SCD vs ACD comparisons

[exodus]

This is a pretty silly question I guess, but I've always been a bit uncertain about what is different when you've got an SCD/ACD compatible game. My assumption would be you've just got more ram to load things into, so loading speed is faster. But I've heard across the years people saying the game will actually access more frames from disc when there's an arcade card in.

I've searched for comparison videos, and can't find any. I searched the forums here, and there was a 3x3 eyes comparison which appears now to be offline.

Anyway - any actual definitive guide to this anywhere, or are others as in the dark as I am?
Thanks :3

[SignOfZeta]

It’s completely up to the programmers. The 3x3 intro gets MASSIVELY upgraded if running the AC. The rest of the game seems the same. I never bothered to beat it and see if the ending is upgraded as well.

Flash Hiders, IIRC, has one character with an extra voice sample or something. I’ve never been able to figure out what Guliver Boy does.

This topic comes up once in a while, usually with a few comments like mine, and then dies out before a complete list of upgrades gets made. It could certainly be more well documented.

[exodus]

hmm, we should try to document this stuff. I do have a lot of these games myself, I'll try to do some checking around this week. It's crazy to have an entire extra character basically locked - sounds like some day-1 DLC action to me

[Necromancer]

Most games just use the extra ram to cache stuff like battle menus and town shops so it doesn't have to reload them all the time.

[exodus]

yeah, that'd be my assumption - but then you hear things like what SoZ just said and it makes you wonder! There aren't that many, we should just document what we can.

[Necromancer]

Unless you can peek in the code and find stuff quickly, it's an arduous task.  You'd have to play each game from beginning to end, log where and how long it loads each time, count animation frames, etc.

[exodus]

yeah - I'd certainly need help for something beyond the obvious! hopefully... someone will want to do that

[SignOfZeta]

hmm, we should try to document this stuff. I do have a lot of these games myself, I'll try to do some checking around this week. It's crazy to have an entire extra character basically locked - sounds like some day-1 DLC action to me

Not an extra character, there is a character that has one more vocal sample when using the AC. It may be a intro line, like “Ore no...kachi da!” or some such tough talk. I can’t remember the details but I remember it was super unimpressive until I realized that the AC had been delayed so much that it wasn’t even released by the time Flash Hiders came out so why would they bother with more?

[Gypsy]

Sounds like a cool but difficult endeavor. Good luck.

[BigusSchmuck]

I know that there are games out there that don't say they use the arcade card, but end up using it to speed up loading times. Wizardry 3 and 4 is one of them.

[SignOfZeta]

I think it may reduce the number of load times in 3x3 Eyes as well, I can't remember. Its too bad I don't care about that show, otherwise I probably would have memorized it like a bunch of other terrible anime games I bought.

[xelement5x]

In Popful Mail for the PCE it reduces the loading times a bit, that's the only difference I remember.

[Digi.k]

In Popful Mail for the PCE it reduces the loading times a bit, that's the only difference I remember.

Definitely in the cut scenes and Brandish too

[SuperPlay]

I've searched for comparison videos, and can't find any. I searched the forums here, and there was a 3x3 eyes comparison which appears now to be offline.

The video when available was from http://superpcenginegrafx.net/  I am sure that this is Black Tiger's site.

I do have a rip of the video somewhere, I will take a look.

[seieienbu]

hmm, we should try to document this stuff. I do have a lot of these games myself, I'll try to do some checking around this week. It's crazy to have an entire extra character basically locked - sounds like some day-1 DLC action to me

Not an extra character, there is a character that has one more vocal sample when using the AC. It may be a intro line, like “Ore no...kachi da!” or some such tough talk. I can’t remember the details but I remember it was super unimpressive until I realized that the AC had been delayed so much that it wasn’t even released by the time Flash Hiders came out so why would they bother with more?

Flash Hiders doesn't even have the Arcade Card logo on the front and, if memory serves, it refers to the card in the manual only as the "18 meg card" or something along those lines.