From: v089l3s3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Jeremy B Horwitz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: SEGA CD: Full Review [Horwitz]
Date: 20 Nov 92 04:22:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Sega CD Multimedia Entertainment System
Peripheral for the Sega Genesis, $299.99 Retail.
Review by Jer Horwitz

	With much public anticipation, Sega of America unveiled their "multimedia"
accessory for the Sega Genesis system in early November, selling out immediately
at almost every location across the country. The Sega CD system is Sega's answer
to Nintendo's Super NES system, capable of rotating and scaling both images and 
background graphics, as well as producing higher quality stereo music and sound
effects. In addition, the Sega CD makes use of nearly unlimited [by video game 
standards] memory capabilities to store digitized video and true digital-quality
CD music tracks, which can be played back with movie-like effects. Sega achieves
some of their new tricks by using custom graphics and sound chips, as well as a 
second Motorola 68000 processor which can be used in tandem with the one found 
in the Genesis.

	The Sega CD retails for $299.99, and comes packed with five CDs, three 
containing games and two with music. The games are: Sega's
translation of the 
successful ICOM personal computer and TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM, Sherlock Holmes: 
Consulting Detective; a re-release of a cartridge shooting game (Sol-Deace), 
renamed Sol-Feace; and four "classic"
Sega cartridge titles, Golden Axe, 
Columns, Streets of Rage and the Revenge of Shinobi. One of the music CDs is a 
sample of "CD+G",
 a two-year old CD format which plays normally when in car and 
personal stereos, then displays special graphics when used in a special type of 
CD player.

	Turning the system on, Sega's theme
 for the Sega-CD becomes apparent. 
Futuristic music plays through the PCM chip while the Sega-CD and Sega logos 
rotate and scale against an outer space background. Pressing the start button 
takes you to a menu screen where you can either play music CDs, CD+Gs, or 
CD-ROMs. The menu also allows you to use the battery backup feature of the 
system, and performs utility functions for the as yet unreleased RAM cartridge, 
which will let you save certain (no, not all) games in progress and copy 
battery-backed saved games from the CD to the cart and vice-versa. The Sega-CD,
as a compact disc player, lets you program a full menu of songs track by track 
and play the tracks randomly. It also features 32 times oversampling, which 
means that the sounds that come from the CD player are very likely to be as 
perfect as they were recorded.

	The Sega-CD isn't
 particularly fast when it comes to loading games, although it
is significantly better than the Turbografx-CD. Where it shines is its use of a 
6 megabit memory buffer, through which an entire game can be loaded in one chunk
and played with one 68000 CPU, while the other CPU attends to the tasks of 
looking for the CD music track to play, etc. The buffer also lets the system 
show lengthy animations without interruption.

	Although the systemUs specifications look good on paper, the initial batch of 
American releases for the system hardly use any of the advanced graphic powers 
Sega boasts about. The one category where Sega delivers the "next level" of 
gaming is the use of "full motion video",
 the replaying of digitized frames of 
video-taped movies. Several games, including Sherlock Holmes: Consulting 
Detective, Night Trap, and the Japanese strategy game Tenkafubu, show video 
footage within a small area of the TV screen at a reduced color palette. 
Although the movement is somewhat below the television broadcast standard of 30
frames per second, with fewer colors, the video display is watchable and 
enjoyable. Additionally, Renovation's
 Cobra Command takes its graphics and 
sounds directly from Data East's
 Laserdisc arcade game, which plays 
Japanese-style realistic animation while the player shoots at targets and dodges
obstacles found in the background art.

	Releases have been few and far between for the system in Japan, despite SegaUs
claims of support from over 20 licensee companies. Games like Sega's
 Woodstock 
Funky Horror Band (Sega's
 only release for the Mega-CD in Japan from the date of
release to September, 1992) were poor enough that they now sell brand new in
Japan for the equivalent of $6 despite a retail of $45. The role-playing game 
Lunar: The Silver Star, however, is currently fluctuating on the Japanese
"all time best" chart between number 1 and 2 of over 200 games. Another 
interesting point is that Sega has opted to produce games like Streets of Rage 2
and the Japanese RPG Land Stalker in 16 Megabit cartridge format rather than 
release them at a lower price on CD. While these games could have dramatically 
increased sales of both the Japanese and American systems, Sega has decided 
against an obviously reasonable move. Why? I can think of two reasons: Either 
Sega has given up (in Japan) on trying to give people a good reason to buy their
CD system, or they are trying desperately to release a 16-Meg cartridge like 
Street Fighter II.

	The reasonably high price of the system was to have been compensated for by 
bolstering  the CD player with several good free games. Unfortunately, two of
the free game CDs included with the Sega system are poor choices. The 
four-in-one "classics"
disc contains a copy of Golden Axe (released by Sega two 
years ago) which doesn't
 work properly (the two-player option) and has music 
which stops the gameplay to load, unnecessary in a dual-processor system like 
the Sega-CD. The Sol-Feace CD is nothing more than the year-old cartridge game
plus a new opening and ending animation sequence. Sherlock Holmes is the only 
game which could have been logically packaged with the system, and even that 
title should have been replaced by its newer sequel. Sega earns a failing grade 
for giving kids a Christmas present which comes free with "a $350 value", the
same Christmas presents they got last year and the year before.

	The games which have been released in America are reasonable. Black
Hole Assault is a robot battle game with cinematic stories placed throughout. 
The game presents graphics which are impressive perhaps to Genesis owners, but 
not to anyone who frequents the arcades or owns a Super NES. (At the price of 
the Sega-CD and Genesis combination, I could actually compare Sega's
 duo to a 
Neo-Geo, but that would be... unfair. [?]) The play mechanics are improved only
slightly from the extremely poor Heavy Nova, released originally for the Mega-CD
in Japan and then on cartridge for the Genesis.
 Night Trap is a 2-CD game
with digitized video throughout, where you try to stop vampires from killing 
beautiful co-eds. The game is better than the pack-in Sherlock Holmes, but the 
interactivity of you and the graphics is limited to pressing a button to choose
which segment of the video to watch. Finally,
 Cobra Command is a 
Laserdisc video in the same vein as Dragon's
 Lair, except you control both the 
movement of your helicopter's
 missile and machine gun crosshairs and 
occasionally the yoke of the helicopter itself.

	In the final assessment, the Sega-CD, although delayed for a year in order to 
"properly support it with software",
 hit the shelves with games only slightly 
better than those released in Japan when the Mega-CD system
 debuted there one year 
ago. In games released thus far (and this may change by the time this article is
printed), there has been no sign of the scaling, rotation and zoom capabilities 
of the system save simple scaling in the title screens of two Japanese games. 
What has been seen thus far is an evolutionary improvement on the TurboGrafx-CD Rcinema intermissionsS and personal computer (and TG-CD) digitized video themes.
The "proper software support" statement seems almost to be an eternal problem 
for Sega, as nothing they release ever comes without delay, nor does it tap
even the surface of what the hardware is said to offer.

	Meanwhile, Sega has saved all of their potentially interesting releases for the
weeks and months to come. Translations of several popular IBM PC games written 
by Sierra, Lucasarts and Origin are expected to be in stores by Christmas. 
Batman Returns and Joe Montana Football III, the first games to employ scaling
and zoom, should have been released by the time you read this. Final Fight is 
being readied for December release in Japan, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2: CD 
Special is planned for March in Japan. Batman Returns, Montana Football 3 and 
Sonic II are rereleases of the cartridge games with additional levels and music,
while costing $10 less.

 What is the future of the Sega-CD? Hopefully better than that of the Mega-CD,
which now sells in some areas of Japan for $225 without software, despite a
$375 retail price. It is obvious why they packed the games they did along with 
the CD-ROM -- they know people would be saving their extra money for their later
releases. Is that reasonable? After Christmas, the sales receipts will tell.


All contents copyright Jer Horwitz 1992. No duplication without express written permission of the author.

Sorry for the bad spacing. I had to manually fix a computer
error in the quotations and apostrophes.