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[Team Andromeda]

Hmm yeah then I don't know but my guess is that it had to do with costs, I read that they were worried that the Motorola 68000 was expensive and would have driven the retail price of the console up greatly, but Sega was able to negotiate with a distributor for a tenth of its price on an up-front volume order with the promise of more orders pending the console's future success. If they added custom integrated graphics hardware, the price of the console would have skyrocketed the year it was released.

I get the reasons but it really should have been in there even if it was little more than a basic sprite scale layer like in system 18 board. I just found it rather pathetic when some SEGA MD fans looked to have a pop at Mode 7 because if the Mega Drive had a scaling, they would have been championing the feature

 

[CamHostage]

I wanna see how Resident Evil 1 runs on 32x

(This has been answered a few times already, but anything to get us out of that off-toic argument about whether or not Genesis was good...)

Tomb Raider is a specific case where the OpenLara project team is rewriting the core as an open source for a wide variety of machines, and as part of that root-level optimization and rewriting, some are using platforms such as GBA and Sega 32X and 3DO for experimental research projects into how flexible that work can be.

There are projects like "OpenResident" and "OpenBiohazard2" out there reverse-engineering the RE base, and maybe when that achieves a certain level of completion they'll try some stunts with it on wildly archaic platforms too?

...However, I wouldn't think RE is a great candidate for platforms like Genesis/32X; the assets aren't natural for the platform's capabilities, and optimization (even on the crazy level of OpenLara 32X) wouldn't necessarily work around the limitations. RE is a lot of still/animated elements for the backgrounds with 3D characters/items on top; It would need to limit the color depth and resolution of backgrounds (all pre-reprocessed before placing into the ROM,) and then those would still be large for a card (32X can apparently be picky with oversized cartridges) so you'd need to compress even further to fit since there's not tiles to reuse. Characters seem like they'd come over fine, considering how with TR they've been able to make use of the 32X's poly abilities much more capably than 3 or 4 characters in a locked perspective, but sounds and cutscenes become an issue again for capacity.

All in all, I just don't think there's any benefit to trying as even an exercise, since we know what it'd take to do it (a large cart and a butchering of the assets) and there's not much coding wizardry to show off accomplishment in the end if it actually did get a retro port. In fact, we've already had demakes as well as actual ports/prototype ports of REs to "impossible" hardware. (Some of these redos reconceive the whole game as an isometric or other type of traditional 8-bit/16-bit engine, while others manage to redo the assets and replicate the general engine concept for the limited capacities of a lesser target platform.) We basically already get how it would be done.

 

[cireza]

...However, I wouldn't think RE is a great candidate for platforms like Genesis/32X

Unlike Tomb Raider, it is much more likely to work with the design of the 32X/CD. The main issue of a game like Tomb Raider is that the levels are gigantic and there is absolutely no way you are going to fit an entire level in the memory available for the MD + SCD + 32X. Right now it works because it streams from the cartridge, so you are limited to sizes achievable with them. On top of it you cannot use the MegaDrive for anything, and the 32X is supposed to be an add-on to begin with. The MD is meant to draw a lot of the pixels you see on screen.

However, it certainly sounds different for Resident Evil. You only need to fit a static image and a handful of 3D models on top of it. I think this would fit in memory. Then you have the choice of doing backgrounds in 2D with the MegaDrive by piling up all 4 palettes to try to make the best out of it. Which Kolibri does and its backgrounds are simply fantastic.

Or do it with the 32X to have more colors. Which means it would have to manage refreshing more pixels, but maybe it would work.

It sounds much more manageable in this case and the CD could be used.

 

[CamHostage]

Unlike Tomb Raider, it is much more likely to work with the design of the 32X/CD...

You only need to fit a static image and a handful of 3D models on top of it. I think this would fit in memory. Then you have the choice of doing backgrounds in 2D with the MegaDrive by piling up all 4 palettes to try to make the best out of it...

It sounds much more manageable in this case and the CD could be used.

Right, but that's my point.

Tomb Raider 32X is an exploration of the capabilities of the platform and a stress-test for the low end of the project. The end result won't be a version of Tomb Raider that anybody sensibly would prefer to play over more capable ports, but it's a good advertisement and workout for OpenLara and it's a good challenge of "How low can you go?"

Resident Evil 32X would just be employing the platform's general abilities (albeit FMV and animated layers and just general depth of image likely would require some ingenuity.) There's not the same flex in trying.

 

[mansoor1980]

this is impressive