The Sega CD - The Unsung Add-on 

Yes it was expensive

I had a model 2 genesis/Sega CD model 2/32x Set up back the day. Miss that set up, but did just get me a model 2 genesis and model 2 CD over Xmas so I am happy anyway.

@@homejonny9326 Indeed it was. Never met anybody who could afford it back in the day.

Wish I still had mine. I only ever owned Sewer Shark and was at the mercy of my local Blockbuster for all other games

You had two moms?

EB... what a throwbackkkkk

Yeah, yours looks exactly like ours here in the USA too. No different labels or anything.

Jenovi *sentiments

Heath Goetsch I blame auto correct on my phone. 😉

It was a solid add-on. Unfortunately in those times new tech was expensive as hell. It delivered what it promised during its short lifespan. The downfall started when they released the 32x.

Sega CD was good but 32x screwed me.

@@brandonmuse5532 at the time of 32x, I was saving money for a playstation 1. No regrets from my decision.

Nintendo was great too. I had Sega back in the day but they were both pretty good. Don't feel bad. It's good to look at things with a new age pair of eyes.

Nintendo was streets ahead of sega but sega had some great games

Get the Genesis Mini. The games are still worth playing.

Nintendo's SNES was a phenomenal system though. It was slow but even the Sega CD couldn't graphically compete with the SNES because of the VDP limits of the Genesis. I had both and enjoyed all the games but overall, the SNES was the better system. But there were amazing games on Genesis and Sega CD too.

@@axelfoley20 I don’t believe the Snes could have done Snatcher at all. I could be wrong but I just can’t see it.

Probably a lot of jealous Nintendo zealots "knocking" it too. Nintendo's cd never made it to production and instead we got the Sony Playstation, I'll bet Nintendo regret that move.

Yeah that avgn vid missed out games like soulstar, thunderhawk, battlecorps etc

Yeah James Rolfe and Matei (as well as the Completionist, watchmojo, ign etc) and other mainstream sites/channels have really hurt the reception and legacy of the Genesis mostly based on bias towards Nintendo, negative bias towards arcade gaming and ignorance.

@@retrosoul8770 I love their channel but I agree 👍 with your point. Avgn used to be called Angry Nintendo nerd.🤔 At least gamesack plays on both sides of the argument but do it so in a fair and unbias way.

^ agreed, Game Sack somewhat recently finally released an awesome episode on the Genesis and let's just say they gave it the respect it deserves.

Nice.

I wholeheartly agree. This system was one I always wanted in my youth. And thankfully I was able to find a working system, when I got a Sega Mega Drive Model 1 from a Charity Shop for $5AU. I got it with a 32X online, and I play it all the time. Isn't it surprising that a 30 yr old system still works perfectly, while newer systems like the PS4 break down after a couple of years!

>It cost too much for what it offered Not really. It was sold for about the same price as the PC Engine CD except that the Mega-CD has many more hardware features: its own M68000 @12,5 MHz, 8 channels Ricoh PCM chip, ASIC scaling/rotation chip... and thus it offers experiences like Silpheed, Final Fight CD or Soul Star which are on a whole other league than what the PC Engine CD can do. >but most of that is on the third party developers, for not making more games like Soul Star and Silpheed It's rather Sega that should have made more of these. Sega who were the kings of Super Scaler games, *who made the Mega-CD mainly with the ASIC chip in mind* but who barely used it. That's puzzling to say the least. But the Mega-CD is also a perfect machine for just about everything else, from shooters to RPGs, and it received very good support from several third-party developers such as Wolf Team, Game Arts, Konami, Koei, Core Design or Traveller's Tales with many great games like Lunar 1 and 2, Snatcher, Dennin Aleste, Shin Megami Tensei, Road Blaster FX, Eye of the Beholder, Flink or Mickey Mania. >No cart games with a CD soundtrack tacked on Now that's another misconception. Not only a full new CD soundtrack is already quite the treat but actually many of the Mega Drive to Mega-CD ports have more than that since, depending of the cases, they also add FMV sequences/animation frames/new levels/new visual FX/etc. or even Super Scaler stages like with Batman Returns.

I'm happy for ya

FfCD

wut do u mean “most ppl” if u grew up in 1992 then u knew 😂

@@kylmon4759 most people, means all those people you often see online trying to bash the Sega CD and say that all it had was trash FMV games. They didn't grow up durning that time so they don't understand just how amazing that tech was for its time. I personally liked a lot of the FMV games at the time.

@@buckroger6456 Yeah but that just implies most people is these ignorant kids out here spreadin nonsense, they could easily figure out the history and put themselves in how it was in 1992 and objectively know about the system despite their personal opinion. But instead niggas jst sheep riding on a wave of ignorance cuz its hip.. even tho they weren’t in the time, dnt kno anything bout the console, and have never owned or played any of the consoles games. All this to say, we dont give a shit about these ppl.. so anything they have to say isn’t credible

vram1974 especially prior to the 32x release. Even they could have used the sh1 or sh2 including the sega cd Asic, as a enhancement chip along with SVP chip.

Should’ve used the lock on tech they developed and used that with their Virtua Racing to give other games access to the SVP chip without the added price.

Damn, you're old!

@@mirabilis the young people who played these games when they were new are fuckin old now! Just because they got older doesn't mean they have to stop liking them. Shit it's really only gotten easier to be into this hobby, because the content has matured with us. When we were kids all this stuff was made for children, now it's made mostly for adults. We'll all be oldsters one day. I know I'll still be rocking some games when I'm in the nursing home.

Generation X rules. We were the first generation to experience video gaming as kids. That's why I still enjoy and love video games at age 48 in late 2020. Generation X-perinece indeed.

broo SLX isn't that old, come on now! 🤨 haha Btw, not sure why you mention FPS games since there was very few back in that gen of gaming. I don't think they really blew up until the original Xbox was introduced

Roly 😍😍😍😍😘

The Lunar games are among the best RPG's ever made.

I really want to make an RPG for the MegaCD32x combo. The tower of power never had it’s potential unlocked.

Ohhh Keio for 10$!!! Whew ~ I wanted Popful Mail for 29.99$ as a gift one time ... I shoulda pushed harder! I was convinced to pick up the 3 Ninjas+Hook combo instead ... Ugh ....

Agreed. I got mine by playing the cd player angle. My dad broke my cd boom box, and they owed me a new one. I asked for the SCD, and once i told my mom it also would replace my cd player, I got it. Oct 93, the model 2 was $229 ....with sewer shark. Somehow my mom found a new model 1, which came with way more games. Man I loved that thing!

@@yjzep9922 I made mention of it elsewhere in the comments, but I got mine in 93 or 94 from a friend who no longer wanted it. Got it for $100 with 7 games. One of the best buys in my gaming history.

@@jmarx3943 that's kinda how I got my SNES. Buddy got it at launch, and got suspended from school for fighting 2 weeks later (we were 12/13 ish). His mom sold his SNES to us as a punishment. So I got an SNES in 1991 for $80. Only caveat was his parents first cut his controller cords, so they were spliced and taped lol. They lasted until 2004 when I sold my SNES stuff. Only way I was getting a SNES. I was a sega kid by by then.

@@yjzep9922 MY MOM GOT MINE I TOLD THAT'S ALL I WANTED LOL 400 BUCKS

300$ in todays money would be like 500$

They did come out but they were stupidly expensive. I mean 400 for the CD? and even similar price for the 32x? That was a lot of money in Australia in the 90s.

I remember going to a "computer" shop and they had a 32X for $500! And, where I am, it was the only place that had them back in 1995, which I think might have been after it was dead. The 32X/Mega Cd games that I made mention of before were the ones that needed both to run (Corpse Killer had an enhanced version that required both systems to run).

I envy your collection.

It was Sony tried to rip-off both Sega and even Steals Nintendo's Game IPs!

Christmas '96 was when my Sega CD was underneath the tree. I have video footage of me opening it and getting all exited about it. I still remember playing Sewer Shark with my dad laughing when the guy in the intro was yelling at us. I would say Sewer Shark is one of the best FMV games. So much humour and a decent rail shooter. I went on to get some other games but not too many. Games like Ecco Tides of Time. I use to love watching those hidden videos in the game and the music.. Ohhh man soo goood. I would play it in my CD player and fall asleep to it. I would eventually get Sonic Cd and I was blown away by the music but I felt it was really easy and I just ran through the whole thing. One day I'll go back to it and sit down and actually explore and just enjoy everything it has to offer. Jursassic Park CD was hard as hell for me when I was a kid. I remember always dieing by the Velocirapters. Iron Helix was another tough one for me but I really enjoyed it. I love the atmosphere in that game. It would be cool if they remade it but everything in 3d and more actiony, less click and point. Oh and the title music was amazing. I would listen to it over and over again. It's some sort of industrial electronic music and I had it blasting through my dads surround sound. I had fun with NHL 94' aswell but my least favourite would probably be Steller Fire yet I still had some enjoyment out of it. My last game I had in my Sega CD library was Willy Beamish and I remeber getting so far in it but ended up getting stuck and was never able to finish it. It was a cool and unique experience. So many good memories with the Sega CD. I still play it to this day. Games like Final Fight Cd, Popful Mail (Repro of course) It's a shame that everything has skyrocketed up in price but that's to be expected.

At least in the US you got Monkey Island. In Europe we didn't get that or Road Rash.

Leave your system on for 8 hours and see if the battery is recharged.

If you do replace it, do NOT put a cr2032 in there. Find an ml2032. The cr isn't rechargeable, yet would be receiving charging while playing. I've seen them explode (as in leak all over the place).

@@yjzep9922 thanks. So you mean you've seen the cr2032s explode?

@@MrSerpico145 not like boom, but like cracked open and threw up all the corrosive crap all over the motherboard. Top be fair, the guy left the dreamcast on for 2 days, but while running, the systems run voltage to the battery to charge it. A battery that isn't set up to take a recharge will boil eventually.

@@yjzep9922 great! Good to know. What about LiR2032s? They seem to be the only ones I can find that are reasonably priced.

Better a standalone sega cd. With a scaling rotation chip with high or true colors like the 32x or jaguar/3do. With a software 3d rendered 32-bit CPU maybe with a DSP coprocessor or dual set up like the 32x/saturn.

Agree. You have to be really careful on when and where you choose to go to the past to change the future, since you have limited chances to do so and you have to look for good spots to go into the past since you can lose your time warp if you slow down.

Purpleboye_ Concentrate on getting the Time stones in the special stages, if you get them all consecutively, you'll have all seven by the 2nd act of the 4th zone, Quartz Quadrant, and won't need to bother with time travel after that. The first few special stages are easier as the flying UFOs go slower, but each stage has it's own unique pattern. If you've unlocked all the stages for Time Attack play mode, try to get your combined time for all stages under 25 minutes as this unlocks Special Stage time Attack, which you can use to practice the special stages.

You see ironically the special stages are the hardest part, and I've just been trying to destroy all the roboticizers. Which is time consuming but at least doable. The controls and collision in the special stages are so bad that I could not get any time stones after the first one.

I'm sure you've seen this, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fkNA3-Nb3bM.html This is played on the original Sega CD which has worse frame rate and responsiveness (for the special stages) than modern remakes (especially Christian Whitehead versions). Save for that 5th stone in this video ( there is a quicker pattern than the one shown here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O0I2ntv753w.html ), these are pretty efficient ways to get all of them. Good luck.

Majima Mike also on Dos and the CD based computers during that.

Shannon or like the 32x 15 bit color pallete with 256 to 32,768 on screen colors.

@@maroon9273 sega could have wait a bit longer and made the sega cd a 32 bit system, but the bus speed may of been a problem.

Colors are perfectly fine. The Mega Drive and Mega-CD boast many of the best-looking games of their time graphically while running most of them in higher resolution than the PC Engine or SNES. It's just borderline for FMV games but still enough especially since these systems are meant to be played on lo-res screens with scanlines and all.

Soul Star absolutely still looks fantastic today. Definitely looks way ahead of it’s time.

@@Thor-Orion I agree! Its a shame more software of this quality didn't come to it.

I actually regret not mentioning Ecco here. You're right, that soundtrack was therapeutic almost.

Launch Price point $350 in NA. I believe the sega cd would have cheaper if you replace the m68k and scaling rotation chip place with a high color pallete with more on screen colors.

Oh yeah there are some great gems on the Sega CD and I own the actual hardware "most being rpgs/platformers". Still when the Genesis Mini was announced I was surprised that snatcher, Sonic CD, Lunar 1-2, Popfual Mail, Vay, Keio, Night-Trap, Time Gal ect where no where to be seen. I get that Sega wanted to keep manufacturing cost down, still if it had just a few of the games I mentioned loaded onto the system it would've done sold even better IMO.

There really was nothing like it then. In quality or content.

I disagree. What makes the Mega-CD so cool is that it's an experimental accessory but fortunately it didn't end as the main platform unlike the PC Engine CD. NEC switched to CD format partly for bad reasons: to reduce costs (since Hucards were expensive to produce) and to access to larger storage (since Hucards are limited in that regard) but not everyone could afford a CD add-on and thus most PC Engine owners missed out on many of the best games. This is something that didn't happen on Mega Drive since the base hardware is powerful enough and uses cartridges which were more relevant than Hucards. So the Mega-CD was and still is for those who want to expand their experience with the Mega Drive by accessing to "deluxe" versions of some games (Batman Returns, Ecco the Dolphin 1 and 2, Mickey Mania, FIFA...) or to games that are made around its new capabilities like the FMV games (Night Trap, Tomcat Alley...) or the super scaler games (Battlecorps, Soul Star...). And the Mega-CD sold moderately well overall and was the best-selling CD system of its generation. But of course it could have been more successful and the actual problems that prevented this are: - the fact that Sega didn't release enough first party games for it that took full advantage of its hardware features. I notably think about the Ricoh 8 channels PCM chip or the ASIC scaling/rotation chip, all of which were left rather underexploited. - the fact that Sega promoted too much the FMV games which aren't necessarily bad in their own right but in the meantime arguably better games like Dennin Aleste, Popful Mail, Shin Megami Tensei, Battlecorps or Soul Star stayed in obscurity... So with a better marketing focus and something like 4-5 more big titles from Sega, the Mega-CD could have achieved its full success. btw the color capabilities are absolutely fine. The Mega Drive and Mega-CD boast many of the best-looking games of their time graphically while running most of them in higher resolution than the PC Engine or SNES. It's just borderline for FMV games but still enough especially since these systems are meant to be played on lo-res screens with scanlines and all.

@@ryzmaker11 well said, but I must cordially disagree with your pc-engine statement. One could and I believe should argue that lowering the production costs and the increasing of storage are great ideas. Also from what ive read more PC engine CD games were produced than hucard, which would lead me to believe that nec would not have put out more CD base games for an accessory that didn't sell well. Sega certainly didn't. There could be many factors as to why so many Nec fans bought into the cd format, but I believe a major factor is they went all in and released game like Rondo only on the cd format. I agree that Sega dropped the ball when marketing the Cd. I think they knew that it's 2-d games would be hard pressed to look better so they focused on fmv. I think the slogan was welcome to the next level. Which in some ways it was, but dumps of already existing games with better music was not the next level. Had they released say Sonic 2 or streets of rage 2 only on the CD, I wonder if we would have ever heard of the PlayStation.

@@sega_kid4288 But just as I've told you, the PC Engine CD didn't sell that much while, yes, more games were released on CD than on Hucard due to the base PC Engine being too limited. So it's a fail-fail: it forces the consumers to buy the CD add-on, something that most of them weren't willing to, but as consequence the latters missed out on many of the best games since they were released on CDs. The Mega-CD scenario is much better: it's an accessory for those who can afford it, not something mandatory. And although it got many great titles (Lunar 1 and 2, Silpheed, Sonic CD, Dennin Aleste, Popful Mail...) most games were still released for the Mega Drive so consumers weren't screwed. Also early CD systems have various issues/annoyances (long loadings, less reliable hardwares...) so it's even worse on the PC Engine side. As for the Mega-CD being next level, back then FMV games were the craze for a short while so yes, it was. And the Mega-CD is not only that since it's also high quality audio (CD-DA + 8 channels PCM chip), great visual FX (ASIC scaling/rotation chip)... The Mega-CD was overall a great system and a good move from Sega. Can't say the same about the 32X...

Super Sexy Sega also the added main ram made it more expensive along with the scaling and rotation chip along with the expensive cpu. Should have made a simple Sega CD with main ram and a 32x like vdp. Later release the scaling rotation chip enhancement chip and the added ram in a cart.

It should, they are functionally identical.

johneygd, that's a good hypothetical situation, If a SNES CD had turned up, who is to say more 3rd parties wouldn't have developed for both/all three including PC-Engine/turbographx CD? If it's one thing the 3rd parties learned during the PSX/Saturn/N64 era was it was cheaper to make games and quicker to get (more of)them to market on CD than it was on cartridge. Imagine if Nintendo had adopted CD this early, the 32 bit era might have been delayed a bit longer, Sony might have never entered the video game market as it did, Sega might not have had the snafus it did with the 32X and the Saturn (I had both). So many hyoptheticals....

Lazarus Hernandez well it’s true that cd’s are cheaper then cartrides but CD’s were frigale to scratches & piracy copying. And cd components were back then expensive,hence why the CD32,sega saturn, 3DO,FX32, marty 32 were all flopped, also the jag cd,mega cd,turbo cd,cdi along it’s varions all flopped because they were too expensive to produce. Sony tryed to cheap things out with the playstation to make it more cellible but sadly the used plastic became frigale so sony was forced to refurbish consoles to replace those frigale plastic components with metal, so a cheap solution ended up in an expensive solution,also remember sony had along it’s psx life time alot of issues with piracy copied games, nintendo with their N64 did not had this issues because off the allmighty cartride format.

johneygd, the CD wasn't the reason those platforms you mentioned flopped, many different factors went into the demise of those platforms; the 3DO was initially too expensive, while it's games were a step up from 16 bit games, the PSX and Saturn soon outclassed it for less. The FM Town Marty 32, PC-FX 32, CD32 had limited market penetration compared to Sony, Nintendo's and Sega's machines, 2 of those machines never left Japan, while the Amiga CD32 fell victim to Commodore going bankrupt. The Marty was similar to the Amiga CD32, in that both were based off respective computer brethren. These consoles along with the PC-FX also stuck with mainly 2D graphics and didn't incorporate 3D abilities like the PSX, Saturn and N64 did. The Atari Jaguar never sold enough base units to warrant a large production run of it's CD attachment; ie that console flopped before it's CD attachment ever entered the picture. The CD-i is best described as a multimedia device that could also play games, it was way too expensive ($1000 at launch with costly attachments: $250 for the Mpeg decoder and $150 for modem), it was introduced in 1991 and discontinued in 98, but never improved its specs over that time. The PC-Engine was at a time the number one console in Japan, it eventually finished 2nd there to the Super Famicom. Like Sega they released several different configurations of CD based hardware including the Turbo Duo which housed the Core machine and CD player in one. It's successor was the PC-FX. The Saturn was Sega's most successful console in their home market, actually beating the N64 there by a slim margin (The PSX took the home market and the global one, with the N64 a distant 2nd and the Saturn an even more distant third). At this point I don't think Sony is regretting any of the choices they made for the PSX, it easily won that generation. One major reason was it's use of CDs. The cartridge has it's benefits: durability (as you mentioned), loading games is much quicker, harder (but not impossible) to pirate, and in Nintendo's case afforded some control over what was released on their console. 3rd parties were tired of Nintendo's controlling ways; they dictated how many games a company could release on their console in a year (Konami circumvented that by creating a second label Ultra games), they decided when 3rd party games could be released on their system (ie first party titles had priority), and the cost of manufacturing the cartridge was around $30 per cart back (which went to Nintendo) in the N64 days, and in many cases Nintendo dictated when a game could appear on a competing console(exclusivity window). CDs were pennys bought in bulk , could be mass produced as the market demands and even with a cheaper average game price (PSX games were typically $50 while N64 carts were $60 or more) the dev took home more money per sale. Nintendo lost Square and Final Fantasy 7 because the size and scope of the game could not be contained on even the largest cartridges at the time and the cost of said cartridge would have been astronomical. Final Fantasy had always been a Nintendo exclusive 3rd party series.

Lazarus Hernandez also the pc engine fx was expensive and underpowered with lack of polygons support. As well as the 3do atleast it had a 3D support.

Lazarus Hernandez yeah what you said is absolutely true.