When Quake remastered came out in 2021, it was celebrated for including the Nintendo 64 port for free. However, the FPS game‘s first console port was for Sega Saturn, boasting new levels and a different graphics engine. Now, fans are trying to bring the Quake Sega Saturn port to PC in all its quirky glory.
Quake was ported to Sega Saturn by Powerslave developer Lobotomy Software in 1997 and had to be reconstructed in the less advanced Powerslave engine, giving the port a unique look and even sprite-based weapons closer to Doom. It also featured four original levels that have never been ported elsewhere.
Now, fans are bringing Sega Saturn Quake to PC as a proper source port using FTEQW. PCGamesN spoke to the project’s lead @JaycieErysdren, who explained that she’s been working on it since September 2021 with “huge progress” made recently. All the level data can now be “successfully ported from every level in the game” using Blender and the FTEQW source port, with the game’s iconic enemies on their way.
The port will contain all the unique levels and even the weird Dank and Scuz Easter egg – a voice-acted Quake comic hidden in the Saturn version. As for what makes the port worthwhile, Jaycie says “the Saturn port of Quake is extremely interesting” due to Lobotomy Software being put under “a lot of pressure to deliver products on time” and yet still releasing Powerslave alongside unique ports of Quake and Duke Nukem 3D
Jaycie believes Lobotomy’s work “deserves to be remembered, and playable on modern hardware without emulation. I’m doing my absolute best to make it a straight port of their game, with no corners cut and no liberties taken. I want to represent it as best as I can.” While the final version will be playable within the PC version of Quake, Jaycie has also written some extra code to make it optionally appear like the Saturn version, “with a low-resolution display and the original weapon sprites (yes, sprites!) in place of PC Quake’s 3D weapons.”
sprite-based weapons (ported from the Saturn) and low-resolution graphics mode shown in action pic.twitter.com/267rAKrf87
— ⸸ Jaycie ✨ ⸸ (@JaycieErysdren) July 17, 2022
As for when the Sega Saturn Quake PC port might be released, Jaycie has “no idea when it might be done, or when I could potentially release it, but I’m working through all the level data pretty fast so I hope I’ll be able to have more information there soon.” You’ll need a copy of Quake PC to play it, of course.
When it’s done, you’ll hopefully be able to see the Saturn port on Slipseer, the new home for Quake modding on PC. You can even play an early demo of the Quake GBA test port if you wish, made by the developer who officially ported Doom to SNES.