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Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 13, 2007 9:47:13 GMT
Hey there, my screen name is "Anthaemia." (yes, the punctuation is deliberate!) and I'm a regular contributor to the various gaming message boards. For the last few years I've been on/off working to produce my own Sega Saturn website or fanzine, but since that project is on hold for now I plan to share my vast knowledge here with you as well. I look forward to spending many hours discussing lesser-known facets of the history behind Sega's troubled 32-bit powerhouse, including many unreleased titles, software development teams and even prototype hardware some of you may not have realised exist before...
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Post by Anthaemia. on Mar 5, 2008 15:26:39 GMT
Daytona USA CCE Panzer Dragoon Zwei Sonic 3D Sonic R WipEout 2097
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jan 29, 2008 13:15:49 GMT
Fighting Force was close to being sent out in review copy form to magazines when Core pulled the plug on its Saturn version, and as for their other project from the same time frame - Ninja - this too was scrapped for a Sega platform and later extensively reworked as a PlayStation exclusive. As usual, why was it always our loss?
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Post by Anthaemia. on Feb 6, 2008 15:42:19 GMT
Just compare the pre-release screens and footage of Clockwork Knight (running off the same Silicon Graphics chipset that powered the original US-designed Saturn prototype and later the N64, to be precise!) with its final version for the ultimate example of this...
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jan 29, 2008 13:13:36 GMT
In the months prior to its release, AM2 did indeed have Daytona USA running in high resolution mode on the Saturn, and this was long before SGL OS 2.0 was created! I'm not sure of the exact details, but there are certain people who regularly show up online with screenshots and video footage. However, because of Sega's decision to bring forward the launch of its new console, the final Saturn version of Daytona had to suffer major compromises in the graphical department or face serious delays. Who'd rather have waited and not had to put up with a VF-style remix later on down the line? Personally, I would have been happy with Daytona as we got it, perhaps with just a split-screen mode thrown in for good measure!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jan 11, 2008 17:14:17 GMT
To this very day, the master disc of Saturn Virtua Fighter 3 (Revision 2) remains in the personal possession of an employee within Sega Europe who has been loyal to the company since this game's cancellation way back nearly ten years ago. Unfortunately, due to the possibility of this one still being released in the future I cannot disclose any further details, such as a name 0 though I should point out the chances of this happening are about as slim as Panzer Dragoon Saga going up on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow, even you never really know with Sega based on recent decisions it has made!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jan 4, 2008 15:34:30 GMT
They are just screenshots from incomplete Model 3 support in MAME, though I guess with the models from Fighters Megamix and those quality backgrounds you could do some great fooling come April 1st - hoaxers fire up your copies of Photoshop in preparation!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jan 11, 2008 17:21:15 GMT
I take it you are referring to how the music cuts out in Sonic 1/2? This is not a problem with the demo discs, but more due to Sega Europe using an incomplete build of the Japanese version - at this point in development, Sonic Team had yet to implement the looping feature that emulates the way music played in the original MegaDrive games! Problem solved. Case closed. As for the selections of later Sega Flash discs always being "good," even the most hardcore fan could have found better alternatives than to recycle Sega Rally, Die Hard Arcade, Virtual On and those damn videos of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Enemy Zero over and over! What about exclusive footage of then-upcoming software? In my opinion, the sheer wealth of content in Volume 4 could never be matched, though you can't really blame anyone for the Saturn's downfall after this period.
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jan 4, 2008 15:39:53 GMT
All of the Sega Flash discs use chip-generated music, so unless you know how to read, convert and play the files your only alternate method is to hook up a Saturn and record each track via your television's sound output. For the record, there are two songs on each disc - the first two volumes share the same music, while the last five discs also contain the same tracks. First of all, there's a theme that plays over the "intro" sequence (even though you'll have to wait a few seconds on the title before you see this on the later versions) and what you hear over the select menu. If you are recording, remember that after a while (about 90 seconds) the discs automatically go back to the intro, but from past experience you will get enough to loop each track - providing you know where to copy and paste from! Perhaps I might even upload my own attempts in the future, though I should point out they are in low quality mono format as they were intended for an abandoned online radio project...
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Post by Anthaemia. on Mar 5, 2008 15:24:58 GMT
On the subject of Sega Touring Car (or the PAL version, at least), has anybody else noticed that the frame rate tends to drop the most when you pass under bridges at speed on the Brick Wall Town circuit? Despite all its flaws, I still find STC to be one of CRI's more acceptable conversions - the less said about their MegaDrive port of Galaxy Force II the better, methinks... thankfully they didn't do too much of a bad job when it came to Virtual On!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Feb 6, 2008 15:39:12 GMT
So you're a fan of the CoLD SToRAGE tunes as well, then? Also, in regard to the arcade footage of Sega Touring Car, Virtua Fighter 3 and Last Bronx on the Sega Flash Vol. 4 demo disc, has anybody else noticed that much of the character demonstration footage of Last Bronx was captured from a coin-op screen with a video camera? Just look at the wireframe background and how it blurs TV-style for the only evidence you'll ever need to prove this! Honestly, who expected better from an official Sega product? That's probably around the exact time standards in general were beginning to slip within the company!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Dec 18, 2007 16:51:00 GMT
While there's no denying just how poor the first WipEout is, by the time 2097 came around Tantalus had learned enough about the Saturn (presumably through co-operation with Sega's own programmers during the Manx TT conversion) to make a port that was much greater in its accuracy when compared to the PlayStation original. However, that's not to say it was perfect - transparencies were still of the lazier "mesh" variety and there was no real excuse for the drop in texture resolution, especially when the coders did so well keeping the overall speed and lighting effects (even if these were also "faked" to an extent). Unfortunately, for their last Saturn project it seems as if Tantalus dropped the proverbial baton well and truly. The less we discuss The House Of The Dead the better, methinks...
The transparency technique employed in Burning Rangers isn't achived by flickering polygons, although I do seem to remember this being used for other games, along with a method of interlacing (as seen in A+M+O+K to name just one example from the top of my head, so to speak) that makes the usual dithered efforts seem almost high quality. Also, it's not really fair to say all ports that utilised only one of the Saturn's processors were bad, since Alien Trilogy did this without being that rough. In fact, there were some single-chip games that managed to outperform those pushing more components within the system. On the other hand, the likes of Panzer Dragoon Saga or even Shenmue and Virtua Fighter 3 (yes, I know those last two are both unreleased and the latter not even seen in public - as far as anyone knows, at least) were pooling resources from as many as eight different sections within this notoriously complex hardware. Considering the likes of VF2 and NiGHTS were out of the PlayStation's reach, I'd love to know how Sony could ever have launched a counter if Shenmue or VF3 had seen the light of day back in the 32-bit era!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Dec 18, 2007 16:58:36 GMT
Warp later allowed Enemy Zero to be released as part of the SEGA PC range, and these days you can get it on the XPLOSIV range for less than a fiver. As with so many other games issued this way on the PC, it's virtually identical to the more common Saturn version but without the price tag so often expected these days. Since this edition is in my collection, I can say that Enemy Zero is a decent enough adventure title, but sadly I've no experience of D so I'm going to have to decline any further comment on that subject. However, did you know Kenji Eno was also responsible for another Saturn project that only saw the light of day (pun not intended) in Japan? Real Sound, as it is known, was designed purely for blind gamers and plays similar to how the audio-reliant part of Enemy Zero does. If you've got this one, please share more information as I've not heard much (*groan*) from what is undoubtedly the most obscure chapter in Warp's 32-bit history...
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Post by Anthaemia. on Oct 19, 2007 12:05:10 GMT
Yes, the Shenmue prototype is in a world of its own, but still not a patch on what AM2 had in mind for its cancelled Saturn conversion of Virtua Fighter 3 - now there's a game that would have redefined what a 32-bit console was capable of!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Sept 21, 2007 16:16:02 GMT
Burning Rangers does look stunning at times, but for me the unusual way Sonic Team achieved transparencies (using a large pixellated grid that is best seen if you place your character over an object using the effect) and regular instances of polygonal glitching ruined things a bit too much for me. Virtua Fighter 2 and Last Bronx aren't perfect either when it comes to flickering, while NiGHTS is rife with cosmetic flaws. While it's not the Saturn's greatest achievement technically, Street Fighter Zero 3 deserves a notable mention. Also, unless its problems were cleverly edited out of the only video footage we've seen (so far, at least) then the prototype of Shenmue has to be rated quite high as well.
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