Sprite Scaling Power! - The Sega System 32

[Music] thank you Sega Sprite scaling technology in the arcade can be traced all the way back to the late 1970s Sega then spent practically the entirety of the 1980s perfecting it with each and every upgrade adding a huge amount of processing power to make its games the best they could be visually sega's hang on Hardware was spectacular in 1985 which be got additional titles like space Harrier and Enduro Racer the next year sega's outrun Hardware gave us even more packing the screen with lots of colorful Sprites that were buttery smooth the X board in 1987 was an even bigger jump powering Classics like afterburner and thunderblade games that blew away similar titles at the time when the Y board showed up in 1988 Sega had pretty much perfected the technology and games like Galaxy Force 2 were stunning representations of just how far Sprite scaling had come that board also gave us titles like power drift and the crazy sit down shooter a rail Chase if Sega ended its Journey right there with pseudo 3D goodness nobody could say a bad word against the sheer number of great titles it released using forward scrolling Sprite based technology but they had even larger aspirations in mind a new board to rule them all so powerful it could scale tons of Sprites really fast and even do it with four simultaneous players and that my friends was the Sega system 32 released in 1990 this 32-bit monster was supported for five years with nearly two dozen titles that were so visually potent they looked great even beside the newfangled polygon games of the time in this episode we take a look at the Sega system 32 go over its games and talk a bit about its Legacy as the premier Sprite scaler Justice Sega was entering the polygon era hope you guys enjoy Sprite scaling power the Sega system 32. [Music] thank you [Music] rad mobile was developed by Sega am3 and released in 1991. it has a number of distinctions worth mentioning here it was sega's first 32-bit game and the first title Sonic ever appeared in the original was available in a stand-up unit Deluxe sit-down cab and also a super rare r360 configuration if you were lucky enough to find it it was quickly upgraded as rad rally which added a track selection and a multiplayer feature it uses a loose outrun style setup where you are racing area to area across the United States pushed Along by time-based checkpoints I always dug this for its weather effects lights and windshield wipers which sort of brought some real world presentation to sega's otherwise Fantastical racing style still pretty still fun and still well worth a play [Music] foreign [Music] developed by Sega r d8 or what is essentially am2 F1 exhaust note was a dual sit-down unit for two players I never got the appeal of these types of games because who the heck wants to slow down to 30 miles an hour to take turns in an arcade title and it doesn't have any F1 licenses so it doesn't even have the appeal to fans of the actual sport it looks good but I find the gameplay utterly exhausting it's unimpressive to say the least Sig ahead the Spider-Man license in the early 90s and they used it for a beat em up slash platforming hybrid in 1991. this one has large Sprites and four player co-op against some of Spider-Man's most hated villains after the side-scrolling beat-em-up sections the screen zooms out and becomes sort of a platforming run and Gun the animation is mostly impressive outside of Spider-Man's old guy walk and there is a fair bit of speech that pushes the story along it's not particularly deep with a simple moveset that is little more than a combo and a special projectile attack but it's the multiplayer that makes this get some friends together and you can really dump some time into it and its world of challenging boss encounters it has never been ported home for any platform and remains in arcade exclusive foreign [Music] rescue was released in 1992 and developed by Sega am1 this is point blank the superscaler version of shoplifter your job is to fly into enemy territory grab the pows and get back to your base without being blown out of the sky this came in a deluxe sit-down configuration with two screens that actually supported two-player missions the first person visuals are smooth but cluttered and the weird-looking pows don't do it any favors still this is a great looking game once you get the hang of it I'd love to see Sega release a flight stick with an astro City Mini 2 and include games like this I only oversaw this in the arcade a few times back then so a way to play it now would be much appreciated thank you Arabian fight has to be one of the most unique feeling beat-em-ups you'll ever play developed by am2 it uses full screen scaling on every single Sprite as it moves to and away from the screen that also includes the magic which has some pretty killer animation as it fills the screen it feels so different from the stuff you typically play and it's another one where you really need some friends to get the most out of it am2 clearly meant this to be played with up to four people and it can get quite hectic with all the animation magic and special effects you'll see it doesn't have the depth of something like Streets of Rage but it was meant to be a visual feast and it definitely accomplishes that task F1 super lap was sort of a sequel to the previous release F1 exhaust note Sega am2 was back at the helm and this time they scored a full license to back it up no I'm still not a fan of the nearly stop and go gameplay but it should have everything an F1 fan needs to enjoy it now the visuals are again outstanding it's just not my type of arcade racer Sega am1 released one of the best known system 32 arcade titles in late 1992 golden ax the Revenge of Death Adder this is another four player beat em up but it's so much more there are some connecting areas to the various stages that have scaling features but this is otherwise mostly similar to what you know and love from previous games in the series The Evil good for nothing Death Adder has returned and it's your job to put him away once more like the other golden ax titles it's short and flashy but it's a fun ride while it lasts the only real weakness here is the selectable Fighters which lacked the appeal of the original Trio they do gel together quite well as a unit so be sure to play it with some family or friends foreign Sega EM1 also had holosium in late 1992 a one-on-one fighter that used a rather unique cabinet this used a large curved mirror presented on a black play field with various shapes that gave the illusion of three-dimensional depth it was purely a gimmick meant to be taken as a showpiece experience and not a lot more the fighting game here is incredibly simple using only two buttons and keeping both Fighters right on top of one another it's the video equivalent of Rock'em sock'em robots this technology was also used in sega's time traveler arcade which was prone to failure so this was almost created as an apology to Arcade owners as a drop-in replacement cool as hell to look at but rather shallow in the gameplay Department round one ready five [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Sega am3 wanted to make a 3D fighting game on the system 32 and while it's simulated with scaling Sprites the gameplay itself is unlike anything at the time it's played from a slightly off-center third person perspective where you are either in the foreground or the background constantly switching views as the fight spins all around you the gameplay is incredibly difficult to come to terms with while the moves are similar to Street Fighter there is a button to jump in much of the combat relies on projectiles throws and quick takedown tactics needless to say it's not beginner friendly I always admired this one though for trying something radically different at a time when everyone else was just copying Capcom not a classic but still quite the interesting piece of History foreign [Music] 's output was pretty prolific on the system 32 and they were also responsible for Alien 3 the gun an on-rail shooter that threw everything but the kitchen sink at you this was incredibly fun in multiplayer but alone you stand almost no chance at surviving very long between multiple facehuggers hitting the screen constantly jumping Xenomorphs and even crazed robots you really do need two guns blazing to get the most out of this well boy is it a heck of a ride all the same the environments look great from sterile hallways to the desolate surface it does a fine job looking like the movies including some nice fog and smoke effects that accent everything it's a convincing 3D landscape using just two-dimensional visuals and it remains an arcade exclusive thank you burning rival was Sega am2's attempt at making a Street Fighter 2 rip off the visuals are there with big Sprites that have an animation quality well above the stuff you typically saw in 1993 but this one just doesn't play that well not to mention the AI is ludicrously aggressive even on the first few opponents you can have some fun in multiplayer just messing around but this is not made well enough to be taken seriously when there are numerous better games that were released around the same time even Sega themselves had no confidence in this release and it remained in Japan where it is still an arcade exclusive Sega am3 had the honor of bringing Sonic to the system 32 with Sega Sonic the Hedgehog in 1993 this used a trackball that you had to roll to get Sonic and a few of his friends to go in the direction you needed him to which makes a lot of sense when you consider how the Little Blue Blur moves it's really tough to get him to do what you want though resulting in some frustrating deaths you'll mostly be negotiating traps and obstacles that are all time based so speed is of the essence it's an incredibly interesting product and something Sega should have ported home with its own trackball controller at some point it was Sonic's First full arcade showing and again remains exclusively there even today in 1994 Sega am3 and am4 came together to develop Dragon Ball Z VR versus a fighting game that used a three-dimensional behind the back perspective and split screen so both players had the same view this Japanese only release also had a special motion activated release where the player actually needed to do some real punches and kicks to control the on-screen action similar to the activator peripheral for the Genesis this actually plays better than Dark Age and is easier to get into the scaling Sprites give it an illusion of depth that is pretty impressive and the animation is dead on to what you'd expect sega's fighting game experiments were quite something on the system 32 and I think this one may be their best effort unfortunately it was released at a time when no one thought of Dragon Ball Z game would sell in the United States so I have only ever seen this one via emulation Sega am3 was back in 1994 with Jurassic Park a two-player sit-down game that used a flight stick controller for its own rail shooting this was a visual Feast taking you through the locations and featuring the dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park film it doesn't waste much time on a story and instead throws you straight into the action it's fast hectic and is another game that really needs a second player to take some of the heat off of you difficulty aside I adore this it's so smooth so flashy so invariably Sega of course there never was a home version and is yet another arcade exclusive system 32 release foreign [Music] [Music] you won't hear me say this much about the sport but I loved sega's 1994 release super visual soccer it has different teams based on the region it was released in with Europe's version called supervisual football and Japan getting the J League 1994. this is essentially a soccer game played like the Madden NFL titles the behind the back view changes everything for me the simple three-button interface gives you two pass options and a kick which means you can focus on the action without worrying about complicated controls the graphics are awesome too with smooth scrolling and great animations across the players heck I would have purchased this on the Sega CD or Saturn head Sega released it at home it's awesome arcade Sports Action plain and simple old slipstream here is a weird one it was only released in a few South American nations and was developed by Capcom of all developers it supported up to six machines linked together for multiplayer and oh my God is it awesome it has a visual appeal that Rivals most Saturn and PlayStation racing games and the gameplay is Rock Solid arcade fun ever wondered what something like Daytona would have looked and played like as a two-dimensional Sprite scaler well you pretty much have your answer here looking at how well this was designed Sega was crazy not bringing this to the Saturn with a few added features this could have been an attention getting game in a number of regions but as with a lot of the others it remains arcade exclusive thank you foreign ERS was released in 1993 it came in on the Sega system multi-32 an upgraded version of the hardware that had a faster CPU more RAM and a more robust soundboard it powered the dual screen two-player outrunners that was developed by Sega am1 and this is nothing less than outrun on steroids faster with more music more cars and more tracks it's one of those arcade games you just don't want to stop playing look at these visuals there was nothing like it in the arcade at the time it was faster and far more detailed than the early 3D polygon stuff you saw and the scaling Hardware by other companies paled in comparison there are setups out there that feature two of the deluxe sit-down cabinets linked together so you could have four players at once with this classic it's a must play that every Sega fan should seek out [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] multi-32 release was Stadium cross a motocross racer that simply has no substitute outside the arcade this used sit-down bikes that you actually controlled the lean of the bike with the seat and the pull of the handlebars as you jumped this cannot be replicated anywhere near the same level in emulation so you have to play this one on the real thing to really appreciate it Stadium cross also has a freaking attack button you can use to get a competitor off of you it's a wild ride and another one with no direct home conversion emulation has its drawbacks and I wish I could show you title fight here properly what you see here is missing the background visuals leaving just the fighters it was originally developed by Sega am3 and released on the system multi-32 it's similar to something like punch out but use two joysticks for your punches this made it tough to learn but it was still fairly fun it's another one where there is no substitute for the real thing our last game was released in 1994 and supported six players across two monitors hard dunk was developed by Sega am3 and this is just as awesome as the soccer game we went over a few titles back this uses a half court three on three game of basketball where you score in single digit increments different players have different stats you can shoot from the field or power through the middle for that vicious in your face dunk it's pretty much sega's take on NBA Jam and it's absolute video cracked when you have some friends with you it's another one that uses the system multi-32 and as you've probably guessed by now Sega never ported it home to any other consoles or anyone else's for that matter [Music] [Applause] [Music] up or two [Applause] [Applause] [Music] no you can't [Music] [Applause] unfortunately for the Sega faithful out there the system 32 came at a time when its games were far too complex to be done by the Sega Genesis and by the time the Saturn came along 3D polygons were all anybody wanted to talk about that means that only a precious few of system 32's arcade games saw Home conversions of any kind the Master System got a two-dimensional demake of air rescue that was inspired more by shoplifter than anything and then there was a Genesis game called outrunners they used similar art assets but was very different from the arcade experience Yale racer was a port of rad Mobile on the Saturn which was essentially an afterthought that actually tried to mix in polygon cars to update the visuals and that was about it for the time nothing was tried on the Sega CD and nothing else was released for the Saturn or Dreamcast this was extremely disappointing to say the least and even with modern devices like the Astro City Mini bringing us a few more of these home there are still great games like Spider-Man the video game Sega Sonic the Hedgehog Jurassic Park and Alien 3 with no official means to play them you want to experience these bad boys you're gonna have to explore emulation and as you witnessed with a number of these games that emulation is far from perfect believe it or not the system 32 was not sega's final dedicated Sprite scaling arcade Hardware in 1995 Sega released the H1 board technology that was built on the sh-1 and sh2 processors that were also in the Saturn this board saw very limited use but you certainly had to respect the results cool riders was a motorcycle game that was very similar to outrunners and feel though this used a textured mapped Road and digitize Sprites to upgrade the visuals quite a bit like most of the stuff for the system 32 cool writers never saw any form of Home conversion ending sega's super scalar Journey on a somewhat sour note even so seeing the system 32 while it was pumping out great looking games was a highlight of my arcade Adventure in the early 1990s these games looked great and many of them had the gameplay to match the visuals and unlike a lot of that early polygon stuff you saw these visuals hold up like a champ some 30 years later I'm sigalord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 108,796

Keywords: sega arcade games, sega system 32, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, sega arcade

Id: YjV5lqyV8bU

Length: 25min 8sec (1508 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023