Ziggy587 wrote:I had next to zero forum time in September. I still have to catch up on everyone's stories in this thread (thank you all for sharing them!). But I just wanted to share my own Genesis experience before the next month kicks off...
Thanks for sharing your experience with the console, Ziggy! It was a great read and I can relate to it as well.
I also stupidly traded in my Genesis and most of my Genesis games prior to the release of the N64. The only game I kept was Streets of Rage 2. However, I was missing the console and got back into it when the Model 3 came out -- which I also picked up at Toys 'R Us for cheap along with Contra Hard Corps (the paper box version) and X-Men 2: Clone Wars (Mega Hits version) at steep discount prices.
From there, I started to slowly buy the Genesis games I used to have, played at my neighbor's, and games I had checked out in the early days of emulation and enjoyed. Also, my cousins had a Genesis that they didn't care for anymore and gave me a few of their old games.
When I was a freshman in college, I had a craving to play some Golden Axe again, however I didn't have the Genesis with me at school. At first I tried the Sega Classics collection on PS2, but that remade version of the game was a total dud. I needed the original console and game. So I went to the mall near my school, where there was a disorganized mom and pop game store that had a Genesis Model 2 and a 6-Pak cartridge with Golden Axe. The store was a mess, but I recall seeing the Genesis console in the window a week or two prior. I bought the console, cartridge, and two controllers for around $30, and that was our entertainment for my second semester of freshman year.
Trying to track down the older Genesis games I had before trading most of it in was what got me into hunting for older games!
While the graphical capabilities of the Genesis are certainly sufficient, the most interesting aspect of the Genesis is the audio. Between the varied revisions of the sound chip, the large potential number of sound channels when utilizing FM and PSG, and the lack of a proper system timer (more below) for the audio the system has a VERY broad quality spectrum.
For one, while the Genesis' FM synth chip, the YM2612, has 2 interval timers that SHOULD be able to send interrupts to the CPU, this chip is driven by the z80 and not the 68000, and the interrupt lines from the YM2612 aren't allowed to be connected because doing so would break backwards compatibility with Master System games. Programmers could time the music to the video processor instead (the z80 CAN read the VDP timer), but that creates 50/60 hz issues for the whole PAL/NTSC switch. The practical implications of this are that sound engines that don't keep a close enough eye on the YM2612's timers can fall out of tempo, generate really mangy sounds, and also have rough instruments. The GEMs sound engine, despite being very capable, is an example of one which doesn't keep a close eye on those timers without manual adjustments to the code. There are some GEMS games that sound great, but a lot of them feel a little loose in the tempo department, probably as a result of not polling the timers frequently enough. Memory access issues mean digital sample playback usually sounds really bad without very solid coding.
The end result is that developers who paid close attention to their sound engines could generate fantastic results. This was common for some EU and JP developers, but US developers tended to use GEMS stock, making for quite a varied aural experience. Add in the flexibility of the FM synth engine and you get some tracks with crystal clear bell, synth, and synth horn tones and other tracks with scratchy, mangy instruments. And sometimes you get a combination of both, which can result in something which is far greater than the sum of its parts.
...I kind of fell off as September went on, but it's really fun to read all of these cool Genesis stories. Also, the insight into Genesis sound and how the processors work together and explanation of why GEMS based games can sound so gnarly is very much appreciated marurun.
Awesome breakdown, Maru! In regards to Genesis soundtracks created with the GEMS driver, are there any specific games that come to mind when thinking of which titles showed off the driver at its best?
Aladdin is one I can think of and I do like some of the music in X-Men 2: Clone Wars as well. I'm sure there are other impressive GEMS soundtracks in games I'm not as familiar with.
The pinnacle of GEMS soundtracks is probably X-Men 2: Clone Wars, but that's apparently a hard soundtrack to put on-line. DUSTINODELLOFFICIAL did an OK job of it, but the reason it's so messy is that the music is dynamic. Basically there are some lines in the music that are character-specific, to the point that it will even play BOTH lines if you're playing 2-player, so there's just a lot of different ways each song can play back, and some of the tracks do some really interesting tricks with the instruments, to boot, not to mention heavy stereo use.
But without resorting to an extreme example, here are some soundtracks using the GEMS driver that have good instrumentation and composition (IMO): Mortal Kombat 3 and UMK3 The Pirates of Dark Water Madden NFL 96 (despite over-use of long sampled clips in many places)
There are so many GEMS soundtracks and so many of them are just meh. But it was apparently very easy to use at a basic level that it's no wonder it's all over the place.
