Arcade Card - Game enhancement?

[Trenton_net]

Hey Everyone,

I know that some games can use the Arcade Card to enhance them, but are not required. Does anyone know what kind of enhancements one can expect when using the card vs without? Some games I've heard that can use the card are as follows:

+ 3 x 3 Eyes Sanjiyan Hensei
+ Atlas (The) - Renaissance Voyager
+ Brandish
+ Eikan Wa Kimini
+ Formation Soccer '95
+ Gulliver Boy
+ J. League Tremendous Soccer '94
+ Linda Cube
+ Mahjong Sword Princess Quest Gaiden
+ Popful Mail
+ Princess Maker 2
+ Private Eye Doll
+ Sexy Idol Mahjong Fashion Monogatari
+ Sotsugyou II Neo Generation
+ Super Real Mahjong P II & III Custom
+ Super Real Mahjong P V Custom
+ Tanjou Debut
+ Vasteel 2
+ Wrestling Angels Double Impact

Anyone have any ideas?

[HailingTheThings]

Doesn't it improve the load times for all CD games?

[Bernie]

Makes them Super Duper CD games. 

[Tatsujin]

Yeah, mostly it loads a bigger bunch of graphic data into the AC to obtain longer, uninterrupted and smoothened cut scenes.

[VestCunt]

Also unlocks programmers' commentary and deleted scenes w/naughty bits.

[HailingTheThings]

Also unlocks programmers' commentary and deleted scenes w/naughty bits.

That'd bee hilarious. *buzz zabuzz*

[Trenton_net]

Yeah, mostly it loads a bigger bunch of graphic data into the AC to obtain longer, uninterrupted and smoothened cut scenes.

Ah, I was hoping it added more frames of animation to in-game playing or something. But it does sound like cut scenes are the easiest to improve.

[Ray]

Usually it just decreases loading times. In the case of 3 x 3 Eyes however the cinematics are at a higher quality with added CD music, but with pretty long loading times.

[seieienbu]

I seem to recall reading something a long while ago about Princess Maker 2 actually being slower loading with Arcade Card than with a Super System Card.

[awack]

If I remember right, for Vasteel 2 it adds ADPCM sound fx...I wonder how that worked, maybe the 64k ADPCM memory was used for code/graphics, so when the ACD was used the 64k was freed up to add cool ADPCM sndfx,

When ever talk of bi compatable games come up, im always made sad that the fact Macross 2036 is only a 64k regular cd game, even with a puny 64k memory, its able to put out levels with 3 or 4 distinct BGs, 4 huge beautifully animated bosses, player ship with 2 distinctive sprites each one very well animated, a large number of distinct and impressive ADPCM sndfx, and ingame cutscenes, where the cartoon is pasted on top of the action.....that's only one meg of memory, think if you had 5 megs of fu##ing memory, kinda gets me thinking, I cant think of a single optimized cdrom side scrolling action game, like rondo of blood,(2 load times per level) so I wonder what a optimized cdrom rondo of blood would be like.

[Ray]

I seem to recall reading something a long while ago about Princess Maker 2 actually being slower loading with Arcade Card than with a Super System Card.

Is this for cinematics or regular gameplay? If it's for cinematics, it's most likely to add CD quality music along with voices. Usually, a PC Engine game is unable to have both CD voices and music at the same time unless you merge them together(which means you wouldn't be able to use that music track for other situations) but the Arcade Card's huge amount of RAM allows a bi-compatible game to store the voices on there and stream the music. This does add longer loading times though.

When ever talk of bi compatable games come up, im always made sad that the fact Macross 2036 is only a 64k regular cd game, even with a puny 64k memory, its able to put out levels with 3 or 4 distinct BGs, 4 huge beautifully animated bosses, player ship with 2 distinctive sprites each one very well animated, a large number of distinct and impressive ADPCM sndfx, and ingame cutscenes, where the cartoon is pasted on top of the action.....that's only one meg of memory, think if you had 5 megs of fu##ing memory, kinda gets me thinking, I cant think of a single optimized cdrom side scrolling action game, like rondo of blood,(2 load times per level) so I wonder what a optimized cdrom rondo of blood would be like.

Macross 2036 is kind of a strange case. It was technically a 64k CD game, but why slap the Super CD logo on there? Is it a CD/SCD bi-compatible game? If it isn't, it's up there along with Spriggan as the most impressive 64k CD games.

[CrackTiger]

Here is what happens with 3x3 Eyes:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/3x3_eyes_acd_vs_scd_beta.avi

[Bernie]

Here is what happens with 3x3 Eyes:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/3x3_eyes_acd_vs_scd_beta.avi

Getting the 404 error...and what happened to your Youtube?? 

[CrackTiger]

Here is what happens with 3x3 Eyes:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/3x3_eyes_acd_vs_scd_beta.avi

Sega killed it to promote another crappy Shining game.

People usually only have trouble with videos in my webspace when they try opening them in a browser. Should work fine if you download it.

Getting the 404 error...and what happened to your Youtube?? 

[Trenton_net]

Link seems dead to me.

[CrackTiger]

Link seems dead to me.

I downloaded it myself the day before yesterday. I'll try uploading it under a different file name.

[A Black Falcon]

If I remember right, for Vasteel 2 it adds ADPCM sound fx...I wonder how that worked, maybe the 64k ADPCM memory was used for code/graphics, so when the ACD was used the 64k was freed up to add cool ADPCM sndfx,

When ever talk of bi compatable games come up, im always made sad that the fact Macross 2036 is only a 64k regular cd game, even with a puny 64k memory, its able to put out levels with 3 or 4 distinct BGs, 4 huge beautifully animated bosses, player ship with 2 distinctive sprites each one very well animated, a large number of distinct and impressive ADPCM sndfx, and ingame cutscenes, where the cartoon is pasted on top of the action.....that's only one meg of memory, think if you had 5 megs of fu##ing memory, kinda gets me thinking, I cant think of a single optimized cdrom side scrolling action game, like rondo of blood,(2 load times per level) so I wonder what a optimized cdrom rondo of blood would be like.

Yeah, it does seem like developers rarely manged to max out the system... particularly for platformers.  Most don't even bother with trying to pull off parallax, for instance, and the ones that do only seem to do it sometimes.  Of course, there just aren't anywhere near as many platformers on the system as there are on the SNES or Genesis, so there's a relatively small sample size...

I seem to recall reading something a long while ago about Princess Maker 2 actually being slower loading with Arcade Card than with a Super System Card.

Is this for cinematics or regular gameplay? If it's for cinematics, it's most likely to add CD quality music along with voices. Usually, a PC Engine game is unable to have both CD voices and music at the same time unless you merge them together(which means you wouldn't be able to use that music track for other situations) but the Arcade Card's huge amount of RAM allows a bi-compatible game to store the voices on there and stream the music. This does add longer loading times though.

When ever talk of bi compatable games come up, im always made sad that the fact Macross 2036 is only a 64k regular cd game, even with a puny 64k memory, its able to put out levels with 3 or 4 distinct BGs, 4 huge beautifully animated bosses, player ship with 2 distinctive sprites each one very well animated, a large number of distinct and impressive ADPCM sndfx, and ingame cutscenes, where the cartoon is pasted on top of the action.....that's only one meg of memory, think if you had 5 megs of fu##ing memory, kinda gets me thinking, I cant think of a single optimized cdrom side scrolling action game, like rondo of blood,(2 load times per level) so I wonder what a optimized cdrom rondo of blood would be like.

Macross 2036 is kind of a strange case. It was technically a 64k CD game, but why slap the Super CD logo on there? Is it a CD/SCD bi-compatible game? If it isn't, it's up there along with Spriggan as the most impressive 64k CD games.

It's a bi-compatible game, much like the third Ranma game.  I'm not sure what they improve; probably load times.  I think they're longer without the Super CD card.

Yeah, mostly it loads a bigger bunch of graphic data into the AC to obtain longer, uninterrupted and smoothened cut scenes.

Ah, I was hoping it added more frames of animation to in-game playing or something. But it does sound like cut scenes are the easiest to improve.

Some games have improved cutscene animation with the Arcade Card... haven't heard of any that improve ingame animation with it, though.

[CrackTiger]

Alright, this definitely works on every device/browser I've tried:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/3x3_eyes_acd_vs_scd.avi

[HailingTheThings]

I want to say that I've seen that on the youtube before?

[A Black Falcon]

Does the game only have added animation in the intro, or is there some in the game too?

[seieienbu]

I want to say that I've seen that on the youtube before?

I swear it used to be on there.  I went looking for it to post in this thread but couldn't find it.  Perhaps I didn't watch it on youtube or perhaps it was taken down from there.

[CrackTiger]

I want to say that I've seen that on the youtube before?

I swear it used to be on there.  I went looking for it to post in this thread but couldn't find it.  Perhaps I didn't watch it on youtube or perhaps it was taken down from there.

Sega had my youtube account deleted to promote an upcoming Shining game.

[esteban]

Alright, this definitely works on every device/browser I've tried:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/3x3_eyes_acd_vs_scd.avi

I just watched this again (it's been years since I watched some of your videos!) and this is, quite simply, THE BEST way to illustrate the differences between SCD and ACD during the cinemas.

Do you have links to similar SCDvsACD videos?

THANKS 

[johnnykonami]

I never knew that the arcade card enhanced anything!  All this time I just thought it was a way to either play inferior SNK fighting game ports and Sapphire, so I never paid any attention to it.  This is cool though, Vasteel 2 and Popful Mail are on my bucket list, so maybe now I'll keep an eye out.

[Trenton_net]

I never knew that the arcade card enhanced anything!  All this time I just thought it was a way to either play inferior SNK fighting game ports and Sapphire, so I never paid any attention to it.  This is cool though, Vasteel 2 and Popful Mail are on my bucket list, so maybe now I'll keep an eye out.

Uh? I  thought the SNK ports were rather superior than other consoles. IMHO. Also, bare in mind this covers only select titles. Not saying all SNK ports were the best.

[johnnykonami]

I never knew that the arcade card enhanced anything!  All this time I just thought it was a way to either play inferior SNK fighting game ports and Sapphire, so I never paid any attention to it.  This is cool though, Vasteel 2 and Popful Mail are on my bucket list, so maybe now I'll keep an eye out.

Uh? I  thought the SNK ports were rather superior than other consoles. IMHO. Also, bare in mind this covers only select titles. Not saying all SNK ports were the best.

I only meant the obvious, that they were inferior to the actual MVS/AES carts.  I don't think I would bother with any ports when you could spring for the originals or get a pretty good collection like the ones on PS2.

[CrackTiger]

I never knew that the arcade card enhanced anything!  All this time I just thought it was a way to either play inferior SNK fighting game ports and Sapphire, so I never paid any attention to it.  This is cool though, Vasteel 2 and Popful Mail are on my bucket list, so maybe now I'll keep an eye out.

Uh? I  thought the SNK ports were rather superior than other consoles. IMHO. Also, bare in mind this covers only select titles. Not saying all SNK ports were the best.

I only meant the obvious, that they were inferior to the actual MVS/AES carts.  I don't think I would bother with any ports when you could spring for the originals or get a pretty good collection like the ones on PS2.

The PC Engine versions have better music than any other version from what I've heard.

[johnnykonami]

The PC Engine versions have better music than any other version from what I've heard.

Well, that could be true, but I'm not a huge fighting game fanatic either way so I probably wouldn't ever have my eye on the SNK ports for the Arcade card, personally.

[rtyper]

As an aside to this threads title, which games are incompatable with the arcade card ?
Stuck pop 'n magic (pce) in the duo-r but had to remove the arcade card to play the game,
kept getting the 'suprise' pic warning about the game not working on that system set-up.
...anyone else had problem games ?

[CrackTiger]

As an aside to this threads title, which games are incompatable with the arcade card ?
Stuck pop 'n magic (pce) in the duo-r but had to remove the arcade card to play the game,
kept getting the 'suprise' pic warning about the game not working on that system set-up.
...anyone else had problem games ?

You can't beast morph in Altered Beast CD using the Arcade Card.

[esteban]

As an aside to this threads title, which games are incompatable with the arcade card ?
Stuck pop 'n magic (pce) in the duo-r but had to remove the arcade card to play the game,
kept getting the 'suprise' pic warning about the game not working on that system set-up.
...anyone else had problem games ?

I didn't know this...I, too, am curious about other incompatibilities between specific games and system cards.

[Joe Redifer]

You can't beast morph in Altered Beast CD using the Arcade Card.

The Arcade Card is not powerful enough to handle beast mode in Altered Beast. Heck, even the Super System Card can't handle it. Or how about the v2 System Card? NOPE! Only the version 1 card will work with Altered Beast because that game requires the super-secret technology they built into the first card. The government soon made NEC get rid of that because it was like weapons-grade powerful. Just imagine all of the amazing games we could have had today had NEC just stuck with System Card 1.0 ONLY throughout the entire life of the PCE.

[roflmao]

You can't beast morph in Altered Beast CD using the Arcade Card.

The Arcade Card is not powerful enough to handle beast mode in Altered Beast. Heck, even the Super System Card can't handle it. Or how about the v2 System Card? NOPE! Only the version 1 card will work with Altered Beast because that game requires the super-secret technology they built into the first card. The government soon made NEC get rid of that because it was like weapons-grade powerful. Just imagine all of the amazing games we could have had today had NEC just stuck with System Card 1.0 ONLY throughout the entire life of the PCE.

QFT.

[wolfman]

You can't beast morph in Altered Beast CD using the Arcade Card.

The Arcade Card is not powerful enough to handle beast mode in Altered Beast. Heck, even the Super System Card can't handle it. Or how about the v2 System Card? NOPE! Only the version 1 card will work with Altered Beast because that game requires the super-secret technology they built into the first card. The government soon made NEC get rid of that because it was like weapons-grade powerful. Just imagine all of the amazing games we could have had today had NEC just stuck with System Card 1.0 ONLY throughout the entire life of the PCE.

Yes. It is the back-story of Enemy of the State, which isn´t a feature film - actually it is a documentary by left-winged indie filmmakers. As a proof you see a Turbo Express in the first few minutes of the film.