Digital Foundry first manifested on the pages of Eurogamer way back in 2007, looking at the differences between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 software – but what if DF actually emerged back in 1994, examining the fifth generation consoles: Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation? We can answer that question today with the publication of the first in an occasional series, where DF Retro goes back to the consoles and games of the 90s, using today’s tools and methodologies to compare the games that made their way to both Sega and Sony platforms.
Cross-platform development back in the day was very different to how it is in the current era. For the last eleven years, both Microsoft and Sony hardware was essentially delivered the same core AMD technology that’s PC-based in nature, streamlining games development. In the PlayStation and Saturn era, developers were faced with two fundamentally different boxes that generated 3D visuals in completely different ways (triangles on PS1, quads on Saturn) using entirely different development environments. While it’s acknowledged that PlayStation’s 3D performance was significantly better than Saturn’s, the Saturn could still produce some impressive results, with many titles arguably surpassing the Sony equivalent depending on how they were implemented. Developers were required to be innovative in supporting multiple consoles, often employing entirely different approaches in delivering their ports – even if the end output result looked quite similar.
It’s also worth stressing the importance of the ‘lead platform’ – a concept we’ve typically forgotten about in the current era. Back in the day – and even moving into the Xbox 360/PS3 era – there was the concept that games were developed with specific target hardware in mind, playing to their strengths. That’s definitely born out in the Saturn/PlayStation era, where PlayStation-led games could struggle on Saturn – and yes, vice-versa. You’ll see some fascinating examples of this play out in today’s video.
All of which brings us to today’s new DF Retro episode, where John Linneman sets out to catalogue the multi-platform driving and racing games of the fifth generation console era, using the techniques we’ve developed across the years, but brought to bear on mid to late 90s software. This hasn’t been easy – primarily because analysis is derived from digital video footage, which wasn’t available to us back then. Thanks to HDMI mods for legacy consoles, we do now have that facility… for the PlayStation, at least. Things are much trickier with Sega Saturn, where its combination of video layers derived from separate VDP1 and VDP2 processors currently make HDMI mods impossible. We’ve cracked it though: Mike Chi’s RetroTink 4K processes and scales RGB signals from the Saturn to such a level of quality that we can work with the video within our tools, making the comparisons you see today possible.