"Mega Games"

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I came across this wildly interesting concept while reading a ZX Spectrum review:

"Games so demanding of machines of the time that they shipped with extra hardware just so you would be able to play them."

... And I thought it was quite fascinating, both as an idea and as something that companies actually used to do way back when to push consoles and home computers juuuust a little bit further.

He then went on to name the SEGA 32X, the Famicom's "Battle Box," the "Expansion Pak" for the N64, and the ill-fated "Aladdin Dick Deck Enhancer" as examples of this sort of thing, but I'm sure there are plenty more out there, like the few computer games I bought that came with boot disks and a few trinkets that you were supposed to add to your machine in order to get them running.

Do you know any other examples?

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

The SFC/SNES famously has a myriad of games with a variety of special chips to push the hardware further..

But more to your point, the Sega Saturn had its 1 & 4 MB RAM expansion cartridge(s)..

 

[PatrickWeylin]

Star Fox's Super FX chip is the one that comes to my mind immediately.

And although not the exact thing you're talking about, Sonic 3 & Knuckles being 2 carts plugged into each other allowed them to pack two games worth of content into one

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Do multi-disc games count?

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Do multi-disc games count?

I'm afraid not, but interesting nonetheless!

 

[egwizard]

Probably the N64 DD? Ill-fated as it was, it still had some cool exclusives regardless like Doshin the Giant and Sim City 64

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Probably the N64 DD?

That's right! Kinda like the Famicom Disk System... Funny how people are quick to point to SEGA as being unable to learn from past mistakes, but Nintendo's a trail of dead bodies themselves.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

The Playstation was originally supposed to be a CD-expansion for the SFC/SNES. But then Nintendo stabbed Sony in the back and went with Phillips in the last minute. Jokes on them though, since the thing never came out, and Sony is still one of Nintendo's biggest rivals 30+ years later..

 

[egwizard]

That's right! Kinda like the Famicom Disk System... Funny how people are quick to point to SEGA as being unable to learn from past mistakes, but Nintendo's a trail of dead bodies themselves.

Exactly! I think the thing is Nintendo likes to bury their add-ons as if they never existed, but SEGA will happily shove their 32X and CD games into collections with no issue!

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Exactly! I think the thing is Nintendo likes to bury their add-ons as if they never existed, but SEGA will happily shove their 32X and CD games into collections with no issue!

I'll forever laugh at how SEGA were smart enough to pass up on the Virtual Boy when offered the chance to make it an official product xD

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

SNES versions of Mega Man X2 & X3 have a special chip named "Cx4" that allowed some transparency and 3D effects.

 

[Tsukishima]

There's a few I can list here.

The Fukutake StudyBox which is mostly an edutainment add on for the Famicom which allows you to play games on cassettes. These boasted staggeringly good audio values, which could be seen as otherwise unrealistic quality for the console.

There's also the Konami Q-Ta which could be seen as a massive cart loader you install where you otherwise insert the games. They're double the size of a traditional Famicom cartridge. All games for the add-on also had a special FX chip, like Castlevania III which produced much better audio quality. The details aren't extremely specific on the Q-ta but it's said it could hold double of what the standard game on the Famicom could ever have.

The Q-ta is very interesting, was never made available to the public, and a special collaboration between Konami and NHK, the broadcasting service over in Japan.

 

[Bakuma1997]

We are forgetting the legendary Blast Processing


Jokes aside, i recall a Famicom RPG named Ninjara Hoi that had nothing peculiar... except that instead of battery saves, you need a device thingy to save the games, akin to a Memory Card, worse? It means it doesn't save EVEN ON EMULATION (Obviously savestates work), shame, the game looks fire

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

We are forgetting the legendary Blast Processing


Jokes aside, i recall a Famicom RPG named Ninjara Hoi that had nothing peculiar... except that instead of battery saves, you need a device thingy to save the games, akin to a Memory Card, worse? It means it doesn't save EVEN ON EMULATION (Obviously savestates work), shame, the game looks fire
View attachment 202665

Looks like a mini CD player

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

We are forgetting the legendary Blast Processing


Jokes aside, i recall a Famicom RPG named Ninjara Hoi that had nothing peculiar... except that instead of battery saves, you need a device thingy to save the games, akin to a Memory Card, worse? It means it doesn't save EVEN ON EMULATION (Obviously savestates work), shame, the game looks fire
View attachment 202665

I'd love to get my hands on one of those... just to say I did xD

 

[Majora Fi]

The PC Engine had two disc drives.

While the "CD-ROM²" simply read discs, the "Super CD-ROM²" increased the console's RAM to 256KB when plugged in.