From: camp5@csbina.csubak.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Re: Genesis vs. SNES - processor speed
Date: 9 Jan 93 19:27:45 GMT
Organization: California State University, Bakersfield

In article <1993Jan6.222215.16984@brtph560.bnr.ca>, andrewg@brtph346.BNR.CA  writes:
> In article <DRAND.93Jan6160541@spinner.osf.org>, drand@spinner.osf.org
> (Douglas S. Rand) writes:
> |>In article <1993Jan6.181122.12481@brtph560.bnr.ca>
> andrewg@brtph346.BNR.CA (Krishna Kushwaha P205) writes:
> |>
> |>   In article <1993Jan06.044902.312248@sue.cc.uregina.ca>,
> |>   keeler@hercules.cs.uregina.ca (Jason Keeler) writes:
> |>   |>Hi;
> |>   |>
> |>   |>A friend of mine and I are having a dispute:
> |>   |>
> |>   |>He says the processor in Genesis is superior to SNES.  I've heard the
> |>   opposite
> |>   |>is true.
> |>   |>
> |>   |>Anybody know for sure?
> |>   |>
> |>   |>...Jason
> |>
> |>   Your friend is correct. The Genesis has a 8MHz 68000 which is a
> 32/16 bit CPU,
> |>   the SNES has a 3.5 MHz 65816 which is a 16/8 bit CPU. The 68000 is
> much faster.
> |>
> |>What is much faster?  What do you base this on?  You really cannot
> |>compare such things in any straightforward fashion.  Mhz means
> |>absolutly nothing.  Mind you,  I like 68Ks very much,  they are
>     ^^^^^^
>   NOT TRUE
> |>very fine processors,  I own Macs,  but you just cannot make
> |>blanket statements.  Even benchmarks can be quite misleading,  it
> The 68000's data paths are twice as wide as the 65816's. Its clock 
> speed is more than twice as fast, it also has many more internal 
> registers. These are strong indications the the 68000 is much faster
> than the 65816 (which was used in the II GS). 
> 
> |>depends on what you are doing with the processors.
> |>
> |>To give two extreme examples,  one processor might be blindly fast
> |>at floating point,  while another is an ultra efficient data mover.
> |>These will not be equally good in a video game system.
> Neither CPU does floating point. the 68000 can move twice as much data
> as the 65186. They are both general purpose CPU's 
> |>
> |>In any case,  I still find it dubious,  to say the least,  that
> |>there is much significant difference in what the two can do at
> |>the processor level for processing a video game.  Certainly the
> |>proof is in the pudding,  and we have seen excellent games for
> |>both systems and awful games for both system.
> The original question was "is the processor in the Genesis superior to
> the one in the SNES". The answer is clearly YES. The SNES may have
> dedicated hardware which helps make up it's disadvantage in the CPU
> department. However these chips will be less flexible and harder to
> program than a fast general purpose CPU.
> 
> It is true that many games for the SNES do not suffer from slowdown
> and that some Genesis games do. However, Genesis games generally 
> feel faster than their SNES counterparts. The fact tht a good SNES 
> programmer can produce better results than a bad Genesis programmer
> do not prove that the SNES is as fast. 
> 
> The 68000 has another advantage over the 65816, It is easier to port
> too. There are a large number of 'C' cross compilers available for it
> that produce good code. The 68000 may be old but it is a mainstream 
> CPU design. The 65186 is basically just a 6502 with 16 bit internal 
> registers. 
> |>
> |>--
> |>Douglas S. Rand <drand@osf.org>		OSF/Motif Dev.
> |>Snail:         11 Cambridge Center,  Cambridge,  MA  02142
> |>Disclaimer:    I don't know if OSF agrees with me... let's vote on it.
> |>Amateur Radio: KC1KJ
>                                            
> Andrew D. Grant

Can you program a Genesis in C?! Wow, what compiler would let you do that?
(I have Think C, a Macintosh/68K compiler.) I assumed most games were written
in assembly - probably not true.

Speaking of this, this reminds me of something that really surprised me when I
saw it. I was playing around with Sonic 1, and for the hell of it pulling out
the cartridge at different points to see what would happen. (Admit it, you've
done it too!) Once, though, I got a very strange 'error message'. Specifically,
the screen blacked out and in the middle it read:
	EMULATOR ERROR AT FF80:ABCD
Or something like that. I don't remember the address. But what language was
Sonic written in? I thought assembly for speed but what kind of 'emulator'
would it use?

(could someone with a game copier verify this for me? Open it with a text
or sector editor and do a search for 'EMULAT')

BTW, how much would a Multi Game Hunter cost? It comes with a drive right?