Inferior Saturn Ports

[dunpeal2064]

Ah okay, I was wrong on that then, for some reason I thought they messed with that one a bit, but I think I was just confusing it and Silhouette. Still, I do think the ps1 port is the better. I liked the extra mode, and the CG was pretty rad too. But, its debatable.

[pakopako]

[quote="TheRev"So there are 3 ports on the Saturn I know that aren't up to snuff...those are

Marvel Super Heroes (famously pointed out here)[/quote]
I missed that. Why was MSH on the Saturn the poorest port? (n/m -- stumbled onto CD AGES thorough take -- man, neither version sounds great, but that L/R thing on the Saturn SUCKS.)

Anyone manage to get their hands on Herc's Adventures for Saturn?

[CD AGES]

Info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkmX6oUNOQ (Battle of the ports) + Better animation, more detailed backgrounds, less slowdown - RAM cart doesn’t seem to add anything /Segagaga

I'm sorry but when Fighters are concerned, those Battle of the ports vids are useless.

Yes, slightly better animation, Yes better background details. No! Saturn has more slowdown than PS1.

Not true. The ram cart adds a lot of frames of animation that was removed for the homeports. Too bad its at the cost of game performance (more slowdown, More loading).

[CD AGES]

but I'm not sure how to go about telling it to these other fellas

Tell them what, exactly?

[pierrot]

but I'm not sure how to go about telling it to these other fellas

Tell them what, exactly?

That they are wrong, since they both seem to very much prefer the Saturn.

It's a commonly held belief that the Saturn version is far superior to the PS1 version, but AGES has done an extensive break down of the differences, and has some videos on his youtube channel that illustrate the problems with the Saturn port. It's all true, as far as I can tell. Certainly the slowdown and loading times are. I can't vouch for the animations, but I can't count frames, or focus on animations closely enough to see if there's anything missing or not.

[marurun]

I loved the Saturn SOTN (Dracula X) when it came out merely for the extra content.. not only the extra 2 levels, but the ability to play as Richter and Maria from the start.. as well as the 3rd hand,and a plethera of extra items. HOWEVER... looking back overall,, the PS1 is still the better game for many reasons, unfortunately.

PS1 SoTN is an overall more polished package, but there is one critical factor that makes me just as likely to play the Saturn version. The Saturn has improved mechanics. There is a double-tap to run artifact which is awesome and the dive attack is a little better because it is less likely to result in you getting hit by the enemy you just kicked. These two things make a huge difference when traversing old areas or just exploring the castle.

[marurun]

As for the original question, Sega Rally Championship. I understand the PS2 port is pretty much arcade-perfect.

For the PS2, Model 2 quality graphics are pretty easy. Not sure comparing a Saturn port to a PS2 port is really a question of inferior ports. I think this is more about the immediate competition, like PS1 vs Saturn.

It's pretty easy to compare 3D games. The Playstation usually wins on identical titles. The PS1 was much easier to develop for and sacrificed some accuracy for speed and sparkles(no perspective correction, more seams between polys). The Saturn was VRAM and CPU-heavy, but was a PITA to develop for, lacked quality compression options for audio and textures, and some of the special effects features, like transparency, had some bizarre limitations that caused many programmers to simply avoid using them.

The Saturn's 3D setup was also something of a hybrid setup, while the PS1 had a much more traditional rendering arrangement. The PS1 rendered triangles. The Saturn rendered quads, which is common in high-end rendering workstations but not the standard for anything outside of that environment, not today and not then. The Saturn had better background and bitmap manipulation, and because of the odd quad 3D rendering method it was actually pretty easy to develop 2D games, especially if you didn't have any particular need to tap the second CPU.

Ports tended to suck on the Saturn if the title was originally developed with a traditional 3D rendering platform in mind (most cross-platform 3D games). Also, many contract developers did minimal QC on their Saturn ports and didn't put in the extra work to take advantage of the hardware, meaning "cheap" or farmed-out ports tended to suffer. Work that was done in-house at studios tended to go better.

[valgalder]

I loved the Saturn SOTN (Dracula X) when it came out merely for the extra content.. not only the extra 2 levels, but the ability to play as Richter and Maria from the start.. as well as the 3rd hand,and a plethera of extra items. HOWEVER... looking back overall,, the PS1 is still the better game for many reasons, unfortunately.

PS1 SoTN is an overall more polished package, but there is one critical factor that makes me just as likely to play the Saturn version. The Saturn has improved mechanics. There is a double-tap to run artifact which is awesome and the dive attack is a little better because it is less likely to result in you getting hit by the enemy you just kicked. These two things make a huge difference when traversing old areas or just exploring the castle.

Ah yes, that's a good point. Also Saturn had a music test which I liked.. I remember when it came out, I actually recorded all the music manually from the music test, because I could find or afford the official soundtrack. It's been forever since i've played through the entire Saturn version but I also remember there being some additional familiars and things too.. could be wrong though.

[marurun]

It's been forever since i've played through the entire Saturn version but I also remember there being some additional familiars and things too.. could be wrong though.

Those familiars were in the JPN PS1 version, so the Saturn version can't actually claim them as new content. They were removed from the US release because they were a bit redundant.

[aaron]

As for the original question, Sega Rally Championship. I understand the PS2 port is pretty much arcade-perfect.

For the PS2, Model 2 quality graphics are pretty easy. Not sure comparing a Saturn port to a PS2 port is really a question of inferior ports. I think this is more about the immediate competition, like PS1 vs Saturn.

the saturn version of NiGHTS absolutely SUCKS compared to the steam release. the graphics are sooooooo bad!