Finally got some good CD32 NTSC games... OH MY!

[LoadWB]

Holy cow!  Done properly, the CD32 really could have given Sega a run for its money.  I just picked up some NTSC games and am floored at the quality.

Games like "Microcosm" (I'm a Psygnosis groupie, anyway) and "Lotus III" are fantastic.  And the SVideo output to my LCD monitor is sweet.

And I'll brag on "Lotus III" a bit.  This is the only racing game I can think of from the era that combined so many different elements: dynamic terrain, weather (lightning and snow looks cool!) and far-away scenery (even though it's mostly static.)  There's more to it, really.  Given the chance, I think Psygnosis, Team 17, Gremlin, and others really could have pushed the envelope for gaming in the US even further.  

I'm finding that I really enjoy some of the CD32 games more than Playstation games.  And speaking of, a smart Commodore would have been planning a second generation CD32 to push past the Playstation.  But, alas, nothing but vapors and dreams.

Makes me also think of the ill-fated Dreamcast, or XBox Beta, I should say.  Man, Sega got screwed.

Okay, I think that's enough random thoughts and time for a pizza.

[LoadWB]

Matt_H wrote:

That's what happens when you partner with Microsoft.

I hear they don't call you the next day.

[LoadWB]

Microsoft partnered with Sega for the Dreamcast to make it "Windows CE Certified."  Yes, your Dreamcast can run Windows.  Microsoft then let it languish and used the experience to develop to X-Box, which is built on a stripped down "embedded" Windows 2000 kernel.  I found the full story on it a while back, but the site is no longer operational.  I'll see if Google is my friend later today.

[LoadWB]

amigakid wrote:
What amazing is how this thread has gone from the CD32 to everything but the CD32.

hehehe Indeed :-)  But I have been digging through my archive of software, and I forgot about Test Drive II.  It has rolling scenery, though still nowhere as good as Lotus III.  (I know, OCS versus AGA, 68000 versus 68020, but I made a statement earlier and this example has the potential to discredit that statement.)

Something I find striking is the amount of detail and work that went into the Commodore 64 versions of games versus the Amiga.  In some cases the music and graphics of the C64 were very edge, while the Amiga version were either stripped down in comparison, an exact copy of the C64 version (or vice-versa dependent upon history and perspective,) and in both cases did little to really showcase the power of the Amiga.

Test Drive II I feel is a good example.  The Amiga version adds very little against the C64 version, except for sampled speech; even the music composition is different.  Arkanoid II is another, where the C64 version had awesome music which played very well on a stereo system at full blast.

That's not to say that all games are like that.  SOTB, for instance, is remarkable on the Amiga and the C64 conversion does a LOT to try to live up to its big younger brother.

And I completely forgot to dig up the Dreamcast information I promised.  I spent today handling two emergencies and making dat moonay so the house remains mine for another month :-D

[LoadWB]

foleyjo wrote:

Is that why the Commodore 128 flopped?

Are you trolling?  The comparison is invalid.  The C128 didn't make it as a hit for a number of reasons which seemed pretty well outlined in "On The Edge," so I won't regurgitate them here.  None of these issues applied to the fall of the Dreamcast.

The only similarity is that both now fall into a niche cult following as being very advanced and flexible machines for their respective eras.