Saturn Coding Contest 2007 results

Remember when I talked about this contest? Well, it's finally over! This time the judges had a really hard time picking up the best participant, for there were some really great works, as I've shown in my previous post. By far the best two were Gaganoid, a very playable and very good looking Arkanoid clone with some crazy power-ups thrown into the mix, and Police Officer Smith, an adventure game that pushes the limits of the Saturn, with images at the highest resolution possible and some really great voice acting for a homebrew.

In fact, these two projects were so great that there was a draw, with both receiving a total of 57 points! But like in Highlander, "there can be only one", so the battle had to be decided via extra points.

So, without further delay, the winner is...






Police Officer Smith, with 5 extra points! Congratulations to the creators, Arnold and Rockin'-B.

But wait, don't go away, for I have a surprise for you. Curious to try out these marvellous creations? Now you can! Since the contest is over, all the works were made public for everyone to download and try out first-hand, and you can get them here.

Another year, another big step for the Saturn homebrew community. Props to all the devoted programmers who keep supporting our favourite console with high-quality home-made releases!

Sega Saturn Coding Contest 2007

Youtube was recently filled with videos showing just how passionate some Saturn fans are, struggling to program for a console usually ignored by the rest of the homebrew community. The Sega Saturn Coding Contest certainly helps motivating these devoted fans, rewarding the more talented with some sweet prizes. The 2007 edition is about to come to an end, with the judges having an hard-time choosing the best entries, and what awesome entries we got this time!

Just to show you what these brilliant minds are capable of, take a look at the following videos. Now, remember that the Saturn homebrew scene is not exactly as prolific as the Dreamcast's, so don't expect full-blown games. This is not to say that they don't exist, but Saturn coders usually invest more time in technology demos and the like. Still, there are some "real" games out there, just take a look:

SEGA Blur



A Techology demo that shows a nice blur effect (I doubt its usefulness, but it's still nice).

Libyaul Demo



According to the creators of this little piece of software "It shows a linescroll effect and a color calculation effect at startup.". Now, I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, it's probably coders talk, I presume, but maybe some of you will understand.

Dezaemon 2 Save Game Manager



Remember Dezaemon 2? That nice "game" that let's you create the shmup of your dreams? If you're a fan of that rather interesting title, I'm sure that this program here will be relevant to your interests. I don't exactly know all of its features, but judging from the title it at least should help you manage Dezarmon's save games.

Now, on to actual games:

Destiny's Kingdom



A rather interesting tactical RPG. I'm not exactly a fan of the genre, but it looks good anyway and apparently it's pretty complete for a homebrew.

Police Officer Smith



Now this one looks really good. According to its creators "The game is entirely in the highest possible resolution (704x512), features over 30 different image blending methods, has got animations, supports all types of RAM carts (optionally) and a lot more. All written text is available in english and german. All voice samples are currently spoken in german."

Wow... I'm really interested in this one and I'm sure to follow its development from now on. One of the contest's strongest candidates, in my opinion.

Gaganoid



The last game may at first seem like just another clone of Arkanoid...and to be honest it is, but nevertheless it's pretty complete for a Saturn homebrew and its one game that I wouldn't mind playing. Another strong candidate, me thinks.

And that's all for now, folks! Expect me to post the results of the contest once they're announced and may the best coders win!

Virtua Mario (Saturn Homebrew)

'Virtua Mario', accurately described by Arugulaz as looking like Mario stepped into the Money for Nothin' video in the excellent post below. We've seen this guy before in one of the very few posts about Saturn Homebrew that we've had on the SJY. A long while ago I posted some screen shots of said game, but admitted that then (as now) I knew nothing about the scene...

So it was great to have such a definitive and clear post on the 'Yard... I still feel like I need to learn a grat deal more, but for now I'm just gonna sit back and watch the lovely video above!

Dezaemon 2 Shmup Galore

(Dezaemon 2 - Click for biggy!)

Lock up your wife and kids, dust off your Saturn and get ready for hours of gaming action. No, I am not talking about browsing your old library of Saturn games. Satakore.com staff recently and quietly released what might be one of the biggest gaming releases for the Saturn since its decline. The Dezaemon 2 Game Save Manager. If you are asking yourself, what I am talking about; Dezaemon 2 is a great little program released around 1997 by Athena. With it you can create shoot'em up games from scratch, without actually having to learn a programming language. Some may remember the infamous "Shoot'em Up Construction Kit" which was released for the C-64 and Amiga. Dezaemon 2 wasn't of much use for the ordinary Saturn user not only because of the language barrier, but also because you have to actually put quite some effort into making a game, before you can actually play. That is... until now!

(Devil Blade 2)

With the Game Save Manager, which comes with a whopping 118 games already on the CD, you can transfer already made games to a Saturn memorycard and load them up in Dezaemon 2 to actually play them. And rest assured, there are plenty of them! Over the years hardcore japanese Shoot'em Up fans have created many great games. Satakore.com also has a list of nearly every known usermade "shmup" for the Saturn version of Dezaemon 2 along with plenty of screenshots, as well as videos. Hell, some games are actually from 2006! Whilst browsing that list I was quite amazed how incredible the quality of some of those games is. Some might think, that usermade games are of a mediocre quality at best, but just have a look at "Devil Blade 2"! It might as well be a commercially released game. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous and with the Dezaemon 2 Engine behind it, you can be sure that it's also very playable.

(Devil Blade 2)

So the only thing you probably need now is a copy of that Dezaemon 2 as well as a memory card to store the games on. I am currently bidding on one as we speak and hope I can try all those great games as soon as possible. You should do so, too and hopefully this is encouraging those great japanese individuals to produce more games. Now that more people than ever before can play them.

Virtual Hydlide Review And Screenshots!

"Killer trees, deadly dragons and blood thirsty zombiesare rife in this magical slash and hack adventure. To the haunting strains of the atmospheric soundtrack, explore the super-realistic 3D fantasy world, warping to the different dimensions, collecting weapons and mysterious objects and tackling weird and wonderful foes. The amazing landscape generator creates a completely new adventure every time you play, providing a whole new dimension in RPG gaming."

Or at least that's what it says on the back of the box! Yes folks, Virtual Hydlide is the newest addition to Father Krishna's ever growing Saturn collection. Another bargain from the hallowed Gamestation, this little baby came free with a purchase of arcade style shooter Charge 'n' Blast, for Dreamcast.



Even though the attached review says it can be completed in a few hours, its unlikely that I'll play it for a while, so rather than just let it pass, I thought I'd attach a few screenshots and a very comprehensive review.





Virtual Hydlide

On the plus side it's got a nice musical score and a random "landscape generator". On the downside it's got an attrocious camera perspective and is apparently a bit repetetive.
Still it's free and the box hasn't fallen apart. I might give it a whirl this evening, but then again I might just stick to playing the frankly awesome Crisis Evil (Homebrew Resident Evil/Streets Of Rage hybrid for Dreamcast.)


Crisi Evil!

I'm off to the Light House this weekend with all of my new homebrew goodies to give them a good old road test, which I will flag up on the Dreamcast Junkyard some time in the future!

Aurevoir mes enfants! ;)

All Hail The Mighty Caleb!

You know I've been corresponding with Caleb since the mighty Hunyak was a mere acorn. We've chatted about life the universe and everything over the last six months, building up a good friendship, despite the inconvenience of being separated by a vast trans-atlantic gulf! (him residing in 'the land of the free' and me residing in the 'home of the cack' LOL!)

Today, he confirmed what a diamond geezer I always knew he was, when out of the blue a large padded envelope, stuffed with Dreamcast Homebrew games, plopped through my letterbox!

I can't stop for long to tell you about it 'cos I'm off to play with it all! But for now I'd just like to say "Caleb! You Rock!"

Mario On The Saturn?

Cripes! This rather grotesque representation of Mario is apparently, the work of Japanese Saturn homebrew/mod techno nerds! If your Japanese is any good you can find out more about it here.

If your Japanese is a little bit rusty (like mine) then you can gaze open mouthed in horror at how awful the screen shots of this game really are! "Thanks" to the good folks at Kotaku for finding this!