The Sega Saturn appreciation thread

[Moirai]

I'm not really sure about the alternate route, I haven't played it enough to get that far yet. I've only gotten to level 3. do you have a original xbox? there's a panzer dragoon game for it that plays like the saturn games called panzer dragoon orta that you might like.

I unfortunately do not have an Xbox... I've always wanted to try orta though, it looks really cool.

[Zz Badnusty]

Anybody else really like Panzer Dragoon Zwei? Would the Playstation or N64 even be able to handle all the sprite scaling that game does on some levels?

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is fantastic!

PSX and N64 could likely handle it. Gamera 2000 is a Panzer Dragoon Zwei rip off which plays almost as well and looks almost as good. And judging by something like Sin & Punishment, I'd have to say N64 could've done a nice version of Panzer Dragoon as well.

PS, Barone, I'm going to have to dig out my Mission Stick and Analog Joystick to do a side by side play comparison, so that I might give a worthwhile response. Off the top of my head I certainly feel the built quality of the Sony controller is much better than the Saturn Mission Stick... but I'll try to make some more specific points in the coming days

[Curryman123]

Played Dodonpachi in TaTe last night. Man what an awesome conversion. It looks almost arcade perfect in TaTe (aside from the pixelated explosions, but no big deal really).

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I wish someone would upload some TATE mode footage of DoDonPachi to youtube. All that's up is Yoko mode footage.

[Barone]

SO of all the KOF ports on the Saturn, I take it that 97 is the worse?

A brief comparison/description of the ports:
KOF '95: Incredibly short loadings, no noticeable animation frames/details cuts, music plays continuously. Probably all background effects and animations are present (never noticed any loss).
KOF '96: Longer loadings, some frames cuts, music restarts, some details lost.
KOF '97: Even longer loadings (nothing horrible though), some animation frames cuts, music restarts, voices and sfx noticeably muffled (IIRC some sounds are also shortened), music restarts, some details missing...

Yes, the KOF '97 is the worst port of those three, but not terrible (PS1 version has better sound but painful loadings and many more animations frames removed).

PS, Barone, I'm going to have to dig out my Mission Stick and Analog Joystick to do a side by side play comparison, so that I might give a worthwhile response. Off the top of my head I certainly feel the built quality of the Sony controller is much better than the Saturn Mission Stick... but I'll try to make some more specific points in the coming days

Cool! Thanks.
I wonder if there's any difference between the JP and US models of the Mission Stick in terms of construction quality 'cause the JP version seems to have two extra buttons on the top of the stick. And, considering the MD arcade sticks, it wouldn't surprise me if the JP model was better.

[Curryman123]

I wish someone would upload some TATE mode footage of DoDonPachi to youtube. All that's up is Yoko mode footage.

I will do that for you in few days....maybe even today.

[j_factor]

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is fantastic!

PSX and N64 could likely handle it. Gamera 2000 is a Panzer Dragoon Zwei rip off which plays almost as well and looks almost as good. And judging by something like Sin & Punishment, I'd have to say N64 could've done a nice version of Panzer Dragoon as well.

Gamera 2000 doesn't look nearly as good as PD Zwei. The environments look cheap and generic. Not saying that means PSX couldn't handle it, I just don't think that game is a good comparison. N64 probably couldn't handle all the textures. Sin & Punishment is one of the better-looking N64 games, but it still has that characteristic splotchiness.

[Moirai]

Gamera 2000 doesn't look nearly as good as PD Zwei. The environments look cheap and generic. Not saying that means PSX couldn't handle it, I just don't think that game is a good comparison. N64 probably couldn't handle all the textures. Sin & Punishment is one of the better-looking N64 games, but it still has that characteristic splotchiness.

I think in some ways PD zwei looks better than s&p, especially the character/enemy models. The bosses in PZ zwei look incredible! Also the draw distance is impressive. If pd zwei were on ps1 in 1996, I doubt it would have looked that good. I think there would be lots of ugly texture warping on the bosses tearing on the walls in episode 3 and 4. I think the n64 would have handled it better, but they'd have to cut out some textures due to space limitation.

[Barone]

Still about KOF ports, I think this is a much better way to show the differences (so each one can notice them) (however, the YT always hurt the video quality so don't take it as a final word, the frame cuts may look less dramatic then they actually are in the PS1) (the guy seems to be using real hardware in all videos) (he is using a CDZ for the Neo Geo videos, so the loading times would be even worse on the more common model):

KOF '95

Neo Geo CD


Saturn


Playstation


The Saturn wins hands down this one due to its loading times IMO. The PS1 port is really weak.
By the way, I love the backgrounds of this game; they're just so much better than the later iterations...


KOF '96

Neo Geo CD


Saturn


Playstation


In this one the Neo Geo CD has the edge IMO due to the sound quality. PS1 port holds up well against the Saturn one, being the loading times the major advantage of the later.


KOF '97

Neo Geo CD


Saturn


Playstation


Again, the Neo Geo CD has the edge IMO due to the sound quality. PS1 port is a step down compared to the KOF '96 with some heavy frame cuts.
Saturn port has the worst loading times around 15 secs vs 25 secs on the Neo Geo CD though...



As a footer note:
KOF '98

Neo Geo CD


Playstation


The PS1 version has initial fight loading time around 15 secs vs 30 secs on the Neo Geo CD; PS1 has next round loading time around 9 secs vs 12 secs on the Neo Geo CD.
The characters sprites are a bit smaller on the PS1 and the voices/sfx are muffled. However, there are very few animation frames lacking, the backgrounds seem to be intact for the most part and the game runs a bit slower but there's no noticeable slowdown.
IMO it's the best KOF port on the PS1 and decent alternative to the Neo Geo CD version (I would actually avoid those 30 secs loadings).



KOF '99

Neo Geo CD


Playstation


The PS1 version has initial fight loading time around 14 secs vs 32 secs on the Neo Geo CD; PS1 has next round loading time around 7 secs vs 15 secs on the Neo Geo CD.
The characters sprites are a bit smaller on the PS1 and the voices/sfx are muffled. There are few animation frames lacking but the backgrounds are noticeably simplified (more static parts, animation cuts in other spots) and there's noticeable slowdown (the stage with rain effect has really noticeable slowdown).
Despite the atrocious loadings, I would still get the Neo Geo CD version since, IMO, the PS1 version lost a lot of the original atmosphere of the game with so many graphical cuts and speed reduction.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Yeah, I've heard other people say the ROM cart worked better for the KOF games than the 1MB RAM cart did. I wonder why they didn't try to use the 4MB RAM cart for any of them?

[j_factor]

But '98 and '99 are on Dreamcast as well.

[Barone]

Yeah, I've heard other people say the ROM cart worked better for the KOF games than the 1MB RAM cart did. I wonder why they didn't try to use the 4MB RAM cart for any of them?

IMO the ROM cart is even better than the 4MB RAM in some aspects...

About the rest, I think that the Saturn had lost the $$$ appeal in the times of KOF '97-98 so SNK was probably focusing the PS1 as it could give more bucks to them. A shame...

But '98 and '99 are on Dreamcast as well.

Yep.

[Da_Shocker]

IMO the ROM cart is even better than the 4MB RAM in some aspects...

About the rest, I think that the Saturn had lost the $$$ appeal in the times of KOF '97-98 so SNK was probably focusing the PS1 as it could give more bucks to them. A shame...



Yep.

Which is weird considering it's not like SNK was tearing up there charts with the Neo-Geo in the first place. I always considered the Neo to be a niche system. The PSx was about as mainstream as you could get.

[Da_Shocker]

Yeah, I've heard other people say the ROM cart worked better for the KOF games than the 1MB RAM cart did. I wonder why they didn't try to use the 4MB RAM cart for any of them?

$$$$ I guess. Still how Capcom churned out damn near perfect ports of the CPS2 it would only be natural for the Saturn to do the same damn thing.

[j_factor]

It's probably more to do with the fact that the 4MB cart was "Capcom's" cart.