Dead or Alive Arcade vs Saturn | Utterly Pointless Comparisons | Longplay | Commentary

[@OtakuSpielplatz]

Cool comparison! I bought mine at release and showed it to all of my PlayStation friends. I can't tell how many of them also bought it because nothing at the time looked better than VF2 and DOA. Even Tomonobu Itagaki prefered the SEGA Saturn port over the Arcade and the later PS1 (DOA++) prototype version. That's the reason why he wanted the Saturn port on the XBOX release of the DOA2 "Ultimate" Remake. It even runs in a higher resolution than the 480i high-res Saturn port.

[@System_Sega]

This is such a great port. Such a shame in never got released in the West. Most of the game was already in English!

[@InglebardGaming]

Yup, they did an amazing job on it!

[@sexshit1107]

the good thing is you can get this port on the Xbox original .

[@Tempora158]

@@sexshit1107 Even better is that it can be played on the Xbox One/Series consoles.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Wasn't officially released in the west, but Saturn imports were easy to access in small town Hanover PA, in a way other systems never were... They just cost extra at Electronics Boutique.

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 Yeah, I never thought about it but the Saturn was the only system that had decent import support in US videogame stores, ever.

[@iPlaySEGA]

The Saturn port was and still is very impressive. Without any doubt one of the best arcade ports of that time.

[@InglebardGaming]

Yes, Tecmo did excellent work on this one.

[@mortenera2294]

Oh man, Dead Or Alive! This is one of those Saturn games that really impressed me...of course, my teenage self was often distracted by the bouncing busts lol

[@InglebardGaming]

So you're saying they hooked teenage you just like they were trying to, eh? Lol

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

​@@InglebardGaming ​I'd kill to hear the reasoning behind that creative decision. I mean, I can understand a bounce - this wasn't the first fighting game to do it. But there's a clear difference between those who find the flubber implants erotic and those who just find it very silly, that really doesn't flatter the first group. It's such a good game engine; it really didn't need the gimmick. I can't help but wonder where Tekken would be, if they did this to themselves?

[@ENiceGeo]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I thought this was the first 3D game to have the bouncing animation. What 3D game had it before DOA? As for the reason why it was included, it perhaps was to help it stand out more against it's competition. They needed something to help draw in money. Tecmo was in a financial rough spot at the time, the game was even named DOA due that financial situation.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

The irony is that the Saturn had its VDP2 chip specifically designed for handling the background, whereas the PS1 had no such chip, and the result is that it's the Saturn which always had worse backgrounds than the PS1 despite having a chip dedicated to that. In other words, it would have been better to have a single powerful general chip instead of 2 underpowered more specific chips.

[@acem7749]

I was just out of high school when I got my Saturn. Like you I was a heavy importer and picked this up. Definitely one of the great imports Sega of America left behind. I had no problem with the boob physics then as a horn young adult and now as a old one. The fact we have to dance around the topic showns the time we live and thats not a good thing.

[@InglebardGaming]

The Saturn came out the year after I graduated high school. Got DoA when it came out a few years later. It's not the "time we live in" regarding the boob physics. People complained about that back when it was new, too. I can't remember which one, but I'm pretty sure one of the print magazines of the day recommended against getting the game strictly because of them. Yes, they're dumb and over the top, but they're more silly than anything else. Which I'm sure Tecmo realized since they dramatically toned them down in the sequels.

[@acem7749]

@@InglebardGaming if I remember correctly it was the age scale setting that determines the amount of bounce. The older the more bounce. It's just as comical in most if not all releases. Soulcalibur on DC was the 1st game I thought the jiggle physics was realistic all around, legs muscles, butts..

[@piccolo1976]

Superlative Saturn port, still looks great today. I wish more developers made use of that super nice hi res mode

[@InglebardGaming]

Yeah, amazing job. While the high-res mode can look great, the shaking on a CRT back in the day was kind of annoying.

[@fazares]

cool one..i reviewed the ss one and compared it to arcade and ps1..ss was itagaki favourite btw!

[@InglebardGaming]

Yup. I really don't know WHY he prefers the Saturn version, the gameplay is pretty much identical in both versions. Anyway, they're both great!

[@lazarushernandez5827]

Pai was my favorite character in Virtua Fighter because she had the counter moves. Dead or Alive had a similar depth of moves for each character, but now everyone was able to counter. The funny thing is that fans and journos at the time would throw shade at DoA for the jiggle physics, but other fighting games eventually followed suit.

[@InglebardGaming]

To be fair, the jiggle physics in DoA are more extreme than most of the games that came along later. Still, I don't think there's any denying it plays great and if you get two experienced players going with counters, matches can get crazy.

[@S.Madman]

Awesome video. One thingto mention, the arcade ran with texture filtering on. You may have to enable it on you emulator.

[@InglebardGaming]

Hmm. I disabled it manually because I was trying to get as pure an image as I could. I didn't remember the arcade version looking filtered, but on the flip side, with these small screen sizes with both up at the same time for most of the video, it wouldn't have been super noticeable anyway. Although, if I di another DoA video I'll make sure its on if it's supposed to be.

[@S.Madman]

@@InglebardGaming kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKDQi4qYqr-Iac0 He shows a direct feed from it. He also goes to explain, that the arcade did experience some slowdown (during explosions). Still the game is awesome, and I experienced it when the machine was in active service.

[@InglebardGaming]

@@S.Madman I'll check that out in a bit! For mine, I definitely had some non-hardware related framedrops from OBS with both versions, it just sporadically popped up here and there. That slowdown was not present during my actual gameplay which is what I was pointing out there.

[@thehumbleone1983]

I played the PlayStation one but now that I’ve see the Saturn one it looks great I even think it looks better PlayStation. 👍 Enjoyed the video thanks 👍

[@InglebardGaming]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@darktetsuya]

I think we had the playstation version at one point? I do remember the danger room stages with the exploding floors, though. I have a Japanese Saturn and been loving collecting for it, so will have to put this one on my radar I think. I'd just picked up a cheap copy of Virtua Fighter 2 so this would go perfectly right next to it!

[@InglebardGaming]

Definitely worth it, IMO, as long as it isn't crazy expensive. It looks like it goes for about $20-$30 on average.

[@IsaacKuo]

My first exposure to Dead or Alive was an arcade cabinet (USA). Besides the obvious bounciness, the thing that really caught my eye was Kasumi's katana kata. That looked really cool, so I was disappointed that the game was strictly hand-to-hand. That was a really weird choice to include in the attract mode to me. It was an attract mode that made you want to play Soul Edge, not Dead or Alive.

[@InglebardGaming]

Interesting, I never came across it in a US arcade myself. Nor the second one.

[@ENiceGeo]

Looking at Lei Fang's stage and with what D-Xhird was able pull off, that roof could easily have been done on the Saturn port.

[@InglebardGaming]

Last Bronx on Saturn has a stage or two with a ceiling, too. But the posts/gates in Lei Fang's stage would likely have been an issue.

[@ENiceGeo]

@@InglebardGaming Last Bronx has no true ceiling, which is why it looks terrible whenever the ring moves around. The 2D background pillars aren't locked into ceiling and and as a result you see the ceiling graphic shifting all over the place, totally ignoring pillars. Pillars are no issue in D-Xhird. They would be a 2D image but they are locked in place with the 3D ceiling.

[@M1XART]

Interestingly Saturn -version is more polygon based than PSX -version. PlayStation used prerendered backgrounds on this game. But thanks to that, it runs on hi-resolution at 60fps. However, Saturn is much closer to Arcade than admitedly incredible PSX -version.

[@sloppynyuszi]

How so? The Saturn and PS1 the characters are polygonal based with a flat floor and flat background. Technically not very different. The PS1 game looks very different, and was also rereleased as an arcade version. The Saturn does a good job capturing the model 2 version which is impressive, and the PS1 didn’t even bother. But it is its own thing. Subjectively I like the Saturn better, but objectively they’re technically not doing much different.

[@M1XART]

@@sloppynyuszi Saturn -version looks more like 3D -fighter, just like Model 2 -version. PSX -version looks and plays more like 2D -fighter. 360° Prerendering looks, well, exactly what it is. However, thanks to character animation, resolution, framerate and use of strong colours, the PlayStation -version actually looks a lot better than Tekken 3. -As long as not thinking too technically whats on screen. Instead just how it pleases an eyes.

[@IsaacKuo]

The Playstation version is so different in look ... much less textures but with smooth shading (unlike the flat shading of the arcade and Saturn versions). The biggest texture difference is the lack of animated facial expressions. As a result, the Playstation version doesn't zoom in as close as these during victory animations. Keeping it zoomed out made the lack of animated facial expressions less obvious/distracting.

[@InglebardGaming]

With the weirder shading in the PS1 version, the characters almost look like they're made of clay. It looks good overall, but it's one of those games where something always just felt off about the look to me.

[@thetechn1que518]

I’ve been using the bob deinterlacer shader in Retroarch for 480i games in Beetle Saturn and it works okay. The deinterlacer that PCSX2 uses for 480i PS2 games looks better IMO, so I wonder if Retroarch also has a better option.

[@sonkunhyperspinretroarch4867]

Try the sonkun shader presets, they'll take care of any interlaced/480i content you throw at it. You can find videos on it here if you do a search to see how they look in action.

[@karolleomacinski6626]

Actually im trying to play doa Sega Saturn on my retro arch but it doesnt work ughhhh.

[@InglebardGaming]

It works in Beetle Saturn but not the other cores... at least that was my experience. Freezes up on the first fight starting.

[@thetechn1que518]

Beetle Saturn and SSF are the only Saturn emulators I’ve ever used that work well, and SSF is standalone only. Those other cores may run faster on devices that can’t handle Beetle Saturn, but they fall far short on compatibility. I’ve never found a game that won’t work on Beetle Saturn.

[@karolleomacinski6626]

@@thetechn1que518 i mean, it freezes at SS logo and nothings go on. I have every bios possible. Maybe this is roms fault? But weird, I got every DOA rom and nothing works