Lobotomy were gods among men. They didn't necessarily make the style of game that I enjoyed playing much, but man oh man did they make them well considering the hardware. Their engine and talent could have been used on lots of game styles besides FPS and I would've loved to see that as well.
I said it before in the Powerslave video and I'll say it here again, if anyone from Lobotomy Software is reading this, THANK YOU for making some of the BEST GAMES EVER.
For a man who discovered an entire mathematical technique, Carmac sometimes made a couple of interesting choices. To be fair to him, he admitted in retrospect he should have let the original Doom Saturn version get finished and released as it was the far superior version.
John Carmack had a very clear and singular vision: he wanted to make game worlds that felt solid and real. The wobbly polygons and warping textures of the 32-bit consoles ran counter to that idea, so he was very single-minded about not allowing their use in ports of his games. Of course it massively hurt the playability of Doom in the end, and he later admitted to have made the wrong judgement call. It's easy to forget he was only in his mid-20's at the time and lacked some of the perspective that comes with age.
> For a man who discovered an entire mathematical technique Are you referring to the fast inverse square root? That was falsely credited to Carmack. It was designed by a pair of mathematicians in the early 80s (Cleve Moler and Gregory Walsh)
@@sohatyi It's also made out to be a much bigger deal than it actually is. Yes it's a very clever technique and yes it helped speed up some of the game's math, but it's often presented as if it's THE reason why Quake 3 is so fast and that's just nonsense. The reason why Quake is so fast is because of smart design, tight and efficient programming, thorough optimization, and overall strong discipline on the part of the entire team at id Software.
1996 was such an amazing time to be a gamer! The shift from 2D to more 3D games was astounding! I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D on the PC and just being absolutely blown away by the whole experience. It took the foundation of DOOM and just made it even better!
I remember picking this game up for the Saturn in the early 2000s only mildly aware of Duke Nukem from video game magazines. I absolutely love this game. One of the best FPS games I've ever played.
Possibly the best looking game on the Saturn. IMO it still looks impressive today, especially when compared to PS1 and N64 games of the time. I always wanted this back in the day and I finally picked it up a few years ago NIB. It did not disappoint, and it is much more playable with the 3d control pad.
The dynamic lights are what do it for me. We didn't really have those (light emissions when duke fires) on PC, that looks noice. Also the explosions look way better. Surprised no one made a modded Duke 3D with a Saturn lick of paint.
Wish i got these games instead of Loaded ..Or NBA LIVE 98 Payed full price back then and neither game was worth a damn. Live 98 was good on ps1 but oh the Saturn was awful. Still had UMK3, STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2 ,X MEN CotA,DIE HARD TRILOGY, RESIDENT EVIL and still own all of these in their og giant plastic cases. Guess i wasnt into fps or just never seen these advertized so i never asked parents for them or saved for them. I was obssesed with finding anything like Twisted Metal 2 after playing it at my cousin s . I chose Saturn ,He N64 and his adopted brother had ps1. The quality of these 3 fps games is very impressive on this weird machine.
Pardon me for being cheapy BUT! ..why did I burnt the PAL Exhumed/Powerslave, me reading the Wikipedia article? Definitive variant? It's been forever I still a relatively new M1 owner and no no such thang as storage here all my toys stay n jacked in!
This was the only version of Duke 3D I had played until very recently. I actually had no idea about the PC version's warped geometry when looking up and down due to the Build engine until just last year, kind of surprised you didn't mention that it's a non-issue on the Saturn due to Slavedriver. For a time, the Saturn version could have possibly been argued as being the definitive version of the game for this reason alone. Of course, you can't go wrong with any version of Duke 3D. Hail to the King, baby.
@Vicious Alien Klown World I think the Saturn version may suffer from some rare polygon clipping (not sure what it's called exactly) at times. Like in the second level or so when you first encounter the pig cop in a flying vehicle and enemies show up from behind the corner early in that level I would sometimes see frames of the enemies through the wall, which I don't remember having on PS or PC but I have never played any version all the way to the end so for all I know Saturn may have had less graphical bugs than the rest.
It just goes to show you that with the right game development team at the helm, you can accomplish some amazing feats even with limited hardware. I am amazed they got this game to run pretty well on the Saturn.
Back when getting janky ports was basically par for the course this was a beautiful thing. It's a shame more people couldn't experience it at the time as I think it's diminished quite a bit by time. Still amazing for the time but less so now.
Honestly, I'm just happy to encounter someone else who remembers the first two Duke Nukem games. I don't think I'd realized that DN3D continued directly from the second game's ending. I always feel completely nuts when I think about the first two games, because the tone was so completely different. I mean, Duke was still fundamentally the same character, a pretty cliche (in an entertaining way) action hero, but the first two games weren't exactly adult material and then suddenly Duke Nukem 3D had strippers. Hell of a thing to discover when you're 11. >_>
I'm glad you mentioned "analogue support", although you literally only mention it. Playing this game with the Saturn 3D controller for Nights was a sheer joy - so smooth, intuitive and controllable! I actually preferred this to the PC's mouse and keyboard setup.
My fav FPS hands down is Duke Nukem 3D. I was 15 when it came out and I remember putting the PC version in layaway and cutting grass, chores, etc to save up for it. Needless to say was estatic once I finally got to play the full version. I used to be big into the custom maps also even going as far as to make several levels based on my high school at the time. Never new this game ran so well on the Sega Saturn. I think what I liked so well was you actually felt like you were in a real place. So many other FPS made these large elaborate areas that didn't feel real. With Duke Nukem 3D you felt like you were in a city, restaurant, alien ship, canyon, etc.
I noticed that the view point tends to tilt slightly as the player turns corners. Not something you see a lot in first person shooters. I'm usually pretty prone to motion sickness in certain games, especially when they have lots of dark areas (I still haven't finished Alien Trilogy, and never even got to see the alien in the latest Alien game as a result). However, I didn't get that feeling while watching this video, although admittedly, I haven't played this game myself.
Also the horrendous texture warping when viewing walls at shallow angles (see 3:10). The tilted view and warping textures create a really disorientating, almost surreal experience at times. Its interesting how this generation of consoles came right at that awkward phase when the console manufacturers and game developers were still trying to figure out how 3D graphics and gameplay should work. Each console's 3D capabilities were compromised in ways that they wouldn't have been with the benefit of hindsight.
Saturn version is the only one I can actually play. Everytime I try another port, I can't help but see everything that is missing. The Saturn port runs on a true 3D engine, and you have these tilts effects when turning that only exist in this version, as well as the ambient lighting. The game is also smooth enough to be perfectly enjoyable on a CRT, so that's how I end up replaying this game every once in a while. Back then, FPS had fantastic level-design.
Duke Nukem looks like the short haired Jeff Jarrett that we saw back in the Attitude Era and WCW days and yes, Jarrett also wore sunglasses back then. I can't help but think that Jarrett's look back then was influenced by the Duke Nukem videogame character.
You got me hooked with your top 10 videos. But I absolutely love these in depth breakdown of games and their history. Great job. Thank you, keep up the GREAT work!
Worth a mention that the UK s Official Sega Saturn magazine seemed to have a great kinship with Lobotomy. Jevons one of the staff was invited to their HQ and did some interviews regarding Duke and Quake. Jevons famously gave them the idea of the different control scheme. Using the 3D analogue to look. Using YZB&C for strafe and movement. Freeing up the dpad for items select and use. Triggers as jump and fire! So impressed by the suggestion. It's dubbed the Jevons code in the game when activated and also Quake features the layout to.
Great review as always. One of my favourite Saturn games of the era. One thing though - I completely understand the control frustrations, however if you have an analogue controller you can input a cheat to enable Jevons Control which allows you to play in a more modern control method and you dont have to pause whenever you want to use an item: On the analogue pad, pause the game and press YYZZXXYXZ. Unpause the game and you'll see the message Jevons Control: On. The analogue pad will always make you look up, down, left and right. The other controls are as follows: A: Open Door/Drink/Action B: Backward C: Strafe right X: Use item Y: Strafe left Z: Walk Forward L: Shoot R: Jump D-pad Up/Down: Select item D-pad Left/Right: Select weapon
What made Duke Nukem 3D so special was, his like similarity to 80´s action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. Duke Nukem is still a walking cliché, and this is what made those games so special.
This was easily the best console port of that era. Btw, check out Doom 32X Resurrection. Loads of new features, entirely new engine and It puts the Saturn version to shame (not hard though lol). I'd like to see more videos on this kind of stuff, it's often more interesting than the same old official games.
I was a person who had both a Sega Saturn and a pentium 120 at the time and Duke 3d ran great,never had the Saturn version ,played the n64 version and liked it but always wanted this version
My friend gave me the shareware version of this on CD-ROM. I ended up buying the Kill-a-ton collection a few months later on my birthday. I didn't realize how much I would miss 1997. *sigh*
I remember playing this game at 8 years old and loved this game on PC. My grandfather was a big gamer all the way back to Atari and Nintendo entertainment console playing super Mario brothers back then. Priceless memories me and grandpa playing Duke nukem 3D together.
I can't believe they got it to run at a decent framerate on an engine more powerful than the original Build on PC...lighting aside, you can really tell when looking up or down; on the PC we got a weird kind of forced perspective, here it's actual 3D projection (like the openGL version). Quite impressive really.
That DeathTank game had me and my friends playing into the wee hours of the morning more than once. Still have the multi tap for 8 player mayhem. unlocked it the hard way by destroying every toilet in the game... or you could have a saturn quake save and unlock it automatically.
Interesting that the Build engine wasn't used on this port. The dynamic lighting when you shoot your gun looks really good
3 года назад
Was a big fan of Duke Nukem 3D all the way back in 96 when it came out on PC. Played an ungodly amount of Dukematches with my friends, though, I never paid much attention to the console ports, figuring they'd simply be watered down versions of the PC game. It was only a couple of years ago that John Linneman from Digital Foundry made me aware of how unique the Saturn port actually is, and so after hearing that I decided to finally try it out. Ended up playing through all of it, and on original hardware no less. Really good stuff :)
I love the rearrangements they did for the Saturn soundtrack (funny enough, most of them seem to come from levels not in the Saturn version, either as they're part of the Plutonium Pak or cut secret levels) Amusingly to get to 27 levels, they counted certain levels twice (as the Saturn version splits Toxic Dump, Fusion Station and Dark Side in two parts)
Great port that I'll only see here since i can play this and Quake on Switch. Lobotomy Software did a great job on this no doubt. I vividly remember when the og PC version came out i played the on my dads pc on 1996.
Back in ‘96ish I was like 12 yes old and remember playing Duke Nukem 3D and thinking that whoever made the game got confused r bc they placed toilet paper in those video club closet. Lol
I bought my pal Saturn with this game as a gift ..and it's in my top 10 best of all time games easily..had to rent quake for the death tank mini game back then.. Memories..
The absolute KILLER for this game was no in-level saving. Everything else about this game's port was G-d tier. But man, having to beat each level straight up was enough for me to put it back on the shelf after an hour.
I loved Duke Nukem 3D on PC and grabbed the Switch port recently. I spoke with Jon St John (voice of Duke) for a podcast recently and boy, he's a fun guy to speak with. Awesome review, I haven't yet played this port. 🎮
Between Duke nukem and Exhumed (powerslave) lobotomy were absolute genius. Both games were brilliant and I played them to death explorer every level over and over again....
Lobotomy were arguably the best third party developer for the Saturn. I think Traveler's Tales could have gone a lot more too given how good their Sonic R engine was and just how good they were in general
I have a question, will you review some of the amazing homebrew Saturn games? Or are you only going yo review those wich released during the system's life
@@DARS_04 there are amazing Sega Saturn homebrew that pushes the hardware to its breaking point, like HellSlave made by XL2 a 3D FPS whit 3D enemies, weapons, light sourcing, animated reflections and a rock solid framerate, plus 4 player split screen multiplayer, also Cube Cat by 7shades altought not a graphical marvel but Its extremely fun, whit cleverly designed levels and obstacles and many more amazing games, im actually developing one for the Saturn a fully 3D Sonic game Sonic Ringworlds, we've gotten our 1900 poligon test map running on real hardware at 60fps, so yeah the Saturn is still kicking whit some grade A software
@@am.2572 Dayum. I was thinking of cool 2D stuff, but thats on a whole 'nother level. Ok then, is the blue rat a 2d prerendered image or a 3D model like Sonic Jam?
I had no idea the Saturn received a Duke port! That it was good is surprising. To discover that Lobotomy was responsible is not. Yet another informative review from SegaLordX, well worth watching.
Clearly Lobotomy's A team handled this port and I know in a lot of ways it as better than the PlayStation and N64 versions, while Quake was impressive but this was Lobotomy's crown jewel on the Saturn!
Thank you for sharing this. I had no idea this was such a remarkable port. I will likely never play it since this game keeps getting ported/upddated to modern systems, but it is fun video game history nonetheless. Only recently has it fully dawned on me that in the 90s, pretty much any time a game was crossplatform it was rebuilt from the ground up for that platform, often by a different team. It's a lot of effort for a port.
Amazing game and so fun in 2 player mode. You don’t need real online to play in 2 player mode, you need however a lot of stuff for that : 2 Saturn, 2 games duke Nukem, 2 televisions, 2 modems and a Viking line simulator.
I am a big fan of Duke Nukem 3D, and I credit the Sega Saturn version for that (I wasn't a PC gamer at the time, though I had played it on PC at a friend's house). The PlayStation version just didn't control well, and the Nintendo 64 version, while it offered a fun 4 player split-screen mode, I didn't like the censorship. At that time Duke Nukem 3D on Sega Saturn was the best overall version in my opinion, and it also is the first console game I had beaten in online co-op, so I'll always remember it just for that.
That little twist in the camera when the view is rotated is not in the PSX version, I love that little movement, it gives it a lot of immersion in my opinion.
One the first games I had play on my suturn, man that was awesome. At that time I thought all 3d games for the system look like that, boy I was wrong... wrong... wrong
I wish they open sourced all the Sega Saturn games so people could improve the performance and find out really what the Saturn would have been able to do.
