Sega CD Attract Mode Intros

[matteus]

I've noticed alot of mega cd game intros use a layer based slide show system comprising of a backgrounds and large multiple sprite animations. Does anyone know why?

Was it:

A. The single speed drive made using proper framed animation impossible to stream properly off the disc at decent speed, so this method was used? I'd imagine palette/tile colour rules with this method would of been a bitch too...

B. Using the multi-layered system meant keeping within the VDP rules was easily achieved? I.e 4 x 15 colour palettes per screen, 1 x 15 colour palette per tile, etc

And has anyone else noticed that Sonic CD only uses 15 colours per frame, it doesn't even attempt to try and use multiple , I can kinda see why because of the optimisations required but still it surprised me...

[Joe Redifer]

It was just the style at the time given the memory constraints. The PC Engine did this as well. I liked it more than FMV because it was clean. Popful Mail had "proper" animation that wasn't FMV. I liked what they did on that game. They also did similar stuff for the Ueristi Megatmai or whatever it is called for the Mega CD, though far less extensive.

[matteus]

Cheers Joe, Out of interest are those 2 videos showing the Mega CD effects and the sound enhancements on the Mega CD 5 in one yours?

[TmEE]

the reason games did not even try to do more colors in FMV was the fact that VDP data transmission and CD drive speed are not sufficient for faster frame rate...

[Joe Redifer]

Cheers Joe, Out of interest are those 2 videos showing the Mega CD effects and the sound enhancements on the Mega CD 5 in one yours?

If the Youtube member that uploaded them is called something silly like Joeredother, then yes.

[matteus]

If the Youtube member that uploaded them is called something silly like Joeredother, then yes.

Ahh both of them are excellent, any plans to do any others?

[Joe Redifer]

Yes, if I get any ideas. Dragging the system up to the computer to record the video is a pain, though.