| Shane said: So developers, Nintendo included, just failed to utilize the Super Nintendo's power, intentionally giving Sega their entire marketing campaign? Nintendo went with carts because it was the easiest format to monetize. It's entirely possible that Nintendo did make the right decision with Wii, as it will keep the system profitable regardless of any obstacles it may face. I just don't believe it will win them any favors from third parties. Believing that Sony will be the closest to hit the original levels is based on historical data. Believing Nintendo can is unproven. It's entirely possible Wii could shock the world and hit 100 million, but it's not something we're going to be able to judge until there's at least another year's worth of data. What Nintendo's really got going for it is positive buzz, but that relates primarily to the negative buzz currently surrounding Sony. It's much easier to make money off a PS3 to 360 port than it is to make money releasing a game on just Wii. I believe THQ for instance is heading in the direction of the rest of the industry. Give Nintendo your Hot Wheels and Nickelodeon licenses, along with some multiplatform games like WWE, and reserve your next generation $20 million games for the other two. I get Nintendo's strategy. Save (or make) a buck now, do what's in your own best interests regardless of how it may affect others, and worry about the consequences later. See also: the last 20 years. Okay, but I still win, right? If Nintendo could hit Japan DS levels worldwide with Wii, I'm not even convinced then it's the wisest platform to start putting blockbuster games on. Even in that scenario, where third parties are starting to come into their own a bit and release successful games, Nintendo still owns 3/4 of the sofware market. However, that level of dominance would probably be what's needed. |
From Wikipedia
The term first appeared in advertising materials for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and was promoted aggressively. In the US an ad campaign featured a race between two vehicles - a Top Fuel Dragster and a broken down ice cream truck. The former had a Genesis with a modern TV set strapped to it, with clips from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ecco the Dolphin and Streets of Rage 2 playing when the Dragster car was screened. The ice cream truck had the SNES on its back, with a 50's TV set showing screens from Super Mario Kart. The comparison tried to persuade consumers that the Mega Drive/Genesis was the more powerful console whereas the Super NES was a not-so-powerful console plagued with slowdown, despite the fact that it also had its share of unique technical features, such as Mode 7.
Technically the term refers to a feature of the Mega Drive/Genesis that wasn't replicated on the SNES — the ability for the CPU to be working on one section of map while the graphics processor displays another[citation needed]. This feature means that the Mega Drive/Genesis can start preparing the next frame of animation as soon as the TV starts drawing the current frame whereas the SNES either has to wait until the brief period after the TV has finished displaying the current frame[citation needed] and has not yet started the next or deliberately factor in the current position of the electron gun in the TV. This gives the Mega Drive/Genesis more processing time for preparing the next frame, and therefore Sega argued that it can model more complicated motion[citation needed].
There are two very important differences between the SNES and Genesis, the SNES had a far greater color depth than the Genesis, and the SNES allowed for chips to be added to the cartridge inorder to (greatly) increase its processing power. Most developers claimed that the 32X (a an add on) allowed the Genesis to produce games that were as good as the SNES SuperFX chip games.
