Arcade Power! The Sega X Board

Sega's Super Scaling tech came in waves for nearly a decade. This is the X Board, the 3rd generation.
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
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Intro by Evan S.
portfolio.tsestudios.com/
Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
KZbin Page - / nigh11
Episode Notes:
1. Captured via MAME.
2. The smoothness of Sega's super scalers was something else. I still am impressed by them.
3. Polygons were inevitably going to rule gaming, but I feel Sega made a big mistake not pushing these games during the Sega CD/32X/Saturn era.
4. Sega's final big sprite scaling technology was the System 32. The H1 was a updated form of that tech.

[@lancashirered]

Super scaler games don't seem to age, they still look good today.

[@robbvanderstoel7725]

For a company that lived on sprite scaling and rotation in arcade games, it’s so strange that the Genesis sold itself as the arcade experience at home without them. I used to mess with contrast, brightness, and color on my tv just to get Afterburner to look halfway decent. I had no idea at the time how good the original looked.

[@Thor-Orion]

You should see some of the Sprite scaling that amateur game makers have gotten out of the Sega CD and 32x. The reason why the Genesis didn’t have built in Sprite scaling tech was because of how early in the console generation the Genesis was initially released, it would have been prohibitively expensive for consumers to buy the console with that kind of tech in 1989. Between 1985-2005 chips and other hardware improved at an exponential rate while also decreasing cost to produce at an equal rate. Which is how the SNES could include scaling and rotation hardware without making the price untenable at the end of 1990 when the same thing would have been impossible for Sega when the Genesis/MegaDrive was released at the end of 1988.

[@ostiariusalpha]

​​@@Thor-OrionThe main difference was that Nintendo was raking in huge quantities of cash with the Famicom/NES, so they could afford to put a second graphical co-processor on their console. Sega was doing well enough with their arcade games, but the Master System was flopping in Japan and North America (and just barely starting to take off in the less profitable European and S. American markets), so they couldn't afford to take that kind of risk. If Sega had been in a more financially secure position, they could have charged $220 for a Genesis/MD with an extra scaler chip; and as the only home console with such an impressive feature, it very likely would have sold massively well even at a higher price. Space Harrier II would have been the pack-in, and Super Thunder Blade would have been a killer app, instead of a sad disappointment.

[@robbvanderstoel7725]

@@Thor-Orion The 32X I got off 1st generation Ebay never worked properly, but I would have loved that version of Afterburner. I only had Star Wars, but I couldn’t get it to run properly.

[@djnoahbeats]

Arcade games cost several thousand dollars even in the 80s, so $200 home consoles couldn't be expected to be close in power.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@ostiariusalpha Not that simple. Nintendo got sweetheart deals on bulk chip purchases that weren't available to Sega. Some of them, like the Famicom CPU, featuring questionably legal copying of another company's chip. And this is actually a good thing, as Nintendo's efforts to prevent another crash in America elevated the medium as a whole. People make jokes about the Seal of Quality, but to get one, The Immortal had to add more than one music track and more than a single life. Who knows how many improvements they demanded? Nintendo insisted on making sure trash like Super Monkey Daiboken never appeared on the NES. Atari (Impossible Mission 7800) and Sega (Alex Kidd in High Tech World) weren't nearly as demanding.

[@johnellis3383]

Sega Lord X talkin bout Sega Board X? Let's go!

[@Thor-Orion]

Bored Sega Lord X talking about the Sega Board X… Let’s get it!

[@elodvezer1790]

@@Thor-Orion are you relating to one of his other vids where he said he wants to write and put out a couple of vids after with 'bored' effort .... I read that episode like this- bored on those eps. cause ure not writing books... or something.... thats what i got... hmmm

[@agamemnon8163]

Go where?

[@johnellis3383]

@@agamemnon8163 to the arcade to play some sick Sega games!

[@ronaldbooher9622]

I love sprite scalers

[@warchild9381]

I miss seeing an Outrun or Afterburner arcade cabinet at so many pizza shops and malls back in the late 80s and early 90s. The Afterburner deluxe cabinet was a real head turner, at least it was immortalized in Terminator 2.

[@ericl7519]

I loved seeing SEGA in the ending credits of T2. 👍

[@SparkyMK3]

It drives me crazy that barely any of these amazing Super Scaler arcade games have been ported to modern platforms! Cmon Sega, give us a collection full of these gems! The Sega Ages lineup for Switch was such a tease! I need more eye candy for my OLED Switch!

[@Thor-Orion]

MAME, baby!

[@lhfirex]

Even though it's not why I go back to Yakuza games, it's always a nice feature to play some of the old Sega arcade games in them. I don't think they have too many super scalers across the series, though.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

It is ridiculous we haven’t had a port of the arcade versions of Thunderblade, Afterburner 2, etc, Sega is leaving money on the table here but that’s Sega for you, they love leaving money on the table.

[@b.o.4492]

@@Adamtendo_player_1I’d forgot about Thunderblade!

[@rlam905]

Nothing quite like the sense of speed you get from some of these sprite scaling games.

[@dudeenigma888]

I've wished for years Sega would do make a compilation of their arcade games like they've done with the Genesis.

[@Residentevil1998racooncity]

Nope now it's all about sonic, lol

[@ostiariusalpha]

They've done such compilations, there's both the Astro City Mini and Mini V, they just weirdly lack many popular System X Super Scaler games on them.

[@Oysterblade84]

No they just wanna re-release the Mega Drive Sonic games year in and year out like we're all starving for 16-bit Sonic The Hedgehog and have never seen it before. I wish they would release a Sega Master System compilation as well as an Arcade super scaler compilation but once again, all they seem to care about is Sonic.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

@@ostiariusalphathey need to release a compilation of their super scaler arcade games on modern consoles.

[@mattbuckland5848]

Those deluxe cabinets were so special.

[@johnjay6370]

It is kinda interesting that with the power of the new system i still find these graphics pleasing and really enjoyable!!!

[@GameSack]

I can't believe After Burner still has huge visual flaws in MAME after all these years (evident when you roll).

[@fazares]

Thanks god i m fine with the saturn port 😊😂 😊

[@SegaLordX]

My MAME is a few years old now so the newer builds may be more accurate. Emulation never seems to be 100%, though. There's always some little sound or graphical effect that's different.

[@Wol333]

Sprite scaling games have a certain charm

[@mattb6522]

Sega was way ahead of its time in terms of technology back then! I remember being blown away back in the late '80s and early '90s by how immersive many of Sega's arcade games were! It really is a crime we never received arcade-perfect ports/conversions to modern gaming hardware! I'm glad we are able to play these games through other means, though. Some of these games still look incredibly fun!

[@Gent82]

I got into Line of Fire through MAME. I love that game! It's like playing an 80's action-war movie. The type of movie usually made by Italians and shot in the Philippines, packed with explosions, jungle-based gun battles and army guys running around.

[@jaylin76]

As a teenager, I played A.B.Cop religiously when I used to go to my local arcade - damn, I loved that game. I just remembered about it when your video brought memories flooding back. Those were some good times. Thank you for that 😃

[@tobalaz]

Aladdin's Castle had a sit down Thunder Blade at the local mall, and man was that thing so much fun. It was so responsive, the instant you started to move the joystick that thing would swing left or rightwith a swift jerk. I'll never fotget how absolutely amazing that felt at the time.

[@baronhausenpheffer]

This era of gaming is so foreign to me even though I lived through it... I grew up in a tiny town of about 3,000 out in the sticks, and the nearest arcade was over an hour's drive away. I would vaguely see that they existed on shopping trips to the "big city" (usually a fast run to buy school clothes) but that was about it. For me, gaming was a "home console only" experience for all practical purposes. I'm glad you're giving us a window into the world of the arcade as it existed around this time, and especially for the highlight on Sega's legacy!

[@thehumbleone1983]

Watching this video makes me miss the good old days back then as a kid I remember going to the arcades seeing Space Harrier , After Burner , Golden Axe , Altered Beast , fell in love with Sega especially the After Burner cabinet and Space Harrier games theses games is what I always wanted to play first when I got to the arcades here in Australia back then oh man the great memories I have those were the best days growing up

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I always thought it was ironic that Sega, the company who was doing everything in their power to make gaming 3-D, eventually ended up making a console that struggled so badly with it.

[@TiNRiB]

I was lucky enough as a kid to live close to the largest arcade in the country, and in the mall my mom would visit every weekend. I got to experience all those awesome sit down cabinets back in the 90s. The arcade is now a shadow of its former self. They just don't make them like they used to.

[@xestore]

These were simply jaw-dropping back then. Afterburner was pretty much the most awesome experience you could have as a video gamer. The full cabin was very rare in my country, but when I finally found one, oh boy..🤤

[@justapeasant8949]

Blue Thunder. I like that movie a lot. One of Roy Scheider's better roles (movie itself is full of great dialogue). There are multitude of games where the helicopter's (The Special two as they referred to it) look is copy/pasted from the movie (Midnight Resistance comes first to mind). Also played Thunder Blade. The arcade "cabinet" was wild. Full size flight stick with rotating seat!😲

[@saturnosync]

I never understood why Sega didn't bring this technology to the Mega Drive. It would be amazing to see the rotation and scale sprite running in MD.

[@Residentevil1998racooncity]

It's all about cost

[@maroon9273]

I wish it did as a enhancement chip cart prior to the svp cart. Putting it on the sega cd is a terrible move

[@ostiariusalpha]

​@@maroon9273If the Genesis simply had a bit more DMA bandwidth to shuffle graphical data from the Sega CD to its own VDP, it would have actually been a great move; but it sadly did not. The CD unit's ASIC chip was more than capable of reproducing Super Scaler level effects well beyond what you can see in even really good games like Soul Star, but the VDP's DMA unit just couldn't keep up.

[@danmann861]

The Saturn was meant to be their super scaler juggernaut. The way I see it in hindsight is that the consoles were behind the arcade tech by at least a generation. When the arcades were moving into Model 1 and 2 territory, the way I see it is they saw the Saturn as being the super scaler juggernaut that could finally deliver those games at home for a reasonable price. Problem is Sony forced their hand to go 3D sooner than later. At least that is my guess looking back on it all.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

The Genesis was built with nothing but inexpensive off the shelf parts.

[@Rationalific]

Sega has been and still is sitting on a heap of treasure but thinks, "Nah, I'm sure nobody would like to play an arcade game compilation at home..."

[@AnthonyRiddle]

My favorite types of games after all these years are still sprite scalers. They are still magical to look at and always play so buttery smooth. I wish we could see a resurgence of these types of games with modern capabilities.

[@elodvezer1790]

8:31 "FOSTERS, Australian for BEER!!"

[@EhHold]

Just imagine if Sega actually ported these to Sega CD instead of FMV crud.

[@jayesun3420]

This was one of my absolute favorite episodes of the Lord X himself. Top game for the best games in history,in my humble loud opinion. Keep on being awesome dude.

[@rascalguy5673]

Marlboro "we can't look like we are advertising cigarettes to kids." Meanwhile Camel, "Hey kids it's Joe Camel!"

[@ericl7519]

Really wish for Galaxy Force 2 on Sega Ages for Switch! I was blown away seeing and playing it for the first time at Disneyland's "Starcade" a million years ago.Thank you for this and all your presentations.Sega Lord X rules!

[@dexocube]

Bro I must have said this before, this channel is easily the best Sega content on KZbin, hands down.

[@jamesmoss3424]

Sega's Board arcade games are brilliant and a work of art 🎨. 😀👍🎮

[@CasperEgas]

The outdoor swimming pool near my house had an After Burner 2 sit down cabinet. The only arcade cab in my village. Played it so much :) Did play some of the others later. Riding Hero (there is a cab in Amsterdam), Line of Fire and Thunderblade.

[@MrThunderwing]

Nice video SLX. I was absolutely obsessed with Afterburner as a kid, couldn't get enough of it.

[@RussellB]

hell yes let's talk about sprite scaling, boys

[@lordsosa9383]

lets not

[@nicolaashamman6201]

Quite a few of the earlier X BOARD games (Thunder Blade, LAST SURVIVOR and LINE OF FIRE) were programmed by RIKIYA NAKAGAWA, future head of AM1, and I can really feel the camera movement in those 3, so they uniquely stand out among the lineup.

[@duckfield2520]

Only man on the planet that ends sentences with "however".

[@musicaldude9429]

love the vids man, love watching these just to hear the music in the games and to learn the history, love the era of dedicated sound chips ( its a era i was born too far after to experience ,i was born in 2002 ) but love , im currently learning music trackers so i can make retro game music the proper way

[@1stdrive]

I've enjoyed playing A.B. Cop today. I'd never heard of it before but it's great fun to play 😊

[@haplo2570]

I'm in the UK and played AB Cops at my local arcade, so they at least released it to the UK

[@ralang999]

Great work SLX! Now I'm ready to kick back with a cold Hosters and light up a Marlbobo

[@quagmirefx]

Thank you Sega Lord X for all your great content.

[@SegaLordX]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@googleboughtmee]

I saw Racing Hero and A.B. Cop here in the UK, but like you I definitely never saw Last Survivor anywhere. Since arcades were often found in the same place as fairground rides, I often thought of Sega's scaler motion cabinet games as rides too. It was a few minutes of adrenaline and you stepped off with the same feeling.

[@Ambient-Drive]

Keep it up, Mel!

[@jonathanfeldheim6554]

in 1996, in an arcade in Spain I played after burner in a full flight simulator that went 360 degrees in every direction, as in, I could be flipping upside down and making actual barrel rolls while playing if that's how I flew on screen----what happened to this most amazing game I have never seen it since??? not just after burner, it;s the best game I ever played

[@alexzapf6422]

Really love your channel. I grew up a lot like you. Had to cut grass or do work to be able to buy my games and system. I’m an 80’s kid. Really appreciate the work you do. Thank you.

[@tursilion]

I spent a fair bit of time taking Afterburner apart in emulation - it's perhaps unbelievable to note that it does not do any sprite rotation at all -- all the angles of every object are predefined in ROM. I don't think they did hardware rotation until Power Drift.

[@Canadian_Gamer]

Sega doesn’t care about its heritage, they only care about Sonic.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

That’s a sad and frustrating fact about Sega and why I don’t like modern Sega but I’ll always love retro Sega as they had a passion and purpose this modern day Sega has lost it’s passion and drive, while Nintendo still has their passion and fire and they learn from their mistakes unlike Sega.

[@atrocity3010]

And when they do port stuff from their catalog it's almost always the usual suspects. Fantasy Zone, Space Harrier, Outrun, etc. The stuff we've already seen on countless other systems, rivaling Street Fighter 2 in terms of number of unnecessary ports. Hell, they even ported Fantasy Zone to the PS2 twice.

[@alexgeorge501]

I still play some of these on my 3DS!

[@faceheadman]

Nice overview. i was a pro at gp rider the main trick is letting go of the gas and breaking all the way at the turn with all the signs. very satisfying once you get the hang of it

[@ForeverLacey09]

Afterburner was one of the few games that wasn't any fun on any platform other than it's arcade deluxe cabinet. I have a few Sega deluxe cabinets in my home collection which had been a dream of mine since I was a kid.

[@S.Madman]

There was a Super Monaco GP twin version with 2 players head to head. You could also hook up 8 deluxe cabinets. Though you would only see those at Sega's Time Out arcades.

[@arcadehispano877]

Very interesting video. Good work!

[@TKEnvironments]

Awesome video, one of your best! Love your work man! It's crazy how much of a pioneer SEGA was at that time, not only doing home consoles but all these crazy arcade machines. Different times where the financial incentive was to make the coolest thing ever, as opposed as to now, where it's all about engagement, monetization etc... Cheers!

[@penguinreloaded7756]

Awesome video! I hadn't seen some of these game before!

[@J45yu456]

SLX. Thank you brother for your work to present us on everything Sega!

[@SegaLordX]

My pleasure!

[@Hwi1son]

Love your videos Man!

[@axilmar254]

Actually, the Amiga version of Line Of Fire was quite good, and it featured some sort of hackish sprite scaling as well.

[@ckynut]

Great video, mate!

[@TheoAtilade]

either the master system or the megadrive or even both consoles could have handled ports of these games released between 1989 and 1991, just like the saturn could handle ports of arcade games released from 1993 to 1998. interesting concepts for some of these games here. the arcades were truly alive back in the eighties, the nineties and the early/mid 2000s with various developers besides sega making games for the arcade. i go into arcades today and they aren't the same as back then when young gamers played to win and complete games. neither the hunger nor the passion are present in today's gamers. the arcades are a bit too family oriented for my liking.

[@Fabiano.Bittencourt]

Great episode!

[@FloridaEbikes]

Nice

[@user-vu4yl3yo3p]

So many games I haven't actually seen running before - thanks SEGA Lord X

[@neilmclean1527]

These should all have been released on the Astro City Mini. It’s near criminal there are no ways to play these games today.

[@projectmayhem6898]

Thanks!

[@xenorac]

Great video as ever!

[@chuckufarlie8215]

I think this is the best Sega Lord X video I've ever seen.

[@zacherymarks798]

Had the chance to find a sit down after burner in an arcade. Didn’t make the game any easier for me.

[@maroon9273]

Pioneered 2.5D Scaling games alongside outrun and hang on boards. So much great memories. One day, we will see a open world scaler game.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Hey SLX, regarding the modern compilation, how would you feel about a BSNES HD style addition? Increase the resolution 5x, upscale each asset 5x, and then further away objects will seem clearer. Or would you prefer a more authentic original appearance?

[@SegaLordX]

Honestly, I don't care. As long as the compilation is made and the gameplay is solid, they can make it how ever they want.

[@jndq591]

Thanks for the video!

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

gp rider looks nuts

[@Banderpop]

I'd hoped we'd see some of these appear soon after Sega made a bunch of previously unported games available via the Astro City Minis, but it hasn't happened. No idea how they'd handle the controller aspect of several of these with another Mini release though. Until then there's MAME. But again, controller setup isn't always easy. For example I'm not sure how to set things up so I can adjust speed in Thunder Blade. Are there any sites that make this kind of info available, preferably without wading through tons of ancient forum posts?

[@pliniomsann]

Awesome video 👏

[@flink1231]

I had the opportunity to play super thunder blade sit down in a Japanese arcade in Tokyo back in 2018. It is great!

[@joshoshea3194]

I know that the home ports that were released on the Megadrive, Mastersystem and Game Gear were never up to the challenge but I'd have liked to seen them added side by side in the episode just to get the visual comparison. .

[@onemarcelinho]

Time to re-release those games!

[@erics8192]

sega went all out when it came to arcade games in the 80s

[@jagergerg9771]

Sega always was number 1 with there arcade machines.

[@goranisacson2502]

Afterburner I knew because it's famous and Thunderblade has had a lot of videos made of it, but Line of Fire and Air Bike Cop? Never even heard of them, and I feel wronged for that. I would have so loved go experience them, even if it hadn't been in the arcade... if they'd ever even released up here in arcade-phobic Sweden.

[@philmason9653]

I'd love to see a port of Racing Hero, we got far too few bike games from Sega at home. Hang On is still my favourite racing series from them, '95 included.

[@Chris-Courage]

Racing Hero is fantastic.

[@TheNomcognom]

Funny to see the After Burner cabinet ad in spanish!

[@stephenschenider4007]

1:13 Not sure why but that board just looks so cool.

[@boboifiii1289]

I was lucky enough to play the sega r 360 a couple of years ago. It was fully working and full of awesome even if it was based on g lock and not sure what board.

[@ConsoleCombat]

sega cd could have been the king of all these sprite scaling games.

[@infernogott]

I hope this system will be supported on the MiSTer FPGA soon.

[@biostemm]

I wonder what the likes of the programmers behind Panorama Cotton or the 3D sections of Toy Story could have done with Sega's super-scalers...

[@gamecat666]

maybe controversial but Ive never liked After Burner as a game. Impressive sure, but its no fun for me. (same with Space Harrier tbh). Thunder Blade I did quite like. We had the sit down one at my local arcade. The whole thing rotated side to side but it was not powered by anything, it just used the leverage of the joystick so you had to fight against your own weight to change direction quickly giving it a feeling of intertia

[@richardthefox3412]

Welcome back! On an unrelated note, have ever considered doing a follow up to a “Let’s save”console? Like say, the NEC PC-FX or the Dreamcast which would have followed after the Turbo Grafix 16 and Sega Saturn episodes

[@JDoucette]

X Board could not rotate sprites and backgrounds. After Burner used software. This is why the sprites jump in 22.5 degree increments and the haze sometimes doesn't cover the sky and ground... because they are also sprites with software rotation. Galaxy Force Y Board could do hardware rotation which shows with its fractional rotation and glitches on screen edges. I'd love for someone to find the source for After Burner that computes the rotations. I would assume no wasted memory was used to preprocess this.

[@gjergjaurelius9798]

Sega needs to give us a system 16, system 32 and a Naomi board collection.

[@cimbrelus]

Wow!the cabinet picture with the logo "Unidesa" is a property of Spanish distributor They make me happy about of years

[@johncraw8572]

Awesome video please do more thanks 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@iorch82]

Oh the let down when played monaco gp on the Genesis!!!!

[@Riz2336]

The Saturn could have handled these, too bad they didn't get ports

[@maroon9273]

Even most y board and systems 32 board games.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

The Saturn would have handled all these super Scaler games without breaking a sweat, it’s the only Sega console outside of the Dreamcast that could handle a home port of what was from Sega’s golden era of arcade gaming.

[@denraimei32]

Without SEGA AGES, our only hope for these games to return would be Hamster's Arcade Archives.

[@Residentevil1998racooncity]

Sega don't care, all they care about is sonic.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

In the arcades in the 80s , Sega could do no wrong and stood alone as the most powerful arcade boards of their times with only Konami coming close to competing with Sega and why isn’t Afterburner available on Sega Ages on Nintendo Switch?

[@JS_2099]

Sprite scaling is back on the menu, boys.