We all know what happened with Tomb Raider 2. We'll never really know how much better Ninja or Fighting Force would have been. Ninja on the Saturn was said to be doing wonderful stuff and really pushing on the Hardware and also leading development on the Saturn. I doubt Tomb Raider 2 on the Saturn would have looked better mind, it would have been nice mind to see how it would have turned out, more so since Jason Gosling said it was coming along nicely to the British press.I think Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, if released on time and at the same time, were more than fair ports/versions compared to the PS1 Versions. Both hold up fairly well, the weakness being the mesh shading vs transparencies. Of course it took more effort to succeed on Saturn, even with updated tools/libraries. But honestly, their Sega/Mega-CD efforts were more impressive. i am not sure how much better they could have been on Saturn and if the sequels could have progressed much further.
I have always been under the impression that back then, Amiga/ST developers were far superior coders/creators than any North American gaming houses who didn't work on 68k machines (excluding Cinemaeware and Readysoft).
Core Design punched well above their weight on the European 16-bit machines. They released several notable games in a large quantity yearly. Same thing could be said about Magnetic Fields from Gremlin, Digital Illusions, Bitmap Brothers, Storm, Factor 5, Team 17 and Psygnosis to a smaller degree.
I still think the character models could have been better. It was a showcase for ADX mind with stunning music and high quality sound effectsDeep Fear is a very under rated gem. Extremely late in the life cycle, but as far as 3D and presentation goes, it's somewhere between Resident Evil 1 and 2, maybe closer to 2. Fine effort and a shining example of what we could have expected on a consistent bases? maybe?
There are some good options to buy at a lower price, especially Japanese games.Good luck buying Sega Saturn games. The go for hundreds on eBay.
On zig zag I just can't get past SEGA fucking it up and somehow making the worst case of polygon warping ever seen in SEGA Touring Car Championship. On a system known for its lack. I bet that if it wasn't for that, far more people would have prasied the game. It deserved better, very playable.
Yea, Deep Fear is super impressive. RE gives you door opening animations....Deep Fear went all out and gave you CG animations for elevators and shit, lol.Deep Fear is a very under rated gem. Extremely late in the life cycle, but as far as 3D and presentation goes, it's somewhere between Resident Evil 1 and 2, maybe closer to 2. Fine effort and a shining example of what we could have expected on a consistent bases? maybe?
I think it's a fine game. Great sense of speed despite the framerate, stylish cars, always cool to bump into others as you race shoving them out of the way. Even if it's hard to control it's not like it feels sluggish or boring to give up instead of learn. Tons of modes and content for an arcade racer.The Japanese version released later than the western one has some minor improvements, at least to the control.
Deep Fear is a good game but I wouldn't call it impressive. It's competent, not ugly or anything, it's nice that it's more action based with being able to move and shoot despite the classic RE style, though I think it wouldn't hurt if there was ammo management instead of the refill stations.
Well, I think we've covered everything so far, lol (though it'd be cool if someone brings up some completely unknown game), but I'm sure many/I missed a lot in previous pages due to the off topic bs. We should have a 2D or tech agnostic thread too for more Saturn goodness
Towns and areas in Shining Force III can look great (the battle scenes and spells are also great but not so impressive being 1 on 1 scripted sequences), like Grandia, but it's hard to find footage and the sprites' compressed look holds it back. The Holy Ark looks nice too.
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Die Hard Arcade is by far my favorite beat'em up on the console. The game is so much fun. I know people tend to love Guardian Heroes the most, but I don't like the gameplay much. Enemies are sent flying too easily, and you eventually inflict very few damage in the end game, which makes battles incredibly long for nothing.
Die Hard Arcade is indeed very well done, with great animations, a ton of different moves and combos, and a huge variety of situations. You get move-sets that remind me of Virtua Fighter, with some nice projections to end the combos. Highly recommended !
That homing laser style never gets old.I found that rail shooter by searching iPlaySEGA's playthroughs, it's called G Vector. Apparently it's so hard he had to use cheats but I found an 1cc playthrough. It's okay, it's no Panzer Dragoon and doesn't seem to use many Saturn tricks cleverly, just brute force and some backgrounds.
Some of the early clipping made it look like they arbitrarily decided the level terrain/style after doing the enemy patterns and couldn't care less if they went through terrain unaffected. Weird. Anyway, it doesn't look like I've been missing much without this one. Still a great tribute video.
Sunday I was watching John Burton’s (Coding secrets – GameHut) video again on environmental mapping as seen in Sonic R. He mentioned in the video that it’s impossible to do environment mapping using the Saturn hardware, as it lacks textures coordinates. So the only known solution was to do some kind of work on the CPU side of things, either to generate a new texture with the effect applied or to fully software render the effect (as in Sonic R).
That sounded like a challenge!
-XL2
Hardware-based UV Texture Environment Mapping on a stock Sega Saturn:
XL2 did it again:
XL2 did it again:
XL2 did it again:
That's bloody impressive.
Be aware that, whoever that Jenovi is, it's likely he/she looked at the non-consolidated statement of income, as Sega were used to report back then, which means it covered Sega Enterprise Ltd but not it's subsidiaries.Was it? Try watching one of the Jenovi videos on Sega consoles, he provides data showing how Saturn was ultimately profitable for Sega from 1994 to 1998. Yeah, they did some "questionable" things (like intentionally limiting system production numbers for book-cooking purposes), but Saturn didn't lose Sega money.
Now actually finish the full track and see if it stays at 30fps.
Both have been mentioned. Manx TT more than once, Touring Car Championship mostly for having the worst polygon warping on the system, not really something to show off (but imo an otherwise underrated port that deserved better, it's a really good and relatively unique racing game too).Sega Touring Car and Manx TT have really good graphics among others no one has mentioned yet
That's bloody impressive.
EDIT:
Be aware that, whoever that Jenovi is, it's likely he/she looked at the non-consolidated statement of income, as Sega were used to report back then, which means it covered Sega Enterprise Ltd but not it's subsidiaries.
The reason Sega Enterprise Ltd recorded a huge loss in the fiscal year ending March 1998 is that they made substantial write-downs of investments in and advances to its subsidiaries SEGA of America and SEGA Ozisoft in consideration of their precarious financial conditions.
Basically they covered the accumulated losses of SoA over the previous years with one big write-down (to the amount of ¥42.8billion) at the end of the Saturn era to start anew for Dreamcast.
If you want to check for yourself read the 1998 Annual Report:
Annual reports - Sega Retro
segaretro.org
More than focusing on Kalinske I would say the whole company was unprepared to manage the success they achieved around 1992-1993 with the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.The financial state of Sega of America rarely, if ever, comes up in these discussions, but there's no doubt that the money burned through the Genesis era hurt them greatly. Tom Kalinske has always been charismatic and likable, but he was not a good CEO and his record is greatly overrated. IMHO, as always, but I do remember the videogame fanzine scene was brutal on him back in 1994.
The 32x was a massive drain of resources that they should have used to invest in some sort of Sonic game and a proper NFL game for the Saturn's first year in US.The financial state of Sega of America rarely, if ever, comes up in these discussions, but there's no doubt that the money burned through the Genesis era hurt them greatly. Tom Kalinske has always been charismatic and likable, but he was not a good CEO and his record is greatly overrated. IMHO, as always, but I do remember the videogame fanzine scene was brutal on him back in 1994.
Bulk Slash got fan translated, dubbed to fitting quality and made compatible with the Twin Stick, so crazy!
Bulk Slash (English)
A full English localization of Bulk Slash, including dubs of all voices in-game and during ending cutscenes, as well as an implementation of the Twin Stick controller.segaxtreme.net
I find it hard to believe that anyone is actually impressed by those graphics.
I find it hard to believe that anyone is actually impressed by those graphics.
I found some much better footage of Drift King '97, after searching for it for another topic. I don't know if it's on original hardware but it looks legit/faithful without emulator enhancements. It also shows a half decent player actually drifing and what not so it doesn't look like a crappy & slow game.
I don't agree with all his complaints but I didn't get far (due to the Japanese). Traffic didn't seem out to get me, I just had to avoid drifting into them and pass when it's clear. I don't see why later tougher rivals would also make traffic more difficult but maybe that's the case. The drifting feels great!
The mentioned Dungeon Master Nexus looks and runs pretty good in motion (compares favorably to early King's Field, trashes Wizardry). The same goes for that Wachenroder SRPG and its great scene CG & art, FFT style visuals (no slopes though), awesome spritework and SFIII-esque specials.
The Saturn is what got me into X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes va Street Fighter, and Vampire Saviour.Fighting games were one of the strong suits of the system and stuff like Guardian Heroes, Legend of Thor, Dragon Force, etc. maybe were not great showcases for the 3D capabilities, but they are legitimately great games. I think especially in the 2D sector there is a lot to like about the Saturn. Also, the controller is amazing.
The lineup skyrockets when you have access to the Japanese library.
Need for Speed is worth mentioning without the earlier 3DO bs. The Nissan sponsored Japanese release, Over Drivin' GT-R, also brought features other systems enjoyed previously, like functional dashboard gauges and music. The game supports the 3D Control Pad for analog steering/gas/break.
It's a shame EA didn't do much better on Saturn, this early engine showed potential with its mix of 2D and 3D allowing for good details with large draw distances and smooth performance in a, blocky cars & collisions aside, nice rendering style similar to Road Rash that holds up better than many.
Need for Speed is worth mentioning without the earlier 3DO bs. The Nissan sponsored Japanese release, Over Drivin' GT-R, also brought features other systems enjoyed previously, like functional dashboard gauges and music. The game supports the 3D Control Pad for analog steering/gas/break.
It's a shame EA didn't do much better on Saturn, this early engine showed potential with its mix of 2D and 3D allowing for good details with large draw distances and smooth performance in a, blocky cars & collisions aside, nice rendering style similar to Road Rash that holds up better than many.
I find it hard to believe that anyone is actually impressed by those graphics.
2 more Saturn games were recently (7-8 months ago) translated. The SRPG Vandal Hearts most know from the PlayStation (the Saturn version seems enhanced outside transparencies) and another SRPG, Valhollian (this one's only use of 3D and only ambition seems to be the SFIII style attacks).
Lots of neat hacks in that channel for those interested, for widescreen play or whatever. There's even a 2-disc Shining Force III collection dubbed deluxe with everything intact + a history video of the previous games, all done using a menu system from some demo disc. Not my thing, but cool too.