Great Visual Effects on the Sega Saturn - Part 3
2,721Let's take a look at some viewer recommendations for some of the better-looking games on the Sega Saturn.
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
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By: Jan Neves
YouTube Page - https://www.youtube.com/user/Jan3d
Intro by Evan S.
https://portfolio.tsestudios.com/
Episode Notes:
1. Captured on real hardware.
2. I chose the games based on titles that did not appear in the first 2 episodes, as well as games that seemed to get the most request in the comments.
3. Of course there are many more great-looking games for the Saturn. Sound off if you'd like to see a part 4!
4. For those curious, VDP stood for Video Display Processor. VDP1 was the sprite and polygon engine for the Saturn. Simply, if you saw polygons or moving characters on the screen, this chip likely was doing it. VDP2 handled the backgrounds and the infinite planes. It could do these in layers at the same time so you could have parallax and a 3D-looking floor all in the same shot.
5. Saturn underwent many changes during its R&D. It is constantly mislabeled as a 2D machine that was made 3D at the last minute. This is utterly not true and often uses Hideki Sato interviews as a reference. You need to understand that games like Panzer Dragon and Virtua Fighter were among the first games in development for the Saturn and were always going to be 3D. Where the mistake comes is that Hideki Sato was there from the very start of the Saturn's development, and thus when it was to be based on the System32 all the way back in 1992. The Saturn morphed from a 2D to 3D console over the course of YEARS, not at the last minute. The last-minute change people within Sega are talking about is the late addition of a second VDP(VDP2). Saturn was meant to be a polygon rendering console with 2 CPUs from 1993 forward. The Saturn was not meant to be a dedicated 2D machine any more than the PlayStation was, considering the latter started life as a CDROM attachment for the SNES.
6. When Sega started marketing the Saturn, they pitched it as a 64-bit console. By their estimate, the two 32-bit CPUs added up, and that made it better than the Playstation and 3DO. Some inside Sega even wanted to drive it as a 128-bit console since all the processors should be added up. That's marketing for you.