Digital Foundry’s John Linneman talks his favourite SEGA and the Secret Sauce of Sega Saturn's VDP2.

In this video, we're delighted to welcome Digital Foundry's tech guru and retro enthusiast, John Linneman, to the show. We chat about John's gaming roots, the secret sauce of the Saturn's VDP2 processor, and delve into his vast SEGA collection to find out with SEGA console, game, and music form his "My Favourite SEGA".
We hope you enjoy this one ... see you on the SEGA side.

[@tournaline3448]

Absolutely fantastic discussion. John is not only a top-tier journalist, he’s also a genuinely nice guy. I think Sega arcades blew everyone of my generation away. Visiting the Trocadero for the first time was like heaven for me, my mum only gave me a few pound coins to spend so I had to pick and choose wisely. What an era to grow up in.

[@trevorphilips2090]

He seems like a nice guy as long as you don't see him commenting on X about political matters. He should stick to what he seems to be understanding.

[@Steadysphere]

Such an interesting discussion, John does some amazing work with DF Retro and I find it fascinating seeing how radically different older games can look - like you guys said, you can tell the different versions on PS1, N64 and Saturn from a screenshot. Great work guys!

[@MoonScythe1]

That's what I loved about the old gen of gaming. Regardless of which system was your favorite, you can't help but love the different characteristics and personality that each console provided for their respective version of the same game.

[@MisterBigMack]

Way in the weeds with this one and not afraid to admit a lot of Johns wisdom went way over my head 😄 but finally finished this fantastic episode Bravo again and yet another superb guest 👍

[@DominikSobolewski]

An honor to have Mr. Linneman.

[@nikolazgeo]

Best content creators are all Sega lovers it seems!

[@temjin44]

Growing up, there were two types of games in the arcades. The ones made by Sega and the ones that weren't. Can relate to John when he gravitated to Sega after playing Afterburner. Sega was always light years ahead of the competition especially when the super scaling tech was used. My most mindblown Sega moment was seeing the full Space Harrier cabinet at Disneyland when I was still in elementary school. Imagine seeing that game in 1986 as a kid. Felt like I was in the future. I can actually go on forever when Sega blew my mind even when Turbo was released in early 80s, but would end up writing forever. BTW- enjoyed the interview and maturity of the contnent. Reminds me of the Next Generation/Edge level of content. Good old days.

[@StiffPeak]

Love it when your favourite KZbinrs join forces!

[@eponymous7910]

Awesome vid, what a shame Sega wasn't more forthcoming with their software libraries for the Saturn 😢 That and the early NA launch (with rushed games) basically sealed its fate and the brand never really recovered

[@SegaSaturnLad.]

Great vid lads, what a nice guy John is. James playing along ‘Dan you’re going to an arcade for your birthday’ 😂

[@SEGAGuys]

🤣🤣🤣 Yeah, this was recorded the Wednesday night before the weekend we met. Glad you enjoyed it mate, and yeah John was great, we’re definitely going to have him back on in the new year. Cheers! - James.

[@MisterBigMack]

@@SEGAGuysI was watching for any facial expression changes when you asked that question - and absolutely nothing 😄 - brilliant - was hoping for a every so slight smile 😄

[@SEGAGuys]

@@MisterBigMackHad to bring my best poker face to that recording mate. 😂

[@Canadian_Gamer]

Great interview guys, nice job. 👍

[@thedrunkmonkshow]

Those DF videos about the 32X were very comprehensive and really changed my perspective with the add-on. While it's not as powerful as the Saturn I think if Sega decided to keep it around and put more of their own games out for it then it could have lasted a bit longer. Or especially if Sega pushed the 32X unit with Genesis backwards compatibility would have been less confusing on consumers. Someone recently did a homebrew demo of Golden Axe on the 32X and it helps give a glimpse of what could have been if it had more 2D titles like that. It used arcade backgrounds with Genesis sprites which brought it closer to the Arcade.

[@hamoodhabibi8254]

Funny how things work. I remember my first time i was wowed by a game was after burner climax. The moving cabinet was a sight to behold.

[@DadLadsGaming]

Really enjoyed that lads👍👍

[@ps3inquisition441]

Love hearing about the old arcade experiences. I remember playing Asteroids and Centipede when I was very young, and being scared of the Sinistar machine.

[@MrThunderwing]

Great chat! I've had this vid on my to-do list for ages and finally got a chance to give it a listen today. It's interesting hearing John talk about Daytona, because it was the game that I really first started getting an awareness of frame rate too (albeit, much later in the Arcade and Saturn's life cycle). It's always stuck me as kind of bizarre (in an ironic sort of way), that Saturn Daytona is known for it's terrible graphics and Sega Rally was seen as the game that (from a purely graphical point of view) proved _exactly_ what the Saturn could do, with a much better frame rate, less pop-in and proper Pal optimisation. Whereas on the DC, it was Sega Rally 2 that looked pretty shite (bad frame rate, egregious draw-in, rather flat, bland looking vehicles, un-optimised) and Daytona USA 2001 that looked pretty flippin' incredible (60fps, no pop-in, fantastic shine and lighting effects on the cars). After the backlash to the first Daytona's visuals on Saturn, actually promoting Sega to remake the game from the ground up, it seems kind of crazy that they made the exact same mistake with SR2, right at the DC launch, by just porting the PC game with Windows CE, instead of just taking the time to build it _properly_ from the ground up using the DC proprietary hardware, and getting it looking as good as possible. I think most DC owners would rather have got a gorgeous looking version of the game a month or 2 after launch, than a crap looking one on the DC's day of release.

[@SEGAGuys]

Yeah, it’s madness that Sega chose to port Sega Rally 2 to PC then use that port as some kind of test scenario for using Windows CE, totally ruining one of their major Model 3 titles. Daytona USA 2001, for me, also shows that a Daytona 2 or Scud Race port was easily doable on Dreamcast. It may not have been Model 3 perfect, but it would have been respectable. My only gripe with Daytona USA 2001 visually is the Hornet, why you gotta mess with the Hornet all the time Sega!? 😂 - James.

[@MrThunderwing]

@@SEGAGuys Yeah man, totes with you on the Hornet messing thing. I likewise think the DC could've easily done a very respectable port of Scud Race and Daytona USA 2. When the topic comes up in various forums or the comments on my channel, you inevitably get one bellend who goes on about how the Model 3 was too powerful for those games to come out on DC. To which I inevitably have to respond "Mate, have you never heard of a _PORT_ FFS. It's how we got OutRun, Super Hang-On and Afterburner on the Megadrive..."

[@HollowRick]

Brilliant video lads :)

[@Nihat86]

Amazing podcast..

[@TheRetroMartin]

Still watching but what an excellent discussion. I love John going off on a huge tech tangent! That Panzer Dragoon Saga tweet of mine ended up being my most viewed tweet ever and it generated some excellent discussion! I've never given Galaxy Force a fair look in so I need to give it another shot now, the music sounded great and can't disagree in anyway with John's choice of the Megadrive. Some of my fave games mentioned there, including the two Sparkster games and Battletoads is a cracking choice, it's a brilliant game and the unlimited continues make it a much more palatable game! Golden Axe 3 as well. I noted in my latest vid that Naofumi Hataya did an incredibly strong OST and the actual gameplay is the best of the three!

[@StiffPeak]

Check out the arranged version of Beyond The Galaxy on the OST

[@sevbaileyify]

Loved this guys, nice work. Get yourselves some condenser mics!

[@SEGAGuys]

Cheers mate, and don’t worry, as of the first recording of 2024 the headset mic will be gone. - James.

[@sevbaileyify]

Onwards and upwards! 😁

[@TwoBlackMarks]

I was wondering what Sonic Superstars was, and it turns out it is a "2D" sidescroller, I have not heard about it, I will try it. I have always wanted a new sidescoller, and when it comes I have not heard about it!

[@Don_Miguel]

Moar VDP secrets plz

[@ClockedIt]

Nice episode boys, always love some classic game talk. Sonic 2 is indeed peak and I'll never have any issue with that game being classed the best of Sega. Galaxy Force 2 is a classic for me too, even the Megadrive version, which I personally had no issues with back in the day. The talk of Grandia on the Saturn pains me every time because I always wanted the Saturn version back then because it was shown so much in the Official Saturn mag, but ended up playing the PS1 version. I need to play the Saturn version once and for all. John loves his retro stuff and although some of the Digital Foundry comparisons aren't my jam in regards to modern games, I'll always be there for the old school games, which are incredible videos to watch. Onwards and upwards fellas.

[@HollowRick]

The Saturn version is so much better imo than the ps1 version it has a real sense of polish in comparison If you don't know some of the differences My life in gaming did a stream with John a few years ago that's on their KZbin channel I'd highly recommend it :D

[@ClockedIt]

@@HollowRick I know the difference, hence my eternal agony of the Saturn version not getting a western release back then and also me still not getting around to playing the fan translation that has been done. I'll get there one day.

[@vitorrodrigues5735]

So Guys, I want to suggest a topic, next video: ''Where will the new 5 Sega games be played? a switch like or a Fortnite like ?'' talk about it, next video. hugs

[@reTokyo]

John is wrong, Turrican 2 on the Amiga is the best one. Level design, flow, music and even the controls (with a joystick) are superior.

[@SEGAGuys]

It’s all about opinions, no one is wrong, mate. For the record, I grew up on the Amiga before moving to SEGA systems, and Turrican 2 is one of my favourite games, and the main theme “The Final Fight” is my favourite piece of gaming music ever, not just in the Turrican series . That said, that’s just my opinion, I’m not right or wrong; likewise John has his opinion and you have yours. Thanks for watching. - James.

[@TwoBlackMarks]

After they went to CD media all Sonic music is bad, Sonic 1 and 2 is great, Sonic 3 is okay with some great, after that downfall. Also the same with many other SEGA soundtracks, it is like they were just better at the FM synth stuff. Well, the music may be good and high quality, but it often do not fit.. Just strangely misplaced, that is how I remember it atleast..