So is there a list of confirmed Saturn prototype games?

Return Fire was never released, I can state that for fact - most certainly not in the UK. It was released on Playstation, yes, but not Saturn.

Segafreak, I am very jealous, and can't believe I missed that! I also missed another good auction recently, damn!

 

I'm not a wind-up merchant, believe me on this one. If nothing else, it was released for rental. I rented it for a weekend back in the day, from Choices video in Peterborough.

I can't prove it, other than saying this is the truth. :nod:

Also, before anyone suggests it, I'm not confused with the game "Mass Destruction"

 

I'd have to agree. I am pretty sure I've seen in the UK. I even believe I saw it at my work over christmas (@Gamestation).

After double checking against screenshots of the Playstation version I am pretty sure it was the same game. I seem to think it had a different name though..

 

It absolutely was released in PAL territories (Return fire saturn).. Its in a green and grey camo box. The game is the same as the PS1 version.

Its not even that rare. CEX in London had loads for sale for 49p recently when they cleared out all of teh saturn stuff (I say recently but it was aboyt a year ago now)..

If I can dig it out of storage I will send you a picture.

 

Proof please. Despite what you all say I for one don't believe it was released. I mean I saw 1000s of copies of Biohazard 1.5 back in the day..lol.

Edit..green and grey camo box sounds a little like mass destruction

 

Probably Black Fire, Mass Destruction or something...

 

The description QATTY gives fits the box I saw. I'll take a look when I am in tommorow and see if we still have it.

 

I'll buy

 

Any luck on getting that Destruction Derby 2 running? If you want I'll send you a Saturn (Japanese) if you pay the postage.

Yakumo

 

Wow, you're mad serious Yakumo.

 

It wouldn't be a new Saturn buts junk console only since Segafreak_NL already shas the pads and cables. A junk Saturn will look really rough but will work fine. Besides, they cost next to nothing anyway. Junk Saturns that is.

Yakumo

 

Proof (kinda):

http://www.esrb.org/esrbratings_browseresults.asp?view=&whichpage=13&type=game&group=18&pagesize=20

If I was to find a copy of the Return Fire for the Sega Saturn, how much do you think it would sell for in auction?

 

That's a great offer, but I'll try and find a US chipped Saturn asap. If you could get one chipped on the other hand, and send it to me, I'll gladly pay you for the console, the chip and shipping. Another thing is I'm not sure anything can be seen when it's booted by a realtime Saturn. In emulators the game boots but hangs after the intro. The code may need some serious work to boot..hopefully not.

As for Return fire, no offense but that website says nothing. There's webshops still 'selling' Halflife and Propeller arena. (with a 'sold out' message next to them, as if they ever sold them)
Hell, a list (with an interview) from Perfect Entertainment in a UK Saturn magazine
lists 'Novastorm' (Saturn) and 'Tintin on the moon' (SMS) as if they were published by them. Untill I see someone holding an actual box, I'd say no way.

I'd love to be proved wrong, though.

 

A Return Fire proto for Saturn was found several years ago, and a very (as in about five or so people) small distrobution was made amoung some of the most dedicated Saturn fans. I was offered a copy, but at the time I had started to lose interest in the Saturn as well as protos, and as such I turned it down. A year or so later I decided to see if I could still get it, but no dice, i'd missed my opportunity.

Hopefully one day it'll re-surface, but im not holding my breath for that one.

 

And just to get this perfectly clear, it didn't get a worldwide release right? NTSC would be just as valuable as PAL?

This is purely speculation ATM.

 

No it wasn't released in either region. But there's some people in the US claimed to have seen it as well.

And there's this:
http://www.sega-saturn.com/saturn/software/reviews/returnfire-1.htm

Which is just a little odd. I quote;

Hmmm....

 

I haven't read through the entire thread, but let me ask....


has there been even one picture of any of the Saturn Virtua Fighter 3 games that were in dev?


since pictures and video of Saturn Shenmue came out, officially even, put in Dreamcast/Xbox Shenmue 2, why not Saturn VF3 ?

 

Perhaps it only got a limited run? It does seem insanely hard to find any credible proof that the game exists, but I may be onto a lead. If I get lucky I will create a thread about it.

 

The reason why no screenshots of Saturn Virtua Fighter 3 exist is because Sega deliberately kept this one under wraps as they had already decided not to release it, although rumours persisted for quite a while that images scanned from a TGS '98 brochure were from this version (however, they later turned out to be the same pictures as used in a leaflet for the Model 3 original).

Not much is really known about this game, but from what I've been able to figure out - by collecting the more reliable elements of various articles - it seems as if AM2 were able to get the second revision of VF3 running in the Saturn's standard 320x224 resolution with 750,000 polygons at 30 frames per second. While not as impressive as the arcade source or even the early prototype of Shenmue (which allegedly reaches something close to 1m polygons per second thanks to a clever use of the DSP for geometry handling!), it would still have been an impressive achievement. With a little imagination and the footage of Shenmue as reference, you can probably create a decent enough idea of how this potentially groundbreaking conversion may have looked.

Still, a few screenshots would be welcome - how about it, SEGA/AM2? After all, we've already been treated to Shenmue, which was a total surprise to most of us...

P.S. According to the UK's official Saturn magazine, a review copy of Return Fire was delivered to them at the very last minute. They did give impressions of this game, but to my knowledge they never said that it had been cancelled. However, since nobody seems to own or have seen it, I can only conclude that it was rejected in the final stages of its development - probably as a result of Sega's then notorious "five star" quality release policy...

 

I got a couple of VHS tapes in yesterday. They include footage for Return Fire, X2 (!) and
Obelisk (never heart of that one before, it's like Myst set in Egypt).

Oh and it mentions the release of a special edition mouse pack for Dezeamon 2..never saw that one before and I doubt it was released.