Blast processing referred to two things: i. Increased CPU power of the 1.3 MIPS 68000 (plus another 0.51 MIPS of tge Z80), versus the RICOH 65c816 executing mostly 8-bit instructions at half the clock rate ii. Increased bandwidth of 6.25MB/sec or 12.5 million pixels, versus 2.68 million pixels per second on the SNES. Just because the term "blast" was borrowed here doesn't mean that SEGA was referring to this specific DMA move, but the overall graphical capabilities that NINTENDO hadn't bothered to include even being two years behind. The meeting being referred was looking for capabilities AND a name.
@@Segas.Revenge Hmmm.... The management types asked the actual engineers for an advantage that the Genesis had over the SNES... and it had quite a few. However, someone heard the term "blasting color data over with the DMA" and also tacked on the term "Blast," then later added "Processing." Did management know what they were talking about? Apparently not. Did the VDP, DMA, and CPU in the Genesis have some tricks up their sleeve that SNES didn't? Absolutely. But only because SEGA had to rush out one of their existing, powerful arcade boards as a home console. Originally they'd chosen the more powerful C2 board, then decided to save money by shipping the System 16 arcade board.
Solid enough video, except I think the TRUTH of the phrase “blast processing” is the fact that Genesis is a faster machine, with a faster CPU, and… some games are faster. There’s really no equivalent of Sonic on SNES, or Virtua Racing, etc. It’s really a faster machine, lol. So the phrase is not a lie, it’s a bit of hype that’s true. (There’s a modern trend to discredit the phrase and try to be overly specific about it, and claim it was never used, it’s really losing the truth of it.)
Genesis CPU: Motorola 68000 - Clock rate: 7.670454 MHz (NTSC), 7.600489 MHz (PAL) SNES CPU: Custom 65C816 ran at 3.58 MHz SEGA Genesis Processor = 2.12x faster than SNES processor. Hence the real reason why "Blast Processing" term stuck (which you could see in action in many fast-paced games, especially SHMUPs). So a coined term was adopted from it's original meaning. The Genesis had twice as much speed, SEGA took a tech term and used that to emphasis it's speed, even though the original birth of that term wasn't relevant. I don't think this vid paints that true picture very well.
0:14 Sega got there partly by having a two year and roughly 5 million unit head start before Nintendo even launched the SNES, plus the other stuff you mentioned too of course. 1:28 You can't get a higher frame rate on these old consoles than 60fps, which both were capable of, so literally nothing in the Genesis allows it to have a higher max frame rate than SNES. It was just a bit easier to avoid potential slowdown on Genesis because of the faster CPU and a couple other things under the hood, but still within its limits to suffer from this just like on SNES. And both systems were capable of 3D on stock hardware, but the Genesis' extra CPU speed does indeed help it do a better job than SNES there. 1:44 The SNES can put way more than 2-3 times more colours on-screen than Genesis. In normal situations the Genesis can display up to 64 colours on-screen (ignoring transparent palette entries and such), and the SNES can display up to 256 (also ignoring transparent palette entries and such), which is four times as many minimum. But, the Genesis does have access to a standard shadow/highlight mode that can increase the colours it can normally display roughly threefold. And the SNES similarly has standard things like colour math (for transparency) and the direct colour mode that allow it to increase the colours it can normally display literally more than tenfold. Both machines can also use various raster tricks and such to increase colours in some other ways too. 3:08 And, yeah, the funniest thing about "Blast Processing" is that all it really does for the most part is let Genesis display higher colour static images than it's normally capable of--yet still worse looking than the SNES can do using its standard 8bpp 256-colour mode. And, not only do those standard images look noticeably better on SNES, but they actually take up the entirety of the CPU resources on Genesis, stall the sound engine, the horizontal pixel resolution is basically halved, and there's some glitching and artifacting in the resulting images. Plus, SNES can actually display its 8bpp 256-colour images during normal gameplay at 60fps, with two background layers, all the sprites, its special transparency effects, and so on. And, beyond that, SNES even has a largely-unknown and rarely-used direct colour mode that actually lets it display up to a whopping 2288 visible colours on-screen too, even before any transparency effects and HDMA are applied to increase the on-screen colours even more, and still during full 60fps gameplay with two background layers, all the sprites, and so on. At the end of the day, it's pretty fair to state that SNES' Colour Blasting >>> Genesis' "Blast Processing". :D Great video by the way.
@@Segas.RevengeFor a guy with Sega in his name, you really don't know that much about Sega. Blast Processing was real but it didn't affect the speed of the console.
I never knew blast processing was meant to reference that DMA feature, i thought it was reffering to the speed of its motorola 68000 But i also have to mention that aside from that feature, the VDP wasnt any special, the speed and vector 3d capabilities are done by CPU I think itd be interesting to see a fantasy version of VDP where that DMA feature is actually reliabe
The console wars are definitely a relic of the 90s. These days, the xbox series x and ps 5 are pretty similar in capabilities and most games run on either platform with similar characteristics. The major difference between the two is the exclusive titles for each. Then you have the nintendo switch, which isn't nearly as capable, but still sells tons of units as the big n has a cult-like following and tons of exclusive first party games. Which camp am I in? camp switch of course - i just love the nintendo ip and don't play enough games to really care what sony or microsoft has to offer. I will, however, occasionally play some games on my kids' series x.
@@mikemoss6045 nobody said the md didnt have a dma or a functional dma on that matter Its referring to the specific feature that the DMA was supposed to have that is explained right afterwards in the video
Here's what blast processing meant to most people at the time (at least readers of gaming magazines of the 90s): 1) Genesis had a higher clock speed (7.67 MHz) than SNES (3.58 MHz) 2) This allowed for very fast moving games like Sonic 3) While avoiding the notorious slowdown of the SNES, which was especially noticeable in the SNES beginning lifecycle There were also odd examples of Genesis being faster such as Out of This World (or maybe Flashback - I can't remember) having loading time on the SNES but not on Genesis. In any case the CPUs were different so clock speed doesn't necessarily translate to processing efficiency, but most consumers wouldn't have knowledge of that. The best way to judge the 2 systems is which one had your favorite games and/or which had the highest overall library quality. Both had a substantial number of exclusives so even of you preferred one over the other, you'd have a cavemen mentality to declare one or the other "sucked".
Apparently the architeture of the Super Famicom's CPU was 2 times faster than Mega Drive's but still didnt reach the same level of efficiency, aside the memory width was much worse Also, comparing game libraries? Nah Specific versions of games or just games have obvious different levels of effort and time put into them so it's still not fair Comparing hardware specs is the most objective way to tell which console was the better one Or by making micro mages equivalents to both as benchmarking
Speaks to the genius of SEGA's marketing team. Mode 7 was far more releveant to consumers than an obscure rendering technique, but Blast Processing was more well known, despite its impact being negligible.
Ah, the 16-bit Console Wars. For a brief period, Nintendo got a little shaken up and Sega had its first -- and only -- truly successful console in the US. Don't get me wrong; other Sega consoles were pretty good (I've got a Saturn and a Dreamcast), but the Genesis is what helped to knock Nintendo out of their complacency with the aging but still popular NES in the late '80s/early '90s. Marketing became a no-holds-barred type of fight between the "Big Two", while other decent consoles (Turbographx-16, 3DO, etc.) fell to the wayside for various reasons. Then the PlayStation and other 32-bit and higher systems came to the market and changed the world of console gaming forever. Sega failed to make an imprint and Nintendo became kind of like an eccentric uncle, releasing innovative systems that weren't quite designed to directly compete with those Sony and Microsoft were releasing. It's been over 30 years since the Genesis and its "blast processing" went head-to-head against the SNES. By the early '00s, Sega got out of the hardware market while Nintendo decided to just do things...different...with the GameCube, Wii, and subsequent consoles. Back when all of this was happening, many of us would have friends who owned the competing system. In the late '80s, nearly all of my friends had NES', making cartridge swapping a popular way to play different games. I don't think I knew anyone who had an SMS or 7800. By the early '90s, though, we were split between the Genesis and the SNES, giving us the best of both worlds. If I wanted to play Sonic, I'd make the 5-6-mile bike ride to my best friend's house. If he wanted to play Super Mario World, he'd make the trip. It was a memorable and much more innocent time. Now, he usually stares at block walls in prison while I collect my military retirement and disability and post lengthy TH-cam comments.
So, while not technically a lie, it was along the lines of "Lush Corinthian Leather." While it was lush leather, it wasn't Corinthian, and while "Blast Processing" was real, it was not able to be implemented in a game without some coding gymnastics, which probably was not worth it. So, I guess they couldn't be sued to false advertising, it was surely deceptive.
If the Genesis, with its so said Blast Processing does 1.3 MIPS (millions of intructions per second), and the SNES does 1.5 MIPS (including Mode 7, transparencies and a f.ton of colors), what should we call it? ATOMIC processing or maybe Blasting Cicles? Imagine STILL believing a lie, after like 30 years and even after Sega stopped making their own consoles and even starting programming for - guess who - Nintendo themselves? I'd rather stop playing videogames...
Im a nintendo fan but the genesis seemed more powerful games like the adventures ❤batman and robin showed what the genesis could do without and addons.
All the comments: “blast processing is real though!” But you literally mention that within the first 90 seconds of the video and never claim it is fake… you just say it wasn’t used. The absolute ineptitude regarding listening and comprehension of the general populous is frightening.
@@ssg-eggunner Blast Processing is the ability to change palettes in HBlank (it basically changes the palette line on each horizontal scan). Search for "Blast Processing Sega Sonic Retro." Results will appear.
Might be helpful for the creator of this video to describe what he considers blast processing to be. Seems like everyone else has an opinion here as well but it hasn't really been defined for those watching
Sega only did well only in the United States. Snes sucked in America well up into the mid 90s when Genesis began to show its age and Genesis players started to migrate over the Sony playstation. Genesis sucked in Japan where snes did very well. Snes was way more advanced than snes better graphics and sound memory. Late stage snes games looked like primitive 32 bit games.
In the US only? It sold better in Brazil and had support there until the end of the Dreamcasts official run. Also SEGA didn't do well in the US compared to other places, the Master System was the majority of Europe's preference. The Saturn thrived in Japan, but bombed so hard in the US you'd think it was going to war. And the Dreamcast was around the same in US sales as it was in PAL territories. Unless you've forgotten the rest of the world outside the London Kingdom, Tokyo and the US like many States dwellers seem to.
I feel like I’ve entered the twilight zone with some of these comments. Like…I’m quoting from what the inventory of the term blast processing said. Not sure what anyone else wants!
Saying Nintendo won the console wars of the 90s isn’t exactly true. The snes started to wane in 95 and the n64 came soon thereafter, which was killed by the ps1. It even sold less than the Saturn in Japan
They gotta include “Blast Processing” as an Easter Egg in the Graphics Options of some game. 😂
Blast processing referred to two things:
i. Increased CPU power of the 1.3 MIPS 68000 (plus another 0.51 MIPS of tge Z80), versus the RICOH 65c816 executing mostly 8-bit instructions at half the clock rate
ii. Increased bandwidth of 6.25MB/sec or 12.5 million pixels, versus 2.68 million pixels per second on the SNES.
Just because the term "blast" was borrowed here doesn't mean that SEGA was referring to this specific DMA move, but the overall graphical capabilities that NINTENDO hadn't bothered to include even being two years behind. The meeting being referred was looking for capabilities AND a name.
He has no idea what he's talking about.
@Segas.Revenge He? The guy doing the vid? He is repeating the official story here.
I'm so confused but I believe you
@@MaxAbramson3 Blast processing means fast gameplay, the commercial speaks for itself and that's all that matters.
@@Segas.Revenge Hmmm.... The management types asked the actual engineers for an advantage that the Genesis had over the SNES... and it had quite a few. However, someone heard the term "blasting color data over with the DMA" and also tacked on the term "Blast," then later added "Processing." Did management know what they were talking about? Apparently not. Did the VDP, DMA, and CPU in the Genesis have some tricks up their sleeve that SNES didn't? Absolutely. But only because SEGA had to rush out one of their existing, powerful arcade boards as a home console. Originally they'd chosen the more powerful C2 board, then decided to save money by shipping the System 16 arcade board.
Solid enough video, except I think the TRUTH of the phrase “blast processing” is the fact that Genesis is a faster machine, with a faster CPU, and… some games are faster. There’s really no equivalent of Sonic on SNES, or Virtua Racing, etc. It’s really a faster machine, lol. So the phrase is not a lie, it’s a bit of hype that’s true. (There’s a modern trend to discredit the phrase and try to be overly specific about it, and claim it was never used, it’s really losing the truth of it.)
Genesis CPU: Motorola 68000 - Clock rate: 7.670454 MHz (NTSC), 7.600489 MHz (PAL)
SNES CPU: Custom 65C816 ran at 3.58 MHz
SEGA Genesis Processor = 2.12x faster than SNES processor. Hence the real reason why "Blast Processing" term stuck (which you could see in action in many fast-paced games, especially SHMUPs). So a coined term was adopted from it's original meaning. The Genesis had twice as much speed, SEGA took a tech term and used that to emphasis it's speed, even though the original birth of that term wasn't relevant. I don't think this vid paints that true picture very well.
0:14 Sega got there partly by having a two year and roughly 5 million unit head start before Nintendo even launched the SNES, plus the other stuff you mentioned too of course.
1:28 You can't get a higher frame rate on these old consoles than 60fps, which both were capable of, so literally nothing in the Genesis allows it to have a higher max frame rate than SNES. It was just a bit easier to avoid potential slowdown on Genesis because of the faster CPU and a couple other things under the hood, but still within its limits to suffer from this just like on SNES. And both systems were capable of 3D on stock hardware, but the Genesis' extra CPU speed does indeed help it do a better job than SNES there.
1:44 The SNES can put way more than 2-3 times more colours on-screen than Genesis. In normal situations the Genesis can display up to 64 colours on-screen (ignoring transparent palette entries and such), and the SNES can display up to 256 (also ignoring transparent palette entries and such), which is four times as many minimum. But, the Genesis does have access to a standard shadow/highlight mode that can increase the colours it can normally display roughly threefold. And the SNES similarly has standard things like colour math (for transparency) and the direct colour mode that allow it to increase the colours it can normally display literally more than tenfold. Both machines can also use various raster tricks and such to increase colours in some other ways too.
3:08 And, yeah, the funniest thing about "Blast Processing" is that all it really does for the most part is let Genesis display higher colour static images than it's normally capable of--yet still worse looking than the SNES can do using its standard 8bpp 256-colour mode. And, not only do those standard images look noticeably better on SNES, but they actually take up the entirety of the CPU resources on Genesis, stall the sound engine, the horizontal pixel resolution is basically halved, and there's some glitching and artifacting in the resulting images. Plus, SNES can actually display its 8bpp 256-colour images during normal gameplay at 60fps, with two background layers, all the sprites, its special transparency effects, and so on. And, beyond that, SNES even has a largely-unknown and rarely-used direct colour mode that actually lets it display up to a whopping 2288 visible colours on-screen too, even before any transparency effects and HDMA are applied to increase the on-screen colours even more, and still during full 60fps gameplay with two background layers, all the sprites, and so on.
At the end of the day, it's pretty fair to state that SNES' Colour Blasting >>> Genesis' "Blast Processing". :D
Great video by the way.
Blast Processing was something that wasn't realistic for the time of console release
Blast processing means fast gameplay.
@@Segas.Revenge nuh uh
If you seen the video it refers to the special DMA feature of the VDP
Unless you mean the marketing stuff or smth
@@Segas.RevengeFor a guy with Sega in his name, you really don't know that much about Sega. Blast Processing was real but it didn't affect the speed of the console.
@@Segas.Revengethank you!😊
I never knew blast processing was meant to reference that DMA feature, i thought it was reffering to the speed of its motorola 68000
But i also have to mention that aside from that feature, the VDP wasnt any special, the speed and vector 3d capabilities are done by CPU
I think itd be interesting to see a fantasy version of VDP where that DMA feature is actually reliabe
The console wars are definitely a relic of the 90s. These days, the xbox series x and ps 5 are pretty similar in capabilities and most games run on either platform with similar characteristics. The major difference between the two is the exclusive titles for each. Then you have the nintendo switch, which isn't nearly as capable, but still sells tons of units as the big n has a cult-like following and tons of exclusive first party games. Which camp am I in? camp switch of course - i just love the nintendo ip and don't play enough games to really care what sony or microsoft has to offer. I will, however, occasionally play some games on my kids' series x.
Genesis processor is 7.67 MH... SNES processor is 3.58 MH... what exactly is the point of this video?
The point was to tell the context behind the term "blast processing" and how it refers to DMA and not the CPU
@@ssg-eggunner0:48 " it was quite literally never used in any sega games"
First off any game on the genesis that had parallax scrolling.. used it.
@@mikemoss6045 nobody said the md didnt have a dma or a functional dma on that matter
Its referring to the specific feature that the DMA was supposed to have that is explained right afterwards in the video
Here's what blast processing meant to most people at the time (at least readers of gaming magazines of the 90s):
1) Genesis had a higher clock speed (7.67 MHz) than SNES (3.58 MHz)
2) This allowed for very fast moving games like Sonic
3) While avoiding the notorious slowdown of the SNES, which was especially noticeable in the SNES beginning lifecycle
There were also odd examples of Genesis being faster such as Out of This World (or maybe Flashback - I can't remember) having loading time on the SNES but not on Genesis.
In any case the CPUs were different so clock speed doesn't necessarily translate to processing efficiency, but most consumers wouldn't have knowledge of that.
The best way to judge the 2 systems is which one had your favorite games and/or which had the highest overall library quality. Both had a substantial number of exclusives so even of you preferred one over the other, you'd have a cavemen mentality to declare one or the other "sucked".
Apparently the architeture of the Super Famicom's CPU was 2 times faster than Mega Drive's but still didnt reach the same level of efficiency, aside the memory width was much worse
Also, comparing game libraries? Nah
Specific versions of games or just games have obvious different levels of effort and time put into them so it's still not fair
Comparing hardware specs is the most objective way to tell which console was the better one
Or by making micro mages equivalents to both as benchmarking
@@ssg-eggunnersnes was no where near faster like Sega Genesis Blast processing bro😂
Speaks to the genius of SEGA's marketing team. Mode 7 was far more releveant to consumers than an obscure rendering technique, but Blast Processing was more well known, despite its impact being negligible.
Couldn't agree more. Sega's marketing is a huge part of why they did so well.
check the specs... Genesis has a much faster processor speed.
Sega Genesis had more games and better speed Snes was a weaker by nintendo that's why nintendo wad so mad
0:23 I love the 90s
Is the guy playing the Game Boy the same guy who couldn’t see the sailboat?
The actor was in American history x, boy meets world, we are the titans, and I'm sure many more
Yup. Ethan Suplee. Also Randy on My Name Is Earl. He got into weightlifting and is a powerhouse now.
The “Turbo” button on your Intel computer case.
Sega was WCW and Nintendo was a relentless Vinny Mac that had a great product and a determination like no other, except maybe Nintendo, to win
Ah, the 16-bit Console Wars. For a brief period, Nintendo got a little shaken up and Sega had its first -- and only -- truly successful console in the US. Don't get me wrong; other Sega consoles were pretty good (I've got a Saturn and a Dreamcast), but the Genesis is what helped to knock Nintendo out of their complacency with the aging but still popular NES in the late '80s/early '90s. Marketing became a no-holds-barred type of fight between the "Big Two", while other decent consoles (Turbographx-16, 3DO, etc.) fell to the wayside for various reasons. Then the PlayStation and other 32-bit and higher systems came to the market and changed the world of console gaming forever. Sega failed to make an imprint and Nintendo became kind of like an eccentric uncle, releasing innovative systems that weren't quite designed to directly compete with those Sony and Microsoft were releasing. It's been over 30 years since the Genesis and its "blast processing" went head-to-head against the SNES. By the early '00s, Sega got out of the hardware market while Nintendo decided to just do things...different...with the GameCube, Wii, and subsequent consoles.
Back when all of this was happening, many of us would have friends who owned the competing system. In the late '80s, nearly all of my friends had NES', making cartridge swapping a popular way to play different games. I don't think I knew anyone who had an SMS or 7800. By the early '90s, though, we were split between the Genesis and the SNES, giving us the best of both worlds. If I wanted to play Sonic, I'd make the 5-6-mile bike ride to my best friend's house. If he wanted to play Super Mario World, he'd make the trip. It was a memorable and much more innocent time. Now, he usually stares at block walls in prison while I collect my military retirement and disability and post lengthy TH-cam comments.
Sega won the 1990s Console Wars, till Sony entered the ring.
So, while not technically a lie, it was along the lines of "Lush Corinthian Leather." While it was lush leather, it wasn't Corinthian, and while "Blast Processing" was real, it was not able to be implemented in a game without some coding gymnastics, which probably was not worth it. So, I guess they couldn't be sued to false advertising, it was surely deceptive.
If the Genesis, with its so said Blast Processing does 1.3 MIPS (millions of intructions per second), and the SNES does 1.5 MIPS (including Mode 7, transparencies and a f.ton of colors), what should we call it? ATOMIC processing or maybe Blasting Cicles?
Imagine STILL believing a lie, after like 30 years and even after Sega stopped making their own consoles and even starting programming for - guess who - Nintendo themselves?
I'd rather stop playing videogames...
Im a nintendo fan but the genesis seemed more powerful games like the adventures ❤batman and robin showed what the genesis could do without and addons.
All the comments: “blast processing is real though!” But you literally mention that within the first 90 seconds of the video and never claim it is fake… you just say it wasn’t used. The absolute ineptitude regarding listening and comprehension of the general populous is frightening.
LOL. Good sir, asking for full understanding in the comments section is…not great.
The PS1 was the real victor of the great 90's console wars. By the end of the 90's, the N64 was looked at nothing more than a kids toy.
big facts
"Blast Processing" was used for Sonic to make the water effect
Makes sense
Some late famicom and gb games used something like it, any source that it used "blast processing" tough?
@@ssg-eggunner Blast Processing is the ability to change palettes in HBlank (it basically changes the palette line on each horizontal scan). Search for "Blast Processing Sega Sonic Retro." Results will appear.
Geometry dash reference
Might be helpful for the creator of this video to describe what he considers blast processing to be. Seems like everyone else has an opinion here as well but it hasn't really been defined for those watching
I love these type of videos
Um dude, Shannon Birt would like a word with you.
More like ASSSSSS Processing - AVGN probably
Are you George Wood?
This channel has only pro Nintendo videos
This guy is nothing but a fanboy
Sega only did well only in the United States. Snes sucked in America well up into the mid 90s when Genesis began to show its age and Genesis players started to migrate over the Sony playstation. Genesis sucked in Japan where snes did very well. Snes was way more advanced than snes better graphics and sound memory. Late stage snes games looked like primitive 32 bit games.
In the US only? It sold better in Brazil and had support there until the end of the Dreamcasts official run.
Also SEGA didn't do well in the US compared to other places, the Master System was the majority of Europe's preference.
The Saturn thrived in Japan, but bombed so hard in the US you'd think it was going to war.
And the Dreamcast was around the same in US sales as it was in PAL territories.
Unless you've forgotten the rest of the world outside the London Kingdom, Tokyo and the US like many States dwellers seem to.
Sega fanboys are triggered. 🤷🏻♂️
I feel like I’ve entered the twilight zone with some of these comments. Like…I’m quoting from what the inventory of the term blast processing said. Not sure what anyone else wants!
Saying Nintendo won the console wars of the 90s isn’t exactly true. The snes started to wane in 95 and the n64 came soon thereafter, which was killed by the ps1. It even sold less than the Saturn in Japan
He meant between snes and genesis
Correct. But OP isn't wrong, I get what he means.
You don't have idea about you're talking.
I’ve frequently said that about myself, using those exact words, in that exact order.
I always saw the near-success of Sega Genesis/Megadrive as sheer dumb luck on Sega's part. Nothing else they ever made came close.
Bro blast processing is real people been lying about sega genesis for so many years that it's way better then nintendo
Gaytendo 🏳️🌈
Then I guess just about every computer 7MHz and faster also has "blast processing."
@mjblcmichael it has more then 7 Mhz
It exists but is not any reliable, just like n64's 64bit architeture
@@damin9913Yeah 7.6Mhz
You have no idea what you are talking about sir.
Can you elaborate?
@@terranceaddison4599
> Calls you wrong
> Refuses to elaborate
> Leaves
What a chad.
@@terranceaddison4599 well for example the Genises came out to compete with the Nes and not Snes the Snes wasn't even a thing when it came out
Then why don't you tell us how and why? It's so easy to say "Youre Wrong."