|
Post by termis on Jun 3, 2007 18:59:53 GMT
PS was good, but as I was a huge fan of Sega arcade games, I had no choice but to go with a Saturn. During the times when I only had the Saturn, I couldn't think of a game where it made me super jealous of not having a PS. (Granted, this was mainly during a period where I was too damn busy juggling school & work, so I didn't pay that much attention to gaming.)
|
|
klastos
Novice
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 30
Location:
|
Post by klastos on Jun 7, 2007 20:33:20 GMT
I would have liked Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain / Kain the Vampire released on the Saturn. Could have been better depending on the load times. I've seen an add with what looked like the box insert of a Saturn game, but it never hatched. I also think that a Spiderman game or a remake of Arcade version of the Punisher for a beat'em up.
|
|
|
Post by ShenmueAddict on Jun 17, 2007 18:44:34 GMT
Shenmue, Virtua Fighter 3, phantasy star collection, Final fight revenge, Shining force III parts 2+3, resident evil 2, more saturn arcade ports would have been nice!
|
|
mick_aka
Kickin' it lively!
"Mick is moderately adequate."
Joined: April 2007
Posts: 9,817
Location:
XBL: mickloaf
PSN: mickloaf
Nintendo ID: segamick
|
Post by mick_aka on Jun 17, 2007 19:28:19 GMT
Resident Evil 2 & 3 on the saturn would have been sweet.
|
|
|
Post by skyblueads on Jun 17, 2007 20:02:35 GMT
Sega Rally 2-the extra tracks, cars etc. would've been ace, plus it would've kept the originals handling!
|
|
marc
BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!!!!!!!
Joined: July 2009
Posts: 976
Location:
|
Post by marc on Jul 2, 2007 14:00:44 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 13, 2007 10:30:59 GMT
Virtua Fighter 3. SEGA had a basic version of it running on the Saturn according to SSM which would have been good to see. Does anyone know if footage exists? Incredibly, the Saturn conversion of Virtua Fighter 3 was indeed completed in a "basic" form (without the 3D backgrounds of its coin-op source plus a lower frame rate and resolution, but I'll tell you more about this later), but strangely enough this wasn't even completed until July 8th - nearly two months after that announcement was made in that magazine! The powers that be had already decided against releasing the game on Saturn, as they felt it would harm sales of the superior Dreamcast edition that was in development. AM2 turned down the opportunity to produce the 128-bit version of VF3tb (which ended up being the responsibility of Genki, whose end product was disappointing to say the least) as Yu Suzuki and his team was busy putting the finishing touches on what later became Shenmue. He later felt burned from the whole situation, regretting that VF3 never received the home port it so badly deserved and this led to Hiroshi Kataoka's eventual taking over of the leader's chair at AM2. For now, however, Suzuki was determined not to let its own team's console treatment of VF3 go to waste, and by September 1998 a vastly improved and so-called second revision was submitted for approval. Despite later changing their minds (with the game officially cancelled on September 19th), a provisional Japanese street date of 05.09 was briefly added to the Sega website in addition to a rumoured simultaneous PAL territories release (this sadly turned out to be false). For the record, before this May 5th also appeared to be a possible launch for Saturn VF3, even though its "first revision" incarnation was still far from completion at this point. Another highly anticipated yet ultimately still unreleased Saturn game, Sonic The Fighters, also showed up for release on the same day (this too was completed, and presumably resembled the "teaser" content featured in Fighters Megamix). So, now you all know that Virtua Fighter 3 did exist for the Saturn, but what of its performance? How on earth did AM2 manage to recreate their Model 3 showcase on the relatively underpowered 32-bit console Sega was still desperately pushing around this time? Unknown to most consumers back then, certain programmers (to wit, Sega's own in-house departments) were finding ways of pushing the Saturn beyond PlayStation and even Nintendo 64 levels of graphical capability. Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force III were just three late examples (though you can discount The House Of The Dead from that elite list), but for Shenmue and VF3 the bar was to be raised even further... and all without requiring upgrade possibilities opened up by using the cartridge slot, unlike other companies such as Capcom or SNK! By synchronising the Saturn's audio processor with its two existing graphics chips (all with a little help from the newly-released SGL OS 3.02, an upgrade of the same tools behind many post-launch AM conversions such as Fighting Vipers), AM2 managed to squeeze 750,000 polygons at 30 frames per second in the console's standard 320x224 display mode, which although not quite Model 3 territory was close enough for a decent recreation of VF3. With a complex mix of high and low detailed character models alternating for the fights and victory sequences, lead programmer Keiji Okayasu was able to do once again what he and the others at AM2 had achieved with the previous VF titles on Saturn - only this time fewer people believed it was possible. I've told you all this, but now for the real shame in the story of Saturn Virtua Fighter 3. After all that hard work, Sega didn't really want AM2's to invest in a product for outdated technology, even though if released it would have probably outsold its predecessor (which just so happened to be the biggest-selling Saturn title ever... in Japan, at least). In fact, apart from a short backstage playtest at the Tokyo Game Show to select journalists (who all signed non-disclosure agreements), nothing has ever been seen of Saturn VF3 - and this seems unlikely to change, especially when most now consider Genki's rushed Dreamcast effort to be definitive. Maybe at best we'll be treated to a short video clip in future Virtua Fighter packages, but don't hold your breath for either revision being pressed any time soon... even though such a thing very nearly happened, since the master for "Saturn VF3 Revision 2" (yes, that was its name - presumably the box art would not have included all this, however) was sent to a plant for mass production only days before Sega had the life support plug cut from this potential classic. As you can probably tell, I've spent years piecing together all the information I could find regarding this lost gem, which I consider my ultimate holy grail - not even the prototype of Shenmue comes close, although getting to play that as well one day would be great... *sigh* P.S. Virtual On Oratorio Tangram was released for the Dreamcast! As for unreleased Saturn games, let us not forget Sonic X-Treme, Clockwork Knight: Peng(u)in Wars, Destruction Derby 2, Kumite: The Fighters Edge, Fighting Force and Resident Evil 2 (not the "1.5" version, but a standalone scenario based around the same period as the final build that was later referenced in the Outbreak spin-off series). On the subject of Fighting Force, did you know this was originally planned by Core as a pitch to Sega for a 3D update to Streets Of Rage? This same concept was later resurrected on the Dreamcast, but it's hard to believe these days that so many of you continue to think of Fighting Force as a poor man's Streets Of Rage when it almost became part of the same franchise!
|
|
mick_aka
Kickin' it lively!
"Mick is moderately adequate."
Joined: April 2007
Posts: 9,817
Location:
XBL: mickloaf
PSN: mickloaf
Nintendo ID: segamick
|
Post by mick_aka on Jul 13, 2007 10:51:58 GMT
not even the prototype of Shenmue comes close, although getting to play that as well one day would be great... *sigh* You would be sorely dissapointed, it has very few playable parts to it, and most of those it has merely involve walking around enpty rooms with the d-pad. It's damned impressive graphically though, acctual proper interactive volumetric lighting on a 32 bit game! it blows the mnd.
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 13, 2007 11:10:00 GMT
Actually, the plan was to release a game (later known as Shenmue in its Dreamcast guise) where players could interact with Virtua Fighter characters outside their normal ring environment. Research into what became "Virtua Fighter RPG" and then later "Akira's Quest" started back in 1994, though no code was actually written until nearly two years later. By the end of 1998, AM2 had finished at least the first two chapters of Yu Suzuki's original concept, which they chose to move onto Dreamcast as this not only had more power but gave Suzuki more time to refine his grand vision, which by now had been rechristened Shenmue (though not before briefly masquerading as Project Berkeley, in honour of the university that had honoured its creator).
For a while, it was rumoured that all sixteen planned chapters of the Shenmue saga were intended for release in a standalone Saturn game spanning eight discs, but unless Yu rewrote significant portions of his story this seems unlikely as the second episode - Ryo's boat journey from Japan to Hong Kong - was meant to be referenced later but never experienced by gamers. Perhaps the graphics of this initial Saturn prototype were more advanced than the actual gameplay, but despite a relative lack of media we do know quite a lot about Shenmue before it became Shenmue (if that even makes sense). For example, during an interview that was supposed to be about how AM2 ported Shenmue II from Dreamcast to Xbox, the topic of conversation fleetingly brought up the first official confirmation that the Saturn version ran on stock hardware - much like their cancelled Virtua Fighter 3 conversion of the same period. Also, we should be grateful AM2 chose to release the video of Shenmue in its 32-bit form with all debug information remaining, as in one sequence (when Ryo opens a door in the garden to discover the basement, which later ended up being moved to inside the dojo) you can see a button command shown. This suggests that the game was indeed playable beyond just a few interactive corridors, although I'm not doubting this fact. Actually, based on the video you could argue that Shenmue is little more than a lot of "sexed-up" corridors, often linked with larger and more exciting open areas (as seen during the Guilin sections).
|
|
|
Post by mag on Jul 23, 2007 15:32:48 GMT
Shit like this does not suprise me with Sega consloes. It happened with the Megadrive. Treasure managed sprite rotation, something deemed impossable on it. Also a French company were producing graphics on the 32x at its death that was surpassing anything the Saturn was doing at the time.
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 23, 2007 16:08:54 GMT
I believe you are referring to the 32X tech demo that was actually created by Dutch programming collective Scavenger, who were definitely not French as you wronly pointed out! With geometry programming done by Zyrinx - an umbrella name created following the joining of former Amiga homebrew groups Crionics and Silents - and shader effects courtesy of Lemon (not to be confused with the Danish/Norwegian group of the same time frame), this really was better-looking that most released 32-bit games of any platform, even rivalling the Nintendo 64 for graphics. However, what you may not realise is this early preview of the 32X resulted in not one but two commercial projects. Zyrinx evolved the driving section into Scorcher, while Lemon adapted technology from their previous experiments for Amok, both released for the Saturn and PC. You can find the original prototype in video form via the following link: www.scene.org/file.php?file=/demos/groups/hirmu/zyrinx_sega32x_demotape_1995-hirmu.wmv&fileinfo
|
|
ironmonger
Saturn Player
Joined: July 2007
Posts: 119
Location:
|
Post by ironmonger on Jul 25, 2007 10:00:51 GMT
The only games I wished had been released were ones that were rumoured to be coming, but finally scrapped - Destruction Derby 2, Formula 1, Resident Evil 2 and Tomb Raider 2. Maybe even VF3, though I'm not a fan of the series.
|
|
|
Post by segaste on Jul 25, 2007 11:17:05 GMT
Formula 1, defo!!!!! Was well into F1 years back and always wanted to get the PS1 just to play that game. I remember staying in Virgin Megastores playing it on the demo thing for ages.
|
|
rossi46
#LFGM!
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 2,769
Location:
|
Post by rossi46 on Jul 26, 2007 22:31:43 GMT
F1 and Ninja.
I actually bought a PS1 just to play Ninja and it was shoite. I was gutted when F1 97 got canned.
Oh, and Heart of Darkness too.
|
|
|
Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 27, 2007 13:01:54 GMT
Tomb Raider II was never in development for the Saturn, although a port of the PlayStation game would have been more than possible without the need for any hardware acceleration, as often rumoured back in the day. Ironically, most people now fail to recognise that the original Tomb Raider was programmed with the Saturn in mind, only appearing on the PlayStation (where it became more successful) as a quick port and something of an afterthought - of course, this was at a time when Sega's platform still had a fighting chance in the 32-bit console war.
The most likely reason Core never even bothered trying to bring Tomb Raider II to Saturn owners was because the company had already - like so many other developers I could think of (such as Psygnosis, for example) - signed an exclusivity deal with Sony. However, it should be noted that Core had also planned for a Saturn version of Ninja, which later appeared on the PlayStation in radically altered form (presumably to take full advantage of its extra performance).
Just before its decision to abandon the proverbial sinking ship that was the Saturn, a small group of programmers from Core were asked to create a tech demo for a prototype upgrade cartridge. Produced in a joint venture between Sega's US division and Lockheed Martin (who also provided the Real 3D chipset as used in the numbered "Model" series of arcade boards), the Eclipse would have allowed for near-perfect conversions of such high profile titles of that period including Virtua Fighter 3 and SCUD Race.
Due to internal politics so typical of Sega (in other words, the Japanese side wanted everything their way!), nothing ever came of this project, and Core was later approached by Sega of America to make come up with something for a new system codenamed Katana - or the Dreamcast as we know it today. The result, a real time non-playable cruise around the first stage of SCUD Race, was packaged with early revisions of the "Katana" development kit as proof Sega's new console had the ability to handle Model 3 - still considered a technical benchmark.
As for the other games mentioned recently on this forum, Resident Evil 2 was approximately 15% complete when producer Hideki Kamiya was given his marching orders from Capcom superior (and producer original Resident Evil mastermind) Shinji Mikami on the grounds his work played too similarly to its predecessor - a criticism you'll never hear of the eventual final product, of course! Once development had restarted, it was decided future Saturn games were no longer financially viable, and in the end Sega fans were left with a PC-to-Dreamcast port that left many unsatisfied.
A minor footnote is how different the Saturn version of "Biohazard 1.5" would have been in comparison to its more commonly-known PS counterpart, with different playable characters and scenarios, albeit set in the same time frame. With the original prototype team disbanded soon after its abortion, various elements (such as the use of body armour and hand grenades) wound up in other games, most notably Parasite Eve - a game developed by many former Capcom staff, oddly enough. Much like the previously mentioned Tomb Raider II, never did anyone from Capcom ever confirm (or even deny, for that matter) Resident Evil 2 was to utilise any form of hardware upgrade, although the company supported the 4Mb RAM cart in many of its its CPSII conversions. At one point, there was even talk of Street Fighter III reaching the Saturn, and while the original arcade version was powered by the same Hitachi SH2 processor, there is no proof any research into a debut CPSIII title for the troubled 32-bit system was carried out.
Finally, the long-promised Saturn editions of Formula One and Destruction Derby 2 were in development as Probe's follow-up project to its successful conversion of Die Hard Trilogy. Collectors are known to possess test builds of the latter, with some brief video footage available if you know where to look. With my long rant over, there's only the subject of Virtua Fighter 3 left to discuss now... and without sounding too pretentious I really could write a book about this non-release!
|
|