PCEngineFans.com - The PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 Community Forum
NEC PC-Engine/SuperGrafx => PC Engine/SuperGrafx Discussion => Topic started by: Naniyue on February 12, 2024, 12:35:54 AM
-
I know that switching a disc is possible, at least in that CD Battle game, so why was this never done?
-
Cost of the second pressing and to make enough assets to actually need the second disc. Other than composing a bunch of Redbook tracks, you'd have quite the task making hundreds of megabytes of game code and graphics, ending up with a ridiculously long game and lots of loading at only 2 megabits at a time.
-
So again it was a matter of technological and monetary limits. I wonder what such a game would be like now?
-
Also why bundle two or more discs when you can sell them separately for max profits? Look at R-Type on PCE as an example(even though HuCards).
Tho as a counterpoint, Y's Book I and II where on one disc, but two games. And let's not forget Neo Nectaris which included the first Nectaris game.
-
Im sure it wouldve happened if the TGCD was at PS1 levels of popularity. I think theres no specific reason why it couldnt happen, but it probably just wasnt seen as profitable. Especially since a lot of TGCD games only use a small part of the total disc for game data & fill up the rest with redbook audio tracks.
-
It was even more a tease when certain games were released in double CD cases! Extra posters n' swag was stuff inside instead! ](*,)
-
Most PS1 games that were on 2, 3 or 4 discs did that because they used a lot of FMV cutscenes. Nearly every PS1 game that did that, had the game itself stored on all the discs and the disc swapping was only done for when new FMV was called for.
Given the PC Engine CD has no native FMV capability (like CinePak, M-JPEG, MPEG1, or custom formats) and therefore any cutscenes in PCE CD games were actually just animated sprite and background graphics, a technique that likely didn't need that much storage space... I'd say it's fairly self-evident why the PC Engine CD never needed games on 2 or more discs. The kinds of games of the time, the lack of FMV capability and games not usually needing tons of music, none of this software really needed more than 1 disc.
-
Closest thing is Cosmic Fantasy 4 Part 1 & Part 2.
-
Even with FMV used quite a bit, a perfectly good game fits on one disc: Gulliver Boy. There's a bit more than half an hour of FMV, which seems on par with other RPG's "good" cut scenes (those fully animated and with voiceovers, not just in game assets and long dialog boxes).
That said, imagine more games that had similar FMV cut scenes on 2+ discs. =P~