SEGA Saturn 26th Anniversary Game Competition

First off, a huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who submitted an entry. I really enjoyed looking over each submission and was frankly shocked to see such a presence of quality aftermarket development on the Saturn. Bravo to you all. Ranking these wasn't easy. You should all be proud.

With that said, we’ve been asked to post our ranking publicly in this forum. I wanted to give a few words about each game in addition to the ranking. I’ll talk about the Translations and Hacks once I get there.

Ranked Bottom to Top.

Original Games


15. Test …. (I love lasagna !?) - VBT
I’m a bit confused by this one.

14. Final Burn Neo - vbt
I’m impressed you had four entries.

13. Kriss Mingle - Cobradile
This is certainly an interesting idea. I know some of the judges were excited to experience this concept but were a bit let down that it ended so early. I think it’s a good indicator that people want to see where this is going.

12. Heroic-Vania - mrkotfw
I was immediately interested when I saw the first screen. If you continue to release revisions, I’ll continue to check them out.

11. Final Burn Neo - vbt
Oh, hi VBT, I didn’t see you there with your THIRD submission (an awesome job)! Emulation using a Saturn is something I certainly didn’t expect to see here. Honestly, kind of cool.

10. Tank Game - SuperReye
A 2 player version of Combat on the Saturn? I’ll take it.

9. Flicky's Flock - slinga
Unfortunately, there’s no real way for me to test out the eight-player mechanic here. I feel having this at PRGE, or something similar with eight controllers hooked up could be fun to play and watch.

8. Cyberblock Metal Orange - ndiddy
It's a great game and a solid start on a competent port.

7. Seniriu - Emerald Nova
Impressive manual and another promising start to something that could be special. Clearly, it’s an early preview, but what’s on-screen looks solid. Keep us posted, and keep working on this!

6. Pony Game - Ponut64
I can see what you’re going for and think it has strong potential. Seeing original 3D home-brews on the Saturn is mind-blowing.

5. Sonic Z-Treme Metal Sonic - XL2
A very fun and cool experience. Makes me a bit sad we never got something proper Sonic on the Saturn.

4. Wolfenstein 3D - vbt
It’s Wolfenstein 3D on the Saturn. Who wouldn’t want that?

3. Sickle - Ervilsoft
I like what’s there and felt it was one of the most enjoyable games/demos I played. I was a bit disappointed when it was over. I'm impressed you pulled it together so quickly.

2. Hellslave - XL2
We are entering territory where it’s clear the game I’m playing should receive a proper release should the team finish it. Fantastic execution here! PS. The first screen is unskippable and static for a bit too long. I thought the game crashed a few times and reset my system.

1. Cube Cat - 7shades
Man, I love this game. It has a very innovative puzzle mechanic, and of the 3D games presented, it's most polished with what’s presented. Even my kids stopped to watch and talk about this one, so clearly, it’s hitting home on the presentation end. Bravo!


Transaltions and Hacks.
The amount of work that goes into translations is incredible. With so many games left in Japan, the work seems endless. I think the question of how to rank these submissions creates its own issue (at least for me). Do I rank them by work invested and history of development (something I don't have the proper info to consider), by what I like the most regardless of other factors, or by accessibility to a game on a broad scale? I went with accessibility. Translation and quality of life improvements for games with no English commercial release counterpart are ultimately how I made my considerations here. I certainly feel guilty about this section as I'm not sure there's a way to do everyone justice here. Thanks to everyone for their hard work. For the two nontranslations, I read up on what they do but don’t have a way to test these properly. Sorry about that.

06 - Floppy Disc Drive Operator - TrekkiesUnite118
05 - Save Game Extractor - slinga
04 - Lunar Silver Star Story Dub Edition - klarth
03 - Grandia - TrekkiesUnite118
02 - Fire Pro S _ 6 Men Scramble - malenko
01 - Dracula X (Symphony of the Night) - Knight0fDragon

-Jenovi
 
First off, a huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who submitted an entry. I really enjoyed looking over each submission and was frankly shocked to see such a presence of quality aftermarket development on the Saturn. Bravo to you all. Ranking these wasn't easy. You should all be proud.

With that said, we’ve been asked to post our ranking publicly in this forum. I wanted to give a few words about each game in addition to the ranking. I’ll talk about the Translations and Hacks once I get there.

Ranked Bottom to Top.

Original Games


15. Test …. (I love lasagna !?) - VBT
I’m a bit confused by this one.

14. Final Burn Neo - vbt
I’m impressed you had four entries.

13. Kriss Mingle - Cobradile
This is certainly an interesting idea. I know some of the judges were excited to experience this concept but were a bit let down that it ended so early. I think it’s a good indicator that people want to see where this is going.

12. Heroic-Vania - mrkotfw
I was immediately interested when I saw the first screen. If you continue to release revisions, I’ll continue to check them out.

11. Final Burn Neo - vbt
Oh, hi VBT, I didn’t see you there with your THIRD submission (an awesome job)! Emulation using a Saturn is something I certainly didn’t expect to see here. Honestly, kind of cool.

10. Tank Game - SuperReye
A 2 player version of Combat on the Saturn? I’ll take it.

9. Flicky's Flock - slinga
Unfortunately, there’s no real way for me to test out the eight-player mechanic here. I feel having this at PRGE, or something similar with eight controllers hooked up could be fun to play and watch.

8. Cyberblock Metal Orange - ndiddy
It's a great game and a solid start on a competent port.

7. Seniriu - Emerald Nova
Impressive manual and another promising start to something that could be special. Clearly, it’s an early preview, but what’s on-screen looks solid. Keep us posted, and keep working on this!

6. Pony Game - Ponut64
I can see what you’re going for and think it has strong potential. Seeing original 3D home-brews on the Saturn is mind-blowing.

5. Sonic Z-Treme Metal Sonic - XL2
A very fun and cool experience. Makes me a bit sad we never got something proper Sonic on the Saturn.

4. Wolfenstein 3D - vbt
It’s Wolfenstein 3D on the Saturn. Who wouldn’t want that?

3. Sickle - Ervilsoft
I like what’s there and felt it was one of the most enjoyable games/demos I played. I was a bit disappointed when it was over. I'm impressed you pulled it together so quickly.

2. Hellslave - XL2
We are entering territory where it’s clear the game I’m playing should receive a proper release should the team finish it. Fantastic execution here! PS. The first screen is unskippable and static for a bit too long. I thought the game crashed a few times and reset my system.

1. Cube Cat - 7shades
Man, I love this game. It has a very innovative puzzle mechanic, and of the 3D games presented, it's most polished with what’s presented. Even my kids stopped to watch and talk about this one, so clearly, it’s hitting home on the presentation end. Bravo!


Transaltions and Hacks.
The amount of work that goes into translations is incredible. With so many games left in Japan, the work seems endless. I think the question of how to rank these submissions creates its own issue (at least for me). Do I rank them by work invested and history of development (something I don't have the proper info to consider), by what I like the most regardless of other factors, or by accessibility to a game on a broad scale? I went with accessibility. Translation and quality of life improvements for games with no English commercial release counterpart are ultimately how I made my considerations here. I certainly feel guilty about this section as I'm not sure there's a way to do everyone justice here. Thanks to everyone for their hard work. For the two nontranslations, I read up on what they do but don’t have a way to test these properly. Sorry about that.

06 - Floppy Disc Drive Operator - TrekkiesUnite118
05 - Save Game Extractor - slinga
04 - Lunar Silver Star Story Dub Edition - klarth
03 - Grandia - TrekkiesUnite118
02 - Fire Pro S _ 6 Men Scramble - malenko
01 - Dracula X (Symphony of the Night) - Knight0fDragon

-Jenovi
Heads up: You appear to have reviewed Final Burn Neo twice and forgot Final Fantasy from Trekkies.

Also, 12 player Flicky's Flock at PRGE would be fun as hell.
 
Heads up: You appear to have reviewed Final Burn Neo twice and forgot Final Fantasy from Trekkies.

Also, 12 player Flicky's Flock at PRGE would be fun as hell.
I dropped the ball there.... Final Fantasy is 14th. Right game, right message, wrong title and dev. Not sure how I crossed that up in my notes.
Many thanks for pointing out the error.
 
First off, a huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who submitted an entry. I really enjoyed looking over each submission and was frankly shocked to see such a presence of quality aftermarket development on the Saturn. Bravo to you all. Ranking these wasn't easy. You should all be proud.

With that said, we’ve been asked to post our ranking publicly in this forum. I wanted to give a few words about each game in addition to the ranking. I’ll talk about the Translations and Hacks once I get there.

Ranked Bottom to Top.

Original Games


15. Test …. (I love lasagna !?) - VBT
I’m a bit confused by this one.

14. Final Burn Neo - vbt
I’m impressed you had four entries.

13. Kriss Mingle - Cobradile
This is certainly an interesting idea. I know some of the judges were excited to experience this concept but were a bit let down that it ended so early. I think it’s a good indicator that people want to see where this is going.

12. Heroic-Vania - mrkotfw
I was immediately interested when I saw the first screen. If you continue to release revisions, I’ll continue to check them out.

11. Final Burn Neo - vbt
Oh, hi VBT, I didn’t see you there with your THIRD submission (an awesome job)! Emulation using a Saturn is something I certainly didn’t expect to see here. Honestly, kind of cool.

10. Tank Game - SuperReye
A 2 player version of Combat on the Saturn? I’ll take it.

9. Flicky's Flock - slinga
Unfortunately, there’s no real way for me to test out the eight-player mechanic here. I feel having this at PRGE, or something similar with eight controllers hooked up could be fun to play and watch.

8. Cyberblock Metal Orange - ndiddy
It's a great game and a solid start on a competent port.

7. Seniriu - Emerald Nova
Impressive manual and another promising start to something that could be special. Clearly, it’s an early preview, but what’s on-screen looks solid. Keep us posted, and keep working on this!

6. Pony Game - Ponut64
I can see what you’re going for and think it has strong potential. Seeing original 3D home-brews on the Saturn is mind-blowing.

5. Sonic Z-Treme Metal Sonic - XL2
A very fun and cool experience. Makes me a bit sad we never got something proper Sonic on the Saturn.

4. Wolfenstein 3D - vbt
It’s Wolfenstein 3D on the Saturn. Who wouldn’t want that?

3. Sickle - Ervilsoft
I like what’s there and felt it was one of the most enjoyable games/demos I played. I was a bit disappointed when it was over. I'm impressed you pulled it together so quickly.

2. Hellslave - XL2
We are entering territory where it’s clear the game I’m playing should receive a proper release should the team finish it. Fantastic execution here! PS. The first screen is unskippable and static for a bit too long. I thought the game crashed a few times and reset my system.

1. Cube Cat - 7shades
Man, I love this game. It has a very innovative puzzle mechanic, and of the 3D games presented, it's most polished with what’s presented. Even my kids stopped to watch and talk about this one, so clearly, it’s hitting home on the presentation end. Bravo!


Transaltions and Hacks.
The amount of work that goes into translations is incredible. With so many games left in Japan, the work seems endless. I think the question of how to rank these submissions creates its own issue (at least for me). Do I rank them by work invested and history of development (something I don't have the proper info to consider), by what I like the most regardless of other factors, or by accessibility to a game on a broad scale? I went with accessibility. Translation and quality of life improvements for games with no English commercial release counterpart are ultimately how I made my considerations here. I certainly feel guilty about this section as I'm not sure there's a way to do everyone justice here. Thanks to everyone for their hard work. For the two nontranslations, I read up on what they do but don’t have a way to test these properly. Sorry about that.

06 - Floppy Disc Drive Operator - TrekkiesUnite118
05 - Save Game Extractor - slinga
04 - Lunar Silver Star Story Dub Edition - klarth
03 - Grandia - TrekkiesUnite118
02 - Fire Pro S _ 6 Men Scramble - malenko
01 - Dracula X (Symphony of the Night) - Knight0fDragon

-Jenovi
Thanks for the comments. That first screen is actualy a loading screen, which is why it takes so long. It loads the sound driver, audio, common sprites and most 3d models. I plan to include all those on the map files to make it load faster
 
handshake.jpeg
 
I paste here my scores for save al the scores in one place, these were shared in Official Segaxtreme Discord channel #dev-saturn the 14th January. Thanks to all judges! :)

Well people let's rock with my scores for the contest.
I want to resume before share my scores how I do it. For that I share a resume of the aspect that I have in count to my final scores and positions. I scored each aspect in a scale to 0 to 3 points.

Specific for Original Games:
-Use of SS:
-Graphics: VDP1, VDP2, VDP1+VDP2, 3D, Lighting, 1x SH2, 2x SH2, SCU-DSP
-Sound: FM, PCM, ADPCM, CD, DSP: REVERB…, New driver

Specific for Hacks, Patches and Translations:
-Status: Complete, Audio, FMV, Texts, Subtitles, PAL/NTCS
-New features: Bug fixes, New content hidden, New technical features, Use of peripherals

Common Aspects for both:
-Others: SGL/SBL, Hacking SBL/SGL, JoEngine/Yaul/others, RAM, VRAM, Expansion RAM(Only 1 point), FMV, Other Peripherals, Performance real Hardware(I can’t check finally), Run in real Hardware
-Subjective judgment:
-Graphics: Look, Original art
-Sound: Look, Original art
-Originality, Usability: input, handle…, Longevity

Well, I hope all of us are happy with this contest like me. For me have been a great honor with a high responsibility. It is amazing how you can do amazing this for our lovely demon machine. And show the great potential of the SS for make everything that you can want to do. And do it! Thanks community. Luck and we continue to the next contest.
My scores:

Entries for Original Games
Final Position
Hellslave - XL2
1
Pony Game – Ponut64
2
Cube Cat – 7shades
3
Final Burn Neo - vbt
4
Sonic Z-Treme Metal Sonic – XL2
5
Wolfenstein 3D – vbt
6
Cyberblock Metal Orange – ndiddy
7
Seniriu - Emerald Nova
8
Heroic-Vania – mrkotfw
9
Flicky's Flock – slinga
10
Sickle – Ervilsoft
11
Tank Game - SuperReye
12
Final Fantasy – TrekkiesUnite118
13
Test – vbt
14
Kriss Mingle – Cobradile
15

Entries for Hacks, Patches and Translations
Final Position
Save Game Copier – slinga
1
Grandia - TrekkiesUnite118
2
Lunar Silver Star Story Dub Edition – klarth
3
Dracula X (Symphony of the Night) – Knight0fDragon
4
Fire Pro S _ 6 Men Scramble – malenko
5
Floppy Disc Drive Operator – TrekkiesUnite118
6
 
Original Game Category
ScoreGame
10Hellslave - XL2
17Cube Cat - 7shades
32Pony Game - Ponut64
43Sonic Z-Treme Metal Sonic - XL2
45Cyberblock Metal Orange - ndiddy
51Wolfenstein 3D - vbt
58Sickle - Ervilsoft
70Final Burn Neo - vbt
74Tank Game - SuperReye
74Seniriu - Emerald Nova
75Flicky's Flock - slinga
81Heroic-Vania - mrkotfw
105Kriss Mingle - Cobradile
109Final Fantasy - TrekkiesUnite118
116Test/I Love Lasagna! - vbt
 
Hacks, Patches, and Translations Category
ScoreGame
16Grandia - TrekkiesUnite118
17Dracula X (Symphony of the Night) - Knight0fDragon
24Lunar Silver Star Story Dub Edition - klarth
31Save Game Extractor - slinga
33Fire Pro S _ 6 Men Scramble - malenko
47Floppy Disc Drive Operator - TrekkiesUnite118
 
Shame the contest didn't end today, I got a lot more menus done in Fire Pro :p

Thanks for the kind words all, and hopefully I get the game done soon. I didn't anticipate over 600 moves to translate and roughly 700 lines of story mode to tackle either. Guess I should have Started with Fire Pro : Blazing Tornado lol

Big thanks to @slinga @Knight0fDragon @a-murder-of-crows and to everyone who tried patch and streamed the game , I appreciate it!
 
Here is Dracula-X, now known as Symphony of the Night.

This patch translates most of the game from start to end and in in a fairly playable state.

Along side of it is the patching program.

The program if very easy to use.

Just open up the patcher.
Load an original disc into your disc drive (preferable) or load an image via a virtual drive.
If you do not want to take the virtual drive approach, you can select a CD image providing it is in a valid format.

Select your drive or image via the button on top.

Click the Add Patch button, and locate the Dracula-X.ssp file.

If you want to region free patch, then click on region free.

Choose the type of CD image you want to output with the radio buttons.

Finally, click Build Image, and save in your desired location.

For further info, please see the on going thread.
Is this 1.00 patch or still 0.99? On the other thread you said it is but the readme says 0.99 that's why i ask.
 
So some updates on the first Demo Disc. Right now the lineup is this:

Games:
  1. Tank Game
  2. Cube Cat
  3. Sonic Z-Treme Metal Sonic Demo
  4. Ninja Penguin Manmaru English Demo
  5. Sakura Wars English 96 Tokyo Game Show Demo
Trailers:
  1. Policenauts English
  2. Grandia English
  3. Lunar Silver Star Story English
  4. Symphony of the Night English
  5. Fire Pro Wrestling English
One thing to note that I've since learned about the Demo Loader. If your game uses CD Audio, I'll need a special updated build. The Demo loader writes to the address 0x06000CCD the value that your game should use for it's first CD Audio Track. So basically your game needs a build that reads that address for the track to use as Track 1. So if you use 3 CD Audio Tracks, you will need logic that tells your game to that Track one is the value at 0x06000CCD, Track 2 is that + 1, and Track 3 is that + 2.
 
Oh damn I missed the shipping deadline. And my game was ready done by the day this contest started... what a boomer. Anyway, for those interested, here's my game: The Lighthouse of São Bento do Oeste.

Synopsis
Detective Renne Bras travels to the small town of São Bento do Oeste to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a couple at the city’s lighthouse.

Plot
You are Renne Bras, an ordinary detective. You entered the business seven years ago, just after the end of your longest relationship. You became famous for solving the case of kidnappings in the capital. Ever since you never picked up jobs that involved disappearance cases. Everything changed when days ago you received a message from an old friend. Renne long time no see, I am sending this message because I am running out of hope. A couple of my friends went missing a week ago. I called the police but they were unable to find evidence to proceed. I would like to hire you to investigate this case. I live in Sao Bento do Oeste, Minas Gerais, near the border with Sao Paulo. Please help me Renne, you are my only hope. With love,
- Julia.

Cover / Manual
The PAL, NTSC and NTSC-J print-ready cover / manual were made by Radchek, and can be downloaded through the links

Saturn, PAL Cover PAL-LIGHTHOUSE-OF-SAO-BENTO-FLAT.pdf
Saturn, PAL Manual LIGHTHOUSE-OF-SAO-BENTOS-MANUAL.pdf
Saturn, NTSC Cover/Manual LIGHTHOUSE-OF-SAO-BENTO-NTSC-MANUAL-PRINT.pdf
Saturn, NTSC Back LIGHTHOUSE-OF-SAO-BENTO-INLAY.pdf
 
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