This is a bit of history that has always fascinated me ever since I found out in the nineties while employed at Accolade, where we were reverse engineering the Sega Genesis, that the VDP in the Genesis was a variant / descendent of the humble 70's TI TMS9918 (mentioned at the heart of the SG-1000 / Colecovision / MSX and more) - we made a lot of hay in our clean room reverse engineering effort using Texas Instruments data sheets for the 9918!
It is also casually mentioned that the TMS9918 inspired the VDP in the Famicom/NES but I haven't seen any direct proof because it also seems possible that the 2A03 was derived from Nintendo/Ikegami Tsushinki 'Namco Galaxian' inspired arcade board design notably used in Donkey Kong. It's an interesting thread and perhaps studying Galaxian arcade hardware and Donkey Kong hardware and contrasting it with the TMS9918 and 2A03 can establish some geneology for home and arcade VDP design in the early 80's
But it is clear that there was a pretty 'open source' attitude towards hardware IP at SEGA and Nintendo and elswhere in the early 80s.
I understand it as more of the latter than the former.
Hardware might not have been great, but they were dedicated to push it to the extreme limits of what it could do, and all of it was punching way above its weight in all respects.
Japanese companies saw an opening, and extremely brilliant people went in head first, sleeping under their desk to leave their mark in the field.
Probably a little nostalgia. The SMS sound chip is one of the cheapest and most primitive jellybean sound chip of the era (only 3 square waves, noise and no envelope generator either). That isn’t to say appreciating the art of doing more with less isn’t valid. It’s sort of like a MS Paint type of thing though.
I agree. I had an SMS growing up and always noticed the music sounded "cheaper" than the NES, almost childish. I think it really was just the square waves making everything sound the same. The NES had more interesting output with its triangle and sawtooth wave output and it gave it more edge and character.
The NES' own sound chip didn't have a sawtooth channel, but some games had an onboard sound chip that added one, like Konami's VRC6: https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/VRC6_audio
It was my second console after the Atari. It was a huge upgrade and we loved playing on it. The Mega Drive a few years later was my next one.
In low income countries like Brazil they apparently still sell them new but licensed by a local manufacturer with another name I believe. It was so popular it still sells 30 years later.
Tectoy. They also kept releasing games way after the ms was dead else where. Oh and they did their own ms port of street fighter 2!
https://segaretro.org/Street_Fighter_II%27
This is a bit of history that has always fascinated me ever since I found out in the nineties while employed at Accolade, where we were reverse engineering the Sega Genesis, that the VDP in the Genesis was a variant / descendent of the humble 70's TI TMS9918 (mentioned at the heart of the SG-1000 / Colecovision / MSX and more) - we made a lot of hay in our clean room reverse engineering effort using Texas Instruments data sheets for the 9918!
It is also casually mentioned that the TMS9918 inspired the VDP in the Famicom/NES but I haven't seen any direct proof because it also seems possible that the 2A03 was derived from Nintendo/Ikegami Tsushinki 'Namco Galaxian' inspired arcade board design notably used in Donkey Kong. It's an interesting thread and perhaps studying Galaxian arcade hardware and Donkey Kong hardware and contrasting it with the TMS9918 and 2A03 can establish some geneology for home and arcade VDP design in the early 80's
But it is clear that there was a pretty 'open source' attitude towards hardware IP at SEGA and Nintendo and elswhere in the early 80s.
Was just a few days ago in a shop in Den Den town in Osaka, where they still sell original Master System, NES and PS1 games, so many memories!
Maybe it is nostalgia speaking, but the SMS had a great sound chip, and some amazing composers.
My absolute favourite song is from Ninja Gaiden "Escape in a forest" (starts at 03:36) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFoA0OICiB4&t=207s
Someone played that song with real instruments, and it's also amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arun9KuXImk
> great sound chip, and some amazing composers.
I understand it as more of the latter than the former.
Hardware might not have been great, but they were dedicated to push it to the extreme limits of what it could do, and all of it was punching way above its weight in all respects.
Japanese companies saw an opening, and extremely brilliant people went in head first, sleeping under their desk to leave their mark in the field.
Probably a little nostalgia. The SMS sound chip is one of the cheapest and most primitive jellybean sound chip of the era (only 3 square waves, noise and no envelope generator either). That isn’t to say appreciating the art of doing more with less isn’t valid. It’s sort of like a MS Paint type of thing though.
I agree. I had an SMS growing up and always noticed the music sounded "cheaper" than the NES, almost childish. I think it really was just the square waves making everything sound the same. The NES had more interesting output with its triangle and sawtooth wave output and it gave it more edge and character.
The NES' own sound chip didn't have a sawtooth channel, but some games had an onboard sound chip that added one, like Konami's VRC6: https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/VRC6_audio
It was cheap AF but that ends up giving it a specific aesthetic...
My all time favorite is the opening to Alex Kidd in Shinobi World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dx9AAKm6dI
It was my second console after the Atari. It was a huge upgrade and we loved playing on it. The Mega Drive a few years later was my next one. In low income countries like Brazil they apparently still sell them new but licensed by a local manufacturer with another name I believe. It was so popular it still sells 30 years later.
Tectoy. They also kept releasing games way after the ms was dead else where. Oh and they did their own ms port of street fighter 2! https://segaretro.org/Street_Fighter_II%27