Assessing the aftermath of the fifth console generation got me thinking about how I'm used to hearing that Sony deeply undercut the competition with the PS1, Neo Geo CD/Z was too little/too late, Saturn was hard to code for, Jaguar wasn't 64-bit, and 3DO's $700 price tag was exorbitant (which is actually pretty cheap, considering what a computer cost back then; that's why DOOM on Jaguar was a big deal) but what kinda irks me is that I haven't seen many explorations of the full SEGA CD 32X setup costing only $500 by the end of 1994... And how the journey to get there is pretty interesting.
Yeah, 3DO beat 32X by a year and was down to $400 by then; and no, they weren't equals - but think about it: Upgrading to Genesis from your NES by 1990 and holding your own against the SNES a year or two later? Finally pulling the trigger on a SEGA CD a year or two after that (when the price dips below $300) to add hugely improved sprite-scaling, audio, and video capabilities? Then grabbing a 32X a year or two after that for $150 to push some real polygons, add way more colours, and significantly upgrade video playback? That's fantastic!
If SEGA could've marketed that long-term upgrade path to showcase their ecosystem's true possibilities, they'd be providing an unprecedentedly vast library with full hardware backward-compatibility right up to an entirely different sixth generation. Neo Geo was always a niche product, Jaguar was broken and unsupported, 3DO was already failing, and Nintendo 64 was late to the party... Delay or even skip Saturn, and offer a CDX+32X for $400.
Instead of pushing genuinely impressive sprite-scaling multimedia spectacles, however, Sega of America focused on shitty interactive movies and allowed half-assed Genesis ports that had nothing more than superfluous intro videos, lazily-arranged soundtracks, and longer loading times. Why not focus earlier on developing way bigger and better-looking game worlds, where players can move around in pseudo-3D for SEGA CD ? Make more Sega Classics collections; hype-up the PC ports that're now playable at a fraction of the cost; push the LaserDisc arcade ports from ReadySoft and Wolf Team as true curiosities; feature how Core Design, Game Arts, Psygnosis, and Traveller's Tales had thoroughly figured-out the platform by the time the 32X was released; and then show what a CD 32X can really do! I know DOOM CD32X Fusion benefits from over 30 years' worth of computer science advances, but it does exist and that potential was always there. This is all in a different timeline though, and pointless because Sony upended everything... Should we still blame the Nintendo PlayStation for that, or would it've happened anyway?
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Finished Fable II and I want to like it more because it's still very pretty and has plenty of character for a playground, but it's just so janky. Ending was effective, if a little anti-climactic. I own Fable III, and I might even try it... But then there was a sale on No Rest for the Wicked, which looks like Diablo, plays like a Soulsborne, and seems to borrow a lot from Fable. Too bad about that one founder, though. Played through all of the content available so far, looks great, love the verticality and exploration, combat is fine, but a couple of the bosses are pretty annoying for certain builds.
Played through Iron Lung in anticipation of the movie; decent for $5.
Found a Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+, a 2GB microSD, an 802.11n USB Wi-Fi adapter, and a boxed 2GB GeForce GT 1030 for $20 at a thrift store... I'm open to suggestions for what to do with that Pi 1 B+ as well as a 1 A; Geiger counter is the most interesting possibility so far, but I don't think I'll need two of those. Tried RetroPie on the B+, but nah... And don't say Pi-hole. So, not sure what to do with any of that aging hardware, but I have been using this as my work computer lately:
- Core 2 Quad Q9450
- EVGA 132-CK-NF79
- 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 (dual channel)
- Radeon HD 5870
- 1TB SATA SSD
- EndeavourOS
...And it runs a decent amount of my Steam library.
Picked-up RGB+Sync cables for Genesis/SEGA CD/32X/Saturn/Dreamcast as well as S-Video for SNES/N64/GC and it's all just beautiful. Keeping the Dreamcast on VGA and the GC on Wii though.
Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch Online arrived: Some of the games run/feel a little differently (apparently it's running at 60Hz instead of 50Hz now) but nothing's unplayable. It looks really good on the OLED Switch, but it's kind of big and doesn't scale all that well if you shrink it down. Joy-Cons don't work as well as the original Virtual Boy controller - especially in Teleroboxer - but it's serviceable. Sometimes the 3D effect is harder to focus on than with original hardware (e.g. the targeting reticule in Insmouse) but the whole package is overall really cool and still way cheaper than tracking-down and fixing an old one, plus buying games or even a flashcart. At this point, I'm stoked for new games coming down the pike and hoping for a better controller.
Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch Online arrived: Some of the games run/feel a little differently (apparently it's running at 60Hz instead of 50Hz now) but nothing's unplayable. It looks really good on the OLED Switch, but it's kind of big and doesn't scale all that well if you shrink it down. Joy-Cons don't work as well as the original Virtual Boy controller - especially in Teleroboxer - but it's serviceable. Sometimes the 3D effect is harder to focus on than with original hardware (e.g. the targeting reticule in Insmouse) but the whole package is overall really cool and still way cheaper than tracking-down and fixing an old one, plus buying games or even a flashcart. At this point, I'm stoked for new games coming down the pike and hoping for a better controller.
Got my Nomad and my VA0, flat-lens Game Gear re-capped - original LCD on the latter has a couple of stuck pixels and some early signs of impending failure, but it's good for now. Weird thing though: Testing it with NiMH batteries caused graphical glitches, but alkaline batteries worked without issue.
