I gave it a listen. I think the Model 2 is my favorite. To my ears it sounds the least grating and 'metallic'. I don't know why, but I get a metallic style feel from a lot of the Genesis sound. I guess it's something associated with FM synth?
I think the other thing that holds me back is when they try to use samples on the Genesis they sound EXTREMELY tinny, and the SNES was actually pretty good at that. I think it's basically the SNES that ruined the Genesis audio for me. I compare them quite frequently. If the Genesis had launched alone in the USA, I think I'd just chalk that up to what 16 bit platforms sounded like.
I gotta toss in that I actually really like the PC Engine/TG16 sound, but it may or may not count as a 16 bit console, depending how you feel about it.
I have tried various low-pass filters, but I think the buttery smooth audio of the SNES has spoiled me. It's a shame because the Genesis library has a lot of really impressive stuff.
Nintendo's way is to get last-gen hardware and add some kind of tweak to it and then just have a solid game library. They are almost never cutting edge. Even the new Switch2 is not a cutting edge SOC.
If anything, this experimentation was the problem. Look back to when the SegaCD/32X/Saturn were all around. No one knew what to buy and Sega didn't make it very clear either. They were split waaaay too much.
Gamegear was crippled by abysmal battery life. If you took the lithium battery technology of today and warped it back to where the Gamegear was, it would have made a huge difference. Gamegear fans loved to dunk on the Gameboy, but you could get a decent playtime out of it, whereas the Gamegear sucked down batteries like nobody's business.
Sega was so drained after the very distracted years of juggling the SegaCD/32X/Saturn and people were sooo pissed how the Saturn went that even hardcore Sega fans were annoyed when the Dreamcast came out, wondering if it would have a short and frustrating lifetime like the Saturn did. Sega just had so much ADD in regards to their planning and strategy everyone was kind of doing a "wait and see". Meanwhile, Sony threw the full might into the Playstation, had a great run there and then even the whispers of PS2 was enough to make everyone hyped. The other factor here is that the PS2 could also play DVDs and the Dreamcast could not. That doesn't seem like a big deal now, but back then there was no online streaming and DVD players were really expensive. Some people bought the PS2 primarily because of the DVD support and the games were almost an afterthought.
It's all a shame, because the Dreamcast was actually really strong technically. In a vacuum it probably would have done better, but alas, it was not in a vacuum and Sony was able to easily grab up all the market share with the PS2.
The "should" in that sentence is why I keep Windows 11 laptop around. Approximately 100% of the EXEs on there work vs with Photon where it starts up, but I get a bug and then I wonder if that's a problem with the game, or if I have some setting right.
Now when I want to game, I just game. No more fiddling. The Windows 11 laptop sits quietly in a bag until I want to play a game, I use it for that, and then put it back away until I want to have fun. My workflow has 0% dependency on Windows and that's how I like it now.
I think everyone goes through a zealot period where they have discovered it and want the whole world to get on board. Now the setup works great for me and I do not care who else in the world uses it. My limited exposure to Windows 11 is infuriating and I'm eternally grateful to open source devs that I have a relaxing and functional Linux environment.
Ah, but one is able to avoid those types of cereals and milks rather easily. If you live in a city with a florinated water supply, I suppose you could buy only bottled water, but that's significantly harder than avoiding the other product classes.
I'm not sure. Vitamin C was just something that came to mind because I know it is beneficial and I have not heard of anyone complaining about it. It may be entirely impractical to add to a water supply.
Well, that's kind of my argument. Why not augment the water supply with other things that are beneficial and low risk? Why is it only cavities that get this treatment?
A lot of games I want to play with mods, the authors only release Windows installers. A great example is Battletech, the HBS remake. There's a "BTA advanced" mod I like to run and it takes a lot of screwing around to get it to work properly in Linux, but it's a few clicks on Windows. I will agree Proton has come a LONG way and some titles are perfect, but I get so little gaming time that when I sit down, I don't want to fucking around with swapping various Glorious Eggroll versions of Wine, or wondering which version of .net I need to get the game to run under Linux. On Windows it "just works".
I do have a few titles I play on Linux, but I keep that laptop around just for gaming because I don't want to mess around.
Anecdotally I would say 90% of my games work absolutely perfectly with Proton and it's mostly mods that screw up the experience.
If it’s urgent, they will should leave a message (instead they keep calling and complain that “it’s hard to get hold of me”).
This fucking kills me. The people who I screen the call, they go to voicemail, they hang up and try again, I send them to voicemail.... it's infuriating. Voicemail exists for a reason! And yes, my experience mirrors yours in that the same people will say they have "no way" to reach me.
The argument for fluoride is very odd. It's like "Well, you wouldn't want people to get CAVITIES would you? It's worth the risk." But there's no one out there saying "Well, you wouldn't want people getting SCURVY would you? Vitamin C in the water supply!"
Why is this one issue powerful enough to involuntarily dose everyone?
Linux isn't perfect but I don't have to put up with that kind of bullshit from the makers of my OS. Glad I switched long ago and never looked back (except for the Windows laptop I keep around for games)
Exactly—it's tricky because where do you draw the line? If someone genuinely prefers the smooth glide of their Pilot G2 pen, or casually mentions how much they enjoyed unwinding with a chilled bottle of Topo Chico last night, is that just organic conversation or subtle marketing? Makes it pretty tough to enforce without losing authentic chatter entirely.
Sure, it wasn't universally true, but consider if all the games that landed on Saturn, Sega CD and 32X instead landed just on the 32X. You would have had a lot more decent titles on the 32X to choose from, and the power of Sega promoting a single platform and vision would have probably brought even more studios and publishers onboard, because it would seem like a better investment.
Making games for a home console was crazy expensive back then, and unless companies were confident in the platform, they just wouldn't do it. Check out the difference in quality between Atari 2600 shovelware vs. early NES titles.
The problem with a platform with limited titles is it makes the stinkers really stick out. Look at the Jaguar -- very few "killer apps" to be remembered.
I gave it a listen. I think the Model 2 is my favorite. To my ears it sounds the least grating and 'metallic'. I don't know why, but I get a metallic style feel from a lot of the Genesis sound. I guess it's something associated with FM synth?
I think the other thing that holds me back is when they try to use samples on the Genesis they sound EXTREMELY tinny, and the SNES was actually pretty good at that. I think it's basically the SNES that ruined the Genesis audio for me. I compare them quite frequently. If the Genesis had launched alone in the USA, I think I'd just chalk that up to what 16 bit platforms sounded like.
I gotta toss in that I actually really like the PC Engine/TG16 sound, but it may or may not count as a 16 bit console, depending how you feel about it.