NeoGAF Official SEGA SATURN Community
- Thread starter Daniel Thomas MacInnes
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BigDeadFreak
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I had got a cheap Jaguar several years after they came out. The Doom port was excellent and, along with Tempest 2000, the only thing I played on it. I always thought Alien vs Predator was a jumbled mess and one of the most overrated games of all time.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Impressive WIP Homebrew Gets First Update Since 2021!
Noah and the Poohloudies just got its first update (and it’s a BIG one) in over four years, after hitting a dead end with the previous game engine. This time around, it’s running on a c…
www.segasaturnshiro.com
With implemented animations and all kinds of effects it's on its way to being a fully featured engine than a limited tech demo. I'd opt to save polygons making the diamond pick ups 2D like in Croc rather than Spyro 3D (various things could improve aesthetically in equally/less intensive ways tbh).
Idk if this was posted before. Looks like a neat little game.
English Patch Released for Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon
A new adventure awaits English-speaking Saturn fans now that a translation patch for Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon is complete. The translator and hacker, Maud, posted a Google Drive link to the patc…
www.segasaturnshiro.com
Eadmaster Declares Princess Crown Translation Release-Worthy
After six months of work initially based on a different team’s preliminary translation from more than a decade ago, fan hacker eadmaster has released an English translation patch for Saturn a…
www.segasaturnshiro.com
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Here's a great video that shows off the Generation Five ports of Quake 1 & 2. The narrator is upbeat and cheerful about all of them, while also offering constructive criticisms where needed. As you would expect, Saturn Quake is superior to its Nintendo 64 cousin, while the PlayStation and N64 versions of Quake 2 run neck-and-neck.
I absolutely love Quake on Saturn, especially with the analog controller. Its slower pace gives the game a stealthier, spookier vibe that always keeps you on the edge of your seat, and Lobotomy's amazing visual design stands as a milestone for the system's 3D polygon abilities. This title often gets overlooked by the rest of the holy Lobotomy Trilogy, but don't let that stop you. This is a sensational experience that goes the distance.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Quake on Sega Saturn, in all its glory. This video is only two years old, looks terrific, shows off a complete playthrough including all secret areas. Note the amazing lighting and color effects which were not even present on the original PC release. Not bad for a humble console that was selling for $200 at the time, while a Pentium PC would cost you 5-10 times more. Needless to say, all the "can't doo three-dee" haters can stuff it.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
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Plies
Banned
Good day!
I have some questions about Sega Saturn. Actually, I have a lot of them, but I will not ask all already.
1) What advantage was to have two CPUs in Sega Saturn?
2) How big really was the problem with two CPUs with one memory bus?
3) Why did main RAM was split in two parts SDRAM and DRAM?
4) How high was frequency of main RAM?
5) I found info what SCU chip was not only memory buses controller but also could calculate geometry? Is it true?
I have some questions about Sega Saturn. Actually, I have a lot of them, but I will not ask all already.
1) What advantage was to have two CPUs in Sega Saturn?
2) How big really was the problem with two CPUs with one memory bus?
3) Why did main RAM was split in two parts SDRAM and DRAM?
4) How high was frequency of main RAM?
5) I found info what SCU chip was not only memory buses controller but also could calculate geometry? Is it true?
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Sega Lord X has a new video showcasing the lastest Sega Saturn translations, and it's a banger of an episode. This lineup of videogames would be hailed as all-time classics if released on any console. What a thrilling time to be a classic gamer.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Here's a long gameplay video of the excellent Dungeon Master Nexus in action. Sega Saturn was really blessed with so many wonderful dungeon-crawling adventure games. This has to be one of the better ones, just after Shining the Holy Ark and Baroque for presentation and style. And what a great showpiece for the system's 3D polygon visuals! We so desperately needed videogames like this in the West back in the 1990s. Ah, well, at least we can enjoy these classics today.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Every so often I really get the itch to play the heck out of Last Bronx, Sega's brilliant and curiously overlooked 3D polygon arcade fighter. For a system so endlessly stacked with great brawlers, it's easy to get lost in the weeds and become endlessly fixated on this title or that title. I know that I've done it myself, becoming addicted solely to Fighters Megamix, Dead or Alive and Anarchy in the Nippon for long stretches of time (to say nothing of those fantastic 4MB Capcom fighters). Yet here is a real milestone for the genre and one of Saturn's proudest moments.
In North America, this game was the first brawler since Virtua Fighter 2 to feature Saturn's amazing 480/60 high resolution graphics. It felt like a return to form after Sega's experiments with Gouraud shading and lighting effects with Fighting Vipers and Megamix, which, as Grandpa Simpson would say, was the style of the time. But these supremely quick and crispy visuals have aged more gracefully.
If you're a fan of the Virtua Fighter style, you'll fit in perfectly. Last Bronx doesn't quite have as many throws, and its pacing is more towards short, brutishly violent fights. You can feel the weight of giant hammers, metal bars and bamboo swords as they rattle your head six ways from Sunday. The Japanese version includes that wonderful tutorial mode, as well as a fold-out poster with the complete moves list (Sega of America liked to keep players in the dark, for reasons that never made any sense aside from "That's Just Sega Being Sega"). The US edition trims down the tutorial modes but does add subtitles to everything, which is very nice. Bernie Stolar's reign gets endless flack from Saturn fans, but there's no denying the quality of what games were released here remained extremely high. Besides, as well all ought to know by now, Saturn never had a chance. It was doomed from the start. But let's not get into that discussion yet again.
What matters now is that Last Bronx is a fantastic 3D fighting game that will knock your socks off and remains of the console's greatest accomplishments. Those VDP2 effects are just astonishing, aren't they? And it's not just the use of ceilings in three stages, but the way other background objects like pillars or cars move so perfectly, and the use of curved backgrounds to recreate a fully 3D environment with 2D assets. It's effective enough that you find yourself why everyone back then was so obsessed with polygons in the first place. Sony Playstation had Tekken 3 and Bushido Blade and Tobal 1 & 2, which are all great. Nintendo 64 had, well...nothing at all, but kids back then never cared because they were too busy playing Goldeneye. Neither rival could truly match what Sega brought to the table. They stone cold owned this genre, signed, sealed and delivered.
Sega fans ought to be more vocal about such things.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
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IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Time to share some love for Zero Divide: The Final Conflict, Zoom's masterful 1997 3D polygon fighter and one of Saturn's finest showpieces. This fighting game follows the traditional Virtua Fighter style, featuring a collection of robots with a wide variety of attacks and throws. Their armor can be shattered, similar to Fighting Vipers, and most stages feature irregular walls. You can even hang off the edge of the platform when being knocked over, a very impressive touch. Visuals are rendered in a buttery-smooth 60 fps, character models are drawn in Gouraud ("gah-ROW") shading and lighting. I love how the robots have these pulsating colors on their inner skins, how pieces of their outer shells shatter, how transparent rings accompany solid hits and body slams. It all feels very satisfying when you slowly smash an opponent to pieces. And I'm assuming all the wonderful animation was motion-captured.
It's such a pity that Saturn was dead and buried in the West by the time Zero Divide appeared in Japan. This is precisely the sort of videogame we needed, alongside Dead or Alive and Anarchy in the Nippon and Savaki and K-1 Fighting Illusion. This console was a beast for fighting games and there are so many genuine classics that genre fans will never grow tired. This title is clearly near the very best and every one of you should have this game in your library.
And have we mentioned the fantastic synth soundtrack? And the amazing storyline? And that silly cat character you unlock? And all those killer VDP 2 effects? What a fantastic videogame.
Update: I found the SoundCloud page for Akihito Okawa, the musical composer behind Zero Divide. I don't know if he works in the videogame business anymore, but he still creates amazing music. You should definitely check him out.
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Here's a new gameplay video of the amazing Anarchy in the Nippon. This speedrun features the "heavy" character who loves to abuse "on the bounce" combos. I'm curious to see how this would work against human opponents. This remains such an untapped gem among the hardcore fighting community, and I really wish they'd dig their claws into this game. We need to bring along a Sega Saturn to more fighting competitions.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
More love for Anarchy in the Nippon! More love for Anarchy in the Nippon! Why aren't we playing this one right now? Yes, among the Saturn's 3D fighters, Last Bronx, Dead or Alive and Zero Divide are more technically accomplished, but this one is more fun. This is always the one I reach for when I need a quick fix. Maybe it's the excellent character designs and the color design, maybe it's the rockin' soundtrack, maybe it's the freewheeling, breezy pacing. Who knows? All I know is that this is a great videogame and yet another in that endless list of Japanese exclusives that we Western Saturn fans so sorely needed.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Well, now I've gone and done it. I'm on another 3D fighting game kick for Sega Saturn. This means one thing: lots and lots of Dead or Alive videos! Seriously, how did we not get this game in the West? Oh, yeah, the kids refused to touch Sega's console with a ten-foot pole because Daytona '95 looked too rough. Ugh. Seriously, what's wrong with us 90s kids? Tekken on PlayStation was great, but what brawlers did Nintendo 64 have? Mortal Kombat Trilogy and that's it. As for Atari Jaguar, we're going to quietly ignore Fight For Life and stick to Tempest 2000. None of Sega's rivals had anything that could touch DOA. Saturn was untouchable. It still is.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Out of the games from that video, Lobotomy Trilogy is the best, as we all know. Alien Trilogy is also excellent. Gundam Side Story Trilogy is fantastic & absolutely kicks. Hexen isn't bad but the frame rate could be better. Virtua Cop 1&2 are fantastic, and House of the Dead is great despite being a rush job.
Ghen War is awful but at least they tried. Congo is just awful. Doom was deliberately sabotaged by Carmack (of all the times for Romero to go on vacation). I never played Special Riot Police, it seemed slight but maybe it's okay-ish? Like I'd stop playing Powerslave to find out.
Other first-person Saturn games of note:
- Magic Carpet. Get the JP version, which improves the graphics a bit & adds analog control.
- Tunnel B-1. This is a great 3D showpiece for Saturn. Controls need a little tweaking & I wish the racing wheel was supported, but this game looks & plays great, best on CRT.
- Scorcher & AMOK. Two excellent show-off games for Saturn. Yeah, AMOK is 3rd person but I wanted to sing its praises.
- Mechwarrior 2. Excellent adaptation of the PC classic. It's another great Saturn game that features all those cool lighting & shading effects that 90s kids were obsessed with. It's better than its PSX cousin.
- Shining the Holy Ark. I love this one, my favorite dungeon crawler on Saturn.
- Dumgeon Master Nexus. Another great dungeon adventure, an update of the Atari ST classic with some terrific polygon visuals.
- Baroque. Baroque! What more needs to be said? It's a Saturn masterpiece.
- Dragon Master Silk. Another dungeon crawler, this time featuring anime girls. Not as polished as the others but still very good.
Ghen War is awful but at least they tried. Congo is just awful. Doom was deliberately sabotaged by Carmack (of all the times for Romero to go on vacation). I never played Special Riot Police, it seemed slight but maybe it's okay-ish? Like I'd stop playing Powerslave to find out.
Other first-person Saturn games of note:
- Magic Carpet. Get the JP version, which improves the graphics a bit & adds analog control.
- Tunnel B-1. This is a great 3D showpiece for Saturn. Controls need a little tweaking & I wish the racing wheel was supported, but this game looks & plays great, best on CRT.
- Scorcher & AMOK. Two excellent show-off games for Saturn. Yeah, AMOK is 3rd person but I wanted to sing its praises.
- Mechwarrior 2. Excellent adaptation of the PC classic. It's another great Saturn game that features all those cool lighting & shading effects that 90s kids were obsessed with. It's better than its PSX cousin.
- Shining the Holy Ark. I love this one, my favorite dungeon crawler on Saturn.
- Dumgeon Master Nexus. Another great dungeon adventure, an update of the Atari ST classic with some terrific polygon visuals.
- Baroque. Baroque! What more needs to be said? It's a Saturn masterpiece.
- Dragon Master Silk. Another dungeon crawler, this time featuring anime girls. Not as polished as the others but still very good.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
If all those count (ok stretching it with the rpgs lol) then Gungriffon and sequel should really be there near the top too
So sad we didn't get more games in that vein and AMOK's vein too, they exploited the Saturn perfectly with the vdp2/voxel terrain respectively and 3D polygonal and 2D assets mixed in. Also Bulk Slash. Would have loved a first person cockpit view in that and AMOK too.
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Ooh, yeah, I knew I was forgetting at least a couple more. Gungriffon is fantastic, the sequel aha some good moments. And Bulk Slash has that fantastic translation with all the bells and whistles.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Personally I found some value in BLAM! Machinehead too, the bleak atmosphere was immersing and it's overall like a heavier slower paced AMOK basically, in first person. Flying games like Stellar Assault SS (ok it's probably the best of this bunch by a big margin, I should have mentioned it way earlier like other stellar games in these lists) and Thunderstrike/hawk II too. Darklight Conflict is decent (and the leaked The Last Dynasty is okay). Space Hulk I guess was not great but a game like that with more freeform less corridory action gameplay could be rad, loved the 3D render sprites.
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
These are all great entries. Sega Saturn just has this endless well of classic videogames, and every time you're sure you've found everything, another stack of discs lands at your doorstep.
Stellar Assault SS is amazing for the platform and has been given the same amazing treatment as Bulk Slash. I love it. Thunderstrike 2 is another killer title that looks and plays great, and also uses the analog mission stick, making it the definitive version. Virgin also had a copter game called Black Dawn that's really good if you can get past the shockingly short draw distance. Darklight Conflict is another one of my favorites, as I love the spaceship adventure games, and it just looks terrific. Space Hulk gets nothing but love, and I really ought to sit down and play at depth one of these years. There was also this first-person adventure called Defcon 5 that's worth a look. That was an early third-party title from Autumn 1995. And, of course, we have Robotica/Deadalus, which is far too repetitive for its own sake but does look superb.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Here's a new Nights retrospective that goes into depth on our favorite 2.5D/3D platformer. Give it a listen.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Well, since I posted a Nights: Into Dreams video early this morning, I thought I might as well post a complete Nights gameplay video. What a fantastic videogame!
Update: Yeah, I had to include Christmas Nights as well. I even found a CRT video so you can see how glorious this classic looks in its native environment.
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
FunCom's Impact Racing has everything you need in a Sega Saturn videogame: bold, colorful graphics, blazing speed, a lack of any intrusive pop-in, and loads of those transparencies that everyone has been obsessing about since the Super NES days. As a racing/combat hybrid, it reminds me a lot of the arcade classics Spy Hunter and Roadblasters, so if you're a fan of those, then you're going to have a terrific time. Overall, a terrific example of how well Saturn performs when in the hands of skilled programmers.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Gaming_For_Ages has a new Sega Saturn video worth checking out, yay! Games featured in this discussion include Policenauts, Radiant SIlvergun, Sakura Wars, Astra Superstars and Elevator Action Returns. What a great software lineup!
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
We haven't seen any Astra Superstars in a long while, so I thought we should share some for you. This is a fantastic 2D fighter that uses the console's 4MB RAM cartridge and boasts amazingly fluid animation and seizure-inducing visual effects. You could put this game on Sega Dreamcast and not miss a beat. If you're looking for a 2D powerhouse for Saturn, this is near the very top of the list. And the best thing is that it's a such an easy game to play. Casual button-mashers will have just as much fun as the diehards.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Since we're taking a look at the non-Capcom, non-SNK fighting games on Sega Saturn, let's take a look at the most excellent Sokko Seitokai Sonic Council, a 2D brawler with smooth character animation and color design, some impressive Street Fighter moves and an overall polished presentation. This was one of the latter Saturn titles, which ended up becoming a rarity on the used game market. Please don't pass it up, it's terrific and well worth your time.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
YouTube channel Shmup Junkie has a new video you're sure to love: a comprehensive video review of every Sega Saturn shoot-em-up. Yay!
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
We have recently reached the 30th anniversary of Sega Saturn's launch in the UK, and we now have videos commemorating the date and sharing memories of those heady days of 1995. Here's a terrific video to watch and share. Do we have any PAL Saturn fans out there? Any stories to share?
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
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