5 ms·

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Cassette Vision

127 points by zdw 2y ago

zdw 2y ago
If you're interested in the whole game catalog available from the Super Cassette Vision, the RndStranger youtube channel plays a bit of every game on the system in chronological release order: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sb8k4ZPagbvyrcU13KRv9kyXliprYd7 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sb8k4ZPagbvyrcU13KR...
wingi 2y ago
You should mention that you mean the japan console market, not US. In 1983 the US console market collapsed because of the many low-quality atari games and not-licenced consoles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 The NES was released in US test markets as the redesigned NES in October 1985.
- Gormo 2y ago
  The entire article is so thoroughly Japan-centric that if this isn't being said explicitly, it doesn't need to be. None of these products were ever on the US market.
- zetx 2y ago
  "Epoch went from dominating the cartridge-based game market in Japan to a distant third practically overnight." is the third sentence.
phrawzty 2y ago
[dead]
ndiddy 2y ago
There's a somewhat active Super Cassette Vision homebrew scene in Japan that's been able to achieve pretty impressive results with the machine's unorthodox graphics hardware. The best looking ones are probably the ports of ChoRenSha68k ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wDLOa_4H4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wDLOa_4H4 ) and Space Harrier ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9iHAbbzIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9iHAbbzIQ ), and they've also done ports of Super Mario Bros. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudYEDUK3Nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudYEDUK3Nw ) and Dragon Quest ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisV8xHCB-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisV8xHCB-w ). Of course, the NES ports kind of expose the weakness of being forced to use sprites for scrolling backgrounds, as there's not enough to fill the screen if you want a color background. As a result, Super Mario Bros. only has 1 color backgrounds and Dragon Quest isn't fullscreen.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- classichasclass 2y ago
  The Space Harrier port is fun. The music would have been better eliminated entirely but the massive number of sprites makes it no worse graphically than, say, the C64 port. I particularly liked the parallax scrolling in ChoRenSha68K. They really seem to know to play to the video hardware's strengths.
doublerabbit 2y ago
The era of time when game consoles were plentiful even if naff are now of rehashed Xboxes, PlayStations and Nintendo; which by the glory is now graphics. It's sad that to even think of competing in the console race is now near impossible. As the next consoles generations being AI with AI generated graphics, where's the fun in that? Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices.
- toast0 2y ago
  > Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices. I don't think it's that things are digital, or digital distribution. IMHO, it's the consolidation of design without major limitations or character. XBox and Playstation are AMD based PCs with a weird OS, and have been for at least two generations. They don't have a "look", because 3d rendering is pretty reasonable now, and everything kind of looks the same; newer generations look better, but draw rates are plenty high, so things don't have to look a certain way to be playable. They don't have a "sound", because there's so much storage and most of the sound is mixed from (high quality) pre-recorded pieces.
- garciansmith 2y ago
  You don't have to stick to AAA games for the big consoles though. Tons of fun indie games out there for any platform. And there's even niche hardware these days like the Playdate, a system that is the opposite of cold and sterile!
  - doublerabbit 2y ago
    Yes, you're not wrong. It's just not the same and unsure how to explain it. Consoles had love, warmth and now they're cold and sterile as I said before. They were a lifetime purchase and now you're expected to buy each new revision. It was different and you felt it. As the old internet to the new internet. Something the new generations won't understand. Consoles have always been about the games. It was the dedicated hardware for. So my gripe is not that it can't do what a PC can do. I own a PC for that. Games were creative, imaginative and this was before "AAA" was a thing. There is no magic to be found. I find more enjoyment playing old DOS and Amiga games. Which luckily there are sites for that. The playdate is a thing and true but it's a device i've not used but know I'll use once and put down. It's not in the shops where I can try before I buy. Indie games are cute. However what I find with indie games, which I own more than a dozen on my steam list are fun for the while and then never get touched. Not my thing. It's not about the game play, it's about the hardware.
rsynnott 2y ago
But... Why was it called a super cassette vision? It seems to have used rom cartridges like everyone else. EDIT: > The term cassette is a contemporary Japanese synonym for ROM cartridge, not to be confused with the magnetic cassette tape format. Ah, well, that's not at all confusing.
- stonogo 2y ago
  Lingo of the era was "cassette tape" -- and for a while there "cassette" by itself could mean anything packaged in a small case. "Cartridge" in my youth far more often referred to ammunition than a video game or computer ROM.
- munificent 2y ago
  "Cassette" is just appending the French dimunitive "ette" to "casse", which means "case". So "cassette" just refers to something being in a little box. The word itself has nothing to do with there being tape inside. In English, the word became strongly associated with cassette tapes because it wasn't widely used before those came around, but the word itself is much older and more general.
  - hartmel 2y ago
    I ll add that the usage "cassette" refers usually to a tape in a plastic case, like the VHS cassette, the audio cassette. The words referred to a box where coins where stored. It s probably still used in banks, like when ATMs are refilled. Surprisingly for "LTO tape", french mostly uses the literal translation of "LTO tape" and sometimes "LTO cartridge" too ; the use of "cassette" is uncommon. I just discovered it's the word for a bicycle component too. There is the word "caissette" too, which is a box, small but not necessarily extra small as the "ette" prefix usually suggests in french though. I guess it depends of the context. ("Caisse" == "box") There is yet another word for small boxes made of wood usually used for vegetables and fruits: "cagette". "Casse" exists too with another meaning : it s a vehicle graveyard. (It comes from the translation of "to break" wich is the verb "casser").
    - 2y ago

127 points by zdw 2y ago

zdw 2y ago

If you're interested in the whole game catalog available from the Super Cassette Vision, the RndStranger youtube channel plays a bit of every game on the system in chronological release order: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sb8k4ZPagbvyrcU13KRv9kyXliprYd7 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sb8k4ZPagbvyrcU13KR...

wingi 2y ago

You should mention that you mean the japan console market, not US. In 1983 the US console market collapsed because of the many low-quality atari games and not-licenced consoles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983 The NES was released in US test markets as the redesigned NES in October 1985.

Gormo 2y ago
The entire article is so thoroughly Japan-centric that if this isn't being said explicitly, it doesn't need to be. None of these products were ever on the US market.
zetx 2y ago
"Epoch went from dominating the cartridge-based game market in Japan to a distant third practically overnight." is the third sentence.

phrawzty 2y ago

[dead]

ndiddy 2y ago

There's a somewhat active Super Cassette Vision homebrew scene in Japan that's been able to achieve pretty impressive results with the machine's unorthodox graphics hardware. The best looking ones are probably the ports of ChoRenSha68k ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wDLOa_4H4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wDLOa_4H4 ) and Space Harrier ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9iHAbbzIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9iHAbbzIQ ), and they've also done ports of Super Mario Bros. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudYEDUK3Nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudYEDUK3Nw ) and Dragon Quest ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisV8xHCB-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisV8xHCB-w ). Of course, the NES ports kind of expose the weakness of being forced to use sprites for scrolling backgrounds, as there's not enough to fill the screen if you want a color background. As a result, Super Mario Bros. only has 1 color backgrounds and Dragon Quest isn't fullscreen.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
classichasclass 2y ago
The Space Harrier port is fun. The music would have been better eliminated entirely but the massive number of sprites makes it no worse graphically than, say, the C64 port. I particularly liked the parallax scrolling in ChoRenSha68K. They really seem to know to play to the video hardware's strengths.

doublerabbit 2y ago

The era of time when game consoles were plentiful even if naff are now of rehashed Xboxes, PlayStations and Nintendo; which by the glory is now graphics. It's sad that to even think of competing in the console race is now near impossible. As the next consoles generations being AI with AI generated graphics, where's the fun in that? Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices.

toast0 2y ago
> Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices. I don't think it's that things are digital, or digital distribution. IMHO, it's the consolidation of design without major limitations or character. XBox and Playstation are AMD based PCs with a weird OS, and have been for at least two generations. They don't have a "look", because 3d rendering is pretty reasonable now, and everything kind of looks the same; newer generations look better, but draw rates are plenty high, so things don't have to look a certain way to be playable. They don't have a "sound", because there's so much storage and most of the sound is mixed from (high quality) pre-recorded pieces.
garciansmith 2y ago
You don't have to stick to AAA games for the big consoles though. Tons of fun indie games out there for any platform. And there's even niche hardware these days like the Playdate, a system that is the opposite of cold and sterile!
- doublerabbit 2y ago
  Yes, you're not wrong. It's just not the same and unsure how to explain it. Consoles had love, warmth and now they're cold and sterile as I said before. They were a lifetime purchase and now you're expected to buy each new revision. It was different and you felt it. As the old internet to the new internet. Something the new generations won't understand. Consoles have always been about the games. It was the dedicated hardware for. So my gripe is not that it can't do what a PC can do. I own a PC for that. Games were creative, imaginative and this was before "AAA" was a thing. There is no magic to be found. I find more enjoyment playing old DOS and Amiga games. Which luckily there are sites for that. The playdate is a thing and true but it's a device i've not used but know I'll use once and put down. It's not in the shops where I can try before I buy. Indie games are cute. However what I find with indie games, which I own more than a dozen on my steam list are fun for the while and then never get touched. Not my thing. It's not about the game play, it's about the hardware.

rsynnott 2y ago

But... Why was it called a super cassette vision? It seems to have used rom cartridges like everyone else. EDIT: > The term cassette is a contemporary Japanese synonym for ROM cartridge, not to be confused with the magnetic cassette tape format. Ah, well, that's not at all confusing.

stonogo 2y ago
Lingo of the era was "cassette tape" -- and for a while there "cassette" by itself could mean anything packaged in a small case. "Cartridge" in my youth far more often referred to ammunition than a video game or computer ROM.
munificent 2y ago
"Cassette" is just appending the French dimunitive "ette" to "casse", which means "case". So "cassette" just refers to something being in a little box. The word itself has nothing to do with there being tape inside. In English, the word became strongly associated with cassette tapes because it wasn't widely used before those came around, but the word itself is much older and more general.
- hartmel 2y ago
  I ll add that the usage "cassette" refers usually to a tape in a plastic case, like the VHS cassette, the audio cassette. The words referred to a box where coins where stored. It s probably still used in banks, like when ATMs are refilled. Surprisingly for "LTO tape", french mostly uses the literal translation of "LTO tape" and sometimes "LTO cartridge" too ; the use of "cassette" is uncommon. I just discovered it's the word for a bicycle component too. There is the word "caissette" too, which is a box, small but not necessarily extra small as the "ette" prefix usually suggests in french though. I guess it depends of the context. ("Caisse" == "box") There is yet another word for small boxes made of wood usually used for vegetables and fruits: "cagette". "Casse" exists too with another meaning : it s a vehicle graveyard. (It comes from the translation of "to break" wich is the verb "casser").
  - 2y ago