Uhm, as I remember it; SNES could display 256 colours at one time from a 512 colour palette, and the Genesis only 64 from a 256 colour palette.
Evidence of this was quite clear when playing SegaCD games. One That comes to mind is "SewerShark", a gimicky FMV game. Unfortunately it looked like shit because of the dark scenes, narrow palette, and horrendous dithering. You may as well have played the game through a screen door. It would have at least explained the unwanted grid pattern over top of everything.
Conversely, while not a FMV game, "StarFox" for the SNES has some instances where it shows off the colour capability of the SNES. I refer to those scenes with the psychedelic backgrounds like the black hole level, or the final boss level. While not perfect, they are smoothly rendered, on-the-fly gradients made up of at least 32 colours. Gradients were never seen on the Genesis for one simple reason; they couldn't afford to waste the palette space.
All that being said, the Genesis DID have the faster processor, which could handle more moving things on the screen at once. Anyone who played some of the more bleeding edge SNES games is familiar with the infamous SNES slow-down feature. "It's like it KNOWS when you need slow-motion!" Though, I've seen the Genesis have trouble at times too.
As it relates to sound, it's gotta go to the SNES again, though SegaCD sounded great. And it should have, it was CD FFS (For Fuck's Sake). But the base Genesis sound unit was ass, I hate to say it.
I guess the best way to compare the systems is apples to apples. Street Fighter II Turbo (First SFII available for the Genesis methinks.) This title makes an excellent example of my points, especially the sound.
The colours on the Genesis look more saturated, but only because they couldn't afford the luxury of things like putting the depth of shadows that they did into the arcade or SNES versions. For an even more simple comparison, compare the backgrounds of the levels, it's clear that palette reduction techniques were used by the designers of the Genesis game, because they HAD to. The SNES version remains more closely true to the original.
The sound on the SNES was respectable. The music again remained pretty true, as did the sampled voices. Each, "HADOKEN!" and whatnot ringing true. The Genesis handled the music quite alright, but the sampled voices sounded like the characters had been gagged with their socks. The general effect wash muffled and mushy, "SHADOFEN!"
So, I concede the Genesis had the better number-crunching ability, but the SNES had the better graphics and sound units.
Feel free to argue me all that you want, just know that you're wrong. =)
Slashdot Mirror
Uhm, as I remember it; SNES could display 256 colours at one time from a 512 colour palette, and the Genesis only 64 from a 256 colour palette.
Evidence of this was quite clear when playing SegaCD games. One That comes to mind is "SewerShark", a gimicky FMV game. Unfortunately it looked like shit because of the dark scenes, narrow palette, and horrendous dithering. You may as well have played the game through a screen door. It would have at least explained the unwanted grid pattern over top of everything.
Conversely, while not a FMV game, "StarFox" for the SNES has some instances where it shows off the colour capability of the SNES. I refer to those scenes with the psychedelic backgrounds like the black hole level, or the final boss level. While not perfect, they are smoothly rendered, on-the-fly gradients made up of at least 32 colours. Gradients were never seen on the Genesis for one simple reason; they couldn't afford to waste the palette space.
All that being said, the Genesis DID have the faster processor, which could handle more moving things on the screen at once. Anyone who played some of the more bleeding edge SNES games is familiar with the infamous SNES slow-down feature. "It's like it KNOWS when you need slow-motion!" Though, I've seen the Genesis have trouble at times too.
As it relates to sound, it's gotta go to the SNES again, though SegaCD sounded great. And it should have, it was CD FFS (For Fuck's Sake). But the base Genesis sound unit was ass, I hate to say it.
I guess the best way to compare the systems is apples to apples. Street Fighter II Turbo (First SFII available for the Genesis methinks.) This title makes an excellent example of my points, especially the sound.
The colours on the Genesis look more saturated, but only because they couldn't afford the luxury of things like putting the depth of shadows that they did into the arcade or SNES versions. For an even more simple comparison, compare the backgrounds of the levels, it's clear that palette reduction techniques were used by the designers of the Genesis game, because they HAD to. The SNES version remains more closely true to the original.
The sound on the SNES was respectable. The music again remained pretty true, as did the sampled voices. Each, "HADOKEN!" and whatnot ringing true. The Genesis handled the music quite alright, but the sampled voices sounded like the characters had been gagged with their socks. The general effect wash muffled and mushy, "SHADOFEN!"
So, I concede the Genesis had the better number-crunching ability, but the SNES had the better graphics and sound units.
Feel free to argue me all that you want, just know that you're wrong. =)