There's one thing I'd like to add here. Saturn modchips feed the ring data to the console, but won't overcome the region lock. You would still need an Action Replay for out-of-region games or backups. I know you mention Action Replay when talking about imports, but it should be clear that the modchip alone won't cut it, and people tend to assume it should.
[BFWWIWA] Issue #1 - Sega Saturn
- Thread starter Foxi4
- Start date
- Views 17,608
- Replies 98
- Likes 26
There's one thing I'd like to add here. Saturn modchips feed the ring data to the console, but won't overcome the region lock. You would still need an Action Replay for out-of-region games or backups. I know you mention Action Replay when talking about imports, but it should be clear that the modchip alone won't cut it, and people tend to assume it should.
The Saturn was a great console, no doubts. I remember hooking mine up to an Atari ST monitor with the RGB output. That gave me a super sharp display, and playing Virtua Fighter 2 was amazing with this setup. I think DecAthlete and Last Bronx also played in the same hi-res mode as VF2. Possibly Sega Rally Championship too, but I can't remember. There must be others. All very good games, but let's not forget one of the must fun multiplayer game on the Saturn, Guardian Heroes from Treasure.
I remember the music CD player app on the Saturn was much more powerful than the one on PlayStation. You could mess around with sound effects, like add echo, concert hall, muffled, etc. You could even mute certain frequencies like muting the vocals of a song, just to get the music. PlayStation could only play the music with no effects at all, except visual effects on screen.
2D games were always better on Saturn. The PlayStation version of Darkstalkers was horrible, with slowdowns a plenty. Saturn version was flawless. Although Capcom didn't do too badly with Darkstalkers 3 on PlayStation (just some missing frames here and there).
3D games, I wouldn't say Sega is the winner here. PlayStation versions were usually better, but there are exceptions. Duke Nukem 3D was better on the Saturn. Powerslave was marginally better than the PSX version. Both great games too. Now I'll have to dig up my Saturn from the storage box and hook it up to the TV.
I remember the music CD player app on the Saturn was much more powerful than the one on PlayStation. You could mess around with sound effects, like add echo, concert hall, muffled, etc. You could even mute certain frequencies like muting the vocals of a song, just to get the music. PlayStation could only play the music with no effects at all, except visual effects on screen.
2D games were always better on Saturn. The PlayStation version of Darkstalkers was horrible, with slowdowns a plenty. Saturn version was flawless. Although Capcom didn't do too badly with Darkstalkers 3 on PlayStation (just some missing frames here and there).
3D games, I wouldn't say Sega is the winner here. PlayStation versions were usually better, but there are exceptions. Duke Nukem 3D was better on the Saturn. Powerslave was marginally better than the PSX version. Both great games too. Now I'll have to dig up my Saturn from the storage box and hook it up to the TV.
The Saturn has a good library of strategy games, like the Langrisser and Shining Force series. I hear the Lunar remakes and Grandia are also superior on
the Saturn, but they were only translated for the Playstation. >_<
the Saturn, but they were only translated for the Playstation. >_<
That's true. The only downside are the transparency effects... most games uses that "mesh" technique
I've heard that Hitachi released a version of the console (the HiSaturn) that enables transparency on most games, but I don't if that's true
I'm the kind of guy who only ever has about 4 games for any given system. So for me to have one third (ie two - NiGTHS and Daytona CCE) of the games mentioned in an article about any system is quite an achievement.
Daytona is undoubtedly, in my eye, the king of arcade racers. Despite having enjoyed spending many hours playing CCE with my brother, it really didn't feel like you were playing "Daytona" - one had to wait until the Dreamcast before there was a version of Daytona that both looked and played like the Arcade. Thus I would have personally put Sega Rally in its place in this article (far more failthful to the coin-op).
Other than NiGHTS, Daytona CCE and Sega Rally, the other game in my 'collection' was Virtua Fighter 2.
By the way, don't let anybody in the Nintendo threads see this:!
Daytona is undoubtedly, in my eye, the king of arcade racers. Despite having enjoyed spending many hours playing CCE with my brother, it really didn't feel like you were playing "Daytona" - one had to wait until the Dreamcast before there was a version of Daytona that both looked and played like the Arcade. Thus I would have personally put Sega Rally in its place in this article (far more failthful to the coin-op).
Other than NiGHTS, Daytona CCE and Sega Rally, the other game in my 'collection' was Virtua Fighter 2.
By the way, don't let anybody in the Nintendo threads see this:!
This is a great article, but another *big* reason for its failure that is glossed over is the release and failure of the 32X.
Keep in mind that while the 32X came out as an add-on for Genesis, it was the 32-bit "Next-gen" console release from Sega and at a full new console price at the time of it's release. Purchasing it wasn't just buying another controller, this was full console pricing.... just like the SegaCD. As such, people who bought into it expected good support, good graphics and a longer life than it had. When released, it was buggy from the gate, only had 36 games released and was quickly put to pasture.
This raised serious doubt in the mind of Sega fans as to the ability to produce the next console and that the support there would be if it faltered. Also consider, many just bought the "Next-gen" console add-on at the price of a full console not too long ago and to drop more money on the Saturn was just not feasible.
Sega burned a good bit of it's userbase by releasing the 32X and I think that had a pretty significant impact from where it counts most... customer loyalty and trust. They would have been better off just waiting for the release of the Saturn. And I say all of this as first hand experience, I dodged the 32X bullet and bought one when they went on firesale, I also bought Sega CD used... but when the Saturn was released, I doubted it would last after seeing the 32X debacle. I decided to pass.
As an aside, I think the Sega CD was underrated, I actually enjoy many of the games available on it, and the 32X while endearing, just lacked the ability to compete with the true next-gen consoles in regards to performance, game data storage and support - again, a few good games, but no where near what the next gen consoles could pull off, and therefore casting a shadow of a doubt on what Sega would release next.
Keep in mind that while the 32X came out as an add-on for Genesis, it was the 32-bit "Next-gen" console release from Sega and at a full new console price at the time of it's release. Purchasing it wasn't just buying another controller, this was full console pricing.... just like the SegaCD. As such, people who bought into it expected good support, good graphics and a longer life than it had. When released, it was buggy from the gate, only had 36 games released and was quickly put to pasture.
This raised serious doubt in the mind of Sega fans as to the ability to produce the next console and that the support there would be if it faltered. Also consider, many just bought the "Next-gen" console add-on at the price of a full console not too long ago and to drop more money on the Saturn was just not feasible.
Sega burned a good bit of it's userbase by releasing the 32X and I think that had a pretty significant impact from where it counts most... customer loyalty and trust. They would have been better off just waiting for the release of the Saturn. And I say all of this as first hand experience, I dodged the 32X bullet and bought one when they went on firesale, I also bought Sega CD used... but when the Saturn was released, I doubted it would last after seeing the 32X debacle. I decided to pass.
As an aside, I think the Sega CD was underrated, I actually enjoy many of the games available on it, and the 32X while endearing, just lacked the ability to compete with the true next-gen consoles in regards to performance, game data storage and support - again, a few good games, but no where near what the next gen consoles could pull off, and therefore casting a shadow of a doubt on what Sega would release next.
I worded that part of the article crudely. In my research before writing the article I've read that the quadrilateral-based geometry allowed for superior draw distance and a different approach towards texturing nullified the appearance of texture seams. That being said, the Saturn version of WipEout had poorer frame rate and did not feature all those pretty hardware-accelerated effects the Saturn hardware was unable to render. As such, I've revised that section of the article - well-spotted, sir!
This is also true, the Saturn's VDP's lacked the capacity of properly rendering transparency effects and light sources, it's something I completely forgot to mention and subsequently added to the article now. Where it was superior in sheer geometry, it lacked in hardware acceleration as it was a rather "aged" design. Again, well-spotted, sir.
As for the HiSaturn's supposed transparency, I've never heard of it and frankly doubt that'd be the case as it'd require coding the transparency effects into the games in the first place.
This is true, the modchip does not counter the region lock in any way, but I've mentioned Saturn Region Patcher in the burning section, so I figured it would be obvious for the reader. If it isn't, I'll simply add a note about that.
I mention that the second CPU was added precisely because the PlayStation Was Coming and Sega Braced Themselves.
The Saturn wasn't necessarily meant to be a 2D powerhouse - I disagree with that statement. Even the 32X (which was partially based on Saturn hardware by the way!) was meant to give players a rudimentary 3D fix - 3D was very much a part of the plan, the problem was that it was a bit primitive with little hardware acceleration. As for the "developer's dream" part, I meant that it simply offered a lot of possibilities, the complexity of the system was definitely a turn-off, which is a recurring theme throughout the text. When releasing the 32X, Sega used a bizzare strategy. People sometimes wrongly assume that the Saturn is merely a successor to the 32X when that's hardly the case - the Saturn and the 32X were initially planned to work hand-in-hand. Again, the 32X was released first for all those people who wanted an entry-level 3D machine while the Saturn followed as the high-end 3D machine. In other words, Sega wanted to support both machines at the same time. Of course this didn't work and the 32X had to be canned. By doing so, Sega indeed upset its customers, I suppose I should add that to the respective paragraph. Well-spotted, sir!
Considering the fact that the Nintendo equivalent had 200 less at the time, yeah, better not show it to them! ;O;
Wow, nice job, Foxi. The only thing I knew about the Saturn was that it played Mega Man 8. Most of my friends didn't even realize there was a Saturn, just a Genesis and a Game Gear. Sega was really good at hardware, just not so awesome with non-Sonic software.
The 32X I believe was originally conceived as a standalone SVP-chip, so you wouldn't have to have it included in the price of other 3D games as Virtua Racing was pretty pricey. Somehow the idea got out of control and mushroomed (pun absolutely intended) into the 32X. I recall that sales of 32X were actually quite encouraging, if not earth-shattering, to begin with... the death knell being the extremely high number of DOA units.
I personally think the biggest cause of failure was knee-jerk reaction to the Playstation, bringing the launch forward in Japan by, like 4 months. This lead to release software being rushed; the original version of Daytona had massive clipping issues, and there were flickering faces galore in Virtua Fighters - it simply lead people to believe that the Saturn wasn't up to the task. They only really needed to release a month early to have had the effect they wanted - the hardcore "gotta have a next gen now" crowd would still have bought the Saturn, not being able to hold off an extra month for the Playstation, and the development teams would have had an extra 3 months to get the release titles up to standard.
I also recall the fuss made over the Saturn not having a standard RF output. I think the Playstation did but, never having owned one, I'm not sure. I never understood all the fuss, to be honest. At the time of its release, even my little bedroom telly had a SCART input - but there were clearly a number of people who wanted to play the Saturn on an RF-only equipped telly, and didn't like the fact they had to spend another 15 quid on an adepter to do so
Um... no Sega's (home) hardware division was just awful; hence the Mega Seedy, 32X, and cumbersome Saturn fiascos. Their software was awesome.
Ironic, really... Sega ruled the arcades when it came to 3D gaming. Nobody was even close. I guess they must have been totally stung by the manufactures of their arcade hardware; because they seemed convinced at the time of designing the Saturn that the home market was not ready for a full 3D-capable system.
With 3D multiplatforms the problem was that the Saturn's hardware was complex and required re-coding things from scratch. Coders usually went the easy way instead and utilized only one of the two processors and did not attempt to "software-fake" effects that on the PlayStation could be achieved with hardware acceleration. Saturn exclusives however show what the system was actually capable of and I'm sure that its 3D game selection would've been more roboust had it "lived" longer. The 2D games, exclusives and arcade ports are indeed where the Saturn shines.
The CD player is indeed more roboust than the PlayStation's, "CD Quality Sound" was considered to be one of its selling points - it's even mentioned in the infomercial... with the Saturn laying scrumptiously in a salad bowl. With salad.
Even if you're planning on pirating Saturn games, you're better off buying an Action Replay. This way you're covered on both backup, and import fronts. Manual patching just adds an extra step. Anyway, I just wanted to emphasize, that Saturn modchips fake the disc authenticity check, nothing more. PlayStation and PlayStation 2 modchips got people assuming that region-free functionality was a given.
Similar threads
-
- Portal
-
-
-
-
-
-
@
Psionic Roshambo:
It's great if you have something anyone else wants, otherwise it's annoying and potentially bad if you lose your keys -
-
-
@
SylverReZ:
@Xdqwerty, Its good if you have any important documents for say a business that you don't want leaking in the wild.+1 -
-
-
@
SylverReZ:
Bad news is that BitLocker was cracked, so somebody could use a Pi Pico and probe the LPC pads on the motherboard to grab the key.+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
@
BigOnYa:
My wife's doctor prescribed her a ointment for neck and knee pain, that cost $30. We just read the ingredients, and active ingredient is CBD, found exact ingredients in another off brand ointment online, for only $8. Our healthcare system at its finest. -
-
@
Psionic Roshambo:
I always suggest kneepads with wheels to help with knee pain, then I get slapped
-
-
-
-
