Quake Review - The Impossible Saturn Port?

[@ischmidt]

I was a Saturn developer at the time and we were huge fans of what Lobotomy was pulling off. And Death Tank Zwei with 2 multi taps on the biggest available CRT TV at the time was just fantastic. Also it's worth noting that at the time, most people weren't high rollers with fast Pentiums and Voodoo 2 cards, so Quake on the Saturn wasn't *that* far from how many PC players actually were experiencing it.

[@danc1692]

What did you work on for the Saturn?

[@ischmidt]

@@danc1692 I was the Saturn tech lead at Tiburon for Madden '97 and '98. I loved the machine and we did ridiculous amounts of Saturn-specific work on '98 to make it faster. And then we had to fight EA corporate to ship it.

[@costumeninja1914]

@@ischmidt that’s awesome…. Start a Kickstarter and create a proper 2.5 D Sonic game… id pay $100 for it …many in the Saturn community would support you…. wishful thinking, I know… glad to hear that you loved the machine… there’s the idea that no developers liked working with it, but it seems that those that took the time, really appreciated its intricate design.

[@Thor-Orion]

@@ischmidt why did you love the Saturn as a dev? Super curious about your experiences, hope the years have been kind to you!

[@ischmidt]

​@@Thor-Orion This is maybe hard to describe if you don't have the experience, but it was one of the last machines with a really distinct "personality" and set of quirks. Things got homogenized out to the point where PS/Xbox are literally PCs and the Switch is literally a mobile phone. It's great on the one hand that the same techniques I know from PC development apply to the Sony and Microsoft machines, but it also makes the whole process more soulless, for lack of a better term.

[@Larry]

In all fairness, the Saturn Doom was terrible as John Carmack nerfed it, Jim Bagley was working on a far superior port, but as it also used a different engine to Doom, Carmack nixed it. No idea why, envy has been thrown out there a few times. Bagley even managed to get Virtua Fighter working on a GBA, so he was immensily talented for getting blood out of a stone.

[@Saturn185]

i remember hearing something about how that version of doom produced warped textures at the borders of the screen and that's what carmack didn't like... might be remembering it wrong tho

[@TheY2JMc]

Hi Lar!

[@nightmarezer0507]

Larry we meet again. For like the 47th time

[@bluenomad73]

About Doom: The Boss of Carmack said: "Don´t use the complex Saturn 3D-Engine, use only the SH2! Thats a instruction!"

[@brandonkays3005]

@@Saturn185 that's exactly what it was. he thought the texture warping was completely unacceptable

[@xestore]

back in '96, very few gamers could enjoy pc quake in all of its glory. most of us could only play it at abysmal resolutions and ~10fps. so, when the saturn quake came out, the overall feel wasn't that much different for most gamers and this made the lobotomy effort seem even more admirable.

[@heidirichter]

Exactly right. I remember a lot of people upgrading, or purchasing their first PC to run the original Doom, and what they had then is what they tried to play Quake on when it was released. Most of those people had relatively fast 486 machines, as Doom ran well on a fast 486 and Pentium machines were stupid expensive and didn't show enough of an advantage for Doom. But then along came Quake, with it's heavy dependance on FPU performance, which was one of the huge advantages the Pentium had over the 486. But the Pentium was still stupid expensive, and people who had relatively recently shelled out for a top-spec 486 were often not to keen to shell out stupid money for a whole new PC - as it required a new mainboard, new RAM more often than not as well as the expensive Pentium CPU.

[@mashakos1]

Thats not true. By 1996 almost everyone had a pentium PC with a modem. Quake ran at 30fps on a pentium 100mhz machine

[@adam1984pl]

I didnt have Pc until 1998,with Quake 2 and Fifa 98.

[@mashakos1]

@@adam1984pl most families bought a home PC to hook up to the internet which by 1996 was a windows 95 Pentium. Ppl who only played games usually had consoles yeah.

[@adam1984pl]

In 1996 in my country most people played NES ,I my town only a few people got computers.

[@Ken_Leep]

I still play my copy of Saturn Quake from time to time. Sometimes just to enjoy the experience of a game that seemed so far out of the Saturn's capabilities. And that music really makes it the complete package.

[@akalyx]

it did sound great on saturn...have you seen they released a vinyl of the soundtrack? kinda neat

[@Nordlicht05]

I'am thinking about that... I have a Saturn now but mostly for 2d.

[@CatManDoom84]

technical achievement wise this is pretty cool, but as a port no, no no no hahaha. But then again back in the day im sure this was amazeballs for ppl who couldnt play it on pc.

[@costumeninja1914]

@@CatManDoom84 have u actually played it?

[@costumeninja1914]

+ Ken … nice avatar … Nights

[@MaidenHell1977]

I remember playing Powerslave and honestly being in awe of what I was seeing, despite not really understanding graphical hardware power in those days, especially between different machines. I was also super impressed with Quake and Duke Nukem. I wonder where all those guys from Lobotomy ended up going, they really did have a special knack for doing 3D Saturn games.

[@BeB02090]

I've been a "PC " gamer since my first in 1999, and I sure remember the freaky awesomeness which was quake. I had no idea this was even possible on a Saturn! I'm sure glad I came across this channel. And even though PCS are my thing I'm not going to miss a single episode on this channel. I absolutely love the content. Thank you sir, another ace in the hole!

[@TheEvilFungi]

this channel is pretty cool.

[@BeB02090]

@@TheEvilFungi Heck yeah I can't wait for the next vid. It's both well put together and informative. Entertaining as well. Additionally, narrative voice of SLX seals the deal for me.

[@mistersomaru]

I'm not surprised that the Saturn can pull off Quake, to be honest, I've seen what this thing can do when people that know the architecture program for it.

[@BeB02090]

@@mistersomaru Great point! The more I learn about the Sega Saturn, the more I'm realizing this.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I remember seeing Quake on the list of upcoming games for the Jaguar. That would have been an impressive feat

[@michalmochalski5975]

On paper Jaguar specs looked similar to Saturn, maybe if the system survived longer, programers learned the machine, they could pull off decent looking quake

[@noop9k]

Michal Mochalski Carmack said that if there weren’t a few serious deficiencies, it could even compete with Saturn and PS1. The hardware was rushed and flawed. Saturn was an expensive mess but at least they put a serious amount of computing power in there.

[@JAGO_Tech]

@@noop9k In addition to some hardware bugs, also had to dev for the Jag on an Atari Falcon which hurt it. Carmack did say Jaguar Doom was his favorite console port. Also mentioned how impressed he was that Wolf3D ran at a smooth 60 FPS even in big rooms at full screen. That said, I don't think the jump from Iron Soldier to Quake was near possible IMO. Look up Battlemorph (not Cybermorph). Definitely looks like an early PS1 game.

[@noop9k]

Jagosaurus Well, early PS1 games were crippled by slow Sony libs.

[@londag6931]

3do would be far more likely to handle this than the Jaguar. The Jag has so many problems, but chief among them for 3d, is that it is absolutely horrible at texture mapping. There is even a fan made port of Tomb Raider for 3do now that runs decently - 15'ish fps in busy scenes - while the Jaguar attempt gets 1/50th of a single frame per second, in a minute, you get more than 1 frame on the Jag!

[@mortenera2294]

I wish Lobotomy Software was still alive during Dreamcast's life cycle. Who knows what masterpieces they would've made

[@Deathtank75]

You forgot to mention that Lobotomy even added Deathtank Zwei (the follow-up of Powerslave's secret game Deathtank) in DN3D if you had a Quake save in your Saturn. 😊

[@shaunbowen]

Yeah I'm shocked Death Tank (to the left tank!) wasn't mentioned. For a free hidden game it was amazing and I'd still play it now if I hadn't sold my Saturn

[@kellinwinslow1988]

John from Digital Foundry did a great video about this game on his DF Retro series. Since Powerslave only had sprite enemies and items the fact that they did Quake was pretty crazy. I just dug out copy and played it awhile ago. I can't believe that I actually finished it when it first came on in 97'. I never played multi player death match for FPS games,never been the competitive type,so the lack of it meant nothing to me. Any co op we did was when we linked up two PS1's and played Doom. Sadly Saturn Quake can dip below 10 frames per second at times making it very frustrating. Still it was pretty amazing for the time. They were some of the only developers that bothered to take the time to learn how to make the Saturn really shine. The PS1 was just easier to make games for so it's no wonder other companies didn't bother. All in all its an interesting piece of history. It's just like seeing Quake 3 on Dreamcast or Doom 3 on the Xbox.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

The Saturn, PS1 and N64 were probably the last generation of home systems that had to have games optimised by using so many hardware and programming tricks and was probably the last truly special generation for pure programming wizardry as far as gaming goes. Although it probably continued a bit with the GBA. But actually programming around the hardware doesn't really exist anymore and was always interesting to see certain games running on low powered hardware that were really optimistic to begin with.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I guess you've never seen Doom 3 on the original Xbox.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

@@SomeOrangeCat I have but that is more or a cut back of the game running on the same engine and everything that the PC version was. Console versions in the previous generation often had to have completely new engines made that worked around the hardware so that's why most games were vastly different on every system.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@freddiejohnson6137 It still a port that shouldn't have been possible given the specs, yet there it is.

[@Ehal256]

PS2 definitely had games with some insane sorcery going on.

[@slingshotdon]

Lol half life 2 on the xg xbox that didn't have the minimum pc specs. Valve made it happen so....

[@egolayer13]

Lobotomy's ability to leverage the Saturn's hardware so effectively is still ridiculously impressive 25 years later.

[@ennio5763]

I always wondered how they could make Quake run smoothly on a Saturn. Even beefy PC from several years After the Saturn were not able to give it justice ! So it felt like this shouldn't be ! Using a dedicated Saturn engine, instead of the generic PC-oriented one, with different strengths and weaknesses, makes perfect sense. This is a great answer to an old mystery !

[@RobertLewis85]

I remember my grandma got a new computer in the mid-90s that came with a version of Quake and I was blown away by the graphics. I didn't think non-gaming computers could run games like that.

[@akalyx]

lobotomy was today's nightdive...i owned this and dn3d, seeing it here makes me appreciate how impressed i was at the time playing it. sometimes we make the best of what we have, and it's humbling but also inspiring to look back on...thanks for bringing back some great memories, slx

[@mattb8075]

Agreed. Nightdive and Samuel Kaiser are wizards. I have so much respect for them, bringing back old games in their own engine. It's sad what happened to Lobotomy, I wonder what happened to the talented programmers that worked on the Slave Driver engine.

[@Harerazer]

It's a shame that Lobotomy couldn't find success equal to their talent. Powerslave was an addiction to me, I had the US and UK (Exhumed) versions. And who could ever forget Death Tank? Another awesome video.

[@tobrown007]

Death tank was an awesome bonus for Saturn owners who had both quake and duke nuke 3D.Unlocked by having save files of both games on Saturn. It was like a real-time version of Worms. Awesomeness. There was also a version of death tanks on the Xbox 360.

[@accordiontv1]

Death Tank was amazing!!!! ♥

[@gemigames154]

I should've known Exhumed was Powerslave given how familiar PS looks to me. Use to play the Exhumed demo countless times on PSX. Good times.

[@JGRICH61]

I remember Quake driving my pickup of a 3D graphics accelerator card. Booting up quake in OpenGL for that first time was magical. I would just run around empty multiplayer levels and explore for hours with no clip mode.

[@P4ul0C354r]

I´ve played both Q and DN first on my Saturn.I can tell ya those still be the most memorable FPS games that i met in my life.

[@TheEvilFungi]

quake is cool on the saturn, unfortunately I never played it on PC but I remember playing it when I was like twelve. good game.

[@TheEvilFungi]

@Google's Evil Yeah, the N64 did multiplayer right back in the day.

[@haroldarrance8640]

Sega Lord X: I really like the individual Sega Saturn reviews. I hope to see more in the future. The background on the developer and development history is really interesting. So much I didn't know about the games. The Sega Saturn was the first time I got to play Quake and Duke Nukem 3D since I didn't have a PC.

[@shaggymcdaniel3216]

The Quake vinyl just came out a few months ago. I’m going to buy it for Xmas and trip out while I listen to it.

[@bmshaven]

I'm really loving this recent content

[@wolfgangfrost8043]

Quake's nailgun actually operates more like a mid-tier plasma rifle than the "chaingun/machine gun" type Doom weapons. Remember, it fires projectiles instead of a hit scan.

[@xDerekRx]

Lobotomy literally saved the Saturn console for me back in the day when it was all I had at age 10. I got both Duke Nukem 3D for my Bday (fall of 97) and Quake for Christmas of 1997 as my final Saturn game. Didn't have a PC to run them and was anticipating them all summer after previews in Gamefan and Gamepro. After finally getting them they were just incredible. I enjoyed every minute of both and it wasn't really til years later that I appreciated how difficult the task was of converting them. I also remember getting Duke 3D TM for PS1 years later and being appalled by how bad the frame rate was compared to the Saturn one. To the point where Id rather play the smoother Saturn version with many less levels. It was also amazing playing Duke 3D via Netlink, way ahead of its time (I have old videos on my channel of this) I will literally still to this day run through Quake and Duke on Saturn every other year just for fun. No matter what I still find them incredibly playable. The Slave driver engine is just great and the added lighting effects makes them interestingly more enjoyable than even more powerful PC ones. I will admit as years have gone on Duke 3D does have some minor issues (some large secret areas weren't finished and the shrunk feel to Duke are noticeable) but it was mostly due to deadlines and having to immediately move onto finishing Quake. So absolutely forgive these minor issues. Quake is probably the more polished of the two. The secret levels and rain effects are great as well (not in the UK versions) and the secret ending inside the apartment is such a cool touch. I cherish these releases as the Saturn had no business producing playable versions of these games for me when I had no other options and they did. I never could find Powerslave back in 1997 but had Alien Trilogy as sort of my poor mans 3 FPS option. AT plays incredible and along with the Lobotomy trilogy deserves high praise as an FPS.

[@dougr.8653]

Lobotomy software was one of the great losses of the videogame industry.

[@Deathtank75]

so true!!!

[@TheEvilFungi]

truely a great loss. I wonder where the staff are now.

[@TheTrueBro]

@@TheEvilFungi a good topic for a future SLX video 👀

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I think the problem is that they were developing for a console with diminishing returns.

[@Kenshiro3rd]

@@SomeOrangeCat Nope. Believe it or not, what killed them was getting bought, sabotaged, and axed by Crave. Crave bought them up, then put them to work on their n64 casino game... which they indefinitely delayed/then canceled AFTER it was finished... which pretty much killed the studio’s profits. As a result Crave shut them down.

[@joeplaysvr6510]

The SlaveDriver engine was nothing short of a small miracle and big revelation! Quake for Saturn is on my gaming bucket list and I need to play it before I die. Since PowerSlave and Duke Nukem 3D on SAT impressed the hell out of me and brought nothing but tears of joy to my eyes back in the day, it's a shame I somehow never got around to play Lobotomy Software's 3rd Strike. These three games are a magnum opus if I've ever seen one and it's shocking we never heard of the team again after that.

[@KGRAMR]

This is what happens when ex-Nintendo employees are let loose... Pure insanity! (P.S.: Long live Lobotomy Software!)

[@Captain_Neckbeard]

I imagine they're pretty contained there.

[@KGRAMR]

@Dean Satan I say that technological restrains is what gave us some of the most impressive titles across multiple platforms (not just Nintendo).

[@ClockedIt]

I too indeed played Quake for the first time on the Saturn and personally I was blown away by how great it looked. Sure the the games framerate wasn't perfect, neither were the controls, but like with a lot of console 3D games back then, you quickly learnt to adjust and work your way around the games somewhat failings. Either way, the original Quake on the Saturn is a great game and I'll remember it's atmosphere well. Great review as always.

[@BentDoorFrame]

Nice I just heard about this port and getting more info on it is great.

[@Lord_Deimos]

My only experience with Quake on the Saturn is watching videos on youtube but the results are fairly impressive. Lobotomy made 3 absolute bangers for the Saturn and clearly deserved better.

[@kapparomeo]

The dark textures was particularly notorious for me. Saturn Quake was my first experience of the game - I never played the PC original - and when I first played Saturn Quake it was so dark I quite literally couldn't see where I was going. For weeks I always started playthroughs on Episode 3 because I actually couldn't find entrances to the other episodes and thought that was the normal start point! Eventually discovering the gamma option and cranking it all the way up revealed that I was missing over half the game.

[@VirtuaBros]

Great video. Glad I have my copy of quake for the saturn

[@davel7791]

I love these videos, but they also make me sad. They take me back to better, happier days that are gone.

[@heilong79]

Both games turned out great, especially when you compare them to Saturn doom.

[@DTM-Books]

Saturn Doom was an act of deliberate sabotage. It’s unfortunate because that was the FPS everybody tuned in to watch, while completely ignoring the Lobotomy Trilogy.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@DTM-Books From my perspective it was an act of a developer not being up to the task. Oh sure, its easy to blame Carmack, but that only absolves so much. Rage just wasn't a very good developer. Just look at their body of work.

[@noop9k]

Daniel Thomas MacInnes No it wasn’t. The tales about 60FPS version are mostly a myth. Most likely it was a prototype that only displayed some of the graphics.

[@matthawkins2974]

I know saturn doom was wank but I had came from only renting the snes version so when I got my saturn with doom and virtual fighter 2 I was pretty happy

[@SeekerLancer]

@@DTM-Books I wouldn't say it was sabotage. Carmack was just insanely anal about how his technology was represented and didn't like the texture scaling in the prototype. He has admitted in recent years that he was wrong to not let them experiment. He didn't care what they did with Quake because he thought the idea of porting Quake to console was insane to begin with.

[@antenant9294]

Surprised at how good this was. I was too scared to play this at the time- I didn't want to see my Saturn "fail". It shows I should have had more confidence in it, as I think I would have loved this. Since it's currently sitting on the shelf (still unplayed after all these years!) I might take it off and have a go. Thanks SLX. Moral of the story: trust your Sega more, Ant!

[@MGForums]

Powerslave or exhumed as it was called in UK was an amazing game by lobotomy. You revisited levels to access previously unreachable parts of the stages with your new abilities that usually led to an alternate exit taking you to another level on the map. True end game was the collection of all the hidden figures some of which were extremely tricky to navigate to, most notable a laser beam filled area when you had the flying ability.

[@stephenaubin5358]

Never been this early to a Slx video. Keep up the great work as always!

[@jayceneal5273]

Honestly the saturn version's lighting makes it look even better than DOS quake

[@TheRealAmericanMan]

Once I finish Yakuza Like A Dragon I’ll plug my Saturn in and finally use my LRG wireless Saturn controller and receiver

[@renrezcrypto6155]

What is lrg?

[@Benger2185]

Games like this on the Sega Saturn makes me appreciate game developer's efforts to push consoles to their limits, like Panzer Dragoon. I'd be very happy for a Saturn home-brew community someday maxing out the Saturn 's hardware capabilities.

[@jankmedia1985]

I know this is 2 years old but a team of indie developers recreated Unreal on the Saturn, it runs on actual hardware. It's so impressive. There's a bunch of footage on KZbin, you should check it out.

[@gibsonadd1542]

Amazing video, as always. I really admire the legacy of Lobotomy on Saturn. I hope someday someone is able to interview Ezra about his work on the console.

[@Anjin-qg3ie]

So what you're telling me is, the Saturn Version is very much a Saturn version. I mean it even has the saturn look. I'm so used to that with Saturn, that i don't even think about it when I'm playing. Im starting to also understand why saturn is getting so expensive. As a huge Nukem, mexh warrior 2, and R.E fan, I love that the games are built exclusively for saturn, and can't be played anywhere else.

[@TheSocialGamer]

Holy shit, the visuals look amazing to me, "for the Saturn"..! I'd love a copy to run in my Saturn.

[@pixxellie]

great video as always. I really appreciate these deep dives where you dig into the nitty gritty of what the saturn could really do. A truly underrated system!

[@loneotaku]

Wow, that's some damn impressive sorcery Lobotomy was able to pull off. Also, seeing this makes me wanna play Powerslave again, that game was/is dope.

[@jankmedia1985]

I'm playing this again right now and man, it's so much better than I remembered and I already thought highly of it. It's super quick and smooth. So impressive.

[@jiface]

Very entertaining and concise review my man! Great video

[@leojiraya]

Anxious for the review of Duke Nukem 3D.

[@darkman4811]

I still have this game for the Saturn. I think I picked it up at a local retro gaming store in the early 2000s for pretty cheap. This game is pretty good, but I prefer Duke Nukem over it.

[@TheEvilFungi]

I really enjoy the saturn vids. I owned one back in the day with astal and resident evil but I gave it to a friend. I still kick myself for it.

[@H3lm3ntGu1]

It was originally made for the PS1 but ended becoming the Saturn's port

[@steveothehulk]

Lobotomy were amazing developers exhumed aka powerslave was superb

[@JonnyJayJonson]

Enjoyed this very much, glad I found this channel! I had Quake II on the PS1, had a lot of fun with it and thought it looked great. I've recently discovered Steam - coming back to video games after a long time away! - and enjoying the PC originals of Doom, Quake/Q2 and Hexen/Heretic.

[@zachreddy]

It's funny, my parents got a 486DX2/66 PC in the early nineties, which was pretty impressive at the time. Doom 1 and 2 ran silky smooth, but by the time Quake was introduced you had to turn the settings way down and even then it was kind of a slideshow. Saturn Quake runs at a higher frame rate than what that old Acer could produce, despite the awful performance of Saturn Doom years earlier. Talented developers creating custom optimizations really make a huge difference compared to raw hardware power.

[@x-crisis]

All I had at the time was the same PC and no money and was playing Quake in a small window and it was tolerable...to a point. I went to a friend who had a machine that could run it properly and then went home and removed it from the hard drive, after seeing that it had become unplayable.

[@Astfgl]

Quake was really made for the Pentium, with its advanced execution pipeline that allowed certain integer and floating point instructions to be executed in parallel. The 486 could technically run Quake, but it struggled with it a lot.

[@31leoceara]

I had a 486 DX2 pc at the time, too. I have my best memories playing Doom 2. But when I tried Quake, the performance on that machine was so poor that I simply decided that it was not worth playing it.

[@leeg12000]

Sega Lord X is my favourite KZbin channel. Our lord gets me pumped up to play SEGA games all day long. I can't do that cos I have to go to work. But you get my point.

[@Shorty_Lickens]

I remember upgrading from a 368-40 to a 486-66 to a Pentium 100 with a 1MB Trident card and the effect it had on games. Doom and Quake in particular ran SO MUCH smoother it was kinda ridiculous. Didnt find out until many years later that consoles eventually got the FPS's that had been made popular on DOS.

[@iankempster7007]

Great video as always.

[@RangeRov49]

You haven't watched it yet

[@ronaldjames6067]

Nice to hear some new facts about Quake. Thanks !

[@dimalink4486]

Great video! Good start for saturday with Q video! Thnaks!

[@jaymzfilkoski223]

Awesome video, SLX! I've always been curious about this game. It looks pretty impressive for the time.

[@Ziimbiian]

First thing i did when i got my Saturn was to boot up Quake...i finished it and i was blown away on how well it ran And btw. You can rocket jump!

[@Chamele7n]

I'm a PS1 fan but this is an extremely impressive showing by the Saturn.

[@andrewlawrence5934]

Makes me wanna sip a Monster energy drink.

[@slinkman8253]

Yep quake was a good game **sip**

[@NewportBox100s]

Drunk me a 16 oz!

[@NGrevolutionary]

@arbereshe you know they’ve started selling that again? At least at Dollar General lol

[@jasonz7788]

Thank you Sega Lord X great job

[@PikaStu666]

Quake is one of my favourite PC games, but I only recently tried the Saturn port. It’s very impressive considering the tech it’s running on. I really enjoy it!

[@SEGASaturnLad]

Nice video. Well worth checking out the Digital Foundry one on Quake for Saturn for more in depth on the technical aspects.

[@vladv5126]

The biggest difference, I think, is that on the PC version you can tell what's going on instead of looking at 20-something brown pixels shuffling around.

[@iorch82]

Playing Quake on 1996 in your average PC of the time - 486 - as literally a slideshow. This port is engineering at is finest. What a acomplishement by these guys.

[@JessicaChastainFan]

Still love Quake I on the Saturn. It's plays great, but it's better remembered as a technical achievement for Sega. Thanks, Lobotomy!

[@danielposey0620]

Console versions of Quake, I’d go with the N64 version, it simply runs smoother & looks nicer. And I prefer the more ambient soundtrack vs Trent Rezners weird abstract rock.

[@SegaLordX]

The N64 port of Quake ain't bad at all, but a bit less impressive in my eyes. The N64 came out over a year and a half after the Saturn, and right around the same time as Quake itself. It's tech was newer and able to handle the original Quake engine.

[@danielposey0620]

@@SegaLordX sure....but which one do you think is more fun to play...that’s more important than being technically impressive. Doom on the super NES is “technically impressive” but it sure is hell ain’t no fun to play.

[@SegaLordX]

@@danielposey0620 All things being equal to answer which one I’d rather play, I’d say neither. If gameplay fun factor is your goal, it’s PC or nothing.

[@thiagovidal6137]

Late for the discussion but I agree with you both. Quake 64 is obviously the better game. It looks and feels much better than the Saturn, but there is little merit to that as the Quake 1 engine ran on N64. The fascinating thing on the Saturn port is the fact that is running on a different engine and all maps needed to be recreated from scratch.. Like when a fan makes a level from one game into the map editor of a different game. The Quake Saturn maps had them guessing their size by eye. Every room and corridor has it's scale sligly off, which is amusing, and at the same time impressive effort, while the team on the N64 had the comodity of simply importing the maps from the PC version and only tweaking it for the N64 version (cutting down some geometry and adding all the colour lights). Sega Lord X has a point.. neither version is worth playing today other than just a curiosity. If you wanna play Quake.. it's PC or nothing.. especially with all the source ports and mods available.

[@DARS_04]

The modern port of Quake includes an "adaptation" of Quake 64 (with the 64 OST too). Perhaps this version could be added as well... food for thought.

[@fordxbgtfalcon]

I heard that it will be added very soon. 🙏

[@peterdwyer6118]

Not long been collecting for my Saturn. This ones defo next on my list.

[@IsaacKuo]

Wow, thanks for this info! I really wasn't aware of Lobotomy Software or its titles at all. I had gotten a dirt cheap Saturn back when Blockbuster was dumping all their Saturn stuff for like $50, but I only paid attention to Japanese releases at the time (D&D, Vampire Savior, X-Men vs Streetfighter and such). I also visited Japan so I picked up a TON of cheap used Saturn games then. But I just didn't notice US releases for the most part. Ironically, the only version of Quake I ever got was the Dreamcast version. It played really nice with a combo of the mouse and arcade joystick. That 8-way arcade stick really made movement smooth and crisp, and of course mouse aim is the best way to go with any FPS. I was really hurting for control buttons, though (only two mouse buttons and the mouse wheel).

[@edwest2263]

I'm a huge fan of Duke Nukem 3D and Powerslave on the Saturn. But Lobotomy was too ambitious with this port. The major dips in framerate make Quake on the Saturn almost unplayable imo.

[@Deathtank75]

I disagree! I played from start to finish and I enjoyed it!

[@Gatorade69]

The framerate is better than the Saturn version of Doom.

[@simonrobinson1566]

@DejaVoodooDoll Use of VDP2's ability to create 3D planes would have helped considerably. Could have handled most of the floors and ceilings.

[@thedougtime]

One other fun fact, the guys at Lobotomy were responsible for the Game Genie on NES. There's a great interview with them in the Sega Saturn UK mag. They more or less said "The Saturn couldn't do this or that... so we built it."

[@HASCH05]

"Quake review" is one of your finest videos! also it´s very sad.... The Sega´s fans didn´t support Lobotomy Software like we should and lost one of the greatest saturn developers.... It´s too late now

[@FloggingMicah]

PS5 - comes out SLX - let’s talk about Quake for Sega Saturn.

[@SegaLordX]

Priorities, man. Priorities.

[@EliteGamersUnited]

Another top notch video

[@Choralone422]

I'm somewhat impressed both Quake & Duke3D were able to run in some form on the Saturn but also a bit disappointed. Mostly because Quake on the PC can look & play even better than it does in this video! In 1997 if you had a PC equipped with a 3D card that supported OpenGL you could use the GLQuake patch. GLQuake running at 640x480 using a 3dfx Voodoo card was pretty stunning at the time. Especially since the vanilla version of Quake on the PC usually ran at 320x200 resolution. Still though it's a marvel Lobotomy was able to pull off what they did!

[@ronaldball9389]

Another high quality video.

[@mnomic8371]

Quake may not have made it to the PS1 but Quake 2 sure did and it looked amazing for the time.

[@billcook4768]

It’s a shame SLX had to stay away from the “soundtrack” for copyright purposes. You can’t understand what Quake is all about without it. Also, the game is dark. Unpleasantly dark. If you are having trouble seeing what is going on, good.

[@SegaLordX]

It was an instant copyright claim no matter how much I used. I few seconds flagged it. It was a real bummer to cut the music segment.

[@Megatronvg1]

It's not worth playing if you can't see anything.

[@krazycharlie]

Hi Sega Lord X! Great video as usual. There are a couple of points that I kinda beg to differ with you. First, the lack of multiplayer on Saturn Quake was never an issue for me, given that we were more used to single player experiences back in the day. The bad controls and how they affected the gameplay, that's what really hurt the game for me. The second point I want to signal is that while Quake wasn't ported over to the PS1, Quake II was. True, it's not a one-to-one conversion of the original PC release, but it's still a good game, one of the best FPS games on the PS1 IMHO. So, while it's true that the first Quake game is a technical marvel on the Saturn and it could have been worse on the PS1, the Quake II port was very good on its own merits. Then again, Q1 and Q2 are different games for different systems, developed by different teams at different times, so most gamers out there would say there's not really much point in comparing them. Thank you and have a good one!

[@XenonXyanide]

I couldn't understand why this didn't get released for the PS1. Especially when the second Quake game was released for PlayStation and that port is amazing 🤔

[@Astfgl]

Just a victim of circumstances I suppose. I believe Quake was in development for the PS1 at some point, but for whatever reason it never got finished. It would've been very interesting to see what the game would look like on Sony's machine.

[@billcook4768]

Keep in mind that Quake 2 isn’t really a sequel. It’s a different game built on a different engine that they slapped the Quake name on for marketing purposes.

[@noop9k]

Bill Cook Q2 engine on PC is a direct evolution of Q1 engine, despite many differences. Q2 on Playstation though obviously uses its own engine and the levels barely resemble the original, the difference is much bigger than between Q1 on Saturn and PC.

[@CiccioImberlicchio]

Lobotomy was working on it but it was never finished due the company financial issues. Powerslave is on ps1 with a different name wich i don't remember now, though it's structured as a classic fps style just like the pc version making the saturn version unique.

[@damiank9443]

www.gareth.uk/2010/08/07/interview-with-ezra-dreisbach-of-lobotomy-software/

[@therealfodder]

I'd completely forgotten about the 'Jevons' control mode (3D pad) on this version; I'll have to dust of the Saturn and finally try. Although I actually completed the DOS version in '97 using a 6 button digital gamepad - I'd no idea about WASD+Mouse at that point!

[@random-artifacts]

Great review!

[@adam1984pl]

Quake is one of that few where enemies can fights with each other,when one hits another like in 6:41.I dont know if its on Saturn ver.

[@accordiontv1]

Yes, it is on Saturn version. I remember waiting for enemies to kill one another and also baiting them into fighting

[@fazares]

congrats for pumping out very good videos asap ^^ Btw, i own the n64 port..not bad

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

Quake on Saturn was my first FPS, I absolutely loved that game, for me it has to be in the top 20 games on the system.

[@leecroft1983]

Exhumed (Power Slave) was my first fps i ever played, it blew my mind away. Tomb Raider on the Saturn was probably the very first 3D game i ever played. I couldn't believe what i was seeing or playing at the time after playing on the Mega Drive. Wish i owned Quake on the Saturn back in the day, very cool port of an awesome game. Most of my later Saturn gaming time was taken up by Alien Trilogy, i was obsessed with that game on my Saturn.

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

@@leecroft1983 Sega Rally was my first game for the system, and it blew my mind! I remember not long after, seeing Ridge Racer on PS1 for the 1st time and thinking "this Is that "amazing" racing game I've been hearing so much about? I do actually love Ridge Racer but it was never more impressive than Sega Rally or even Daytona in my opinion. My brother owned Exhumed & Tomb Raider, i enjoyed watching him play them but I never got into them myself at the time but I do have both in my collection now.

[@mancman-bu4kz]

Loved quake series

[@Dex99SS]

I see that the color palette mostly revolved around the color BLACK on the saturn port. . . GD is that dark. It honestly is impressive as hell though. Quite the undertaking they took on with this... I mean, the concessions made, when in respect to being on a console at the actual time and era it was current, were hardly concessions at all. Back then, this was simply incredible.

[@DTM-Books]

It goes without saying that Sega should have bought Lobotomy Software when they bought Visual Concepts. Heck, Nintendo should have scooped these guys up after Powerslave dropped. We would have had 3D Metroid on Nintendo 64.

[@Mouritogaia]

Very cool version 😉👍

[@SEGAHEADDY]

I've beaten all three Lobotomy Software Saturn FPS games. They're all stellar. Still own all three.

[@afriend9428]

*Lobotomy are amazing and both ports are amazing too!* ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

[@madyak6669]

Used to love the hidden Deathtank game in Powerslave/Exhumed

[@ischmidt]

There was an improved sequel to it in Duke Nukem 3D, but you had to have a save from Quake on your Saturn's internal memory to unlock it.

[@SuperHns]

Im actually surprised this seems to be very playable, and the sound sounds amazing!!!!!!

[@PhilMcCool]

It's worth mentioning that the Saturn version of Quake has four secret exclusive levels.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

I respect the effort they made even if it was the version no one really wanted or remembers that much. I know that sounds harsh but even SLX called it a relic of a bygone era. Heck quake is an old game now. If one fondly remembered for what it was heralding.

[@tqft]

Omg only played this at the weekend on the Saturn!

[@kathleendelcourt8136]

To play the devil's advocate here I'd say that the fact that Quake 2 was ported to the Playstation makes Quake on Saturn a little bit less impressive.

[@SegaLordX]

You know, I never liked that port much. I thought it looked worse in many ways.