Cancelled Sega CD games

[ROJM]

People (ie SEGA Fans) still claimer  for Arcade ports to this day, Fan still want SEGA to do better ports of the likes of SEGA RAllY II , House Of the Dead and hope one day SEGA will port Scud Racer to the home and these are decades old Coin ups.  Even in the early 90's they were plenty of SEGA fans hoping for better ports of SEGA sprite scalier to systems like the Mega CD and Saturn .

Of course Sega fans clamour for arcade ports, who doesnt but its usually of ports for games that's never been released on console before. Half if not most of the sega fan base wanted to see ports of ARABIAN FIGHT, GOLDEN AXE THE REVENGE OF DEATH ADDER,POWERDRIFT, since the MCD would have been able to do a bit of justice to that game or games like DESERT TANK and many more for the Saturn. What most of us didn't want to see was another tired port of a game everyone played to death already especially during the MD era. Your not looking at the context of the time, it was a different market back then, it wasn't the connesseuir appreation of ports of classic titles as it is now, that really started during the Saturn era when i shall add the Sega gamer became a bit older. But during the MD era and looking at the diverse base that made up the userbase? Definatly not a demand for seeing that game, from the magazines maybe(but they didn't say much either) but definatly not from the fans.

It looked great in the screen shoots when you saw it moving and heard it , it was a different matter  ( it didn't help that the PC Eng version looked better too). Mega CD had the Hardware to handle the Sound perfectly and the Hardware to give the best home version in terms of scaling

Not disputing that but like i said no one wanted to see antother OUTRUN. That was proved with the dismal returns of the MD version.

In 1991/2 it was have a been a big deal to the Sega users This wouldn't make the Mega CD or its games massive sellers, but it would have pleased SEGA core user - The ones who buy SEGA Hardware with the thinking that it SEGA would port Arcade games to their systems and helped greatly with Mega CD image .

Streetfighter 2 would have been a great deal to sega MD owners, not a port of OUTRUN.
Yes arcade ports would have been a good deal but only of games that Sega had recently created at the time not with old tired ports. That's why ALTERED BEAST was and still is remebered to this day and its not even a great game. But at the time it was Sega's most recent arcade game to be ported. Exactly the same with GOLDEN AXE. Or even WONDERBOY IN MONSTER'S LAIR. Because the new arcade games are the ones that people want to play on their system which happened to be the MD. Exactly like it was when the master system had the ports of a lot of the recent games people saw at the arcades during the MS era in the UK like AFTERBURNER, THUNDERBLADE and OUTRUN. Now what you saying is correct that arcade ports do help the system but from the examples i gave you, the games mentioned at that time were relativly new titles from the arcades from their respective era. The MCD unfortunatly didn't get the chance to carry on that pattern/leagacy and it really should have. But not with games that people had already played and to be honest with you were quite bored of during that period.

The MCD porting a game like OUTRUN during that period would also enforce the point that sega didn't have any new games for the system. Something they couldn't afford to do when up against Nintendo and the SNES they needed the latest games and games the SNES couldn't do. (Of course it didn't help in the long run) but titles like TIME GAL SILPHEED and even STARBLADE did set the MCD apart but it didn't do it soon enough IE they weren't the games that were alvailable straight away.

It was brought to both the USA and UK. The latter line up wasn't brought but a lot of that is down to the lack of any Saturn market consumer in the West

The same reason it was done in japan, fill the gaps, celebrate an anniversary, but they did  such a fine good job of it with attention to care and pure love of it it became succesful and strong brand in its o wn right. And luckly it  seemed to inspire others to do collections of their own like Capcom's Wonder 3 collection (which was a game that could have easily been released on the MCD.)that it became initself an industry, why because they mixed the ports of classic titles and titles never released. That's why the Sega Ages worked primarly and why the intrest grew to the point it is now.

[ROJM]

I think you're both off on this one.  Out Run on the Genesis is really a pleasant surprise.  It was an unexpected release being a port of a game several years old, and it plays nice and smooth considering the limitations of the hardware.  PC Engine Out Run has messed up graphics when there is a fork in the road, and the Ferrari looks tiny, like a compact car.  The Gen/MD version is definitely the best version until you get to the Saturn one.  If it had been on the CD, it would have been almost perfect, although I expect it would have had a lower framerate than the arcade.  As for how much demand there was for it, well, they never reissued it in the Sega Classics reprint series, so that tells you something.  Brawlers and fighting games were becoming the top sellers in that era.

OUTRUN was a horrible game on the MD, you mentioned the limitations of the hardware well that's the point and its a good one, at that same time as OUTRUN we were seeing titles like SOR which frankly was the total package in terms of graphics, playability and sound and other titles that was just prettier to the eye and ear. Compared to that and what was being released for the MD at that time between 90/91, OUTRUN was old hat and to many it didn't look good. Especially when you had the likes of Wolf team and Treasure pulling out programming tricks for their MD games around the corner in 92-93. OR didn't have a chance. Even if it had things that made it a good port for you at that time it didn't because of the reasons i just mentioned. I think OUTRUNNERS was an ok port for MD considering the original. If anything should have had a MCD port from Sega it was TURBO OUTRUN but of course that didn't happen.

[Centrale]

Even if it had things that made it a good port for you at that time it didn't because of the reasons i just mentioned.

  Can't argue with that logic, folks.

[ROJM]

Can't argue with that logic, folks.

No you cant. ;D

Anyway i'm going by memory, all i remember was how it looked and sounded at the time. I haven't played it now for years so i can't say how it stands up today compared to other MD titles. Maybe it isn't as bad as it seemed back then but i somehow doubt it. But like i said even if it had those attributes which you poimnted out, from your own admission other games like brawlers were popular and in the case of SOR looked and sounded better which is really the point i was making. A game like OR was caught between the bigger new fresher games that made the megadrive popular(CASTLE OF ILLUSION SPIDER MAN SOR SONIC) to the upcoming titles that was about to make  the MD stretch beyond its limitations (ECCO, GUNSTAR HEROES, EL VIENTO etc).

[Team Andromeda]

OUTRUN was a horrible game on the MD, you mentioned the limitations of the hardware well that's the point and its a good one, at that same time as OUTRUN we were seeing titles like SOR which frankly was the total package in terms of graphics, playability and sound and other titles that was just prettier to the eye and ear. Compared to that and what was being released for the MD at that time between 90/91

Different game though and totally different genre's . 

Anyway i'm going by memory, all i remember was how it looked and sounded at the time

OutRun was a graphical powerhouse that was way above and beyond anything possible on the Mega Drive or the very similar Sega system 16 Arcade board ; So much so that very few machines in the early 1990's could even begin to handle a perfect port, same for for a lot of SEGA Sprite scailers where even the FM Towns Marty and Sharp X68000 had issues 

SEGA Japan put inthe Spite Scaling & Rotation Hardware into the Mega CD and did very little with it , which was a shame and one look at John O' Brien's incredible Batman Returns shows the Mega CD could have handled a very decent Out Run conversion

[youtube]http://youtu.be/eeZK3-NNTcY[/youtube]

[ROJM]

Different game though and totally different genre's . 

That's not the point and you know it. You think Joe bloggs looked at OUTRUN MD and appreciated the so called programming skills put into that game, with the way it looked?! Then looked at Sonic and SOR with the way it looked? Who do you think came out on top? Most of the time people's attention other than hype is how the game looks and sounds and if those departments are in the very high marks then anything that looks below par doesn't have a chance. 

OutRun was a graphical powerhouse that was way above and beyond anything possible on the Mega Drive or the very similar Sega system 16 Arcade board ; So much so that very few machines in the early 1990's could even begin to handle a perfect port, same for for a lot of SEGA Sprite scailers where even the FM Towns Marty and Sharp X68000 had issues 

SEGA Japan put inthe Spite Scaling & Rotation Hardware into the Mega CD and did very little with it , which was a shame and one look at John O' Brien's incredible Batman Returns shows the Mega CD could have handled a very decent Out Run conversion

Yet you've been saying its not a perfect port even for a MD game. Go figure. I know i didn't think it was.

[Team Andromeda]

That's not the point and you know it. You think Joe bloggs looked at OUTRUN MD and appreciated the so called programming skills put into that game, with the way it looked?! Then looked at Sonic and SOR with the way it looked? Who do you think came out on top

Lets no go down the old route of pointing scoring and I'm not on about Joe Bloogs too . The Mega CD didn't have any extra Playfield Hardware so a SOR II bar the sound and music wouldn't have been much better on the Mega Cd anyway, that's not the point; The Mega CD had hardware scaling & rotation and that meant it should and could have been used to convert SEGA classic Sprite Scalier coin up's with while would have meant nothing to Joe, would have been nice for the SEGA die Hardhards who loved their SEGA Coin Up's and could have played the best home versions of the game at the time

Even if you were to take the Super Hang-On MD code and just add in scaling and Arcade perfect sound effects and music score it would have been a Big Deal to the SEGA Die-Hards who loved their SEGA Coin ups and would have pleased the SEGA faithful and owners of the Mega CD.

[ROJM]

Lets no go down the old route of pointing scoring and I'm not on about Joe Bloogs too . The Mega CD didn't have any extra Playfield Hardware so a SOR II bar the sound and music wouldn't have been much better on the Mega Cd anyway, that's not the point; The Mega CD had hardware scaling & rotation and that meant it should and could have been used to convert SEGA classic Sprite Scalier coin up's with while would have meant nothing to Joe, would have been nice for the SEGA die Hardhards who loved their SEGA Coin Up's and could have played the best home versions of the game at the time

Even if you were to take the Super Hang-On MD code and just add in scaling and Arcade perfect sound effects and music score it would have been a Big Deal to the SEGA Die-Hards who loved their SEGA Coin ups and would have pleased the SEGA faithful and owners of the Mega CD.

What are you talking about? Nobody mentioned SOR for MCD. And whether you were or not talking about joe bloggs or johnny public that was the reality of the situation, ORN on MD just didn't look great and it was already an old game at that time in a period where everyone wanted to play the new exciting games that looked great and sounded great. And half of them were coming from sega themselves. Its not like you disagreeded with me on your initial thoughts of ORN. I'm just remembering the intial reaction, some positive mostly mixed and indifference. And you are also contradicting yourself, what's the point arguing for ORN and other old hat games at that time to be released for the MCD when no one else but die hards would have noticed the improvements? That's stupid, anyone would have noticed the improvements, the point you keep conviently forgetting is that nobody would have cared to see a close port of an old game like ORN on MCD because the game wasn't new and it had been done to death. Even many sega fans were sick of it at the time. Games that hadn't been overly done like AFTBR and OTRN? Sure but not those two franchises, even the newer installments weren't selling that well on the MD. We are talking about a period of where new exciting games were coming out left right and centre. You can argue the diehards until you are blue in the face but the reality is everyone wanted to play these newer exciting games even sega fans. So stop trying to rewrite history or reliving that gigadrive fantasy nonesense and face the truth.

[Team Andromeda]

Nobody mentioned SOR for MCD

You talked about Streets of Rage on the MD- Those games were scrolling fighters seeing as the Mega CD had no extra hardware for playfield/backrounds or increased the MD sprites . Those games (other than sound) wouldn't have been any better onthe Mega CD really .

With the Mega CD has soon has it was confirmed that it had Hardware that could handle multi Sprite scaling and rotation. SEGA faith and even the SEGA mag were all thinking of SEGA porting its scalers to the machine . Its just a shame that SEGA Japan never ever ported one 

because the game wasn't new and it had been done to death

Hardly because the game had never received a decent port to the home, it took the Saturn to do that and SEGA mag raved about it and the SEGA die hards loved it (its one of the best racers onthe Saturn)  . And you could say that about many SEGA Coin ups  about being done to death and old hat , but even today people are happy with a perfect port of VF II (a game that's been done to death) . For the SEGA die hards the will to play the best ports of SEGA coin ups will always be there

SEGA Japan should have made far better use of the Mega CD to port its own Coin ups

[ROJM]

You talked about Streets of Rage on the MD- Those games were scrolling fighters seeing as the Mega CD had no extra hardware for playfield/backrounds or increased the MD sprites . Those games (other than sound) wouldn't have been any better onthe Mega CD really .

That would make sense if i was comparing SOR to a MCD game, guess what i didn't! Point is those games were being compared to titles like ORN that didn't look or sounded jazzy. Like i said 91-94 there were so many great games to choose from that anything that didn't look right was ignored regardless of it being a great game or not. OUTRUN MD didn't look pretty and it was an old game that everyone had played. So it had no chance.

With the Mega CD has soon has it was confirmed that it had Hardware that could handle multi Sprite scaling and rotation. SEGA faith and even the SEGA mag were all thinking of SEGA porting its scalers to the machine . Its just a shame that SEGA Japan never ever ported one 

So what? That's a vast difference between what a game journo thinks and the fans wanted. OUTRUN was not on the top or even on anybody's lists when it came to the MCD. You obviously getting that gigadrive rumour mixed up which was as i recall meant to have all the coin ops coming out for it, turned out to be nothing but baloney. And no it wasn't mistaken for the MCD either.

Hardly because the game had never received a decent port to the home, it took the Saturn to do that and SEGA mag raved about it and the SEGA die hards loved it (its one of the best racers onthe Saturn)  . And you could say that about many SEGA Coin ups  about being done to death and old hat , but even today people are happy with a perfect port of VF II (a game that's been done to death) . For the SEGA die hards the will to play the best ports of SEGA coin ups will always be there

That's because there weren't that many Sega die hards in 91 as compared to the Saturn era and as now.  The audience for the MS and MD especially the MD, weren't dominated by Sega diehards who would get every sega game and play every or nearly every sega arcade game. The old game porting market didn't exist during the late eighties and early nineties, so please stop making out that there was a huge demand for it. There wasn't. The Saturn era was a complete different scenario because that's when Sega help usher in the back catalouge market and there was still a siseable amount of sega and arcade die hards that would buy them(considering how abymsal the saturn's performance was in the west it was obviously small) so using the saturn and using VF2 as an example is really moot. Nowadays the Sega die hards hardly exist , the Sega fanbase are mostly Sonic fans(ugh) and apparently judging from what some of them say have never played VF until recently.

SEGA Japan should have made far better use of the Mega CD to port its own Coin ups

Just not OUTRUN or SPACE HARRIER or AFTERBURNER which we got anyway with that game that wasn't even an Afterburner game.

[Team Andromeda]

Like i said 91-94 there were so many great games to choose from that anything that didn't look right was ignored regardless of it being a great game or not. OUTRUN MD didn't look pretty and it was an old game that everyone had played. So it had no chance.

I'm not going to go back to the silly old ways for starters . Yes the MD version of OutRun looked poor , but that's becasue the gulf in Hardware spec's , The Mega CD had the hardware to handle the best home version of the game and it would have sounded Arcade perfect and for a game like OutRun where people still celebrate the soundtrack it would have been a big deal - not to Mega Drive fans or Average Joe, but Mega CD users and anyone who was a OutRun fans

You obviously getting that gigadrive rumour mixed up which was as i recall meant to have all the coin ops coming

No and I still remember Mean Machines saying the Mega CD was the Giga Drive given its dual 16 Bit CPU's . When people knew the Mega CD had hardware to handle sprite scaling and rotaion not just for backgrounds but multiple sprites , dreams of playing the likes of Power Drift on the system were happing.

Just not OUTRUN or SPACE HARRIER or AFTERBURNER which we got anyway with that game that wasn't even an Afterburner game

The Mega CD got After Burner III and it was a AB game and based on a port of the Japan only Coin -up . Shame SOJ handed out the port to CRI to totally fuck up . You know there's people here who still loved playing Space Harrier on and AB II on their 32X and at the time it was a big deal to any SEGA fan of the old coin Up's .

Sega Saturn Magazine even took a trip down to Seaside Arcade to do a massive feature on the SEGA sprite scaling coin-ups they loved to see ported to the 32X. To some the deal of playing old SEGA coin ups is a huge draw, not matter how old they are or  they are out on other systems - They just want to play the best versions of those games at the time and in 1991/2 it would have been great for SEGA scalier fans to play the classic scalier on the Mega CD .


 

[ungibbed]

Speaking of many canceled games, I did have quite a few including Penn & Tellers Smoke & Mirrors.

While insanely awful it was, that was the whole point of it all (hence the title). All US submissions over the years once development for the Sega CD and Genesis slowed to a stop and moved on to working on Saturn ports, it was rather comical to see all these gems many which were unpublished all sitting in a cardboard box and we're bootable on a standard console.

I see a rather large and long drawn argument here that reminds me of years ago in Jr. High...

System 16 and Sega Super Scaler arcade machines porting directly to the Sega CD is a rather comical notion. Sure the 3D effects in the US version of Batman Returns looked good but there is no way the Sega CD system could fully handle direct ports of After Burner and Outrun. The largest issue was still the color reduction and the arcade machines had far better abilities even to that of the Saturn. Had the System 32 been reworked and coaxed with some 3D love, the Saturn would be far less of a technical nightmare that it was.

Focusing on Outrun and After Burner, both games were superior on the PC Engine than the Mega Drive in a few ways. After Burner on the PC Engine did use limited scaling effects right at the start remaining somewhat faithful to the coin op. While Out Run didn't use hardware scaling and such, it did have one advantage in it's favor and that was color.

The fact that Power Drift seen a port to the same system was rather amazing and a very bold thing to do all without additional hardware running with the custom Hudson HU6280 CPU. The graphics hardware on the old PC Engine had legs never thought possible with bold ports of Neo Geo titles at the end of it's life in Japan. A console introduced to market while the Mega Drive was still in the works of seeing release and brought to the US as the Genesis.

All these games had one thing in common on the PC Engine side, they were licensed out to RED/NEC to be coded for the hardware. Much the same way early Genesis games from Capcom were ported by Sega due to the third party restrictions by Nintendo.

The black eye to the old PCE was comparing Altered Beast. The Genesis release was near arcade perfect but the game was notably awful already by PC Engine / TurboGrafx owners.

When it comes to Sega CD, it was rather poorly marketed not showing what the combo could do when pushed along. Having had a hand in the development process of Battlecorps and some brief time with Soul Star, it was games like these that needed to be shown instead of more rotting flesh from Digital Pictures and more FMV games by Sega themselves.

Other games as mentioned were extended Cartridge based games with a little "fluf" for buying the game on CD. It was a bad move and shouldn't have been allowed since the same games could easily be found on cartridges. Even with the effects included.

The Sega CD needed exclusive titles that were appealing to gamers. Silpheed was awesome and clever FMV fooled a lot of players thinking that it was real polygons in the background. It was simply FMV but it did rather well.

The largest problem if a Outrun port was made for the Sega CD, it would have never been able to deliver that many scaled sprites and branching courses simply due to lack of memory issues. It's a fast paced game and for new objects to be brought into memory, loading is going to be needed some time which would really annoying the player.

Another example or analogy I thought was rather comical was the Sega CD hardware being more powerful than the Neo Geo. The only thing the Sega CD could do that the Neo Geo couldn't was sprite rotation and background planes.

The Neo Geo used sprites for the background including multi-plane scrolling for every game on the system. Since sprite size was unlimited, background planes were not much of an issue.

[Team Andromeda]

The largest issue was still the color reduction and the arcade machines had far better abilities even to that of the Saturn. Had the System 32 been reworked and coaxed with some 3D love, the Saturn would be far less of a technical nightmare that it was.

The Saturn was away and above that of the Out Run board , not least in colour and res . But colour is not really an issue has MD was always suffering in that regard .

Sure the 3D effects in the US version of Batman Returns looked good but there is no way the Sega CD system could fully handle direct ports of After Burner and Outrun.

No more comical than porting those games to the Master System or Mega Drive where the hardware was ill able to cope with the scaling or the sound of the OutRun board. The Mega CD had hardware to offer scaling and to offer Arcade perfect sound and music  No a direct port , but able to handle the best port of the game around at the time. Much like the PS or the Saturn offered the best way to play ports of Model 2 or System 22 games;They'll be far from perfect, but they would be the best versions of the games around at the time

The fact that Power Drift seen a port to the same system was rather amazing and a very bold thing to do all without additional hardware running with the custom Hudson HU6280 CPU

The game looked a mess tbh, but came it to its own on the PC Eng GT- Where thanks to the small screen it looked more impressive

Having had a hand in the development process of Battlecorps and some brief time with Soul Star, i

Sadly those games too late in the Mega CD life to make any sort of impact and Soul Star was too hard for it's own good and should really have made use of a save system.

Another example or analogy I thought was rather comical was the Sega CD hardware being more powerful than the Neo Geo. The only thing the Sega CD could do that the Neo Geo couldn't was sprite rotation and background planes

In some key area's the Mega CD was more powerful - Batman Returns, Cliffhanger, Soul Star and the like are doing stuff that would be a nightmare to do on the Neo -given it had no hardware support for Rotation and unlike the Mega CD could handle multiple bitmap scaling . Just one look at the Neo's rather lame effort at a Sprite scailer racer Riding Hero shows how Batman Returns engine was far superior

that many scaled sprites and branching courses simply due to lack of memory issues. It's a fast paced game and for new objects to be brought into memory, loading is going to be needed some time which would really annoying the player.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin handle manly scaled sprites on the Mega CD  for starters  and given that the Out Run Cart on the MD was only 8Mb  and the Mega CD had 6Mb of main ram  . Then the Mega CD wouldn't really have to worry about loading given that the scaling and CD soundtrack alone would save on space compared to its cart cousin

[ROJM]

I'm not going to go back to the silly old ways for starters . Yes the MD version of OutRun looked poor , but that's becasue the gulf in Hardware spec's , The Mega CD had the hardware to handle the best home version of the game and it would have sounded Arcade perfect and for a game like OutRun where people still celebrate the soundtrack it would have been a big deal - not to Mega Drive fans or Average Joe, but Mega CD users and anyone who was a OutRun fans

MCD fans were MD fans. You need a MD for the MCD to work, remember? And it wouldn't have meant anything to people at that time for old games like OUTRUN to have seen a release. Remember the complete guide to Sega that the MM/CVG crew use to come out with and where they had the specs for the new MCD and the rumour of SF2 among other games? Not one mention of AFTERBURNER or OUTRUN. It wasn't on their wish list, which from what i recall they had one near the back of game supposedly coming out for the MD/MCD(can't remember. The point is this from people who would have wanted to see that on their wish list but even they didn't put it up. because at that time people were more intrested in newer titles rather than an older game like ORN.

No and I still remember Mean Machines saying the Mega CD was the Giga Drive given its dual 16 Bit CPU's . When people knew the Mega CD had hardware to handle sprite scaling and rotaion not just for backgrounds but multiple sprites , dreams of playing the likes of Power Drift on the system were happing.

No, they were calling the Gigadrive a new 32 bit system and never mentioned its connection or being the MCD.

The Mega CD got After Burner III and it was a AB game and based on a port of the Japan only Coin -up . Shame SOJ handed out the port to CRI to totally fuck up . You know there's people here who still loved playing Space Harrier on and AB II on their 32X and at the time it was a big deal to any SEGA fan of the old coin Up's .

Naw,STAR WARS ARCADE was a big deal, even the 32x port of VF and DOOM, MK2. but SPACE HARRIER wasn't high on anyone's list. Shame as it was a decent port.

Sega Saturn Magazine even took a trip down to Seaside Arcade to do a massive feature on the SEGA sprite scaling coin-ups they loved to see ported to the 32X. To some the deal of playing old SEGA coin ups is a huge draw, not matter how old they are or  they are out on other systems - They just want to play the best versions of those games at the time and in 1991/2 it would have been great for SEGA scalier fans to play the classic scalier on the Mega CD .

But that's what im saying except i'm talking about the games that were released from Sega betwen that period not old games from 86-88.

[ungibbed]

The Saturn was away and above that of the Out Run board , not least in colour and res . But colour is not really an issue has MD was always suffering in that regard .

No more comical than porting those games to the Master System or Mega Drive where the hardware was ill able to cope with the scaling or the sound of the OutRun board. The Mega CD had hardware to offer scaling and to offer Arcade perfect sound and music  No a direct port , but able to handle the best port of the game around at the time. Much like the PS or the Saturn offered the best way to play ports of Model 2 or System 22 games;They'll be far from perfect, but they would be the best versions of the games around at the time
 

The game looked a mess tbh, but came it to its own on the PC Eng GT- Where thanks to the small screen it looked more impressive
 Sadly those games too late in the Mega CD life to make any sort of impact and Soul Star was too hard for it's own good and should really have made use of a save system.

In some key area's the Mega CD was more powerful - Batman Returns, Cliffhanger, Soul Star and the like are doing stuff that would be a nightmare to do on the Neo -given it had no hardware support for Rotation and unlike the Mega CD could handle multiple bitmap scaling . Just one look at the Neo's rather lame effort at a Sprite scailer racer Riding Hero shows how Batman Returns engine was far superior

The Adventures of Batman & Robin handle manly scaled sprites on the Mega CD  for starters  and given that the Out Run Cart on the MD was only 8Mb  and the Mega CD had 6Mb of main ram  . Then the Mega CD wouldn't really have to worry about loading given that the scaling and CD soundtrack alone would save on space compared to its cart cousin

Not going to waste the time picking apart posts out of context to suit my needs for the sake of argument let alone typing this on my phone however whoring out Batman Returns is really a bad example IMO. Other than few roadside objects, the games, 3D driving levels were really not the best looking when similar effects could be done on the Genesis hardware alone. I'm well aware of what the Sega CD and the 32X and Saturn hardware than you assume.

The system will always look different to the fans than to the developers making games for it. Soul Star too hard, wow... Does that somehow make it a less impressive game? Battleccorps was also completed and shipped before Soul Star. How do I know? I worked for the company that published it. I found that game a far better technical effort than Batman, but to each their own.

Bold console ports have always been the pinnacle of the PC Engine. Every time someone said something couldn't be done on the system,  they were proven wrong. The latter release of Lords Of Thunder on the US Turbografx system vs. A port to the Sega's CD really showed a weak side to the system despite the extra memory and hardware. It all boiled down to a quality developer knowing the hardware and despite the best efforts, the Sega CD port was far behind the abilities of an 8 bit console.

When it comes to the Neo Geo, I find it rather comical that you choose one of the worst games to represent the system just to back your claim. That I find more comical than the rather bold 8 bit arcade ports to the Master System.

Good day sir... I'm done with closed minded folks.