NeoGAF Official SEGA SATURN Community






Here's a look at the new & improved homebrew Doom for Sega Saturn. It's still early in its production, so expect further improvements to follow in the future. But what's here sure looks terrific, far better than the retail disc that was infamously kneecapped by John Carmack.

Also, just for kicks, I'm also posting a video of Doom on Atari Jaguar, playing on a CRT for extra style points. This is an excellent translation that was not only programmed by Carmack himself, but also served as the code base for all future console and portable translations, including PlayStation and GameBoy Advance. Let this be your reminder that Atari Jaguar is awesome and you should probably own one by now.

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.
 

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.
And repeating these for the new page. Fingers crossed we live to see Dreamcast's 3 and 4 translated on the same quality level too.

 
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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.
 



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.
 
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?
 



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.
 



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.
 


In this video, we take a side-by-side look at Daytona USA running on the Sega Saturn compared to the original arcade version.

Many people argue that this port left a negative first impression of the Saturn's 3D capabilities, especially when compared to how the PlayStation handled its own arcade ports at the time — like Ridge Racer on the PS1, for example.

It's up to you to decide: did this port really hurt the Saturn's reputation, or is it overblown?
 



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.
 


A side-by-side comparison between the first and last versions of Daytona USA for the Sega Saturn. On the left is the 1995 Vanilla version, and on the right is the 1997 Circuit Edition, released exclusively in Japan.
 
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So my power supply was dying on me and I got this new replacement off eBay. It works very well and a fraction of the size. It was very easy to install.


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also wanted to add that putting a new psu solved a few other issues I was having like the ossc sound blinking out, and longer than usual load times in some games.
 


Side by Side Comparison with Dual Longplay of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Game for Sega Saturn and PS1 (PlayStation) on Real Hardware.


A side-by-side comparison between J. League Jikkyou Honoo no Striker for Sega Saturn and Jikkyo J. League: Perfect Striker for Nintendo 64.
 
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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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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.
 



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.
 















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.
 


0:00 Opening
00:59 Intro
04:53 Alien Trilogy
09:35 Congo The Movie
13:24 Doom
17:52 Duke Nukem 3D
21:56 Ghen War
28:10 Hexen
31:56 House of the Dead
37:50 Gundam Side Story
40:33 Powerslave
45:43 Quake
51:05 Special Riot Police
54:18 Virtua Cop 1 & 2
1:00:28 Outro
 
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.
 
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.
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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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.
 
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.
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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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.


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.
 
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