4 ms·

But if it had 4MB of ram, the size of a large SNES ROM cartridge, it could get away with only loading the base game once. Then do additional loading for the occ

by wmil 7y ago

But if it had 4MB of ram, the size of a large SNES ROM cartridge, it could get away with only loading the base game once. Then do additional loading for the occasional enhanced feature. The Sega CD only had 512 KB of normal RAM. Far less than the ROM in a standard cart, so constant loading was necessary to grab different bits of game data. Leading to a worse experience than a cart and to a lot of developer headaches.

kstenerud 7y ago
PC Engine introduced the Arcade Card in 1994, which gave it 2MB of RAM (all cartridges except Street Fighter II were max 1MB), but the loading time was still terrible (especially the SNK conversions like Art of Fighting). The Neo Geo CD had 7MB of RAM, and yet it took an ETERNITY to load games on its 1x CDROM drive.
- wmil 7y ago
  They had the exact problem I was looking to avoid -- the SNK games were giant ROM cartridges, up to 41MB. Later larger. Chopping up the data and loading just the graphics needed for each fighting game match is what created the loading times. The devs decided load times weren't a big deal if the matches looked and played great. They were wrong. Loading times are just something game designers have to accommodate, cut back the graphics as needed. Being able to start with a back catalog of SNES games, enhance them, then publish on a medium with better margins like CD would have been very attractive to publishers.
  - kstenerud 7y ago
    NEC, SNK, and Sega offered the same promises for their CD systems, but it never worked out that way. As soon as more storage was available, the games used it all. I doubt that Nintendo's playstation would have resulted in a different outcome. In fact, Nintendo was so spooked by the user experience of their competitors' 16-bit CD systems that they stuck with cartridges all through the 32-bit era, which hurt the richness of their games and caused a much stronger focus on gameplay vs visuals (due to limited storage space), and pushed them permanently out of the spec race between Sega, Sony, and Microsoft.
Narishma 7y ago
RAM was too expensive back then to put 4MB of it in there. Even the PS1 and Saturn which came out later could only afford 2MB of it.

by wmil 7y ago

kstenerud 7y ago

PC Engine introduced the Arcade Card in 1994, which gave it 2MB of RAM (all cartridges except Street Fighter II were max 1MB), but the loading time was still terrible (especially the SNK conversions like Art of Fighting). The Neo Geo CD had 7MB of RAM, and yet it took an ETERNITY to load games on its 1x CDROM drive.

wmil 7y ago
They had the exact problem I was looking to avoid -- the SNK games were giant ROM cartridges, up to 41MB. Later larger. Chopping up the data and loading just the graphics needed for each fighting game match is what created the loading times. The devs decided load times weren't a big deal if the matches looked and played great. They were wrong. Loading times are just something game designers have to accommodate, cut back the graphics as needed. Being able to start with a back catalog of SNES games, enhance them, then publish on a medium with better margins like CD would have been very attractive to publishers.
- kstenerud 7y ago
  NEC, SNK, and Sega offered the same promises for their CD systems, but it never worked out that way. As soon as more storage was available, the games used it all. I doubt that Nintendo's playstation would have resulted in a different outcome. In fact, Nintendo was so spooked by the user experience of their competitors' 16-bit CD systems that they stuck with cartridges all through the 32-bit era, which hurt the richness of their games and caused a much stronger focus on gameplay vs visuals (due to limited storage space), and pushed them permanently out of the spec race between Sega, Sony, and Microsoft.

Narishma 7y ago

RAM was too expensive back then to put 4MB of it in there. Even the PS1 and Saturn which came out later could only afford 2MB of it.