Sega CD - Failure?

[goatdan]

Well, we all know what the Sega CD is. My question stems from another post -- I have never thought of the Sega CD as a failure, but I'm sure that some people do. I am just wondering if you thought the Sega CD was a success or a failure and why.

 

Personally, I always thought of it as a success -- not a great one, but a success none the less -- because Sega wanted to use a new storage medium to change the way that games were made. Compared to the CD based other systems of the same relative time (Jaguar CD and 3DO), the Sega CD was probably the most successful.

 

What about everyone else?

[Gregory DG]

I've always considered it a bomb (if not a failure.) Certainly not as successful as the Genesis. And how could it be? Sega limited their market when they did add-ons like the Sega CD and 32X.

 

What standout games did the Sega CD have? There may have been some good ones, but I think the FMV stuff stands out way too much.

 

Anyway, the Genesis was really the only truly successful Sega system. The DC is a firm #2... I wish it had done better.

[HawgWyld]

That's kind of a tough thing to ponder. I've always regarded the Sega CD as a failure, simply because most of the games for it are horrible and/or almost direct ports of Genesis cart games.

 

Still, there's enough on there to make it worthwhile for me to have one (I still love Sonic CD no matter what anyone says).

 

So, quality-wise, the Sega CD was a bit of a dog. Still, Sega sold a heck of a lot of the things and, no doubt, turned a profit. However, I'd argue the quality of the titles released for it angered more than a few gamers, not to mention the fact is cost an arm and a leg and -- really -- wasn't around all that long.

 

In short, it's kind of a mixed bag, isn't it?

[Cap5750]

Mine is a failure. But it's just something to do with a bad resistor I think. I have the instructions that were from a website somewhere on how to fix it, but just haven't ever got around to it. And with KEGA and the other emulator, I can play all my games on the peesee which makes me even less motivated to fix it.

 

Cap

[Lemmi]

i didnt get a Sega CD untill 1995 or so, but i never thought it was a failure

i loved it, as it was my first CD based system, i remember my heart pounding when turning it on and hearing the music at the start up screen for the first time. very loud that music was

 

the Sega Cd was one of my first purchaces after deciding to start collecting seriously

 

i never knew anyone who owned a sega cd when it first came out, i owned a genesis, and i always wanted the CD, but the girlfriend i was doing at the time kept me to busy to think about videogames back then

[Kialan]

Well when it was out I personally only knew one person who had it. And in fact I'm waiting for mine in the mail which would be the first time I played it. It will NOT be the first time I've seen one around here...as many people have them at fleamarkets.

 

So..

 

Considering the amount of games, and the availability of games and systems on ebay, I wouldn't call it a failure. I'd call it just what it is: an add-on. You have to look at it from that perspective as not everyone buys add-ons for their systems. I'd say only the mildly hardcore gamers and up would...not the casual grandpa who has a sega for his grandkids to play during the holidays.

 

I think the fact that the Sega CD was out during the FMV phase/obsession, people were starting to not care about FMVs and realized they were just a ..oh I can't think of the word...fad/perk/trend argh. You know what I mean. So the Sega CD had many of these games and maybe people were turned off by that.

 

But still, judging from an add-on perspective, I think the Sega CD was a success.

[figgler]

A failure I say, in terms of penetration and sales, but a champion of innovation and contraversy. That Dana plato game caused quite the stir

 

 

 

What standout games did the Sega CD have?

 

Sonic CD is widely regarded as the best Sonic game ever. Tough that's the only one I can think of really

[Adrian M]

Without a doubt, the Sega CD was a failure.

Let me list some reasons as to why:

 

1. Overpriced

2. Same limited color palette (Sega really missed the boat on this one...all the FMV games look terrible as a result)

3. Too many cart-to-CD ports with little to no enhancements

4. FMV games

5. Slow disc access

6. Split the Genesis market into two distinct halves (as did the PCE/TG-16 system)

[Stingray]

In the other post you mentioned that there were something like 120ish Sega CD games (I'm sure I'm quoting the number wrong, but it was 100+ anyway). In my opinion an add-on with 100+ games available for it can hardly be considered a failure. I can't speak as to the quality of those games though. I have a Sega CD that I picked up at a thrift store a couple months ago, but I still don't have a Genesis to attach it to! I'm sure I'll come across one eventually.

 

-S

[goatdan]

Yeah, the Sega CD had 149 officially released games during its lifespan, and another 5 or so now from Good Deal Games / OlderGames.

 

I would say in the way of standouts, it had:

 

Sonic CD

Lunar

Lunar II

Dark Wizard

Popful Mail

Third World War

 

I don't think any of those games could've been done in the same fashion before the Sega CD came out...

 

Also, while FMV games are not thought of to be much right now, back when CD media started to become feasible as a gaming medium, everyone thought that FMV would be the way of the future and the games that featured it were popular due to the amount of hype they received. Now looking back at them though, many of them are subpar as games.

 

I guess the other thing to look at is if the sale of a Sega CD actually earned Sega money, or if they lost money on it to get market penetration. I assume that because it was an addon that did little processing on it's own, it would have been a moneymaker.

[HawgWyld]

Actually, it did quite a bit of processing on its own. Had a CPU which ran faster than the one built into the Genesis and added some effects such as scaling and rotation to games. It also added more RAM to the Genesis. It expanded the hardware of the Genesis quite a bit, indeed.

 

And, I love the fact you can save games on it. Having to write down passwords always did suck, and a lot of Sega CD games took advantage of the save feature.

[Stingray]

And' date=' I love the fact you can save games on it. Having to write down passwords always did suck, and a lot of Sega CD games took advantage of the save feature.[/quote']

 

I didn't know this. Does it have some type of internal flash memory?

 

-S

[HawgWyld]

Internal flash memory? Something like that. I'm not sure how it works, actually. I'm just glad it does

[Adrian M]

And' date=' I love the fact you can save games on it. Having to write down passwords always did suck, and a lot of Sega CD games took advantage of the save feature.[/quote']

 

I didn't know this. Does it have some type of internal flash memory?

 

-S

 

It's nothing revolutionary. The NEC PC Engine/TG-16 had built in memory save space on their CDROM (which debuted much earlier in 1989).

[Stingray]

I wasn't trying to imply that this was the first system with built in save capabilities. I just never knew that it could do that. Like I said in my earlier post, I've never even played one. I didn't know that the TG-16 could do it either. That's another system I've never owned, but I'd like to pick one up one of these days.

 

-S

[DracIsBack]

I've always considered it a bomb (if not a failure.)

 

"Bombs" don't sell in excess of 2 million units (especially at that time) and they don't have in excess of 100 games. A disappointment? Maybe. A bomb, no.

 

Virtual Boy = bomb

Jaguar = bomb

3DO = bomb

32X = bomb

Pippin = bomb

 

Just my opinion.

 

Anyway, the Genesis was really the only truly successful Sega system. The DC is a firm #2... I wish it had done better.

 

It's all relative. The Genesis was a smash in North America and strong in Europe but not successful in Japan. The Master Syste, was strong in Europe but not here. The Dreamcast could be argued about in different ways.

[HawgWyld]

And, who cares if it was the first to offer that? Truth be told, the "save game" feature was pretty standard back in the days of NES with batteries inside the carts and all. Even some Genesis carts came with such battery-save ability built in.

 

However, it was a darn good idea to give the Sega CD the built-in ability to save games. Very useful, even if it wasn't revolutionary.

[Lastblade]

I don't consider the Sega CD a bomb. It was a nice peripheral that was well supported (compared to say, the 32x or N64 DD drive).

 

Among the games out, some of my favorites include:

 

Snatcher

Lethal Enforces 1&2 (better than the cart version)

Panic!

Lunar 1 & 2

Vay

Popful Mail

Dark Wizard <- one of my favorite games on any system

Soul Star

Heart of the Alien (includes the popular prequel, Out of This World)

Batman

 

And many others, it is a nice system!

[Major Havoc 2049]

I never really looked at the Sega CD as a stand alone system and considered it part of the Genesis. If you have a Genesis along with the Master System add-on, Sega CD and 32X, then you have access to a vast amount of good games from the 8, 16 and 32 bit era. If you play Sega CD games, then you have to have a Genesis.

 

The Dynamix games on the Sega CD such as Stellar 7 and Rise of the Dragon were also good. There are also a few good shooters such as Robo Aleste and a few others.

 

The Saturn and Dreamcast also have a bunch of great games.

[DeV0]

Ive only played segacd in recent years and can say that none of my friends had one when they where new. I dont think it was a failure and I dont think it was a success, somewhere in between in limbo. Ive got quite a few original cd's and iso's of which none I find outstanding. Theres a fighting game "eternal champions?" which is pretty good. Hey, can someone tell me if ecco cd is any different apart from the sound??

[JB]

Internal flash memory? Something like that. I'm not sure how it works' date=' actually. I'm just glad it does [/quote']Battery-backup RAM.

Flash RAM was a good ways away at the time.

 

 

 

 

Anyways, if the SegaCD hadn't been at least a mild success, they would have stripped hte expansion bus from the Genesis 2, and wouldn't have spent the cash to redesign the SCD into a new unit that could interface with the smaller base console.

[ninjarabbit]

The CD was okay if you look at it by itself, nothing bad or good imo, but the 32x was what started Sega's decline, especially in the wake of the Saturn coming out. Too many things to support and dividng your market base is not a good idea obviously (except to Sega executives).

[chrisbid]

i would call it a mild success, and it paved the way (for other companies) to release games on CD-ROM.

 

im also going to guess that it sold more units than the Master System did in America

 

i would also have to add that even though the video was grainy, it was really impressive in the day, even video on PCs in the day weren't much better, games like Tomcat Alley were actually visually impressive, and the reviews of the day give them credit.

 

 

so if you rate a machine on a three tier scale based on longevity, market penetration, public awareness and raw sales numbers, the Sega CD would be in the middle. Along with the 3DO, Master System, Dreamcast, and Intellivision.

[Cap5750]

I've still yet to add Dana Plato to my collection.

 

Cap

[DracIsBack]

iso if you rate a machine on a three tier scale based on longevity' date=' market penetration, public awareness and raw sales numbers, the Sega CD would be in the middle. Along with the 3DO, Master System, Dreamcast, and Intellivision.[/quote']

 

While I like the 3DO, I wouldn't put it on the same tier. The SMS, DC and INTV all sold several million consoles each. The 3DO didn't come anywhere near that. The INTV and SMS both had really long lifespans, whereas the 3DO was pretty much DOA when the PSX arrived.