Phantasy Star 4 on CD-ROM was going to be ~240 megabits!

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okay first of all, we all know the final version of
Phantasy Star: The End of the Millenium for the MegaDrive and Genesis,
better known as Phantasy Star IV, the one that was released, was a
24-meg cartridge game. that is, 24 megabits or 3 MegaBytes.


but most people have no idea that Sega had plans to put Phantasy Star 4
on CD-ROM, for the Mega-CD and Sega-CD, in addition to a cartridge
version.

the cartridge version was originally going to be 12 megabits, but the
CD-ROM version was going to 20 times the size of the cartridge version
-- that would've meant 240 megabits ( 30 MegaBytes) for the MegaCD and
SegaCD versions of Phantasy Star 4.

even though 240 Mb aka 30 MB does not even begin to tax the capacity of
the CD-ROM format, it would've still been 10 times more than the 24
megabit PSIV cartridge which Sega released. imagine all of the PSIV
content that we never got!

what a shame that original plan for Phantasy Star 4 was canceled.


the sources for this are:
a SegaBase web article, and GamePro magazine July 1992, page 75


the GamePro source:
http://www.phantasy-star.net/cgi-b [...] 0057F.html


the SegaBase source:
http://www.tinyurl.com/dz7ak


If I recall correctly, the Phantasy Star 4 that was released, on a 24
megabit Genesis cartridge, was later ported to the Sega Saturn on
CD-ROM for the Phantasy Star Collection, and maybe also for the IBM PC,
either on the Sega Smash Pack, or on some other PC CD-ROM release. but
these CD-ROM ports of PSIV were only of the 24-megabit Genesis
cartridge version, *not* the initially planned, massive CD-ROM version.

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drocket wrote:
> On 12 Jun 2005 14:00:04 -0700, optimusprimettf@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> >even though 240 Mb aka 30 MB does not even begin to tax the capacity of
> >the CD-ROM format, it would've still been 10 times more than the 24
> >megabit PSIV cartridge which Sega released. imagine all of the PSIV
> >content that we never got!
> I imagine that no actual content was cut - probably just some
> low-quality video sequences that wouldn't have added much to the game,
> or voice-overs by third-rate actors that would have made the game seem
> cheesy instead of the majestic classic that its remembered as.



>From what I understand, those entire versions of PSIV were scrapped.
both the 12-meg cartridge and CD-ROM games.


The version of Phantasy Star IV that Sega gave Japan in December 1993
on MegaDrive, and America in early 1995 on Genesis, (End of the
Millenium) was completely or almost completely different from the
original concepts Sega had for part IV on cart and CD which was called
The Return of Alis.

quote SegaBase:
"Sega cancelled the planned Sega CD release of Phantasy Star 4, opting
instead for a cartridge-based Genesis game that bore little resemblance
to its original Sega CD concept."

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Ethan Hammond wrote:
> <optimusprimettf@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1118626547.393641.181610@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
>>drocket wrote:
>>
>>>On 12 Jun 2005 14:00:04 -0700, optimusprimettf@yahoo.com wrote:
>>
>>The version of Phantasy Star IV that Sega gave Japan in December 1993
>>on MegaDrive, and America in early 1995 on Genesis, (End of the
>>Millenium) was completely or almost completely different from the
>>original concepts Sega had for part IV on cart and CD which was called
>>The Return of Alis.
>>
>>quote SegaBase:
>>"Sega cancelled the planned Sega CD release of Phantasy Star 4, opting
>>instead for a cartridge-based Genesis game that bore little resemblance
>>to its original Sega CD concept."
>
>
> But we got Rika so who cares. And a lot of times a game will change
> between the time of the planning/concept stage and the actual release.
>

I remember one of the early Sega CD Phantasy Star shots in Gamepro ended
up being PSIII.


--
Scott

http://www.gamepilgrimage.com

Archived from groups: alt.games.phantasy-star,rec.games.video.sega,alt.sega.genesis,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg,alt.games.video.sega-saturn (More info?)

optimusprimettf@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>>I remember one of the early Sega CD Phantasy Star shots in Gamepro ended
>>up being PSIII.
>>
>>
>>--
>>Scott
>
>
>
>
> hmm.
>
> PS III was slated to get enhanced for Sega CD, but like PS IV for Sega
> CD, was also cancelled.
>

I noticed that you were looking at Segabase as a source. It's an
excellent spring point. I can't remember if its in the Genesis history,
or the Sega CD one, but the site also points out that it was only after
Nintendo started Senator Lieberman off on violence in video games, and
Lieberman brought Sega up on charges for being the sole manufacturer of
"digital pornography", that the Sega CD's sales hit a slump it would
never recover from. Popular history credits Street Fighter 2 on the
Snes for this, but its impossible to remove the senate hearings from the
equation. At any rate, the way the Sega CD was selling in 1992, if it
had continued, we'd have seen those CD-ROM Phantasy Star game(s).


--
Scott

http://www.gamepilgrimage.com