The RAM Cartridges and the Sega Saturn

[Music] when the sega saturn launched in late 1994 it had what was thought to be plenty of system ram to do the games of the future it had a pool of memory that was larger than most 16-bit games from the previous generation and for 3d games it was actually quite a bit because of the time period and technology most games ran in the system's low resolution mode so things like textures didn't need a ton of storage space yet take into account most of the music from the era was read from the cd and the sega saturn seemed good to go of course this wasn't the case with all games especially when it came to 2d assets often hand-drawn art had lots of frames of animation which easily swallowed up what was available on the saturn and the early fighting games on the platform reflected that as good as games like x-men children of the atom were a side-by-side of the arcade version quickly revealed some heavy cutbacks to the animation larger characters typically suffered the most but it could be pretty much seen across the board as time went on developers got creative for ways to get around the saturn's ram limitations and in this episode we are going to take a look at the ways they came up with hope you guys enjoy the ram cartridges and the sega saturn [Music] the first idea for expanding the ram of the saturn actually took shape as a good old-fashioned rom cartridge officially called the twin advanced rom system it essentially took the concept of storing assets on a rom cartridge to reduce load times and improve sound and visual assets the first game using this technology was snk's the king of fighters 95. it's important to note that this was radically different from the later released ram cards the assets stored on the rom cartridge were just there for this game and none other without this cart the cd was useless and vice versa the end product wasn't bad either it represented the neo geo version fairly well despite the original weighing in at a then massive 250 megs this version of the game was only released in japan and europe there was only one other game that used the twin advanced rom system and that was the late 1996 release of ultraman hikari no kyojin dinsetsu it too was a one-on-one fighter using the popular japanese television show and its crazy cast of characters since this wasn't directly based on any other version there's nothing really to compare it to it's a so-so fighter that has some fun moments thanks to the license and the easy mechanics both games that use the twin advanced rom system came with the cartridges in the box and retailed a bit higher than a normal game ultraman never left japan shortly after the release of the first twin advanced rom game sega released the one megabyte extended ram cartridge in september of 1996. this differed from the previous technology and that it could be used by different games if they were programmed for it there were no hard assets on the cartridge and instead developers could pick and choose what was stored there and when 18 games in total would make use of the device during the saturn's lifetime astra superstars is one of the wildest fighting games you'll find on the saturn it was originally a sunsoft arcade game that was released on the stv titan board this one leaves the one megabyte extended ram cartridge as an option for faster load times and a bit of additional animation but it plays just fine without it it's fast flashy and easy to get lost in all the on-screen action while the backgrounds are nice the focus is entirely on the sprites and the insane amount of special effects for each move it's combo and super move heavy too so there is always something happening on the screen that makes your jaw hit the floor it's one of the prettiest 2d games on the platform [Music] fighting games weren't the only games to take advantage of the ram cartridge success released a new sequel in its beloved franchise called magical night dreams cotton 2. this is another one that was also on the std titan arcade board and it again allows the option of using the one megabyte extended ram cartridge instead of the graphics getting enhanced by the cartridge it instead adds some additional sound effects that means that cotton 2 is a beautiful looking and running game with or without it great looking backdrops and some sweet sprite effects are all over this one curiously its remix cotton boomerang would not use the ram expansion at all [Music] capcom released a port of its cps2 driven cyberbots full metal madness for the saturn the extended ram card is optional here as well but there is a fair bit of difference in animation quality it's much closer to the arcade with the ram cart which was a one-on-one fighter using different styles of mecha the gameplay was heavier and clunkier than something like street fighter but it could still be quite flashy and fun a big box special edition was released in japan with an art book and a pop-up display [Music] fighters history dynamite is the first game on our list here that actually required the one megabyte extended ram cartridge to play on the saturn it's based on the neo geo original which also goes by the name carnal's revenge data east did the original arcade version but sega actually got retubo games to do this port for them since it requires the ram expansion there's nothing to compare it to other than the original but honestly the visuals here were never a strong point of this game it plays well enough for what it is but there are certainly better fighting games on the saturn you'll also notice that there was a version sold with and without the ram expansion this was typically the case as any game that required the cartridge to work always had a special boxed version that came with it [Music] come here [Music] groove on fight was originally developed by atlas for the stv titan arcade board it features 2d tag team action similar to something like the king of fighters but you can tag in and out at will the saturn conversion is pretty much arcade perfect it's a nice looking game too with an animation quality usually reserved for the better looking snk and capcom fighters it's actually a continuation of the power instinct series but mostly features a new cast of characters and has a much different art style i really like this one and it's one of the better non-traditional fighting games on the platform it requires the ram expansion and will not play without it [Music] [Music] marvel's superheroes was capcom's second optional one megabyte extended ram cartridge game this was another cps2 conversion and the large fighters and colorful backgrounds make it one of the saturn's better looking games unfortunately it suffers a bit of slowdown here and there that does affect gameplay using the one megabyte extended ram card actually seems to exacerbate these problems so you may want to try it with and without it to get a feel for it the extra ram does give you improved animation but i'm not sure it's worth the trade-off for more slowdown regardless it's still a fantastic title that provides hours of great gameplay the us and european versions retain their ram cart compatibility despite there being no official release of the unit in those regions here are a few comparisons to show you the differences between the vanilla ram enhanced and arcade versions [Music] snk made sure to get in on the one megabyte extended ram cartridge as well metal slug required the device to work and the port is actually not bad at all there are still some missing frames of animation here and there but you'd need to put it side by side to the neo geo original to catch them all there is some slow down in the heavier action but overall the gameplay is solid the sprites look great and it has the two player co-op and it only loads in between stages considering the original neo geo cart was a then whopping 193 megs of 2d goodness i think snk did a hell of a job with this version real belgarro densetsu and real belt garo densetsu special were released by snk for the saturn both requiring the use of the one megabyte extended ram cartridge they are ports from the neo geo and both are quite excellent graphics and gameplay are faithful here and retains most of the animation that made the original so nice to look at i love the way these play and are some of the better fatal fury games before we received mark of the wolves both come with standalone and boxed ram cart variants and there was even a special edition pack that included both games called real bout gauru densetsu best collection the neo geo ports kept coming with both samurai showdown three and four getting the one megabyte extended ram cartridge treatment these again required the ram cart to work and again snk released a special edition that had both games in the package i was pretty happy with both these games and they were fairly close to the neo geo versions sans a few missing frames of animation and some lower quality sound samples still considering that these conversions were originally cartridge arcade games the cd based saturn did a bang-up job overall taking games like these and squeezing them into the meager ram of a cd-based system was no easy task but these remain quite playable [Music] thank you [Music] with the king of fighters 95 using the twin advanced rom system snk switched gears for the king of fighters 96 and 97 with both of those requiring the one megabyte extended ram cartridge the move to the different technology comes with a few changes load times feel more frequent and longer in 96 and 97 and both have more animation cuts and the sound samples are of noticeably lower quality neither of these games are bad conversions however gameplay is faithfully recreated in both and the overall visual presentation is absolutely gorgeous at a time when neo geo games were still nosy thing to come by the saturn did an admirable job giving you some options there are numerous ways to obtain these two games for the saturn each one comes in standalone as well as ram cart boxed versions and snk released the two together in one pack for those of you wanting all three king of fighters games on the saturn there is a best collection that has all three games as well as the twin advanced rom cartridge in one super-sized package [Music] [Applause] [Music] sunsoft released a port of their neo geo classic waku waku 7 for the saturn as well it requires the use of the one megabyte extended ram cartridge and while i find it still a good game it has some serious issues that will turn some of you away while the fighters look really good the backgrounds did not translate so well they are heavily pixelated and just not as pretty as the original arcade version that's the least of the game's sins however there is copious amounts of slowdown during gameplay with some of the more complex sprites it's near constant and really affects the gameplay there is still a good fighter here but the saturn port definitely leaves a bit to be desired [Music] [Music] [Music] with two-dimensional arcade games continuing to advance and becoming more complex so did their need for even more storage to combat this need sega released a four megabyte extended ram cartridge in november of 1997. it provided a massive boost to the work ram of the saturn allowing bigger and better games to be ported with less compromise better yet it was backwards compatible with many of the games that took advantage of the one megabyte card though you will find some glitches in games like king of fighters 96 unfortunately due to its extremely late in life release capcom was the only company to really take advantage of it let's take a look at the games they released while fighting games were the typical genre to use the four megabyte extended ram cartridge capcom also ported their dungeons and dragons arcade games to the saturn these two were meant to be standalone releases at first but capcom decided to put him together and release the package in 1999 the first entry tower of doom does not use the ram cartridge in any form it plays on the vanilla saturn and always was intended to be that way the second game in the box shadow over mastara requires the four megabyte card as it was a much more complex game visually while the conversion is overall excellent it does suffer frequent and painfully long load times this is still a heck of a solid beat em up and definitely worth [Music] playing [Music] one of the last few releases for the saturn final fight revenge also required the 4 megabyte extended ram cartridge i won't lie to you though i have no idea why this polygonal fighter does nothing that other polygonal fighters had already done better on the saturn without the need for ram expansion i don't hate this game like a lot of people do but i would love to know why it uses the cartridge i mean there are no major two-dimensional elements to the engine to speak of and the visuals aren't particularly impressive it originally showed up on the stv titan arcade board so perhaps the nature of the port meant to keep load times down it needed extra space but even then you think it would have been optional with the creation of their tag team versus fighting games capcom really needed the extra space of the four megabyte extended ram card marvel superheroes vs street fighter had four beautifully animated fighters in each battle backgrounds loaded with details and tons of sound effects while the playstation versions had to be utterly gutted the saturn versions were a sight to behold no other home console had anything like it and it was a popular item at import shops outside of japan many saw this version as just a re-skin of x-men vs street fighter but i really enjoyed some of the new fighters and the in-boss met goki it's one of my favorite games on the [Music] saturn [Applause] [Music] among capcom's efforts in those days pocket fighter was definitely one of the more interesting ones it was sort of an attempt to make street fighter style gameplay more accessible to a casual and younger audience the special moves and combo system is simplified quite a bit and the sound and visuals have been cutesied up similar to super puzzle fighter 2 turbo it's the only 4 megabyte extended ram cart game where the cartridge is optional in other words it doesn't need the 4 megabyte card to play but it only works with the four megabyte cart optionally there's no one megabyte cart support here it's a good one to take a break from the more serious capcom fighters and quite the good looking game [Music] street fighter zero three is often considered the de facto reason to own the four megabyte expanded ram cartridge i mean it's pretty close to a perfect fighting game you have tons of personalities and styles to choose from impeccable visuals and more modes and options than you can count this one requires the four megabyte part to operate and once you see it in motion you understand why this was already a nice looking game in the arcade thanks to the cps2 but seeing it run on a home console from 1994 like this was something really special again one of my absolute favorites on the saturn [Music] when most people look back at the saturn's library the fighting genre was so well represented some games just get overlooked that is certainly the case with vampire savior here requiring the four megabyte ram card it's every bit as impressive as zero three maybe even more so thanks to its exotic locations and crazy cast of fighters some think that just because vampire hunter appeared earlier in the life of the saturn you can just skip this one not true at all this is a 2d visual feast for the eyes and has enough gameplay tweaks to make it worth your time sometimes i let the attract mode just run while i'm working on my vids for the youtubes here every aspect of it is just plain gorgeous it's known as dark stalkers 3 in the west and comes highly recommended [Music] crystal the final game we'll be looking at is x-men vs street fighter which is actually the very first game that was available for the 4 megabyte expanded ram cartridge in japan it launched day one with the device and is likely to be the first game many of you played for it it was a revelation too cd-based systems had zero chance of replicating titles like this before the saturn while it came to the playstation a while later it was stripped bare of its majesty and reduced to a mere shadow of its former self as the saturn market plummeted into an irrecoverable nosedive it was titles like this that kept the faithful gone if you own just one game for the four megabyte ram cartridge this is as fine a choice as you can make [Applause] [Music] [Applause] pow are a handful of games i didn't cover here because they are extremely japanese centric in nature and have lots of text and story it's stuff like mahjong and dating sims stuff i don't typically play anyway i also had originally started comparing each game to its arcade version but quickly found it pointless almost every game here had the same level of quality comparatively on each device so i stuck to a few key talking points to give you an idea of the overall differences in other words the games that used the ram expansions optionally had the same level of cutbacks when not using the device and the stuff that required the four megabyte ram cart was virtually indistinguishable from the source material if you are a fighting game fan or a fan of arcade games in general owning the ram expansions for the saturn is an absolute must not only will you get access to some of the best fighters on the platform but also stuff like dungeons and dragons and metal slug it is important to note that while these ram upgrades helped immensely they were not exact replacements for the arcade games that used rom boards even the neo geo cd which had a whopping 7 megabytes of ram built into the base unit still had assets changed and or cut from the arcade releases cd technology still had its limits and compromise was almost always the case if you are looking for an all-in-one solution for the saturn pro-action replay carts and their variants are all over the internet they have the ram expansions built into a cart that also bypasses region protection can hold game saves and even cheat for you keep in mind these third party carts can be of dubious quality so do your homework and make sure you are buying something that isn't gonna wreck your cartridge slot i also recommend you check the description for a list of games they use these devices as well as a list of games that have issues with the four megabyte version of the cartridge when it came to two-dimensional games the playstation could actually do a very decent job bringing the arcade home there are numerous games that some even consider better on the playstation thanks to its matching resolution and the often improved sound effects one area where the saturn absolutely dominated the playstation was when it came to these extended ram games however they played so much closer to the original versions that it really was night and day one of the few victories saturn owners could boast about at the time if you are new to the saturn and want to see what she could do these games are a great place to start i'm sigalord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 137,454

Keywords: 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

Id: 10cPIvpNNpI

Length: 25min 55sec (1555 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021