Salnax on 04 September 2022
Assorted Thoughts
- The Saturn's Dual CPU is a good example of how being ahead of the curve can leave you behind. I've heard that a lot of games had to be creative on how they used the two CPU's (Virtua Fighter used one per fighter, some games used one for 3D and one for 2D, etc).
- As far as similar tech goes, the Saturn's Hitachi CPU was similar to that found in the 32X and the Capcom CPS3. This surprised me, since NONE of Capcom's (admittedly few) CPS3 games landed on the Saturn. You'd think they'd at least like to brag about the first home version of Street Fighter 3.
- The PS1 only stands out by being the most ordinary console here. No dual CPU like the Saturn, CD-ROMs instead of cartridges, fairly typical specifications in most regards (though a bit below the average), etc.
- The PlayStation's R3000 CPU was apparently more frequently used in workstations than enertainment products. Silicon Graphics, the makers of the N64 CPU, used it for their IRIS series of work computers.
- I'm having trouble finding any solid examples of hardware that used the VR 4300 CPU besides that "Neo Geo Hyper 64" hardware that only ended up getting seven arcade games (and those games were only ever ported to the PS1 if anywehere at all). Even Ultra 64 branded arcade hardware like the Midway V unit seem to use largely different hardware.
- The GBA is the odd man out, but I thought that the ARM7 CPU was familiar. Sure enough, it's the same CPU that appears as the second CPU in the DS, and also serves as the Dreamcast's Sound Processor. Neat.
