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Hey guys, I just made a call to my local game shop and I found out that the Sega Genesis has some bad design flaws that cause them to fail a lot, and this game store has a 3 month warranty on used game systems(particularly the genesis). I think this should be metioned as both a warning and something so people know about these design flaws(not the stuff on the store as Wikipedia is not an ad). I just thought i should mention this as its important to a lot of gamers. Thank you and goodnite, Zakkman ( talk) 03:16, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
The console wars section used to be more detailed, showing the level of success for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in each important region of the world, put it back this way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.192.36.120 ( talk) 10:36, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
Article says that only one game is incompatible, I'm pretty sure this is inaccurate. I don't have access to my manual right now, but IIRC there was a longer list (though not many) of incompatible games, and from personal experience the Carmen Sandiego game was one of them. Ham Pastrami ( talk) 06:26, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
Ah, just to show that I'm not completely full of it, here is a forum link: [1] which states that the games cannot be played with the MD/Genesis controllers (i.e. you would have to plug in a SMS controller). Ham Pastrami ( talk) 06:43, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
Apparently 2002 was not the end for the Mega Drive, 4 new games are being made: [2]
Sega is an American company. It was started by two Americans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.122.119.33 ( talk • contribs)
The original and most common name of the system is Mega Drive. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.148.226.81 ( talk) 23:20, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=210507 http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/8922102/Sega-Mega-Drive-Console-With-15-Games/Product.html#
the company Blaze is making a redo for the mega drive. i have added it to the page - badly - it needs a pic and the stations and eventually now info added. from Alekey 86.146.52.176 ( talk) 23:03, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
It should be made clear in the article that the Tec Toy handheld device is not a gaming console in the sense as the word is commonly used. It is a playable collection of some Mega Drive games, but not a system. This is all the more important has it is (falsely) being sold and advertised as a "Mega Drive" in many countries now (e.g., in Germany). -- 217.232.223.117 ( talk) 09:38, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
Tell me if I am wrong, but the Sega Mega Drive was superior to the Turbografix 16 and inferior to the SNES in terms of techs and specs, however in terms of primative 3d games like Hard Drivin and Race Drivin it is superior to the SNES. Should this be mentioned in this article? mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool ( talk) 18:22, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
Per a discussion on WT:VG, I've changed the article's title from "Sega Mega Drive" to just "Mega Drive", since the official name of the product does not actually include the company's name (unlike "Sega Master System" and "Nintendo Entertainment System"). While a number of the references in this article do refer to it as the "Sega Mega Drive", that's technically incorrect - Sega's own press releases and documentation refer to it as just "Mega Drive" in non-US regions, and "Genesis" in the USA.
As such, there are a LOT of linked pages and categories named after "Sega Mega Drive" (like "List of Sega Mega Drive games") that need to be updated. — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 00:57, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
I've been interested in the term "Blast Processing", in terms of what it meant and how it was used during Sega's campaign against Nintendo. I vividly remember when it was first used in ads and commercials for Sonic 2, and even then I knew it was basically a crackpot term (at one point I heard someone in the industry refer to it as the "biggest industry joke in years"). But it's been difficult to find much public discussion or material about it specifically - it seems that most sites just consider it a footnote in the overall console war.
I've been seeing more discussion about it surfacing in the last year or so, and Issue 61 of Retro Gamer Magazine has a detailed statement about it from an interview with the guy responsible for marketing the Sega CD in the USA. He said that he felt he should take "some responsibility" for the Blast Processing term, since it arose from an in-house discussion on a hardware trick that was being exploited in Sonic 2 and some other games at the time. I have a copy of the issue at home and will grab the relevant excerpt tonight or tomorrow.
The term "Blast Processing" really did become sort of an industry joke, regarded as a "cheap shot" on Sega's part by many in the industry, and I remember it playing a significant role in the boost in the Genesis's popularity at the time, as well as its rapid downfall when the SNES proved to be the superior console. (Basically, the term itself came back to bite Sega.) I'm surprised at how little publicity remains about it today, tho.
Does anyone else have information on this that would be relevant to the article and/or an article about Sega itself or general console history? — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 18:10, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
“ | Take the infamous 'Blast Processing' boast, for example. "Sadly I have to take responsibility for that ghastly phrase," admits Bayless with a grimace. "One of our programmers called Marty Franz discovered that you could do this nifty trick by hooking the scan line interrupt and firing off a Direct Memory Access at just the right time. The result was that you could effectively jam data onto the graphics chip while the scan line was being drawn - which meant you could drive the Digital-to-Analogue Converters with 8 bits per pixel. Assuming you could get the timing just right, you could effectively draw 256 colour static images. There were all kinds of subtleties to the timing and the trick didn't work reliably on all iterations of the hardware, but you could do it and it was cool as heck. So during the run-up to the Western launch of Mega-CD the PR guys interviewed me about what made the platform interesting from a technical perspective and somewhere in there I mentioned the fact that you could just 'blast data into the DACs'. They loved the word 'blast' and the next thing I knew 'Blast Processing' was born." | ” |
I reverted an edit that explained the term "Blast Processing" in terms of the system's CPU speed (being twice as fast as that of the SNES). While the tech specs do say that, the marketing term actually didn't have anything to do just with the CPU speed, but with the entire system's hardware. While it wasn't explained to the public in so many words, both the 1UP and Retro Gamer sources state that it was in reference to hardware tricks that the Genesis could perform and the SNES couldn't (and the excerpt above explains it in detail). That trick would be possible even if the CPU speed were the same in both systems and all other things being equal. So it's an oversimplification of the issue to state that the term referred solely to the processor speed of the machine. Feel free to discuss. — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 19:08, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
In an effort to avoid another revert war over this issue, here's a discussion on how to classify the Mega Drive in terms of what bit level it is (16- or 32-bit, or some hybrid, like 16/32-bit).
The Mega Drive is based on a Motorola 68000 CPU, which has a few 32-bit functions while sitting on a 16-bit bus. However, the system itself is strictly 16-bit - its memory bus and all of the functions that it actually uses in the CPU are 16-bit, and none of the 32-bit hardware in the processor was ever utilized. Also, the system was strongly marketed as 16-bit, and while I know that's not a strict measure of how a system should be represented, it lends credence to the technical implications I'm stating here. Therefore, to call it a 16/32-bit system based on the latent capabilities of the CPU is misleading to the majority of readers, who are probably not aware of the CPU's architecture or the exact implementation used.
Also, if the 32-bit statement comes from the fact that a 32-bit accessory (the Sega 32X) was made for it, this would also be misleading, as the attachment doesn't cause a 16-bit system to become 32-bit. Instead, it "hybridizes" the system by adding a separate processor and data bus.
Finally, I am not aware of any controversy or dispute in any reliable sources as to whether the Mega Drive is a "true" 16-bit system, unlike some other systems that have claimed to have a particular architecture but could be proven not to be. The two examples I'm thinking of are the Atari Jaguar and the Intellivision (the former was marketed as 64-bit, but there is a fair amount of discussion about whether that's a true claim, and the latter is technically 16-bit but was never marketed as such, and its graphic capabilities are far more primitive). So, I think the proper designation for this system is "16-bit". — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 16:46, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
FWIW, I'm asking for more comments on this topic in WT:VG. I see three possible (and legitimate) definitions for a console's "bitness", so I want to make sure I understand what the consensus is on this before I argue further. The ones I see are (1) CPU capabilities alone (Theaveng's position), (2) Overall architecture of the hardware (memory bus, coprocessors, etc. - my position), and (3) Marketing and strictly what the sources say (Thumperward's position). I think all three arguments have merit, but I suspect that in terms of policies, Thumperward's position is the strongest. I hope that getting further comment from the project will help. — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 19:41, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
It doesn't really matter if it was 32-bit or not, 32-bit instructions are never really that useful and is mostly just marketing hype from Motorola to hide the 68000's weaknesses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.58.42.188 ( talk) 00:01, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 5 | ← | Archive 7 | Archive 8 | Archive 9 | Archive 10 | Archive 11 | → | Archive 15 |
Hey guys, I just made a call to my local game shop and I found out that the Sega Genesis has some bad design flaws that cause them to fail a lot, and this game store has a 3 month warranty on used game systems(particularly the genesis). I think this should be metioned as both a warning and something so people know about these design flaws(not the stuff on the store as Wikipedia is not an ad). I just thought i should mention this as its important to a lot of gamers. Thank you and goodnite, Zakkman ( talk) 03:16, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
The console wars section used to be more detailed, showing the level of success for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in each important region of the world, put it back this way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.192.36.120 ( talk) 10:36, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
Article says that only one game is incompatible, I'm pretty sure this is inaccurate. I don't have access to my manual right now, but IIRC there was a longer list (though not many) of incompatible games, and from personal experience the Carmen Sandiego game was one of them. Ham Pastrami ( talk) 06:26, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
Ah, just to show that I'm not completely full of it, here is a forum link: [1] which states that the games cannot be played with the MD/Genesis controllers (i.e. you would have to plug in a SMS controller). Ham Pastrami ( talk) 06:43, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
Apparently 2002 was not the end for the Mega Drive, 4 new games are being made: [2]
Sega is an American company. It was started by two Americans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.122.119.33 ( talk • contribs)
The original and most common name of the system is Mega Drive. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.148.226.81 ( talk) 23:20, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=210507 http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/8922102/Sega-Mega-Drive-Console-With-15-Games/Product.html#
the company Blaze is making a redo for the mega drive. i have added it to the page - badly - it needs a pic and the stations and eventually now info added. from Alekey 86.146.52.176 ( talk) 23:03, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
It should be made clear in the article that the Tec Toy handheld device is not a gaming console in the sense as the word is commonly used. It is a playable collection of some Mega Drive games, but not a system. This is all the more important has it is (falsely) being sold and advertised as a "Mega Drive" in many countries now (e.g., in Germany). -- 217.232.223.117 ( talk) 09:38, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
Tell me if I am wrong, but the Sega Mega Drive was superior to the Turbografix 16 and inferior to the SNES in terms of techs and specs, however in terms of primative 3d games like Hard Drivin and Race Drivin it is superior to the SNES. Should this be mentioned in this article? mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool ( talk) 18:22, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
Per a discussion on WT:VG, I've changed the article's title from "Sega Mega Drive" to just "Mega Drive", since the official name of the product does not actually include the company's name (unlike "Sega Master System" and "Nintendo Entertainment System"). While a number of the references in this article do refer to it as the "Sega Mega Drive", that's technically incorrect - Sega's own press releases and documentation refer to it as just "Mega Drive" in non-US regions, and "Genesis" in the USA.
As such, there are a LOT of linked pages and categories named after "Sega Mega Drive" (like "List of Sega Mega Drive games") that need to be updated. — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 00:57, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
I've been interested in the term "Blast Processing", in terms of what it meant and how it was used during Sega's campaign against Nintendo. I vividly remember when it was first used in ads and commercials for Sonic 2, and even then I knew it was basically a crackpot term (at one point I heard someone in the industry refer to it as the "biggest industry joke in years"). But it's been difficult to find much public discussion or material about it specifically - it seems that most sites just consider it a footnote in the overall console war.
I've been seeing more discussion about it surfacing in the last year or so, and Issue 61 of Retro Gamer Magazine has a detailed statement about it from an interview with the guy responsible for marketing the Sega CD in the USA. He said that he felt he should take "some responsibility" for the Blast Processing term, since it arose from an in-house discussion on a hardware trick that was being exploited in Sonic 2 and some other games at the time. I have a copy of the issue at home and will grab the relevant excerpt tonight or tomorrow.
The term "Blast Processing" really did become sort of an industry joke, regarded as a "cheap shot" on Sega's part by many in the industry, and I remember it playing a significant role in the boost in the Genesis's popularity at the time, as well as its rapid downfall when the SNES proved to be the superior console. (Basically, the term itself came back to bite Sega.) I'm surprised at how little publicity remains about it today, tho.
Does anyone else have information on this that would be relevant to the article and/or an article about Sega itself or general console history? — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 18:10, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
“ | Take the infamous 'Blast Processing' boast, for example. "Sadly I have to take responsibility for that ghastly phrase," admits Bayless with a grimace. "One of our programmers called Marty Franz discovered that you could do this nifty trick by hooking the scan line interrupt and firing off a Direct Memory Access at just the right time. The result was that you could effectively jam data onto the graphics chip while the scan line was being drawn - which meant you could drive the Digital-to-Analogue Converters with 8 bits per pixel. Assuming you could get the timing just right, you could effectively draw 256 colour static images. There were all kinds of subtleties to the timing and the trick didn't work reliably on all iterations of the hardware, but you could do it and it was cool as heck. So during the run-up to the Western launch of Mega-CD the PR guys interviewed me about what made the platform interesting from a technical perspective and somewhere in there I mentioned the fact that you could just 'blast data into the DACs'. They loved the word 'blast' and the next thing I knew 'Blast Processing' was born." | ” |
I reverted an edit that explained the term "Blast Processing" in terms of the system's CPU speed (being twice as fast as that of the SNES). While the tech specs do say that, the marketing term actually didn't have anything to do just with the CPU speed, but with the entire system's hardware. While it wasn't explained to the public in so many words, both the 1UP and Retro Gamer sources state that it was in reference to hardware tricks that the Genesis could perform and the SNES couldn't (and the excerpt above explains it in detail). That trick would be possible even if the CPU speed were the same in both systems and all other things being equal. So it's an oversimplification of the issue to state that the term referred solely to the processor speed of the machine. Feel free to discuss. — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 19:08, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
In an effort to avoid another revert war over this issue, here's a discussion on how to classify the Mega Drive in terms of what bit level it is (16- or 32-bit, or some hybrid, like 16/32-bit).
The Mega Drive is based on a Motorola 68000 CPU, which has a few 32-bit functions while sitting on a 16-bit bus. However, the system itself is strictly 16-bit - its memory bus and all of the functions that it actually uses in the CPU are 16-bit, and none of the 32-bit hardware in the processor was ever utilized. Also, the system was strongly marketed as 16-bit, and while I know that's not a strict measure of how a system should be represented, it lends credence to the technical implications I'm stating here. Therefore, to call it a 16/32-bit system based on the latent capabilities of the CPU is misleading to the majority of readers, who are probably not aware of the CPU's architecture or the exact implementation used.
Also, if the 32-bit statement comes from the fact that a 32-bit accessory (the Sega 32X) was made for it, this would also be misleading, as the attachment doesn't cause a 16-bit system to become 32-bit. Instead, it "hybridizes" the system by adding a separate processor and data bus.
Finally, I am not aware of any controversy or dispute in any reliable sources as to whether the Mega Drive is a "true" 16-bit system, unlike some other systems that have claimed to have a particular architecture but could be proven not to be. The two examples I'm thinking of are the Atari Jaguar and the Intellivision (the former was marketed as 64-bit, but there is a fair amount of discussion about whether that's a true claim, and the latter is technically 16-bit but was never marketed as such, and its graphic capabilities are far more primitive). So, I think the proper designation for this system is "16-bit". — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 16:46, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
FWIW, I'm asking for more comments on this topic in WT:VG. I see three possible (and legitimate) definitions for a console's "bitness", so I want to make sure I understand what the consensus is on this before I argue further. The ones I see are (1) CPU capabilities alone (Theaveng's position), (2) Overall architecture of the hardware (memory bus, coprocessors, etc. - my position), and (3) Marketing and strictly what the sources say (Thumperward's position). I think all three arguments have merit, but I suspect that in terms of policies, Thumperward's position is the strongest. I hope that getting further comment from the project will help. — KieferSkunk ( talk) — 19:41, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
It doesn't really matter if it was 32-bit or not, 32-bit instructions are never really that useful and is mostly just marketing hype from Motorola to hide the 68000's weaknesses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.58.42.188 ( talk) 00:01, 16 August 2009 (UTC)