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Messages - airraid1

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General Gaming / RE:prototype Super Famicom and Famicom systems, circa 1989

« on: April 01, 2006, 11:37:51 AM »

two completely different artist concepts of the American Super NES

though very different, they both look FAR superior to the design of the final American Super NES.

now where are the American SNES artist concepts or prototypes that were in Nintendo Power? I wanna see those

General Gaming / RE:Iwata Confirms Nintendo Will Release an HDTV-capable console in the future, AFTER Revolution

« on: March 23, 2006, 12:15:30 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane

I assume Nintendo's next console will be released five years after the Rev.

exactly. that's what I was thinking.

General Gaming / Iwata Confirms Nintendo Will Release an HDTV-capable console AFTER Revolution

« on: March 23, 2006, 11:58:07 AM »

from a pre-keynote interview

question:

Quote
Why didn’t you choose to support high-definition TV with Revolution?

Iwata's Answer:

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If you look at HD in the long term, you’ll see the number of TVs will shift. In the short-term, the percentage is low. Compare with what it takes to create a game with four times to six times the memory, similar factors of higher processing power. Developers are required to make those assets. For us it was more important to create this interesting new interface with the controller. In the future Nintendo will release a console that does take advantage of HD. At this point, we’ll have other functionality in the Revolution. There are other issues with HD. Now, you have a wide variety of resolutions. As we see the formats evolve, we will get a stable technology. NTSC is a stable format. It’s a matter of taking advantage of HD technology once it becomes more standard. Our focus is always next on what we can do to surprise the consumer. HD is not the best weapon. Only a small number are there...

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/03/gdc_an_intervie.html

So I guess that Revolution's successor will be the Nintendo console that takes advantage of HD resolutions / HDTV. does that mean a couple years after Revolution, or a full 5-year console cycle ?

interesting nevertheless. Sony was already talking PS4 as of last year. good to hear Nintendo is planning to stay in the console war beyond Revolution.

Since Nintendo is waiting what will probably be a full generation, that is, a full console lifecycle before it supports HD resolution / HDTV, when they do finally jump on board, that better include 1080(p)rogressive scan. by 2011-2012, HDTV sets that are 1080p should be widely released and in homes, and, HDTV sets in general, even ones that are just 1080i / 720p should be in a much larger percentage of homes across the world.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 is only 3/4ths of the way supporting HDTV, since it completely lacks 1080p support. The Sony PlayStation3 does support 1080p, but lacks the bandwidth and horsepower to make next-gen games feasible at that resolution at playable framerates.

1080p gaming does not make sense until the following generation consoles (Xbox720, Revolution-HD, PlayStation4) of the early part of the next decade

General Gaming / RE:ps3 and 360 graphics cards

« on: March 12, 2006, 08:23:26 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Galford
I always thought the R500 was the code name for the specific XBox360 GPU.
From what I understand about the XBox360 hardware, MS pulled a Nintendo and owns
the actual design of the hardware.

IE, the R500 won't be appearing in computers anytime soon.

R500 was supposedly the codename for the Xbox 360 GPU. it was derived from the never-seen R400 of 2003 which ATI put on hold. much of the technology in the Xbox 360 GPU (C1 aka Xenos) will appear in the upcoming R600 PC GPU.

both the Xbox 360 Xenos/C1 GPU and the PC R600 GPU use technology originally developed for the R400 as I said.

General Gaming / RE:ps3 and 360 graphics cards

« on: March 12, 2006, 08:20:58 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: DeadlyD
I remember just 12months ago the talk of how the video cards in both are worth 1,000,

uhhh no.

first of all, Xbox 360 and PS3 do not have graphics cards. they have graphics processors / GPUs built directly onto the motherboard, unlike PCs which do have actual cards.

secondly, the Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics processors are custom, they are not found in PCs even though DERIVATIVES of them are, or will be.

the manufacturing costs and retail prices of console GPUs and PC GPUs/graphics cards are structured COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY. there is no comparison. console GPUs are manufactured in the 10s of millions, whereas highend PC graphics cards are manufactured in the tens or hundreds of thousands, or a few million at most. highend PC graphics cards / GPUs are at the highest possible specifications manufacturable, whereas console GPUs use new technology for the time, but do not push the limits of transistor amount, core clockspeed, memory speed, etc. no comparison.

General Gaming / RE:prototype Super Famicom and Famicom systems, circa 1989

« on: March 12, 2006, 08:06:07 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: oohhboy
I thought slow down on the SNES was related to the capable yet sluggish GFX/CPU chip that ran at something like 3.8 MHz. The Genisis had a 16 MHz cpu but had a much smaller feature set and it had to do sound. SNES had a sound chip to take the load off.

the slowdown in SNES games is because of the slow 3.58 MHz CPU, not the graphics chip. The MegaDrive~Genesis CPU, a 68000, runs at 7.6 MHz not 16 MHz.

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Originally posted by: Dasmos
I am pretty sure that last "protoytpe" is the Japanes and PAL SNES, except is has the EXT port on the front and the controller ports are smaller.

it *is* a prototype. the released Japanese SFC is slightly different, as I've shown.

btw, for those people discussing wether or not those SFC prototype controllers had shoulder buttens, I can't really tell, but I did find a prototype controller that definitally lacked them

source

General Gaming / RE:prototype Super Famicom and Famicom systems, circa 1989

« on: March 12, 2006, 07:59:45 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ghisy
The last prototype looks exactly like the Euro SNES and the SFC, except for the front ports (controllers and EXT) and the power swith being red.
Wow, a backward compatible-SNES would have been freaking sweet!

the controller ports are in a different position on the near-final SFC proto, too

proto SFC

released SFC

btw, not knowing any better in 1989,

......I thought that's ^ what the Japanese NES / Famicom looked like

but that was 1989, 6 years after the Famicom came out in Japan. I'd like to see some of the original prototype Japanese Famicoms, circa 1982-1983, and I don't mean the American AVS proto of 1984 which got redesigned into the NES.

General Gaming / RE:prototype Super Famicom and Famicom systems, circa 1989

« on: March 12, 2006, 07:44:25 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
I wouldn't be surprised if the SNES was originally supposed to be backwards compatible. I remember at the time it was a big issue. The Genesis technically had a SMS converter to make it backwards compatible. At the time the idea of consoles being regularly replaced every five years was a new idea so it was discussed.

I read once that originally the SNES had more RAM and they cost down on it to lower the price, thus resulting in the infamous SNES slowdown. Imagine if the SNES didn't have slowdown and was backwards compatible with the NES? That would have just kicked ass.

The Super Famicom was originally supposed to have (among other things)

1.) backwards compatibility with 8-bit Famicom games
2.) a 68000 CPU like the Sega Genesis, but probably a little faster (10 MHZ ?) which would have allowed games to run much faster without slowdown like so many Genesis games.
3.) more extensive built-in persudo 3D hardware for manipulating 2D graphics like scaling & rotation and other special effects in hardware--a lot of that hardware was gutted from the Super Famicom and was put back in only in specific games with the various DSP chips.

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The first batch of games for the Super Famicom were developed around 1988 and 1989. Popular Super Famicom titles, like F-Zero and Super Mario World, were the most difficult for several reasons--if nothing else, the Super Famicom hardware specifications changed in small ways at least twice during the development project, requiring changes to existing code. (Trivia tidbit: the original Super Famicom plans called for much more extensive onboard 3D hardware--PilotWings was developed assuming that this hardware would be present, and since this chip was scrapped from the Super Famicom at the last minute, Nintendo was forced to include this 3D chip on the PilotWings board in order to keep the game on schedule.)

source

naturally when he says 3D hardware he doesn't mean 3D polygon hardware like SuperFX chip, he meant (like I said) pesudo 3D hardware for sprite scaling & rotation, and other 2D graphics manipulations.

I would imagine other things including some RAM got cut out too. although I think they did increase the VRAM a little.

General Gaming / prototype Super Famicom and Famicom systems, circa 1989

« on: March 09, 2006, 11:02:02 AM »

on the right is one of the first, if not THE first, Super Famicom prototypes. on the left is an unreleased(?) version of the 8-bit Famicom. this most likely unreleased redesign of the 8-bit Famicom is called the 'Famicom Adaptor' according to Chris Covell on his website disgruntleddesigner.com. Although clearly it is a stand-alone Famicom console, and a very good looking one IMO. much better than the later re-designed A/V Famicom of the early 1990s, which was just horrible looking.
again, just IMO.

Chris Covell writes:

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And below is a really amazing find! This comes from an announcement of the Super Famicom hardware, in February 1989. The article discusses some of the features of the new system (stereo sound, scaling, ROM size, etc...) But the system pictures are intriguing, to say the least! The system on the left side of the page is a redesigned Famicom, called a "Famicom adaptor". Who knows if it connected with the SFC as an adaptor, or if it was just a fancy name for a redesigned Famicom to complement the SFC design. This new FC design wasn't produced.

BUT! That picture on the right side of the page shows an early design of the SFC, as above. This time, the labels of the switches are clearly visible: Power Switch; FAMICOM Switch, and Reset Switch! Is this the fabled Super Famicom prototype that was backwards-compatible with Famicom games? It looks possible...

another pic of the 8-bit Famicom redesign (upper right)