WTB: Arcade card games

[SignOfZeta]

Has anyone figured out what advantages Popful Mail has with the arcade card? It has the logo on the case.

All of those SCD/ACD games are really just SCD games.  It was a marketing strategy.  Using them with the ACD doesn't do anything.

Um, I don't know who told you that but...its BS.

[nectarsis]

Has anyone figured out what advantages Popful Mail has with the arcade card? It has the logo on the case.

All of those SCD/ACD games are really just SCD games.  It was a marketing strategy.  Using them with the ACD doesn't do anything.

Edit:  Correction - Vasteel 2 will report the presence of an Arcade Card in its peripheral boot check.  Otherwise it does nothing.

Edit:  There was some debate about this subject years ago.  Some argued that 3x3 Eyes had a slightly improved frame rate when played with an ACD, but, IIRC, that too was debunked.  The only benefit of the ACD is being able to play the twelve, dedicated ACD games.

3x3 eyes was debunked? LOL  There's a vid (Black Tiger ?) on YT that shows MASSIVE differences with the arcade card.

EDIT: 

[vestcoat]

 :oops:
I just found that and was about to post the link.  Sorry

[DragonmasterDan]

All of those SCD/ACD games are really just SCD games.  It was a marketing strategy.  Using them with the ACD doesn't do anything.

Edit:  Correction - Vasteel 2 will report the presence of an Arcade Card in its peripheral boot check.  Otherwise it does nothing.

Edit:  There was some debate about this subject years ago.  Some argued that 3x3 Eyes had a slightly improved frame rate when played with an ACD, but, IIRC, that too was debunked.  The only benefit of the ACD is being able to play the twelve, dedicated ACD games.

Perhaps I'm mistaken but didn't 3x3 eyes have different FMV with the arcade card in?


Check this video, I think there is a side by side of it being played with and without the arcade card at about 7 Minutes and 25 seconds.

BTW I'm not recommending the video, there's tons of bad facts in it. Just using it as a side by side.


Added in edit: Oops my bad other people found this before I did.

[SignOfZeta]

3x3 Eyes doesn't have any FMV in it. You must think you are on the Sega CD forum.

As for differences, it's true that the AC does little to nothing on most of the games that have both ACD and SCD logos, but there are a few verifiable upgrades in ACD mode that I can think of.

3x3 Eyes: Night and day. In fact, this game might just be the ultimate ACD tech demo.

Gulliver Boy: I don't know what the deal is but the back page of the manual mentions something.

Flash Hiders: IIRC one character gets a voice sample added to his win pose. It's really pathetic.

Popful Mail: I thought it did something, but I can't remember. I don't have this game.

[akamichi]

I don't remember 3x3 Eyes being different on ACD vs SCD outside of the intro movie.  But then again, it was a while ago and I never played through the entire game.

Emerald Dragon uses the ACD only as a buffer for the last area you were in.  At least, that's what it seems like.  So if you go from a town to a dungeon, the game would load from the disc as usual, but when you leave the dungeon to go back to the town, the game would pull data from the ACD (or disc in case of SCD).

Also, Asuka 120% uses the ACD to preload data.  Makes the flow of the game much nicer.  You need to put in a code as the CD loads in order to activate it.  Don't remember it off the top of my head though.  Something like hold left+I+run or something.  The beginning of this video shows what happens: 

[Bonknuts]

3x3 Eyes doesn't have any FMV in it. You must think you are on the Sega CD forum.

As for differences, it's true that the AC does little to nothing on most of the games that have both ACD and SCD logos, but there are a few verifiable upgrades in ACD mode that I can think of.

3x3 Eyes: Night and day. In fact, this game might just be the ultimate ACD tech demo.

Gulliver Boy: I don't know what the deal is but the back page of the manual mentions something.

Flash Hiders: IIRC one character gets a voice sample added to his win pose. It's really pathetic.

Popful Mail: I thought it did something, but I can't remember. I don't have this game.

 Gulliver Boy uses it to cut down on load times, IIRC. It's been a number of years since I looked at the game in the debugger. I do know that it uses arcade card memory as a buffer for the huvideo instead of main ram. Maybe that's what cuts out the load times (it doesn't erase the game code to use as buffer). And, maybe the AC card smooths any hickups on the real system for the huvideo (since it buffers a lot).

[majors]

Bartre has Sapphire, done deal imo. Everything else is icing, don't feel bad for having the ACD for just one game.

Side note, I picked up Battlefield for a $1 and Kabuku for free, so you will find something in you budget eventually...system is 20 years old, just be patient.