How much less space does 8-bit use compared to 16-bit?
This is a loaded question.
Why? What do you think he meant?
As has been explained before, homebrewers already exceeded the capacity of Super CD. Mysterious Song wouldn't need to load battles if it had more space.
Neither would a lot of RPGs on the PCE SCD. It doesn't mean the capacity was exceeded. It just means it's working within the normal constraints of the system.
Exactly, there's no need to limit yourself to the constraints of the outdated formats. Just as there's no need to require Super CD/System 3 if the game you want to make comfortably fits within the constraints if CD2. Unless just to have a system card warning screen, in which case it seems totally worth it to me. Couldn't Insanity have been released as a CD2 game?
Another upcoming game hit a roadblock because the content for single stages couldn't fit within 2 megs.
This again doesn't always immediately justify the extra space use.
That's why I'm talking about instances where what you want to include doesn't fit within the smaller official formats. If you make a HuCard game and polish it off and get it running as efficiently as you can and it comes in at around 6 megs, there's no reason today to cut it down to 3 megs.
The PC Engine CD officially supports up to 18 megs per load. I agree that there's no point in creating new larger formats, but the jump to ACD isn't a jump to 18 megs full of content at all times. It only means 2+ megs at times. If a programmer doesn't yet have the skills to be efficient enough to make the game they are building take up as little space as possible, then the ACD format is perfect, as long as operating it isn't so challenging that it negates its use. I appreciate the art of crafting games for tiny rom sizes, but games today aren't built around the cost of memory.
It took the "pros" an extra 8 megs to fit the SNES SSFII onto Genesis. I don't know why anyone would demand more from honebrewers.
