|
Post by Anthaemia. on Oct 10, 2007 11:39:23 GMT
I got my Saturn on launch day with Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, International Victory Goal and Clockwork Knight, though I seem to recall the first game that I actually played being a demo of Victory Boxing, Panzer Dragoon or Virtua Fighter 2 - it's been a while so please forgive me!
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Sept 7, 2007 12:08:47 GMT
Incredibly, I briefly toyed with the idea of writing a book on the history of Saturn-era Sega a few years back, though in the end I settled on a fanzine/website project (which, for the record, is long overdue). I'm not doubting that such a thing is possible, but Sega is a complex beast and the author for such a massive challenge would have to decide whether they are focusing on the hardware/software side of things or more the internal politics that ultimately shaped (and ruined) many of the company's greatest ideas. Personally, I'd just love to write something more specific regarding the Saturn and its PAL releases, maybe in the form of a collectors' guide with a few key import titles, some unreleased games plus the many various peripherals briefly mentioned as well - does that seem feasible or even desirable?
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Sept 12, 2007 11:41:30 GMT
Sega didn't really want to hand over its highest profile Saturn conversions to third party developers, but it was forced to because the AM departments were busy working on so many of their own projects they simply didn't have enough time or resources to pull of Manx TT without compromising other games that were in development, such as Fighters Megamix, Virtua Fighter 3 and what later became Shenmue. As you may have noticed, the last two examples were ultimately NOT released for Sega's 32-bit console, which explains why Yu Suzuki felt so burned with management after the completion of his epic masterpiece as a Dreamcast title, soon after which he left the company. Anyway, back to Manx TT for a second...
Unsure whether the coders at Tantalus were up to the challenge of recreating a Model 2 coin-op for their over-complicated home system, Sega made sure to keep a very close eye on the conversion of Manx TT, even giving the programmers assistance from their own AM and CS teams to ensure the end product made full use of the Saturn's capabilities. While not perfect by any means, their new-found technical competency allowed Tantalus to go and deliver a fantastic treatment of WipEout 2097 that may not have been possible otherwise - just look at the original WipEout and Battle Arena Toshinden Remix for two examples of typical early PlayStation-to-Saturn rush jobs. Once they'd successfully tested the water with Manx TT and then been proved right by the stunning WipEout 2097, Sega went back to Tantalus with the task of working their magic on The House Of The Dead. Since this was quite a looker even in its original Model 2B form, it was clear the stakes were being raised a bit from earlier titles - only AM2's top secret Virtua Fighter 3 required more effort in terms of how to reprogram such a high quality source onto a less than equal domestic piece of hardware.
As mentioned before, Tantalus achieved something close to a modern-day miracle in getting the whole of HOTD running on the Saturn, and with several months left before their final deadline there was even promise of better textures in the final version - what had been shown off in magazine previews and demo disc footage was still just placeholder artwork! However, proving that Sega was becoming less interested with the Saturn as time went on and the Dreamcast's launch grew closer, it was decided nobody would really mind a few graphical faults if the package underneath played well enough. So, in the end gamers were left with a product that the Sega of old would have more than likely dismissed as a prototype that still needed a lot of work. In the months prior to the launch of its newest technology, we were instead given something that wouldn't have even made the cut a few years before.
Adding further insult to injury, The House Of The Dead came long after Sega's introduction of the "AAA" policy to reject software that was less than astounding. The likes of HOTD and Sega Touring Car had all the gameplay, but on a purely cosmetic front they were also snapshots of how Sega felt about its once flagship Saturn by the (premature, in my opinion) end of its life. I can only begin to imagine how different things had been if Sega waited a few extra months and treated remaining Saturn owners to VF3, Shenmue and a few more conversions from Capcom, SNK and Konami, all while holding the Dreamcast back until it could be assured a pixel-perfect Sega Rally 2 complete with full network support instead of the flawed mess we got instead. Parallel universe theories, 'eh?
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Sept 11, 2007 14:04:35 GMT
Actually, the Saturn conversion of The House Of The Dead was handled by Tantalus, whose previous track record (no pun intended) included Manx TT and WipEout 2097. Sega took a huge risk farming out Manx TT to a developer independent of its own AM/CS teams, but with plenty of assistance Tantalus did a fantastic job and learned enough programming skills to make their own later Saturn recreation of WipEout 2097 a lot more accurate than its predecessor had been. Sadly, by the time Tantalus was again asked to help out with The House Of The Dead, any concept of quality control at Sega had been carried over to the imminent Dreamcast (and even that wasn't safe, as many of its launch titles were rushed - clearly proving that no lessons were learned after the Saturn's similarly compromised release). Although they managed to get a basic conversion up and running well before their final deadline, Tantalus were never asked to go back and improve on The House Of The Dead, and what the majority of gamers probably didn't know is that a lot of this game's textures were originally meant as placeholders until better quality files were produced. This never happened, and along with other late Saturn era conversions such as Sega Touring Car. For the record, this one was the work of CRI and not Tantalus or even AM Annex, contrary to what is mentioned on the box art - just take a look at the credits if you still don't believe this. As with so many other Saturn developers, CRI started off well enough and got much worse later on as Sega's complacency with all things Saturn related spread. How else can you explain the decline in output from their treatment of Virtual On for the 32-bit console to the (perhaps slightly over-exaggerated) disaster that was Sega Touring Car?
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Sept 5, 2007 11:24:04 GMT
Ironically, the reason why Touring Car is so poor on the Saturn comes down to CRI putting as many details as possible from the arcade source into their conversion, in spite of the fact Sega's console lacked the power to handle anything remotely close to Model 2b quality graphics at a playable frame rate. While most beginners do struggle not to spend every race bouncing from one side of the track to the other, after a while I learned to control the game and found it quite enjoyable - even if the frame rate does inexplicably drop every time you pass under a bridge! If a first generation title such as Daytona USA could do better, it only shows just how much Sega's approach to software slackened after the failed campaign of Winter 1996, when even the company's biggest proverbial guns (NiGHTS, Daytona CCE, Virtua Cop 2, etc.) failed to help the Saturn gain on Sony's then-already dominant PlayStation. At least they did put out a few memorable titles before finally killing the Saturn off for good, although the "less is more" approach still didn't do many favours for the ailing 32-bit platform...
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Aug 28, 2007 11:26:32 GMT
SSM later apologised for "pimping" this game, explaining that developer CRI (of Galaxy Force II MD infamy) promised the final version would be much improved on preview code. Of course, this never happened, and as a result the SSM team stopped hyping many AM conversions they would otherwise have promoted to death before the Touring Car incident. Besides, if you think STC is bad I presume you've forgotten about The House Of The Dead - Sega really shouldn't have farmed its later 32-bit productions out to third parties, even if Tantalus did a good enough job with Manx TT!
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Oct 19, 2007 12:07:12 GMT
I remember correctly, the woman from VR cop was exactly like Sarah from VF, but maybe even less moves (or one extra - being able to use her gun) Actually, the moves for Janet Marshall were lifted directly from Aoi Umenokouji, and Fighters Megamix was intended by AM2 as a test bed/stop gap for Virtua Fighter 3, which - as you all know - sadly failed to see the light of day.
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Aug 14, 2007 12:51:25 GMT
This may be something of an obvious choice, but NiGHTS gets my vote for its sheer originality and the level of Sonic Team's creativity - who still desired just a simple 32-bit update of Sonic after this?
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Aug 15, 2007 12:33:08 GMT
I know that Sega wasn't exactly known for its good business decisions around the time of the Saturn, but to release Courier Crisis following its "Triple-A" software policy announcement makes this game a clear contender for worst ever on the system.
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 27, 2007 13:08:29 GMT
deep fear was the last sanctioned release in 1998 That's not entirely true, although Deep Fear was the last game in PAL territories for the Saturn (on 05/09/1998 to be precise). If memory serves me correctly the final official Saturn release anywhere is Final Fight Revenge, which reached Japanese stores almost two years later. Will anybody confirm that Magic Knight Rayearth became its US counterpart, as I'm a little unsure about that one?
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 27, 2007 13:16:22 GMT
Mortal Kombat Trilogy in its PAL form is quite possibly one of the most frustrating games for a collector to find, especially as it received a print run so low it barely even made sense to release it in the first place! However, there's no way it's limited to continental Europe (unlike Dragonball Z, which definitely was) since I've seen in on sale before - just make sure to punish me for not picking it up back in the day when it didn't trade hands for a small fortune!
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Nov 16, 2007 13:38:37 GMT
I think Quake deserves a mention here, the Saturn version was by far the best available, even compared to the PC version when It was run on PC hardware at the time, the Saturn version scrapped the quake engine and used the much more fluid Slavedriver engine, thanks to the Saturn's larger memory it's also the only console version to feature all the levels full size, complete and unedited. There is an article in SSM where a Lobotomy team member confirmed that some levels did need to be redesigned slightly for Quake on the Saturn, although not to the same degree as other conversions I could think of - the Nintendo 64 edition, perhaps?
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 23, 2007 11:45:24 GMT
Exhumed may not have received much in the way of praise from consumers or other publications apart from SSM, but somebody was definitely paying attention since Lobotomy ended up being given the unenviable task of converting Duke Nukem 3D and Quake near-simultaneously when other developers had tried and failed! The fact they pulled off both games with improvements over the original source material on a system most (wrongly) thought to be underpowered only serves to further prove that Lobotomy was a first-class team. Sadly, they later closed up shop and the gaming world lost a real talent. At least they didn't go without leaving we Saturn owners a few memorable examples of their short-lived collective programming genius...
P.S. Tempest, I'm totally with you on the subject of Hexen and why SSM rated it so highly. Also, have you all forgotten the Saturn's other first person shooters? Of course, I am referring to Robotica and Gebockers, the latter being a fantastic (and criminally unreleased outside of its native Japan) multiplayer title and one of the few games to support the link cable, which also never saw the light of day here in Europe!
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 20, 2007 12:33:57 GMT
Doom was near-unplayable in its PAL form, although I've heard the later Japanese edition boasted some minor improvements. Hexen and Exhumed were decent enough, though I do prefer Robotica/Deadalus and particularly Alien Trilogy (which still manages to run better than most other first person shooters on the Saturn despite its port only using one of the system's two main processors, fact fans!) for its atmosphere. Quake is technically the best there is, but stripped of its famed multiplayer side not even fancy new lighting effects can save this one from being slightly disappointing. As for Duke Nukem 3D, there's no denying how much I got out of this game, even if these days I only ever stick the disc in my Saturn for a quick blast at Death Tank Zwei... which is another title with issues, having the opposite problem to Quake by desperately lacking a single player feature!
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Sept 7, 2007 12:03:44 GMT
To anybody fortunate enough not yet to have been subjected to the (unintentional) horrors that lurk within Deep Fear, the previously unreleased US version is due for inclusion as part of GoodDealGames' upcoming Lost & Found Vol. 3 compilation. Quite why it's taken so long for this game to receive an official release over there is a mystery, since most people who are interested would more than likely have resorted to downloading the PAL edition and simply changing its regional settings long ago. Chalk up another for completists only...
|
|