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[Chiggs]

Search your heart. Put aside your bias. Overlook the crappier music and limited color palette. Deep down inside, you know it's true: Genesis games 1994 and later are just doing a lot more and, more importantly, aren't relying on a Super FX-esque way of achieving their ridiculous visuals. God bless the Motorola 68000 and god damn the Ricoh 5A22.

Examples:

• Alien Soldier - the SNES would fucking keel over trying to handle this goddamn spritefest.
• Comix Zone - nothing on the SNES that even compares, IMO.
• Vectorman 1 & 2 - Both are technical masterpieces and have convincing pseudo-3D visuals.
• Red Zone - FMV, a great soundtrack, and is that 3D I'm seeing on the goddamned Genesis?
• Beyond Oasis - Huge sprites, excellent animation.

You'll note that I didn't list Virtua Racing on the Genesis because I sniped at the Super FX chip above. But, if we're talking Sega's SVP chip...well, it kicked the shit out of Super FX. Virtua Racing on the Genesis smokes Super FX racing games (don't let the color palette fool you; look at the frame rate, and notice how the SNES/Super FX duo are using sprites for some of the visuals...and look at the freaking borders, for Christ's sake).

Some other notable titles:

• Contra Hard Corps
• Panorama Cotton
• Light Crusader
• The Adventures of Batman and Robin

Summary plus assorted notes:

• The SNES is cheating piece of shit that used a ton of gimmicky chips to pump out the nice visuals seen in its later years (and not just the Super FX, either).
• The SNES is a cheating piece of shit that still managed to have shittier frame rates than the Genesis, despite launching two years later.
• The Motorola 68000 is a much better CPU than the Ricoh 5A22, the latter of which really held the SNES back.
• If you like the SNES, you're probably a big dork who cries at Chrono Trigger and dreams lustily of Seiken Densetsu 3.
• The only Super FX game worth a shit is Yoshi's Island; the rest are trash, but Star Fox has a good soundtrack.
• Donkey Kong County 1-3 are ugly games.

 

[The Booktastic Bus]

Mate, the Genesis displays like 4 colours on the screen at once.

Truly the plebeian's console.

 

[LittleBusters]

Mate, the Genesis displays like 4 colours on the screen at once.

Truly the plebeian's console.

16bit dood

 

[DeepEnigma]

I love this thread. Hearkens back to old-school system wars, though less hostile back then before the internet.

I had both, and enjoyed both, however, the Genesis did get more love I think from me, since it's software portfolio was far more diverse and "mature".

The system that had The Immortal (the Dark Souls of Isometric) with full 16-bit glory and not the NES busted port gets my slight edge of fondness.

 

[captainraincoat]

Looking back on the Sega library they have so much unused 1st party IP just sitting there...I'm.really surprised why they have not sold off or respun more of their back catalogue

 

[Deplorable]

I got a Genesis on launch day in 1989, and an SNES on launch day in 1991. I enjoyed both systems at the time, but I'd estimate the Genesis got two to three times more of my play time than the SNES did by the time I jumped to 3DO and PS1 in 1994/1995. Of course, the SNES trounced the Genesis when it came to JRPGs, but when it came to almost everything else (shooters, sports games, beat 'em ups, etc...), the best Genesis games just looked and played better than the best SNES games. I even enjoyed the music more.

Nintendo got the best of Sega during the 8-bit generation, but Sega kicked Nintendo's ass during the 16-bit generation and drank up their market share like a milkshake.

 

[lensoftruth]

Megadrive fanboys are funny

 

[Melubas]

I had both, and what I always liked about the Mega Drive was that it had a better CPU which meant better framerates. I remember playing Worms on the Mega Drive and being floored by how well it flowed (it was 60 fps instead of 20-30). That said, both systems had awesome games and I played more on my SNES than my Mega Drive since I had the former at my mothers where I stayed most of the time. This thread gave me major nostalgia vibes

 

[Deleted member 738976]

In a better world the Genesis and Super Nintendo would still be alive.

 

[Tarkus98]

Absolutely loved the Genesis and all of Sega’s awesome games.
But then Actraiser(sp?) came out and I had to pick up the SNES too...

 

[Alter_Fridge]

Mate, the Genesis displays like 4 colours on the screen at once.

Truly the plebeian's console.

It's actually amazing what the Genny could pull off in comparison with the SNES (61 v 256 colours at once)

 

[dirthead]

The SNES with a 68k is basically a Neo Geo with ghetto transparency support. Would have been an amazing machine.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

genesis does what nintendon't

 

[cireza]

The Genesis still impresses event today, take a look at both Overdrive demos. They are insane. XenoCrisis will be released in the coming months/next year, and will be, without a doubt, a fantastic game.

The console was simply wisely built, with a simple architecture, capable components, VRAM to do all the stuff and transformations (opposite to the Neo Geo for example, which is still an incredible console for other reasons of course).

This is why the Genesis was able to achieve all this crazy stuff later on : it was open enough to achieve it all via software. Had what was required to be able to pull it off. Very impressive console.

Phantasy Star IV should also be listed. Battle animations in this game totally outclass everything else on both MegaDrive et SNES.

 

[Mecha Meow]

The SNES with a 68k is basically a Neo Geo with ghetto transparency support. Would have been an amazing machine.

Wow, yeah, that would have been pretty amazing tbh!

I loved both machines a lot, but I ultimately, I played my Genesis more and still listen to those OSTs more. Still, SNES had a lot of genre-defining games and experiences I'll never forget!

 

[phil_t98]

Search your heart. Put aside your bias. Overlook the crappier music and limited color palette. Deep down inside, you know it's true: Genesis games 1994 and later are just doing a lot more and, more importantly, aren't relying on a Super FX-esque way of achieving their ridiculous visuals. God bless the Motorola 68000 and god damn the Ricoh 5A22.

Examples:

• Alien Soldier - the SNES would fucking keel over trying to handle this goddamn spritefest.
• Comix Zone - nothing on the SNES that even compares, IMO.
• Vectorman 1 & 2 - Both are technical masterpieces and have convincing pseudo-3D visuals.
• Red Zone - FMV, a great soundtrack, and is that 3D I'm seeing on the goddamned Genesis?
• Beyond Oasis - Huge sprites, excellent animation.

You'll note that I didn't list Virtua Racing on the Genesis because I sniped at the Super FX chip above. But, if we're talking Sega's SVP chip...well, it kicked the shit out of Super FX. Virtua Racing on the Genesis smokes Super FX racing games (don't let the color palette fool you; look at the frame rate, and notice how the SNES/Super FX duo are using sprites for some of the visuals...and look at the freaking borders, for Christ's sake).

Some other notable titles:

• Contra Hard Corps
• Panorama Cotton
• Light Crusader
• The Adventures of Batman and Robin

Summary plus assorted notes:

• The SNES is cheating piece of shit that used a ton of gimmicky chips to pump out the nice visuals seen in its later years (and not just the Super FX, either).
• The SNES is a cheating piece of shit that still managed to have shittier frame rates than the Genesis, despite launching two years later.
• The Motorola 68000 is a much better CPU than the Ricoh 5A22, the latter of which really held the SNES back.
• If you like the SNES, you're probably a big dork who cries at Chrono Trigger and dreams lustily of Seiken Densetsu 3.
• The only Super FX game worth a shit is Yoshi's Island; the rest are trash, but Star Fox has a good soundtrack.
• Donkey Kong County 1-3 are ugly games.

or maybe the snes was the best place to play street fighter 2 at the time which was the biggest game back then

 

[cireza]

the snes was the best place to play street fighter 2

 

[Mecha Meow]

Seriously, plus better music. That controller was a beast, I had my two orginal 1993 models last until 2000. Meanwhile, I went through 3 sets of SNES controllers.

 

[FranXico]

I find this thread heartwarming.
SEGA (Megadrive) fanboy here.

 

[phil_t98]

we all know that pad was awful for Street Fighter, I had both Mega Drive and Snes and both had good games but one was not infintly better than the other

 

[MayauMiao]

This intro on the Genesis was pretty impressive.

 

[captainraincoat]

These things were surprisingly durable and were very easy to retrieve from wall cavities one you threw them through the plaster wall....I miss cords

 

[phil_t98]

one great game I remember on my mega drive was Gunstar Heroes,that was an amzing game from start to finish

 

[Deleted member 738976]

 

[Hudo]

You wanna talk Motorola 68k superiority?

Bow down to your REAL Motorola 68k overlord, you plebs:

Spoiler

But let's face it, the REALEST 68k overlord is the Sharp X68000. Beautiful machine.

I mean, it was the de facto main dev machine for most Motorola 68k based arcade boards.

 

[alienator]

can i show off this again?

 

[Bullet Club]

Sega vs Nintendo in 2018, a lovely sight.

Both systems were great. The Amiga was the best though!

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

Both systems were great. The Amiga was the best though!

Much better sound and bigger color palette than the Genesis. But I don't think Contra Hard Corps would've been possible on the Amiga (Genesis had 80 hardware sprites, Amiga only 8).

A Genesis with Amiga sound and SNES colors would've been the ultimate 90s gaming machine. Guess that's what the Neo Geo was.

 

[Redneckerz]

You wanna talk Motorola 68k superiority?

Bow down to your REAL Motorola 68k overlord, you plebs:

Spoiler

But let's face it, the REALEST 68k overlord is the Sharp X68000. Beautiful machine.

I mean, it was the de facto main dev machine for most Motorola 68k based arcade boards.

Whilst the X68k was the biggest thing money could buy you as a pro-sumer in 1987 (And it being the basis for other arcade hardware by Capcom), it has nothing on the real 68k overlord. Enter the Sega mommykissing/daddyhugging Y-Board.

Main CPU : 3 x MC68000 @ 12.5 MHz
Sound CPU : Z80 @ 4 MHz
Sound chip : YM2151 @ 4 MHz & SegaPCM @ 15.625 MHz
Max Colours : 16384 (4bpp - 16 per sprite, which go through a 16->512 indirection table), then selects which 512 color bank to take from 4096. This is used to do colour rotations (the red-yellow rotation of the lava sprites from Galaxy force for instance) without changing the color palette, also allows it to have sprites that rotate colors and sprites that don't on the same screen, and to get different levels of luminosity as well
Sprite Structure : Uses a linked list of sprites (each sprite includes the number of the next one)
Video resoution : 320 x 224
Board composition : CPU board + Video board
Board Features : 3 68K, nicknamed M, X and Y.
You have a sky gradiant, a first sprite layer which plugs into a full-screen rotation (seen in the the power drift/galaxy force screen tilt), then a second sprite layer (outrun type) on top of them which has priority, and they have full sprite zooming and scaling on both sprite planes.
This hardware uses no tiles at all.

It was part of the Super Scaler series, which included Sega X-Board, Sega System 32, Sega H1 (The last Super Scaler hardware) and started with Space Harrier in 1985. This thing essentially did 3D worlds with nothing but sprites before Sega would retort to polygons and texturemapping with Sega Model 1 and 2.

 

[Hudo]

Whilst the X68k was the biggest thing money could buy you as a pro-sumer in 1987 (And it being the basis for other arcade hardware by Capcom), it has nothing on the real 68k overlord. Enter the Sega mommykissing/daddyhugging Y-Board.

It was part of the Super Scaler series, which included Sega X-Board, Sega H1, Sega System 32 (The last Super Scaler hardware) and started with Space Harrier in 1985. This thing essentialyl did 3D worlds with nothing but sprites before Sega would retort to polygons and texturemapping with Sega Model 1 and 2.

That board is beautiful, damn.

 

[Sub_Level]

Impressive games OP but what the genesis really needed was a CD Rom add-on and you know what lets throw im a device that makes it a 32 bit console too.

^this is what Sega actually believed

 

[nkarafo]

You should check my old thread OP

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/cool-visual-effects-in-16bit-console-games.1247148/

 

[Nymphae]

I just knew the OP was going to be filled with video links rather than actually show some screenshots. Old Gaf used to get this right. A thread about beautiful sprite work should maybe contain some screenshots, just sayin'.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

UK:Resistance is that you?

 

[DonF]

Yes, it's truly impressive, that blast processing for ya. That sound though.
If we are talking raw graphics, then maybe, but art direction... oh no no no.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

I just knew the OP was going to be filled with video links rather than actually show some screenshots. Old Gaf used to get this right. A thread about beautiful sprite work should maybe contain some screenshots, just sayin'.

Do it then

 

[RainblowDash]

I loved Vectorman, looked so surreal!

Plus the mk2 is just about the sexiest console ever v

 

[Nymphae]

Do it then

If I was to make a similar thread, I would.

 

[Virex]

The MegaDrive has so many awesome memories for me.

 

[Tarkus98]

This intro on the Genesis was pretty impressive.

Pure wizardry. Such wonderful memories, awesome thread.

 

[Chiggs]

I just knew the OP was going to be filled with video links rather than actually show some screenshots. Old Gaf used to get this right. A thread about beautiful sprite work should maybe contain some screenshots, just sayin'.

Lesson learned. I’ll add some screenshots later.

 

[hiphopcr]

or maybe the snes was the best place to play street fighter 2 at the time which was the biggest game back then

Can't believe you just said. Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter both better on Genesis.

 

[hiphopcr]

As a Genesis kid it took me years (decades) to admit that SNES had a better lineup featuring more classic games... but we had this:

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Playing shmups on Genesis was really the only comparison you needed to make, friend. I love my SNES but high-octane arcade gaming was always better on the Genesis (with a few notable exceptions on SNES). Mickey's World of Illusion, Sonic & Knuckles, and Ranger X can go toe-to-toe with anything on the SNES, IMO.

What does SNES have that can hold up to Grind Stormer (or any other Toaplan stuff), Gleylancer, Verytex, or Thunder Force 4?

 

[Vlaphor]

Impressive games OP but what the genesis really needed was a CD Rom add-on and you know what lets throw im a device that makes it a 32 bit console too.

^this is what Sega actually believed

The Sega CD is a damn fine piece of machinery only hampered by thoughts on game design at the time (we have all this space, let's use it on shitty videos). There are some true classics on that system.

The 32x is a complete piece of shit though.

 

[DeepEnigma]

You wanna talk Motorola 68k superiority?

Bow down to your REAL Motorola 68k overlord, you plebs:

Spoiler

But let's face it, the REALEST 68k overlord is the Sharp X68000. Beautiful machine.

I mean, it was the de facto main dev machine for most Motorola 68k based arcade boards.

Deep down we all wanted a NeoGeo back then, we just couldn't afford it at our ages, lol.

 

[BANGS]

Genesis is easily my favorite of the two, but shitting on SNES's hardware as a Genesis fan is laughable...

 

[Son_of_Zardoz]

OP made me laugh--Genesis is probably my all-time favorite. My next door neighbor had a SNES so I got to play it over there. Such good times.

 

[Mr Nash]

Genesis is still my favorite 16-bit console. Especially the music. That Yamaha sound chip was amazing.

 

[Vlaphor]

You'll note that I didn't list Virtua Racing on the Genesis because I sniped at the Super FX chip above. But, if we're talking Sega's SVP chip...well, it kicked the shit out of Super FX. Virtua Racing on the Genesis smokes Super FX racing games (don't let the color palette fool you; look at the frame rate, and notice how the SNES/Super FX duo are using sprites for some of the visuals...and look at the freaking borders, for Christ's sake).

Considering the game was $100 at launch (when the console was $100), it damn well better be amazing.