Sentinel Returns Review
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- Опубліковано 25 вер 2024
- Sentinel Returns is quite an obscure game. Not many games like it have come out before or after its time.
Some links to Sentinel Returns and Annwn:
Sentinel Returns (PC): www.myabandonw...
Annwn: store.steampow...
#Sentinel #SentinelReturns #niche
I believe the PC version suffers the same issue as many 90s CD-ROM releases, including Quake, it uses CD audio.
Why this tends to be an issue with versions available online. one of the reasons was Rippers consciously removed them for bandwidth, and now that bandwidth is more plentiful, they are so much more irrelevant and obscure, that they rarely see full uploads. And a secondary reason, many ISO ripping tools, esp in the time-frame they were ripped, struggled with "multi-track discs" which have an audio and data component, iso doesn't actually support that paradigm at all, some others like nrg etc do, and the most common is a bin/cue.
If you mount a full disc image with audio intact and run the game and it detects the disc, the audio should work, but it's so awkward.
it was an issue that plagued Quake, so much so all the steam releases had no music etc. source ports solve that in quakes case you can download a sourceport and download an audio file version of the cd tracks, and the game will play it back. Sadly games like this one are too obscure and don't have source available, so doubt you'd see such lengths taken to restore that functionality in a more convenient way.
It's quite a sad state of affairs for PC game preservation.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing! I really wish one day this game gets rereleased with all the issues fixed. PC preservation is important no matter how obscure the game.
Thanks for stopping by :)
@@paperbag1093 glad to elucidate, it's an issue I know all too well. And totally agree,.
A pleasure, just binged your game reviews :P Your content style is quite nice, decent production and editing and thoughtful commentary/critique. Hope you produce more :)
@@paperbag1093
Btw ever hear of another Psygnosis published game from that period called *Sentient* ? Quite a fascinating title, with a timer based event system kinda similar to Majoras Mask, Shadow of Memories and more recently The Outer Wilds, (Although I don't believe it loops unlike those) but also a dense conversation driven mechanic, it's got quite a unique mood for an adventure game too.
If you were interested enough to play, and wanted to run not just the PS1 version but also the PC/DOS version, like you've done with Sentinel returns, I'd be happy to help, I got it running flawlessly n smoothly in Dosbox, audio and a steady framerate.
Just seems like a title you might appreciate. :)
@@mitthjarta5 Thanks! I've never actually been sure about my content quality so it's pretty uplifting to hear that it's been entertaining for you. I plan to release another video in maybe a couple weeks to maybe a month, it depends how long it takes to edit.
@@mitthjarta5 I actually haven't heard of that game, but it sounds interesting! I'll give it a look someday.
Thanks for the suggestion :)
FUN FACT: John carpenter composed the music for this game
Thank you very much for this FUN FACT 👍👍👍
If John carpenter and David cronenberg had a videogame baby.... This would be it 😊
man i love games like these. old, obscure, dark, bleak and mysterious. reminds me of my childhood when i was trying every game from demo CDs. i would love to discover more but idk where
Hey, very good work PaperBag! While I'm afraid Sentinel Returns is only a good proof of concept, how you dissected it quite nicely, and with pretty nice production value too. :^) Take care.
Thank god for your vid. This game had been bugging me for ages: couldn't remember the name, couldn't get how the game worked. Language barriers at a young age and it's questionable source didn't help much.. Thnx!
Glad this was useful to you! Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for this video. I played it with my bros in 1998 in Pc, I was 6 years old. We are from Argentina (you can notice my poor english, and guess how poor it was in 1998). This video is SO important to me because I had a very dark remember of the game, and now I can finally (closely) understand it.
I'm glad this video helped you!
I played the game around the time it came out, I loved it, thanks for the memories 😅
This game scared me for life. I played it on one of the euro demos
I remember being disturbed by it as a kid as well. I think that's why its visuals, music and sound design resonated with me a lot.
PaperBag yeah! And the embryo main menu with the syringe(?) going into it. I was like 10-11 lol
@@krikbre Oh yeah definitely! And the way that it squeals when it gets injected? It kinda made me feel bad and creeped out for the thing.
PaperBag totally! The feel of the PS1 era games was so different. Also the demo disks had that organic disgusting look to it with the classic 90s electronic music. I gave the OST to this game a spin and it is amazing.
damn this would have been so cool with my marilyn manson cd
In the 1980s games didn't need to explain themselves, they just were.
Great explanation and review!
Looks like Five Nights at Freddy's as remade by a psychopath. Lovely.
Very lovely indeed
Thanks for looking into modern remakes. Seems like KOTH is too far a departure from original mechanics. Check steam reviews for more info on that one.
Lemme know if I missed anything in regards to the game. I always get the feeling that I left something out.
I just felt like playing this again and installed it from CD. Then went searching for whether anyone actually remembered this game.
I used nGlide to emulate 3DFX graphics (though I'm not sure these are actually better than the software renderer)
The lack of music is down to playing CD audio seemingly not working properly. I remember the music being there when last I played it, and it is available as regular CD tracks.
I've tried using the winmm.dll passthrough used by Gog to emulate CD audio through ogg files with no luck.
However, the PC version is quite capable of saving the game, though it is a bit obscure (Unfold menu in top-left, click archive, click a number, click save, or load if you have launched the game and want to resume).
Hey Morten! Yeah I tried nglide after the review and while I think it improved the lighting and atmosphere, it also made the textures really blurry. Pretty strange.
With regards to saving, what I found was that you needed to check 'run the game as administrator' in order for the game to actually save your progress. I'm not entirely sure why this happens even on an administrator account but eh
@@paperbag1093 I needed to run the installer as admin, but even being installed in program files (x86), it still managed to save.
Though your account may have admin, it doesn't necessarily run as such. To avoid inadvertent running malicious programs with admin privileges I'd say.
And yes, totally agree with the textures being a lot blurrier. Too bad
This would be a fantastic mobile game! There was a clone of this on iOS, but I think it's lost
I think this would be perfect for mobile as well! I did come across some games similar to it on iOS, one of them was called Capita.
@@paperbag1093 that's the game I played a long time ago! It's pretty neat, but sadly there aren't any clones on android
@@leosierras9643 Sadly :(
я вчера узнал об этой игре и уже купил старый пиратский диск с ней. Ну и я был в шоке вобщем то). Игра очень шизанутая. отлично!