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
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!!
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Been looking at a sega saturn for so many years now and after discovering your channel and watching a bunch of ur saturn related videos, i finally convinced myself to pick up a japanese saturn with action replay. Will definetly pick up powerslave!
Been watching your stuff for YEARS and watching this 2 years after you made it and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen you! I actually stopped dead rebuilding a server to say to tv “alright dude!” 😃
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.
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!!
Wonderful video, I've been wondering about the FPS genre on Sega Ssaturn for some time now so this is a big help for me as I research what's out there, thanks so much! Keep up the great work and I look forward to your next Saturn vid!
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.
I remember these games back in the day but I was looking forward to games that look like Astal & Guardian Heroes. But I'm impressed at some of these you've chosen to highlight, I regret not giving them a chance. Great video 😉
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.
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.
Bought all three on PAL last year, and whilst I've not really dedicated much time to Quake nor Duke, Exhumed has been played heavily. We lost Death Tank and analogue controls on PAL Exhumed unfortunately, and the intro music to Quake doesn't play, but other than that...
Exhumed is one of my best experiences ever with video games, right after the first Tomb Raider. I spent days and nights playing it, living it. What a great game! It needs a remake.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 !! :)
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.
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
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…
Alien Trilogy still holds up nicely, in my opinion. Last time I played it was in 2015 and had a blast going through it. I still would love to find a copy of Powerslave, someday.
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
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 loved all these games and more. I do want to ask if anyone knows about a first person adventure game where you are a sword wielding adventurer. I consider it the worst trees in a game i've ever seen lol. But for the live of me I can't remember it. Perhaps it was Hexen but I can't remember. I just know it was D&D type stuff. Great video and i will be looking for more.
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.
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.
I got Powerslave, Duke, Quake, and Hexen on release for my Saturn and still have them. Love Powerslave, it was one of my favorites. Luckily, I have never played Congo and never will.
I had Alien trilogy and Robotica for my Saturn. You can guess the one I enjoyed and the one I traded in!! Wished I would have tried Powerslave and Duke Nukem back in the day, they look awesome!
Alien Trilogy was great. Even if i only had the censored german version for the Saturn. It didn't have the humans in some levels and the intro and outro videos had german audio. Loved the dual saving system. Either with password or using the internal battery-powered memory of the saturn.
![[1992-1998] DOS FPS Games(46) Timeline Box Covers and Gameplay | MGames](/img/1.gif)
This is one of the best SEGA RUclips 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
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.
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!
How Doom got butchered and Quake was pulled off and as good as it was is amazing. Hats off to Lobotomy Software!
ruclips.net/video/JQHtq4qWxRM/видео.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
I'm 32 now and watching this made me feel 12 again.... love it
I'm 12 and this made me feel 32 again
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. :)
Exhumed (Powerslave outside UK) and Alien Trilogy were my first experiences with the FPS genre. So many memories of those two gems.
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
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.
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
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.
I love these classic FPS's. Even when they suck I still dig em. Great job on this one!
You back!!!! Welcome back lord!!!! Love your channel! Greetings from Brazil
Thank you. :)
Nice video and indepth analysis! Awesome episode! SegaLX just keeps dropping hits after hits!
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!
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.
Hope this keeps growing cuz I love Sega Lord X!!!!
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.
Been looking at a sega saturn for so many years now and after discovering your channel and watching a bunch of ur saturn related videos, i finally convinced myself to pick up a japanese saturn with action replay. Will definetly pick up powerslave!
I love your videos! So comprehensive, a true resource for SEGA fans!
Appreciate the comment. :)
I played the hell out of exhumed on the saturn .. It was an awesome game ,and had a great soundtrack too.__
Wow great video man. The Duke port looks better then the rerealease of gear box.
Never heard of Powerslave, looks incredible for the Saturn though. Great video as always bud.
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.
Been watching your stuff for YEARS and watching this 2 years after you made it and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen you! I actually stopped dead rebuilding a server to say to tv “alright dude!” 😃
A superb showcase of Sega Saturn FPS !! Love your channel man !! excellent video.
the saturn is my favorite system of all time so many great games ;p
Alien trilogy on the Saturn was my first experience in the genre when I was young, was not disappointed.
Amazing content, LordX! Ur channel is definitely a rarity on RUclips nowadays. 👏👏
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.
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.
Wonderful video, I've been wondering about the FPS genre on Sega Ssaturn for some time now so this is a big help for me as I research what's out there, thanks so much! Keep up the great work and I look forward to your next Saturn vid!
I Just started colecting for the Saturn and thanks to you i know wich games to look for. Keep up the great content!
Heavy mega props for having an intro on cam. Thank you.
Fantastic video here. I'm so glad you came back.
Another fantastic, highly informative video! Your channel is THE Saturn channel in my opinion.
Thank you for the message. :)
Was curious about Doom on the Saturn and I came across this channel, and boy am I glad I did.
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
I love the saturn fps library its pure classic 90s goodness
Great video as ever. Duke Nukem is so good i somehow ended up with 2 copies. Really need to swap it for a Quake, dying to play that on my Saturn.
I didn't know Sega Lord came back to youtube. Instantly subbed again.
Thank you. Came back in April.
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.
Another great video! You are one of the few RUclips gaming shows I watch anymore.
Glad you enjoy the channel. :)
I love your topics and how you don't hold back on how you really feel. Great Sega channel. Subbed!
Ahhh robotica, I was looking for that game.
amazing review ,,I would love to know everything about the saturn ,,,plz continue
I remember these games back in the day but I was looking forward to games that look like Astal & Guardian Heroes. But I'm impressed at some of these you've chosen to highlight, I regret not giving them a chance. Great video 😉
I was a 2D guy as well, but I appreciated the different style of gaming FPS games gave me. Especially Powerslave.
Your original Sega Lord X intro with the Astal music was the Best! Please go back!!
No love at all for the new intro?
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.
Powerslave is an incredible achievement...I really don't get how poor that Doom port was on the Saturn.
Did you see that Nightdive (Forsaken, Turok, Doom64 etc.) is remastering Powerslave / Exhumed? I'm hyped.
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.
Quake, nukem, powerslave are now on my list of must buys for my Saturn
Virtua Bros hexen is also very good.
drunkensailor112 that one has my interest piqued too
PowerSlave/Exhumed is definitely great.
Bought all three on PAL last year, and whilst I've not really dedicated much time to Quake nor Duke, Exhumed has been played heavily. We lost Death Tank and analogue controls on PAL Exhumed unfortunately, and the intro music to Quake doesn't play, but other than that...
Good and entertaining video. Always look forward to your uploads. Keep up the good and hard work!
Thank you. :)
Man I'd like to see you more like this in the newer videos!
theres also a trilogy of mobile suit gundam blue destiny on Saturn,the later two episodes can fully support the virtual on twin stick
Love your videos man, I’m a huge Sega nerd myself-specifically the Saturn
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.
Exhumed is one of my best experiences ever with video games, right after the first Tomb Raider. I spent days and nights playing it, living it. What a great game! It needs a remake.
More of this games i play of FPS,Doom,Powerslave,Quake,all of this so hardly and amazing
I think Powerslave is called Exhumed in Pal regions.Thanks for another awesome video buddy. Some great recommendations going on my want list.
Duke Nukem on the PC was so much addictive fun. It looks and runs amazing on Saturn as well.
Would love to see the 'original version of Saturn Doom...
Me too man, me too.
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.
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.
Love the Nights music in the intro
wow your a very stunning man! and very knowledgeable. i hope you continue to make awesome content!
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.
Another great vid and some great classic games, powerslave was called exhumed in the UK though.
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.
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 !! :)
excellent video thank you for finally talking about fps on the consoles of the SEGA genisis.
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.
I never thought I would want a Saturn, I own a Dreamcast, but this video made me want one.
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
I still have dear memories about playing FPS games on the Sega Saturn
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 love the intro on this video man!
Alien Trilogy still holds up nicely, in my opinion. Last time I played it was in 2015 and had a blast going through it. I still would love to find a copy of Powerslave, someday.
That Deadalus story...man. That's importing before RUclips/internet right there all the way!
It was a crap shoot to be sure. The best you had to go on were magazine images and small coming soon articles.
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
I'd say it's the best FIRST game for those buying a Saturn for the first time. I'm gonna grab a copy.
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 loved all these games and more. I do want to ask if anyone knows about a first person adventure game where you are a sword wielding adventurer. I consider it the worst trees in a game i've ever seen lol. But for the live of me I can't remember it. Perhaps it was Hexen but I can't remember. I just know it was D&D type stuff. Great video and i will be looking for more.
Thank god I finished collecting Saturn games many years ago. These prices now are insane.
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. ;)
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.
powerslave and hexen were my favorites here. played and beat both....if only i had kept them.
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.
Space Hulk is really good on the Saturn and its technically an FPS. More of a strategy FPS.
so glad you are back!
Powerslave looks amazing. I want Sega Lord X to do a BETTER ON THE SEGA SATURN list video.
I got Powerslave, Duke, Quake, and Hexen on release for my Saturn and still have them.
Love Powerslave, it was one of my favorites.
Luckily, I have never played Congo and never will.
I had Alien trilogy and Robotica for my Saturn. You can guess the one I enjoyed and the one I traded in!! Wished I would have tried Powerslave and Duke Nukem back in the day, they look awesome!
Excellent presentation! You have my sub sir!
Somebody has been watching Digital Foundry!
I was about to say. Ahahahaha!
What about Space Hulk ? Awesome first P and strategy elements.
Good shit Lord X, your work is greatly appreciated.........
Thank you. :)
Alien Trilogy was great. Even if i only had the censored german version for the Saturn. It didn't have the humans in some levels and the intro and outro videos had german audio. Loved the dual saving system. Either with password or using the internal battery-powered memory of the saturn.