Sega's SVP Chip: The Road not Taken?

[Melf]

Genesis fans were quick to point out the incredible visuals (for the time) of Virtua Racing, they were even quicker to notice the price — $100. The Sega Virtua Processor, designed to counter Nintendo's own FX chip series, was highly powerful but too expensive to maintain in the face of the next hardware generation. It was supplanted by the 32X, a move that could possibly have been avoided. Read our complete article, Sega's SVP Chip: The Road not Taken (http://www.sega-16.com/forum/../Segas%20SVP%20Chip-%20the%20Road%20not%20Taken.htm) for all the details on the option Sega decided against, and how it might have actually saved them.

[David J.]

Haha, I played some Virtua Racing today. Good timing, I guess!

I look at Virtua Racing being awful as a game, but an amazing port that no one thought could happen.

[Joe Redifer]

Pretty good article. Virtua Racing is an awesome game, but was poorly ported for the SVP version. The 32X version DESTROYS it (and the Saturn version) in every way. I do take exception to one of the comments in the artcle, though:

According to a former Genesis programmer, the genesis [sic] had a great deal of limitations on the number of colors it could display onscreen. Programmers were stuck choosing from four palettes of sixty-four colors each, and could only display sprites that used sixteen or fewer of these. Many games used tricks that would allow programmers to switch palettes part of the way through drawing the screen (this is how Sonic the Hedgehog could have a bluish palette underwater coexisting with the brighter colors above) but these kinds of tricks could only do so much.

That must have been one hell of a poor programmer. What he is basically saying is that the Genesis had a pallette of 256 colors and could put 16 onscreen at once. Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. The Genesis had 512 colors, 61 of them could be onscreen at once, but sprites could only be assigned 16 colors per block. Sonic is no technical feat for the Genesis as far as color is concerned, that's for sure.

However the SVP Virtua Racing looks pretty bad. It is obviously using something similar to a Master System pallete. It is quite obvious that only 16 colors may be onscreen at once and only 64 total colors are even accessible. I blame either the SVP itself or the programmers inability to deal with it... most likely the SVP. The Genesis definitely had far better colors than SVP Virtua Racing displayed, as seen in the very first games released for the system. Also, the sound in that game was pretty bad. If the SVP provided any enhanced sound capabilities, it sure wasn't used in that game. The game also did not scale or rotate any sprites.

I find it humorous how no emulator (that I know of) can run SVP Virtua Racing. I should do a feature comparing and contrasting this and the 32X version since I have them both. In short, the 32X version blows it away by a factor of about 100.

[segagamer]

That may explain the reason for Sega not using the SVP chip to bring Virtua Fighter to the Genesis.

[Melf]

Pretty good article. Virtua Racing is an awesome game, but was poorly ported for the SVP version. The 32X version DESTROYS it (and the Saturn version) in every way. I do take exception to one of the comments in the artcle, though:



That must have been one hell of a poor programmer. What he is basically saying is that the Genesis had a pallette of 256 colors and could put 16 onscreen at once. Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. The Genesis had 512 colors, 61 of them could be onscreen at once, but sprites could only be assigned 16 colors per block. Sonic is no technical feat for the Genesis as far as color is concerned, that's for sure.
Nope, that's my bad. I misinterpreted what he said. Here's his exact quote:

The primary limitation was that the Genesis graphics hardware used to access the screen could only hold 64k of graphics data, which wasn't enough to render the whole screen as individual characters. And, of course, the Genesis hardware could only display 512 colors, in 16 color characters, choosing from only 4 color palettes. The SVP may have been able to do some heavy interrupt processing to simulate a true 512 color mode, but it seems unlikely to be used in that fashion.

I fixed that in the article. :)

[Mel]

Nope, that's my bad. I misinterpreted what he said. Here's his exact quote:

The primary limitation was that the Genesis graphics hardware used to access the screen could only hold 64k of graphics data, which wasn't enough to render the whole screen as individual characters. And, of course, the Genesis hardware could only display 512 colors, in 16 color characters, choosing from only 4 color palettes. The SVP may have been able to do some heavy interrupt processing to simulate a true 512 color mode, but it seems unlikely to be used in that fashion.

I fixed that in the article. :)


That's some mighty technical stuff right there. Too bad no one has put together a relatively easy to understand sdk otherwise we'd have a bigger network of homebrews comin' out.

I suspect the majority of the code on the Genny was done in Assembly.

[David J.]

Actually, no emulator supports Genesis Virtua Racing due to a lack of good emulation on the SVP chip.

[Flash1087]

Very well done article here, sirs. Wonder who this 'mystery programmer' was?

[Melf]

Thanks. He's a reliable source, trust me, but wanted to remain nameless due to possible conflicts of interest. He's probably the most knowledgeable person around on the SVP.

Coicidentally, this is my 100th article for Sega-16, since I had to push back the Data East installment of Lost in the Arcade. :)

[Zebbe]

Very informative and well-written article. I guess Virtua Racing doesn't work on the 32X because both the game and the add-on has a SVP.

[j_factor]

Well-written article, but I disagree with its premise. 32x vs. SVP needn't be an either/or thing. Really, they didn't need either of them. All they did was draw attention away from the stock Genesis and Sega CD games; there was some pretty impressive stuff coming out in that time, and Genesis could've held its own. What would've really saved them is less unfocused marketing, and playing up games like Dynamite Headdy, Red Zone, Ecco 2, Soul Star, etc.

[ary incorparated]

Yup J factor is right,Genesis did that by its time,it surpassed snes ehy,vectorman,redzone,Phantasy star 4,Panorama cotton,and yup some sega cd titles for that reason.Batman returns,Batman and robin,silpheed soul star.All running on stock genesis hardware and pallet,so consider snes blown away unnoticed,cause much of those titles are a bit unfamillair to the standart gamer ehy.

[Ro Nova]

I like what Mr. Hawkins said about the confusing message Sega sent to their customers regarding what hardware to buy. It must have been very difficult to make a decision back then. Should I stay put or go for the upgrade? What factor did some games play in the decision of what Sega consoles you just “had to have”? When the Genesis, 32X and Saturn versions of Virtua Racing were released didn't it mean that each game was in competition with each other to some degree? I'm not sure of years but I am assuming that the three versions were released fairly closely of one another. The Saturn came out in 1995 and according to TRST data (what is that anyway?) 64% of games being sold that year were 16 bit. Did Saturn’s version come out around this time and weren’t the Genesis and 32X versions already on store shelves? I'm going to stop now because my head is going to explode.
Great article as usual Ken.

[Melf]

Well-written article, but I disagree with its premise. 32x vs. SVP needn't be an either/or thing. Really, they didn't need either of them. All they did was draw attention away from the stock Genesis and Sega CD games; there was some pretty impressive stuff coming out in that time, and Genesis could've held its own. What would've really saved them is less unfocused marketing, and playing up games like Dynamite Headdy, Red Zone, Ecco 2, Soul Star, etc.

Hmm, I see where you're coming from but don't know if that would have been enough. I mean, if the SNES, which was loaded with all kinds of hardware feauure goodies, was already turning to chips for extra power (other games used them too, like the Mega Man X series and Yoshi's Island), then the stock Genesis would have looked pretty old pretty fast.

Basically, embracing this chip would have meant that Sega would have followed the same road Nintendo did: keep gamers happy with excellent software (which they did, with the games you mentioned), but at the same time keep them hooked for the next gen by offering a taste of what more powerful consoles could do. Nintendo did this by using the FX chips and sticking with the SNES until '96. It paid off big time for them, and their only real flaw was going with cartridges for the N64.

Had Sega done the same, they may have maintained enough of their user base to have made the Saturn a true contender in the U.S. I don't think the stock Genesis could have done this all by itself (and we know just how well the hardware features of the Sega CD were being used).

[Zebbe]

Well said Melf, but Nintendo had another big flaw: the Virtual Boy.

I'm a little bit against chips, since it's like doping the console. I'm more impressed by seeing for example Sonic top speeding in Sonic 2 than the polygons of Virtua Racing, since it's something the G/MD can do on its own.

[j_factor]

Hmm, I see where you're coming from but don't know if that would have been enough. I mean, if the SNES, which was loaded with all kinds of hardware feauure goodies, was already turning to chips for extra power (other games used them too, like the Mega Man X series and Yoshi's Island), then the stock Genesis would have looked pretty old pretty fast.

Hmm, I still disagree. SNES used chips in its games from Day One -- F-Zero and PilotWings, launch games, had chips. SNES had a very weak processor, and as such was more in need of coprocessors. Ever notice how Mode 7 doesn't look so hot on games without a chip?

Sure, stock Genesis hardware couldn't have done Virtua Racing or anything to compete with, say, Star Fox, but that's not necessarily a huge loss. Sometimes you concede a battle to win the war.

Basically, embracing this chip would have meant that Sega would have followed the same road Nintendo did: keep gamers happy with excellent software (which they did, with the games you mentioned), but at the same time keep them hooked for the next gen by offering a taste of what more powerful consoles could do.

I would say that Sega's version of doing this was the Sega CD (which arguably does more for that than Super FX does). And perhaps if Sega hadn't left Sega CD in a ditch in 1994, more people would've seen it that way.

The games that I mentioned, I didn't mention just because they're good games. I mentioned them for their visuals, and I think those games (along with some others like Contra Hard Corps) showed improvement over the previous year's and proved that Genesis had potential that hadn't been tapped before. Ecco 2 certainly didn't look old at the time.

Nintendo did this by using the FX chips and sticking with the SNES until '96. It paid off big time for them, and their only real flaw was going with cartridges for the N64.

Did it really pay off for them? It paid off for SNES, but maybe not so much for N64. N64's obstacles are numerous -- its late release, its lack of games, its use of carts as you said, its lack of third party support, and more. It's practically a miracle that N64 was as successful as it was, and it only was because it had a few games that really caught on in a big way (plus Sega killing itself to give N64 more room).

But I'm digressing. SNES was indeed the #1 selling system of late '94 and all of '95. I think it could've been Genesis instead, if 32x never came out and Sega hadn't said they were ousting Genesis in 1995.

I think you're giving too much credit to the chips. SNES had games with chips for three years while remaining consistently in second place. It only overtook Genesis in 1994 because Sega failed to promote Genesis and its games anymore in 1994. It was Sega's market to lose, and they practically handed it over on a silver platter.

Had Sega done the same, they may have maintained enough of their user base to have made the Saturn a true contender in the U.S. I don't think the stock Genesis could have done this all by itself (and we know just how well the hardware features of the Sega CD were being used).

Saturn could've been a true contender in the US despite anything that happened to Genesis if Sega hadn't dropped the ball with that "pre-launch launch" crap, and initial high pricing, and questionable choices of what games to keep in Japan (like 3/4 of the games that made/kept it popular in Japan were only released in Japan), and weird spacing of releases (nothing special for a whole month, then several key titles in the same week), and lackluster marketing, and so on and so forth.

I mean, Mega Drive didn't exactly have a great userbase in Japan, but Saturn was still able to be the #1 console for a while.

[Joe Redifer]

If Sega was going to use any chip for Genesis games, I don't think the SVP would have been the best one to use. As already mentioned, it was very expensive and seemed to use a very low (even for the Genesis) color palette. Plus it was made by Samsung. Freakin' Samsung! I'm surprised it even works. If they wanted to put a chip in cartridges, it should be a chip that allowed more color and maybe two or 3 more PCM sound channels (or even PWM). That's it. Cheap to produce, no need for a giant, ugly cartridge like VR, and no need to charge $99 for each game. Games back then already cost an average of $60 or more brand new. They could have kept that price and had games with a bit more color and better digitized sound. Imagine how good Street Fighter would have looked/sounded, especialy with 40 power-packed megs! Maybe 41 just for good measure.

[ary incorparated]

i think pretty good joe.but ehy super street fighter came packed with round 40 megs,didnt it.i dont know what the use of that upgraded cartridge was,i actually think it didnt need the extra limit to pull it out a genesis,i can name much more nicer games for the genesis.

if snes could run it on its stock hardware then the genesis version didnt actually needed so many memory extra,thrown away memory okay if it was like a street fighter alpha game,then they needed them.

[ary incorparated]

Man,maybe Just a extra processor could do it for the genesis ive seen what the, stock genesis was capable of Batman and robin Gunstar the tsuf whas already in,maybe for the fun a little sound boost like 2 or 3 sound channels addition in a new streets of rage game LOL,or maybe it could boost colors by using shadow highlight or just extra processing speed too acces the 512 colors in screen,I know if sega didnt make a 32X il bet wed see a genesis walking on ice to cool of its heatsinks,that the hardware was so far pusheed that its or on par with snes or surpassed it because i know sega+Developers had the spirit to make the genesis turn overdrive,i stil prefer the overall graphics of many color limited games of the genesis over snes man the sharpness the small pixels the 4 layer paralax technics 3D it all did it without help of any chip so Genesis is a Very Raw beast.BTW whos got the most slick model of em al yes genesis 3 how hard it may suck Lol.