Not a massive fan of the MegaDrive

[2FreshRecords]

I got a MD on import from Japan when it came out with the games Strider, Ghouls + Ghosts, ThunderForce 2, Alex Kid, Hang On, Shinobi + few other titles, these games where cool but from then on only Sonic1 and ThunderForce4 really grabbed me, looking back i just think it pales in comparison to the likes of the SFC & PCE. Friends from japan at the time told me that the MegaDrive wasn't even in the picture out there, the games market was dominated by the SFC then follwed by PCE.
Don't get me wrong i respect Sega, just not a huge fan of the MD.

[Tirian]

Don't get me wrong, but if your only experience of the Megadrive is the games that you listed, then you really are in no position to judge it!

I am unconvinced that the MD was non-entity in Japan, but then what do I know? I don't have any friends in Japan. But frankly I don't care ... there are tons of great Megarive games: Toejam And Earl (both of them!), Buck Rogers, Phantasy Star games, Micro Machines Military, the Treasure games (Alien Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes). And that is just for starters - there are plenty more!

If you have not tried these games at least, then it is really to soon for you to write of the Megadrive, I say. If you have, and you still don't like it, then there is clearly no hope for you

Tirian

[2FreshRecords]

Being a seriously Hardcore gamer in the late 80s & through the 90s, yes I played Hundreds of MD titles

[Saurian]

Heavy - ....so where does this thread go from here?

[2FreshRecords]

Heavy - ....so where does this thread go from here?

MD Fans get pissed with me and defend the Honour of there sacred machine

[wheelaa]

Each to their own. Fair play.

I reckon the md and pce are great machines whereas the sfc has never rocked my boat (and I have played 100s of titles for it). I appreciate the mark of the sfc but personally, unlike the md, there are very few titles that must haves for me.

edit: just seen the above post..ok ...the md rocks..the sfc sucks...you suck...

[Saurian]

MD Fans get pissed with me and defend the Honour of there sacred machine

Not here man - you want www.gamefaqs.com

[2FreshRecords]

Each to their own. Fair play.

I reckon the md and pce are great machines whereas the sfc has never rocked my boat (and I have played 100s of titles for it). I appreciate the mark of the sfc but personally, unlike the md, there are very few titles that must haves for me.

IMO The SFC is the best games console ever released for shear playable games!

Followed by the PCE, NEO-GEO AES & the saturn

[wheelaa]

Sure the md might have less playable games but the quality is so much higher.

[2FreshRecords]

Sure the md might have less playable games but the quality is so much higher.

Naahh the MD just loses flat out in every aspect against SFC its an unfair battle

Think the SFC should really being going up against the PCE its a more worthy opponent

[Kotatsu Neko]

I was always an MD fan. Games like Streets of Rage 2, Thunderforce 4, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic, and those guilty pleasures like Splatterhouse 2 and Night Trap...

I just loved the thing, and it's CD add-on.

SFC was a higher quality product for sure, but just didn't have the same appeal. Maybe because the thing looked like a lunchbox, or that the games, colourful though they were, lacked the high-res (for the time) crisp look of the MD. The visuals in Thunderforce 4, particularly the amazingly detailed parallax layers of the opening ocean level are still a class act. And better than anything on the SFC.

[Leon Retro]

SFC was a higher quality product for sure, but just didn't have the same appeal. Maybe because the thing looked like a lunchbox, or that the games, colourful though they were, lacked the high-res (for the time) crisp look of the MD. SFC.

What the hell was wrong with your SFC???

Everyone knows that one of the main attractions of the SFC was it's crystal clear image and the ability to display 256colours.

The only MegaDrive games that really truely impressed me graphically were the Sonic series. I don't know how SonicTeam got so much out of the system, but one things for sure, they never let anyone else in on the secret.

Most MD were o.k looking, a lot did look like they were running on an Amiga though. The amount of low-res muddy looking games is very high, and these poor titles really tarnished the machines image.

When I think of the MD I always think low-res, and when I think of the SFC I savour that feeling I had when I first witnessed it's ultra sharp hi-res image.

If you look at the technology and the range of games, it's quite clear that the SFC was and still is a clever piece of technology that was home to some of the most graphically pleasing games ever.

I did play a uk snes through RF once, and it did look disgusting. The only way to enjoy the machine was in NTSC through RGB on a nice Sony tv.

Don't get me wrong, I like the MD a lot. It has a completely different flavour to the SFC, and it's range of games were vastly different to the SFC. In the right hands the MD produced some glorious experiences, just look at Strider.

I hate all this war of the consoles bull**** though, but I step-in when someone makes a statement that confounds me.

[2FreshRecords]

I hate all this war of the consoles bull**** though,.

Nahh this is just a light friendly debate

[Wild_Cat]

Indeed, this showed the one big advantage the Megadrive had over the SNES: a real CPU. When Nintendo designed the SNES, they got everything right but the CPU (and perhaps the RAM, but that's debatable). The console is capable of producing stunning visuals, but suffers from huge slowdown any time large amounts of memory have to be moved and/or complicated calculations have to be made. Which is the case when a significant number of sprites have to be displayed (case in point: all 3 Parodius games, even despite the tremendous optimization by Konami and the fact that those games kick ass anyway), or when you want to use more planes that are supported in hardware.

OTOH, the Megadrive doesn't have a lot of hardware effects (if any), but its 68000 CPU runs around the SNES's underpowered 65C816 in circles. Which enabled some really cool software effects, such as the parallax scrolling in TF4 (I'm a sucker for parallax scrolls... I often fire up Shadow of the Beast on an Amiga emulator just to stare at level 1's 13-plane scrolling while listening to the music ), deformation effects, and the absolutely wicked stuff Treasure did in Gunstar Heroes (heck, the poor design aside, this game looks like it's straight out of the demoscene!).

It also enabled 3D games without the use of a custom chip (thinking of F-22 ATF here).



In any case, you can't say you've really played Megadrive games until you've tried the following:
- Sonic 2
- Streets of Rage 2
- Rocket Knight Adventures
- Afterburner 2
- Thunderforce 4
- Gunstar Heroes
- Contra Hardcorps
- Quackshot

...and a few others that I can't seem to recall ATM. Even though I prefer the SNES (I just love the high-color aesthetics of the SNES Squaresoft games and the sheer beauty of the music the SPC-700 soundchip is able to produce -- Secret of Mana, FF6, Donkey Kong Country, Super Turrican...), I have a Megadrive as well and I love that console too, if only for Streets 2 and Rocket Knight Adventures (the original is by far superior to both its MD and SNES sequels).

[2FreshRecords]

The console is capable of producing stunning visuals, but suffers from huge slowdown any time large amounts of memory have to be moved and/or complicated calculations have to be made. Which is the case when a significant number of sprites have to be displayed (case in point: all 3 Parodius games, even despite the tremendous optimization by Konami and the fact that those games kick ass anyway)

This is true i was going to mention this was one the thing the MD had over the SFC

In any case, you can't say you've really played Megadrive games until you've tried the following:
- Sonic 2
- Streets of Rage 2
- Rocket Knight Adventures
- Afterburner 2
- Thunderforce 4
- Gunstar Heroes
- Contra Hardcorps
- Quackshot

Yes clocked them all