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Sega Saturn Appreciation and Emulation Thread

Laws00

Laws00

Member
I want to really really fucking buy Magic Knight Rayearth. 100 bucks seems ok to me. But now I look at the prices and HOLY SHIT. I dont know anymore.

I'm tempted to just get the import same with clock work knight 2

those are really the 2 games I want US

fuck man fuck. at least with clockwork knight i dont need to worry about the story much

Which one is the 2nd game of clock work knight in japanese ?

Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchou's Adventure Joukan or Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau no Fukubukuro

fuck it i'll just get both
 
M

Mzo

Member
He knows what's up with the good Saturn system sounds.

edit: this video is incredible. Great find! Awesome info on BR, too.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
^gonna have to watch that soon

meanwhile here is a clearly well written and thought-out piece

Did any good come out of the Saturn?

When we look back on the Saturn, there's not much to like. Aside from some neat first-party arcade games that Sega had become known for, the chances of finding a stellar title amongst the garbage were slim, at best.

Amazingly, only two Saturn games sold over 1 million copies -- Virtua Fighter 2 and Grandia. Aside from those, the Saturn quickly became the cesspool of gaming. After all, can anyone actually name 30 great games they played on the console?
Click to expand...

why yes
yes don i can
 
K

Khaz

Member
sixteen-bit said:
Pretty interesting graphical analysis of transparency effects in Saturn games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_OchOV_WDg

If the speaker's accent is too strong there are captions.
Click to expand...

Even the games are displayed by higher resolution, the half-transparent-like effect is still preserved when using S-Video cable. In Virtua Fighter Kids, the hidden character "half-transparent Dural" is actually drawn using high resolution meshes. It is believed this effect has faked many players at that time.
Click to expand...

And it even works in RGB on a CRT. I just tried squinting at my Scart TV playing VFKids and nope, still can't see a mesh. As far as I'm concerned, Dural is transparent.

This is an impressive video, so much information in there.
 
P

piggychan

Member
IrishNinja said:
^gonna have to watch that soon

meanwhile here is a clearly well written and thought-out piece



why yes
yes don i can
Click to expand...

I could have sworn that I read years ago that Enemy 0 had also sold over a million and so too did the first Virtua Fighter and sega rally..

P1020266.jpg
 
K

Khaz

Member
When videogame-obsessed kids grow up and become engineers, they make the craziest ideas come to life

Sega Saturn multipurporse cartridge. It will mimic Power Memory / Backup RAM, 1MB ROMs from KoF and Ultraman, and 1M/4M RAM expansion. More than that, it should emulate Sega Saturn modems, and launch any 3rd party code, for example PseudoSaturn. Cart is based on Altera MAX 10 FPGA with external SDRAM and internal Nios II soft CPU.
Click to expand...

https://github.com/hitomi2500/wasca

Soon (hopefully).
 
M

Mzo

Member
sixteen-bit said:
ABF writing for cnet now?
Click to expand...

why is there no rep button

Hopefully Low Score Boy's video puts to rest all the "lazy developer" bullshit concerning Staurn transparencies. Coincidentally, I went back to check out Game Sack's Saturn video (episode 69, dudes) and noticed LSB had the newest comment up, chiding Dave for claiming Treasure use of meshes in Guardian Heroes was due to laziness or neglect. Hilarious.

Been playing the crap out of NiGHTS, a game that never really clicked with me before. I think taking it for what it is outside the context of a console war significantly improved the game for me. It's a classic Sega score attack, arcadey game that rewards familiarity and skill with spectacle and fun.
 
S

Shadow Hog

Member
Well, that video explains a fair bit. I knew mesh transparencies were more common in 3D games than 2D ones, but never quite knew the reason why that was so.

Although given the SNES could, IIRC, do sprite transparencies without the whole "overwriting anything that's beneath them" problem, for Sega to cheap out and only offer "transparent with VDP2 but overwrites VDP1" and "transparent with VDP1 but opaque to VDP2" modes, but no "perform transparent mix when old VDP1 data found, transparent with VDP2 otherwise" mode (I might have the VDPs reversed, but whatever) seems like a major oversight.

IrishNinja said:
meanwhile here is a clearly well written and thought-out piece
Click to expand...
From 2012
 
M

Mercutio

Member
Mzo said:
why is there no rep button

Hopefully Low Score Boy's video puts to rest all the "lazy developer" bullshit concerning Staurn transparencies. Coincidentally, I went back to check out Game Sack's Saturn video (episode 69, dudes) and noticed LSB had the newest comment up, chiding Dave for claiming Treasure use of meshes in Guardian Heroes was due to laziness or neglect. Hilarious.

Been playing the crap out of NiGHTS, a game that never really clicked with me before. I think taking it for what it is outside the context of a console war significantly improved the game for me. It's a classic Sega score attack, arcadey game that rewards familiarity and skill with spectacle and fun.
Click to expand...

Yeah, playing it at the time I remember liking it but being really angry that it wasn't a Sonic game. What was Sonic Team doing? Why did I buy a Saturn?

Now I love that game. But my 180 on it came way after the Saturn died.
 
B

blast processed

Member
piggychan said:
I could have sworn that I read years ago that Enemy 0 had also sold over a million and so too did the first Virtua Fighter and sega rally..
Click to expand...

Here is a quote from Gamasutra article in 08 concerning Rally Sales.

"On the art-versus-commerce dilemma, Mizuguchi said, "I had many inspirations like virtual reality and things like that which I wanted to do, but we had to make money. [Sega Rally] was a huge success. 12,000 arcade units sold, and 1.2 million console versions.”
Click to expand...
Virtua Fighter sold 1.7 in Japan alone according to this & wiki has it listed at 500k for NA.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
sixteen-bit said:
ABF writing for cnet now?
Click to expand...
...That comment makes no sense, I think the Saturn is pretty good. Saturn > PS1 for '94 to '98 game libraries, and I'd never write an article like that.

sixteen-bit said:
Pretty interesting graphical analysis of transparency effects in Saturn games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_OchOV_WDg

If the speaker's accent is too strong there are captions.
Click to expand...
Post good things like this, not stupid insults like the one above. That video's great, really interesting stuff. I got Dark Savior recently, and was wondering how it did the transparent blocks... this must be how.
 
J

Jaeger

Member
That all in one cart sounds amazing. I missed out on any online functionality on the Saturn so id love any opportunity to play Bomberman online again.

Anyway, I'm gonna finally pull the trigger on this system Tuesday. This and at least one game to start out again. Not sure what though. I want Castlevania but I don't want to pay over $100 for it.
 
C

Coda

Member
Jaeger said:
That all in one cart sounds amazing. I missed out on any online functionality on the Saturn so id love any opportunity to play Bomberman online again.

Anyway, I'm gonna finally pull the trigger on this system Tuesday. This and at least one game to start out again. Not sure what though. I want Castlevania but I don't want to pay over $100 for it.
Click to expand...

Be prepared to pay top dollar for most games that are actually worth your time unfortunately. Layer Section is a great game to start with if you enjoy shmups because it's relatively affordable and a good game.
 
J

Jaeger

Member
LUCKY n WILD said:
Be prepared to pay top dollar for most games that are actually worth your time unfortunately. Layer Section is a great game to start with if you enjoy shmups because it's relatively affordable and a good game.
Click to expand...

It's in my basket. I love Layer Section. One of my favorites.
 
Bar81

Bar81

Member
Jaeger said:
It's in my basket. I love Later Section. One of my favorites.
Click to expand...

It should be one of *everyone's* favorites. I don't know if I'm happy or mad it's still as cheap as it is - on the one hand it's every bit as good as any shmup out there so should be priced accordingly, on the other hand the price means no one has an excuse not to own it.
 
J

Jaeger

Member
Bar81 said:
It should be one of *everyone's* favorites. I don't know if I'm happy or mad it's still as cheap as it is - on the one hand it's every bit as good as any shmup out there so should be priced accordingly, on the other hand the price means no one has an excuse not to own it.
Click to expand...

All it will take is one popular YouTuber to do a video on it and the price Will skyrocket. Honestly I hope that it doesn't happen and if it does, well after I get my personal copy again.
 
G

gooey

Neo Member
sixteen-bit said:
Soukyugurentai is an incredible cost-to-enjoyment value when it comes to Saturn STGs. It's only like $30-$40 and probably top 3 on the system.
Click to expand...

That looks sick. I'll keep an eye out for that.

EDIT: Alpha 3 prices are getting me down. :(
I will not settle for Alpha 1.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
A3 on Saturn is super nice but that price is really out of control.
There's always Alpha Anthology on PS2 if you have one of those, I guess.
 
G

gooey

Neo Member
Jaeger said:
Alpha 2 is my fave. I would like 3 on Saturn because of its rarity but I'm not tripping.
Click to expand...

Alpha 2 has the better soundtrack but I love all the extra modes in A3.
I haven't even looked into Alpha 2 prices. I'll just get that! :)

sixteen-bit said:
A3 on Saturn is super nice but that price is really out of control.
There's always Alpha Anthology on PS2 if you have one of those, I guess.
Click to expand...
I do. It's still hooked up to my TV... at my parents place. XD
Gonna have to get that back now seeing as I want that Sunsoft collection also.
 
J

Jaeger

Member
gooey said:
Alpha 2 has the better soundtrack but I love all the extra modes in A3.
I haven't even looked into Alpha 2 prices. I'll just get that! :)


I do. It's still hooked up to my TV... at my parents place. XD
Gonna have to get that back now seeing as I want that Sunsoft collection also.
Click to expand...

Get Street Fighter Collection for the best version of Alpha 2. Or the stand alone release of Zero 2'.
 
Genesis Knight

Genesis Knight

Member
Jaeger said:
Preceded said title by two years.
Click to expand...

Bar81 said:
Only if you have no idea what you're talking about.
Click to expand...

sixteen-bit said:
Soukyugurentai is an incredible cost-to-enjoyment value when it comes to Saturn STGs. It's only like $30-$40 and probably top 3 on the system.
Click to expand...

LOL, what the hell at this response. When did this thread get so serious? Good grief. Do I need to post my Saturn creds or something so that I get some benefit of the doubt next time?
 
J

Jaeger

Member
I really need to get a Framemeister. I just don't have that kind of money right now. :/

Genesis Knight said:
LOL, what the hell at this response. When did this thread get so serious? Good grief. Do I need to post my Saturn creds or something so that I get some benefit of the doubt next time?
Click to expand...

I just made a note about the order of release of the superior poor man's Souky.
 
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