Robotica / Deadalus on SEGA Saturn 50/60Hz comparison and region changes.
A little while back, I got an email from a kind reader telling me the PAL version of Robotica Cybernation Revolt looked optimised on Saturn. It was an early list entry and on re-review having picked up a cheap Japanese copy of the game, I can confirm it was, but only a little.
What's interesting is as I got a Japanese version, I noticed a number of region changes, between the two versions not really discussed online. Robotica is one game I wrote off a bit back in the day as an average FPS.
Sitting down and playing it this weekend, it's an interesting early Saturn titles with some impressive ideas and elements. It does get very repetitive and the environments are rather dull, but it's got some gameplay elements rarely seen on the system.
The game also does do a great job of building the atmosphere and tension. The game is a Roguelike or Mystery Dungeon games that has you battling your way through 30 floors of the labyrinth that make up the Deadalus space computer. The Japanese name is a nod to Greek mythology as Deadalus was the builder of the labyrinth that trapped the Minotaur.
Most of the 30 floors are randomly generated each time to play, apart from a few mission based ones. The game is clearly designed for people to speed run over and over again, as there is no save feature or option menu and the game can be cleared in under two hours. The aim is simple on each floor find the key and escape. Where the key is, the map layout and the exit are changes each time you play, as do enemy placements and rooms. So you can land in a starting room with the exit and key in it or have to explore every corner of the map for both to find them in another floor.
It's a decent FPS, with a soundtrack that gets the tension right, the music also has a subtle touch of becoming more upbeat on each stage after the key is found. The map slowly fills itself in as you explore, it's all real time and tracks the path you have taken as well. Each floor also has a computer terminal placed on it that when found and accessed, shows the whole floor and also turns on the lights in some. Few games did this at the time and the map is a full on 2D transparency, along with other elements of the HUD.
You quickly learn you have to balance your ammo and robots abilities in order to survival.
The lighting effects for an early 3D Saturn game are also well done. The enemy sprites also scale really well. Where it doesn't hold up as well is the frame rate which ranges from about 8-30fps a second, pending on what your are doing. The game seems to run at 60fps like almost all Saturn games, but doesn't use it and most elements are locked at 30fps, only the damage effect on your crafts seems to use it and only for a few frames.
I do wonder if this is a game that isn't tied to the frame rate as special skills like the hover jet allow you to zoom around the map in seconds, if at uncontrollable speeds.
The main reason for this blog post is the region changes are rather interesting. On the PAL optimisation front the images has been stretched a little. It's hard to tell if the speed has been changed due to the yo-yo like nature of the frame rate. At 50Hz it is slower that the NTSC-J version at 60Hz and having compared both versions at 50Hz they look to run at roughly the same speed.
Left is the NTSC Japanese version and right is the PAL version, both running at 50Hz.
As we can see the PAL version is stretch a little at 50Hz to take up a little more of the screen. However this ratio changes mean that elements of the map are a little distorted. At 60Hz in the Japanese version the game's map is a perfect square, which is not the case with the PAL version running at 50 or 60Hz. The PAL FMV intros are also misaligned a little on screen at 60Hz and are a little bit lower than they should be, but nothing major.
Where things get interesting is the HUD in the PAL and NTSC U versions. The main cursor for the HUD seen in the NTSC J version has been removed.
While it looks like a big circle in the middle of the screen, it acts as the crosshair for your weapons. As you move the yellow marker in the center moves up or down with the Laocorn, to show the direction any shot will travel in. The arrows light red to show your direction of travel and also the speed etc.. It's rather useful and to the left of the HUD it has a timer telling the player how long they are taking, perfect for the speed nature of the game. Below the timer is the radar which is the only part of the center HUD that was kept in the western versions, but pushed to the far left of the screen.
Other changes are that the English text is slightly improved in the western versions and the collected key image looks different. Its position has also changed, can't help, but think the key in the western version doesn't look right and I suspect the visual change might be a bug. Also the energy bar's position on screen has been lowered a little in the PAL version.
Left NTSC J version and Right PAL version both at 60Hz. Which show the text and key design changes.
You can also see the PAL version takes up the whole screen at 60Hz in the above images.
Finally one last little change Japanese text was included in the opening intro, but was removed in the English version.
There aren't a huge amount of changes, but the HUD's removal does impact the gameplay. I would take a guess that SEGA of Europe or Acclaim who published it in the USA felt the HUD took up to much screen space. Pictures of the HUD are on the European box, but not in-game. The lost of the HUD does lose some of the immersion of the game as you are meant to be controlling the Laocorn robot I will admit. It also makes shooting a little harder as you lose the crosshair.
Its removal does nothing to improve the game and I think a much needed high score and save system, should have been added. To track your completed runs would have been a better addition. It's not the greatest game ever made, but can still be picked up fairly cheaply and is a fun game in short bursts if you like this type of gameplay. I will admit that I will be playing the Japanese version from here on out. As the original HUD to me improves the game.
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