Hah, my game instructor in college was actually Kalani himself, I got him to sign all 3 of my game carts and i was in his class for game development, such an awesome thing to see this appear now.
Is it just me or does that guy he is force choking look an awful lot like Dreamcast Guy? I am just waiting for “hello gamers don’t mind my darth Vader psp video”
@Velzek Or as a part of the battle with Obi-Wan in Episode III. ...come to think of it, turning into a scorpion might help him cope with all the sand he dislikes so much.
Ah the early 90s. I miss this period of my life so badly. I had an SNES and a "hand-me-down" C64. My best friends lived next door to me and Blockbuster was in it's heyday. It was heaven.
I also had a SNES and a hand-me-down C64. I remember the graphics were so bad comparatively on the C64 that I started learning BASIC and drawing shapes when I was like 9 or 10? Good times indeed.
Same here. Sadly I always had to sell my previous console to buy the new one so I sold my SNES and games for buying an N64. (I do have a SNES mini now ;)) The SNES in particular was a huge part of my teenage years and though I didn't own a huge amount of cartridges, I remember getting Super Star Wars for my (probably 12th) birthday and playing it a lot. Not sure if I ever finished it because yeah these games were hard and unforgiving.
lol, i had a snes and a hand me down Amiga. i remember calling blockbuster locations on the phone to see if the newest games were in stock or not on the weekends
They were tough as nails - I just disliked the way on easy a section of the game was cut out so if you wanted to see the ending you had no choice but to select hard and got through the 'real' ordeal !
Man, I loved the hell out of Super Empire Strikes Back. I must have played through the Battle of Hoth hundreds of times. Finding out how to use the grappling hook was a blast. Then I found the debug mode code, and that was absolute fire. I was also fortunate enough to have a 486 in the height of Star Wars video game output, and Lucas Arts games in general, so 9-year-old me was ecstatic to say the least. Man, I really wish Lucas Arts never faded the way it did. So much great output.
Some of the fondest memories! I remember thinking the Battle of Hoth in Super Empire Strikes Back was the closest we'd get playing out that scene in video game form... then we got Shadows of the Empire..!
I so very much want to see a remake of these absolute cult classics. Those games were crafted so well at a time where most people played Mario or some Tennis games, those Star Wars gems really gave players such a feeling of dynamic 2d sidescroller fighting. The games were never boring due to enemies spawning at certain frequencies, and even though the games were very hard in the sequence of 2>1>3 from hardest to easiest, you could always recover by playing a bit more straegically and calm and gain your health back from some "trash" mobs and getting hearts from those, incase you messed up on some earlier parts. The color palette of the locations was absolutely gorgeous and, at the time, something you rarely saw in videogames. The mode 7 sequences were nice but only the Hoth battle stuck with me as iconic due to the AT-AT takedowns which were pretty cool at the time. I wish that those games would be recreated for modern times with graphics that still retain the charme of what they were back then, but of course with modern capabilities and 3d / parallax effects. Something like the Trine games comes to mind as to how it should look like. Of course, this will never happen, but I think the games deserve a modern makeover drom a passionate dev team.
these games were such a big part of my childhood. I remember being introduced to the SNES games when my big brother returned from being in the air force and moved home to share his SNES game collection with me.. I saw these games and instantly got hooked.
Every god damn DF Retro is a masterpiece! Thanks for the effort, it was amazing to get the details and to drool over the start wars games as they were so long ago!
I always liked everything you released in the past but Audi's addition really elevated videos like this and DF Direct to the next level. Really great hire!
You monster, you used the song that always makes me cry from Star Wars in your intro. Han & Leia’s love theme is just so… I don’t know what, but it does things.
@@ThetaReactor Yea, I do my best to pretend those levels don’t exist. They’re easy enough so you can basically black out while playing through them and then get back to the proper levels.
Super Star Wars Trilogy on the SNES for me personally are my favorite all time video games, because unlike the other Star Wars video games they are based on the best 3 movies and had an awesome design for them all.
Weird surprise Star Wars gaming theme this weekend. First the final launch of the TIE Fighter: Total Conversion Project (whole TIE Fighter campaign) to the Star Wars XWing Alliance 2020 Upgrade fan mod (both fully VR compatible!) and now this. Sadly had no time to watch this other than the first two chapters but I really love those long format videos you guys do and the SNES SW games with a lot of side information to other older SW titles are a perfect fit for the format.
Yes we all know about the TF total conversion, its pretty much mentioned on this channel on a weekly basis, and I think if anyone is watching DF, especially DF retro they too will know about it from the usual news sources as well.
Thank you for the memories! This is one of the best DF videos I’ve ever seen. I had Super Star Wars for the SNES and it was one of the only games that I never beat back in the day. It was just too difficult!
DF Retro content is unmatched. The information, comparisons and humor are top notch! It's so good I couldn't stop the video to go to the bathroom! Not to worry though, I made it without incident once the video was done! Keep up the great work Digital Foundry!
Thanks for another excellent DF Retro! I really enjoy this series! I even like the episodes about games I wouldn’t find that interesting to play. The history of video games aspect of the series is great.
Not going to lie these games were very difficult for me and my cousins. Crazy enough we didn’t even know what Star Wars at the time, but all three of the games were so good it didn’t matter to us.
Excellent video guys! Such a complete and satisfying retrospective. This brings back memories.... Super Return of the Jedi was my very first introduction to the Star Wars videogames... boy, such good times.
Wow, what a great documentary on the early days of star wars videogames! Was not aware of the dark times and of the multiple ports of Super Star Wars. :0 And thx for mentionig the performance on the PS4 version of Super Star Wars. I will try it out one day via PS Now.
The N64 Shadow of the Empire was out for a few years when I started playing Super Empire (maybe 1998). I didn't really expect this game to have a tow cable segment like they did with the N64 game, and was delightfully surprise when it did. Of course it's not the quite the same, but as a kid that didn't have an N64 and only saw it through commercials, this felt damn close. :)
Excellent video as always. One minor gripe. I have Super Empire, and the blocking ability is extremely helpful throughout the entire game. It reflects blaster shots back at enemies, which is especially effective against turret enemies to make them kill themselves. The force powers aren't utilized well at all for sure, but the levitation ability straight up breaks some stages, and the invisibility ability is very helpful towards the end to just run past enemies. It was definitely a difficult game, and the only game I've ever raged quit on, but at the same time, I was able to eventually beat it as a kid, and nowadays doesn't really trouble me much at all.
Fun fact: That gorgeous 3D bitmapped plane we all know and love from these games is NOT actually a native function of Mode7. It can scale, rotate, stretch, squash and skew any affine way you like, but the graphical effect we would associate with Mode7 is actually a per-scanline trick where the scale is updated constantly via DMA as the screen is drawn. This is what creates that nice perspective effect. The Hoth snowspeeder section is able to perform those elevation changes by adjusting the rate of scaling on each scanline, reducing it as you fly uphill, increasing it as you go downhill and flat-out skipping a bunch altogether as you fly over a crest. That's also why the effect is only ever displayed horizontally.
Beating Star Wars on Gameboy and Lion King on Game Gear are 2 of my proudest gaming moments of the 90s. Thanks for the rundown on the history of the former's classic set of titles.
These games are responsible for some of my earliest memories of gaming. I use to spend hours playing these on SNES at my uncles house in the early 90's. Still love this trilogy but holy crap...they are difficult haha. Thanks for this incredible video DF crew!
fun fact (well kind) for multiple years i notice that in the Empire Strikes Back SNES Factory level they used background assets from the original Trash Compactor level that was cut from the the first game. im surprised till this day no one has noticed and even more so after watching this video covered by DF. hope this will be some what insightful for who ever reads this.
I could have sworn that I played the DOS port way back then, but then again in those times 99.99% of the Uruguayan market was piracy. And thank you so very much for the shout-out to Near. It's very much appreciated. 💓
Hah, my game instructor in college was actually Kalani himself, I got him to sign all 3 of my game carts and i was in his class for game development, such an awesome thing to see this appear now.
Awesome!
Richard's evil laugh as he force chokes Audi is something I didn't expect today lol 😂
1:04:38
Holy shit, that was amazing to witness. Richard would be glorious for portraying some sort of evil villain in a DF Retro episode, LOL!
His evil laugh sounds suspiciously like his casual laugh.
Is it just me or does that guy he is force choking look an awful lot like Dreamcast Guy? I am just waiting for “hello gamers don’t mind my darth Vader psp video”
Chef's kiss
"Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father."
"He told me enough, he told me you killed him!"
"No..."
*turns into a giant scorpion*
Well there's something I must reveal then
@Velzek Or as a part of the battle with Obi-Wan in Episode III.
...come to think of it, turning into a scorpion might help him cope with all the sand he dislikes so much.
"I am your father, and I am also a fucking scorpion."
DON’T GIVE DISNEY ANY IDEAS!!!
I love that so much, it’s comedy gold. I’m really glad they didn’t try to stick to the source material XD
Ah the early 90s. I miss this period of my life so badly. I had an SNES and a "hand-me-down" C64. My best friends lived next door to me and Blockbuster was in it's heyday. It was heaven.
I also had a SNES and a hand-me-down C64. I remember the graphics were so bad comparatively on the C64 that I started learning BASIC and drawing shapes when I was like 9 or 10? Good times indeed.
Yeah I miss those days as well.
Same here. Sadly I always had to sell my previous console to buy the new one so I sold my SNES and games for buying an N64. (I do have a SNES mini now ;)) The SNES in particular was a huge part of my teenage years and though I didn't own a huge amount of cartridges, I remember getting Super Star Wars for my (probably 12th) birthday and playing it a lot. Not sure if I ever finished it because yeah these games were hard and unforgiving.
Games that didn’t constantly go for your wallet and games that just worked because they couldn’t update later. 90’s were great.
lol, i had a snes and a hand me down Amiga. i remember calling blockbuster locations on the phone to see if the newest games were in stock or not on the weekends
Looks like Richard finally got his revenge for Crazy Frog Racer
The Revenge Of The Richard
The Ledbetter Strikes Back
Return of the Richard.
The music score for these games always make me smile and remember playing through them as a kid with my pops. 😄
Love the shoutout to Near, rest in power. Your contributions to the emulation scenes will live on!
beating the trilogy on snes felt like quite an achievement as a kid back in the day. those games were so, SO very unforgiving.
I fell off the damn Jawas transporter so many times.
Yeah these were hard as nails.
its an achievement TODAY! its been kicking my ass since the 90s
The thing is, this kind of difficulty feels so cheap nowadays. I think we liked it because we didn't know better.
They were tough as nails - I just disliked the way on easy a section of the game was cut out so if you wanted to see the ending you had no choice but to select hard and got through the 'real' ordeal !
I actually played SSW before I saw the original movie and when I finally did I was like “When does Luke fight in the sand crawler?”
LOL thats awesome.
That ending was pure magic.
One of my favourite DF Retro’s to date. Make sure you stay around for the post credit scene 🎬
Man, I loved the hell out of Super Empire Strikes Back. I must have played through the Battle of Hoth hundreds of times. Finding out how to use the grappling hook was a blast. Then I found the debug mode code, and that was absolute fire. I was also fortunate enough to have a 486 in the height of Star Wars video game output, and Lucas Arts games in general, so 9-year-old me was ecstatic to say the least. Man, I really wish Lucas Arts never faded the way it did. So much great output.
Some of the fondest memories! I remember thinking the Battle of Hoth in Super Empire Strikes Back was the closest we'd get playing out that scene in video game form... then we got Shadows of the Empire..!
These 'Rich skits' are getting to be utterly hilarious with how and when they crop up.
I so very much want to see a remake of these absolute cult classics. Those games were crafted so well at a time where most people played Mario or some Tennis games, those Star Wars gems really gave players such a feeling of dynamic 2d sidescroller fighting. The games were never boring due to enemies spawning at certain frequencies, and even though the games were very hard in the sequence of 2>1>3 from hardest to easiest, you could always recover by playing a bit more straegically and calm and gain your health back from some "trash" mobs and getting hearts from those, incase you messed up on some earlier parts.
The color palette of the locations was absolutely gorgeous and, at the time, something you rarely saw in videogames. The mode 7 sequences were nice but only the Hoth battle stuck with me as iconic due to the AT-AT takedowns which were pretty cool at the time.
I wish that those games would be recreated for modern times with graphics that still retain the charme of what they were back then, but of course with modern capabilities and 3d / parallax effects. Something like the Trine games comes to mind as to how it should look like. Of course, this will never happen, but I think the games deserve a modern makeover drom a passionate dev team.
these games were such a big part of my childhood. I remember being introduced to the SNES games when my big brother returned from being in the air force and moved home to share his SNES game collection with me.. I saw these games and instantly got hooked.
This was a very well put together and entertaining summary of these classic games, and giving props to Near gets you a giant thumbs up.
What an awesome episode of df retro. I'm 40+ years old and have such fond memories of these games and love for star wars. Great episode gents!
The shout-out to Near at the end was well deserved.
Wow that DOS port is gorgeous, it's a real tragedy it never got to come out
"You might even pray that they would alter it further" stop
brilliant. lol
Came to the comments to point that one out. lol
I caught that too! Oh, you guys!
come on..its wholesome. lol
I love John's subtle humor.
The production quality of these videos is just amazing. Great content, at always.
Every god damn DF Retro is a masterpiece! Thanks for the effort, it was amazing to get the details and to drool over the start wars games as they were so long ago!
I always liked everything you released in the past but Audi's addition really elevated videos like this and DF Direct to the next level. Really great hire!
You monster, you used the song that always makes me cry from Star Wars in your intro.
Han & Leia’s love theme is just so… I don’t know what, but it does things.
Fantastic history lesson. The music from the ROLAND machine, beautiful.
I desperately need a video on the rogue squadron games. Among the most underrated Star Wars games out there. Yes, even the third one.
Rogue Squadron 3 was excellent. Then it got into a teleporter accident with a beta build of an awful third-person shooter.
@@ThetaReactor
Yea, I do my best to pretend those levels don’t exist. They’re easy enough so you can basically black out while playing through them and then get back to the proper levels.
I still own all 3 lol I like rs3 😆
Super Star Wars Trilogy on the SNES for me personally are my favorite all time video games, because unlike the other Star Wars video games they are based on the best 3 movies and had an awesome design for them all.
That ending though !
The ending was pure gold.
Weird surprise Star Wars gaming theme this weekend. First the final launch of the TIE Fighter: Total Conversion Project (whole TIE Fighter campaign) to the Star Wars XWing Alliance 2020 Upgrade fan mod (both fully VR compatible!) and now this.
Sadly had no time to watch this other than the first two chapters but I really love those long format videos you guys do and the SNES SW games with a lot of side information to other older SW titles are a perfect fit for the format.
Yes we all know about the TF total conversion, its pretty much mentioned on this channel on a weekly basis, and I think if anyone is watching DF, especially DF retro they too will know about it from the usual news sources as well.
Fantastic video. Really enjoyable. And I almost clicked away before that fantastic bonus scene between Audi/Rich.
Richard's sinister laugh after delivering that "you failed me. for. the. last. time" is perfection
Thank you for the memories! This is one of the best DF videos I’ve ever seen.
I had Super Star Wars for the SNES and it was one of the only games that I never beat back in the day. It was just too difficult!
My brother and I had a lot of fun beating all these games together. Thanks for bringing those memories back. 😀😀😀😀😀😀
A whole hour of this, what a treat!
DF Retro content is unmatched. The information, comparisons and humor are top notch! It's so good I couldn't stop the video to go to the bathroom! Not to worry though, I made it without incident once the video was done! Keep up the great work Digital Foundry!
Thanks for another excellent DF Retro! I really enjoy this series! I even like the episodes about games I wouldn’t find that interesting to play. The history of video games aspect of the series is great.
Not going to lie these games were very difficult for me and my cousins. Crazy enough we didn’t even know what Star Wars at the time, but all three of the games were so good it didn’t matter to us.
Y'all content has been so good lately. TYVM for this absolute nostalgia FREAK of a video!
Near was an amazing person and did so much for snes emulation. It’s sad to see someone like him go.
This is so excellent I barely have words. Incredible retro work!
This is one of my favorite channels. But that was unexpectedly well done. I didn't expect to watch from start to finish but I did. Thanks.
Excellent video guys! Such a complete and satisfying retrospective.
This brings back memories.... Super Return of the Jedi was my very first introduction to the Star Wars videogames... boy, such good times.
Really an amazing episode of DF Retro, it was very interesting to watch from the start to end.
Holy crap! Richard mastered the Palpatine's Laugh™ 😂
John's on fire! EDIT: and Audi too!
Wow, what a great documentary on the early days of star wars videogames! Was not aware of the dark times and of the multiple ports of Super Star Wars. :0 And thx for mentionig the performance on the PS4 version of Super Star Wars. I will try it out one day via PS Now.
Absolutely loooove this video. Thank you guys so much for this!! Also that ending lmao!!! We need moar!!
Best post-credits sequence ever.
Ok, that final part with Rick made it all worth twice the price of admission.
The N64 Shadow of the Empire was out for a few years when I started playing Super Empire (maybe 1998).
I didn't really expect this game to have a tow cable segment like they did with the N64 game, and was delightfully surprise when it did.
Of course it's not the quite the same, but as a kid that didn't have an N64 and only saw it through commercials, this felt damn close. :)
I was so damn impressed when I rented it back in the day and saw how startlingly similar it was.
Funny you mention Shadows of The Empire. That game is an extension of sorts, to the SNES series of games.
This is just phenomenal!! Thank you for putting together such an in-depth look into such amazing games!
🤯This was epic retro bro.
Great job DF!!!
John Williams score was sublime. Why don't we have something that memorable now?
Because these days everything is Superhero crap or just milking of the 80s and 90s
Nier Automata, even better in my opinion.
Have you ever played the Metroid Prime trilogy of games?
Actually in the video game space, I’ve heard 5 absolutely amazing scores in 2021 alone. Music score in gaming is the best it has ever been
We're just used to having a lot of great media now that nothing stands out like Star Wars did in it's time.
AMAZING GUYS : ) Great Ending !
Thanks for the quality upload as always.
Dude, what a really nice surprise and treat. I loved these games growing up, really suck at them but love them all the same
Such a fantastic video! I love DF Retro deep dives into classic games
Lmao I'm dying with the Richard bits, it seems you're having fun and it really shows. These are very enjoyable!
My Sunday/Monday is made.
DF Retro is such a great series.
Next-level production on this one, guys. What a treat!
It's always a great day when you see a new df retro out!
Cracking episode guys 🙌🏻
Fantastic video, as always.
Loved these three games! They were gorgeous at the time, super hard though.
Thank for such an awesome video. Please keep making more retro stuff.
Legendary Intro!!!!👍👍👍
Excellent video as always.
One minor gripe. I have Super Empire, and the blocking ability is extremely helpful throughout the entire game. It reflects blaster shots back at enemies, which is especially effective against turret enemies to make them kill themselves. The force powers aren't utilized well at all for sure, but the levitation ability straight up breaks some stages, and the invisibility ability is very helpful towards the end to just run past enemies. It was definitely a difficult game, and the only game I've ever raged quit on, but at the same time, I was able to eventually beat it as a kid, and nowadays doesn't really trouble me much at all.
Man, this really takes me back. What a trip!
We’ll, this was the gift I didn’t know I needed. Love your videos.
Well, this was quite an informative retro telling about the project. As somehow, randomly finding it in PSN library was surprising discovery.
This is gonna be a treat to watch. Super Star Wars was the first SNES game I got alongside F-ZERO.
I had no idea that Mode 7 was capable of portraying depth and elevation! That's a pleasant surprise.
Thank you for making this video!
A+ DF Retro! I remember Empire being absolutely brutal as a kid. Just getting to Cloud City was an achievement 😅
13:27 Never thought I'd see Rich as Yoda, but I suppose it makes sense since he's rather wise and all-knowing
Expertly produced. Well done Digital Foundry. Thank you for making this video!
Richard as yoda is the funniest thing i have ever seen
He actually was playing Darth Vader, with some Emperor Palpatine at the end.
excellent work this is great coverage of the topic
Man, the production on this one is ON POINT!
Ok, that ending is the kind of stuff legends are made of.
Fun fact: That gorgeous 3D bitmapped plane we all know and love from these games is NOT actually a native function of Mode7. It can scale, rotate, stretch, squash and skew any affine way you like, but the graphical effect we would associate with Mode7 is actually a per-scanline trick where the scale is updated constantly via DMA as the screen is drawn. This is what creates that nice perspective effect. The Hoth snowspeeder section is able to perform those elevation changes by adjusting the rate of scaling on each scanline, reducing it as you fly uphill, increasing it as you go downhill and flat-out skipping a bunch altogether as you fly over a crest. That's also why the effect is only ever displayed horizontally.
Thank you for shouting Near out @ 1:01:35 ...They remain a shining example of how incredible the preservationist community is
I love seeing the games running on the pvm monitor!
Richard needs to say "Do it!"
Beating Star Wars on Gameboy and Lion King on Game Gear are 2 of my proudest gaming moments of the 90s. Thanks for the rundown on the history of the former's classic set of titles.
I know this is harsh but I felt relieved when the naration switched back to John. I guess good narration is a skill I sometimes take for granted.
Really good episode 😊
Thank you for your hard work homies 💕
These games are responsible for some of my earliest memories of gaming. I use to spend hours playing these on SNES at my uncles house in the early 90's. Still love this trilogy but holy crap...they are difficult haha. Thanks for this incredible video DF crew!
Nice use of the Outcast-Soundtrack! :)
Nice use of the Shadows of the Empire soundtrack for the background music. I absolutely love that score!
fun fact (well kind) for multiple years i notice that in the Empire Strikes Back SNES Factory level they used background assets from the original Trash Compactor level that was cut from the the first game. im surprised till this day no one has noticed and even more so after watching this video covered by DF. hope this will be some what insightful for who ever reads this.
An excellent video! Really great! Thank you so much!!
BRAVO guys best DF Retro 👏. The beginning brought back childhood memories
Sublime Ending!
Great work guys, and thank you for Yoda Richard, and there’s something oddly satisfying about watching Richard force choke Audi 😂😂👍🏻👏🏻 Thank You!
Great video! The intro and design overall is fantastic 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I could have sworn that I played the DOS port way back then, but then again in those times 99.99% of the Uruguayan market was piracy.
And thank you so very much for the shout-out to Near. It's very much appreciated. 💓
I had hoped this was coming. Favourites from my childhood. Great job!
Even snuck in the soundtrack for Outcast in the background. One of the best ever made, in my opinion.