18 New Sega Saturn Games & Demos in Development in 2024

[@TailsOfSaturn]

Thanks for showing my game. Looking forward to seeing more of yours.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

You're welcome! I hope you continue to upload your progress

[@StudioBadGuy]

The magic in retro consoles for me is that each one had a particular graphic style. You could look at a screenshot in a magazine and know what console it was on.

[@leyria]

It's really cool to see the Saturn homebrew scene taking off. As soon as I finish my current project for the mega drive. I plan on doing something for it in the future too. Great video :)

[@roberto1519]

Just do it!!!!!

[@legbender1584]

​@@roberto1519MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!!!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

No time like the present!

[@leyria]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials I should have explained it better, I've been developing a JRPG for the Mega Drive for 7 years, so I haven't had much time ^^* Once I finish it I'll dedicate more time to Saturn and Dreamcast

[@roberto1519]

​@@leyria Can you show us your game, even if it's not complete, that would be really interesting, do you have a blog or something?

[@GabrielSansigolo]

Thanks for showing my work! and congratulations on an amazing video

[@smokeydops]

thanks for showing my work! and I missed some stuff that you show in here even though i hit up the discord daily :)

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

You're welcome, look forward to seeing more of your game. I keep a favourites folders over the year which I add to whenever I see any new Saturn stuff, so that helps me keep track of everything (although I still probably missed one or two things)

[@panzerdragonlegend6664]

Finally something from SEGA's 32-bit beast

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

The Saturn scene gets better and better every year!

[@GreyMatterShades]

It's cool to see the Saturn indie/homebrew scene continue to develop. Hopefully the engines make further progress, and a place emerges for developers to teach and share knowledge. Not gonna lie though, I'd be more excited to see full Sega CD support added to SGDK.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

It looks like no one is working on Mega CD stuff unfortunately. I might try and see if I can get something going myself, as I really like the MCD

[@GreyMatterShades]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials That is unfortunate, yeah. Is it fully supported by SGDK yet? I'd love to see what you could pull off with the system. The only support I've heard of it getting in modern games is a Tanglewood port (where the dev had an actual MCD dev kit), and a few MD games adding CD audio. The lack of MCD development could be down to the bigger features like sprite scaling not being supported in SGDK yet. It could also be due to the smaller MCD install base meaning fewer developers with nostalgia for it and fewer people to sell to. Though now with emulators, MiSTer, and even high end flash carts able to play MCD, I'd think there are plenty of people who could play games for it. Hopefully there's a surge of MCD development in the near future.

[@thehumbleone1983]

Agree would love to see Mega Cd and about that hey PigsyRetro didn’t Stephan who made SGDK wasn’t he thinking about that we should support Stephan and on patron account to get him to start work on it as I would donate a $5 to $10 a month for him to make a SGDK mega cd kit so people can make new games cause I love see the mega cd what it could fully do and I want new games to buy like how new mega drives I buy adding to its amazing games released already like Demons of Asterborg , XenoCrisis and many more thanks to the many talented people from around the world keeping my favourite console I grew up with the Mega Drive

[@StevenJennings-x8w]

Frogbull… what a legend on the Saturn!!

[@KindoSaur]

I have a feeling that a lot of old systems like the Saturn weren't explored enough. Especially seeing these awesome projects!

[@roberto1519]

It wasn't, we could extend your comment to the 3DO, Jaguar and 32X, as all of these systems were quite capable, but didn't have time to mature in the hands of devs. Take the Jaguar, for instance, in order for them to release games in time, they opted to use the 68K CPU that was basically there to help the system in other tasks. SimCity 2000, Alien Trilogy and many others only used one CPU on the Saturn. While the best games for the PS1 started coming out from 1998 onwards, if we take early PS1 titles and compare to what came from 1998 to 2001, they even might look like it's another console. Formula One 2001, TOCA World Touring Cars are very impressive and they were released in 2000 and 2001. The Saturn never reached its true potential, it's sad, but that's what happens when companies do what SEGA did.

[@gabrieldias3479]

​@@roberto1519 I just don't completely agree with the 3DO, though. I think it did a good job showing what it was capable of. The issue with it was the huge price and being the older 32 bit sibling, of course it fell short when compared to the Saturn and PSX. But overall, it had a good go. (of course probably there's still some "hidden potential" in there like we are now finding out with other systems, especially the Mega Drive) Personally, along with the Saturn, I'm curious about the potential of the 32X and even the Mega CD. Of course, the Jaguar as well, especially because it was marketed as a 64 bit console and in practical terms it seemed worse than the 3DO even.

[@roberto1519]

​@@gabrieldias3479 The 3DO barely stayed for 2 years, while the PS1 went all the way to 2000's, sure, the 3DO was weaker in basically every aspect compared to either the SAT/PS, but I'm sure devs would make better use for it IF it was popular enough to endure the race to, at least, 1999. The thing is, 1993 to 1995 were very experimental and most devs had no clue what to do with such new technology. The amount of tricks they pulled of to reach the potential of many PS games, for instance, is crazy.

[@gabrieldias3479]

@@roberto1519 I've never realized how short 3DO's life was LOL 😅 (I've checked on Wikipedia for proper info also) But still, considering its good initial games (Street Fighter, Road Rash, Need For Speed, FIFA 97 and so on), I think it managed to give us a sample of its power. Unlike the Saturn, 32X, Sega CD and Jaguar who were a bit messed with the timing of their releases, or being used against their potential etc. But I am NOT disagreeing with you that it would be nice if people today managed to explore the 3DO more to its limits.

[@jetfrog4574]

The Saturn was the 3D and 2D powerhouse of it's generation. It's capabilities have/were barely even scratched.

[@Kao108]

Thank you as always for these highlights! Love me seeing some new and exciting saturn stuff. I'm a game designer and artist but sadly I don't know how to program, and I'd love to eventually just try some simple things on the system. Things like the Jo Engine are very interesting for that reason

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

If you're an artist than try getting in touch with some developers on the Sega Xtreme discord or forum, as I'm sure they'll love to work with someone good at the graphically side

[@delalicanto7432]

We need a Pigsy work on Saturn!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

I will do for sure once my MD projects are in a much more complete state

[@franciscoraupp]

Long live the Sega Saturn! Very happy to see the homebrew community giving this beast of a console some love.

[@RetroPiero]

Wonderful to see the Saturn get resurrected to today's times. An amazing system that had a bright future taken away from it too soon.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Yeah, it still had a good few years left in it when the Dreamcast launched

[@jacklawsen6390]

Suprising to see so many Saturn projects considering the system's complex architecture, especially when SNES homebrew seems so scarce.

[@gabrieldias3479]

Considering how much aggressive Nintendo has been recently against the "fan world" (emulators, mods, hacks, etc.), I wonder if people haven't been giving the SNES the same love because of sheer fear of receiving _the letter_ from Nintendo's lawyers.

[@protocetid]

@@gabrieldias3479 Reprints of old games for classic Nintendo systems have been sold for years. I don't think Nintendo can do anything about people making new software for their old consoles if you're not using a Nintendo IP.

[@gabrieldias3479]

@@protocetid You have a rational and valid point. I can't argue with that. However, Nintendo has been so strict (to not use a swear word) that I don't doubt about anything else they might do to "protect their property". Even if that doesn't make sense.

[@protocetid]

@@gabrieldias3479 I understand the pessimism over unofficial content for Nintendo hardware, it’s probably best to not give into it because I think that’s what Nintendo wants. They want to intimidate you into not playing their games and experiencing their IPs in any unofficial capacity, even if it doesn’t hurt them financially. When there’s a clear legal threat for those actions then I can’t ask anyone to ignore it, but we have people selling unlicensed games without any repercussions. As these retro machines age Nintendo loses more control over them, patents, copyrights and I don’t know what else (IANAL) expire.

[@Kamawan0]

@@protocetidThe brave pay the price.

[@ninjapants7688]

Really hope XL2 has something in the works or is still working on his engine some more.

[@Hwi1son]

I love the Saturn. Let's go

[@RolandoMarreroPR]

Saturn finally getting some love from homebrew devs!

[@dafneorlow]

I see RE 2 at the very start, final fantasy 7, metal gear solid and I think back to Hawkeye's line in Endgame: "Don't give me hope" But this is brilliant!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

The Saturn scene has much more small demos at the moment when compared to the MD, but I'm confident we'll start seeing more and more actual games as the dev tools become better and more people start to get involved

[@dafneorlow]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials is there any way we can work with triangles instead of quadrilaterals. Can we 'fake it' somehow? 😅

[@Charlie-eq3dj]

​@@dafneorlowIs it possible to use the same coordinate twice? The resulting polygon will be a triangle. That may not be a perfect fix but it may make transferring models a bit easier

[@der-Troet]

metal gear solid 😜😜

[@SuperReye]

Thanks for mentioning SRL, we are working hard when we can on getting it finished :)

[@southtexasatlatl]

That's awesome, really looking forward to the X-Men game. Hopefully someone will bring the Aliens arcade game to the Saturn too.

[@cryptocsguy9282]

This stuff is so cool 😮 , i haven't been able to find much information on SH assembly language for the saturn/dreamcast so I'll definitely check out those game engines that allow you to use C. Revenge of shinobi is one of my favourite games too so good luck with your project 😊

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Everyone in the Saturn scene uses C, as apparently the compiler for the SH2 is pretty good. Even most devs back in the 90s used C for Saturn games

[@yearight5303]

8:30 he's really pumping that thing.

[@DDRmails]

im so proud of this people

[@Chicomite]

This makes me so happy and hopeful for the future. The 32-bit era is hands down my fav, even though i grew up with an NES. It STILL makes me wonder when the PS1 homebrews are gonna come. Yea, there's some fan translations becoming more available, but I want brand new Ps1 and Saturn games. But I'm happy with Saturn for now, PS1 will come, watch. I mean c'mon, the whole thing with the Saturn was how hard it was to develop for because of the 2 processors, right? I can sense the PS1 homebrews being made next, it can't be that much harder to figure out than our beloved Saturn.

[@roberto1519]

The way I see it, Nintendo and Sony fans aren't technically inclined, while Nintendo consoles such as the NES and SNES have a huge community of modders/hackers, the PS1/PS2/PSP have many translations and even HD textures for the GC/Wii/PS2/PSP. On the other hand, we have the Master System, Mega Drive and the Saturn, which shows that SEGA fans are passionate and technically oriented, a powerful chemistry that shows in many original titles/homebrew/applications that have surfaced over the years.

[@Chicomite]

@roberto1519 All of the more interesting homebrews are usually on Sega consoles, I agree with that whole sentiment about Nintendo/Sony scene. Even stuff like for my Master System Everdrive, ppl have made IPS patches to apply to certain Game Gear games to work on an SMS, games like Mega Man, Tails' Adventures, Tempo Jr., Galaga '88, and a few others. I never knew Tails had a slower, more traditional platformer, I really like that game. And I put all the crazy Brazilian SMS games on there too, so much fun. I had the chance to get a lot of 3 or 4 Tec Toy games and passed it up, one of my big gaming regrets. It just shows the passion of Sega fans and I love it. Especially since I didn't get to own any Sega consoles growing up.

[@protocetid]

@@roberto1519Damn, I wonder how the non technically inclined Nintendo fans made emulators and decompilations.

[@roberto1519]

@@protocetid Nintendo emulation is brilliant, that's for sure, but when it comes to new games and homebrew development, there's nothing close to what fans are making for the SEGA consoles.

[@protocetid]

@@roberto1519 Ever heard of Project M? Smash Bros. fans were highly displeased by Nintendo’s official sequel to Super Smash Bros. Melee and cracked open the new game (SSB Brawl) to mod into the one they desired. Melee is a highly technical game when played at a professional level, fans of that game painstakingly overhauled Brawl’s gameplay until it played like Melee. Any new content they inserted matched or was close to Nintendo quality. Don’t know if you’ve ever delved into the design and balance of a competitive fighting game, it is so complicated it is almost engineering. Hell you can probably argue that it is. PM went one step further and made the character balance leagues better than Melee, the balance is superior to most official Smash games. PM (now P+) is so good it has outlived most of the Nintendo made Smash games. IIRC there were few, if any, total conversion mods (as they call it on PC) of this scope for a console game back in the 2010s. Enough about PM though, let’s move on to a different example. In the past few years there’s been some impressive work done on the N64. One person was making an accurate as possible demake of Portal for the console, a game that is two console generations newer that the N64! IMO he got too spooked by Valve’s response and stopped working on it. Valve never told him to shut it down, but they never gave him a "full steam ahead" reception either.

[@nicholascooney]

The Sega Saturn is so cool. I was so infatuated with it when I was in my senior year of high school (2013-2014), but my peers always wrote it off because compared to PS1 it was a "failure" and wasn't worthwhile because of "no Sonic games". The next year I'd meet a cool guy that owns a Saturn and would finally get to play the cool games like Astal firsthand. And then a few years later Saturn emulation became viable. Now we get new games like these and people seem to appreciate Saturn more than even 10 years ago. The X-Men port looks wicked, but still seems too slow compared to the arcade original. I wonder if homebrews can take advantage of the RAM cart...

[@roberto1519]

They can, but the X-Men port is at 0.3, the Saturn don't need any extra hardware to run this game, it could easily run any arcade scaler with ease, this beat-em-up game is very easy on the Saturn, even the PS1 could run this game without issues.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Lots of devs use the 4MB, so it seems easy to utilise (Flashback is using it here)

[@elgoog-the-third]

The fog effect on Crash Bandicoot is quite impressive. The SGL was made by the Virtua Cop porting team.

[@EnigmaHood]

How is the SDK for the Sega Saturn? Is it still hard to code for the Sega Saturn?

[@nintendo4life132]

Looking fantastic demonstration. Wish I could develop games, all I could do is graphics design, pixel art animation and 3d model animation

[@avjaarsveldt]

Man I can't wait for that Shinobi on the Mega Drive!

[@dominikschutz6300]

I like "Cube Cat" best. 😊

[@JMDAmigaMusic]

Cold Case gives me a bit Slent Hill Vibes, a Silent Hill knd of game is needed in the Saturn in my opinion

[@denraimei32]

Somewhere in the future with the rise of Neptune, there'll be 32X homebrew left and right.

[@Charlie-eq3dj]

Did any of these homebrews tackle transparency

[@DJ4461]

Ive been wondering, why does the port of MGS use dithering in the item select menu?

[@MarginalSC]

Probably due to how the Saturn handled transparencies on one background layer.

[@Shannon-ul5re]

This is great see an I would like to see some more 2d platforms really taking advantage of the system.

[@Robert-nl3fd]

I bet Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin are either laughing or pretty ticked to see Crash Bandicoot running on Saturn hardware 😂

[@AnnCatsanndra]

Oh cool, I hear Freedom Planet 2 BattleSphere music!

[@melficexd]

Saturn had 4 scroll planes, available at any moment, if I'm correct, although i think they were the vdp planes you could transform as you wished. But i could be mixing things

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Hey Pigsy, are you going to cover any recent 32X development / homebrew updates?

[@whopoder]

Grato pelas novidades, Pigsy!

[@Socks_in_Chocolate]

I'll try to get into the Sega Saturn home-brew but I'm Mac which sucks got any tips

[@hopetagulos]

One idea, please try to make a 320x480 demo on the Sega Mega Drive if possible. I think dithering should look very beautiful at this resolution.

[@alxxz]

Out of all these X-Men is the obvious port that should have happened back in the day as the Saturn hardware and joypads were ideal for an Arcade perfect port. The rest I don't think they would work out that well due to 3D and transparency limitations on the Saturn.

[@SirBuzz]

The X-Men arcade port looks *almost* perfect. My only issue is that the music used are rips from an emulation of the game with sound issues. A great example is the awesome boss music's brassy instruments are way too loud. I think official ports of the game had this sound issue too.

[@WhatsOnMyShelf]

One dev or group of devs porting FF7, Crash, MGS to Saturn? Wake me up in a hundred years. These are not simple projects. I suspect they won't move past demo stages.

[@miokuroki4097]

Sega Saturn Shiro!

[@21stNimrods]

☝

[@sozaj]

"Segata Sanshiro... 🤕"

[@아라한-r8i]

새턴의 3D 그래픽과 정말 잘 어울리는 게임은 마인크래프트가 아닌가 생각하는데 아직 마인크래프트를 만드는 개발자는 없군요 ㅎㅎㅎ

[@PurpleHatGames1]

Any games being pressed on disc? I don't like the download and modification side and optical drive removal.

[@HellTantrumbull]

Would really love to be able to make games for the Saturn one day. 😭

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@HellTantrumbull learn python to get a general understanding of programming then learn C & C#

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Me too!

[@alynnzz0491]

Suguri!! Orange_Juice mentioned!!!!

[@XaviDJ]

Me pregunto si tendrías el detalle de portar el juego shinobi remake a 32x, sería muy interesante para una comunidad que quedó sin un uso de hardware, con juegos de primera cosecha. Gracias por tu vídeo, siempre interesante tu contenido.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

I'm personally not too interested in 32X, but there seem to be a lot of people looking at working with the system, so hopefully someone else will do a 32x shinobi in the future

[@manmonkee]

I suppose the reason the Saturn homebrew scene is so vibrant is because the Saturn is, and always was a real challenge. The PS1 was a relatively friendly machine were as the Saturn!! EEK!!. Programmers love a challenge.

[@SpiralPegasus]

Actually I think it's the exact opposite. Difficulties in porting and quirks exclusive to Saturn were the biggest factor that drove developers away and kept emulation difficult. Nowadays there's Jo's engine, which has allowed many to take a jab at making games for it, much like Pigsy's videos inspired hundreds to do so on Mega Drive

[@manmonkee]

@@SpiralPegasus Maybe it's a combination of both :). Anyway back in the day there was next to no documentation from SEGA and it was a nightmare for us.

[@nickbond6447]

I agree, Saturn is quite a challenge. Back in the day devs claimed they took it to the limits. Now we see some homebrew efforts overtaking in terms of 3D complexity

[@euphorik3120]

awesome 🙂

[@jm2621]

I wish the X-men game would get an upgrade and put the better X-men with their better suits on

[@JLAvey]

Final Fantasy VII for Saturn would be worth it even if it was just the Midgard part of the game.

[@MrStrangermoon]

cold case looks good. some of things smilar to nocturne game which way wayyyy better than slienh hill 2 and residnt evils. frogball games look amazing but only able to play star wawrs demo game his out dreamcast

[@carlozduerson2935]

The Tomb Raider 2 on Saturn is like living in the twilight Zone, I remember back in 2011 I seen the game on a vido for the Saturn and now they are telling me it never was. is this a mandela effect

[@valentine_puppy]

I am a big Classical SEGA fan. In hardware and software. I have a problem with what is going on in the scene. Now, Let me say some of these and others are doing a fantastic and really wonderful job servicing this system and others. Particularly SEGA systems. That said, For every good game and or interesting project that could turn into a great game or demo. There are far too many that are shovel-ware and even worse and this is the crux for me. There are those putting games and titles on Saturn and Genesis and others that belong on other consoles. I don't mean they translated 3rd party games to the graphics and style of those systems. I mean MARIO and ZELDA clones and modern graphics that look like it belongs in a mobile app game instead of an 80s/90s console. I would really love it if we got some filtering here and some rules were set down as to what is acceptable and what is not. Otherwise, we are losing sight of what it means to be a SEGA console. Which I can't abide.

[@rommelthorpe9269]

Is there a website where I can find games I can burn and play with my pseudo saturn?

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

Pigsy chan 🐷❤

[@waleednasser7575]

We want to see Marcel super heroes with 4MB And street fighter zero 2 with 4MB

[@lupo_libero]

where to buy these games? There's a store online?

[@maxtroy]

I really respect the scene, and sort of understand why people are still interested, but could anyone explain to me why people are so into continuing to explore a technology that’s considered obsolete?

[@MarginalSC]

It’s a weird technology. Also people who dreamed of becoming a game dev in the 90’s, this stuff is what they were looking to make at the time.

[@posthumanistpotato]

Nothing more disappointing than buying a "brawler" only to take it home and discover it's a vile 1on1 fighting game...

[@maxthompson7107]

Video games are still being developed for the SEGA Saturn? Didn't know such an activity still existed. Good luck with sales.

[@josephrowe2202]

I'm glad people are making new Saturn games, but man those 3D games have Jaguar level jank to them

[@DarkbluesEXE25]

1:25 - Samus Aran in X-Men Arcade

[@overwatch761]

I would love to see Indies focus solely on 2D on Saturn - this was its strength - lobotomy really took the Saturn for all it was worth with Quake. All Saturn 3D games are meh at best - unless its a fighter or Sega Rally, but the 2D stuff is out of this world.

[@nickbond6447]

Whilst I agree 2D was a strength, it’s the 3D takes that are very interesting. Hellslave and Irreal have stormed past Quake in terms of technical achievement. Saturn 3D development lasted less than 50% of the 5th generation and only seriously worked on by a very few whilst it was commercially viable. Saturn 3D development is now on the trajectory we would have seen. Guys at Lobotomy would be impressed.

[@overwatch761]

@@nickbond6447 They have a cool aesthetic and are major achievements, but overall, neither have stormed past Saturn Quake, technically, Lobotomy's work still is more impressive - it's easy to get caught in a whirlwind of fan excitement. I love all the 2D Saturn stuff by a country mile, I think there is so much creative potential ahead and this is where Indies should focus.

[@nickbond6447]

@@overwatch761 I don’t think it’s anything to do with being caught up in a whirlwind, it’s quite clear from watching on KZbin or playing them on a stock Saturn. 3D weapons, lighting, transparency, long draw distance, solid frame rate, multiple player 4 players. Nothing against Lobotomy, they did well with the knowledge and budget at the time. Others have built on it. That’s the exciting thing about Saturn for me, the potential that it has. Even its 2D abilities- but creative use in 3D realms (Last Bronx, Panzer Dragoon etc). not strict 2D games themselves. 2D Pixel art is not so interesting for me.

[@blahmcblahface3965]

Normally I'm speeding up videos cause people talk too slowly...but you're going way too fast bro

[@mal-avcisi9783]

I am shocked how bad the graphic on Saturn is. No wonder it failed so hardly. Even SNES games looks better. What a waste of energy to make games for it in 2024. The energy would be much better invested in retro programming for PSX or N64. Saturn was really a bad console.