A homebrew developer named En83 posted some exciting news on SegaXtreme on Friday: “Hi guys, I’ve ported Celeste Classic to the Sega Saturn. This is a port from the C / SDL version by lemon32767 to JO Engine.”
The Sega Saturn homebrew port of Celeste Classic is available for download on itch.io.
Celeste Classic Released on the Sega Saturn! on Pigsy’s Retro Game Dev Tutorials
As stated by En83 in the SegaXtreme announcement and within the readme included with the game, this homebrew port utilizes the C source port of Celeste Classic intended for Nintendo 3DS and PC — here’s the relevant GitHub. This translation was necessary because PICO-8 games are written in a programming language called Lua, which cannot be read by the Saturn, but programs written in C can.
The port controls faithfully to the original and runs well on real hardware as well as a variety of emulators — helpfully confirmed by SHIRO! community member privateye.
“Awesome! It works fine on Beetle Saturn (RetroArch), Ymir, and Satiator, but it’s not working for me on Mednafen, Rhea/Phoebe and Fenrir. Mednafen is loading it as an audio disc so perhaps something is wrong with the disc image?
EDIT: Fixed in v1.01”
— privateye on SegaXtreme
This homebrew port appears to be En83’s first public Saturn project.
Celeste Classic is a 2D platformer that drew inspiration from Super Mario Bros 3 and the hobby of bouldering to create something minimal but engaging. The task is simple, help Madeline survive her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, but getting there — regardless of the version of the game played — is no small feat.
Celeste Classic was originally created by the small team at Maddy Makes Games (effectively renamed Extremely Okay Games in 2019) as part of a PICO-8 game jam in July 2015. For those unfamiliar with the PICO-8, it is — according to the official PICO-8 website — a fantasy console designed with “harsh limitations… carefully chosen to be fun to work with, to encourage small but expressive designs, and to give… PICO-8 [games] their own particular look and feel.”
Celeste Classic would go on to be a hit in the PICO-8 scene, inspiring an expanded reimagining known simply as Celeste.
While less famous than its remake, Celeste Classic still holds enough appeal that the title has been ported to the NES, GBA, and other consoles — including the Saturn, now.
Glad to see this get a write-up! Having tried this game in a few different flavours before (modern Celeste on Steam and its hidden original Pico-8 version, the Pico-8 version on web broswer AND a version via the Saturn homebrewed Pico-8 emulator), I can say that this port is very good and enjoyable.
Super playable, sound comes through well and it is perfectly responsive. Played it on a stock PAL Saturn via Saroo. The only issue I encountered so far is that at the start of a new level, one or two sprites load a little later than the others.
Does anyone else think that the Saturn could make a pretty good stab at the upgraded Celeste too?
Me again! Thanks for reading out the comment on the show.
I forgot to note that my experience of playing Celeste via the Pico-8 emulator on Saturn, was not so good. The thing lags to a crawl and becomes unplayable really. Hence why this port is such an upgrade.
Also agree that some combo of PAL and Saroo are the most likely culprits for the sprite issue. But it’s a very minor thing and doesn’t affect gameplay at all.