So far I've mainly just been playing either the Sega Saturn port of Resident Evil or the USA prototype for "Deep Fear" on the Saturn Core. I never had a Saturn growing up so I don't know how accurate they run on the core compared to actual hardware, but I'll say that they look and sound better across the board than anything I've gotten through Mednafen or any other Saturn software emulator. I'm planning to play other games on the core at some point but right now I'm just going back and forth between the two I just mentioned since I'm on a bit of a survival horror kick when it comes to retro gaming right now. I will say though that the Saturn port of RE is a pretty novel piece of software. Like the N64 version of RE2, its got a unique look and some exclusive features that no other version of RE has, mainly the Battle Mode you can unlock (which acts as the precursor to RE2's Extreme Battle Mode). It kinda ends up having a similar novelty to RE2's N64 port in a way, even if the N64 RE2 is much more impressive from a technical standpoint IMO. As for Deep Fear... well, its not gonna win any top spots in anybody's top list of horror games, but its got a lot of ham and cheese that allows it to go toe-to-toe with classic RE in terms of its narminess, and it was basically Sega's attempted answer to RE so there's also THAT novelty to consider, if nothing else. At least its got a great OST, even if it is GREATLY under-utilized.
@VideoGameEsoterica It really does! I didn't mention them at first, but it honestly DOES have some good things/ideas going for it. The setting is very unique, the environment design in a lot of places is pretty good (excluding most of the hallways, since... well, they're hallways. And there's a lot of them.), the oxygen mechanic is an interesting idea even if I personally think it could've been implemented better than it actually was, and you can actually run AND shoot at the same time, and also use a dodge mechanic, and they feel surprisingly decent to use, and together it makes your character feel more nimble/capable than a lot of other protagonists from other survivor horror games at the time. Deep Fear has the blueprints to a great survival horror game, but I think that it ultimately fell short of its true potential. I think it had some issues during development that prevented it from getting more time/resources put into it if I remember my facts right, and if that's the case then I think it really could've benefitted from having a bit more time in the oven. I imagine it being made around the time the Saturn was being taken out back Old Yeller style by Sega certainly didn't help matters, either. It's a real shame, because I think there was something in Deep Fear that could've been polished more or explored in a sequel that could've made it stand out more from its contemporaries. But I guess we'll never really know. Fun fact: the key developers behind Deep Fear, including the game's head writer, would later go on to work together at a short-lived development studio called "Deep Space", and it is there that they'd all make a title for the then recently released PS2 called "Extermination", one of the very first (if not THE first) horror games to release on that console. I've played Extermination before, and I can say that there ARE a few similarities it shares with Deep Fear, even though the setting takes place at a secret research/military facility in Antarctica rather than a not-so-secret research/military facility at the bottom of the ocean like what you get in Deep Fear. I wouldn't call Extermination top contender material in the average person's list of top horror games either, but like it's predecessor I think it's definitely got enough good things going for it to make it worth checking out at least once.
@VideoGameEsoterica I'm not so sure about that because the original RE games had plenty of meme worthy voice acting as well and yet are still regarded as beloved classics to this day. I'm more inclined to think that it doesn't get more credit than it currently does simply because a lot of people here in the present day simply don't know of its existence. I think Deep Fear could possibly acquire cult status (if it hasn't already) if more people nowadays were just made aware of it, and I think that's definitely starting to happen more and more as I've seen some decently-sized channels (by my estimation anyway) recently shine a spotlight on it via retrospective videos and such. Plus with the rise of the Indie horror scene I'm sure that an Indie developer or two taking some notes from Deel Fear's mechanics and setting and citing said inspiration somewhere for people to see would also help get more eyeballs on Deep Fear, just by taking what worked with it and improving upon it any way they can. I could definitely see that happening nowadays if someone came along and jumped on the opportunity to make it happen while the Indie horror scene is still freshly growing
I know Panzer Dragoon Saga had some sound issues the last time I tried it. One of the early areas with the sand worms had an issue with the droning wind sound not playing correctly. I wonder if that has changed?
2:53 The shadow of the lower character shouldn't be visible through the semi-transparent dialog box. The dialog box is an NBG layer with higher priority than the sprites. The shadows of the characters are using the sprite shadow function of VDP2. VDP2 only applies the effect when the sprites pixels of the shadow have the top priority of all displayed layers. When they're under any other layer, even if that layer is semi-transparent like the dialog box, VDP2 doesn't apply the effect.
I have a request. Can you check out the music for Shining Force III? Put in Shining Force III Premium Disc and go to the sound test. If possible, would you be able to compare the music to original hardware? If not, it's no big deal. I'm just curious to see if there's still a difference at this point.
When testing I try and keep it stock. If the translation shows an issue how do I know if it’s the core or the mod? If I was just going to showcase the game I’d 100% pick the translation. But for accuracy testing videos it’s gotta be OG :)
Seeing massive improvements here imo definitely WAY better than software and not much difference between my real Saturn at this point. I haven't seen any issues but I haven't played anything extensively yet definitly will be playing lots of Saturn mext month though
Saturn games (especially the 30 FPS ones) tend to be laggy and that gives software emulation a big edge imo. RetroArch can use runahead to bring the lag below real hardware.
@@VideoGameEsoterica I have to play more extensively but the improvements are so obvious even at a glance Impressive considering the complexity of the Saturn
I'm looking forward to the next update "More accurate than an actual Saturn!" haha
Haha if only
That was how I read it at first 😂
I play sega rally on a real Saturn Yesterday.
I can see no different it look , feel and play like 1:1 to a real Saturn on Mister.
It is so good 😊
Yes Sega rally feels 100%
Ask your doctor is Mednafen is right for you.
Side effects may include: Segata Sanshiro
@@VideoGameEsoterica lol
When the side effect is better than the intended effect!
I’d take a round house from Segata happily
If it's not, maybe try Zanac.
"Wrinkle River" makes so much more sense XD
It def does. But also that’s weird too 😂
So far I've mainly just been playing either the Sega Saturn port of Resident Evil or the USA prototype for "Deep Fear" on the Saturn Core. I never had a Saturn growing up so I don't know how accurate they run on the core compared to actual hardware, but I'll say that they look and sound better across the board than anything I've gotten through Mednafen or any other Saturn software emulator. I'm planning to play other games on the core at some point but right now I'm just going back and forth between the two I just mentioned since I'm on a bit of a survival horror kick when it comes to retro gaming right now.
I will say though that the Saturn port of RE is a pretty novel piece of software. Like the N64 version of RE2, its got a unique look and some exclusive features that no other version of RE has, mainly the Battle Mode you can unlock (which acts as the precursor to RE2's Extreme Battle Mode). It kinda ends up having a similar novelty to RE2's N64 port in a way, even if the N64 RE2 is much more impressive from a technical standpoint IMO.
As for Deep Fear... well, its not gonna win any top spots in anybody's top list of horror games, but its got a lot of ham and cheese that allows it to go toe-to-toe with classic RE in terms of its narminess, and it was basically Sega's attempted answer to RE so there's also THAT novelty to consider, if nothing else. At least its got a great OST, even if it is GREATLY under-utilized.
Deep Fear is so good and deserves more love
@VideoGameEsoterica It really does! I didn't mention them at first, but it honestly DOES have some good things/ideas going for it. The setting is very unique, the environment design in a lot of places is pretty good (excluding most of the hallways, since... well, they're hallways. And there's a lot of them.), the oxygen mechanic is an interesting idea even if I personally think it could've been implemented better than it actually was, and you can actually run AND shoot at the same time, and also use a dodge mechanic, and they feel surprisingly decent to use, and together it makes your character feel more nimble/capable than a lot of other protagonists from other survivor horror games at the time. Deep Fear has the blueprints to a great survival horror game, but I think that it ultimately fell short of its true potential. I think it had some issues during development that prevented it from getting more time/resources put into it if I remember my facts right, and if that's the case then I think it really could've benefitted from having a bit more time in the oven. I imagine it being made around the time the Saturn was being taken out back Old Yeller style by Sega certainly didn't help matters, either. It's a real shame, because I think there was something in Deep Fear that could've been polished more or explored in a sequel that could've made it stand out more from its contemporaries. But I guess we'll never really know.
Fun fact: the key developers behind Deep Fear, including the game's head writer, would later go on to work together at a short-lived development studio called "Deep Space", and it is there that they'd all make a title for the then recently released PS2 called "Extermination", one of the very first (if not THE first) horror games to release on that console. I've played Extermination before, and I can say that there ARE a few similarities it shares with Deep Fear, even though the setting takes place at a secret research/military facility in Antarctica rather than a not-so-secret research/military facility at the bottom of the ocean like what you get in Deep Fear. I wouldn't call Extermination top contender material in the average person's list of top horror games either, but like it's predecessor I think it's definitely got enough good things going for it to make it worth checking out at least once.
Deep Fear would get a lot more credit if it wasn’t for the voice acting. That relegated it to meme status
@VideoGameEsoterica I'm not so sure about that because the original RE games had plenty of meme worthy voice acting as well and yet are still regarded as beloved classics to this day. I'm more inclined to think that it doesn't get more credit than it currently does simply because a lot of people here in the present day simply don't know of its existence. I think Deep Fear could possibly acquire cult status (if it hasn't already) if more people nowadays were just made aware of it, and I think that's definitely starting to happen more and more as I've seen some decently-sized channels (by my estimation anyway) recently shine a spotlight on it via retrospective videos and such. Plus with the rise of the Indie horror scene I'm sure that an Indie developer or two taking some notes from Deel Fear's mechanics and setting and citing said inspiration somewhere for people to see would also help get more eyeballs on Deep Fear, just by taking what worked with it and improving upon it any way they can. I could definitely see that happening nowadays if someone came along and jumped on the opportunity to make it happen while the Indie horror scene is still freshly growing
I know Panzer Dragoon Saga had some sound issues the last time I tried it. One of the early areas with the sand worms had an issue with the droning wind sound not playing correctly. I wonder if that has changed?
Give it a test. May be fixed now
Segata Sanshiro approves of this video
And I approve of Segata Sanshiro
Greetings, friends!
Hi there
Im still praying for light gun support in the semi near future.
My guess is that will be a late stage addition once the core is pretty buttoned up
@@VideoGameEsoterica that's what I'm tinking.
'Wrinkle River Story' does sound less disgusting.
Not by much
Better than Wrinkle Liver.
I live in the Midwest. We all have wrinkled livers
I’m not jumping the firmware train until they implement 480i.
My guess is that will come towards the end
Based. CRT Chads want full implementation of dynamic 240p480i switching so games can look as they were intended to be seen on old displays
And that will eventually happen
That red head fox guy named VGE totally would match your voice. When I listen to your voice I could imagine you as a red headed anime fox guy!
lol I am so far from red headed. Black haired Italian man
Got to the point I don't play the Saturn console itself now and just play the Saturn core itself it's that good.
It’s getting very close to a replacement
2:53 The shadow of the lower character shouldn't be visible through the semi-transparent dialog box. The dialog box is an NBG layer with higher priority than the sprites. The shadows of the characters are using the sprite shadow function of VDP2. VDP2 only applies the effect when the sprites pixels of the shadow have the top priority of all displayed layers. When they're under any other layer, even if that layer is semi-transparent like the dialog box, VDP2 doesn't apply the effect.
Good catch
What are some Saturn only arcade style experiences I should check out? I already play Steam-Heart's lol
Try Groove on Fight. The Saturn version is identical to STV
I have a request. Can you check out the music for Shining Force III? Put in Shining Force III Premium Disc and go to the sound test. If possible, would you be able to compare the music to original hardware? If not, it's no big deal. I'm just curious to see if there's still a difference at this point.
I’ll try to remember for the future
surprised that for sakura wars you did not try out the english translation one ?
When testing I try and keep it stock. If the translation shows an issue how do I know if it’s the core or the mod? If I was just going to showcase the game I’d 100% pick the translation. But for accuracy testing videos it’s gotta be OG :)
@@VideoGameEsoterica huh i see ok
Yeah just trying to keep everything consistent
@@VideoGameEsoterica Arent you playing the Linkle Liver translation though?
lol apparently I am
Come on now….ain’t nobody playing dat satern in 2024!!!?
Everyone is! Haha
@@VideoGameEsoterica
🤯🤯🤯🤯
Any link to download latest version? Thanks.
It’s on mister discord. Not a file that can just direct link
Seeing massive improvements here imo definitely WAY better than software and not much difference between my real Saturn at this point. I haven't seen any issues but I haven't played anything extensively yet definitly will be playing lots of Saturn mext month though
There are still some issues in some games but it’s getting less and less per core
Saturn games (especially the 30 FPS ones) tend to be laggy and that gives software emulation a big edge imo. RetroArch can use runahead to bring the lag below real hardware.
@@VideoGameEsoterica I have to play more extensively but the improvements are so obvious even at a glance Impressive considering the complexity of the Saturn
Laggy? I have not noticed this
@@ArmandoDovalHow’re they laggy, you’re the first person to say this about MiSTer cores…
Is there a media player on MisterFPGA?
Some of cores have players for their respective audio formats.
Not specifically
ST-V?
Sega Titan Video. The arcade Saturn board
@@VideoGameEsoterica Ok, I should have asked in a whole sentence :) Can you also use ST-V games with the Saturn Core?
You cannot at this point in time. Maybe never? Haha we will have to wait and see