Not until March 1991 did issues of Gamepro and Game Players dedicate an editorial to the Super Nintendo. Unlike EGM's numerous articles comparing specifications provided by marketing departments, both Gamepro and Game Player's focused on the games that had already been released in Japan. Gamepro exhibited pictures of Super Mario World, F-Zero and Final Fight, while pointing squarely at the "massive support by third-party licensees" as the system's biggest advantage.1 Game Player's Tom Halfhill argued similarly that launch games for the Super Famicom, which was the console's final name in Japan, could have been made as well on the Genesis and TG16. Crassly dismissing exaggerated maximum color count and resolution differences for each system, Halfhill concluded "quality software and clever marketing are more likely to carry the day." 2 Marketing influenced more than the sales of these consoles or their games, it created the popular perception about the machines' capabilities and the quality of their libraries.
Abrams Battle Tank | |
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System | Sega Genesis |
Publisher | Sega |
Region | North America |
Format | 4 Megabit |
Release Date | 1/1991 |
In Library | Complete |
Summer 1989, before NEC and Sega launched their 16-bit consoles, "Shooter" meant flying an advanced space craft against an evil armada and Nintendo, which owned ninety percent of the worldwide video game market, signified "video game."1 Before Fall, NEC focused its audience on the technical prowess of its newly dubbed TurboGrafx-16 and the merits of "16-bit gaming."2 NEC was not alone in advertising the generational leap, Sega also focused on a single characteristic turned marketing term for its new console, "16-bit."3 Undaunted, Nintendo Power, a magazine owned and operated by Nintendo, continued as it had for more than a year promoting Nintendo Entertainment System and then Gameboy portable games. Video game magazine start-ups Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and Gamepro, however, mutually thrived on rumors and speculation about new hardware. In the same issues that extolled, for the first time, the soon-to-be released Genesis and TG16, both magazines devoted equal space to a "super" system from Nintendo.4 5 This represents an unprecedented public relations campaign for a game console that barely existed as a prototype.
Lifespan: | 1989-1993 |
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CPU: | 7.16 MHz 8-bit HuC6280 4 |
Audio: | 6 Channels (Uses CPU) 5 |
Co-Processors: | 3.58 Mhz PSG 6 Video Processor: 16-bit HuC6270 7 Color Processor: HuC6260 8 |
Resolutions: | 256x256 || 320x256 9 |
RAM: | 8 KB |
Video RAM: | 64 KB |
Colors On Screen: | 480 (60-90 Average, ~128 Max in games) 10 |
Color Palette: | 512 ( 32 Palettes of 16 colors each) 11 |
Sprite Max & Size: | 64 at 16x16, 16x32, 16x64, 32x16, 32x32, and 32x64 pixels 12 |
Sprites per Scanline: | 16 13 |
Background Planes: | 1 Layer (Dynamic Tiles and Sprites were used to create up to four scrolling layers) |
Storage: | HuCard 16Mbit (2.5MB), Average 4 Mbit CD-ROM |
Lifespan: | 1986-1992 | |
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CPU: | 3.58 MHz Z80 | |
Audio: | 4 Channels 3 | |
Co-Processor: | VDP | |
Resolutions: | 256x192, 256x224, 256x240 (PAL) 4 | |
RAM: | 8KB | |
Video RAM: | 16KB | |
Color RAM: | 32 bytes5 | |
Colors On Screen: | 32 (two 16-color palettes)6 |
|
Color Palette: | 64 | |
Sprite Max & Size: | 64 at 8x8, 8x16, 16x16, 16x327 |
|
Sprites per Scanline: | 8 8 | |
Storage: | Sega Card (32KB) Cartridge 1Mb - 4 Mbit |
Lifespan: | 1986-199211 |
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CPU: | 1.79 MHz 6502 |
Audio: | 5 Channels 12 13 |
Co-Processors: | PPU, pAPU14, MMC15 |
Resolution: | 256x224 visible of 256x24016 |
RAM: | 2KB |
Video RAM: | 2KB |
Colors On Screen: | 16 (four 4-color background palettes + four 4-color sprite palettes)17 |
Color Palette: | 52 |
Sprite Max & Size: | 64 at 8x8 and 8x16 |
Sprites per Scanline: | 8 18 |
Storage: | Cartridge 1 Mbit - 4 Mbit Average: 1 Mbit |
Register 81h.
Battletoads & Double Dragon | |
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System | Sega Genesis |
Publisher | Tradewest |
Region | North America |
Release Date | 2/1993 |
Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team | |
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System | Super Nintendo |
Publisher | Tradewest |
Region | North America |
Release Date | 12/1993 |