>Sega managed to make the Genesis / Mega Drive backwards compatible

>>3916768
The z80 was still in there, and the VDP was an upgraded version of the master system one. It was a beefed up master system from the start, just as the master system was a beefed up mk2/sg-1000.

Its possible the SNES was planned for backwards compatibility at one point, since the CPU is able to run 6502 code. It probably wasn't cost effective.

>>3916768
>despite using a main CPU with a completely different architecture

The MD literally used an exact duplicate of the z80 in the Master System as its sound chip, which doubled as the primary CPU when playing Master System games.

>>3916768
From what I remember hearing, the SNES was planned to have backwards comparability with NES titles.
At the stage of the SNES's release however, most buyers would've been previous owners of the NES and since the NES was made in excess of 60 million units and now with the newer, cheaper toploader on the market (comparable with PS2 slim etc) it probably proved to not be worth the extra expense.
The SNES using similar CPU architectures was probably to allow in house and former programmers of the NES to adapt quickly and start producing titles for the SNES quicker and better.

Sega had a very peripheral oriented mentality to their hardware and were always trying to cut the market with new different ways to play their games on different combinations of hardware, they had backwards comparability adapters for all their consoles and handhelds, as well as computer add ons to play G/MD games and so forth.

>>3916802
>The MD literally used an exact duplicate of the z80 in the Master System as its sound chip
The MD does not use the Z80 as a sound chip. It has a sound chip - the Yamaha YM2612.

Still, if Sega could include the CPU from their old console onto the newer one, then surely Nintendo could do the same. Hell, they didn't even have to because their new CPU was fully compatible with their older one.

>>3916836
The Z80 is what typically drives the YM2612 and the TI PSG, unless you're one of those oddballs that their sound with the 68k.

>>3916838
I know, but there are some dumb shits out there that actually believe the Mega Drive's sound chip was the Z80 CPU itself.

The SNES has its own sound CPU too actually, but it's entirely fixed-function IIRC.

"If you're backwards compatible, you're really backwards."
-Microsoft Head of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick, 2013

>>3916768

Sega needed an edge

Nintendo already had it

>>3918973
t. 3rd place gaming company

>>3916790
Sound chip was unfinished and the NES graphics mode was replaced with a 15-bit pallet (BG layer 3 was supposed to to be it's NES mode).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHPgbuM3Yo8

File: BACKWARDSCOMPATIBILITY.jpg (172KB, 1024x576px) Image search: [Google]

172KB, 1024x576px

>>3918973
>"If you're backwards compatible, you're really backwards."

SNES was intended to have backward compatibility, but as I understand it Yamauchi had it removed as it drove the cost too high to compete with the Genesis.
The other anon noting the release of the AV Famicom as a budget model is probably right as well.

>>3916790
>The z80 was still in there, and the VDP was an upgraded version of the master system one. It was a beefed up master system from the start, just as the master system was a beefed up mk2/sg-1000.

This. Their entire console line was upgrades on top of upgrades at that point. SG-1000, II, Mark III, SMS (Mark 4), and the Megadrive is labelled Mark 5 on the motherboard. The whole line is an evolution, not new machines all the time.

It would have been much easier for the pc engine to play NES games than for the SNES

>>3918973
I love playing DOS games on my Windows XP desktop.