genre.

Does it really? I'd read that it is the least favored Castlevania game in the entire series... and because of that, I removed it from my wantlist, that and I saw it was at $60+.


We're talking about the SNES game right? The second one on SNES?

[chinitosoccer]

No, he was talking about the "Dracula X: Chi no Rondo" por the PCE Super CDRom 2, the SNES Dracula X its a crippled port, and is not nearly as bad as some PC Engine fanboys may led you to believe...hell, is not even a bad game, is very good, just not as good as the PCE one.
If you decide to buy this game, be sure to get the Super Famicom version, which is the only one who is uncensored.

[OldSchool]

No, he was talking about the "Dracula X: Chi no Rondo" por the PCE Super CDRom 2, the SNES Dracula X its a crippled port, and is not nearly as bad as some PC Engine fanboys may led you to believe...hell, is not even a bad game, is very good, just not as good as the PCE one.
If you decide to buy this game, be sure to get the Super Famicom version, which is the only one who is uncensored.

I guess if I ever see it for $20 or less I'll grab it... otherwise, I'm not too bothered. I've got 3 games for NES, 1 for SNES, 1 for PS1, and 2 for PS2. (oh, and the fighter for Wii, lol)


I think I've got enough Castlevania in my life, lol.;)
thks for the headsup though

[Pulstar]

The PC Engine is the NeoGeo of shmups. True it was more affordable but unless you enjoy shmups you're not getting much mileage from the PCE.

The JaguarCD, 3DO, CDi, SegaCD and PCE-CD were a waste of CD technology. I'm not fond of the 32-bitters' use of the medium either (90% of cases the games were 40-50 megs with the rest being music or FMV). Only a handful of games managed to use the extra space to deliver experiences not possible via carts.

[Gentlegamer]

Dracula X beats pretty much anything on the Sega CD.

Dracula X beats every disc-based game ever released.