From: penfold@dworkin.ccs.northeastern.edu (Karl von Laudermann)
Subject: Re: RE sega VS snes
Originator: penfold@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu
Organization: College of CS, Northeastern U
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 21:26:24 GMT

In article <85328@ut-emx.uucp> outcast@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Mark Mavromatis) writes:
>>
>>Let us restate that.   Though the SNES can HANDLE that many sprites (not
>>sprits), after about 3 it starts to slow down in most games. (Even the
>>infamous SFII and others.)  It isn't the capabilities of the graphics,
>>but rather the limitations of the processor that seems to be at question
>>here...
>>-- 
>
>After about 3? What about games like Space Megaforce, Super Alleste, Contra,
>Road Runner, and even Madden 93? The slowdown you refer to has mostly been 
>eliminated except for the odd lemon. SF2 slows down for events in which the
>arcade slows down. I am an avid fan of the arcade as are many of my friends and
>we have yet to notice ANY slowdown in SF2.

	Play Ryu/Ken vs. Ryu/Ken. Have one guy do a hurricane kick, and have
the other hit him with a fireball: instant slowdown. Actually, I think hitting
anyone who is doing an air attack move with a fireball will produce slowdown.
And it doesn't do this in the arcade. 

	I realise that a lot of earlier games have slowdown due to bad
programming, but even though programmers are trying to deal with the hardware
better, I have yet to see a SNES game with NO slowdown anywhere. It's not the
occasional odd lemon that slowsdown, it's all games, just not as frequently
during the gameplay as in earlier games.

	Some people (not to imply Mark) say that slowdown is not a design flaw
in the SNES, and is nonexistant. They say that all slowdown is a result of bad
programming. I can't possibly agree with this for two reasons: Why else would
all games that I have seen have slowdown, even the newer ones? Surely the SNES
doesn't atract more bad programmers than any other platform. And second,
why do games made by companies with quality reputations (Konami, Capcom) have
slowdown? Surley their worst programmers weren't exclusively assigned to the 
SNES game division.  Take Gradius III by Konami: an early game, before the
slowdown issue was noticed. This is by Konami, who made many quality games for
the arcade, NES and Gameboy before the SNES came along.  It is, as far as 
Konami games go, very simple. Just a normal space shooter, and a big, 
experienced company like Konami should have had no trouble doing it well. I
imagine they just did it like any other game, not considering that there may
be a slowdown problem, and the result was a game which slowsdown almost 
constantly.  Later, after the problem was discovered, they and many other
companies worked around the problem for all later games.  But that's just my
point: there IS a problem to work around. It is a flaw in the system that will
always be there, no matter how well programmers deal with it. And it will
always show up, because, as with any game system, game companies will always
be trying to make bigger, more complex games that push the system's 
capabilities to the limit. And the slowdown problem will continue to be 
another factor to contend with when trying to squeeze every ounce of
performance out of the machine in order to make a more complex game.


.-  .--        .-     Karl J. von Laudermann               | Disclaimer: The
|  /    __  __ |      penfold@dworkin.ccs.northeastern.edu | views and opinions
|    \    \/   |  ___ -------------------------------------+ expressed herein
|     \        |      are mine, and yours too. You just may not realize it.