SEGA SATURN - the discussion thread

[sj33]

On that subject, I was completely and utterly disappointed with the quality of the FMV on Lunar MPEG... didn't seem like anything TrueMotion-beating as such, least not enough to justify the card.

I can only assume it was a mediocre encode.

[randombs]

I know I say this all the time, but people really should just use the Action Replay Plus 4M Auto instead of the official RAM carts, and save themselves all the hassle of compatibility problems between the carts.

As for Resi, well Capcom produced the PAL version even if SoE published it. I blame them, personally.

well i haven't got an action replay as a) i already have an official 1m cart (was a present), b) i now have a 4m cart (bought with vamp saviour) and c) i already have a regular action replay without ram

also, when i had the 4m action replay, i usually had to boot and then reset games like sfz3 due to corrupt gfx which never happened with my official 4m, and also my samurai shodown 3 ALWAYS has corrupt gfx with the ar 4m. i think sam sho 3 doesn't have the memory test option like my other snk games (which usually work fine but were sometimes dodgy too)

[Yakumo]

On that subject, I was completely and utterly disappointed with the quality of the FMV on Lunar MPEG... didn't seem like anything TrueMotion-beating as such, least not enough to justify the card.

I can only assume it was a mediocre encode.

Yeah, the FMV on Lunar MPEG is really poor encoding ! Probably because the cheap sods wanted to fit everything on to one disc so they just used a low bit rate. now Gun Griffon with the MPEG card is a different story.

Yakumo

[Team Andromeda]

Nah, the FMV on Saturn Bio Harazrd is good but nothing near the best. Maria (uses True Motion) has almost Dreamcast quality FMV !! I was shocked when I saw this. Also Tengai Makyou: Daishi no Mokushiroku The Apocalypse IV by Hudson has some Very impressive full screen cinipac FMV that really looks like MPEG ! Not all the FMV in the game is of super high quality but at least more than half is. Actually, you can get some pretty nice results with Cinipac if you encode it right. Just goes to show that many Saturn programers didn't really know how to use FMV on the machine. Gun Griffon also looks very smart. Yet another game that uses True Motion. The thing with Gun Griffon however is that if you have a MPEG Card then you will get a MPEG version of the movie which looks very nice I always wondered why Sega's in-house games always had **** True Motion video quality when others did much better.

Yakumo

Yakumo

Oh I agree True Motion was the best onthe Saturn

For me too while it doesn't use True Motion ASTAL had amazing fullscreen FMV . I could never work out when that game had stunning FMV and so many other Saturn In-House SEGA games had poor FMV and Astal was one of the 1st Saturn games. For me SEGA best True Motion effort was VF Megamega mix

[randombs]

maybe it's to do with the size of the videos?

[Yakumo]

Oh I agree True Motion was the best onthe Saturn

For me too while it doesn't use True Motion ASTAL had amazing fullscreen FMV . I could never work out when that game had stunning FMV and so many other Saturn In-House SEGA games had poor FMV and Astal was one of the 1st Saturn games. For me SEGA best True Motion effort was VF Megamega mix

Believe it or not but on the Sega Saturn CG Collection video CD the Astal intro looks worse than the original Saturn version !!! Blocky as hell in some parts. There I was looking forward to a nice perfect version of the Astal intro as well However that disc also has the Panzer Dragoon movies on it in true wide screen with a very nice picture quality unlike the Saturn version.

I think the reason why some Saturn video looks poor is just down to lazy programmers who can't optimize the codec they are using. Sometimes space is also a factor but I've seen games that take up only 200 Meg of a CD yet still have piss poor FMV. There's no excuse there !

Sega's fighters Megamix use of true motion is good but still not as good as other companies results from using true motion. Sega's stuff always has a really odd mesh over the image and lowish frame rate. Golf Shiyouyo on the Dreamcast uses True Motion you know

Yakumo

[Team Andromeda]

Believe it or not but on the Sega Saturn CG Collection video CD the Astal intro looks worse than the original Saturn version !!! Blocky as hell in some parts. There I was looking forward to a nice perfect version of the Astal intro as well However that disc also has the Panzer Dragoon movies on it in true wide screen with a very nice picture quality unlike the Saturn version.

I think the reason why some Saturn video looks poor is just down to lazy programmers who can't optimize the codec they are using. Sometimes space is also a factor but I've seen games that take up only 200 Meg of a CD yet still have piss poor FMV. There's no excuse there !

Sega's fighters Megamix use of true motion is good but still not as good as other companies results from using true motion. Sega's stuff always has a really odd mesh over the image and lowish frame rate. Golf Shiyouyo on the Dreamcast uses True Motion you know

Yakumo

Digital Dance Mix made good use of True Motion as did Last Bronx and Sonic Jam (the Sonic CD intro and ending is just magic)
Far me the worst use of True Motion was in DOA and Castlevaina onthe Saturn .
Yeah I know about Golf Shiyouyo, also NHL Hockey 2k made use of it too, and was also one of the few DC games to use Dobly Surround . Shame then it was a bit sh8t .
And while it wasn't anwaywhere near full screen Enemy Zero looked bloody great and almost MPEG quality

[oracle]

im gonna be taking my saturn back down with me to uni, its the only console i ever play

[Yakumo]

Digital Dance Mix made good use of True Motion as did Last Bronx and Sonic Jam (the Sonic CD intro and ending is just magic)
Far me the worst use of True Motion was in DOA and Castlevaina onthe Saturn .
Yeah I know about Golf Shiyouyo, also NHL Hockey 2k made use of it too, and was also one of the few DC games to use Dobly Surround . Shame then it was a bit sh8t .
And while it wasn't anwaywhere near full screen Enemy Zero looked bloody great and almost MPEG quality

Oh yeah, I forgot about Digital Dance Mix. that did have good true motion. Never really though Sonic Jam was good though. It could have been much better. Last Bronx is good but runs in a box You're right about Enemy Zero though ! Very nice when runing on a JPN system through RGB

Have you ever seen a Saturn run MPEG video without the MPEGcard? It runs it at perfect quality but missing every other frame. A few of the Sakura Taisen discs do this as do the Club Sega discs and a few other games. Valvan or what ever it's called runs perfect MPEG without the card but in a tinny box. It does look spot on though. I'll have to drag that game back out and try it with the MPEG card to see if it becomes full screen.

If you want to see the worst FMV EVER on a Saturn then check out Moon Cradel. It was originally a 3DO game or at least planned to be a 3DO game. With the MPEG card everything looks very nice but without it looks worse than a Mega CD.!!

Yakumo

[Team Andromeda]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Digital Dance Mix. that did have good true motion. Never really though Sonic Jam was good though. It could have been much better. Last Bronx is good but runs in a box You're right about Enemy Zero though ! Very nice when runing on a JPN system through RGB

Have you ever seen a Saturn run MPEG video without the MPEGcard? It runs it at perfect quality but missing every other frame. A few of the Sakura Taisen discs do this as do the Club Sega discs and a few other games. Valvan or what ever it's called runs perfect MPEG without the card but in a tinny box. It does look spot on though. I'll have to drag that game back out and try it with the MPEG card to see if it becomes full screen.

If you want to see the worst FMV EVER on a Saturn then check out Moon Cradel. It was originally a 3DO game or at least planned to be a 3DO game. With the MPEG card everything looks very nice but without it looks worse than a Mega CD.!!

Yakumo

Thats why Vatlva jerks around a bit, its one of the few Saturn games I have that uses Mpeg Softdec.
For me some of the worst FMV was in Gale Racer , D and VF II onthe Saturn. gale Racer was sh*t and worst than a mot of Mega CD games

Speaking of the Mega CD , fair play to EA thier Mega CD games had great full screeb intro's , and people should play Adv Of Batman and Robin onthe Mega CD. The intro to that is up with some of the Saturn's best in terms of quality .

Oh Treasure games made the best use of Cinepak onthe Saturn too

[sj33]

I just found out from dj898's for sale thread that Transport Tycoon came out on the Saturn O.O News to me!

How decent a port is it?

[dj898]

maybe I will pop in tonight and see how it is...

[Tirian]

So .... I am finally getting in the post a Saturn game that I've been wanting to get for ages, but always balked at the ebay price for it when it didn't really seem to be rare / amazing enough to warrant it.

The game is : Three Dirty Dwarves

Now, I know it ain't going to be a sublime classic, but do tell me - am I going to be sorely disappointed, or gratifyingly satisfied with this 'un?

Managed to bag two copies along with Darius Gaiden and some other nonentity (Fighting Vipers I think) for ?14 incl. post so it seemed worthwhile - seen 3DD sell for that on its own most times its been up.

Tirian

[Team Andromeda]

So .... I am finally getting in the post a Saturn game that I've been wanting to get for ages, but always balked at the ebay price for it when it didn't really seem to be rare / amazing enough to warrant it.

The game is : Three Dirty Dwarves

Now, I know it ain't going to be a sublime classic, but do tell me - am I going to be sorely disappointed, or gratifyingly satisfied with this 'un?

Hope u didn't pay much for it .
It a good laugh and has a really fun 3 player mode , its just too hard for its own good.
Have to say thoiugh it looks and sound amazing (made by the Ecoo guys) and some of the bosses and levels are a riot. It just a shame they made it so bloody hard

[Yakumo]

I just won 15 brand new factory sealed Saturn games from Yahoo Japan which included some great stuff like Shienryu and Batsugan but also some real crap like Assault Rigs & The Crow. Yes, both those heaps of **** got Japanese releases. The Crow is one that I was actually looking forward to since I'd never seen it before even in the UK. I remember people saying it was utter ****e and they were right ! Needless to say it will be Retro Core Vol.16's ****e of the month. Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you a bout one title that did catch my eye. It's no big name and it's not actually a game in the way that you'd actually have to put some effort in to playing it. What it is, is an interactive anime powered by the actual Saturn hardware !! Yep, NO FVM at all. The game is called Dino Island and is the follow up to Yumimi ReMix that appeared on the FM Towns, Mega CD and Saturn. This new game really does show you that the Saturn is a master of 2D. Some of the scenes can easily be mistaken as being from an actual anime DVD. The game is a great laugh full of comedy that even learners of Japanese should be able to understand. Playing the game is basically like watching an anime then decide what to do. Sort of like a digital comic in a way. Players of Dancing Blade on the dreamcast will know what I mean.

If you have a Saturn then I'd seriously conceder getting this title if you can find it. Game Arts yet again make a classic!!

Yakumo