The Saturn’s Hidden Potential

It’s interesting sometimes how certain concepts can coalesce at the same time from different places. Just last week the Official PlayStation Twitter account tweeted a rather wonderful comparison between the Toyota Supra model from Gran Turismo 2 (the account labelled it the original Gran Turismo, despite the ’99 Tom’s Supra not being in the original game). It showcased how far we’ve come, but it reminded me how impressive 1999 PS1 graphics were compared to where they started.

Meanwhile, Sega Lord X recently released a review of Aladdin for the Mega Drive (or Genesis) in which he talked up how impressive the game was on the then five year old Sega console.

Unlike most platforms, especially the Mega Drive and PS1 which saw a decade of official releases each, the Saturn got nowhere near that level of support and we therefore never got to see what a fifth year of hardware pushing software may have looked like.

The reasons why are obvious. The console was unfortunately a distant third in the 5th gen console race. How distant it was when Bernie said it was “not our future" just two years removed from its surprise launch is debatable, but Sega themselves were keen to draw a line under their mistakes as early as 1997.

We’d see a few glimpses of what it could do, but mostly in software just a year or two on from its launch. Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop and Panzer Dragoon Zwei still rank among the best looking games on the system, and while later titles like Last Bronx, Panzer Dragoon Saga and Burning Rangers all hinted at something more, we never quite saw the full promise of the console. In fact you only have to look at ports of Sega Touring Car Championship and The House of the Dead to realise that Sega had basically downed tools by late 1997 and was focussed on getting the final big titles out before they pulled the plug.

Meanwhile, the PS1 software was maturing. Tekken 3, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Metal Gear Solid all came during the Saturn’s final year, and redefined what could be done on Sony's hardware. Ridge Racer Type 4 in particular coincided with a demo of the original game running at double the originals frame rate.

The PlayStation and Mega Drive were both relatively simple to develop for. The Saturn meanwhile was a complex beast that scared off many developers during its lifetime. Yet if the potential of hardware as straightforward as the PS1 and Mega Drive could be unlocked, imagine what the Saturn could do?

There’s often a misconception that Sega's Saturn was underpowered, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Saturn’s 8 processor set up was filled with not only power, but tricks and features that could compensate for any perceived the power gap, while the PlayStation’s more conventional set up (which closely mirrors even todays consoles) was far friendlier to get to grips with.

A comparison could reasonably be made with the SNES and Mega Drive capabilities. The SNES CPU was far slower than that of the Mega Drive, something Sega liked to draw attention to and formed part of the memorable “blast processing” marketing push, but Nintendo’s console was full of secret sauce like Mode7. Trickery on both consoles would make up the difference for ports, the Mega Drive emulating Mode7 style effects through software and pure grunt in its processing advantage, while the SNES could use those effects to make that aforementioned deficit a complete non-issue. It may be an oversimplification, but the scenario isn’t far removed from the Saturn and PS1, with Sega’s console having more in common with the Super Nintendo than their own previous work.

And when Sega used those tools, the results were often breath-taking. Virtua Fighter 2 and Last Bronx with their use of VDP 2’s infinite planes effects produce clean, sharp and fluid 3D that arguably wasn’t beaten until Tekken 3. In fact, compare Last Bronx's faux 3D arenas with Soulblade's polygonal stages and see which one runs at double the others frame rate. It’s an example of the Saturn showing that while it couldn’t necessarily outgun the PS1 in terms of raw 3D performance, it could create effects that were just as or arguably even more beautiful.

Examples are unfortunately few and far between, and that’s the point. These features weren’t used anywhere near enough, we saw only hints at what the Saturn could do. In time you could have seen a Burning Rangers with less glitches and more effects, another title spanning a wide open world like Bulk Slash or perhaps even the mythical Virtua Fighter 3 port.

And that Virtua Fighter 3 conversion is interesting in its own way in the conversation. The game was confirmed by Sega many times, Yu Suzuki mentioned its development. How Sega expected the Saturn to house an accurate representation of the Model 3 monster is unknown, but AM2 would seem to have devised a way to do it. And if they truly had solved the riddle of adding 3D undulating 3D arenas to the showpiece that was Virtua Fighter 2, then it definitely hinted at the untapped potential of the Saturn.

I still maintain that Virtua Fighter 2, Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Bulk Slash are some of the most visually impressive games, not just on the Saturn, but of the entire generation. Yet they represent only years one, two and three respectively. Can you imagine what we could have seen if developers had gotten more time to get those twin SH2's to work in harmony, to calculate more geometry and use those fancy VDP2 effects and hi-res modes to their maximum.

Sadly, come 1998, Sega diverted all of their attention to the Dreamcast and Saturn game development was curtailed. Though 3rd party software would continue in Japan until 2000 with games utilising the 4MB RAM cart, these weren’t really going the metal. If you compare Final Fight Revenge with Sega's own fighting efforts, you wonder what the extra RAM is actually doing.

Of course, the community have stepped in and projects such as Sonic Z-Treme offer more glimpses of what could have been.

But aside from that, it’s just another case of “what could have been" for Sega's penultimate console, the Saturn was the star that shined so briefly that we will never know its true beauty.