Great Visual Effects on the Sega Saturn
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 гру 2020
- Was the Sega Saturn a weak, joke of a product many would have you believe? Nope, it sure as heck wasn't.
I'm now on Patreon! Help support the channel.
/ segalordx
Check out my Sega Lord X merchandise page!
segalordx.threadless.com/
If you would like to support the channel directly:
www.paypal.me/segalordx
Head over to Facebook to hear me ramble about various things:
/ segalordx
I'm now on Twitter!
/ sega_lord_x
Opening 3D Logo By:
Jan Neves
UA-cam Page - / jan3d
Opening 2D Animation By:
Kevin Bhall
Facebook - / kevin.bhall.14
Episode Notes:
1. Captured on real Saturn hardware.
2. Let me know if you'd like to see a part 2! There are many great looking games on the Saturn. Sound off with your recommendations.
3. Unlike the first for the Sega CD, Keio Flying Squadron 2 was mainly a platformer on the Saturn. It was not released in North America.
4. There was a companion release to Decathlete called Winter Heat that was a looker as well.
5. I would love to see what AM2 could have done with The House of the Dead. Sega was moving away from the Saturn by then, so it just wasn't meant to be.
6. Burning Rangers plays much better with the 3D Analog Pad. Much like Nights, it makes everything so much more responsive.
7. Dragon Force is my favorite game on the Saturn. If you have never played it, my advice about staying away from spoilers really does matter. Learning the game on your own is 100% more rewarding. Spoiler strategies can completely break the experience.
8. Elevator Action Returns was only released on the Saturn that generation. I think the Playstation could have done it, but I bet it would have had mid level loading and cut frames due to lower video RAM. - Ігри
There's been a lot of questions about the opening music at the title screen. That's Akira's Theme from Virtua Fighter 2. That entire game had an incredible soundtrack.
Regarding Sonic R. I found a channel dedicated to coding from a former employee of Travellers Tales. Im sure all ghe fans will like it as I did. Thanks for a great channel.
Here it is ua-cam.com/video/CPaNNiB2H-s/v-deo.html
Indeed it did have great music.
I wonder if the change to pure / ported Multiplatform titles caught sega off guard to a degree, before the PlayStation Sega pretty much always got its own version of every branded third party title and not a straight port from the snes, that completely changed with the 32 bit gen consoles and it suddenly became normal to simply port a game rather than create a different version for each different console. That was definitely a shift from what had been happening previously.
Amazing OST
I really hope this is just part 1. I love the graphics of the Sega Saturn. More please!
And thank you for your hard work. 😊
I was just going to say the same thing! :)
Don't count out the super scalers which were still just downgraded ports on 16 bit systems but pixel perfect/audio translation on the saturn.
I was a "Saturn" boy when it was still out. And I still hold a place for it. I picked it over the PlayStation and I don't regret it. Sega Saturn is still my top favorite system! It gave me a lot of great games.👌👍👍
Saturn and Sega CD were both incredible consoles if you bought the best games. Unfortunately on Saturn that meant having to import some. If you got the right games for those two, nobody would have time to play all the incredible games, I'm still catching 25 years into playing my Saturn. Only finished playing all the great Sega CD games a few years ago.
2D games was the best on Saturn, my import collection sits proudly, full of masterpieces, fighting to shmups
@@ominojaku1069 You're definitely right on that.💯👌👍👍
I know how you feel. I picked the Master System over NES and TurboGrafx over Genesis and don't regret it. I rented an imported Japanese Saturn when it first came out but Clockwork Knight and Panzer Dragoon didn't leave a great impression and I ended up buying the PS1 on launch day on a whim. I don't regret that decision either. :)
i had friends with both and initially i was more into saturn but it didnt take very long to become apparent that the playstation has superior hardware and developers. i spent far more time at the playstation friends houses. eventually id own both and my saturn was completely replaced by my playstation within a year. the playstation just had so much more quality. i was really upset about saturns quality being a genesis kid and vehemently against the snes. segas beginning of the end starts with the saturn.
I love your Sega passion. Such quality videos showing me the gems I missed
Shining force 3 should be mention with the fight scenes. Some of those magic spells Blowed my mind back in the day.
Yeah Shining Force III is a beautiful looking game imo
I'm Dreaming of Shining Force IV, just like the Shining Force of old.....
@@insaneasock3156 Oh man... Can you imagine? You aren't alone in your dream. The Shining Force series is a big part of my childhood.
@@insaneasock3156 it would be so great
I don’t play video games anymore but if they deliver a new SF I‘ll buy what ever console/hardware I need to play that! Just hope they‘d keep up the awesome music from the game back then.
we had with my brother Saturn, we could not believe that such a wonderful console fell so quickly and gave us so much joy long after its fall
Guardian Heroes, Virtua Cop 2 and Sonic R still look great to me.
I loved Guardian Heros. Trying to unlock all the characters to use.
I love light game guns, virtual cop 1 and 2 were great fun for me
Sonic r to this day blows me away. The lead developer has a UA-cam channel as well gamehut
I was addicted to Sonic R. I remember playing that game until I literally unlocked everything! What a classic!
Music was special for sonic R, loved that game
@The Monster Under Your Bed It did feel a bit weird at the beginning but there are techniques you can master in the game to help manoeuvre better and controls also varied depending on characters selected. I also owned Mario Kart 64 at the time and I admit the controls were much simpler in that game. But Sonic R introduced a different style of racing game which can be just as enjoyable once you get hang of the controls.
Hey man, what's up? Can you share that lead developer's YT channel?
after playing Virtua Fighter in arcade, I new I needed a Saturn and I'm so happy I was fortunate enough to get one. my library is pretty small when compared to my other consoles, but I'm still happy I have a Saturn. Good memories!
Incredible Hardware for the few able programmers like Andromeda, Team Ninja, AM2.....still hope to see a playable Shenmue Demo on it!
I’d love to see a playable Shenmue Saturn demo. I wonder if any of those Saturn demo builds (or source code!) still exists somewhere in Sega’s archives?
To me that ability of the Saturn to create those backgrounds that look like they go on forever was so impressive and could have made some games look incredible had it been used more. Like it would have made games look much clearer than comparative titles on the PS1 or N64 that used fog.
Grandia texture is wonderful.
Panzer Dragoon RPG full 3D world is also amazing.
Burning Rangers is my favorite Saturn Game. The scene with the dolphin really sat with me as a kid.
Sega Saturn issues was his graphics library. Many of the advance effect wasn't available until December of 1996. I think it was called SGL 2.1 which had the ability to do software triangles on SCDSP and the slave CPU. With software triangles you could apply full transparencies, environment mapping, and light sourcing. Unfortunately it was too little to late as games taking advantage of SGL 2.1 wouldn't ship until late 97/early 98 which was too late.
Generic software rendering solutions are rarely suitable for a particular game and no, neither of Saturn CPUs can provide transparencies with PS1-like quality at least at decent performance no matter what code you run.
Also, if a software developer has to wait for libraries to give him software rendering support, that’s a shitty developer who won’t program anything great.
PS1 had crap libs too. Devs had to either release slow 256x240 3D games or learn to use hardware directly. This is true for almost every platform.
Saturn fanboys and their excuses.
The absolutely best devs said that Saturn is a crazy mess. Get over it.
And BTW Sonic R uses the usual VDP2 2D transparency effect. Which basically works like SNES VDP on steroids, minus sprites. Same as mode7&transparency usage in games like Axelay.
Sonic R has no software transparency. It only uses software rendering for reflective objects in the main menu. This effect can be easily done in hardware on PS1, but not on Saturn, because there’s no uv mapping. Many 3D games are crippled by this deficiency, which also leads to blockier look of 3D characters in most Saturn games.
@@noop9k No one cares how a special effect on a certain game was achieved. What matters is it GOT achieved. There is nothing on the PS1 that looks half as good as the full transparency effects, in Sonic R, on one of the tracks, and on the water. Your whole argument the system can´t provide PS1 quality transparencias is utter BS. Jon Burton who was one of the coders on Sonic R on the Saturn, and several PS1 games like Rascal, has said multiple times the PS1 could not run Sonic R with playable frame rates, because despite the Saturn being an over engineered and complicated system to program for, it actually had the horsepower to run it.
PS1 and the Saturn are completely different machines. PS1 was easier to program for but it was technically not as powerful, even in raw polygon performance, and plenty of 3D games have better looking polygons, even multi plat games like Dead or Alive, which not only renders more polygons per second than the PS1 version, they look better, the game runs at a higher resolution and at twice the frame rate (60 vs 30) and debunks any argument die hard fanboys and biased press always had towards the system. The Saturn had no native hardware transparency, but could still achieve the effect through software or by utilizing the system different chips for different pieces of code. Saturns main issue was the design of the hardware itself, and the software library when the console released. It´s funny how PS1 games today look like crap for the most part with distorted textures and Saturn games, even some 3D games, aged like fine wine instead of aging like milk.
Peter Matias
Citation needed. I watched a lot of Jon Burton videos. Where did he say about polycounts being better on Saturn?
I can only agree about fullscreen transparency being too costly on PS1 for a 60 FPS game, unless it is a low res game like Symphony of the Night.
Tekken 3 on PS1 runs at high res mode at 60 FPS. Still lower res than Saturn hi-res, but unlike Saturn hi-res it has rich 16 bit color and shaded textured characters. While Saturn hi res only has 8 bit color, no transparencies and no gouraud shading.
Unlike, say, N64 there are lots of 60 FPS games on PS1.
Peter Matias I’m not asking you to stop worshiping Saturn, but please stop saying wrong things.
There is no software transparency on Saturn used in any games I saw.
VDP1 has hardware transparency, VDP2 has hardware transparency. But they have limited applications, are not even compatible with each other and VDP1 transparency is quite slow. So, the developers have to struggle to find a use for them. Unlike PS1 where you can render anything with or without it, as long as you are prepared to pay its cost, which is reasonable. Even simple cases like ones used in SOTN could not be easily transferred to Saturn.
Using transparency on PS1 is a no brainer, on Saturn you need to build your game around it and still be unable to duplicate.
For example, even in Burning Rangers, which uses a technique nobody else does, you can’t see one translucent flame through another, and they still use mesh effect for other stuff.
Wow. I had no idea the visuals on the Saturn were this good for the time. Some of the arcade ports especially... seeing _Virtua Cop 2_ like that made me feel like a kid because it's so damn close to the original!
I never played Burning Rangers but I had so much love for Sonic R. Not only for all the cool effects but for the sound track as well.
That "let me feel the Sunshine" song is a real ear worm. The entire soundtrack is kind of that special kind of bad that's so bad it's good.
I mean it definitely has people that either love it or hate it and almost nobody in the middle.
@Carlo Poli
Oh I have. I actually can never hear that song without him screeching about it, it's hilarious.
At least the developers understood that the soundtrack with vocals wasn't going to appeal to everyone and allowed the option to disable them, though I think a lot of people missed that at the time.
@@ravagingwolverine although I do get that not every track needs vocals I can't understand why some people hate vocals so much. More often than not, I personally find that vocals make soundtracks very unique.
@@mrlaidback83 Well, my point was how it's great that the option was included in the game, rather than taking a position on vocals. To be clear, I'm not a fan of vocals in game music. You've shared that vocals add to making music more unique, and that's good to know. For me, vocals make it harder to stay mentally engaged in the game. I think it's because the words subconsciously steal some focus away from concentrating on game play. When I'm just listening to music, vocals are great. But for video games, I find vocals reduce the staying power of the music compared to good instrumental or chip-tune music. Perhaps we better understand each other now. Do you have a good example of game music with vocals you like besides Sonic R?
Wow I never knew the saturn was this fowerfull. After my megadrive time my friends told me to buy a playstation so i did. Still regret it
My friend and I had a pact, we would get different consoles so we can play ALL the games at eachother's house.
I did call dibs on the Saturn, but he got the money first to buy the console, luckily he let me get the saturn as he opted for PS.
I mainly buy the Saturn exclusives because most of the 3rd party games do look better on his PS, but man di we love playing virtua cop! We never go to the arcade ever again after I got that game!
Yo the underwater boss in panzer dragoon still looks amazing, and even a bit terrifying. Impressive
A great list of games indeed and Zwei was certianly going to need a mention, but I would have also dropped Panzer Dragoon Saga in there as well. Lighting wise it has some absolutely stunning moments, from the simple yet elegant ones like walking past a camp fire in the Camp and seeing the fire light up Edge, to the more complicated ones like the real time Dragon morphing, which was so impressive that they used the same tech in Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast for your character creation.
Then there's moments in Uru at nightime, or flying through a under water transparant tunnel, to the staggering lighting effects during boss battles. Either way, great video, and yes, the Saturn was a beast!
Wow, Decathlete looks so much like an actual Model 2 game.
It also runs in hi-resolution mode the whole time. You can play it on a HD TV and it's super neat.
Check out winter heat too, that's equally impressive in hi Res mode
Anyone remember Winter Heat?? Mighty cool hi res 60 fps graphics there too...the transparent effects on the ice during the skating event were mint!! Nice work Sega Lord X !!!!
Super Tempo was another beautiful 2D game that often goes overlooked.
Great content. Glad there's a retro channel dedicated to Sega, 99% are nintendo. I only had snes, so I love seeing stuff like this.
It’s not about the hardware. It’s how you use it that matters.
@@NB-1 The problem with that comparison is that you were comparing games and play stations later life cycle. Unfortunately, Sega Saturn was only around for about two years in the west and we never got to see its full developmental power. There’s no doubt that Saturn Shamu would’ve blown away anything on the PlayStation. This coming from a Sony fan.
Still play Elevator Action Returns today. Classic.
Like SLX says it's Saturn doing what it does best and of course it's one of many many games that never got outside of Japan. (Officially I mean)
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu i imported mine when it came out. Had my saturn switched so it could play everything.
@@madyak6669
Very nice. Yeah if you could get a Saturn that could play imports that was the way to go.
i love the saturn. thank you for your channel. brings me a big smile each time you have a new video. more Saturn and Dreamcast!
Elevator Action looks like a really fun game. I always see it for sale on eBay but never looked into it further. I think I will purchase it!
Fantastic video 👍 Great to see Last Bronx getting the praise it deserves! Sonic Rs transparent track looks great, check out the latter bonus stages of Sonic 3d Blast. The transparent track there looks even better in my opinion 👍
If only SEGA made better decisions back then - we could have a completely different Saturn success story.
It's a real shame so many people don't know what the Saturn was capable of.
Guess that makes it more special in a way.
Like a cancelled TV show that was actually awesome but gone too soon (R.I.P. Firefly) 😔
The Saturn truly was the Firefly of game consoles.
I love my Saturn so much. Younger friends of mine are blown away by its games when we play them.
A fantastic video featuring the awesomeness of the Saturn's visuals. A powerhouse compilation SLX. Great job. Gotta love this underrated console!!!
I manged to own half the games on this list. Looks like I was lucky back then. I wouldn't own the imports until much later. Kinda wish I played the Saturn more than I do.
There’s a nice new wireless controller that feels and works great. Could make your Saturn 🪐 playing more accessible
Talk about perfect timing, as I sat down to eat my late dinner a new SLX video drops!
Yo, whats up my late dinner homie ? Whatcha eating ?
Late dine at 5am?
@@Gatorade69 I had yellow rice, baked chicken, avocado and green plantain it very good! I was texting you back last night but fell asleep lol
Great video brings back a lot of memories especially my favorite two Saturn games radiant silvergun and Dragon Ball Z Legends
LOVE LOVE all your vids holmes. Sega was my babysitter from 1992 to 1999 so watching these well done vids of yours really brings me back to some good days.
With more than 1100 games, the saturn has for sure a great library and somes very fun unknown games ( culdcept, cyberdoll, sorvice...)
The amusing thing about dithered transparencies is that they are *really* common these days. Games like Uncharted 4 and many Unreal Engine 4 titles dither transparencies as a way of using less resources (and at high resolutions are not too noticeable)
Yup. I notice it quite frequently in Monster Hunter World. I thought we were beyond this type of transparency now with as powerful as modern day consoles are.
Excellent video! Please do more videos about hardware features of Sega consoles and arcades!
Love everything you do. Never stop.
The sprites and animations on Street Fighter Zero 3 are pretty good. I heard that the sprite size on the Saturn version were even bigger than the Dreamcast version. That paired with the Saturn Controller which was perfect for capcom fighters made one of the best experiences to play that title at home.
The sprites and backgrounds on all capcom games weren't bigger than the dreamcast or arcade. it's just the resolution the games are running at that makes things seem bigger. the dreamcast is actually the one displaying the image at the correct size.
Too many people keep forgetting or just don't know that the saturn doesn't support the same resolution as the cps2 board and that's why things look bigger than they actually are.
Thanks for linking the first video. I'll have two great videos to watch at work
No problem. Hope you enjoy them.
Street Fighter Zero 3 is very impressive with huge sprites and amazing animation.
best 2D fighting game.
To my opinion the Sega Saturn felt more like arcade console and the PlayStation a home console but for me had the best of both worlds back in the late 1990's because I owned both and I had over hundred games both combined for the systems, ah good times.
i wish instead of Sonic R, they made a Saturn Sonic Drift, using that same great engine but Sonic Drift's gameplay
Well look who it is 😀 guess we are both fans of the Lord
@@TheLegendofRenegade oh hello fellow sega fan!
Code Metal Monkey This was executive meddling, IIRC. Sega wanted a Sonic game and they got a Sonic game.
Need to rewatch Gamehut to confirm..
I can't thank you enough for putting this package together. As a hardcore Saturn fan I have to deal with BS like 'it was a joke compared to the PSX!' all the time, as well as the 'mesh effect transparencies' (which really did look better on composite rather then S-video or modern emulators) and other things you highlight and eviscerate so well in this video. You've also introduced me to a couple of Saturn games I've never seen or heard of before, not to mention a port of one of my favourite arcade games in Elevator Action II, so thank you even more for that! I've got some downloading to do on this wet and rainy morning. ;-)
Can't wait to see what other videos you have going on here.
The Saturn was my favorite system back in the day and it’s still one of my favorite. To me the Saturn was better than the PlayStation. I really wish sega would make another console as the Dreamcast was one of the best systems ever.
When it came to actual gameplay the $ony machine didn’t stand a chance in the early days it was hyped up by mass marketing campaigns. Have you actually played destruction derby (Pooh). It was mostly non-gamers who thought pretty graphics made a game and real gamers know that’s not the case. There are some really, really bad “games” in the early PlayStation market. It really all came down to the fact that $ony had a massive budget to exploit and targeted casual and even non-gamers.
@Code Metal Monkey do you think Toshinden was good? WOW.
@@MGForums imo ff7 only had story going for it the difficulty was braindead and games like panzer dragoon already had better graphics in 1995
Love ur vids man keep killin it!
Im still impressed by effects in Burning Rangers. They really pushed everything from the system in this game.
I got Last Bronx, Burning Rangers, Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga at the end of the Saturns life and were probably the last I bought new at retail. I love Burning Rangers to this day and it could easily benefit from a remake.
I played the heck out of Powerslave back then too and loved it. I still have my original launch Saturn and it still works aside from a controller port issue at times.
My dad (RIP) and I spent countless hours playing Virtua Cop 1 & 2 together and I got his games and saturn when he passed. Such fond amazing memories with this system.
Love your videos.
That's how i like to start Friday's....with your videos...😀
Thanks for the awesome new vid SegaLordX
Ingenious video!! Sega Lord X you are the best!!
Thanks for this video! I'm definitely going to grab a few of these games! Keep up the good work and Happy Holidays SLX!!
I'm always happy to see SLX give the Saturn some much needed justice. It's a wonderful platform that was largely maligned by the media in the west and crushed under Sony's yoke everywhere, much like the N64 ended up being. Sadly there's really no competing with software support, and the Saturn needed more of that, even though it did have the support of some heavyweights (Sega themselves, for the most part, Treasure, Camelot, Capcom, SNK and such).
Awesome! Was hoping for exactly this when I saw the Megadrive themed special effect videos. There's plenty here for a new episode - here's some requests! Street Racer by Ubisoft - amazing use of VDP2 layers - as many as 5 (excluding text) in one level, including multiple transparent layers. Radiant Silvergun - amazing combination of 2D and 3D graphics. Winter Heat - same reasons as Athlete Kings/Decathlete but more polygon landscapes. Grandia - for creating a huge, solid, believable 3D world.
I really enjoyed this, Thx for the memories
I love Sega Saturn, congratulations for the great job!
just remember that , the lost world jurassic park also has great graphics on sega saturn .
As always thanks for giving the Saturn some love SegaLordX. Id love to see a remaster of a few of these games on switch
Well it already got panzer dragoon.
Burning rangers would be a good one for sure. Elevator action returns should be on everything though.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I own panzer dragoon but would love just some Saturn classics including sega rally to drop on switch. Sega really doesn't understand how much of a fan base they have for there classic games during that era. Oh and I would love for Scud Race to finally get a home port. Dreamcast port was in development but never showed up
@@Darth001
Yeah Saturn and Dreamcast as well as arcade games are released few and far between from Sega. They have an impressive back catalog but they rarely if ever dig into it, it's always just Sonic and the usual stuff Genesis / Mega drive compilations and that's about it.
I 😍 sega saturn is really a great console thanks for the videos
I was a PS1 and Saturn owner back in the day, and used to frequently play N64 at my friend's. The quality of graphics on the Saturn was really inconsistent which gave people the wrong impression, myself included. But playing a game like Sonic R blew me away back then, and convinced me that the Saturn could run games just as good looking as the PS1. Hell, Sonic R was even up to N64 standards. My friend with the N64 used to come over all of the time and play it. The problem was that back then, I had no idea why so many games on the Saturn failed to look that good.
I mean that's just it the PS1 was weaker than the Saturn but it was much easier to program for.
To get the most out of the Saturn you really had to know what you were doing. Ease of use was always going to be the achilles heel of the Saturn but that on top of the fact that many of the better games never left Japan guaranteed it wouldn't have much of a presence anywhere else.
Man, I really dig lighting effects from that generation like the ones you showed on Powerslave
You're Sega Lord X. And I will catch you next time.
This channel is what intorduced me to many great Saturn games. I was surprised to see so many awesome games they are still exclusive to the Saturn. I think the games that caught my eyes are at least on par with if not more than PS1 and N64. I also just really liked how good looking 32 bits 2D games are. I feel like most people are sleeping on them, back then and nowdays. You see so many 8-bit and 16-bit retro Indie games, yet very little going for the style of this generation. People should really get on that.
Just came here from Part 2 of this series. FWIW, I think it would help to put the links in the video description. Thank you for the awesome content!!
I picked my Saturn whilst in 95 at college. I still have that console (and another) + 70 odd games. I just picked up my friends old 32” crt tv and plan on setting them up. Classic Sega
Great video man, your content is infotmitave and enjoyable to watch. I recently piked up a Sega Saturn because of your video's. Any reccomendations game wise lol!!!
Excellent video, I loved it ..... Could you take a 2nd part of this video?
Astal is my favorite looking 2d game of all time! Also, Panzer Dragoon Zwei looks better than most things on Playstation and n64
It really blows how much I was forced into getting an N64 as a kid. Saturn wasn't for sale anywhere besides Toys R' Us which was an hour drive away. Magazine coverage of Saturn was almost non-existent in the supermarkets my Mom shopped at. My brother and I spent countless hours playing MK2 and SF2. We would have absolutely loved the Saturn's fighters library.
Even at the time, I thought both PS1 and N64 3D games were kinda ugly.
I actually kinda love the dithered mesh transparencies lol
Me too. It's not like the PlayStation didn't use dithering a lot either.
It's funny that this criticism of Saturn's transparencies is now being used again in modern console games and almost no one points it out as a negative now.
thank u so much keep it up........love ur work
Some great games here. In particular Powerslave and Dragon Force - seriously underrated masterpieces.
@@gaylordfocker7990
Well, we are talking about this Saturn here. I would say there's a huge amount of people who have never touched the console let alone played any of it's games.
@@gaylordfocker7990 Well a lot of magazines at the time gave them 7/10 etc. But I guess under-appreciated is probably the better term.
I played Dragon Force to death!
@@fplgregfrost Same, I finished it at least once with each faction and some of them 3-4 times.
@@harryradley Goldark and Junon were my favourites! Dragons OP, Mages good to have. That manual was so worn checking out the strengths/weaknesses table!
7:04 The track isn't color cycling, it's a variating blending effect with a moving 3D VDP2 layer (combined with a clever use of VDP2 extended color calculation that makes it blend more than 2 layers). You can see it in an emulator by disabling NBG0 and sprite layers.
Keio Flying Squadron 2 is probably my favorite Saturn title. (Along with Elevator Action Returns.) It's such a beautiful game. I just never get tired of playing it. For people in the US that can play imports, know that the PAL version is completely in English and NOT optimized for that region, which means it runs at a full 60Hz without borders in the correct aspect ratio.
Wish I knew about that years ago. I imported one Saturn PAL game and never bothered with it again due to that different video standard.
I thought winter heat looked even better than decathlete
It was impressive but it ran in a lower resolution so didn't quite achieve the same benchmark for me. Many consider it to be the better game of the two though 👍
@@jamesbarker5535 no way. It ran in the same high resolution
@@drunkensailor112 I was always under the impression it ran in a lower resolution but from a quick look you might be right. I stand corrected sir.
I agree Winter Heat was the superior game.
Drunkensailor112
Winter Heat ran like a dog in the PAL region.
Thanks to you I've started getting that Batman tune at the end of your videos stuck in my head.
Saturn was always the console that got away for me, I came 2 the fifth gen too late. the way Slx talks about it reminds me of how I feel with my Dreamcast.
Great way to start a video...with Akira stage theme from VF2. That track will always give me the chills....
It is really really good.
I used to wonder why couldn't the Decathlete engine be used for a 3d fighting game? 60fps, hires, 3D environments. It seemed to easily achieve what Virtua Fighter 2 was lauded for
All of the Hi-res Saturn games lack basic features like light-sourcing, skinned joints and gouraud shading and use very low polygon models.
Very little of Decathlete scene is actually 3D and the characters don’t look better than in existing fighting games. Last Bronx basically does that.
RetrOrigin All Saturn games lack proper skinning because UV mapping is not supported by hardware. At most, may be done via software rendering.
Dragon Force. There is was in a kiosk at Funcoland. So I gave it a whirl, 45 minutes later I told the salesman, take it out I need to buy it. One of my favorite on the Saturn
AMAZING SYSTEM!!! So much more untapped power. Unfortunately never got to to show it.
Fantastic presentation. :)
Decathlete was named Athlete Kings in Europe & it was quite a hit in gameshops, where people gathered to play it 2p & in arcade houses as well !
I remember last bronx, I was impressed in the under bridge stage, it looked like if the textures used filters, that didn't look pixelated.
Gotta love that lobotomy software player movement with the screen jive in and out of strafing.
I adore the Saturn, one of my favorite consoles!
First time I saw Exhumed's lighting effects my mouth hit the floor.
I really like the aesthetics of the Mesh effect, when done well
Keio Yugekitai is underrated in many aspects, great feature.
I'd like to submit a couple of honorable mentions: Galaxy Force II, for being a near-perfect port of the Super Scaler arcade game; and Amok, for its use of voxel landscapes
Is this a reupload, a part 2, or did I have a really strangely specific dream!? Great vid though.
Great vid. Although I picked up a Saturn last year, I'll never be able to get my original library of games back. Just too much $$ for the majority of them.
i agree go in fresh with dragon force but there is a very useful rock paper scissors kind of table in the manual that shows which troops are good bad or medium against different troop types. that´s really the only hint you need since theres still nuances to the troop types not mentioned that are fun discover on your own. the manual can of course also be found online
Madness how the shooting game looks better then golden eye in the 64 but I’ve never heard of it
I'm glad you wouldn't trade your time with the Saturn for anything 😊 I'm not alone!!
Another Great Video!
I was born in 77 and 42. I had Dreamcast Saturn and Sega CD and they are both amazing underrated systems very cool games. And some of these games there are a lot of effort put into a games like lunar the Silver Star Story games like Shemue. Remember when Sega CD first came out being blown away by the sound and graphics and then when the Saturn came out being blown away by working design games. I grew up my whole life with this midi sound for video games and Sega was the first one to bring real stereo sound Camaro instruments into a game
I actually think Winter Heat looks even better than Decathlete. It is essentially the same engine but snowy/winter aesthetic is beautiful
That alone sounds like a good excuse for a "part two" of this topic very soon. I hope to see it.
I would like to add SCORCHER to the list of imoressive games.
If you play the game on first person View, it's astonishing.
Most of the time I watch SLX's videos for his vast knowledge of Sega's history.
Some of those times I watch just to hear his pronunciation of "water" and "bosses". :)
Keep doin' what you do, Lord of all Sega!