Exhumed/Power Slave is a true FPS gem. One of the first FPS I ever played and....well...it's still my favourite. Those team dolls that no one talks were the real challenge of the game.
The dev of doom had it running at 60fps but the game had texture warping which john carmack hated and wouldn't allow. Carmack kind of admitted it was a mistake twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/519828531950665728
Great video - I remember playing PowerSlave, known as Exhumed here in Europe to death, such a great game - anything on the SlaveDriver engine at that time was totally my thing
Quake is very impressive when you consider the kind of PC most people had in 1996/7. If you were running the game on sub 100Mhz Pentium (or worse, a 486) , with a cheap video card (usually 1MB of VRAM) and 8MB of RAM , you were stuck with a game running in low res, with a frame rate often in the teens or less. Good 3D accelerators were still new and not widespread. Compared to that ,Saturn Quake is great. From what I hear the PS1 port wasn't finished as such , but the engine itself was running (minus any sort of AI , collision detection etc).. The PAL version is partly optimised though , and a chunk of the screen is missing when forced to 60hz, so thats something to consider if you are a US gamer looking to import it. Only flaw in my opinion is that I wish the game would have supported the Saturn mouse, same for Exhumed.
I was a broke kid growing up(I mean real broke, not haha I was poor but my parents owned Atari, Amiga and Commodore computers), not owning my own PC until I was in my early 20's. I never saw the PC Doom's, Quake's, or Duke Nukem's until well after their original debuts. These games floored me back then as pinnacles of the technology. It wasn't until I had Quake running on my own PC that I truly grasped what Lobotomy accomplished with their Slave Driver engine on Saturn.
Doom is a little different because you can't look up or down , so in my opinion it actually doesn't play that much better with a keyboard. In Quake however, you can , so a mouse would actually make for an improvement. One game that did mouse support well was Quake2 on PS1, which let you use the mouse to look and shoot, while using the d-pad in a WASD configuration. It works surprisingly well.
The interesting gimmick with Robotica was a double edged sword. See, in Robotica, every level was procedurally generated at random, meaning that no two play throughs were exactly the same. The problem with this is, it meant that almost all of the texture work was repetitious and dull. Much like Virtual Hydlide, it was an interesting concept that couldn't be fully realised on hardware of the time.
HEAVY SYSTEMS, Inc. not that I know of. AFAIK there’s no link aside from aesthetic. They both were developed by different teams, using different engines, for different publishers.
Robotica was far too ambitious for its own good. Instead of throwing all those extra polygons at the wall construction (they aren't just flat surfaces), those spare cycles could've helped to stabilise the frame rate. Instead, we get something that occasionally breaks into 30fps territory... one time in a hundred. The transparent explosions, whilst nice to have, can't be of much use to performance either, but at least the enemies are sprites which stops things tanking further.
Just wanted to say I really, really enjoy your channel. You get straight to the point and don't mix in dumb jokes. I grew up in a one-console household so I was a Nintendo/Sony/Xbox guy until I got older and had kids myself. Now I'm super into retro gaming (ahhh the lost child hood!) and have been forging a path of all of the excellent Sega titles I missed out. Your channel (and MetalJesusRocks) have been excellent buying guides during my Sega quest! Again, awesome channel! Have a good one!!
Sega Lord X Yes, it's sad that Jim Bagley got overruled by Carmack. From what I've read, he got Doom running 60fps with hardware accelerated engine... Well, not sure about the 60fps part, but much faster anyway... It would be interesting to see that version finished. Maybe a kickstarter for Jim to make that version now ;)
@@miikasuominen3845 Carmack didn t know whats possible with the Saturn Hardware. First when you say what is possible or not....ask Lobotomy. Amazing Programmers and Designers. Sega Knows why they choosing this Team. Thank you Lobotmy for Your Great Work from a Segaraner!!
I got Alien trilogy with my Saturn bundle and I really enjoy the game. Gets pretty hard later on too! Duke nukem looks great - think I will look at picking that and Quake up in the near future. Great vid 🖒! Congo looks terrible, lmao!!!
Literally everything Congo related was shit in the 90s, lol. Even the Michael Crichton book is mediocre so it makes you wonder why it ever was a thing.
Most of these games don't look half bad for a machine supposedly not that good at 3D graphics (they say)!Very nostalgic episode for me as old school FPSs were most of my PC gaming experience back in the mid to late 90's. Keep up the great work, SLX!
In my opinion the biggest visual difference between the Saturn and Playstation versions of Alien Trilogy is the appearance of transparent shadows. Sony's version features true transparent shadows whereas Sega's version makes use of a grid pattern dithering effect instead.
@@clarenceboddicker6679 it’s because it’s pretty complicated to get transparencies running on Saturn. You have to route them through VDP2 because VDP1 doesn’t support true transparencies on polygonal assets.
@@johnjay6370there are games that are exclusively on Saturn that would not look better on PlayStation, though. That’s the thing; as the market leader most companies put priority on PlayStation development so multiplatform games do tend to look better on PlayStation. But there are certainly Saturn exclusives that look as good as the best looking PlayStation exclusives. Panzer Dragoon 2 I would put up against most anything from that generation. VF2 looks great, Virtual On is really impressive same with Bulk Slash.
@@Thor-Orion Correct! But those games are a example of leveraging what the saturn is good at. Panzer Dragoon 2 is amazing for its graphics, but 99% of great looking saturn games are made by sega! Third party games looked better on the Playstation because it was just easier for developers to make better looking 3d games on it. I had ALL THE SYSTEMS and i really wanted my Saturn to have better graphics for 3d games, but it just could not compete in cross platform games. Also, as soon around late 97, lots of games were not even cross platform anymore and most new games were just for the Playstation...
For anyone interested there is a recent Retronauts podcast, episode 160, where they interview a game tester who eventually worked at Lobotomy as well as him talking about meeting Mizaguchi in the Saturn era and getting hired by Sega Japan. Interesting listen to anyone who was into Lobotomy games and Sega Rally for those sections of the interview. They did amazing work on the Saturn
Amazing job as always. Your channel is great. I'm looking forward to more content. I'm on the lookout for Powerslave. I'm thinking I'll just go the Japanese import route.
Makes me wonder what else could've been pulled off with the slave driver engine. Imagine if Lobotomy were to try and port doom to the Saturn with it. Or better yet, the other 3D Build engine games that often get forgotten like Blood and Shadow Warrior. I imagine a Saturn port of Blood would've been incredible! In other news, there was a planned but ultimately cancelled port of Killing Time as well as Elderscrolls I: Arena. Both of which were cancelled. Such a shame. Imagine what could've been.
Recording the Dreamcast is a pain. I found a cheap VGA to HMDI upscaler that will do it ok, but still isn't the best. There is a new device out called the Retrotink that will take composite, S-Video and component to HDMI that's $100. Outside of that though, you are looking at spending way more money.
Good video. So many great FPS games on Saturn. Shame about Doom. I agree as well that Hexen, Alien Trilogy and anything by Lobotomy Software did a great job. I would go as far as say these games mentioned were hidden gems.
The Quake port (and the engine behind it) is a testament to how clever programming can overcome hardware limitations. We live in an age now where there are far fewer limitations for what a developer can accomplish when developing a game, but I find myself drawn to these earlier games where hardware limitations were ever present and something to be embraced and challenged rather than allowing them to stifle creativity. I'm personally almost at a point where I only enjoy retro gaming, especially considering the state of the modern gaming landscape, in all its micro-transaction and loot box pushing glory.
Apparently the original version of Doom was running smoother than the PC version but Johm Carmack was being all 'gaming rockstar' about it and insisted it ONLY use software rendering on the CPU instead of hardware rendering because the PC version didn't use graphics cards and was done all in software, and wanted all the other versions to stick to that. Lets not forget, there is not a single polygon in Doom, it is basically scaled 2D sprites like Outrun or After Burner, the Saturn should have had no problems at all with this game, but the person doing the port was banned from using the graphics chips. Its the same reason the Playstation version is pretty poor for that system's abilities (I hear ONLY the lighting is done on the GPU, and the game is all CPU) and why the 3DO version is in a tiny boxed window apparently.
At least John Carmack later did regret his decision and saw that it was wrong to have the porting team forced to make the game run entirely on the CPU. A little too late but at least he saw his mistake.
Carmack didn't like affine texture swim, something that the consoles of the time suffered from badly (the PlayStation more so), which is why he ordered a software rendered version, going as far as to say that Jim Bagley should use the Saturn's ridiculously hard to use SCU DSP for the task - the theory is that both the SH-2s and the DSP together should outperform the PlayStation's GTE, but of course you need documentation to work out how to do it. He did tweet relatively recently that he should've let the experiment go ahead, which is good of him, but it's the reason we didn't get a high frame rate Saturn version.
It's a bit more complicated than that. I'll try to be brief. I'm sick and tired of every so-called "documentary" painting Carmack as the bad guy here, repeating one after another, but chances are, there is no bad guy, just lack of time vs. real technical risks of not being able to ship. It's not just affine swim. It's that the textures in DOOM are world-aligned. Playstation lets you specify for each vertex besides vertex coordinates, also texture coordinates, so whenever a polygon doesn't span the whole texture or spans multiple repeats of the texture, or any offset, it can handle that natively. 3DO and Saturn are the two consoles that don't have texture coordinates, they warp the texture into the quad specified just by vertex coordinates and draw that, so every wall segment must be covered by exactly one repeat of texture, not more and not less, this is why you can't have nice things, the DOOM levels simply would never map to hardware as they are. 3DO version skirts around that by drawing vertical walls one pixel column at a time (or two at half horizontal resolution), and using some trickery to clip that line - i'm not familiar enough with the 3DO hardware to tell exactly how. No such luxury for the Saturn hardware! Floors were software-rendered on the 3DO and extremely slow. So i'm willing to bet all the textures on the initial hardware-accelerated Saturn version were completely misplaced and Carmack had a good reason not to have the confidence that they will ever be anywhere close to right. And i bet Jim was really dismayed at the fact that he wasn't trusted, and either he simply didn't have the time to optimise the software renderer better, which is likely, or botched the job out of spite, which is less likely. Except i really don't understand what the Playstation version does. It's weird. It seems to blit vertical columns one at a time too, it's not even using Playstation's texture mapping either, seems like. Actually you know what, i'm working on something, i'll figure out exactly what the Playstation does while i'm at it, i'm certain of it. What i'm more curious about and probably figure out anytime soon is how come Hexen is faster than DOOM on the Saturn. For Lobotomy's SlaveDriver ports i'm certain the levels were completely rebuilt, with textures being split where necessary and geometry adjusted until something sensible came out of it, which is not exactly an effort you can expect of every port.
Siana Gearz I believe the PlayStation natively allows for rendering in columns, so whilst it was rendered in software, it had a major leg-up over the Saturn which cannot render in the same fashion. DOOMwiki says "Furthermore, large vertical heights have been reduced to account for a renderer limitation where textures can only tile once vertically before being stretched instead" which seems that the PlayStation does indeed have a limitation in this area, but regardless, the results were superior to the Saturn version, any way you look at it. I don't think people are being too unkind to Carmack; source material - twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/519828531950665728?lang=en and www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/rvg-interviews-jim-bagley/ Regardless, what's incredible is that, despite how poorly it ran, Saturn DOOM was at least approaching full-screen. DOOM seemed to suit the PlayStation more in that it worked more like the PC, whereas the Saturn was... idiosyncratic, to use a nice word off DOOMwiki.
I honestly think the saturn is just underrated, and would've done fine. Provided that Nakayama didn't order a 32-bit hardware add-on too late towards the Saturn's first launch, order a surprise launch date in the USA, and overall, hadn't ignored Tom Kalinske.
Even had Nakayama done none of those things, the Saturn still would have had a hard time IMO. Sega of America had few good games for the Saturn at any point in its life, and the Japanese designed stuff like Virtua Fighter, Virtual On, Fighting Vipers, etc, just wasn't appealing to the masses in the West. Sega as a whole, needed a near complete library overhaul to have succeeded.
The bold moves in the past cost them a lot of street cred. I got a Saturn long after its death beccause it weas cheap and I could hunt down most of what I wanted easy enough. Sans Dragoon Saga. I never touched one earlier because of price and the average to slightly better than average reviews in GamePro. I wanted many games, mostly standby games like Fighters Megamix and anything from Sega's R&D team. But Game Gear, Sega CD, and actually not even factoring the 32X.. They took bad risks in NA; imo.
fearanarchy, your not wrong there about the Sega CD. Many of the games that had a poor reputation were put out by SoA. And I admit they had not good results despite the efforts
Another excellent video. I own Exhumed/Powerslave(and absolutely love it) , Duke Nukem, Alien Trilogy and Quake. I did have Hexen but I found it extremely hard. I also owned Space Hulk but I hated it with a passion.
That Saturn version of Duke 3D doesn't look/move quite right, it's close, but if you've played a lot of the Build Engine based original, something is off.
Powerslave is a game I've always wanted to try out. Looks great, and it makes me think of the Iron Maiden album which is never a bad thing. Hopefully one day.
Lobotomy, of course, were the kings. Powerslave is especially brilliant and Inlove Quake just for how far it pushes the hardware. Duke Nukem is tough but fast and furious. I wish this team hadn’t disbanded, they were great. Helen is pretty good and competes well against the N64 version. Doom was sabotaged by Carmack as we now know, an act that really hurt Saturn’s reputation at the time. Robotica isn’t bad, it’s just repetitive and dull. Alien Trilogy plays well and is nearly as good as the PSX version. Also, it should be noted that nearly all Western software developers turned off the Saturn’s slave CPU. They couldn’t wrap their minds around multi core processors in those days,. Sega did try to help with improved software development tools and even sharing the code to games like Nights, but by then it was too late, and it was just easier to program for the more profitable PSX. Finally, for a first-person game (not necessarily a shooter), I’ve gotta praise Baroque. What a great, spooky trip. Play that with the lights out.
OK, I'm glad that on this video SegaLordX had the extra caution of increasing Saturn Hexen's brightness a bit to not leave the game in a bad light. I have found other videos with direct footage of a CRT tube TV's screen demonstrating that Saturn Hexen did NOT look dark or pale in original form, the game did in fact look vibrant and colorful when played through adequate TV's of the era, using the Yellow video cable. (composite? I always forget) People have to be careful about these videos. Emulators, capture card direct recording or LCD screens are NOT accurate ways of demonstrating how a game really looked. Another game that suffer from this problem is Doom64. Horrendous half-assed ports on the PC were released recently and people giving the false justification of "the game looked too dark originally too". That's simply not true. Unfortunately, real CRT tube TV footage is hard to come across even if you actively search for it.
I've read plenty of people claim that "low" framerates make them "sick", but looking at that "Congo" gameplay, between the criminally low framerate and swaying etc. I think it might actually make me ill were I to play it. Looks like a very early tech demo/proof-of-concept (or should I say, proof of ineptitude), I'm amazed they had the gall to release it as a commercial product.
Hi there Lord X, So funny to see/hear your description of Congo the game, I agree with you completely, I never saw it though because I'm European. Even funnier is your way with words and I could hear you had to laugh about it yourself when you were talking about importing Deadalus. Lobotomy were really great, btw did you manage to get all the dolls in Exhumed? Ooh and don't forget about Death tank, I had such a great time with friends playing it. Thanks for the video and hope to see more, have a good one mate.
While the controls can be a bit slippery at times and it has a few other minor issues, Powerslave is actually one of my favorite 3D first person takes on the Metroid formula alongside System Shock. I enjoy the Metroid Prime games, but the obnoxious tendency to pause and show some stupid mechanism or gizmo doing something whenever you did anything in those games absolutely murdered any sense of pacing or flow they had and really holds them back from being as infinitely replayable as the 2D games and Powerslave are.
Preach, brother! _Powerslave_ is vastly underrated, and Lobotomy Software in general too - they were technical geniuses when it came to making the Saturn hardware sing. Why Sega didn't purchase THEM and have THEM make exclusive games instead of focusing on crap like _Congo_ is beyond me. Especially when SEGA stepped up to publish their version of _Quake!_ How did they sleep on Lobotomy Software? It's so crazy. I just gotta give a shout-out to _"Powerslave EX"_ if people want to check the game out these days though. It's a remaster & remix of *all the content* from BOTH the PC version (which used the BUILD Engine) and the console version (which was a different design and used the Slavedriver engine, as you said), and it was done by the guy who handled remasters like _Turok 2_ and _STRIFE_ for NightDive. That guy remasters games _for fun,_ and is SUPER good at it. Unfortunately, like his work with _Doom 64 EX,_ it's unlicensed and you have to do some Google searching to find it instead of just going down to GOG or Steam, but it's absolutely the easiest (and best) way to play it nowadays in modern resolutions, with modern controls and on modern hardware. Saturn collectors rule, and more power to 'em if they hunt down a legit copy for Sega's 32-bit monster, but that just needs to be said imo. _"Powerslave EX"_ is one of the internet's best-kept secrets... and people should play that game however they can. It really should be a cult classic these days instead of a largely-forgotten obscurity.
Exhumed on Saturn was much better than the PC & PSX versions. I remember having that game at the time and a friend who had a PSX said that the Saturn version was better. It might not have ran as smoothly but the levels were designed better and had more depth than the other versions. Alien Trilogy was also fun but don't even talk about Doom. So disappointing after the wait.
haven't seen your show for a while but it's great as always but i have one complaint - classic intro was better! :) also i hope you won't get into that thing with cartoon representation of yourself which a lot of gaming youtubers seem to enjoy :) take care
Looking back at Ghen War I did hate the game at first because of the controls but after playing the game again after systems like the dreamcast, xbox and gamecube came out I came to realize the game would have been more enjoyable if the saturn had a controller with 2 sticks on it. the controls with the standard saturn controller just make it near impossible to play especially since the game is an actual 3D shooter with environments you can interact with and alter. Trying to change weapons, look around or do any of those things you do in today's FPS games with the saturn controller in Ghen War was just a big pain in the ass and that made me think after playing games like Metroid Prime, Battlefield and several other FPS made me think Ghen War was ahead of its time and could have been better if it came later and had support for a controller with analog sticks on it.
Considering that Hexen is running on what is essentially a variant (possibly slightly enhanced) of the Doom engine, its clear what Doom on the Saturn could have been.
Good video, man. I recommend putting timestamps to the games in the description section for those who want to skip around. Keep it up and long live Sega.
Enemy Zero is 1 game I have never seen a review for and everytime I play one of these videos I hope to see what other Sega lovers would say about it. It was the 1st game that I played using the 3d pad. Was it not a popular title? Was it not widely released?
I don't think a lot of people care for Enemy Zero. The idea of an invisible enemy, combined with the exploration aspect turn many people away pretty quickly. It's definitely an acquired taste.
Thanks! Love your videos. Regarding the Doom port, you're comparing it to other versions; I think a lot of kids/people who had a Saturn had no other way of playing Doom, so... there is that. God bless.
There’s the 32X Doom but you’ll only have the BFG through cheat codes which won’t let you go to the final level and get the ending, Music that sounds like you make on a toilet, and the Inferno Levels are absent. And there is the unofficial Dreamcast version which has the PC versions of Doom 1, 2, and Final Doom.
Alien Trilogy. What a great game! It used to scare the Hell out of me when i was 14...especially the late game alien levels. And all of that just due to the superb soundtrack and true-to-the-franchise presentation. However, once i have found a way to the infinitely superior PC version - all the Saturns and Playstations went hasta-la-bye-bye. I still respect this game a great deal. Powerslave/Exhumed was great for its time, but unlike Ripley's pets - it didn't age so well. And Quake...the one true masterpiece that is hard to part with. It would take the PC over a decade, before it could actually surpass this brilliant port, and even then it was doubtful. One thing i didn't know - is that it turns out i can make a pretty penny selling most of this junk on Ebay! Alright, now i know :-)
Lobotomy Trilogy is fantastic. Alien Trilogy is very good. Hexen is alright. Robotica looks noce but is very slow, repetitive and dull. Doom and Congo suck eggs. Would Baroque qualify for this list? It’s FPS but more of a creepy, spooky Rogue-like experience. In any case, it’s fantastic and an absolute must for Saturn owners. Play at night with the lights turned off.
20:50 there's a Doom mod out there that looks a bit like that Mech game, it's called Necrodome mod (gives you weapons from the game Necrodome, by the same makers of Heretic/Hexen) Unfortunately, it doesn't bring unique enemies to provide a challenge, but if you pair it with Brutal Doom Monsters-Only for example, then you can certainly have an extra challenge to justify all the extra weapons.
Ohh alien trilogy was such a scary but so cool game! I remember I shot something on a sloped surface, and it's corpse slid down the surface leaving a smear of blood. It terrified me but left me super impressed, that was the most realistic thing in a game I'd ever seen. Very cool game, and took under 10b in save files !! :)
Imagine if lobotomy software developed doom on the saturn It would of been so sick to see a port more impressive than the ps1, have the custom lighting the ps1 had with the slavedriver's flawless framerate and that distinct wobbly turn the camera gives off when you turn left or right...if only
Powerslave (Exhumed as its known here in the UK) is an absolute masterpiece. its such a shame the saturn version has as of yet never been ported to the PC. Yes I know about Powerslave EX but thats a port of the Playstation version :/
I had always loved sega and had a dreamcast and genesis, but you sir started me on my saturn journey. Cant thank you enough for introducing me to one the best kept secrets in video gaming quality. Keep up the good work!
Great video I do have one question about Alien Trilogy just picked a copy nice box original my question is at the start of the game shortly in my character starts to sway around it makes it hard controlling him it's like he's sliding on something why is that?
Duke 3D and Quake were those two titles that really justified having a Saturn. Quake was also the most expensive game i ever bought used.... 60 DM back in 2000. But damn, it was sooo worth it. Played both with the 3D thumb-pad all the time and those games are such a much better experience like that. Too bad we never got Quake II for the Saturn. The disappointment you had with "Robotica" sounds familiar. I had the same thing with "Space Hulk". Boy was I fooled by the screenshots…
I often ear Saturn Doom is a bad port. Personally, i like this port. It's better than the 32x, SNES, and 3DO's ones. Jaguar Doom runs well, but has no music. Also, the Jag controler isn't good for FPS's. PS Doom has (imao) shitty tuning neon colors. So, between those ports, my favorite is Saturn's one.
Love this saturn saves me time money and the last thing i want to do is get a rip off of a game so he lets me know deals and good games to emulate. Also Can you tell me a easy rerto game to beat for my channel thanks i like this.
Another bit of trivia about the Saturn port of Doom is that half the music from the Playstation port is missing. There is a technical reason for this. Disc Space. You see, on the Playstation, the music is done using a kind of wave-table synthesized midi, which utilizes the PS1's sound processor. So space wasn't as much an issue there. The Saturn port, on the other hand, uses Red book audio renditions of select PS1 tracks.
If Sega wanted a version of Doom on their Saturn console, then maybe Sega and Sonic team should've been the one's working on that version, imagine what Doom would've looked like with the nights into dreams graphics engine, and maybe some exclusive levels like green hill zone, marble zone, a space harrier level and of course, a zaxxon level, and maybe some exclusive enemies from the Golden axe games, with all that, the Saturn version of Doom could've been the version to own and a good reason to get a Saturn
Alien Trilogy was a good time, but I always wished that 'Alien Vs Predator' on Jaguar had made it to Saturn. It was the better equivalent at the time, at least in my opinion. Lots of atmosphere for an early first person shooter.
Oh yes, I remember these day's quite well. I remember buying both the PSX and Sega Saturn in 1995 the day the PlayStation released. I loved them both but for some reason, the Saturn felt more special too me and I don't know why. Perhaps because it was....well not rare but not usual by the end of 1996. My Sony and Nintendo only friends would question me about my love for the Saturn all the time. "Why are you wasting your time with that...." or "The *insert console here* is so much better" or "You own a PlayStation and N64 why not unload the Saturn?" Further, when gamers would say the Saturn lacks the power to run any FPS.... It's like mass ignorance that many gaming publications fostered with the public. They would print absolute nonsense and when a game like Quake hit the Saturn they would never address it. As a matter of fact, once the following month hit it was back to "The Saturn can't run FPS games!" Oh yes it can and did! The truth about the Saturn is painfully clear now....in the year 2020 we use multi core devices, multiple processor setups were the future. Sega's only real sin was being ahead of the curve. They were so far ahead that it took over 10 years just to properly emulate the Saturn. Sega the innovators saw something no one else did and looking at the Saturn today....it absolutely smokes everything else that generation. If used to it's max potential, it is vastly superior to both the PSX and N64. I wonder what a Saturn could do with a 16 meg RAM upgrade via a cart (I don't think it can read that much)? I will go out on a limb here and say that if you made efficient use of the Saturn's 8 processors it could go toe to toe with a Pentium 1 with graphics acceleration (Voodo GPU). Addendum- We know the first version of Doom for the Saturn ran better than the PC version....that's supposedly the reason Carmack hit the breaks as hard as he did. He knew people building and buying PC's would likely flip out that a $400 console just ate their $3,000 machines lunch. It would have likely turned the gaming world on its head as well. Here is a console that they all told us was weak and difficult to work with....can't have that now can we? ;)
Oh man, I remember buying the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation in 1995 (PSX launch). One of the key reasons I purchased these super 32-bit monsters was because I knew that finally we would get the full FPS experience and I wasn't wrong. What really used to irritate me was how the (I'm sorry) idiots writing the gaming mags would spout endless nonsense about how the Saturn just wasn't capable of producing FPS's.... While Doom was an absolute tragedy and games like Robotica didn't fair much better there were a few that lit a fire underneath the Saturn. Power Slave and freaking Quake showed us they were very wrong. Alien Trilogy wasn't too bad on the Saturn either. The only thing that always bothered me with the Saturn was that burning question back in my mind...what if? What if more developers had harnessed everything the Saturn had more often would it have put up a better fight? Addendum- I have a question for you that you will likely know. Did Dark Forces come out on the Saturn? I know I bought it when it dropped in 1996 but I can't remember if it was on the PSX or Saturn. I'm leaning towards the PlayStation but for some reason I am picturing a giant white Saturn box...I don't know.
Exhumed/Power Slave is a true FPS gem. One of the first FPS I ever played and....well...it's still my favourite. Those team dolls that no one talks were the real challenge of the game.
I agree. They really took the time and patience to cater to the Saturns design and strengths.
It's one of my favorite single player FPS as well.
How Doom got butchered and Quake was pulled off and as good as it was is amazing. Hats off to Lobotomy Software!
th-cam.com/video/JQHtq4qWxRM/w-d-xo.htmlm22s Interview with the developer of Saturn Doom explaining why the game came out like it did.
Imagine had Lobotomy got a hold of Final Doom. Sega should have taken that entire development staff in house after Powerslave.
Sega Lord X agree 100% But they were too far on a roll of mistakes to have seen that obvious decision to buy Lobotomy.
Strange for you to not notice how Quake was butchered too. Oversimplified levels and objects, most static lighting gone, low framerate.
The dev of doom had it running at 60fps but the game had texture warping which john carmack hated and wouldn't allow. Carmack kind of admitted it was a mistake twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/519828531950665728
This is one of the best SEGA TH-cam channels, it's like being in a history classroom.
MJ_Legacy Very true!
It really is. 👍 I miss the old intro tho lol
AGREED!
Thank you all. I really appreciate the support. :)
He has a much more humble persona then a teacher :D
I'm 32 now and watching this made me feel 12 again.... love it
I'm 12 and this made me feel 32 again
Great video - I remember playing PowerSlave, known as Exhumed here in Europe to death, such a great game - anything on the SlaveDriver engine at that time was totally my thing
I played Duke Nukem 3D on the Saturn. I really enjoyed that game.
wsugj I played it religiously on Saturn and PS1, I've got balls of steel!
Saturn version was better than PS1.
me too!!!
the PS1 version of duke nukem is inferior
I played it recently first time on Switch. I love it, and it would be awesome to play it on my Saturn!
Quake is very impressive when you consider the kind of PC most people had in 1996/7. If you were running the game on sub 100Mhz Pentium (or worse, a 486) , with a cheap video card (usually 1MB of VRAM) and 8MB of RAM , you were stuck with a game running in low res, with a frame rate often in the teens or less. Good 3D accelerators were still new and not widespread.
Compared to that ,Saturn Quake is great. From what I hear the PS1 port wasn't finished as such , but the engine itself was running (minus any sort of AI , collision detection etc)..
The PAL version is partly optimised though , and a chunk of the screen is missing when forced to 60hz, so thats something to consider if you are a US gamer looking to import it.
Only flaw in my opinion is that I wish the game would have supported the Saturn mouse, same for Exhumed.
lightdark28 emulators though 👌
I was a broke kid growing up(I mean real broke, not haha I was poor but my parents owned Atari, Amiga and Commodore computers), not owning my own PC until I was in my early 20's. I never saw the PC Doom's, Quake's, or Duke Nukem's until well after their original debuts. These games floored me back then as pinnacles of the technology. It wasn't until I had Quake running on my own PC that I truly grasped what Lobotomy accomplished with their Slave Driver engine on Saturn.
Mouse support without a keyboard is useless for FPS games. Doom supports the Saturn mouse and it makes the game even more awful to play !
Doom is a little different because you can't look up or down , so in my opinion it actually doesn't play that much better with a keyboard.
In Quake however, you can , so a mouse would actually make for an improvement. One game that did mouse support well was Quake2 on PS1, which let you use the mouse to look and shoot, while using the d-pad in a WASD configuration. It works surprisingly well.
I have the Saturn version of quake and I regret nothing
should do fps on the dreamcast
I love these classic FPS's. Even when they suck I still dig em. Great job on this one!
The interesting gimmick with Robotica was a double edged sword. See, in Robotica, every level was procedurally generated at random, meaning that no two play throughs were exactly the same. The problem with this is, it meant that almost all of the texture work was repetitious and dull. Much like Virtual Hydlide, it was an interesting concept that couldn't be fully realised on hardware of the time.
It likely also suffered being rushed through development. It came out shortly after the Japanese launch.
HEAVY SYSTEMS, Inc. not that I know of. AFAIK there’s no link aside from aesthetic. They both were developed by different teams, using different engines, for different publishers.
Actually, scratch that. There IS a link between the two - Genki. Genki co-developed Robotica. Perhaps Kileak is a spiritual successor??
Robotica was far too ambitious for its own good. Instead of throwing all those extra polygons at the wall construction (they aren't just flat surfaces), those spare cycles could've helped to stabilise the frame rate. Instead, we get something that occasionally breaks into 30fps territory... one time in a hundred. The transparent explosions, whilst nice to have, can't be of much use to performance either, but at least the enemies are sprites which stops things tanking further.
A superb showcase of Sega Saturn FPS !! Love your channel man !! excellent video.
Just wanted to say I really, really enjoy your channel. You get straight to the point and don't mix in dumb jokes. I grew up in a one-console household so I was a Nintendo/Sony/Xbox guy until I got older and had kids myself. Now I'm super into retro gaming (ahhh the lost child hood!) and have been forging a path of all of the excellent Sega titles I missed out. Your channel (and MetalJesusRocks) have been excellent buying guides during my Sega quest! Again, awesome channel! Have a good one!!
Thanks. Appreciate the comment. :)
I like it when he adds in humor. He never overdoes it and the games are always the main focus, so I always get a big laugh at his jokes.
Exhumed (Powerslave outside UK) and Alien Trilogy were my first experiences with the FPS genre. So many memories of those two gems.
I Just started colecting for the Saturn and thanks to you i know wich games to look for. Keep up the great content!
Powerslave (or Exhumed) is maybe the best FPS on Saturn. I have to test Hexen, which seems ok(ish). Though they seem to have much slowdown...
Hexen can get a bit choptastic, but it's never as bad as Doom.
Sega Lord X Yes, it's sad that Jim Bagley got overruled by Carmack. From what I've read, he got Doom running 60fps with hardware accelerated engine... Well, not sure about the 60fps part, but much faster anyway... It would be interesting to see that version finished. Maybe a kickstarter for Jim to make that version now ;)
@@miikasuominen3845 Carmack didn t know whats possible with the Saturn Hardware. First when you say what is possible or not....ask Lobotomy. Amazing Programmers and Designers. Sega Knows why they choosing this Team. Thank you Lobotmy for Your Great Work from a Segaraner!!
@@danielv9574 Yeah, they worked magic with Saturn...
Quake is, hands down. It taught the PC a lesson in humility for over a decade.
Powerslave comes second. Then Duke. Imho.
Never heard of Powerslave, looks incredible for the Saturn though. Great video as always bud.
I got Alien trilogy with my Saturn bundle and I really enjoy the game.
Gets pretty hard later on too!
Duke nukem looks great - think I will look at picking that and Quake up in the near future.
Great vid 🖒!
Congo looks terrible, lmao!!!
Literally everything Congo related was shit in the 90s, lol. Even the Michael Crichton book is mediocre so it makes you wonder why it ever was a thing.
Alien Trilogy is great, regardless of the platform you get it on. One of those rare times no one got a bad port.
@@deckofcards87 People would disagree. Some of the Congo related stuff did well.
Congo is amongst the most vile dreck available for any console.
Amazing content, LordX! Ur channel is definitely a rarity on TH-cam nowadays. 👏👏
Most of these games don't look half bad for a machine supposedly not that good at 3D graphics (they say)!Very nostalgic episode for me as old school FPSs were most of my PC gaming experience back in the mid to late 90's. Keep up the great work, SLX!
Amerigo Costa I agree, but if the same game is on the ps1 it typically looks and plays better
In my opinion the biggest visual difference between the Saturn and Playstation versions of Alien Trilogy is the appearance of transparent shadows. Sony's version features true transparent shadows whereas Sega's version makes use of a grid pattern dithering effect instead.
@@clarenceboddicker6679 it’s because it’s pretty complicated to get transparencies running on Saturn. You have to route them through VDP2 because VDP1 doesn’t support true transparencies on polygonal assets.
@@johnjay6370there are games that are exclusively on Saturn that would not look better on PlayStation, though. That’s the thing; as the market leader most companies put priority on PlayStation development so multiplatform games do tend to look better on PlayStation. But there are certainly Saturn exclusives that look as good as the best looking PlayStation exclusives. Panzer Dragoon 2 I would put up against most anything from that generation. VF2 looks great, Virtual On is really impressive same with Bulk Slash.
@@Thor-Orion Correct! But those games are a example of leveraging what the saturn is good at. Panzer Dragoon 2 is amazing for its graphics, but 99% of great looking saturn games are made by sega! Third party games looked better on the Playstation because it was just easier for developers to make better looking 3d games on it. I had ALL THE SYSTEMS and i really wanted my Saturn to have better graphics for 3d games, but it just could not compete in cross platform games. Also, as soon around late 97, lots of games were not even cross platform anymore and most new games were just for the Playstation...
For anyone interested there is a recent Retronauts podcast, episode 160, where they interview a game tester who eventually worked at Lobotomy as well as him talking about meeting Mizaguchi in the Saturn era and getting hired by Sega Japan. Interesting listen to anyone who was into Lobotomy games and Sega Rally for those sections of the interview. They did amazing work on the Saturn
so glad you are back!
Powerslave is an incredible achievement...I really don't get how poor that Doom port was on the Saturn.
I played the hell out of exhumed on the saturn .. It was an awesome game ,and had a great soundtrack too.__
theres also a trilogy of mobile suit gundam blue destiny on Saturn,the later two episodes can fully support the virtual on twin stick
Amazing job as always. Your channel is great. I'm looking forward to more content. I'm on the lookout for Powerslave. I'm thinking I'll just go the Japanese import route.
I loved that Duke and Quake had a kinda 3D control. Look around with the analog stick and walk with buttons.
Don't know if other games supported it.
Makes me wonder what else could've been pulled off with the slave driver engine. Imagine if Lobotomy were to try and port doom to the Saturn with it. Or better yet, the other 3D Build engine games that often get forgotten like Blood and Shadow Warrior. I imagine a Saturn port of Blood would've been incredible!
In other news, there was a planned but ultimately cancelled port of Killing Time as well as Elderscrolls I: Arena. Both of which were cancelled. Such a shame. Imagine what could've been.
I love this channel because it’s covers lots of what I love, Sega. If possible, can you give me some ideas on what to use to record Dreamcast gameplay
Recording the Dreamcast is a pain. I found a cheap VGA to HMDI upscaler that will do it ok, but still isn't the best. There is a new device out called the Retrotink that will take composite, S-Video and component to HDMI that's $100. Outside of that though, you are looking at spending way more money.
Good and entertaining video. Always look forward to your uploads. Keep up the good and hard work!
Thank you. :)
Good video. So many great FPS games on Saturn. Shame about Doom. I agree as well that Hexen, Alien Trilogy and anything by Lobotomy Software did a great job. I would go as far as say these games mentioned were hidden gems.
The Quake port (and the engine behind it) is a testament to how clever programming can overcome hardware limitations. We live in an age now where there are far fewer limitations for what a developer can accomplish when developing a game, but I find myself drawn to these earlier games where hardware limitations were ever present and something to be embraced and challenged rather than allowing them to stifle creativity. I'm personally almost at a point where I only enjoy retro gaming, especially considering the state of the modern gaming landscape, in all its micro-transaction and loot box pushing glory.
Apparently the original version of Doom was running smoother than the PC version but Johm Carmack was being all 'gaming rockstar' about it and insisted it ONLY use software rendering on the CPU instead of hardware rendering because the PC version didn't use graphics cards and was done all in software, and wanted all the other versions to stick to that. Lets not forget, there is not a single polygon in Doom, it is basically scaled 2D sprites like Outrun or After Burner, the Saturn should have had no problems at all with this game, but the person doing the port was banned from using the graphics chips.
Its the same reason the Playstation version is pretty poor for that system's abilities (I hear ONLY the lighting is done on the GPU, and the game is all CPU) and why the 3DO version is in a tiny boxed window apparently.
At least John Carmack later did regret his decision and saw that it was wrong to have the porting team forced to make the game run entirely on the CPU. A little too late but at least he saw his mistake.
Carmack didn't like affine texture swim, something that the consoles of the time suffered from badly (the PlayStation more so), which is why he ordered a software rendered version, going as far as to say that Jim Bagley should use the Saturn's ridiculously hard to use SCU DSP for the task - the theory is that both the SH-2s and the DSP together should outperform the PlayStation's GTE, but of course you need documentation to work out how to do it. He did tweet relatively recently that he should've let the experiment go ahead, which is good of him, but it's the reason we didn't get a high frame rate Saturn version.
It's a bit more complicated than that. I'll try to be brief. I'm sick and tired of every so-called "documentary" painting Carmack as the bad guy here, repeating one after another, but chances are, there is no bad guy, just lack of time vs. real technical risks of not being able to ship.
It's not just affine swim. It's that the textures in DOOM are world-aligned. Playstation lets you specify for each vertex besides vertex coordinates, also texture coordinates, so whenever a polygon doesn't span the whole texture or spans multiple repeats of the texture, or any offset, it can handle that natively. 3DO and Saturn are the two consoles that don't have texture coordinates, they warp the texture into the quad specified just by vertex coordinates and draw that, so every wall segment must be covered by exactly one repeat of texture, not more and not less, this is why you can't have nice things, the DOOM levels simply would never map to hardware as they are.
3DO version skirts around that by drawing vertical walls one pixel column at a time (or two at half horizontal resolution), and using some trickery to clip that line - i'm not familiar enough with the 3DO hardware to tell exactly how. No such luxury for the Saturn hardware! Floors were software-rendered on the 3DO and extremely slow.
So i'm willing to bet all the textures on the initial hardware-accelerated Saturn version were completely misplaced and Carmack had a good reason not to have the confidence that they will ever be anywhere close to right. And i bet Jim was really dismayed at the fact that he wasn't trusted, and either he simply didn't have the time to optimise the software renderer better, which is likely, or botched the job out of spite, which is less likely.
Except i really don't understand what the Playstation version does. It's weird. It seems to blit vertical columns one at a time too, it's not even using Playstation's texture mapping either, seems like. Actually you know what, i'm working on something, i'll figure out exactly what the Playstation does while i'm at it, i'm certain of it. What i'm more curious about and probably figure out anytime soon is how come Hexen is faster than DOOM on the Saturn.
For Lobotomy's SlaveDriver ports i'm certain the levels were completely rebuilt, with textures being split where necessary and geometry adjusted until something sensible came out of it, which is not exactly an effort you can expect of every port.
Siana Gearz I believe the PlayStation natively allows for rendering in columns, so whilst it was rendered in software, it had a major leg-up over the Saturn which cannot render in the same fashion. DOOMwiki says "Furthermore, large vertical heights have been reduced to account for a renderer limitation where textures can only tile once vertically before being stretched instead" which seems that the PlayStation does indeed have a limitation in this area, but regardless, the results were superior to the Saturn version, any way you look at it.
I don't think people are being too unkind to Carmack; source material - twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/519828531950665728?lang=en and www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/rvg-interviews-jim-bagley/ Regardless, what's incredible is that, despite how poorly it ran, Saturn DOOM was at least approaching full-screen. DOOM seemed to suit the PlayStation more in that it worked more like the PC, whereas the Saturn was... idiosyncratic, to use a nice word off DOOMwiki.
Would love to see the 'original version of Saturn Doom...
Me too man, me too.
the saturn is my favorite system of all time so many great games ;p
I honestly think the saturn is just underrated, and would've done fine. Provided that Nakayama didn't order a 32-bit hardware add-on too late towards the Saturn's first launch, order a surprise launch date in the USA, and overall, hadn't ignored Tom Kalinske.
Even had Nakayama done none of those things, the Saturn still would have had a hard time IMO. Sega of America had few good games for the Saturn at any point in its life, and the Japanese designed stuff like Virtua Fighter, Virtual On, Fighting Vipers, etc, just wasn't appealing to the masses in the West. Sega as a whole, needed a near complete library overhaul to have succeeded.
The bold moves in the past cost them a lot of street cred. I got a Saturn long after its death beccause it weas cheap and I could hunt down most of what I wanted easy enough. Sans Dragoon Saga.
I never touched one earlier because of price and the average to slightly better than average reviews in GamePro.
I wanted many games, mostly standby games like Fighters Megamix and anything from Sega's R&D team. But Game Gear, Sega CD, and actually not even factoring the 32X.. They took bad risks in NA; imo.
fearanarchy, your not wrong there about the Sega CD. Many of the games that had a poor reputation were put out by SoA. And I admit they had not good results despite the efforts
At least Robotica has cool looking Transparency Effects and nice sounding music
Another excellent video. I own Exhumed/Powerslave(and absolutely love it) , Duke Nukem, Alien Trilogy and Quake. I did have Hexen but I found it extremely hard. I also owned Space Hulk but I hated it with a passion.
Not a fan of Space Hulk myself. I appreciate what it tried to do, but it simply isn't fun.
That Saturn version of Duke 3D doesn't look/move quite right, it's close, but if you've played a lot of the Build Engine based original, something is off.
The Slave Driver engine is completely different. It definitely doesn't translate 1 to 1 to the PC original in look or feel.
Powerslave is a game I've always wanted to try out. Looks great, and it makes me think of the Iron Maiden album which is never a bad thing. Hopefully one day.
Pretty sure that Lobotomy Software were crazy Iron Maiden fans. ;)
I'd say it's the best FIRST game for those buying a Saturn for the first time. I'm gonna grab a copy.
Colored lighting Quake port running in a 28 MHz CPU... that must had infuriated John Carmack LOL
Hate to think how many hours I lost to Exhumed.
Hit (good):
Duke Nukem 3D
Powerslave/Exhumed
Quake
Miss (bad):
Congo the Movie
Doom
Somewhere in the middle:
Alien Trilogy
Robotica/Deadalus
Hexen
Exactly what I was thinking
Nah Alien Trilogy and Hexen are really good.
Lobotomy, of course, were the kings. Powerslave is especially brilliant and Inlove Quake just for how far it pushes the hardware. Duke Nukem is tough but fast and furious. I wish this team hadn’t disbanded, they were great.
Helen is pretty good and competes well against the N64 version. Doom was sabotaged by Carmack as we now know, an act that really hurt Saturn’s reputation at the time. Robotica isn’t bad, it’s just repetitive and dull. Alien Trilogy plays well and is nearly as good as the PSX version. Also, it should be noted that nearly all Western software developers turned off the Saturn’s slave CPU. They couldn’t wrap their minds around multi core processors in those days,. Sega did try to help with improved software development tools and even sharing the code to games like Nights, but by then it was too late, and it was just easier to program for the more profitable PSX.
Finally, for a first-person game (not necessarily a shooter), I’ve gotta praise Baroque. What a great, spooky trip. Play that with the lights out.
I'm guessing that sega had thought more about fmv games and light gun games and designed the hardware around doing those things well.
OK, I'm glad that on this video SegaLordX had the extra caution of increasing Saturn Hexen's brightness a bit to not leave the game in a bad light. I have found other videos with direct footage of a CRT tube TV's screen demonstrating that Saturn Hexen did NOT look dark or pale in original form, the game did in fact look vibrant and colorful when played through adequate TV's of the era, using the Yellow video cable. (composite? I always forget) People have to be careful about these videos. Emulators, capture card direct recording or LCD screens are NOT accurate ways of demonstrating how a game really looked. Another game that suffer from this problem is Doom64. Horrendous half-assed ports on the PC were released recently and people giving the false justification of "the game looked too dark originally too". That's simply not true. Unfortunately, real CRT tube TV footage is hard to come across even if you actively search for it.
Daedalus looks very much like SPACE GRIFFON VF-9 on ps1 (dreamcast remake whitstanding) and many other fps in the same vein
I've read plenty of people claim that "low" framerates make them "sick", but looking at that "Congo" gameplay, between the criminally low framerate and swaying etc. I think it might actually make me ill were I to play it. Looks like a very early tech demo/proof-of-concept (or should I say, proof of ineptitude), I'm amazed they had the gall to release it as a commercial product.
Hi there Lord X, So funny to see/hear your description of Congo the game, I agree with you completely, I never saw it though because I'm European. Even funnier is your way with words and I could hear you had to laugh about it yourself when you were talking about importing Deadalus. Lobotomy were really great, btw did you manage to get all the dolls in Exhumed? Ooh and don't forget about Death tank, I had such a great time with friends playing it. Thanks for the video and hope to see more, have a good one mate.
Can't help but laugh at yourself when you do stupid things. Deadalus for $120 was definitely a stupid thing.
Just know that you're not the only one, I have lots also.
While the controls can be a bit slippery at times and it has a few other minor issues, Powerslave is actually one of my favorite 3D first person takes on the Metroid formula alongside System Shock. I enjoy the Metroid Prime games, but the obnoxious tendency to pause and show some stupid mechanism or gizmo doing something whenever you did anything in those games absolutely murdered any sense of pacing or flow they had and really holds them back from being as infinitely replayable as the 2D games and Powerslave are.
Preach, brother! _Powerslave_ is vastly underrated, and Lobotomy Software in general too - they were technical geniuses when it came to making the Saturn hardware sing. Why Sega didn't purchase THEM and have THEM make exclusive games instead of focusing on crap like _Congo_ is beyond me. Especially when SEGA stepped up to publish their version of _Quake!_ How did they sleep on Lobotomy Software? It's so crazy.
I just gotta give a shout-out to _"Powerslave EX"_ if people want to check the game out these days though. It's a remaster & remix of *all the content* from BOTH the PC version (which used the BUILD Engine) and the console version (which was a different design and used the Slavedriver engine, as you said), and it was done by the guy who handled remasters like _Turok 2_ and _STRIFE_ for NightDive. That guy remasters games _for fun,_ and is SUPER good at it. Unfortunately, like his work with _Doom 64 EX,_ it's unlicensed and you have to do some Google searching to find it instead of just going down to GOG or Steam, but it's absolutely the easiest (and best) way to play it nowadays in modern resolutions, with modern controls and on modern hardware.
Saturn collectors rule, and more power to 'em if they hunt down a legit copy for Sega's 32-bit monster, but that just needs to be said imo. _"Powerslave EX"_ is one of the internet's best-kept secrets... and people should play that game however they can. It really should be a cult classic these days instead of a largely-forgotten obscurity.
Exhumed on Saturn was much better than the PC & PSX versions. I remember having that game at the time and a friend who had a PSX said that the Saturn version was better.
It might not have ran as smoothly but the levels were designed better and had more depth than the other versions.
Alien Trilogy was also fun but don't even talk about Doom. So disappointing after the wait.
haven't seen your show for a while but it's great as always but i have one complaint - classic intro was better! :) also i hope you won't get into that thing with cartoon representation of yourself which a lot of gaming youtubers seem to enjoy :) take care
Exhumed is the real MVP here.
I'm only seeing Alien Trilogy going for 45-65 before shipping Canadian.
it's peanuts if bought as a PAL game - less than £10 every time
The Japanese version is the cheapest, if you don't mind having an import.
I've never been into FPS games but man when Sega Lord X covers a genre you know I'll enjoy it! Thanks for another good watch, my friend
I appreciate that my friend.
16:12-16:29 Good thing I have an Xbox Series S and Retroarch that can finally run this game.
I love that hexen cover
Used get scared by it.
You back!!!! Welcome back lord!!!! Love your channel! Greetings from Brazil
Thank you. :)
Wow great video man. The Duke port looks better then the rerealease of gear box.
Looking back at Ghen War I did hate the game at first because of the controls but after playing the game again after systems like the dreamcast, xbox and gamecube came out I came to realize the game would have been more enjoyable if the saturn had a controller with 2 sticks on it. the controls with the standard saturn controller just make it near impossible to play especially since the game is an actual 3D shooter with environments you can interact with and alter.
Trying to change weapons, look around or do any of those things you do in today's FPS games with the saturn controller in Ghen War was just a big pain in the ass and that made me think after playing games like Metroid Prime, Battlefield and several other FPS made me think Ghen War was ahead of its time and could have been better if it came later and had support for a controller with analog sticks on it.
Did you see that Nightdive (Forsaken, Turok, Doom64 etc.) is remastering Powerslave / Exhumed? I'm hyped.
would love these gems on rhe switch tbh
I got pink acid boots on.
13:00 Do not go and kill every enemy you seee.... i see what you did there haha
The perspective of Duke3D is weird. Makes it seems as if he's 4ft tall.
Ahhh robotica, I was looking for that game.
Considering that Hexen is running on what is essentially a variant (possibly slightly enhanced) of the Doom engine, its clear what Doom on the Saturn could have been.
It'd be awesome if the prototype of the assembly Doom was ever found. I'd love to see it.
Nice channel. Subbed.
Good video, man. I recommend putting timestamps to the games in the description section for those who want to skip around. Keep it up and long live Sega.
How did you play these? With the analog controller?
Enemy Zero is 1 game I have never seen a review for and everytime I play one of these videos I hope to see what other Sega lovers would say about it. It was the 1st game that I played using the 3d pad. Was it not a popular title? Was it not widely released?
I don't think a lot of people care for Enemy Zero. The idea of an invisible enemy, combined with the exploration aspect turn many people away pretty quickly. It's definitely an acquired taste.
❤️ this channel
Thanks! Love your videos. Regarding the Doom port, you're comparing it to other versions; I think a lot of kids/people who had a Saturn had no other way of playing Doom, so... there is that. God bless.
ROGUE ROBOTS.
There’s the 32X Doom but you’ll only have the BFG through cheat codes which won’t let you go to the final level and get the ending, Music that sounds like you make on a toilet, and the Inferno Levels are absent. And there is the unofficial Dreamcast version which has the PC versions of Doom 1, 2, and Final Doom.
Alien Trilogy. What a great game! It used to scare the Hell out of me
when i was 14...especially the late game alien levels. And all of that
just due to the superb soundtrack and true-to-the-franchise presentation.
However, once i have found a way to the infinitely superior PC version -
all the Saturns and Playstations went hasta-la-bye-bye. I still respect
this game a great deal.
Powerslave/Exhumed was great for its time, but unlike Ripley's pets -
it didn't age so well. And Quake...the one true masterpiece that is hard
to part with. It would take the PC over a decade, before it could actually
surpass this brilliant port, and even then it was doubtful.
One thing i didn't know - is that it turns out i can make a pretty penny
selling most of this junk on Ebay! Alright, now i know :-)
Lobotomy Trilogy is fantastic. Alien Trilogy is very good. Hexen is alright. Robotica looks noce but is very slow, repetitive and dull. Doom and Congo suck eggs.
Would Baroque qualify for this list? It’s FPS but more of a creepy, spooky Rogue-like experience. In any case, it’s fantastic and an absolute must for Saturn owners. Play at night with the lights turned off.
20:50 there's a Doom mod out there that looks a bit like that Mech game, it's called Necrodome mod (gives you weapons from the game Necrodome, by the same makers of Heretic/Hexen) Unfortunately, it doesn't bring unique enemies to provide a challenge, but if you pair it with Brutal Doom Monsters-Only for example, then you can certainly have an extra challenge to justify all the extra weapons.
Alien trilogy on the Saturn was my first experience in the genre when I was young, was not disappointed.
Ohh alien trilogy was such a scary but so cool game! I remember I shot something on a sloped surface, and it's corpse slid down the surface leaving a smear of blood. It terrified me but left me super impressed, that was the most realistic thing in a game I'd ever seen. Very cool game, and took under 10b in save files !! :)
alien trilogy may be one of the best aliens based games, alongside the konami arcade.
Imagine if lobotomy software developed doom on the saturn
It would of been so sick to see a port more impressive than the ps1, have the custom lighting the ps1 had with the slavedriver's flawless framerate and that distinct wobbly turn the camera gives off when you turn left or right...if only
You know you can dash in Robotica right?
Pretty sure the japanese version of doom is the same. Playing the demo mode side by side the fps it practically identical.
Powerslave (Exhumed as its known here in the UK) is an absolute masterpiece. its such a shame the saturn version has as of yet never been ported to the PC. Yes I know about Powerslave EX but thats a port of the Playstation version :/
amazing review ,,I would love to know everything about the saturn ,,,plz continue
I don't know how they got Hexen running fine, but couldn't do it for Doom.
I had always loved sega and had a dreamcast and genesis, but you sir started me on my saturn journey. Cant thank you enough for introducing me to one the best kept secrets in video gaming quality. Keep up the good work!
It pains me how outdated some bits of this, games that you mentioned being very affordable are now selling close to $100 :(
Sega Lord X...why...
STEAM or GOG have superior PC versions under $10 these are all bad or mediocre ports. Would have been cool back in the day though
Doom on Saturn feels like Doom 1993 on i386 CPU
Great video I do have one question about Alien Trilogy just picked a copy nice box original my question is at the start of the game shortly in my character starts to sway around it makes it hard controlling him it's like he's sliding on something why is that?
Duke 3D and Quake were those two titles that really justified having a Saturn. Quake was also the most expensive game i ever bought used.... 60 DM back in 2000. But damn, it was sooo worth it. Played both with the 3D thumb-pad all the time and those games are such a much better experience like that. Too bad we never got Quake II for the Saturn. The disappointment you had with "Robotica" sounds familiar. I had the same thing with "Space Hulk". Boy was I fooled by the screenshots…
I often ear Saturn Doom is a bad port. Personally, i like this port. It's better than the 32x, SNES, and 3DO's ones. Jaguar Doom runs well, but has no music. Also, the Jag controler isn't good for FPS's. PS Doom has (imao) shitty tuning neon colors. So, between those ports, my favorite is Saturn's one.
Love this saturn saves me time money and the last thing i want to do is get a rip off of a game so he lets me know deals and good games to emulate. Also Can you tell me a easy rerto game to beat for my channel thanks i like this.
Hope this keeps growing cuz I love Sega Lord X!!!!
Another bit of trivia about the Saturn port of Doom is that half the music from the Playstation port is missing. There is a technical reason for this. Disc Space. You see, on the Playstation, the music is done using a kind of wave-table synthesized midi, which utilizes the PS1's sound processor. So space wasn't as much an issue there. The Saturn port, on the other hand, uses Red book audio renditions of select PS1 tracks.
If Sega wanted a version of Doom on their Saturn console, then maybe Sega and Sonic team should've been the one's working on that version, imagine what Doom would've looked like with the nights into dreams graphics engine, and maybe some exclusive levels like green hill zone, marble zone, a space harrier level and of course, a zaxxon level, and maybe some exclusive enemies from the Golden axe games, with all that, the Saturn version of Doom could've been the version to own and a good reason to get a Saturn
I love your videos! So comprehensive, a true resource for SEGA fans!
Appreciate the comment. :)
Alien Trilogy was a good time, but I always wished that 'Alien Vs Predator' on Jaguar had made it to Saturn. It was the better equivalent at the time, at least in my opinion. Lots of atmosphere for an early first person shooter.
Oh yes, I remember these day's quite well. I remember buying both the PSX and Sega Saturn in 1995 the day the PlayStation released. I loved them both but for some reason, the Saturn felt more special too me and I don't know why. Perhaps because it was....well not rare but not usual by the end of 1996. My Sony and Nintendo only friends would question me about my love for the Saturn all the time. "Why are you wasting your time with that...." or "The *insert console here* is so much better" or "You own a PlayStation and N64 why not unload the Saturn?" Further, when gamers would say the Saturn lacks the power to run any FPS....
It's like mass ignorance that many gaming publications fostered with the public. They would print absolute nonsense and when a game like Quake hit the Saturn they would never address it. As a matter of fact, once the following month hit it was back to "The Saturn can't run FPS games!" Oh yes it can and did!
The truth about the Saturn is painfully clear now....in the year 2020 we use multi core devices, multiple processor setups were the future. Sega's only real sin was being ahead of the curve. They were so far ahead that it took over 10 years just to properly emulate the Saturn. Sega the innovators saw something no one else did and looking at the Saturn today....it absolutely smokes everything else that generation. If used to it's max potential, it is vastly superior to both the PSX and N64. I wonder what a Saturn could do with a 16 meg RAM upgrade via a cart (I don't think it can read that much)? I will go out on a limb here and say that if you made efficient use of the Saturn's 8 processors it could go toe to toe with a Pentium 1 with graphics acceleration (Voodo GPU).
Addendum- We know the first version of Doom for the Saturn ran better than the PC version....that's supposedly the reason Carmack hit the breaks as hard as he did. He knew people building and buying PC's would likely flip out that a $400 console just ate their $3,000 machines lunch. It would have likely turned the gaming world on its head as well. Here is a console that they all told us was weak and difficult to work with....can't have that now can we? ;)
Oh man, I remember buying the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation in 1995 (PSX launch). One of the key reasons I purchased these super 32-bit monsters was because I knew that finally we would get the full FPS experience and I wasn't wrong. What really used to irritate me was how the (I'm sorry) idiots writing the gaming mags would spout endless nonsense about how the Saturn just wasn't capable of producing FPS's....
While Doom was an absolute tragedy and games like Robotica didn't fair much better there were a few that lit a fire underneath the Saturn. Power Slave and freaking Quake showed us they were very wrong. Alien Trilogy wasn't too bad on the Saturn either. The only thing that always bothered me with the Saturn was that burning question back in my mind...what if? What if more developers had harnessed everything the Saturn had more often would it have put up a better fight?
Addendum- I have a question for you that you will likely know. Did Dark Forces come out on the Saturn? I know I bought it when it dropped in 1996 but I can't remember if it was on the PSX or Saturn. I'm leaning towards the PlayStation but for some reason I am picturing a giant white Saturn box...I don't know.