From: imcnabb@Nyongwa.CAM.ORG (ian mcnabb)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Article of Interest
Date: 22 Jan 93 23:22:26 GMT
Organization: Radio Free Nyongwa -- public unix/usenet in Montreal, 284-6693
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Thought you all might like to read this, it is copied without
permision ect ect ect ....
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Article in MONTREAL GAZETTE, Thursday January 21, 1993
Author: William Burrill

CD war is raging and utltimate winner will be the game player

  To CD or not CD?
  That is the question.
  Most of the major video-game companies have already released
a CD-games player, with the Sega CD unit being the latest entry
into the field.
  But Nintendo, the biggest player in the video game market, is 
holding back, saying now is not the time to jump into the fray.
  Nintendo, of course, was also the last company to join the 
16-bit game system revolution, and its superb 16-bit Super NES
system has now sold 70,000 units in Canada since its intro-
duction a year ago.


Can store 500 megabytes

  For those who can't wait, however, the Sega CD unit seems 
pretty hot to me, using dual 16-bit processors, 6 megs of RAM
and a CD-ROM drive that features a special video processor to
produce exciting game action. (The Sega CD fits on top of the 
exsisting Genesis deck, although anouther Sega called the 
Wonder-mega will bombine cart and CD playing into one sleek
unit)
  CD games have great potential because a single one of the 
shiny little discs can store 500 megabytes of information
compared to a maximum of 8 megs in a standard Sega Genesis
game cartridge.  All CD game systems also play music CDs and
CD+G discs (audio CDs with encoded graphics).
  CD-ROM drives are not yet standard with PCs, but can be 
easily added.
  Unfortunately, most of the early games offered for CD players
were nothing more than conventional games beefed up with a new
sound track.
  Even the Sega CD comes with four "classic" Genesis games -
Streets of Rage, Columns, Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi -
featuring the usual old bit-mapped cartoonish characters every 
video game player knows all too well.
  But Sega also offers new games - such as Night Trap and
Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective - that really show what a 
CD player can do.
  Both games feature real, live actors and full motion video. 
It's like interactive cinema feature-length movies you edit any 
way you want, controlling the action, flitting scene to scene in 
an effort to solve the mysteries and save the day.  How the plot
develops depends on you.


Potential is enourmous

  This interactive action makes the old linear side scrolling 
games in which you had to follow a fixed path seem ancient in
concept.  This is the future of electronic games.
  Many of the biggest game designers, including Sierra, Sony/
Imagesoft, Tengen, Virgin, Bignet, Flying Edge and JVC, are
working on new games to support the Sega CD.  And Sega itself
has opened a new design facility to produce CD games.  The 
Potential is enormous.
  Once again, Sega beats its much larger arch rival to the punch.
So where, you ask, is Nintendo's CD player?
  Video gamers will have to wait until August to see what Nintendo
is cooking up, but Nintendo swears the wait will be worth it.
  Nintendo's CD player, you see, will employ a 32-bit processor,
instead of a 16-bitter.
  In a news release, Nintendo states: "Since 1989 Nintendo has 
watched patiently while other companies such as NEC, Philips,
Tandy, Commodore, Atari and Sega have introduced CD systems 
ranging from $299 to $1,399.  To date, none has been able to achieve
the level of game play that is acceptable to Nintendo.
  "For that reason, in August 1992, Nintendo scrapped plans to 
introduce a CD system based on the formats currently available, which
utilize a 16-bit processor.  Instead, the company announced plans 
to develop a system using the more advanced CD-ROM XA format powered
by a 32-bit processor, offering game developers six to eight time 
the power and processing speed of the current machines."
  Nintendo's release goes on to trot out and expert who calls the Sega
CD system "decidedly lame"
  Fightin' words? Exactly.
  Nintendo further estimates CD game sales made up only one percent of
the $6-billion game industry last year and that standard cartridge
games continue to be the format of choice for at least anouther two 
or three years.

`Worth the price'

  NEC has also jumped into the CD wars with their TurboDuo, produced
by a new company, Turbo Technologies Inc.
  The $399 TurboDuo plays old TurboGrafx-16 CDs, new "Super CDs," 
regular Turbochip cartridge games, music CDs and can also be hooked 
up to a PC or Apple computer for use as a CD-ROM drive.
  "I bought the system," writes reader James Brooks of Barrie, Ont.,
"and it's worth the bang for the buck."
  The CD wars are on, and the winner, when the dust clears, will be 
the game player.