Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - General Gaming - Nintendo vs Sega
| User | Post |
Banedon
Posts: 1173/1408 |
I will have to vote for Nintendo here, because I practically grew up on the NES (we didn't get a SNES until 1999), whereas I have never owned or played a Sega system. |
Grey the Stampede
Posts: 2267/3770 |
Originally posted by GeckoYamori
I think the biggest factor to Sega's failure was SoJ's idiotic arrogance when they fired Tom Kalinske. He was pretty much the lone man responsible for Sega's success in the 16-bit era with his policies and genius marketing campaigns. Had they kept him would Sega not only still be making consoles, but possibly even top Nintendo in the battle against Sony (They would very likely have an intense partnership with Microsoft like they did with Dreamcast, which would pretty much put Xbox out of the picture).
Yes. Thus, millions of users would be deprived of their lovely black and green ultrapaperweight that happens to play Halo.
More seriously, I'm surprised at how lukewarm of a reception the Sonic Adventure games recieved. They're really not bad games at all, and I think Sega deserves at least some credit for trying to release the first minastream next-gen console a year or so before everyone else. Dreamcast had some gems for it, too.
I'll always be a fan of the Sonic games over the Mario games (save for SMRPG, Superstar Saga, and one or two others), but I gotta go with the majority here and say that Nintendo is definitely superior. |
GeckoYamori
Posts: 5/153 |
They actually locked the poor bastards into a building to finish it in time. And they had already worked on the Nights engine for 2 weeks before SoJ said no.
I don't think it would have been a very good game even if it was released. It would probably be remembered as yet another bad 90s gimmick, what with the "XTREME!!!" title and all. It was canned for a reason, some of the developers had actually continued on the project after it was canceled for Saturn and showed it to the PC department, but they rejected it as well.
I think the biggest factor to Sega's failure was SoJ's idiotic arrogance when they fired Tom Kalinske. He was pretty much the lone man responsible for Sega's success in the 16-bit era with his policies and genius marketing campaigns. Had they kept him would Sega not only still be making consoles, but possibly even top Nintendo in the battle against Sony (They would very likely have an intense partnership with Microsoft like they did with Dreamcast, which would pretty much put Xbox out of the picture). |
Alastor the Stylish
Posts: 6431/7620 |
Originally posted by Emptyeye
My personal favorite story is how Sonic Extreme got canceled.
SoA: Have game out for Christmas.
ONE programming guy: I'll need an engine.
SoA: K. *Gives him Nights engine to work with*
SoJ: NO LOLOLOL U SUX AMERIKAN N00B!!1!! *Takes away engine*
ONE programming guy: *Tries really hard but works himself into pneumonia and can't go on anymore* 
>>>>>>>XD
That's horrible.
Colin: No-talent hacks with fans last surprisingly long. Not that I would ever accuse Sega of being No-talent hacks - I'm saying far worse people with far less fanbases have lasted awhile, too. In short: Fanbase is everything. |
Colin
Posts: 8204/11302 |
Sonic Extreme was a sad story.  It actually looked like it would be a great game (and might have helped the Saturn stay around a while longer) but the business decisions made in the run-up... absolutely insane. I'm surprised Sega stayed in business as a console maker so long.  |
Emptyeye
Posts: 1766/2273 |
My personal favorite story is how Sonic Extreme got canceled.
SoA: Have game out for Christmas.
ONE programming guy: I'll need an engine.
SoA: K. *Gives him Nights engine to work with*
SoJ: NO LOLOLOL U SUX AMERIKAN N00B!!1!! *Takes away engine*
ONE programming guy: *Tries really hard but works himself into pneumonia and can't go on anymore* |
Colin
Posts: 8198/11302 |
Personally, since I grew up with it, I'd have to say Nintendo over Sega. I think Sega's a great developer and they have a ton of good/great games, but Nintendo just has that edge over them - plus they have Mario and Zelda. 
The history of Sega is a fascinating read, actually. I remember a few years back when Sega sabotaged a Sony golf event and Bernie Stolar got axed two days after that.  |
GeckoYamori
Posts: 2/153 |
Sega has almost always been struggling with internal conflicts, and there was that rivalry between the Japan and US departments, so in that sense Nintendo is clearly superior.
As for the 16-bit era I think the MD/Gen has an edge. It focuses a lot more on action and platform titles, rather than japanese RPGs which I don't like at all. They focus too much on plot & music while disregarding almost everything else which in the end makes for an extremly linear, restrictive and uninteractive title which is clearly far from what I think an ideal RPG should be like. They've hardly evolved at all from their 8-bit forefathers with some simple D&D rules. This removes many, many big game titles from my list. The DKC trilogy was in my opinion just a very mediocre platform series hidden under pre-rendered graphics which were amazing at the time. It did almost nothing that most other platformers couldn't do better. The level design was generic and uncreative, the boss fights were nothing special, there was no real sense of reward in collecting bananas, the collision detection system was sub-standard and there were annoying bugs present in the first installment which hints towards a pretty rushed product.
As for which sound system was better, I find that highly debatable. SNES had 8 channels capable of playing 16-bit samples. The MD/Gen had 10 channels (6 FM and 4 PSG, with the last FM channel capable of 8-bit sample playback). The reason for most games sounding poor (Though it's not like SNES had its fair share of shit as well) was because of Sega's playback system called GEMs which was part of the official development kit. It did not make good use of the Yamaha FM chip and usually the sample quality turned out pretty bad. However there were a few composers that were experienced with FM synthesis and could bring out a lot of the chip's unused potential. Soundtracks like Streets of Rage 2, Thunder Force IV, Biohazard Battle, Red Zone and Batman & Robin sounds better than anything I've heard from the SPC chip. It was also damn good at generating sound effects, just compare Sonic The Hedgehog to Super Mario World (Which just felt anonymous compared to its NES counterparts).
They both have their pros and cons, the SPC chip had better sample playback and some effects like a primitive reverb, which allowed for more realism in genres which require it such as orchestral, and the Yamaha chip, when used right, could generate amazing tunes which sounded so crisp, full and alive (Power guitars and airy piano chords in TF4 is a good example). |
Xeolord
Posts: 1739/3418 |
Originally posted by Acmlm
In order from lowest to highest complexity:
- NES had 5 sound channels with simple waveforms (2 squares, 1 triangle, 1 noise, 1 PCM), and mono sound only
- Genesis used FM synth (forgot how many channels but a lot more) and also some sort of PCM
- SNES had 8 channels with sound samples
So Genesis had bigger sound than NES, just wasn't nearly as advanced as SNES 
The sound on Genesis is more comparable to playing MIDI's on really old sound cards (before sampled instruments) or module formats on Adlib, rather than low-quality MP3's ... it's perfectly clear sound, just limited to a certain category of waveforms (FM synth) that gives it its own feel, and it really doesn't sound bad if you like NES music 
Hey, I never said the Genesis music was bad or anything!
I guess I'm just an upstuck Megaman bitch.
(The Megaman tunes on the NES were by far more than extravagent, up there with Blaster Master, Battletoads, Super Mario Bros series, Metroid, Zelda, Final Fantasy, etc)
*Goes to listen to Flash Man's theme* |
Alastor the Stylish
Posts: 6428/7620 |
Mario > Sonic, yes, but Sega > Nintendo. By far. Power Stone, people |
Ran-chan
Posts: 9461/12781 |
Fuck! I can |
Teundusia
Posts: 264/760 |
oh my friend was annoyed when he saw this hehe
say Nintendo and Mario are better than sonic and sega |
Ailure
Posts: 9625/11162 |
I might not the be the only person who noticed this but... with this thread there is 666 threads in general gaming.
And oh, Nintendo of course. There is just so many game series from Nintendo that I love. And I actually did play SEGA during my childhood but I always found the Nintendo games better. |
drjayphd
Posts: 1018/1477 |
...and yet, you capitalized Sega in the poll. ZOUNDS! |
Teundusia
Posts: 261/760 |
Well there's something for my friend to see
And he said sega is more liked than Nintendo (note I capitalized Nintendo and not sega... I don't like it cos of the hedgehog which I shall not speak of his name) |
Acmlm
Posts: 1093/1173 |
In order from lowest to highest complexity:
- NES had 5 sound channels with simple waveforms (2 squares, 1 triangle, 1 noise, 1 PCM), and mono sound only
- Genesis used FM synth (forgot how many channels but a lot more) and also some sort of PCM
- SNES had 8 channels with sound samples
So Genesis had bigger sound than NES, just wasn't nearly as advanced as SNES
The sound on Genesis is more comparable to playing MIDI's on really old sound cards (before sampled instruments) or module formats on Adlib, rather than low-quality MP3's ... it's perfectly clear sound, just limited to a certain category of waveforms (FM synth) that gives it its own feel, and it really doesn't sound bad if you like NES music
So back on topic, I also had both 8-bit and 16-bit consoles (with 5-8 games on each, but rented a lot more), and while I did enjoy quite a few good Sega games back then (I even got the "Acmlm" name from the Genesis ), I've played a lot more on the Nintendo consoles and would take Nintendo over Sega
The few games I played and really liked on Genesis were Phantasy Star 3 and 4, Shining in the Darkness, Toejam & Earl and possibly a few more I rented ... while on SNES, I can name Mario RPG, EarthBound, Final Fantasy 4 and 6, Chrono Trigger, Bubsy (also came out on Genesis though), Civilization (stayed up a whole night playing that once), Zelda, NHL '95 to '97, Secret of Mana, Super Punch Out, Donkey Kong Country 1 to 3, Mario games, and so on, and that's without comparing Sega Master System to NES, and the unpopular Sega Saturn to Nintendo 64, and the Dreamcast to Gamecube |
Legion
Posts: 3641/5657 |
It's a little bit of both actually. |
alte Hexe
Posts: 3755/5458 |
That is a contrast. Showing why they are different |
Legion
Posts: 3637/5657 |
Originally posted by Skeletor
You can't compare them.
Sega is a third party developer that is doing dozens of projects at any given time for multiple pieces of hardware. They use multiple development houses.
Nintendo focuses on two or three at any given time and has a large inhouse development bureau.
You said you can't compare them......then you compared them. |
Kasumi-Astra
Posts: 1455/1867 |
Nintendo, even though I had Sega all throughout my childhood. Even though my first Nintendo game was Mario 64. Even though the first game to convince me was Ocarina of Time, Nintendo is the most amazing creative company of all time |
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