First-Person Shooter Games on Genesis: Ambition or Folly?

[Melf]

During its run, the Genesis had several attempts at cashing in on the burgeoning first-person shooter genre. Everything from wholly original titles to such cash cows as Duke Nukem 3D somehow found their way onto the console. But was it too much too soon? Was the Genesis even capable of doing this modern genre the justice needed to make its games enjoyable and most of all, playable? Check out our latest editorial First-Person Shooter Games on Genesis: Ambition or Folly? (http://www.sega-16.com/2006/08/first-person-shooter-games-on-genesis-ambition-or-folly/) and see for yourself.

[Flash1087]

Ah, a thread after my own heart!

Really, regardless of the hardware, making a FPS on a console wasn't exactly a feasable idea at the time. I think Zero Tolerance is pretty good, myself, but would anyone really profess to preferring that to the PC Doom? Cash cows can drive people to do weird things.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the FPS levels in Toy Story exclusive to the Genesis? For some reason, I remember hearing that a very, very long time ago, and being as I only have the Genny version, I can't be sure...

[j_factor]

I would say that it handled them better than SNES. SNES Doom was unplayable, and Wolfenstein 3D had the most blocky visuals ever (among other problems). Corporation sucked ass (a rare misstep from Core), but the other three were decent enough.

I'm surprised that there were no real attempts at an FPS for Sega CD. Considering its advanced hardware scaling and faster 68000, it could've hosted a damn good one. The CD release of Battle Frenzy doesn't count, because it doesn't use the Sega CD hardware at all, merely adding CD audio.

[108 Stars]

I think this article treated Duke Nukem 3D a bit unfair. Not only was it smoother than Zero Tolerance, with a crisper image, but the actual window size was more than twice as large. Although the gameplay is nothing like the PC-Duke Nukem, I think this is quite a great commitment of the people of Tec Toy.
I think it was not foolish to try to make FPS on Genesis, it was ambitious! The coders really tried to push the console to the limits, and I think Zero Tolerance and Duke Nukem are quite impressive.
Can´t say anything about Toy Story, never played it.

Besides, I didn´t know some games were able to change the 68000´s clock speed to 13,4 Mhz. That´s really interesting, as is the procedure of using the 68000 and the Z80 in tandem!

I stated this question in some other thread too, but noone answered: Is it true that when you play Duke Nukem on a real cartridge there are no gray vertical lines all over the screen like when you use Gens?
Has anybody here actually own a copy of that game?

[Joe Redifer]

Did any game actually "force" the 68000 to run at 13.4Mhz?

[Genesis Knight]

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the FPS levels in Toy Story exclusive to the Genesis? For some reason, I remember hearing that a very, very long time ago, and being as I only have the Genny version, I can't be sure...

That's right - I guess the SNES didn't have the processing capabilities?


The CD release of Battle Frenzy doesn't count, because it doesn't use the Sega CD hardware at all, merely adding CD audio.

Another sickeningly disappointing CD 'port', I agree. How pathetic.


I think it was not foolish to try to make FPS on Genesis, it was ambitious! The coders really tried to push the console to the limits, and I think Zero Tolerance and Duke Nukem are quite impressive.

I believe I commended both Zero Tolerance and Nukem (to a lesser extent). The problem is that from a financial position they were all flops.


Did any game actually "force" the 68000 to run at 13.4Mhz?

There are rumors about which games actually used this, but nothing has ever been confirmed, I don't think.

[Joe Redifer]

The mech scenes of Soul Star had some corridor-ish scaling and rotation. Well, it had walls, a floor and a ceiling. That's all that's needed for an FPS.

[David J.]

And wasn't Battlecorps an FPS of sorts?

[Joe Redifer]

I don't think it had walls, just 2D sprites that always faced you.

[Wesker]

The "First Person" level (because you don't actually shoot) of Toy Story wasn't exclusive for the Mega Drive version. Super Nintendo also had that one.

Actually, the Mega Drive exclusive level was this racing one:

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9934/mdexclusivexi0.png

I always loved the fact of some Mega Drive exclusive levels in many multiplatform games. :D

[Genesis Knight]

Well, it had walls, a floor and a ceiling. That's all that's needed for an FPS.

Er...I'd have to disagree with you there. So Space Harrier is an FPS?

[j_factor]

Space Harrier doesn't have walls. Although, I don't agree that an FPS needs to have walls and a ceiling -- there have been FPSes that took place outdoors.

I think for a game to be an FPS, it needs to involve shooting things while on foot (ie, not vehicular combat) in the first-person perspective, and not have fixed movement or be completely on rails.

[winona]

Id like to see a 3D feature on Sega-16. So I know what games to avoid.

[Genesis Knight]

As in polygonal? Melf said he was going to do one a while back.


t needs to involve shooting things while on foot (ie, not vehicular combat) in the first-person perspective, and not have fixed movement or be completely on rails.

D'oh. I thought of that the second I logged off.

[Zebbe]

Can someone tell me this: if the Mega Drive has a 13,4 MHz alternative that can be used, why don't all games with slowdown use this to eliminate slowdown? And why is the 7,6 MHz standard if 13,4 is available?

Genesis Knight: Zero Tolerance wasn't really a flop. It sold 250 000 copies in the US. There is an unfinished sequel available as freeware ROM (I say this because companies rarely make sequels to games that flop).

Wesker: Do you know if the SNES version has any level that the Mega Drive version lacks?

EDIT: SVP stands for "Sega Virtua Processor", not "Super Virtual Play".

[Wesker]

Do you know if the SNES version has any level that the Mega Drive version lacks?

Doesn't have any. It's just more colorful and polished.

[winona]

Can someone tell me this: if the Mega Drive has a 13,4 MHz alternative that can be used, why don't all games with slowdown use this to eliminate slowdown? And why is the 7,6 MHz standard if 13,4 is available?


Prolly for the same reason that you can overclock memory, gfx-cards and cpus with varying result. Some are better than others. Doing it to one set will increase the capacity doing it to another batch will result in hardware meltdown.

You have to settle for the right balance between power and good yields.

[Zebbe]

Wesker & winona: Thanks for the info. (I'm now happy to skip the hassle with the overclock mod for my Mega Drive)

[Genesis Knight]

Genesis Knight: Zero Tolerance wasn't really a flop. It sold 250 000 copies in the US.

Where are you getting your data on that?


There is an unfinished sequel available as freeware ROM (I say this because companies rarely make sequels to games that flop).

Did you not read the article? I mentioned that specifically. "A fifth, Beyond Zero Tolerance, was cancelled in the beta stage."


EDIT: SVP stands for "Sega Virtua Processor", not "Super Virtual Play".

Melf, can you change this?

[Zebbe]

Where are you getting your data on that?
Wikipedia. (Now I see it says 215 000 copies, but that's not a flop either)


Did you not read the article? I mentioned that specifically. "A fifth, Beyond Zero Tolerance, was cancelled in the beta stage."
Yes, I did read the article. I'm just very dumb and forget things fast. ;/

[Joe Redifer]

Can someone tell me this: if the Mega Drive has a 13,4 MHz alternative that can be used, why don't all games with slowdown use this to eliminate slowdown? And why is the 7,6 MHz standard if 13,4 is available?
The SNES had a bunch o' different speeds built in with the fastest being the blazing 3.58 megahertz (which is so fast that the task finishes before it even begins). But many SNES games only ran in the 2-something megahertz mode because the developers felt that the world wasn't ready for that much awesome.

[Genesis Knight]

Props, Joe. Many props.

[ary incorparated]

Indeed the genesis version lacked colour in some places,but thats the diffrence between coulurs,i had both versions and preferred the snes version above the genesis one cause of more photorealistic look,and i didnt want to believe that the genesis version came that close so i sold it,but back trhen i was into the graphics of the snes,and later i sold my snes and continued megadrive.And after all the megadrive version of Toy story is better,more animation+faster+extra levels+opening the 64 colours in screen envelope easely and with no shadow highlight mode.

[Germ]

^True, based on playing on emulator i thought the genesis version had better rendering and sound, plus the one reviewed on EGM was the genesis version.

[ary incorparated]

True its just a better game after all,maybe it lackes colours compared to the snes one but still great i enjoyed earth worm jim 2 2 but also lacked colors.

[TmEE]

YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE THE 68000 CLOCK TO 13.4MHz IN SOFTWARE !!! YOU NEED TO MAKE FEW CUTS AND SOLDERS IN YOUR MD TO USE THAT HIGHER CLOCK !!!

I hope this kills that rumor.

[Genesis Knight]

This article was written before the slew of fact-checking techies arrived. So please don't condemn my soul.

[TmEE]

You made the article ? I don't know, I can't access it (got an error)... Daniel mentioned something about it so I thought I should say something about it.