Is the Neo Geo more powerful than the Super Nintendo?

[pepharytheworm]

The SNES had a 3.58 Mhz CPU but most games ran at 2-something Mhz. Some SNES games even had loading screens. It was not a zippy system. I played the Resident Evil game on the 3DS yesterday and up popped a screen saying "NOW LOADING". Something is definitely wrong when cartridge games need to have noticeable load time.

I think I remember Street Fighter Alpha 2 having load times. I don't remember load screens, though.

Fatal Fury on the snes had a load screen.

[pakopako]

I think I remember Street Fighter Alpha 2 having load times. I don't remember load screens, though.

We're still talking about this?

SFA2 had load times, and loading screens. Granted, they were just black screens with the word "LOADING" on them as the music stopped. (Man, the trimmed down music was CRAP.) A bunch of SNES games apparently had load screens. Pretty sure SimCity2000 ran like muck.

We did settle the hardware debate right? Genesis, faster core. SNES, more modular architecture. TG-16, an NES+. NG, SNES+NES.

[Aaendi]

Guess that's not quite right. I was misinformed Pretty sure I was right about the SNES and Genesis stuff though.

IIRC the SNES has like a 3 mHz processor. That's pretty much the same as a ColecoVision. It had different specialized components for graphics and sounds though which made it look better (usually) and have more sampling abilities than the Genesis or TG16. That Mode 7 stuff is another one of the specialized features. The Genesis had a more limited sound chip that was awesome when used right and couldn't push out sprites quite as well but it had a much better processor that made it better for fast games like shmups.

The main CPU in the SNES and Colecovision were both around 3.5Mhz, yes, but that doesn't mean they are pretty much the same overall. The processors would have been very different. It's just the speed that was similar.

The SNES did have specializations in some areas, so you are correct there. I am not sure about the Genesis's sprite capabilities being inferior to the SNES. I kind of thought it was the other way around. I am not expert, though.

The SNES has more sprites onscreen, but it has less flexible sprite sizes, and a smaller section of vram designated for sprite patterns.

[Aaendi]

continuing where I left off in the post above.

The SNES also has an awkwardly arranged sprite table that requires a little more CPU work than the Genesis.

Genesis:

word0: 000000yy yyyyyyyy
word1: 0000ssss 0LLLLLLL
word2: pccvhnnn nnnnnnnn
word3: 000000xx xxxxxxxxx

y = y coordinate
s = sprite size
L = points to next sprite to render
c = color palette
p = background layering priority
v = draw sprite upside down
h = draw sprite backwards
n = tile pattern number
x = x coordinate

SNES:

first 512 bytes:
byte0: xxxxxxxx
byte1: yyyyyyyy
byte2: nnnnnnnn
byte3: vhppcccn

x = x coordinate
y = y coordinate
v = draw sprite upside down
h = draw sprite backwards
p = background layering priority
c = color palette
n = tile pattern number

last 32 bytes:
bit0 = size bit of sprite 0
bit1 = 9th bit of x coordinate for sprite 0
bit2 = size bit of sprite 1
bit3 = 9th bit of x coordinate for sprite 1
bit4 = size bit of sprite 2
bit5 = 9th bit of x coordinate for sprite 2
bit6 = size bit of sprite 3
bit7 = 9th bit of x coordinate for sprite 3

The Genesis uses a full 16-bit word as x and y coordinates, whereas the SNES uses an 8-bit byte as x and y coordinates, with the 9th bit of the x coordinates being interwoven with the size bits. This takes more cpu power to set up.

Notice how the one extra color palette bit and the one extra bg priority bit, sacrifices 2 bits off of the tile pattern number, causing the SNES to have 1/4 the amount of designated sprite pattern memory? Also note how there is only 1 size bit, which is why the SNES can only use 2 sprite sizes at once. (8x8 and 16x16) or (8x8 and 32x32) or (8x8 and 64x64) or (16x16 and 32x32) or (16x16 and 64x64) or (32x32 and 64x64)

[RyaNtheSlayA]

^ Cool info.

[Zing]

Street Fighter Alpha on the Super NES had load times due to the sprites being in a compressed format and having to be uncompressed on the fly.

[Ziggy]

^ Did it really? I never played the SNES version. Does it actually have any load screens? Or will the game just pause for a second while it loads something? I played through Star Ocean (on real hardware) and never noticed any type of loading wait.

[sevin0seven]

^ Did it really? I never played the SNES version. Does it actually have any load screens? Or will the game just pause for a second while it loads something? I played through Star Ocean (on real hardware) and never noticed any type of loading wait.

it pauses for about 2 seconds (to load) before the match begins. no loading screen.

[neilencio]

yeah, you can try SFA2 on bsnes to see what the loading was like. it actually looks like it would have been better if it had loading screens so that you'd at least know what's happening. Simply pausing for a few seconds is jarring (especially since it gives you the feeling that the console froze and was about to BSOD)

[Aaendi]

I can't figure out why DKC managed to decompress animation frames within a second, but not with SFA2. I guess Rare just had more efficient programmers.

Mickey Mania had animated loadscreens, which were kind've stupid because it sometimes took longer to set up the stupid animated loadscreen than to actually decompress the level.