Early Saturn Game Screen shots

I was lookingthrough a few old CDs today and found a couple early Saturn game screen shots.

First up is a very early version of Shin Shinobi Den (Shinobi X). none of these stages even made it in to the final game. It's as if its a completely different game. I'd do anything to find a working copy of either of these builds.

Build 1 (you can tell be the energy bars)



Build 2



Here is an early title screen from Gale Racer.



Early Daytona Build



The original Panzer Dragoon (Not 32X like some people whould have you believe)



Early build of Virtua Racing that moved at 10 fps !!



and last of all Gran Chaser (Cyber Speedway)


Yakumo

 

Ah! Those are nice. I've seen the early Panzer Dragoon pics before at panzerdragoon.net. Here's a link to the article, The Mystery of the Emerald Dragon.

 

I'm in love with Shinobi build 1.

 

you know i just thought about it, but maybe the orignal daytona engine had trouble handling more then 1 car on screen? I as well wish i could play that shinobi beta.

 

I had some really good shots of the Shibobi betas where he was standing in a rocky mountain surrounded by buzzards ! Like I said, the beta versions were nothing like the final game. Why make all those stages and not include them or maybe they are still in the game code and just need to be hacked out?

Yakumo

 

Yakumo, have you any idea who was responsible for that early version of Virtua Racing? It doesn't look very much like Time Warner's released effort, resembling something a lot closer to the arcade original (which may also explain the poor frame rate). Could this actually be an early Saturn tech demo by one of Sega's own internal R&D units? Also, it's very reasonable to assume that Daytona was simplified from what is shown in that prototype screenshot because of the difficulty shifting so many detailed models at the same time. Of course, the enemy cars in Sega Rally for the Saturn were of a considerably lower quality than the players vehicle, but a compromise of some kind was always going to be necessary - at least they didn't bother even trying to put in a split screen mode, as I can imagine that would have been truly dreadful...

 

That early Virtua Racing is by Time Warner. I have a video of it in the UK. You should see how bloody awful it looks ! Then again the final game looks awful as well. The 32X version is still the best home version on a Sega console.

Yakumo

 

yeah Virtual racer for saturn is a let down seems as though they spent to much money on some gitar solo riffs for time bonus then rather making a decent game

 

I don't really know how to explain this, but the prototype image of Virtua Racing looks ever so slightly superior to the final version - all the more surprising when you consider that it's by the same developer! Was this yet another early Saturn game to have corners cut during its development? Oh well, at least Time Warner managed to improve the frame rate (though only just)...

 

Time Warner probably originally wanted it to look better but just couldn't get a decent frame rate due to them being shit programmers :lol: That's why they changed it. I would put down a wager that the Time Warner teams responsible for Tama, Race Driven' and Virtua Racing had nothing to do with Taomaru.

Yakumo

 

I presume that Taomaru was exceptionally good, yes? As you can probably tell, I've never seen this game before - never mind actually played it! After the disappointment of Virtua Racing, I developed a habit of steering clear (pun not intended) of anything by Time Warner Interactive. Maybe I should give them a second chance?

 

Quoted for truth.

While it wasn't perfect (I'd say 75% accurate), the game was just a blast to play. And felt smoother than the SVP Genesis version. I had this game during my college years and it was played heavily in my dorm.

Well worth the cost of the 32X.

 

For some reason, Virtua Racing is one of the few 32X games I can emulate at full speed on my old computer - if only it had all the additional courses of the other versions then it would be absolutely perfect for me (along with VF, which in my opinion wiped the proverbial floor with the Saturn edition)!

 

read all about it on my site and then you'll learn :nod: www.segagagadomain.com The games full title is Shinrei Jusaishi Taroumaru

Yakumo

 

Nice looking copy you have there!

 

Yeah, I wonder where that came from ;-)

Yakumo

 

The best home version of VF remains the NV1 version. Hands down.

-hl718

 

I've heard so much about the PC versions of Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter that were coded specifically for the NV1 card, but where exactly can you find these? Are they included as some type of patch in more recent editions, as I might try finding a Diamond Edge card to see if they really were any better than the normal PC and Saturn games (anything would be superior to my current hardware specifications)! From memory, the standard Virtua Fighter PC was just a port of Remix that allowed you to choose flat shading or texture mapping for the character models and stages. I'm fairly sure as well that VF for the PC lacked a few minor details, such as individual fingers for the players along with the same "backward foot" and "hole in head" polygon glitches present in the Saturn game. As for Panzer Dragoon, I presume its only difference was support for the console's pad, which is made possible by the graphics card's controller input.

 

The NV1 version of VF was bundled with the card. PD wasn't finished when the card shipped so buyers had to mail in for it later on, making it a harder to find disc. There was also a NV1 specific version of Descent that never shipped -- it didn't look any better than the standard game so it was cancelled.

-hl718

 

I've been trying to find all of the possible available Sega PC titles for years (including the various budget releases, reprinted versions and even demos), but never once have I heard about these - could they be more rare than BUG! or Virtual On? I sure hope not or my collection will never be complete, though I might be in luck if I can get a Diamond Edge with the VF still included. As for the rest, does anybody know where to start looking?