in which way the amiga beat the megadrive

[turrican3]

in which way the amiga 500 or 1200 beat the megadrive (technically) ?
personally, the sound (paula is far better) and resolution but for the rest ?????
If you can compare the two.

[dlfrsilver]

Genesis use 4 palettes of 15 colors and can cycling between them. It makes it have 64 colors naturally on screen.

[s2325]

rainbow copper effects

[frikilokooo]

Screen high resolution although almost not used in the games.

Bigger graphic palette 4096 colors,it is very important because I have needed more colors when I have drawn in Amiga 500 so the Megadrive is worse with only 512 colors.

Faster CPU for 3D games altought the A500 is still very slow.

Better video connection(RGB),still the RGB for consoles didn't exist.

Save data in a game although there are some cartridges with possibility of saving.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

Faster CPU for 3D games altought the A500 is still very slow.

Eh? They both have the same 68000 CPU at the same frequency.

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

Better video connection(RGB),still the RGB for consoles didn't exist.

Eh?? Megadrives had RGB SCART

[musashi5150]

A big for the Megadrive was having all the game data/code in fast ROM. No access times for loading and the ability to have lots of different sprites/backgrounds instantly accessible.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by musashi5150

A big for the Megadrive was having all the game data/code in fast ROM. No access times for loading and the ability to have lots of different sprites/backgrounds instantly accessible.

Well the downside is it was expensive and small and there where no PD/Shareware/Homemade games released (okay some through backup utilities).
Because of the larger RAM of the Amiga there were more complex games at the time.

[discomeats]

megadrive had the 2 scrollable layers plus the "window" overlayed and I don't know how many sprites on the megadrive, I'm sure wikipedia has the answer

the amiga had better sampled sound output, but the megadrive had more sound channels, and it's nice to be able to hear sound effects and game music at the same time

I couldn't really say which is "better" tho, I guess it just depends on what you doing.

I reckon a megadrive has the edge on the 500 at least for 2d games, but it's still down to the skillz of your programmers.

I would suggest comparing the typical games that came out on both systems year by year to see what was better.

[frikilokooo]

I cannot avoid to compare Goal!(Amiga) Vs. Dino Dini Soccer(Megadrive).In this game Megadrive handles more colors in the sprites than in the Amiga.Amiga version only has 4 colors for each sprite!I guess that it is for being able to use more hardware sprites at the same time,the blitter(bobs) could have used but they are slower than the sprites.The conclusion is that the Megadrive seems to handle more colors in the sprites although the Amiga can use the blitter but is slower.

VS

[laser]

Originally Posted by turrican3

the sound (paula is far better)

that's not true
the megadrive have 8 audio channels but paula only 4
that's why megadrive'games have better sound than the amiga games

bubba n stix is an example...on the amiga version you can choice between sound effects or music ..but on the megadrive version you can play with both

another examlple is the game Aladdin...the amiga version features sound effects+music but with audio-stoppage.....
No audio stoppage on the megadrive version of Aladdin

[s2325]

but in MegaDrive version music is generated, not played from custom samples

[musashi5150]

Originally Posted by laser

the megadrive have 8 audio channels

It has 6 channels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_YM2612

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by laser

that's not true
the megadrive have 8 audio channels but paula only 4
that's why megadrive'games have better sound than the amiga games

bubba n stix is an example...on the amiga version you can choice between sound effects or music ..but on the megadrive version you can play with both

another examlple is the game Aladdin...the amiga version features sound effects+music but with audio-stoppage.....
No audio stoppage on the megadrive version of Aladdin

The Paula sound IS BETTER. Amount of sound channels is irrelevant, the Amiga more than makes up for this with sampled sounds as opposed to the 'bleep bleep' artificial sounding nature of the Megadrive.

You have heard of TFMX's 7 channel music yes? You do realise you can do realtime sample mixing to produce 8 channels in other music programs yes?

Oh how wonderful the Megadrive version of Xenon 2 sounded..... not!

[dlfrsilver]

Hey Galahad, can you tell us if the amiga can manage 4 or 5 palettes on which you can cycling on amiga without CPU consumption ? Thanks for you answer !

[laser]

Originally Posted by musashi5150

It has 6 channels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_YM2612

upppss........you are right...even you can disable them one by one on gens emulator
was the SNES with have 8 audio channels

[Madcrow]

All models of Amiga have MUCH better sound than the MD (or Genesis as it got called over in my neck of the woods) and, when used wisely, the Amiga 500's graphics abilities are just about on par with the MD/G's, though you have to approach them differently. CPU power is just about dead even. The only real big DISadvantage of the A500 is that disks have loading times... A1200-level machines blow the MD/G out of the water, graphically speaking and in terms of CPU power, so there's no comparison, really.

[frikilokooo]

Another defect of the A1200 is that has the same blitter that the A500 so even with the double speed (14mhz) the A1200 is a little slow coverall with AGA games,for instance The Chaos Engine AGA.

[laser]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

You have heard of TFMX's 7 channel music yes? You do realise you can do realtime sample mixing to produce 8 channels in other music programs yes?

Oh how wonderful the Megadrive version of Xenon 2 sounded..... not!

yes..but that requires special technology ...was invented by turrican' developers
and that technology not was public domain and not was available for all developers...
xenon 2 is better on the amiga...but it's a rare exception

but

I remembered another common title : chuck rock 1.....on the amiga you can choice between sound effects or music....on the megadrive you can play with both
aside... this game in general is lot better than the amiga version...more colours ....64 megadrive colours vs 32 amiga colours...the difference is huge

the megadrive version of chuck rock 1 & 2 is lot better than the amiga

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Hey Galahad, can you tell us if the amiga can manage 4 or 5 palettes on which you can cycling on amiga without CPU consumption ? Thanks for you answer !

Only with extensive copper reloading, and that would be one massive fucking copper list to achieve that.

[laffer]

I'd rather have 4 channels with great sound than 6 channels with mediocre sound.

The Amiga has tons better sound than the Megadrive/Genesis.