SEGA Saturn 27th Anniversary Game Competition

My apologies, that was an oversight on my part. I'll see if I can give this a proper look tonight, definitely before my video. Thanks for pointing this out, and for expanding Saturn goodness to the world.

After successfully dumping emulator save files to my Saturn's internal memory via a burnt disc, and dumping my console BIOS to the SD card of my Satiator, I have amended my rankings. This is one hell of a tool.

Intention of my message wasn't to get a better ranking but simply to clarify what this was able to do. So please restore back its ranking to 4th.
 
Intention of my message wasn't to get a better ranking but simply to clarify what this was able to do. So please restore back its ranking to 4th.
I didn't think that was your intention at all. I initially misunderstood the submission. Knowing that it expands the capabilities of transferring save files to anyone who can boot a burnt disc, as well as its other capabilities, I personally felt it was worthy of a higher rank. This is a really cool piece of software.
 
Original Games



1. Blue Skies

- Was an amazing flight sim, like Pilot Wings, but for some reason better. The Soundtrack was out of this world good. Collision had some issues, but overall was a relaxing experience! I played this for an hour straight just flying, and I didn't get bored once. The audience on the SHIRO! Show also held strong watching me play this one. This was a massive win, and had to be my top game of the competition.

2. CubeCat
- Easily one of my favourite Saturn games period! I really enjoyed what I played, but it kept crashing so much, I lost a lot of momentum while playing it. The music is fantastic, and the changes from last year are drastic! Unrelated, but I really hope you call the Cube Cat Buttons.

3. Hellslave Deathmatch Demo
- Oh man, I'm getting nostalgic about playing Quake III or Nightfire Multiplayer. 8 player madness! Such a great game, and a fun addition to- WAIT IS THAT GM_CONSTRUCT?! Ok, that is just amazing!

4. Sky Blaster
- Really fun Shmup! Love the feel of the ship, feels more like a glider, definitely a different approach from what I'm used to. Great graphics and music too!

5. Everlasting Summer
- Really thought this one had a fantastic Visual novel engine, and a great way to ummm. Cover certain parts... Probably the first NSFW game I've played in this competition, definitely had an interesting story! Think I'll pick up that PC port..

6. Red Moon
- Definitely a very impressive presentation. A cool soundtrack, great character designs, an interesting atmosphere, and a wonderful implementation. The dialogue could be improved, but there's a lot of potential for this one!

7. ZYGO
- I was absolutely BLOWN away by Zygo. I went in thinking it was just a regular platformer, but the graphics, gimmicks, and design was just so fantastic!

8. Balloonatics
- I have huge Nostalgia for Balloon Fight, so it was a nice treat to play this! Really excited for the prospect of bringing this to conventions, I imagine people will love it!

9. The Garfield Master
- I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I'm used to Tetris, but NOT GARFIELD TETRIS! The music though, man that's a bop. We getting this on Vinyl ndiddy?

10. Cloth Demo
- WOW! This is just amazing! No, I'm 100% serious. From a programming perspective, this is a fantastic job. Geometry and an engine implementation like this really didn't look as good until late in the sixth generations life. It just goes to show the true potential the Saturn had back in the day,. I'd say this demo is ahead of it's time, but of course that would be unfair..

11. Fly vs Fly
- I have no words about how addicting this one was. A weird concept, but amazing execution. It also looked SO crisp too, I'm guessing this is 480i?

12. Sartist
- a VERY relaxing Saturn game. I thought Blue Skies could soothe my soul, Sartist was mega relaxing. The soundtrack possibly made the game for me alone.

13. Lighthouse
- I love visual novels, and stuff like this is right up my alley! The story is interesting, and the characters I just want to learn more about! While I do like this one, I enjoyed the story of Red Moon a bit more.

14. 15xtreme
- Interesting picture choices, but it's a simple yet fun puzzle game. I kinda got lost playing this one... As in, I just kept playing and playing until I lost track of time.

15. Final Fantasy I
- A really neat expansion on what he worked on last year. I love the music implementation, and I would be excited to play the entire game on the Saturn!

16. Kris Mingle
- Cool to have a little more from last year, a bit short though, but I'm excited to get through more of the story! Poor Drunken Santa though.. Hopefully he pulls through on the rent...


Patches/Translations



1. Bulk Slash

- Wow, I don't know what more there is to be said about this one. Nick and myself made an entire video about it, and must have put around 20 hours into the game itself. Such a fantastic project, so many people working on the game. It stepped out of the 90's, but this feels fresh. Massive props to all of those involved!

2. DeathMask
- This is definitely a first for Saturn, going from Japanese to English, when it was originally in English. Definitely a bizarre set of events, but I LOVE Cyberpunk, and it's finally cool to play an FMV adventure game in that world, especially on the Saturn!

3. DBZ Spanish Translation
- This was probably the most unique. We in the community are blessed with being majority English speakers, and get English translations all the time. For the Spanish Speaking world, this is a huge one, especially for DBZ fans. I was blown away with this one. While not my favourite game, it opens up the translation scene to not just English, but multiple languages too! Would love to see more of these for other games and languages!

4. Wachenroder
Oh my god, FINALLY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! While it's just a small demo at the time, the amount of work Knight put into this was fantastic! I'm super excited to play the full thing.

5. Fire Pro Blazing Tornado
- While I am pretty bad at 6 Men Scramble, this arcade like Wrestling game was right up my alley! Felt like I was back in the arcades! Had a ton of fun with this one.

6. Fire Pro 6 Men Scramble
- While I am not very good at this game, the passion that went into this game is insane. Ke went through it with me, and I was just blown away. I am excited that people will finally be able to utilize and experience why this game is so great, which is the character customization. It puts all other game customizations to shame. Eat your heart out Cyberpunk 2077.

7. Grandia English 0.9.6
- Great to see this progress so far, it's been a long road since I first played this back in 2019. The addition of subtitles to the cutscenes makes this game finally feel like a full retail release from back in the day.

8. Lunar 2 - English Patch Preview:
- I thought it was super well done for what's there. All the English dialogue is readable for the most part (Barring any corruption here and there), and it's wonderful being THIS close to having both Lunar games on the Saturn!

9. Sega Ages: I Love Mickey Mouse English 0.9.1
- What a neat project, originally just adding the English ROMs, Tekkies went all in, and added the box art for the Genesis games as well. It's the little things like that I respect a lot!

10. GunGriffon II
- While this is just one line of dialogue translated, it shows the true passion of the person behind it. Loving the series so much and wanting it translated, he put his money where his mouth was, and decided to do it himself. Mad props for that.
 
Utilities
1. Sega Saturn Patcher
- Knight0fDragon made patching easy and great, not to mention the full features it comes with (Ability to rip discs then apply translation patches, all the formats it can convert to, etc). This gives no one an excuse to not patch their games anymore. Set it and forget it!

2. Save Repack Utility
- What an incredibly useful tool! Start on an Emulator, and continue on an actual Saturn? Great for people who are always on the go, or those who start playing on an emulator, and upgrade to actual hardware. Massive props to you!

3. Saturn Save Converter
- Never again will you have to worry about save formats, again another set it and forget it solution.

4. Reye’s Object Converter

- A fantastic way to implement your CAD / Blender models into an actual Saturn game. No need to worry about formats!

5. PoneSound
- Always cool to see programming libraries entered into the competition. No need to worry about performance issues in regards to music.


Honestly, this competition was tough. So many good games and utilities entered into this one. I wish I could give every one first place, because each one brings Saturn back into the forefront of the gaming world. The Saturn is truly our future!
 
ORIGINAL GAME CATEGORY
01 - Blue Skies Team Starlane - (An incredibly fun/soothing flight sim with awesome tunes! The amount of love & care / work & rework invested over the past year is apparent. FANTASTIC!)
02 - Sky Blaster ReyeMe - (Simple, clean and effective game design make this endless shooter a BLAST! Just like Tank Game, it's one you'll easily pick-up & play and lose track of time...)
03 - Sartist Ervilsoft - (As an artist, this might seem biased, however, this is a wonderful little piece of creative software for Saturn! Truly a pleasure to mess around with. We need more like this!)
04 - Hellslave Deathmatch XL2 - (The underlying engine here ranked #1 from me last year, but apart from that, the technical achievement on display here is like nothing else on the console)
05 - CubeCat 7Shades - (So many improvements over last year help boost this to my #5. Beautiful artwork & reflections, solid control and charming music make this an absolute must play!)
06 - Balloonatics Slinga - (Just like Flicky's Flock, Slinga knows how to make an addictive game with ambitious multi-player that would make even Saturn Bomberman green with envy. Superb!)
07 - Lighthouse Sansigolo - (A great original story and artwork make this visual adventure novel the complete package. It's got a good hook and the mystery is engaging. Great job!)
08 - The Garfield Master ndiddy - (While Saturn already has a few existing flavors of Tetris, they desperately lack one thing... GARFIELD! This is... Tetris. It's fun & addictive, and it's got Garfield!)
09 - Fly vs Fly DamageX - (Not one to be judged by a screenshot, this game was a LOT more fun than I expected it to be. It's got simple and intuitive gameplay, and I love the winner trash talk.)
10 - Red Moon Demo Sansigolo - (While not complete, this sizeable demo has excellent original anime-inspired artwork and an intriguing story that has me excited for the conclusion.)
11 - ZYGO JBeretta - (As it currently stands, this is a solid framework for what could be fleshed out into a nice, fully-realized 2D platformer. It's got a lot of good ideas & design principles going on.)
12 - Cloth Demo ReyeMe - (This impressed me! I've not seen this level of physics modeling on Saturn, period. Implemented effectively in a top-tier homebrew effort, it's "benchmark" material.)
13 - Final Fantasy TrekkiesUnite118 - (Another impressive showing! Trekkies wrote an interpreter for NES game code. This is a fun little entry with great future implications...)
14 - 15xtreme Jameson - (LOTS & LOTS of PONIES here.., so if you like Ponies then... this is your game. NSFW tho... I appreciate the core gameplay here. It could be applied to any number of images.)
15 - Everlasting Summer Jameson - (While I'd probably opt to play this on PC, I like the idea of more visual novels being ported to Saturn in this way. Still needs work, but it's quite promising.)
16 - Kris Mingle Cobradile - (I'm definitely interested in following this story through to conclusion, so I'm crossing my fingers for more content in next year's submission... Love what's here. Keep it up!)

PATCHES & TRANSLATIONS
01 - Bulk Slash Bulk Slash Localization Team - (Easily the most ambitious & complete fan localization project perhaps... ever... Benchmark material. Undeniably takes the #1 spot)
02 - DeathMask AMoC & ShadowMask - (An unconventional "translation" project, LOTS of work went into this, and it was a fun one to follow. Glad to see this restored to English on Saturn!)
03 - Wachenroder Knight0fDragon - (While not yet finished, this one-man super-project is really a testament to Knight's tool-creating abilities, brute forcing this shit into existence. KUDOS!)
04 - Fire Pro Blazing Tornado Malenko - (While I'm not a huge wrestling fan like many out there, I AM a sucker for arcade gameplay. This project looks slick and was pretty fun to play!)
05 - Grandia English 0.9.6 Trekkies - (I can't imagine the sleep lost over the matter of decoding & reencoding early CRI Sofdec... With help from nansh1, Trekkies finally got his sleep back...)
06 - Fire Pro 6 Men Scramble Malenko - (Significant improvements over last year make a great translation even better, however, I ranked Blazing Tornado higher as it's a new submission.)
07 - Dragon Ball Z (Spanish) Pitito - (My Spanish is... VERY... rusty. However, I can still appreciate a full language translation, despite it's lack of usefulness to me. Spanish DBZ fans, REJOICE!)
08 - Lunar 2 English Preview Mr Conan - (Just a sneak peak at what will no doubt be top ranking material in next year's game competition... Much to be excited about. Can't wait!)
09 - Sega Ages: I Love Mickey Mouse English 0.9.1 Trekkies - (Nice little image swap for the box and title screen artworks. Nothing fancy, but surely appreciated nonetheless.)
10 - GunGriffon II SSG - (A last-minute entry showing that GunGriffon II can, INDEED, have English text inserted, and that our boy Sam (SSG) will, INDEED, be the guy to make it happen. ;)

TOOLS & UTILITIES
01 - Sega Saturn Patcher Knight0fDragon - ("ONE PATCHER TO RULE THEM ALL..." This could actually be... the greatest thing since sliced bread. I love Knigh0fDragon & I love this tool!)
02 - PoneSound Ponut - (This is a phenomenal sound driver made even better by the fact that it's OPEN SOURCE! A gift that keeps on giving, Ponut gave us something really nice & useful here!)
03 - Reye’s Object Converter ReyeMe - (I've been really impressed with Reye's work time & again, and this is no exception. This tool could prove very useful to the Saturn dev community.)
04 - Save Repack Utility cafealpha - (This is one that is going to be useful to so many folks out there and is seamlessly integrated into the existing and excellent Pseudo Saturn. Much love!)
05 - Saturn Save Converter Knight0fDragon - (Knight has got to be one of the BIGGEST TOOLS I've ever met... LOL. Seriously tho, dude writes simple drag-n-drop tools that just WORK!)
 
Last edited:
Well, people, let's GO. I want to resume before share my scores, how I did it this year. I didn’t have much time, like in the previous year. Then this year I simplified my way to vote. Mainly, I have in count the same technical and design aspects like the past year but more simplified. And I empathized in these principles this year:
  • For the new projects, I score more high and prioritize.
  • For the old projects, I tried to appreciate the new added features or content.
This year there were a lot of variety, quantity, and quality of the entries, and they have been awesome. It was pretty hard for me this year. Well, I hope again for all of us it has been a happy contest, as was for me. For me, have been a great honor and responsibility again. BIG thanks for let me again judge your valuable work. Still, it is amazing how you can do go even more far with our lovely machine. And continue to show the great potential of the SS to make everything that you can want to do. Thanks COMMUNITY. Luck for all, and AGAIN we continue in the next contest. :)

My scores:
Original games:
Entry
Final Position
Blue Skies – Xenos Interactive
1
Sky Blaster – SuperReye
2
Sartist - Ervilsoft (Late Entry)
3
ZYGO – Jberetta
4
The Garfield Master – ndiddy
5
Balloonatics – slinga
6
Fly Vs Fly – DamageX
7
The Lighthouse of São Bento do Oeste – sansigolo
8
Everlasting Summer – Jameson
9
CubeCat – 7shades
10
Hellslave – XL2
11
Red Moon: Lost Days DEMO – sansigolo
12
Cloth Simulation – SuperReye
13
15 Xtreme – Jameson
14
Final Fantasy – TrekkiesUnite118
15
Kriss Mingle – Cobradile
16

Hacks, Patches and Translations
Entry
Final Position
Bulk Slash – Danthrax
1
Dragon Ball Z Idainaru (Legend) – pitito
2
DeathMask - A Murder of Crows
3
Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Preview v0.12 - Mr Conan
4
Gungriffon II – The_SSG
5
Wachenröder – Knight0fDragon
6
Fire Pro Blazing Tornado – malenko
7
Grandia 0.9.6 – TrekkiesUnite118
8
Fire Pro Six Men Scramble – malenko
9
Sega Ages: I Love Mickey Mouse/I Love Donald Duck 0.9.1 – TrekkiesUnite118
10

Utilities
Entry
Final Position
ponésound – Ponut
1
Sega Saturn Patcher – Knight0fDragon
2
SaveRepack – cafe-alpha
3
Converter – SuperReye
4
Saturn Save Converter – Knight0fDragon
5
 
(Me, aka Cerv3ro): Another contest has arrived and for the third time in a row it continues to grow and grow. Before I give my votes, I want to thank all the people involved in all the incredible projects presented this year, easily, more than 50 people have been programming or assisting in some technical work. For a suchs niche system like this, there is no better news than this. Rockin_b would be proud of all of you.
Also, many thanks to EmeraldNova, for preserving this competition for another year with such professional taste and passion, holy f, we even have some of the best YT's around here, again, something unimaginable 10 years ago.
And finally, I don't want to forget about all the other people and projects that have recently started but have not been submitted this year, see you at the next contest:

Orignal Game:

  1. Cubecat - 7Shades
  2. Blue Skies - Xenos Interactive
  3. Hellslave - XL2
  4. ZYGO - JBeretta
  5. Balloonatics - slinga
  6. Sky Blaster - ReyeMe
  7. The Garfield Master - ndiddy
  8. Sartist - Ervilsoft
  9. Red Moon: Lost Days - sansigolo
  10. Fly vs Fly - DamageX
  11. Everlasting Summer - Jameson (Hitomi)
  12. The Lighthouse of São Bento do Oeste - sansigolo
  13. Final Fantasy - TrekkiesUnite118
  14. Kriss Mingle - Cobradile
  15. 15 Xtreme - Jameson (Hitomi)
  16. Cloth demo - ReyeMe

Hack Patches & Translations:

  1. Bulk Slash - Danthrax
  2. Wachenroder - Knight0fDragon
  3. Dragon Ball Z The Legend - Pitito
  4. Grandia - TrekkiesUnite118
  5. Fire Pro Blazing Tornado - Malenko
  6. DeathMask - A Murder Of Crows
  7. Lunar 2 Eternal Blue - Mr Conan
  8. Fire Pro Six Man Scramble - Malenko
  9. Sega Ages: I love MM/DD - TrekkiesUnite118
  10. Gungriffon II - The_SSG
Utilities: (they really make life easier ;) )

  1. Sega Saturn Patcher - Knight0fDragon
  2. SaveRepack - Cafe-alpha
  3. Ponésound - Ponut64
  4. Model Converter - ReyeMe
  5. Saturn Save Converter - Knight0fDragon
I will add my notes when I get better, thank you for allowing me to be a part of this, I did my best and I would love to see all the projects finished in the future
 
Thank you Emerald Nova for all the work you put into holding this contest, and for inviting me to participate as a judge. And thank you to everyone who entered, it was a joy to experience so many excellent and varied homebrew projects.


Original Games:

1) CubeCat

It’s a cube, it’s a cat, it’s CubeCat. The visuals, the sounds, the mechanics—they all work together to create a wonderful and cohesive whole. What a delight to be CubeCat... batting at signs, making cute little hops in the grass, occasionally falling into the sea... a memorable platformer that's shaping up to be one of the best on the system.

2) Hellslave
XL2 is an unbelievably creative programmer. Hellslave already felt like an act of digital wizardry, and the new deathmatch mode greatly enhances that impression. An absolute joy to play, and an indispensable addition to the Saturn library.

3) Red Moon: Lost Days DEMO
I love visual novels, and it’s exciting to see new ones being developed for the Saturn. Red Moon: Lost Days has excellent visuals and music, and an intriguing story that involves both personal stakes and world-wide consequences. I can’t wait to play the finished game.

4) Blue Skies
A beautiful, cozy game with music and visuals that feel like they were pulled straight from Sega’s blue skies era. The game engine itself is remarkable, allowing the Saturn to smoothly bring to life an inviting and dreamy 3D world. Wonderful work all around.

5) Sky Blaster
A sleek, visually striking shooter with excellent music and style. The merging of 2D and 3D was expertly done here. I found myself entranced by the game, slowing increasing my score as more and more time slipped away.

6) The Lighthouse of São Bento do Oeste
I love detective stories, especially those centered around a crime one might describe as “dastardly.” This is an interesting visual novel with a unique style and memorable characters.

7) Balloonatics
Balloon Fight is an excellent game, and a clone of that on Saturn would already be tons of fun, but adding 12-player support is unbelievable. It's entertaining in single player and a chaotic delight in multiplayer. I desperately want to experience a full 12-player round.

8) Sartist
An extremely well designed and polished paint program. I had a lot of fun drawing ghosts and Sonics, although my own Sonics were not quite as good as the truly excellent one hanging up on the wall in the game.

9) ZYGO
I wish to know more about this curious blue animal who stalks the forests and caves, collecting gems and killing bats and spiders. Thank you for transporting me to a strange and haunting world.

10) Fly Vs Fly
Who knew there was so much drama and violence in the lives of flies? A simple but addictive game. I played many rounds and experienced many victories and failures.

11) Cloth Simulation
I simply could not stop moving the cloth around... watching it sway to and fro... anticipating its collision with the wooden crate. Simple pleasures found in a complicated simulation. Beautiful.

12) The Garfield Master
I am a novice in the world of Tetris but an expert in the world of Garfield. Excellent choice of Garfield vintage, and a wonderful addition to the world of Garfield gaming.

13) Everlasting Summer
Porting a PC game to the Saturn is a wild idea, and it’s impressive how much you have accomplished so far. This is the sort of project that makes me believe anything is possible on planet Saturn.

14) Kriss Mingle
I close my eyes but still I see him, luminous and jolly. I cannot wait to one day fully experience the yuletide glory of Santa Claus.

15) Final Fantasy
The lines between consoles blur, the worlds merge. This is interesting work that has been well executed, and I hope the project is continued.

16) 15 Xtreme
The ponies have been twisted, torn apart, scrambled. We must all work together to set things right and bring peace to Equestria.


Hacks, Patches, and Translations:

1 - Bulk Slash

This was a game that was already playable without translation or localization, but boy does the localization make it sing. Truly ambitious work here, and completed at a level of quality so high it likely surpasses what an official localization would have looked like back in the 90s. Wondrous.

2 - DeathMask
There are so many PC games that only got a Japanese console release, and it’s exciting to get the opportunity to play one of those on the Saturn in English. I’m extremely grateful for all of the hard work that was put into making it happen.

3 - Wachenröder
An ambitious undertaking, with a lot of impressive work already completed. Thank you for taking on this project, and excellent work thus far.

4 - Grandia 0.9.6
A staggering amount of work went into this. One of the best games on the Saturn, and one of the best translation projects on the Saturn.

5 - Sega Ages: I Love Mickey Mouse/I Love Donald Duck 0.9.1
A smaller project but a greatly appreciated one. I love both of these games on Genesis, and it was a blast being able to play them in English on the Saturn.

6 - Fire Pro Blazing Tornado
An excellent translation of a very fun wrestling game. Wonderful work, and a great addition to the Saturn’s English library.

7 - Dragon Ball Z Idainaru (Legend)
I can’t speak to the quality of the translation as I do not speak Spanish, but on a technical level it looks like extremely solid work and I’m glad to see Saturn games become more widely accessible through projects like this.

8 - Fire Pro Six Men Scramble
Great work has been done here. I’ve played the game in Japanese, and I’m absolute garbage at it, but the experience was so much less inscrutable thanks to your translation efforts.

9 - Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Preview v0.12
A very exciting project, with a lot of great progress having been made already. The “Lunar: Silver Star Story” translation was expertly done, so I can’t wait to see more of this!

10 - Gungriffon II
The original Gungriffon is one of my favorite Saturn games, so this project tops my list of translations projects I’m most excited for. Thank you for the work you’ve done so far and I eagerly look forward to playing more.


Utilities:

1 - Sega Saturn Patcher

This is an indispensable tool for the Saturn enthusiast. It has taken the sometimes complicated matter of patching games and made it very simple. It has saved me no end of trouble.

2 - SaveRepack
I can imagine so many potential uses for this tool. What a great thing to have access to, and what a clever implementation.

3 - ModelConverter
I know little about working with or converting 3D models, but the results as seen in TankGame and Sky Blaster speak for themselves.

4 - ponésound
The technicals of this go well beyond my expertise but this seems like a very useful resource for Saturn dev, and one that is already seeing use.

5 - Saturn Save Converter
It does exactly what it says it does, a very handy tool executed in an easy-to-use way.


Thank you again to everyone who entered, I had a great time playing and a very difficult time judging!
 

The post has been updated to reflect the change in score for Pandemonium's judgement. No effect on final prize winning results, though the save-repack tool is now tied for second with ponesound in Utilities.

Please DM me either here or in discord if you are a prize winner. I can transfer you directly the cash prize via: Venmo, Cash App (previously Square,) Zelle, or PayPal, in order of decreasing convenience.

If you wish to claim your 3D print, you have until May 6th to DM me the print file, link to a printable file, or general request of items already listen as available for printing. I will then give meleniumshane the print requests to be delivered by mail.

For the record, prize winners are:
Xenos Interactive, 7shades, SuperReye, XL2, slinga, Ervilsoft, Danthrax, A Murder of Crows, and Knight 0f Dragon. Please message me at your earliest convenience with payment method.
 
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