Gametap: Panzer Dragoon Zwei

[Ivo]

We had talked about this before, but now PD 2 is actually out on gametap and that was a Saturn only game.

Do you reckon they are actually emulating it with a top notch Saturn emulator (and were they already doing that when they put out Gex - which had a PC version)?

Ivo.

[The Apprentice]

What the heck! I just spent a bunch of money buying the system and now some website is putting out it's best games on the internet?!?!?

[racketboy]

Only a couple games so far.
And you still have to pay for it.

There is more to the Saturn than Panzer Dragoon and Bug!

Besides, I'd MUCH rather play it on the Saturn than a PC.
If I wanted to play on a PC, I'd use an emulator.

[roushimsx]

Do you reckon they are actually emulating it with a top notch Saturn emulator (and were they already doing that when they put out Gex - which had a PC version)?

All of the Saturn games on Gametap are emulated and require some solid CPU horsepower to run smoothly. So far they've added Bug!, Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Golden Axe: The Duel to their lineup, and they have Clockwork Knight and Clockwork Knight 2 listed as "Coming Soon". Their emulation is extremely well done (they seem to do a lot of testing with the games before they officially support them).

Gametap has an official suggestions forum that damn near everyone in the company reads, so while it might be pretty obvious that Panzer Dragoon Saga / Radiant Silvergun / Soukyugurentai / Nights / Burning Rangers / Saturn Bomberman (with online gameplay support!) / Guardian Heroes / etc would be an awesome addition to the library, it never hurts to post a little message up on there and let 'em all know anyway. While Nintendo-published games probably won't ever happen (licensing hell + conflicting interests!), they've been known to add some pretty awesome fringe shit in the past (Pyramid Magic trilogy, Alien Soldier, Monster World IV, etc).

Basically, the place is run by some hardcore game nerds that pay attention to the community

Only a couple games so far.
And you still have to pay for it.

There is more to the Saturn than Panzer Dragoon and Bug!

Besides, I'd MUCH rather play it on the Saturn than a PC.
If I wanted to play on a PC, I'd use an emulator.

Well yea, but it's only a flat fee of $10 a month ($7/month with the annual plan) and there's over 900 other games to play on there. Granted, there's a lot of crap on there that no one would ever want to play (never played Earthworm Jim 3D? I envy you), but it's still an awesome all-you-can-eat buffet of goodness. Plus, it's the only way to legitimately support the ol' Saturn in this day and age (unless Sega decides to start licensing out Saturn games to other platforms/distributors/etc).

Hell, it's worth it for the PC games (Interstate '76 + Nitro Pack without any configuration issues! Sam & Max Season 1! Tom Raider Legend + Anniversary!) alone with all of the console stuff thrown in as a nice bonus. It's a neat concept with a novel pricing structure that has since rendered me completely unable to get behind the Virtual Console's pricing structure. Sucks that licensing issues keep 'em from really hold them back from expanding too much out of the USA, though I hear if you sign up for an account using a US-based proxy and use something akin to wirecard to pay, you can use the service in pretty much any country (last I checked, the client didn't check your region).

[racketboy]

Sam & Max would be one of the few things on there that would get me interested.
Actually, if they had a solid Windows Media Center plugin and interface, I would be much more interested.

[Mozgus]

Sam & Max would be one of the few things on there that would get me interested.
Actually, if they had a solid Windows Media Center plugin and interface, I would be much more interested.

The new Sam and Max is pretty bleh. I dled the season, and can barely tolerate it. It's pretty much void of funny, plus it likes to crash on me. And the crashing cant be blamed on any no-cd crack, because the game is free of any copy protection. Glad I didn't buy it.

[roushimsx]

Sam & Max would be one of the few things on there that would get me interested.
Actually, if they had a solid Windows Media Center plugin and interface, I would be much more interested.

I76 was the reason I joined and the constant stream of new stuff keeps me entertained plenty. I've got high hopes that they'll continue adding the Legacy of Kain games (right now they've just got Blood Omen 2 and soon they're adding Defiance), because the first Blood Omen is a complete bitch to get working properly on modern PCs. Even with all of the patches, hacks, a retail CD, and a guide, there's a good chance that the game is going to hang right before gameplay first starts I wouldn't complain about Privateer 2 being added either, though with the recent addition of Wing Commander 4, I've got my space flight sim need fulfilled for the time being (confession time: still not done with Tachyon )

It's a bummer that the lite player is incapable of launching PC games (stupid PC security!) or else it'd be fairly easy to fully integrate GameTap into MCE.

The new Sam and Max is pretty bleh. I dled the season, and can barely tolerate it. It's pretty much void of funny, plus it likes to crash on me. And the crashing cant be blamed on any no-cd crack, because the game is free of any copy protection. Glad I didn't buy it.

While humor is completely subjective, FWIW most people find it funny as hell. I've never had any crashing problems with the game whatsoever. I've had startup issues in the past with the Deluxe Client, but no stability issues with Sam & Max.

[The Apprentice]

Wait, this could be a very good thing... if the titles are on gametap then the originals should get cheaper. Higher availablity means higher supply and lower demand.

[Ivo]

It should be obvious by now, but I meant "Bug" instead of "Gex" in the original post

I have a Saturn too and a lot of controllers for it, so I'm with you on playing it on the original - but I'm glad to know that some pros have finally nailed down a good / excellent emulator for it. This might signal that Saturn games in VC are not far off, for example.

Ivo.

[roushimsx]

I have a Saturn too and a lot of controllers for it, so I'm with you on playing it on the original - but I'm glad to know that some pros have finally nailed down a good / excellent emulator for it. This might signal that Saturn games in VC are not far off, for example.

I'd be pretty surprised if the Wii had enough juice under the hood for Saturn emulation, but I'd love for Sega to prove that idea wrong. Even then, the games would have to be reworked a good bit to be small enough (ditto for XBLA). Given how adamant Sony is at ensuring the US and UK PSN stores are as worthless as possible, I strongly doubt we'll ever see anything there, either.

Maybe one of these days someone at Sega will get their head out of their ass long enough to realize that a compilation DVD of a couple of Sega-published Saturn games might go over pretty well here in the US. Hell, I wouldn't even complain if they got Digital Eclipse to do the porting. Jesus, there's already plenty more Sega 3D Ages titles released in Japan since the last Classics Collection, so I can't imagine what's stopping them from doing another with Panzer Dragoon, Last Bronx, Virtua Fighter 2, Die Hard Arcade, and Fighting Vipers on it.