Great episode. Brings back memories of playing the actual arcade machine. Just that first part of flying into space warp pretty much wowed me at the time. I do hope to hunt the Sega-CD version. Yeah, I first had the PS1 version even with its bad targeting. My unc bought this magnifying screen that actually made our old home CRT TV look like the arcade magnified look! It was fun. Of course I've got the PS2 version now. Still I wish there was a good port of the textured "Alpha" version to latest gen, without it being only lost as a FMV only made for the 3DO and PS1 versions.
The Mega-CD port is an odd beast indeed. First off, ported by Tecno Soft of all people. Had my mind blown when I learnt about this, Tecno Soft being by far one of my favorite dev' teams and I always wished them to do something on Mega-CD but a port of Starblade? Couldn't have expected this. And this is quite a nice port all things considered which holds up pretty well (the original arcade game runs on a much more complex board and the other ports are on next gen systems) but at the same time it's a weird port since it mixes flat shaded 3D with wireframe 3D with even sprites. So dunno, I'm still not sure if I have to acquire it or not. What I'm sure though is that I'd have prefered Tecno Soft doing something else instead on Mega-CD, something like Herzog Drei for example :v I'm also sure that while Starblade is a cool game, I'd rather play the Stellar Assault games on 32X/Saturn instead ;3
I'm a big Technosoft fan too. I own all of their Mega Drive games and most of their Saturn output too. I was also quite surprised when I found out Technosoft were behind the Mega CD port. That would explain why they went the extra mile using various graphical styles rather than just using crappy FMV like the 3DO and PlayStation versions.
Same here, I own all of their Mega Drive games as well as most of their Saturn output :) Tecno Soft represents everything I love about video games: stylish visuals, kickass music and entertaining gameplay all with their very own, distinctive signature. Just too bad that they started to struggle from the 32-bit era. Their Saturn shooters are amazing, the rest I don't know yet but the pinball game seems pretty cool, but the problem was that from that point, developing games was more and more expensive and since their output has always been rather niche, they automatically faced some financial issues. Really sad because they deserved to last longer.
Starblade was more like an experience than just a typical arcade game. State of the art in '91. Games like Silpheed felt the same way to me. Always had a thing for this game. Good Battle!
Believe it or not, the 3DO and PlayStation releases uses the audio from the 1992 LaserDisc/VHS walkthrough release for the enhanced mode, hence the additional, cleaner dialogue, unnecessary sounds and an arranged soundtrack. From what I've looked up on the net, there was also a Vodafone port released back in 2003! It looked graphically impressive for a mobile release!
One version that definitely deserves more attention is the Japanese-only Wii Virtual Console release. It's pretty much the arcade original (perhaps straight up being the same version from Tekken 5) but with the notable addition of being able to use the Wii Remote's pointer as the crosshair, which works really well. Sadly with the Wii Shop Channel being shut down earlier this year you can't get it anymore... legitimately, at least. Another version (which you can still get) is on the Namco Arcade app on iOS/Android. It's pretty much the same as the aforementioned VC release, only that it's with touch controls instead, and of all of the games in that app it's definitely the one that works best with those types of controls. Worth it. Also, as someone else mentioned, the Tekken 5 version can also be unlocked by beating the game with all characters, which is definitely the better choice. It's how I did it myself, though I didn't know it at the time; I only knew of the Devil Within method.
Ah, I missed out the Wii version since it's an emulation of the Arcade game with the addition of pointing controls. That and I couldnt download the game.
Tekken 5 is a hell of a deal considering you get Tekken 1-3 (arcade versions), and StarBlade... Not to mention Tekken 5. :) IIRC you can also unlock StarBlade in the Arcade History section by beating the story mode with all of the fighters. THat would take quite a long time though. I think I'm going to try and transfer a 100% completed PS2 save file to a PS2 MC.
True.. Where were you 3 ½ years ago? :P I was able to find a 100% completed save and copied it to my PS2 memory card using an FTP elf app + a memcard exploit.
The pop in on larger ships gives it away, it's some form of precalculated vectors like a primitive flash cartoon. It wouldn't need to do that with an FMV only of there were fill rate limits that had to be managed. BTW the port was handled by an uncredited Technosoft.
I only found out Winning Run, an F1 sim that runs on the same System 21 here and is actually the first ever 3D arcade racing cabinet. And then Starblade and Cybersled came and the soundtrack blew me away. It's like the step up from Ridge Racer to Rave Racer
This was a beautiful game to play when I remember seeing it at Disney World in Orlando, Florida bing forklifted off the truck Mark.. The reason why it caught my attention was the out of the ordinary cabinet that Namco invented for it. So I figured, if anything looks this good, the game itself must be the same as well. My hunch was correct. 8^) Of course when Star Fox was available, I said this game resembles Star Blade a lot, then after doing some research, it was influenced by it. Nice work as always Mark. Love this for sure. 8^) Anthony.
The Arcade original is amazing for its time. Playing on a console is quite a dull experience in my opinion but that arcade cabinet was something else back in 1991.
Star Blade looks well ahead of its time. The PlayStation port is a bit on the disappointing side. Also, I was wondering if you could do a BOTP on Mortal Kombat 4 sometime in the future.
I know what you mean about the PlayStation port. That should have used real-time polygon models instead of the grainy FMV. Hmm, I really don't like Mortal Kombat games except for the most recent one. I'll add 4 to the to do list.
MistaMaddog247 I was completely oblivious to tekken 5 having other tekken games. I spent more time with 3 once I realised rather than actually playing 5
From first to trigger popularizer game: Warrior (1979 Vectorbeam arcade) Battle Zone (1980 Atari arcade) Star Wars (1983 Atari arcade) I, Robot (1984 Atari arcade) Plazma Line (1984 Technosoft PC-6001, PC-98, X1) Starglider (1986 Rainbird/Argonaut Software Commodore Amiga and Atari ST) Star Cruiser (Aug 1988 Arsys Software PC-88 and others) Starglider 2 (Sept 1988 Rainbird/Argonaut Software Various PCs) Winning Run (Dec 1988 Namco arcade) Hard Drivin' / Race Drivin' (1989-1990 Atari arcade) Winning Run Suzuka Grand Prix (1989 Namco arcade) Driver's Eyes (1990 Namco arcade) Winning Run '91 (1991 Namco arcade) Starblade (Sept 1991 Namco arcade) Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star (Dec 1991 M.N.M. Software Sharp X68000/NEC PC-98) X / Ekkusu (May 1992 Nintendo/Argonaut Software) Virtua Racing (Aug 1992 Sega arcade) Star Cruiser 2 (Dec 1992 Arsys Software PC-98/FM-TOWNS) Then came the birth of 3 franchises in 1993 in order from first to last: Star Fox (February Nintendo/Argonaut Software SFC/SNES) Ace Combat/Air Combat (June Namco arcade) Virtua Fighter (Oct Sega arcade) DooM (December id Software MS-DOS) There are a bunch of other early vector and polygonal video games, but too many to list. Any additional mentions are welcome. ^_^
As always awesome video Mark, not my style of game but thank you nonetheless, still fingers crossed for a BOTP of either KOF'98 or Garou Mark of the Wolves (the 2 best fighting games of all time imo) in the future :)
I saw a friend playing this, during a full walktrough pf Tekken 5. I watched the screen curious thinking it was just a mini game..But not a Full game! And by the way...This more like the Space Armada Assault of Star Fox but a more longer version of it...And it's awsome!
Im pretty sure MegaCd version is streaming video for background. Even so, very clever, the cross-hatched shading is amazing and uniform and looks like next to no compression is used(apart from it being rendered in very few colours.). I bet the MegaCD CPU is streaming the movie and the Megadrive CPU is handling the wireframe. The PS1 version seems to render those big ships too, and is more of a mix of real 3d and pre rendered movie. Loved the arcade version, we had one at my local arcade, was expensive though. Great video as always. Look forward to every video you make.
Since making this video it has been confirmed the the Mega CD version is actually streaming pre-calculated geometry as I speculated in the video. So in a way the graphics are being produced by the Mega CD. The game was also developed by Technosoft soft which was a surprise.
BackWoods Outlaw Actually that versions "arcade perfect" graphics mode is still a pre-rendered movie. I used to own the game on PS1 and was disappointed when I found that out, but looking at it you can tell it's a movie.
Retro Core quick question retro core, is all the sega Naomi ports on the dreamcast Naomi arcade perfect ? Since the dreamcast is 100% the home Version of the sega Naomi
Pretty much, yes. The Naomi does have more Ram than the Dreamcast so things will take longer to load on a Dreamcast but as far as animation and graphics the games are identical.
I played the very first part of that game eveytime I boot up Tekken 5 on my PS2 but never got the chance to unlock it...it wasn't until I discovered that there was a version for the Wii as a Japanese-exclusive Virtual Console title and to this day; I still play the game through my soft-modded Wii, the usage of the Wiimote (while not perfect) IMO is a great way to play the game!
Reminds me of Rez- I would love to take the original cab for a spin. On-rail shooters like this remind me of those vhs videos for Captain Power I used to shoot at my television with a toy plane.
@@RetroCore The best on-rails shooters, imo, were in the arcade- and even perfect ports at home didn't recreate the sensory specifics of playing them in an arcade.
I didn't know the game was full on Tekken. I remember it appears during the load time in the beginning, but didn't know it was fully playable. I played on arcade back in the day, but I remember that at my local arcade this game needed 4 credits per play. It was way more expensive than anything else, so as a broken kid I played it just a couple of times. But I bought the 3DO version and I played the hell out of that version! To be honest, back in the day I didn't pay attention on the low resolution or low frame rate. It was one of the best 3DO games and it was my chance to play the game home and "cheaper" :P The SEGA CD port I just saw videos, and I never played the PS1 version.
Back in the day we didn't care about resolution in games. Probably because most of it was 320 X 240 back then. It wasn't until the Saturn arrived with its 480i resolutions did we even hear about game res'.
I've always believed that Starblade could have a good port in 32x, minimum would have recreated with polygons in real time what you see in Mega CD, which is said the background is a video. where I doubt very much is if 32x could recreate the amount of polygons that are seen in Silpheed of the CD sleeve, especially those of the intro and animated intermediates.
I reckon the 32X could have recreated Starblade but then again so could the PlayStation and Namco just went the lazy route with that one by using FMV rather than polygons.
Retro Core it is a pity that many creators were by rendering in the polygons, which is fine but it is bad if that sacrifices the performance of the game. I have been a lover of clean polygons and also the vectorial type that in itself its own beauty, it is a pity that in those years the fashion and sensation was that everything had to be with textures or rendering.
I have to wonder if part of the reason why Namco used FMVs in the home ports as they hoped that with the lousy RF or composite connections people were using at the time, it would be harder to notice (its on rails after all). That said, games like Wing Commander III and Star Fighter show that the 3DO should have been capable of a decent real time conversion, especially if they dropped the textured option and simply optimised the flat shaded mode. Certainly the PS1 could have done it.
Bear in mind though that Wing Commander 3's frame rate got pretty bad at times despite having lower poly models than the PC version, and the ground missions were removed entirely. AFAIK the 3DO version of Starblade used no polygons whatsoever. It's all done with video and animated sprites. The PS1 version was a mix of polygons and video, yet somehow they made the video quality worse (especially in flat shaded mode).
Oh yeah , WC3 on the 3DO can be choppy at times, and even in the best of times the frame rate is in the 20s. Thing is, the FMV they use isn't running at 60fps either, so its not any better in that department. Remember that in 1993-4 , most people's idea of 3D at home were games that ran at 5-15fps (either Starwing on SNES , or alot of the flight sims on PC for instance), so 20-30 was more than acceptable.
This video is exactly what I was looking for, great content. I was about to buy Starblade Alpha for the PS1, but it's a cheaper and better option to just get Tekken 5 used for $5. I played this game for the first time when I was preparing to enter University. It was mind-blowing, with the awesome cabinet and the super loud sound. I'm happy to know that I can get the arcade version for very cheap.
I didn’t know Silpheed had been proven to be using FMV. That’s a shame, as I remember being really impressed with the idea of streaming pre-calculated polygons (it’s a technique still used today, apparently the avalanche scene in Rise of the Tomb Raider uses it). Is the PS1 version definitely running at the same frame rate as the 3DO version? It looked a bit smoother to me, but maybe that’s just down to different refresh rates not playing well with TH-cam!
It turns out that Technosoft developed the Mega CD port and have confirmed it is not FMV like Silpheed but instead streaming pre-calculated geometry. The FMV on the PlayStation is running at the same frame rate as the 3DO but does seem to look smother in some cases on this video.
Retro Core That’s really good to know, all these years Silpheed has been getting the plaudits and it was just streaming FMV! I might have to buy a copy of Starblade for the Mega CD now to see it in action.
So, seeing as though I have Tekken 5, I now have a mission. And I don't think Devil Within is all that bad, though I never got to stage 4-2. I only barely remember this at the arcade, so it would be good to rediscover it
The PS1 version’s controls is poor cuz Namco outsourced the the port to a random developer instead of not consulting the original SB dev team which they got pretty upset according to Sean Seanson
I am fairly confident they are streaming something on the MegaCD since the megadrive doesn't have enough RAM for this many objects. It was a nice idea to use wireframe since MD is generally slow with filled polygons. Still compared to what we had on the home computers at the time, this is very plain. Just some mindless shooting with less control than the original Star Wars arcade. Are they using the digital controls on the Playstation version? This game would lend itself better to the analog controller.
Nope, I didn't :) I just don't have an I-device. It's also on Android but not released in Japan strangely enough. Actually, the phone versions, Wii and PSP are all arcade emulation so they don't count as ports.
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Do we control the movement of our ship or is it a rail-shooter?
They actually had a 3rd party company develop the home ports. The Mega CD version was by Technosoft of all people while the 3DO and PlayStation were both developed by the same studio who's name I can't remember now.
3DO and PSX version added texture mapping to those capital ships, 3do seems to use lesser polygons than the arcade. Sega cd version not bad considered its obsolete hardware. Should have port this to the snes using fx2 chip.
The game would have ran far worse than the Mega CD version if ported to the SFC with the sfx2 chip. There's no way that chip could produce the backgrounds and all enemies at at an acceptable frame rate if at all.
@@RetroCore developers are the key to a better game, if you look at starfox snes, it does not fell behind the sega cd version by a large margin using the older super fx chip which was half the performance of super fx 2, unless developers overdone things like doom snes, should be able to match the performance of the arcade version though slower framerate if starblade is developed.
@@wongyc5585 While that's true, even the old SFX chip had its limits. 2000 polys per second can in no way feasibly recreate the arcade game in any framerate higher than 10.
Richard Ledbetter of the UK official Sega Magazine at the time, was a little harsh on the Sega CD version could of been a much more faithful conversion of the original.. Erm how given the differences between the 2 hardware platforms 🤔 The Sega CD couldn't handle the graphics for a start... And the review text itself said it was fairly faithful to the coin op, considering everything had to he scaled back to be workable on the Sega hardware.
Cool video as always I remember seeing this in the arcade and thinking it looks amazing and how far graphics so come in the short time since I played star Fox on the Super Nintendo I then played it on the PlayStation and was not very impressed
The texture mapped FMV does the PS1 & 3DO versions no favors, being 20 FPS & of such bad quality. Did Namco get lazy there? Arcade & PS2 win. I'll take sharper image quality & smoother frame rate over the texture mapping.
The PS2 version is great looking under emulation; better than the arcade. Crank up the internal resolution and IMO it looks beautiful if you like the flat shaded retro look. Only thing I don't like are the overly sensitive analogue controls.
I first saw Starblade on some show back in the 80s. At the time I thought it looked incredible, but I was disappointed when I discovered that it was a rail shooter. I've tried playing the home ports and didn't like them very much. The game may be short, but the questions isn't how long will it take to complete, it's how many times will you have to continue, since it's completely impossible to shoot everything flying at you. And am I the only one who thinks the team leader sounds like a young Bruce Dern? There's no information on the net about who might have done the voices, so maybe it was him? It wouldn't be the first time a video game company has hired a celebrity to record dialog for a game, although if it really was Dern, you'd think they would have advertised that fact.
Probably. When talking about older games, my mind just automatically thinks "80s". :) I kind of wish that someone would remake Starblade as a fully 3D game where you're allowed to pilot the ship. You'd still have the goal of destroying a certain percentage of targets in each stage, but you'd be allowed to fly around the capital ships, dodge the enemy fire, etc. Sure the graphics look dated today, but I've always loved how the larger ships are gradually scaled up as the camera approaches them. It really feels like it should be a simulation rather than just an action game.
I dunno ... this looks absolutely terrible compared to the one year earlier released Wing Commander, despite having the advantage as a tunnel shooter of being able to pre-render everything (like the mentioned Silpheed). The majority of all polygon PS1 and early PS2 titles are really sad to look at.
The closest thing to "The last starfighter" for me, loved it.
Vincent GR Yeah I always said that too!
:-)
The actual arcade machine also had this large nifty controller that brought another sci-fi film to mind, Battle Beyond the Stars.
Great episode. Brings back memories of playing the actual arcade machine. Just that first part of flying into space warp pretty much wowed me at the time. I do hope to hunt the Sega-CD version. Yeah, I first had the PS1 version even with its bad targeting. My unc bought this magnifying screen that actually made our old home CRT TV look like the arcade magnified look! It was fun. Of course I've got the PS2 version now. Still I wish there was a good port of the textured "Alpha" version to latest gen, without it being only lost as a FMV only made for the 3DO and PS1 versions.
I remember I used to play a sega 32x games like this called shadow squadron. That was awesome, bits of the ships disappeared as they were destroyed...
Shadow Squadron was definitely inspired by Starblade. Its also much better that Starblade in my opinion.
The Mega-CD port is an odd beast indeed. First off, ported by Tecno Soft of all people. Had my mind blown when I learnt about this, Tecno Soft being by far one of my favorite dev' teams and I always wished them to do something on Mega-CD but a port of Starblade? Couldn't have expected this. And this is quite a nice port all things considered which holds up pretty well (the original arcade game runs on a much more complex board and the other ports are on next gen systems) but at the same time it's a weird port since it mixes flat shaded 3D with wireframe 3D with even sprites. So dunno, I'm still not sure if I have to acquire it or not.
What I'm sure though is that I'd have prefered Tecno Soft doing something else instead on Mega-CD, something like Herzog Drei for example :v
I'm also sure that while Starblade is a cool game, I'd rather play the Stellar Assault games on 32X/Saturn instead ;3
I'm a big Technosoft fan too. I own all of their Mega Drive games and most of their Saturn output too.
I was also quite surprised when I found out Technosoft were behind the Mega CD port. That would explain why they went the extra mile using various graphical styles rather than just using crappy FMV like the 3DO and PlayStation versions.
Same here, I own all of their Mega Drive games as well as most of their Saturn output :)
Tecno Soft represents everything I love about video games: stylish visuals, kickass music and entertaining gameplay all with their very own, distinctive signature.
Just too bad that they started to struggle from the 32-bit era. Their Saturn shooters are amazing, the rest I don't know yet but the pinball game seems pretty cool, but the problem was that from that point, developing games was more and more expensive and since their output has always been rather niche, they automatically faced some financial issues. Really sad because they deserved to last longer.
Stellar Assault 32x was good or boring like SoulstarX?
The Mega CD version looks amazing! Dont'forget it's running in an old '88 16 bit console with an add on
That is true.
I played this in Mikado arcade in Tokyo recently, It's quite the experience and amazing considering the time of release!
You're fortunate to have played the Arcade version. In my opinion that's the only way this game should be played.
Starblade was more like an experience than just a typical arcade game. State of the art in '91. Games like Silpheed felt the same way to me. Always had a thing for this game. Good Battle!
Believe it or not, the 3DO and PlayStation releases uses the audio from the 1992 LaserDisc/VHS walkthrough release for the enhanced mode, hence the additional, cleaner dialogue, unnecessary sounds and an arranged soundtrack.
From what I've looked up on the net, there was also a Vodafone port released back in 2003! It looked graphically impressive for a mobile release!
Oh yeah, I forgot all about the Vodafone version. I remember seeing that back in the day. Namco ported a lot of Arcade stuff to Japanese mobiles.
That's actually really interesting
split in to two game for space
One version that definitely deserves more attention is the Japanese-only Wii Virtual Console release. It's pretty much the arcade original (perhaps straight up being the same version from Tekken 5) but with the notable addition of being able to use the Wii Remote's pointer as the crosshair, which works really well. Sadly with the Wii Shop Channel being shut down earlier this year you can't get it anymore... legitimately, at least.
Another version (which you can still get) is on the Namco Arcade app on iOS/Android. It's pretty much the same as the aforementioned VC release, only that it's with touch controls instead, and of all of the games in that app it's definitely the one that works best with those types of controls. Worth it.
Also, as someone else mentioned, the Tekken 5 version can also be unlocked by beating the game with all characters, which is definitely the better choice. It's how I did it myself, though I didn't know it at the time; I only knew of the Devil Within method.
Ah, I missed out the Wii version since it's an emulation of the Arcade game with the addition of pointing controls. That and I couldnt download the game.
Tekken 5 is a hell of a deal considering you get Tekken 1-3 (arcade versions), and StarBlade... Not to mention Tekken 5. :)
IIRC you can also unlock StarBlade in the Arcade History section by beating the story mode with all of the fighters. THat would take quite a long time though. I think I'm going to try and transfer a 100% completed PS2 save file to a PS2 MC.
you can also unlock it by finding a hidden icon in Devil Within
True.. Where were you 3 ½ years ago? :P I was able to find a 100% completed save and copied it to my PS2 memory card using an FTP elf app + a memcard exploit.
One of my favorite Namco arcade games. Great video!
The pop in on larger ships gives it away, it's some form of precalculated vectors like a primitive flash cartoon. It wouldn't need to do that with an FMV only of there were fill rate limits that had to be managed.
BTW the port was handled by an uncredited Technosoft.
Flat-shaded graphics has a certain charm to it 👌
Teddy the Espurr Oh yeah I love them! Especially the early 90's Sega arcade Virtua stuff.
I only found out Winning Run, an F1 sim that runs on the same System 21 here and is actually the first ever 3D arcade racing cabinet.
And then Starblade and Cybersled came and the soundtrack blew me away. It's like the step up from Ridge Racer to Rave Racer
This was a beautiful game to play when I remember seeing it at Disney World in Orlando, Florida bing forklifted off the truck Mark.. The reason why it caught my attention was the out of the ordinary cabinet that Namco invented for it.
So I figured, if anything looks this good, the game itself must be the same as well. My hunch was correct. 8^)
Of course when Star Fox was available, I said this game resembles Star Blade a lot, then after doing some research, it was influenced by it.
Nice work as always Mark. Love this for sure. 8^)
Anthony.
The Arcade original is amazing for its time. Playing on a console is quite a dull experience in my opinion but that arcade cabinet was something else back in 1991.
I played the hell out of that very model when I was on vacation there in Orlando at the Contemporary hotel arcade - goooood times
Love the technical details!
Star Blade looks well ahead of its time.
The PlayStation port is a bit on the disappointing side.
Also, I was wondering if you could do a BOTP on Mortal Kombat 4 sometime in the future.
I know what you mean about the PlayStation port. That should have used real-time polygon models instead of the grainy FMV.
Hmm, I really don't like Mortal Kombat games except for the most recent one. I'll add 4 to the to do list.
First played this gem at Walt Disney World, IIRC. I paid a ridiculous price for Starblade Alpha for the Playstation on evilbay, but glad I have it.
Ohhhhh. I didn't know there was a ps2 port. Loved starblade. It was always a go to cabinet when I was in the arcades. I even enjoyed the ps1 version.
I thought it was awesome that they had Starblade along with the first 3 Tekken games as unlockables on the tekken 5 disk.
MistaMaddog247 I was completely oblivious to tekken 5 having other tekken games. I spent more time with 3 once I realised rather than actually playing 5
Another amazing video. I was astonished back in the day when I saw the game in the arcade, but Winning Run maybe was even more impressive.
Winning Run was also an impressive game for its time.
Winning Run is a 1988 game, 2 or 3 years before Virtua Racing! Namco was great at the time.
This game was amazing in the arcade. Just sitting in that chair I was like... The Last Starfighter
Played this down in Blackpool arcades, great game and experience for it's time.
The Arcade game is awesome for the time.
played this in the arcade alot! I have the 3DO version and it is one of my favorites on the system
From first to trigger popularizer game:
Warrior (1979 Vectorbeam arcade)
Battle Zone (1980 Atari arcade)
Star Wars (1983 Atari arcade)
I, Robot (1984 Atari arcade)
Plazma Line (1984 Technosoft PC-6001, PC-98, X1)
Starglider (1986 Rainbird/Argonaut Software Commodore Amiga and Atari ST)
Star Cruiser (Aug 1988 Arsys Software PC-88 and others)
Starglider 2 (Sept 1988 Rainbird/Argonaut Software Various PCs)
Winning Run (Dec 1988 Namco arcade)
Hard Drivin' / Race Drivin' (1989-1990 Atari arcade)
Winning Run Suzuka Grand Prix (1989 Namco arcade)
Driver's Eyes (1990 Namco arcade)
Winning Run '91 (1991 Namco arcade)
Starblade (Sept 1991 Namco arcade)
Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star (Dec 1991 M.N.M. Software Sharp X68000/NEC PC-98)
X / Ekkusu (May 1992 Nintendo/Argonaut Software)
Virtua Racing (Aug 1992 Sega arcade)
Star Cruiser 2 (Dec 1992 Arsys Software PC-98/FM-TOWNS)
Then came the birth of 3 franchises in 1993 in order from first to last:
Star Fox (February Nintendo/Argonaut Software SFC/SNES)
Ace Combat/Air Combat (June Namco arcade)
Virtua Fighter (Oct Sega arcade)
DooM (December id Software MS-DOS)
There are a bunch of other early vector and polygonal video games, but too many to list. Any additional mentions are welcome. ^_^
Don't forget about the 1990, 28 player, 360° / 16 screen, hydraulic motion behemoth that is Galaxian³!
th-cam.com/video/n7sL2pJ34vg/w-d-xo.html
As always awesome video Mark, not my style of game but thank you nonetheless, still fingers crossed for a BOTP of either KOF'98 or Garou Mark of the Wolves (the 2 best fighting games of all time imo) in the future :)
Hey Mark. I'll be doing another Capcom game next and then another Namco title but after that I'll do KOF'98.
I saw a friend playing this, during a full walktrough pf Tekken 5. I watched the screen curious thinking it was just a mini game..But not a Full game!
And by the way...This more like the Space Armada Assault of Star Fox but a more longer version of it...And it's awsome!
I had no idea there was a PS2 version, thanks for sharing Mark :)
No worries, Dylan.
Nice I remember playing this on tekken5 ps2
I saw that game, but never play it. It looked way ahead of its time.
The cab made it seem more futuristic....with it's massive screen and booming sound.
Im pretty sure MegaCd version is streaming video for background. Even so, very clever, the cross-hatched shading is amazing and uniform and looks like next to no compression is used(apart from it being rendered in very few colours.). I bet the MegaCD CPU is streaming the movie and the Megadrive CPU is handling the wireframe. The PS1 version seems to render those big ships too, and is more of a mix of real 3d and pre rendered movie. Loved the arcade version, we had one at my local arcade, was expensive though. Great video as always. Look forward to every video you make.
Since making this video it has been confirmed the the Mega CD version is actually streaming pre-calculated geometry as I speculated in the video. So in a way the graphics are being produced by the Mega CD. The game was also developed by Technosoft soft which was a surprise.
Starblade looks great. I'll definitely play it someday(most likely for an episode of RetroVerse Games).
It’s notable that some of the ships at 4:22 and 4:28 seem to be texture-mapped real-time 3D objects.
Ok what people forget is that the PS1 port allows you to chose from the original arcade perfect graphics or the newly textured mapping version
BackWoods Outlaw Actually that versions "arcade perfect" graphics mode is still a pre-rendered movie. I used to own the game on PS1 and was disappointed when I found that out, but looking at it you can tell it's a movie.
The "Arcade perfect" mode as you've mentioned looks. Awful on the PlayStation.
Retro Core quick question retro core, is all the sega Naomi ports on the dreamcast Naomi arcade perfect ? Since the dreamcast is 100% the home Version of the sega Naomi
Pretty much, yes. The Naomi does have more Ram than the Dreamcast so things will take longer to load on a Dreamcast but as far as animation and graphics the games are identical.
Retro Core does the home Naomi ports have load times ? Cuz I can’t tell if there are any or not
I played the very first part of that game eveytime I boot up Tekken 5 on my PS2 but never got the chance to unlock it...it wasn't until I discovered that there was a version for the Wii as a Japanese-exclusive Virtual Console title and to this day; I still play the game through my soft-modded Wii, the usage of the Wiimote (while not perfect) IMO is a great way to play the game!
Reminds me of Rez- I would love to take the original cab for a spin. On-rail shooters like this remind me of those vhs videos for Captain Power I used to shoot at my television with a toy plane.
Surprisingly there were so many games of this type in the early 90s.
@@RetroCore The best on-rails shooters, imo, were in the arcade- and even perfect ports at home didn't recreate the sensory specifics of playing them in an arcade.
Agreed. It was all about the cabinet.
Forgot the mobile version! I think that one is lost as of now.
I could see this game being a huge influence when it came to making Starfox.
The Sega Mega-CD is the winner port for me.
It is nice that they at least tried to add some real time polygons in there even if they are pre-calculated.
Starblade also used as loading screen on tekken 5 for PS2
Nice video as always. What about the Wii shop version ? I think it is a good version with added wiimote gameplay !
Sadly Wii version is not available anymore plus its actually just the Arcade ROM with wii controls added. So it's not really a port.
I'd have to say Namco were probably right about the 3Doh.
I didn't know the game was full on Tekken. I remember it appears during the load time in the beginning, but didn't know it was fully playable.
I played on arcade back in the day, but I remember that at my local arcade this game needed 4 credits per play. It was way more expensive than anything else, so as a broken kid I played it just a couple of times. But I bought the 3DO version and I played the hell out of that version! To be honest, back in the day I didn't pay attention on the low resolution or low frame rate. It was one of the best 3DO games and it was my chance to play the game home and "cheaper" :P
The SEGA CD port I just saw videos, and I never played the PS1 version.
Back in the day we didn't care about resolution in games. Probably because most of it was 320 X 240 back then. It wasn't until the Saturn arrived with its 480i resolutions did we even hear about game res'.
I've always believed that Starblade could have a good port in 32x, minimum would have recreated with polygons in real time what you see in Mega CD, which is said the background is a video. where I doubt very much is if 32x could recreate the amount of polygons that are seen in Silpheed of the CD sleeve, especially those of the intro and animated intermediates.
I reckon the 32X could have recreated Starblade but then again so could the PlayStation and Namco just went the lazy route with that one by using FMV rather than polygons.
Retro Core it is a pity that many creators were by rendering in the polygons, which is fine but it is bad if that sacrifices the performance of the game. I have been a lover of clean polygons and also the vectorial type that in itself its own beauty, it is a pity that in those years the fashion and sensation was that everything had to be with textures or rendering.
I have to wonder if part of the reason why Namco used FMVs in the home ports as they hoped that with the lousy RF or composite connections people were using at the time, it would be harder to notice (its on rails after all).
That said, games like Wing Commander III and Star Fighter show that the 3DO should have been capable of a decent real time conversion, especially if they dropped the textured option and simply optimised the flat shaded mode. Certainly the PS1 could have done it.
Bear in mind though that Wing Commander 3's frame rate got pretty bad at times despite having lower poly models than the PC version, and the ground missions were removed entirely.
AFAIK the 3DO version of Starblade used no polygons whatsoever. It's all done with video and animated sprites. The PS1 version was a mix of polygons and video, yet somehow they made the video quality worse (especially in flat shaded mode).
Oh yeah , WC3 on the 3DO can be choppy at times, and even in the best of times the frame rate is in the 20s. Thing is, the FMV they use isn't running at 60fps either, so its not any better in that department.
Remember that in 1993-4 , most people's idea of 3D at home were games that ran at 5-15fps (either Starwing on SNES , or alot of the flight sims on PC for instance), so 20-30 was more than acceptable.
This video is exactly what I was looking for, great content. I was about to buy Starblade Alpha for the PS1, but it's a cheaper and better option to just get Tekken 5 used for $5. I played this game for the first time when I was preparing to enter University. It was mind-blowing, with the awesome cabinet and the super loud sound. I'm happy to know that I can get the arcade version for very cheap.
You're welcome. Happy to know the video was informative to you.
It might be because I have no personal experience playing this in the arcades, but I think the 3DO version looks quite nice.
This game looks awesome :).
I didn’t know Silpheed had been proven to be using FMV. That’s a shame, as I remember being really impressed with the idea of streaming pre-calculated polygons (it’s a technique still used today, apparently the avalanche scene in Rise of the Tomb Raider uses it).
Is the PS1 version definitely running at the same frame rate as the 3DO version? It looked a bit smoother to me, but maybe that’s just down to different refresh rates not playing well with TH-cam!
It turns out that Technosoft developed the Mega CD port and have confirmed it is not FMV like Silpheed but instead streaming pre-calculated geometry.
The FMV on the PlayStation is running at the same frame rate as the 3DO but does seem to look smother in some cases on this video.
Retro Core That’s really good to know, all these years Silpheed has been getting the plaudits and it was just streaming FMV! I might have to buy a copy of Starblade for the Mega CD now to see it in action.
There was also a port for the X68000
This should had been a 32X/CD
It's sorta like last Starfighter
So, seeing as though I have Tekken 5, I now have a mission. And I don't think Devil Within is all that bad, though I never got to stage 4-2. I only barely remember this at the arcade, so it would be good to rediscover it
The PS1 version’s controls is poor cuz Namco outsourced the the port to a random developer instead of not consulting the original SB dev team which they got pretty upset according to Sean Seanson
Oh yes, a true classic.
there's surely no way in hell the mega cd could throw polygons around like that for the scenery. 7.49 lol no chance
the arcade version doesnt play on Super Retro-cade sadly.
I am fairly confident they are streaming something on the MegaCD since the megadrive doesn't have enough RAM for this many objects. It was a nice idea to use wireframe since MD is generally slow with filled polygons. Still compared to what we had on the home computers at the time, this is very plain. Just some mindless shooting with less control than the original Star Wars arcade. Are they using the digital controls on the Playstation version? This game would lend itself better to the analog controller.
When this game was released on the PlayStation there was no analogue controller 🙁
You forgot the iPod touch version
Nope, I didn't :) I just don't have an I-device. It's also on Android but not released in Japan strangely enough. Actually, the phone versions, Wii and PSP are all arcade emulation so they don't count as ports.
Do we control the movement of our ship or is it a rail-shooter?
Özgür ILGIN It's a rail shooter
Wow. Namco really shat the bed with the 90s console ports. The 3DO ending up better than the PSX? Must have had their B team on that.
They actually had a 3rd party company develop the home ports. The Mega CD version was by Technosoft of all people while the 3DO and PlayStation were both developed by the same studio who's name I can't remember now.
Star Blade gave Star Wars Arcade a run for it's money. 😁
Ah, but star wars arcade was real time. In Starblade you have no control of where the ship can go.
MegaCD probably streams polygons and performs minimal computaion and raster
It's since been confirmed that the Mega CD is streaming pre-calculated geometry.
3DO and PSX version added texture mapping to those capital ships, 3do seems to use lesser polygons than the arcade. Sega cd version not bad considered its obsolete hardware. Should have port this to the snes using fx2 chip.
The game would have ran far worse than the Mega CD version if ported to the SFC with the sfx2 chip. There's no way that chip could produce the backgrounds and all enemies at at an acceptable frame rate if at all.
@@RetroCore developers are the key to a better game, if you look at starfox snes, it does not fell behind the sega cd version by a large margin using the older super fx chip which was half the performance of super fx 2, unless developers overdone things like doom snes, should be able to match the performance of the arcade version though slower framerate if starblade is developed.
@@wongyc5585 While that's true, even the old SFX chip had its limits. 2000 polys per second can in no way feasibly recreate the arcade game in any framerate higher than 10.
Is there a flightstick compatible port?
Not that I know of.
Richard Ledbetter of the UK official Sega Magazine at the time, was a little harsh on the Sega CD version could of been a much more faithful conversion of the original.. Erm how given the differences between the 2 hardware platforms 🤔
The Sega CD couldn't handle the graphics for a start...
And the review text itself said it was fairly faithful to the coin op, considering everything had to he scaled back to be workable on the Sega hardware.
Hmm, very odd for him to write that.
Cool video as always I remember seeing this in the arcade and thinking it looks amazing and how far graphics so come in the short time since I played star Fox on the Super Nintendo I then played it on the PlayStation and was not very impressed
Yeah, the PlayStation version is just a very weak port.
I have the 3do version
The texture mapped FMV does the PS1 & 3DO versions no favors, being 20 FPS & of such bad quality. Did Namco get lazy there?
Arcade & PS2 win. I'll take sharper image quality & smoother frame rate over the texture mapping.
I'm with you on that.
I didn't know Tekken 5 have that game.
It also has Tekken 1,2and 3.
I already know Tekken 5 has tekken 1, 2 & 3, but they all emulated.
So the most accurate port was a loading screen.
what about the wii vc port?
It's nit a port. That's just emulation of the Arcade. All Wii virtual console games are just emulations of another version.
Oh wow look, it's Star Fox! Oh wait....
Nope, this is much older than star fox 😀
The PS2 version is great looking under emulation; better than the arcade. Crank up the internal resolution and IMO it looks beautiful if you like the flat shaded retro look. Only thing I don't like are the overly sensitive analogue controls.
Flat shaded polygons have aged very well.
I first saw Starblade on some show back in the 80s. At the time I thought it looked incredible, but I was disappointed when I discovered that it was a rail shooter. I've tried playing the home ports and didn't like them very much. The game may be short, but the questions isn't how long will it take to complete, it's how many times will you have to continue, since it's completely impossible to shoot everything flying at you.
And am I the only one who thinks the team leader sounds like a young Bruce Dern? There's no information on the net about who might have done the voices, so maybe it was him? It wouldn't be the first time a video game company has hired a celebrity to record dialog for a game, although if it really was Dern, you'd think they would have advertised that fact.
Starblade wasn't released until 1991. Maybe you mean an early 90s TV show?
Probably. When talking about older games, my mind just automatically thinks "80s". :)
I kind of wish that someone would remake Starblade as a fully 3D game where you're allowed to pilot the ship. You'd still have the goal of destroying a certain percentage of targets in each stage, but you'd be allowed to fly around the capital ships, dodge the enemy fire, etc. Sure the graphics look dated today, but I've always loved how the larger ships are gradually scaled up as the camera approaches them. It really feels like it should be a simulation rather than just an action game.
I dunno ... this looks absolutely terrible compared to the one year earlier released Wing Commander, despite having the advantage as a tunnel shooter of being able to pre-render everything (like the mentioned Silpheed). The majority of all polygon PS1 and early PS2 titles are really sad to look at.
Wii ???
Emulated arcade rom.
LONG LIVE 3DO
I remember play it at PlayStation, but I hate it coz polygon make my eyes hurt.
Maybe it was the flashing that made your eyes hurt?
Hahaha probably.
I just own the ps version and Wii vc arcade version...
Ah, they're both Arcade emulations. Sadly no Arcade cabinet to sit in though.
so much flashes Im glad I only listen love your videos but to much flashes and my eyes hurt.
Yeah, this game does flash quite a bit. It can be annoying I guess.
texture mapped ≠ enhanced
I have this game for the sega cd it's a snooze fest I kinda feel bad I bought it
I do agree. I find the lack of BGM makes the game rather dull. The Arcade was really cool though.
Another star wars rip off