Sega Genesis/Mega Drive 16-bit port?

[Maes]

I had once seen a site about a homebrew Doom source port for the 16-bit Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (without the 32X addon).

I have since lost the link, however it looked visually very impressive for a 16-bit system (floors and ceilings were untextured though), and the author claimed he had made a handful of cartridges via "connections" with Sega USA and even had several photos of it running on a real Genesis/Mega Drive.

Does anyone know the link or how that story ended or if it was just a fake?

[Scet]

Considering that the SNES has better hardware then the Genesis, expect for the CPU speed, even if it did exist it would be just as crappy or even more crappy then the SNES version. It's probably fake.

[Maes]

It's truly a pity I cannot find the link again...some things I can remember are that the author claimed he obtained an average 20 fps by performing some minor optimizations like untextured floors, simplified level architecture etc.

What about Amiga FPS shooters? The few that exist generally crawl at 5-8 fps on a 68000, and are able to run with less than 2 MB of RAM, so why couldn't a Genesis be able to perform similarly on e.g. a spiced up Wolf3D-like engine or a dumbed down Doom-like engine? (check out e.g. Alien Breed 3D on the Amiga).

The SNES version of Doom used a special FX chip for that purpose if I'm not wrong...

[infurnus1]

Found the site: http://www.geocities.com/doomgenesis/

Other FPS games on the Genesis/MegaDrive:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/battle-frenzy
http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/duke-nukem-3d
http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/zero-tolerance

So, I'd say the Doom on Genesis/MD would probably be real.

EDIT: I thought it was real, but when I actually read what the page said, it said it was a hoax. Disappointing. :(

[Lamneth]

Maes said:

...and the author claimed he had made a handful of cartridges via "connections" with Sega USA and even had several photos of it running on a real Genesis/Mega Drive.

That right there woudl be the dead giveaway this is a hoax to me.

[Maes]

Lamneth said:

That right there woudl be the dead giveaway this is a hoax to me.

Actually he says (and probably always has said) "I have connections...", not "I have connections at SEGA", so that fact, alone, is not enough of a giveaway IMHO.

Making an actual test cartridge for a well-understood game console is not out of the question, and at least at a first glance, the project doesn't seem technically impossible (considering how FPS exist that can sort of run on an Amiga 500, at least given enough RAM).

However the photo looks like a doctored 32X cartridge (rounded corners).

Hell, there are even ZX Spectrum implementations of Doom (well...or something that resembles a real-time Dungeon Master), why shouldn't the Genesis be able to do something more?

Can someone spot where the "screenshot" may have come from? Some other well known version perhaps?

[leileilol]

oh man, it looks like he just a mosaic filter and windows vga colors on the 32x doom port

[Scet]

Maes said:

Hell, there are even ZX Spectrum implementations of Doom (well...or something that resembles a real-time Dungeon Master), why shouldn't the Genesis be able to do something more?

The Genesis is capable, but only capable of something similar to the SNES or 32X versions, you'd never come close to the PC version. My earlier point was that even if someone did make one, nobody would play it.

[Maes]

leileilol said:

oh man, it looks like he just a mosaic filter and windows vga colors on the 32x doom port

The only clearly mosaiced part is the playing area, and the image counts exactly 64 colors. It seems strange how letters would get pixelated too. The status bar is similar but not exactly the same as the 32X, at least not the kind of similtude a simple recoloring would give. The screen border pattern is the same, but why would someone stop him from using it?



Plus the "TV screenshots" he shows seem all very consistent in presentation and resolution. Now why this was this project so unheard of...

I suppose the guy can always be contacted instead of speculating...it would be cool if someone important from the community did so, however, preferably a coder like e.g. fraggle.

[leileilol]

He lost all his credibility anyway when he used the Q3A doomguy for his cover.

[Maes]

Maes said:

I suppose the guy can always be contacted instead of speculating...it would be cool if someone important from the community did so, preferably a coder like e.g. fraggle.

[TheDarkArchon]

*facepalm*

It clearly states on the front page of the site that it's fake.

[fraggle]

Maes said:

I suppose the guy can always be contacted instead of speculating...it would be cool if someone important from the community did so, however, preferably a coder like e.g. fraggle.

Although I'm flattered, did you read the page?

Page says:

Okay, may as well come clean. Sadly, this project was a hoax, inspired by James Catalano's Atari 2600 Doom ruse. The screenshots are fake, and I am no programmer. I was curious as to what sort of reactions I would get with such a "project," and on that note would like to thank everyone who showed interest in the idea of porting Doom to our beloved Genny. I really would like to see a game like Doom running on Genesis, and at the very least I hope I've sparked a little renewed interest in Genesis homebrew gaming. I hope there's no hard feelings and encourage anyone with additional questions/comments to send me an e-mail. In the meantime I will leave the rest of the site as is.

[Maes]

Dammit...sorry guys, no, I didn't read the whole front page :-(

So all this was a hoax? Too bad, it would have been really interesting if genuine, and I personally believe it would still be technically feasible to create an FPS (and thus, a Doom source port) for the Genesis.