But you forget DC is one entire gen ahead of PS1and n64, so, in theory it could be easier to make DC games to look like PS2 or GC than 32bit/64 bits games...In fact, most of DC to PS2 and GC ports look at least to average PS2 and GC games for the early years, so at least on the 128 bit standard.
well, yes, but if speaking in general - all these generations in console world means mostly nothing.
lets look at so called 6th gen:
- 1998 Dreamcast - clearly DirectX 6 class system, with GPU something about RivaTNT2
- 2000 Playstation 2 - had special VU0/VU1 vector modules, which handle T&L and not only, imo it is somewhat DirectX 7 equivalent.
- 2001 GameCube - Flipper GPU had fixed-function T&L, plus TEV engine which may be considered early and limited pixel shaders, so it was almost like DirectX 8
- 2002 Xbox - Nvidia NV20A had fully functional vertex and pixel shaders - DirectX 8 or even early 9 class hardware.
so, same 6th gen actually had like 3 or even 4 different classes/generations of hardware, thus imo all these "console generations" classification chart mostly bullshit.
I´ve never understood why Sega did not put the money on a VF 4 on regular Naomi, instead of wasting money on Naomi 2....
wasting money ? there was no such term in Sega Arcade division
they often used NAOMI board as a simple I/O controller, for hopper device for example, instead of some cheap 8-bit MCU. because they dont give a f... and in general, Naomi2 was not expensive, vice versa it was quite cost effective upgrade.
Sega Hikaru - that was really waste of money
Naomi lasted like +10 years active and was a succesfull arcade system, while Naomi 2 how many games it has? less than 10, and was active for how many time? 4 years?
not 10+, Naomi was mainly active up to 2006. then was mostly replaced by SystemSP, which was used up to 2010 as a low cost platform.
why N2 was active like 4 years - because of VERY fast tech progress these years, especially in 3D GPU. so, it was easier and better to use common PC hardware (e.g. Lindbergh) as a flagman platform for advanced games.
while still use Naomi1/SystemSP for simple medal, cards, coin pusher etc games, because they had shitload of boards and components for them.
as of "cool" arcade games in general - games like VF4 and VF5 generated laughful proffit, nowhere near for example simple collectible cards type games (Mushiking, Dinoking etc), or horse breeding games (Derby Owners, Star Horse etc).
so, Sega focused on that type of games which generate main proffit. and that was not fighting games or other "cool" arcade genres.