Now this is a man who REALLY loves his Sega systems and games. I don’t know how you constantly come up with such great videos, but you do. Way to go man!!
Sega Lord X - no doubt brother. I want you to know I have watched and liked ever single video you’ve put out! No joke. Your videos come out and BAM! I’m right on them, no matter what I’m doing. ;)
Subs should be 100k. At the least, double where you're at right now. Perhaps an algorithm is holding you back? I don't get it. Absolute top content. Love your channel and your passion for Sega, thank you!
Ah, a Friday morning with no jobs on and I see a Sega Lord X notification. Time to make a brew and settle in...you really deserve 100x the subscribers you have mate. Excellent content.
"Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain" was loaned to me for my copy of "Triple Play '98" by a friend. Let's just say we never got our games back! Too bad the series is currently in limbo after the ending of "Legacy of Kain: Defiance."
Dare I ask: Have you played Panzer Dragoon Saga? Find a way. It’s the gaming equivalent of “War and Peace” (not the story or theme, but in highest regards).
If only the Saturn had been far easier to program for... my understanding is that the Sony-Weasels (Yes, I said it!) waited until SEGA revealed the in-progress Saturn Specs, then beefed up their PS1 a bit (cowards!). SEGA had a rushed timetable after seeing PS1’s latest specs to throw extra processors inside (7 total?), making it hard to program for, and couldn’t quite yet edge out Sony in time for their surprise early release! For those who Mastered the System (lame pun!) (hopefully still learning) Saturn games, we were got so many amazing treats! Think about the SEGA Master System’s game library compared to the NES: did the NES have 3-984 times more games made for it? Yup. We’re 1/4th of them “Ikari Warriors” clones? Yuppers! Absolutely!
Brent Granger I’m so happy to talk to someone who was allowed the “Saga” experience!! I got lucky by knowing a Babbages employee from school, who sold me his copy for $40, played once, perfect condition. The Saturn Panzer games have world designs that truly suck you out of this reality. When I first saw commercials for “Avatar,” I thought it was a Panzer D. Movie! James Cameron really borrowed HEAVILY from these games and McQuarries’ designs! 👍👍👍
@@sideswipe1261 I don't have my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga anymore since I needed the cash more than the game, but I'm hoping to eventually import its Japanese counterpart, Panzer Dragoon Azel, in the future since it's much cheaper to own.
Great video as usual. Tomb Raider 2 could definitely have been doable on Saturn, even Tomb Raider 3. Sony really scored a coup paying for exclusivety on that series. That's the problem with the Saturn's short life tho, we never saw what it was really capable of
Thanks man. I'm not out to make sketch comedy or create characters with vids, I just want to talk about games like we sitting in my game room and having a beer together.
@@mogo2433 Yep, the first version of Doom on the Sega Saturn used the Saturn hardware extensively. Supposedly it ran at 60 fps, which given that the 32x could run it around 30 I believe. But John Carmack didn't like how it looked, likely because of some texture warping, and forced the team porting it to rewrite it to run off the CPUs and basically ignore the video chips, which is why the game rate sucks
@@mogo2433 The Saturn has a ton of chips on it for different purposes. There are two "main" CPUs, which are Hitachi SH-1s. For the time they were insanely powerful. There were also a pair of custom graphics chips for doing 3d. A software renderer like what Doom used does most or all of the work on the CPUs. A hardware renderer off loads that work to the graphics chips, just like how a modern game uses a video card from AMD or Nvidia. Older graphics harder tended to have more quirks. So that a game written for the Saturn looked very different than one made for the PlayStation. You can get around those quirks by writing your own graphics drawing routines that run on the CPU and draw exactly what you want, but it's SLOW
I'll never forget the castlevania for dreamcast. I saw a screenshot in a magazine and just some years later the dreamcast was done and we never heard about that game again.
@@SegaLordX The violin rendition of Bloodline from Rondo of blood in 64 is 🔥 though. It's actually the DS games I'm not crazy about and of the GBA games Harmony of Dissonance is the only one I really like. Of course I love Bloodstained.
More 3d platformers would've been nice. Haha I remember being envious that my cousins had Gex: Enter The Gecko and Spyro 1 on their Playstations and there was nothing comparable on my ol' Saturn.
It was like that for many games back then, especially with 3D advancing so fast. Once Namco stopped the bleeding edge tech war and just made arcade games based on PSX tech, the fall was just about complete.
Sad that so many of these were victims of the same reasoning - the Saturn market crashing after '95 outside of Japan. While I can understand the mentality of, "Our games won't sell well here, so let's not bother," I simply can't understand the logic behind refusing to release stuff that is close to, or already, finished. You've already sunk money into the development; just get it done and see what happens. ESPECIALLY if it's a multiplatform title, because your marketing budget may be skewed towards the other console versions, but buzz will still apply to other versions of the game regardless. Those cancellations always sting the most. Thanks for digging into what info and media you can find, and getting the stories behind these games out there, SLX
Dude I loved cyber sled in the arcade. Had no idea it was coming to Saturn. That would have broken my heart. You would need a twin stick controller though
Question for Saturn hardware experts about the mesh transparency. Did it have to be chequerboard style (like 50/50 colour/nothing or were any other variations of this dither effect available? I've only ever seen one game where it looks different and that's AMOK, where it looks like vertical lines, but I think that might be something to do with the overall graphical presentation of that game.
Saturn's main issue was transparencies with VDP1. It was capable of what is known as half transparencies, and could be used in certain situations rather effectively, especially in 2D games. The issue was much more complicated in 3D engines, which is why developers didn't even try and just used the mesh technique.
You have 2 "hardware" options for VDP1 : mesh effect (it alternates between displayed pixels and transparent pixels) and half-transparency mode (which takes the current color in the framebuffer, look at your new color and just does (pix1+pix2)/2 to average them. The problem with half-transparency is that the Saturn uses forward texture mapping and has no hardware feature to prevent overdraw on distorted sprites...so the pixels get overwritten a few times, creating garbage lines. The mesh effect works on top of both VDP1 elements and VDP2 backgrounds, while the half-transparency mode only works on VDP1 stuff. The other fancy option is like Grandia and Burning Rangers, to transfer the framebuffer to a bitmap VDP2 layer - which allows good transparency on top of everything (VDP1 and VDP2), but it's slow to transfer the framebuffer, you need to clear the framebuffer twice and you still get sorting problems. Another option is like Sonic R, which is to use color ram to let the VDP2 draw the pixels, allowing transparency over the background layers...but that only works with background layers, you can't do it on top of VDP1 elements. Overall, the mesh effect is simply the best option in the context of 1995-1997. It's fast, it works on top of both VDP1 and VDP2 and it doesn't suffer from the overdraw bug.
Thanks for the great answers XL2 and SLX. To narrow it down further, when the mesh effect is selected, I am curious as to whether there are different options to define its look. For example, could you display less of the mesh object, like 1 square in 4 rather than 1 in 2. Or displaying the mesh in parallel lines rather than in chequerboard. I've never seen it done (apart from possibly in AMOK), but I'm curious.
@@xl2k2008 Thanks! The mesh affect is pretty ugly. I can't think of many instances where it works better than using a solid texture or not using it at all. Burning Rangers springs to mind - a game that took place in dark corridors with coloured light sourcing everywhere - did those characters really need a round mesh shadow under them? Didn't add to the graphics at all. Anyhooo. :D
lookin back now, Sega hurt themselves tremendously not sharing their own secrets and development tools to the third party companies that had signed on and had to figure it out on their own. :-/
I really wanted to play Blood Omen Legacy of Kain on Saturn. I thought its 2D nature would have meant some big advantages of the PS1 port. Sadly, we never found out.
@@SegaLordX Also liked your description of NFL 97. I remember getting it when it first came out. The disappointment was so bad I went upstairs and powered up the Genesis to play Madden 96. LOL
Cyber Sled is the one I missed the most. Virtual On was my favorite for Saturn, so that woulda been my #2 picK. And if it used the twin sticks... awww... that would've been amazing
I'm going to take a guess and say Sega Lord X is a 49ers fan. Every time I see a clip discussing an NFL football game, one of the teams playing is the Niners.
16:32 I remember reading this in the offical sega Saturn mag and I was gutted. Note the end of the article saying that fighting force and ninja will ‘definitely’ be coming to Saturn 🤣
Great list and fascinating information. I will admit I was steeling myself for pain with this video as a huge Saturn fan. But in the end, the only ones that really hurt for my personal tastes were Viewpoint, Castlevania, and the Star Wars game. Those would've rocked, I really really feel the burn thinking about how great those would be even now running on Saturn. If the sports games and Tomb Raider would've made it, that would've helped the sales of the system, but personally I didn't care much about those.
I wish there was a team of people that went out and searched for old betas and fully complete software that never released and even made it a show at the end making it available to the public if i had the money Id love to make games for old consoles i reckon with the know how and programs of today we could really push the saturn into glory.
@@maroon9273 Agreed Sonic Xtreme needed to be finish and ironically fans are finishing it and many cancelled and existing 32x games should have come to Saturn!
Get that (Expensive) Saturn PS2 controller for a taste of what could have been. Plenty of material for a 3rd video. Sidenote: I'm still butthurt over the Dreamcast Castlevania never materializing.
Core were massive Sega fans - hence Tomb Raider debuting on Saturn first - and would have both been more than willing and very capable at - coding a Saturn Tomb Raider II. It was indeed Sony's exclusivity deal that meant this didn't happen.
Even though Raiden is avaible on many systems including the Sega Genesis. Not to mention I have the japanese version of Raiden Project for the PS1 (a compilation that contains the arcade version of the first game and the sequel).
I wanted to play Viewpoint on the Neo Geo for years. Finally got an emu to run it only to find there's a good (identical?) port on the Mega Drive/Genesis I could have played years ago.
I always wanted to see how Saturn would handle a CPS3 game like Warzard Jojos or Street Fighter 3. Or a Sega NAOMI game like Marvel vs Capcom 2 or Capcom vs SNK 2.
I still have the magazine with Heart of darkness in the cover. I can’t believe that a game that supposed to be a Saturn exclusive was released only in Playstation and PC.
A number of games were like that. Games that started as Sega projects and never saw a release. Grandia was hyped up heavily by the magazines of the time, was Saturn exclusive at first, and then only saw release in Japan. When it came west, it was on the freaking PSX of all things!
@@SegaLordX If Bernie Stolar hadn't pissed off Working Designs I'm sure there would be a possibility for it to come to the west, with potentially Sega of Europe publishing it in Europe, based on the fact that WD localized the Lunar games.
Creo que la única manera en que podamos ver varios de estos títulos o ports, es a través de una Sega Saturn Mini. Tiene mucho potencial para sacar juegos exclusivos, mucho mejor terminados con la tecnología actual. Además, pueden incluirse muchos títulos arcade para mejorar el atractivo comercial de la misma.
I think it was actually the saturn that nailed SEGA's coffin not the dreamcast if the saturn was a success they wouldnt have ran head first to the dreamcast as sony was developing for the ps1 long after the ps2 was released its sad SEGA was awesome.
I agree, I dont know of one person that had a Saturn after owning a Genesis. I remember standing in Walmart for a long time trying decide to buy a Saturn or PS1. I went with PS1 as I had no exposure to the Saturn.
I love your videos, knowledge and passion for Sega and their systems, but man, these kind of videos admittedly sadden me. The potential that was never captured hurts, I hate to see consoles not reach their full potential, especially with the long term implications, Sega could still be in the hardware business if it wasn't for 32x-Saturn era failing so bad.
I played Legacy of kain PC version ripped(without films),but my save was deleted. NBA hangtime too,2 players on 1 keyboard,i played character with big chiken head.
Man I really wanted cybersled on the Saturn so bad and still want it to this day. I have 2 sets of Virtual On controllers and it would be a blast to use them on cybersled.
Resident evil 2, the rest of the shining force games, shenmue, all of Capcom 4mb ram games that missed a u.s. release. ( that are basically in English) all the games I wish that was released....
Killing time had a game killing bug on the 3do. Trust me my copy went to a kaleidoscope glitchy mess and after that, it never worked again. Shame aswell because it was a bloody good game. Once you had that bug though that was it.
Now that you've brought it up, you know what would be an AWESOME patreon or gofundme project? If we can build a team of coding and programming experts to convert Sonic 3D Extreme or Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart to the Saturn! That would be AMAZING!
I'll just note that _Killing Time_ was also released for the Mac OS/PowerPC (although my memory is that it's *very* poorly optimised, running slower than _DOOM_ on the same hardware in spite of _Killing Time_ being closer in complexity to _Wolfenstein 3D_ than to _DOOM_ …)
I saw footage of this unreleased third person action rpg for the saturn, i forgot what it's called but i still think it could have had potential on the saturn
@@SegaLordX Not all of them though. And its worse with the Saturn because that machine was actually good. It had a decent shot, it has a decent library. And then to see so much potential wasted.
That SotN port is still unforgivable. A nearly 100% 2D game on the 2D powerhouse console should have been the superior port. But to find out years later they gave it a half hearted attempt and dropped it as a budget title just hurts. That should have been a Saturn game from the start.
If you ever fire it up in an emulator, play around with disabling the VDP1 and 2 layers. It really is easy to see why the game runs like it does. VDP1 is displaying things it never should have. VDP2 is criminally underutilized.
Sega Lord X, do an episode on Sega tech demos highlighting hidden powers of Sega hardware, you know, like this ones (and many more out there): ua-cam.com/video/w54uNAuqE1Y/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/gWVmPtr9O0g/v-deo.html
The Street Fighter Zero/Alpha games are good, the VS series like X-Men vs Street Fighter are good. Samurai Showdown IV and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special are really nice. I'd also consider Astra Super Stars, Groove on Fight, and Sonic Council.
You'll need a converter and a RAM cart to get it to work. The Action Replay is a good, cheap alternative. One like this will let you play burned games too. www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-Pseudo-Saturn-Expansion-RAM-save-Card-Console-action-replay-V6-314-Cart/323848766822?hash=item4b66e40566:g:2IgAAOSwfiZcntTk
Midway changing the brand from NBA Jam to Hangtime was such a pointless blunder. I didn't even know Hangtime existed until I was looking through Mame roms ten years after and then it took me time to realise it was literally the next NBA Jam game.
Dear Lord Raiden Project! It's the best shooter on the PlayStation I can only IMAGINE what an "enhanced" Saturn version would have been like! Viewpoint is trash, good riddance!
Namco's relationship with Sega at the time wasn't very good; same thing could be argued with Namco's relationship with Nintendo being rather strained in that generation as well!
This video is just pissing me off because companies not releasing because the sales were low are just making the sales lower. If more companies like Namco had supported it, maybe it would have helped. Hadn’t Sega earned enough trust coming off the Genesis?
Namco on Saturn would have been major in Japan. Namco could program their asses off too, so I have no doubt they would have mastered Saturn in their second generation engines.
Florida Budget Bike Builds when that happens I’m probably going full retro. Our internet is 2005 quality in the rural south. I want dedicated hardware regardless of that. The good news is there are more than enough amazing consoles and portables to collect and play for the rest of my life.
Florida Budget Bike Builds the hell it will. Or by then everyone will have amazing internet and it’ll work as smooth as Netflix or phone calls. And They’ll have downloading ala Xbox Gamepass
Florida Budget Bike Builds at least 75 percent of what I play is new stuff and indies so I’ll go as long as they are willing to release actual hardware. There are a lot of amazing retro inspired indies coming out, really finding their stride, so I hope it continues.
Now this is a man who REALLY loves his Sega systems and games. I don’t know how you constantly come up with such great videos, but you do. Way to go man!!
Thanks. Really appreciate the message and support. :)
He ain't Sega Lord X for nothin! Love this bro!
His name is sega lord for a reason...
D Angelini - it sure is!!!!
Sega Lord X - no doubt brother. I want you to know I have watched and liked ever single video you’ve put out! No joke. Your videos come out and BAM! I’m right on them, no matter what I’m doing. ;)
I'd have loved (either them being planned or not) to have Saturn versions of Revenge of Death Adder, Raiden II, OutRunners and R-Type Delta.
I'm a Playstation fan but your enthusiasm for Sega and the Saturn is contagious. Keep up the great work man!
Subs should be 100k. At the least, double where you're at right now. Perhaps an algorithm is holding you back? I don't get it. Absolute top content. Love your channel and your passion for Sega, thank you!
Its grown massively in the last year, I remember when it was under 10k not too long ago
Another amazing video, dude is a Sega museum as a human
Goddamn bro, you outdid yourself with this one!!!
I thought it was gonna resonate myself, but the view count is really disappointing.
This channel is my forever friend!
Haha. Sega !
Ah, a Friday morning with no jobs on and I see a Sega Lord X notification. Time to make a brew and settle in...you really deserve 100x the subscribers you have mate. Excellent content.
Thank you sir. The support is much appreciated.
"Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain" was loaned to me for my copy of "Triple Play '98" by a friend. Let's just say we never got our games back! Too bad the series is currently in limbo after the ending of "Legacy of Kain: Defiance."
Dare I ask: Have you played Panzer Dragoon Saga? Find a way. It’s the gaming equivalent of “War and Peace” (not the story or theme, but in highest regards).
@@sideswipe1261 Yes, and I finished it! A wonderful game I can only hope will get a remake in the Sega Ages line, but that's a long shot.
If only the Saturn had been far easier to program for... my understanding is that the Sony-Weasels (Yes, I said it!) waited until SEGA revealed the in-progress Saturn Specs, then beefed up their PS1 a bit (cowards!). SEGA had a rushed timetable after seeing PS1’s latest specs to throw extra processors inside (7 total?), making it hard to program for, and couldn’t quite yet edge out Sony in time for their surprise early release! For those who Mastered the System (lame pun!) (hopefully still learning) Saturn games, we were got so many amazing treats!
Think about the SEGA Master System’s game library compared to the NES: did the NES have 3-984 times more games made for it? Yup. We’re 1/4th of them “Ikari Warriors” clones? Yuppers! Absolutely!
Brent Granger I’m so happy to talk to someone who was allowed the “Saga” experience!! I got lucky by knowing a Babbages employee from school, who sold me his copy for $40, played once, perfect condition. The Saturn Panzer games have world designs that truly suck you out of this reality. When I first saw commercials for “Avatar,” I thought it was a Panzer D. Movie! James Cameron really borrowed HEAVILY from these games and McQuarries’ designs! 👍👍👍
@@sideswipe1261 I don't have my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga anymore since I needed the cash more than the game, but I'm hoping to eventually import its Japanese counterpart, Panzer Dragoon Azel, in the future since it's much cheaper to own.
Did you know that Tomb Raider was originally designed to be Saturn exclusive?
Did you know Halo was first going to be published by Apple?
Great video as usual. Tomb Raider 2 could definitely have been doable on Saturn, even Tomb Raider 3. Sony really scored a coup paying for exclusivety on that series. That's the problem with the Saturn's short life tho, we never saw what it was really capable of
I guess the developers weren't up to the task to work with the saturn's hardware
Seeing what other devs did with Saturn, I too call complete BS that Saturn couldn't do Tomb Raider II. I think that Sony money is why it wasn't done.
The same thing happen with residents evil 2 for the Saturn.
I've recently started marathoning your videos. I really appreciate your passion and your chill delivery.
Thanks man. I'm not out to make sketch comedy or create characters with vids, I just want to talk about games like we sitting in my game room and having a beer together.
@@SegaLordX you've for certain accomplished that with me. 🍺🎮
I want the Saturn Doom with the hardware renderer.
I'd love to see that. Even just a screenshot.
Hardware renderer???
@@mogo2433 Yep, the first version of Doom on the Sega Saturn used the Saturn hardware extensively. Supposedly it ran at 60 fps, which given that the 32x could run it around 30 I believe. But John Carmack didn't like how it looked, likely because of some texture warping, and forced the team porting it to rewrite it to run off the CPUs and basically ignore the video chips, which is why the game rate sucks
@@jeremygregorio7472
Still not sure what you mean by HW renderer
@@mogo2433 The Saturn has a ton of chips on it for different purposes. There are two "main" CPUs, which are Hitachi SH-1s. For the time they were insanely powerful. There were also a pair of custom graphics chips for doing 3d. A software renderer like what Doom used does most or all of the work on the CPUs. A hardware renderer off loads that work to the graphics chips, just like how a modern game uses a video card from AMD or Nvidia.
Older graphics harder tended to have more quirks. So that a game written for the Saturn looked very different than one made for the PlayStation. You can get around those quirks by writing your own graphics drawing routines that run on the CPU and draw exactly what you want, but it's SLOW
I'll never forget the castlevania for dreamcast. I saw a screenshot in a magazine and just some years later the dreamcast was done and we never heard about that game again.
Still butthurt over that one.
Konami doing us dirty even that far back.
I honestly don't think Konami knew how to bring Castlevania into the 3D polygon world. It was a casualty of that as much as anything else.
@@SegaLordX I don't think the 3d Vanias Lord's of Shadow included are that bad.
They aren't, but it took years to get there. I hated the N64 Castlevania's, for instance.
@@SegaLordX The violin rendition of Bloodline from Rondo of blood in 64 is 🔥 though.
It's actually the DS games I'm not crazy about and of the GBA games Harmony of Dissonance is the only one I really like.
Of course I love Bloodstained.
Been a fan since 5k subs. SLX is going to the top. Another home run.
More 3d platformers would've been nice. Haha I remember being envious that my cousins had Gex: Enter The Gecko and Spyro 1 on their Playstations and there was nothing comparable on my ol' Saturn.
A bit off topic I just got a Mega Drive Mini that was released here today and first impressions is that it is very good!
I got a couple for my family and they have been rocking it pretty hard.
When I played Cybersled on the Playstation, with it's enhanced graphics mode, I saw the writing on the wall for arcades.
It was like that for many games back then, especially with 3D advancing so fast. Once Namco stopped the bleeding edge tech war and just made arcade games based on PSX tech, the fall was just about complete.
Simply Sherbert Our arcades were ultimately ruined by street gangs.
Quality videos every time, deserves to grow more and more.
Sad that so many of these were victims of the same reasoning - the Saturn market crashing after '95 outside of Japan. While I can understand the mentality of, "Our games won't sell well here, so let's not bother," I simply can't understand the logic behind refusing to release stuff that is close to, or already, finished. You've already sunk money into the development; just get it done and see what happens. ESPECIALLY if it's a multiplatform title, because your marketing budget may be skewed towards the other console versions, but buzz will still apply to other versions of the game regardless. Those cancellations always sting the most. Thanks for digging into what info and media you can find, and getting the stories behind these games out there, SLX
Manufacturing, marketing & distribution costs.
I see a Raiden thumbnail, I click
A crying shame Star Wars Rebel Strike got cancelled as the lighting and particle effects looked amazing on Saturn hardware.
18:30 Star Wars: Rebel Strike reminds me heavily of Hyper Image Productions' unreleased Phase Zero for the Atari Jaguar. Not bad...
Viewpoint was probably the third game I ever played on PlayStation. Totally forgot about that game until this video.
Dude I loved cyber sled in the arcade. Had no idea it was coming to Saturn. That would have broken my heart. You would need a twin stick controller though
Question for Saturn hardware experts about the mesh transparency. Did it have to be chequerboard style (like 50/50 colour/nothing or were any other variations of this dither effect available? I've only ever seen one game where it looks different and that's AMOK, where it looks like vertical lines, but I think that might be something to do with the overall graphical presentation of that game.
Saturn's main issue was transparencies with VDP1. It was capable of what is known as half transparencies, and could be used in certain situations rather effectively, especially in 2D games. The issue was much more complicated in 3D engines, which is why developers didn't even try and just used the mesh technique.
You have 2 "hardware" options for VDP1 : mesh effect (it alternates between displayed pixels and transparent pixels) and half-transparency mode (which takes the current color in the framebuffer, look at your new color and just does (pix1+pix2)/2 to average them.
The problem with half-transparency is that the Saturn uses forward texture mapping and has no hardware feature to prevent overdraw on distorted sprites...so the pixels get overwritten a few times, creating garbage lines.
The mesh effect works on top of both VDP1 elements and VDP2 backgrounds, while the half-transparency mode only works on VDP1 stuff.
The other fancy option is like Grandia and Burning Rangers, to transfer the framebuffer to a bitmap VDP2 layer - which allows good transparency on top of everything (VDP1 and VDP2), but it's slow to transfer the framebuffer, you need to clear the framebuffer twice and you still get sorting problems.
Another option is like Sonic R, which is to use color ram to let the VDP2 draw the pixels, allowing transparency over the background layers...but that only works with background layers, you can't do it on top of VDP1 elements.
Overall, the mesh effect is simply the best option in the context of 1995-1997. It's fast, it works on top of both VDP1 and VDP2 and it doesn't suffer from the overdraw bug.
Thanks for the great answers XL2 and SLX. To narrow it down further, when the mesh effect is selected, I am curious as to whether there are different options to define its look. For example, could you display less of the mesh object, like 1 square in 4 rather than 1 in 2. Or displaying the mesh in parallel lines rather than in chequerboard. I've never seen it done (apart from possibly in AMOK), but I'm curious.
@@simonrobinson2836 You cannot sadly
@@xl2k2008 Thanks! The mesh affect is pretty ugly. I can't think of many instances where it works better than using a solid texture or not using it at all. Burning Rangers springs to mind - a game that took place in dark corridors with coloured light sourcing everywhere - did those characters really need a round mesh shadow under them? Didn't add to the graphics at all. Anyhooo. :D
Me: Oh another Sega Lord X video... *liked*
Appreciate each and every like. :)
lookin back now, Sega hurt themselves tremendously not sharing their own secrets and development tools to the third party companies that had signed on and had to figure it out on their own. :-/
In Sega's defense, they didn't know how to program for the Saturn themselves in the early days. By the time SGL came around, nobody cared.
Blood Omen Legacy of Kane would have been great. Keep the great Saturn videos coming sir.
I really wanted to play Blood Omen Legacy of Kain on Saturn. I thought its 2D nature would have meant some big advantages of the PS1 port. Sadly, we never found out.
I actually have that sitting on my Ps classic and never played it. When SLX compared it to Diablo I immediately wanted to go boot it up.
@@DrGamelove Nice! Do it and let us know how it is.
@@SegaLordX Also liked your description of NFL 97. I remember getting it when it first came out. The disappointment was so bad I went upstairs and powered up the Genesis to play Madden 96. LOL
Great video as always. We need more content about video game history.
Cyber Sled is the one I missed the most. Virtual On was my favorite for Saturn, so that woulda been my #2 picK. And if it used the twin sticks... awww... that would've been amazing
Had no clue that Raiden Project had a Saturn port planned. Though the opening arrange music of Raiden stage 1 was a good clue haha.
I thought fans of the track would clue in on it. ;)
Big missed opportunity
I'm going to take a guess and say Sega Lord X is a 49ers fan. Every time I see a clip discussing an NFL football game, one of the teams playing is the Niners.
16:32 I remember reading this in the offical sega Saturn mag and I was gutted. Note the end of the article saying that fighting force and ninja will ‘definitely’ be coming to Saturn 🤣
Dude Rebel Strike looks kick-ass
I had a 3do back in the day, that first maze to get into the house in killing time was insane. So many duck murders.
Haha...those ducks! ^_^.
Killing it with the great content, dude
Thank you. :)
@@SegaLordX no, thank you, man, I really love these videos.
Cybersled was incredible game with amazing 3D graphic,and one of my wish list for PS1
Great list and fascinating information. I will admit I was steeling myself for pain with this video as a huge Saturn fan. But in the end, the only ones that really hurt for my personal tastes were Viewpoint, Castlevania, and the Star Wars game. Those would've rocked, I really really feel the burn thinking about how great those would be even now running on Saturn. If the sports games and Tomb Raider would've made it, that would've helped the sales of the system, but personally I didn't care much about those.
I wish there was a team of people that went out and searched for old betas and fully complete software that never released and even made it a show at the end making it available to the public if i had the money Id love to make games for old consoles i reckon with the know how and programs of today we could really push the saturn into glory.
I wish I had the funding to try. The endeavor would be difficult and costly I fear.
Sucks so many games where cancelled for Saturn!
It does. There are so many I could do 3 or 4 more vids on them all.
Especially Sonic and many others along with the transfered games from the 32x
@@maroon9273 Agreed Sonic Xtreme needed to be finish and ironically fans are finishing it and many cancelled and existing 32x games should have come to Saturn!
@@entertainmentwizard2703yep, even a sonic Saturn prototype game was being developed the same time Xtreme. It's a shame all of them were cancelled.
@@maroon9273 Agreed I am still shocked a 2.5D Sonic game was never developed for Saturn and Knuckles Chaotix should have been ported an enhanced!
Get that (Expensive) Saturn PS2 controller for a taste of what could have been.
Plenty of material for a 3rd video.
Sidenote: I'm still butthurt over the Dreamcast Castlevania never materializing.
The Star Wars games really does look fun lol. Never would have figured
Core were massive Sega fans - hence Tomb Raider debuting on Saturn first - and would have both been more than willing and very capable at - coding a Saturn Tomb Raider II. It was indeed Sony's exclusivity deal that meant this didn't happen.
Even though Raiden is avaible on many systems including the Sega Genesis. Not to mention I have the japanese version of Raiden Project for the PS1 (a compilation that contains the arcade version of the first game and the sequel).
I wanted to play Viewpoint on the Neo Geo for years. Finally got an emu to run it only to find there's a good (identical?) port on the Mega Drive/Genesis I could have played years ago.
The Mega Drive port was decent but it wasn't perfect. Back then it likely would have satisfied your curiosity, however.
I always wanted to see how Saturn would handle a CPS3 game like Warzard Jojos or Street Fighter 3. Or a Sega NAOMI game like Marvel vs Capcom 2 or Capcom vs SNK 2.
There was a time I genuinely thought Street Fighter 3 would come to Saturn.
I remember reading rumors of Eternal Champions for the Saturn way back.
Supposedly Sega of Japan nixed Eternal Champions for the Saturn because they didn't want a competing fighting game to their Virtua Fighter.
Had no idea about kain though. I borrowed a PlayStation just to play it back in the day.
I still have the magazine with Heart of darkness in the cover. I can’t believe that a game that supposed to be a Saturn exclusive was released only in Playstation and PC.
A number of games were like that. Games that started as Sega projects and never saw a release. Grandia was hyped up heavily by the magazines of the time, was Saturn exclusive at first, and then only saw release in Japan. When it came west, it was on the freaking PSX of all things!
@@SegaLordX If Bernie Stolar hadn't pissed off Working Designs I'm sure there would be a possibility for it to come to the west, with potentially Sega of Europe publishing it in Europe, based on the fact that WD localized the Lunar games.
Creo que la única manera en que podamos ver varios de estos títulos o ports, es a través de una Sega Saturn Mini. Tiene mucho potencial para sacar juegos exclusivos, mucho mejor terminados con la tecnología actual. Además, pueden incluirse muchos títulos arcade para mejorar el atractivo comercial de la misma.
I think it was actually the saturn that nailed SEGA's coffin not the dreamcast if the saturn was a success they wouldnt have ran head first to the dreamcast as sony was developing for the ps1 long after the ps2 was released its sad SEGA was awesome.
I agree, I dont know of one person that had a Saturn after owning a Genesis.
I remember standing in Walmart for a long time trying decide to buy a Saturn or PS1. I went with PS1 as I had no exposure to the Saturn.
Fatal fury Real Bout 2, Resident evil 2 and street fighter 3 were also announced for a saturn release that never happen
I covered those in part 1. Check it out, links in the description.
I love your videos, knowledge and passion for Sega and their systems, but man, these kind of videos admittedly sadden me. The potential that was never captured hurts, I hate to see consoles not reach their full potential, especially with the long term implications, Sega could still be in the hardware business if it wasn't for 32x-Saturn era failing so bad.
Awesome game choices though, I would have liked to see these games as well.
Killing Time as FMV + early blocky FPS? I think the Saturn dodged a bullet by not getting that one.
I think that game could have been really nice on more powerful hardware. It was a bit ambitious for the 3DO.
I played Legacy of kain PC version ripped(without films),but my save was deleted.
NBA hangtime too,2 players on 1 keyboard,i played character with big chiken head.
Raiden also.
Simpsons arcade could of been brilliant on Saturn
Man I really wanted cybersled on the Saturn so bad and still want it to this day. I have 2 sets of Virtual On controllers and it would be a blast to use them on cybersled.
Yeah, Cyber Sled was pretty much the same kind of game as Virtual On. The control scheme and design was super similar.
Resident evil 2, the rest of the shining force games, shenmue, all of Capcom 4mb ram games that missed a u.s. release. ( that are basically in English) all the games I wish that was released....
Waterworld was a huge loss too, that was said to have really pushed the VDP2 to its limits
I was more interested on the games in the intro than the games in the video...please do a video about them too :)
Those were part 1 games. The link is in the description.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain would have been AMAZING on the Saturn!!
Killing time had a game killing bug on the 3do. Trust me my copy went to a kaleidoscope glitchy mess and after that, it never worked again. Shame aswell because it was a bloody good game. Once you had that bug though that was it.
Now that you've brought it up, you know what would be an AWESOME patreon or gofundme project? If we can build a team of coding and programming experts to convert Sonic 3D Extreme or Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart to the Saturn! That would be AMAZING!
Finding people that could actually code for Saturn would cost a damn fortune.
Play Realms of the Haunting if you want an FPS/Adventure game hybrid
Namco 3d title would have suffered on the saturn due architectural differences in my opinion
I'm not bummed about Namco. I can catch those games on ps1 anyway.
A version of Saturn Cybersled exists. I've seen the disc.
Have you got or played “Alien Front Online”? Like CyberSled with textures. And online. Fun!!!
I'll just note that _Killing Time_ was also released for the Mac OS/PowerPC (although my memory is that it's *very* poorly optimised, running slower than _DOOM_ on the same hardware in spite of _Killing Time_ being closer in complexity to _Wolfenstein 3D_ than to _DOOM_ …)
Disappointed that most of the 3rd and 2nd party games were not build from the ground up but instead used codes from other consoles during that time.
still really pissed we never got that port of raiden fighters
All those games were so good.
The one I miss the most is Heart of Darkness, for which footage exists...
An early prototype of HoD for Saturn is already available, only playable on emulator but its better than Magazine footage
Too bad, hopefully it'll be preserved someday
As you mention Cybersled, I'll share a link to some incomplete footage: nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=169987
Wow, thank you for that. :)
I saw footage of this unreleased third person action rpg for the saturn, i forgot what it's called but i still think it could have had potential on the saturn
click the link and go to 4:47 to see what i am talking about
ua-cam.com/video/2vPers_yST8/v-deo.html&app=desktop
What Castlevania Game was that at 11:41 if you don't mind me asking?
It's the PC fan made game The Bloodletting.
Raiden II on Saturn woulda been super sweet...
also, im fairly sure that in more recent history it was confirmed that sony/Core signed a deal for TR 2...etc on ps
Yes, Sony wanted to keep the Tomb Raider franchise away from the N64, so they signed an exclusivity agreement with Eidos/Core...
Honestly vids like these just make me sad.
So much great potential wasted so many great games lost.
It's like the 32X only bigger.
It's funny because many cancelled 32X projects became cancelled Saturn projects....
Some of the cancelled 32x games like xmen and others were never moved to the Saturn. Very strange.
@@SegaLordX Not all of them though. And its worse with the Saturn because that machine was actually good.
It had a decent shot, it has a decent library.
And then to see so much potential wasted.
@@maroon9273 They might not think it was worth the effort.
@@dvdbytes4348 yep due to the 3D craze in the 90s. Looking back it was a missed opportunity.
I remember waiting for killing time !!!!
That SotN port is still unforgivable. A nearly 100% 2D game on the 2D powerhouse console should have been the superior port. But to find out years later they gave it a half hearted attempt and dropped it as a budget title just hurts. That should have been a Saturn game from the start.
If you ever fire it up in an emulator, play around with disabling the VDP1 and 2 layers. It really is easy to see why the game runs like it does. VDP1 is displaying things it never should have. VDP2 is criminally underutilized.
I would have loved a Blood omen for saturn.
Me too. I had become a big fan of Diablo and it reminded me so much of that.
Can never accept Saturn as the ultimate 2D shooter platform with the best shooter of them all, Raiden 2..
Sega Lord X, do an episode on Sega tech demos highlighting hidden powers of Sega hardware, you know, like this ones (and many more out there):
ua-cam.com/video/w54uNAuqE1Y/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/gWVmPtr9O0g/v-deo.html
>$400 dollars
>No worthy games at all during the whole generation
What where they thinking?
Tomb Raider was THE game back then, sony getting an exclusivity deal would definitely help killing the rival console
Exclusives make the console. Always has. When you have what people want, your console will sell. Sony knew it from day 1.
Was there any good 2D fighting games for the Saturn?
Dozens. Capcom, SNK, and others contributed many.
@@SegaLordX what do you recommend? I'm thinking about buying some.
The Street Fighter Zero/Alpha games are good, the VS series like X-Men vs Street Fighter are good. Samurai Showdown IV and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special are really nice. I'd also consider Astra Super Stars, Groove on Fight, and Sonic Council.
@@SegaLordX will X-Men vs Street Fighter II play on a North American Saturn?
You'll need a converter and a RAM cart to get it to work. The Action Replay is a good, cheap alternative. One like this will let you play burned games too.
www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-Pseudo-Saturn-Expansion-RAM-save-Card-Console-action-replay-V6-314-Cart/323848766822?hash=item4b66e40566:g:2IgAAOSwfiZcntTk
Midway changing the brand from NBA Jam to Hangtime was such a pointless blunder. I didn't even know Hangtime existed until I was looking through Mame roms ten years after and then it took me time to realise it was literally the next NBA Jam game.
I'm not sure why they did that. To get the brand away from Acclaim maybe?
If anybody has that Legacy of Kain version, hook us up!!!
Dear Lord Raiden Project! It's the best shooter on the PlayStation I can only IMAGINE what an "enhanced" Saturn version would have been like!
Viewpoint is trash, good riddance!
Since they were concentrating specifically on Raiden II, I was hoping for a custom Saturn mode myself. Could have been awesome.
I am suspicious that the dev kits that Sega sold to developers was overpriced and garbage hence the poor quality of most ports.
Namco's relationship with Sega at the time wasn't very good; same thing could be argued with Namco's relationship with Nintendo being rather strained in that generation as well!
This video is just pissing me off because companies not releasing because the sales were low are just making the sales lower. If more companies like Namco had supported it, maybe it would have helped. Hadn’t Sega earned enough trust coming off the Genesis?
Namco on Saturn would have been major in Japan. Namco could program their asses off too, so I have no doubt they would have mastered Saturn in their second generation engines.
Florida Budget Bike Builds when that happens I’m probably going full retro. Our internet is 2005 quality in the rural south. I want dedicated hardware regardless of that. The good news is there are more than enough amazing consoles and portables to collect and play for the rest of my life.
Florida Budget Bike Builds the hell it will. Or by then everyone will have amazing internet and it’ll work as smooth as Netflix or phone calls. And They’ll have downloading ala Xbox Gamepass
Derrick Finzer sorry man, I know the pain. I can at least play online with my friends and chat so I’m thankful for that.
Florida Budget Bike Builds at least 75 percent of what I play is new stuff and indies so I’ll go as long as they are willing to release actual hardware. There are a lot of amazing retro inspired indies coming out, really finding their stride, so I hope it continues.
Powerslave 2..........😥😫
Please can you write the Names of the Games in the Video or in the Comment section!?
I'll add the names to the description.
Sega Lord X and Jenovi are the same person.
Jenovi is more of a 32x guy hehe
@@Lightblue2222 Jenovi is more of an Ayrton Senna guy
@@MarquisDeSang his profile icon is a 32x cartridge, so I beg to differ my dear sir. ;)
Wow 😶
Sega Lord is awesome but..... Why why why do you always pick the Niners in NFL games?! 😂😂😜😜 Go Pack Go!!
Been my favorite team since I was 6 years old.
@@SegaLordX I assume that was during the 80s Montana/Rice dynasty? Always happy to talk to a fellow football fan! Love your videos!!
Cybersled sucked.