Datazine, 11

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% DATAZINE NUMBER 11 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ---- D ---- A ---- T ---- A ---- Z ---- I ---- N ---- E ---- -- E -- L -- E -- V -- E -- N -- Virtua Everything: 2TUFF Articles: 2TUFF, EDGE MAGAZINE U.K (FUTURE PUBLISHING), CV&G ULTIMATE FUTURE GAMES. DataZine now consists of ALL my other projects, such as 3DO magazine and Gamezine. So from now on only DataZine will be released worldwide instead of the three seperates. DataZine will appreciate any articles which may be of interest to other user's to do with anything NEW and Consoles, Whether written up from a Magazine or Personally. If you have any articles leave me mail on the following UK boards; BURGER BAR (London), OASIS (Worcs) SVP (London), LOWLIFE (London) as soon as possible. This magazine only deals with the lastest in technology and games. I do not accept information or give on subjects like Commodore Amiga etc etc. The following formats are prefered as of todays date; PS-X 3DO, NEC FX, PC-ENGINE, PC, JAGUAR, SNES, SATURN, 32-X, ULTRA 64, NEO-GEO, MARTY, FM TOWNS, MACINTOSH, PIPPIN etc. Also im glad people appreciate the time and work that I spend writting this Datazine and copying articles from Magazines etc. And dont forget if you want Datazine first call the following BBS systems worldwide; BURGER BAR (UK), OASIS (UK), PET SEMETARY (SWE), DISLEXIA (BEL), X-FACTOR (US), DAWN OF ETERNITY (US) etc etc. [[----------------------------------------------------------------------]] The DATAzine issue #11 Contents:- --------------------------------- 1. WHERE TO GET THE LATEST CD'S FOR CONSOLE Typed By 2TUFF (2TUFF) 2. PLAYSTATION ENTERS THE HOME STRAIGHT Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 3. 32X RELEASE SCHEDULE Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 4. `TEKKEN' PRE-SCREEN ON SYSTEM 11/PS-XA Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 5. `ULTIMATE PARODIUS' PRESCREEN ON PS-X Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 6. `VICTORY GOAL' PRESCREEN ON SATURN Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 7. SEGA'S DREAM MACHINE +SATURN+ Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 8. SATURN RELEASE SCHEDULE Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 9. `BURN CYCLE' REVIEW ON CD-i Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 0. `ZEEWOLF' REVIEWED ON AMIGA Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 1. `FINAL FANTASY III' REVIEWED ON SNES Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 2. `SOUL STAR' REVIEWED ON MEGA-CD Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 3. GAMES CHARTS Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 5. GAMEHOUSES FLOCK TO SILICON CITY Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 7. `CYBERSLED' PRE-SCREEN ON PS-X Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 8. `CLOCKWORK KNIGHT' PRE-SCREEN ON SATURN Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 9. `STARBLADE' PRE-SCREEN ON PS-X Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 0. `RAIDEN' PRE-SCREEN ON PS-X Typed By 2TUFF (EDGE!) 1. `DOOM & DOOM 2' UPGRADED FOR 3DO Typed By PROTOCOL (3DO M) 2. ** SEGA SATURN ** REVIEWED + INFO Typed By 2TUFF (2TUFF) 3. `VIRTUA FIGHTER' REVIEWED ON SATURN Typed By 2TUFF (2TUFF) 4. `CRIME CRACKERS' TRAILER ON PS-X Typed By 2TUFF (U.F.G) 5. 3DO'S FUTURE IS STARTING Typed By 2TUFF (U.F.G) 6. ADVANCED ORDERS FOR SATURN AND PS-X Typed By 2TUFF (U.F.G) 7. JVC'S VERSION OF SATURN (V-SATURN) Typed By 2TUFF (U.F.G) 8. COLOR DEVICE FOR MULTISYNC MACHINES Typed By 2TUFF (2TUFF) 9. `VIRTUA FIGHTER' REVIEWED ON SATURN 2 Typed By PROTOCOL (CV&G!) ---------------|--------------------------------------------------------- | | For ALL the latest in CD's for available & soon | available machines :- WhErE | To GeT | Commodore Amiga, IBM/PC Compatible, Apple Macintosh ThE | Apple Pippin, 3DO, Sega-CD, Super Nintendo, Genesis LaTeSt | Sony PS-X, Sega Saturn, NEC FX, 3DO Bulldog, Ultra Cd'S | FoR | Contact NUMbers ORDER line at +1 (619)-246-4069 VaRiOuS | Contact NUMbers VOICE mail at +1 (619)-261-2499 FoRmAtS | | Fastest and most reliable service +WORLDWIDE+ ______________|_________________________________________________________ P | S | PLAYSTATION ENTERS THE HOME STRAIGHT \ | ==================================== X | | Even though interest in the PlayStation is already ENTERS | approaching fever pitch in Japan, Sony is taking | no chances on the launch of the machine slipping by HOME | unnoticed. The company recently held a hugh press | conference in Tokyo to publicise its ambitious plans STRAIGHT | for the videogames market. | | Held at the most luxurious hotel in the city, the New | Otani, just a stone's throw from the Imperial Palace, | the event was deliberately aimed at the mainstream | media rather than videogames journalists. Sony's | position as one of Japan's biggest and most influential | corporations ensured that several television channels | turned up and the majority of Japan's national | newspapers sent repersentatives to witness its biggest | product launch since the Walkman. | | The highlight of the event was the long-awaited | announcement of the PlayStation's retail price and Sony's | supporting strategy for the machine over the coming | months. The PlayStation's project manager, Terihusa | Tokunaga, revealed that the basic machine will go onsale | in Japan for Y39,800 (œ250). This means that gamers will | be able to get hold of a PlayStation plus a couple of | games for less than the psychologically import Y50,000 | figure (although the widespread high-street discounting | that normally takes place looks unlikely, given the | number of hardware bookings that shops are already | taking). | | Also divulged during the 40-minute conference was the | PlayStation's final release date. After months of | playing cat and mouse with Sega, Sony has confirmed | that the machine will be released in Japan on December | 3 (ten days later than the Saturn), after having been | shunted back four days to give distributors a fighting | chance of getting the machine out in appreciable numbers. | Supply will be limited to 4000 Japanese outlets, which | hope to have stocks of 100,000 machines between them | before the beginning of December and 300,000 before the | end of the year. | | Distribution is being handled by a company with the | wonderfully Japanesey name of Happynet. During his | speech, Mr Tokanaka stated that Sony could not relie | on its normal distribution channels in Japan because | it needed to get the machine into games shops. The | company is aiming for sales of one million units in | the next six months, with a further two million expected | to be sold by year-end 1995. | | As is usually the case with major Japanese launches, | games shops are enforcing a strict limit of one machine | per buyer (to be booked personally in advance, of | course) and are also vigorously discouraging any form | of export market. The few machines that might slip | through the (presumably, not so happy) net will probably | end up in Honk Kong. Given the high demand, it looks | like the lucky importers who obtain them will be able | to set whatever price they choose. Anyone expecting | change from œ1000 (especially after a couple of games | are thrown in) are probably being optimistic. | | In a bid to disassociate itself from the mistakes made | by other hardware manufacturuers, Sony was at plans to | stress that eight games will be available at launch, | with at least another 15 appearing before the end of | December. Pressed on stylish matt-black CDs, they will | retail at exceptionally consumer-friendly rates - between | Y5000 and Y7000. And it seems that it won't be just the | dregs that makes it under the Y6000 threshold, either, | Sony's Motor Toon GP (an almost complete version was | shown at the event and proved very popular) will be just | Y5400 (œ35). | | To ensure that the momentium of its software release | schedule is maintained, Sony has now signed up over | 250 thirdparty developers. Mr Tokanaka revealed that | 700 developement systems have been shipped to companies | around the world. Many of these, particularly the US | and UK firms, still have a full year before their first | releases next autumn (which is when the Uk machine will | be launched). | | More immediate results are demanded from Japanese | developers , though. Typical of the work in progress | is Tekken, a new coin-op based on the System 11 board | developed via a joint venture between Sony Computer | Entertainment and Namco. Exact details of the system | have not yet been released, but the hardware is certain | to be almost identical to the standard Playstation. | | System 11 is pitched as a direct competitor to Sega's | Titan arcade board, which is itself a souped-up version | of a home console - the Saturn. The current fad, | particularly in Japan and the US, of constructing mini- | amusement parks has created the need for a steady | turnover of new boards which are cheap and quick to | construct in order to keep the punters coming. System | 11 and Titan are designed for exactly this type of | money-making, so in the near future it may become | commonplace to see many PlayStation and Saturn games | debut in the arcades before migrating downwards (with | negligble loss of quality) to their home equivalents. | | Namco showed off a new, dedicated PlayStation controller | at the conference, developed under an elusive deal with | Sony. The `Negcon' (from the Japanese word nejiru, which | means to twist) takes design functionally to an extreme | - it twists in the centre to allows players exemplary | control of driving games without the need for expensive | (and wobbly) steering wheels. With Ridge Racer onsale | soon after the PlayStation launch and Cybersled following | in January (the pad's suitability for the twoplayer tank | game was particularly stressed), Namco seems to have the | pre-christmas peripheral market sewn up. The pad will | retail for Y5000 (around œ30). | | However, some people voiced their doubts about the | standard PlayStation joypad. Although the 14-button | design has been generally well received in Japan, a | number of international delegates were worried about its | small size, Sony has made it clear that the machine is | aimed at 12-22-year-olds in its domestic market, but the | generally larger hands of prospective PlayStation owners | in the West may require a rethink on Sony's part. | | Other accessories demonstrated incude the PlayStation | memory card, which will be used for saving games. The | 128K device, which costs just Y2000 (œ13), slots easily | into the machine just above the joypad connection and | can access 10K of saved information a second. | | Also on display were samples of the boxes that the | machine will be packed in. Continuing the industry's | trend towards more identifiable packaging, the PlayStation | cardboard features sepia-toned photographs, which | seemed to be widely appreciated | | Following the presentation, journalists were let loose | upon the assembled software for a few hours. Although | most of the PlayStations weren't connected to televisions | Sony dispensed with security for one of the main | attractions, Ridge Racer. Guests flocked to play the | game that, more than any other, has given credibility | to Sony's venture into the videogames market, and it | elicited a fair few gasps. Although by no means arcade | perfect (the frame rate is 30fps and the deatil far | lower), Namco's conversion is very slick indeed and a | credit to both the power of the hardware and the | dedication of Namco's development team. Namco's Youchi | Haraguchi was also sighted at the conference, on a | board representing thirdparty licensees. | | On a day when excited shouting was the norm, Sony was | keeping noticeably stumm about news of manufacturing | problems with the first run of PlayStation hardware. | Rumours circulating amoung delegates focused on | post-production checks that uncovered a number of | flaws on the motherboard. Fortunately, a $30 billion | multinational like Sony can afford to just bin them | and start again. | | Sony's new kit has already spawned a thriving ancillary | industry, with a gaggle of new magazines ready to cash | in on Playstation hysteria. Players will have a choice | of no less than six titles to choose from, four of which | (Denpa PlayStation, PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation | Tsushin and Hyper PlayStation) are published fortnightly, | while the remaining pair (The PlayStation and PlayStation | Magazine Monthly) will appear every month. | | With this level of coverage assured even before the machine | is released, the PlayStation is going to be very difficult | to ignore. | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | 3 | 32X RELEASE SCHEDULE 2 | ==================== R X | E | The following titles are all slated for released on 32X. L | when they actually arrive is anybody's guess. E | S A | Alien Trilogy Acclaim C S | Apache Domark H E | Brutal Gametek E | Clayfighters 2 Interplay D | Castlevania Konami U | College Basketball Sega L | Corpse Killer Digital Pictures E | Cosmic Carnage Sega | Doom Sega | Ecco Sega | Fahrenheit CD Sega | Golf Magazines Sega | Hoops Virgin | Metal Head Sega | Midnight Raiders CD Sega | Mortal Kombat II Acclaim | NBA Jam: Tournament Acclaim | Night Trap Digital Pictures | Pitfall Activison | Race Drivin' Atari | Shadow of Atlantis Sega | Slam City Digital Pictures | Sonic Sega | Star Wars Arcade Sega | Stellar Assault Sega | Street Fighter : the movie Capcom | Super After Burner Sega | Super Motorcross Sega | Super Space Harrier Sega | Supreme Warrior Digital Pictures | Surgical Strike CD Sega | Tempa Sega | Virtua Racing Deluxe Sega | Wirehead CD Sega | ______________|_________________________________________________________ T | E | TEKKEN *PRE-SCREEN* K | =================== K | E | Format: Arcade (System 11 PS-X) N | Publisher: Namco | Developer: In-House ARCADES | Release: Dec (Arcade) & PSX | March (PS-X) | Origin: Japan | | The first game to be developed for the PlayStation-based | System 11 board jointed created by Sony and Namco is | Tekken, which debuted recently at the JAMMA show and was | also shown behind closed doors at the US AMOA event | (under the name Rave War). The game will eventually be | ported to the PlayStation, but it's System 11 that Namco | is currently pushing. | | On the surface, Tekken (the title translates as `Iron | Fist') is a conventional - albeit impressive - Virtua | Fighter clone. At the moment it lacks special moves | music and sound effects, but Namco is stressing that the | game is only 50% complete. | | The game's eight characters, whose home turf includes St | Mark's Square in Venice, Fiji, the Acropolis in Athens | and, curiously, Lake Windermere, are all texture-mapped | and Gouraud-shaded, and sport different clothes and logos | in same character match-ups. | | Unusually, the controls aren't the standard collection | of hard kicks and soft kicks. Instead, there's a single | button for each hand and foot. In theory, this makes | fighting more instinctive and special moves easier to | learn. Like Takara's PlayStation beat 'em up, Toshinden | Tekken features a zooming camera which keeps both players | onscreen. | | Namco is reluctant to reveal any technical details about | Tekken but is confident that the System 11 game and the | home version will be virtually indistuishable. | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | ULTIMATE PARODIOUS *PRE-SCREEN* | =============================== ULTIMATE | PARODIUS | Format: PlayStation | Publisher: Konami FOR PS-X | Developer: Team Parodius | Release: December PRESCREEN | Origin: Japan | | Few games illustrate the Japanese obsession with the | bizarre better than Parodious. Starting life as a | coin-op in 1990, Konami's superbly crafted parody of its | classic Nemesis became one of the best shoot 'em ups | on the PC Engine and SFC. | | The PlayStation version is based on the more recent | coin-op, Gokujo (or Ultimate) Parodius, and is being | released shortly after a conversion for the SNES. | Unlike the SFC game, though, the PlayStation version is | subtitled `Deluxe Pack' and includes not only an identical | conversion of the latest game but also the original | Parodius in its entirety. Both games are faithful to the | arcade versions, from the sumptuous backgrounds to the | range of superbly designed sprites. | | Most PlayStation games so far have focused on the | PlayStation's 3D technology. Ultimate Parodius will | give it a chance to show off its 2D performance. | ______________|_________________________________________________________ V | G | VICTORY GOAL *PRE-SCREEN* O | ========================= A | L | Format: Sega Saturn PRESCREEN | Publisher: Sega | Developer: In-House FOR | Release: Dec 2 (Japan) | Origin: Japan SATURN | | The Japanese enjoy an action-packed game of football | even more than their European counterparts. There | are therefore never any draws in the Japanese J-League: | stalemated matches go to 30 minutes' extra time, and the | first team to score emerges trumphant. The winning goal | is called the `v-goal', or `victory goal'. | | Sega's namesake is offically authorised by the J-League | and features 12 J-League teams, including such notables as | Jef United, S-Pulse and A-S Flugels - Japanese soccer is | nothing if not flamboyant. | | Using the now obligatory polygon technology, Sega has | attempted to make V-Goal a TV-style experience. Nine | different camera angles plus long- and short-range options | mean you can select whatever viewpoint you deem appropriate | zoom in for close tackles in the box; zoom out for long | passes up the field. And you can do this without | affecting the low of play. | | Sega's kickabout will no doubt be another graphical tour | de force for the Saturn, but given the Japanese proclivity | for arcade action and their unhealthy disregard for | anything approaching tactics - or even rules - fans of | like Sensible Soccer school of play may find that V-Goal | errs on the side of instant appeal rather than longterm | challenge. | | V-Goal was one of the first Saturn games unveiled to the | press and is now nearing completion. But, ominously, | its release has been delayed until a couple of weeks after | the Saturn's Japanese debut. | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | SATURN THE | ====== | SEGA SATURN | *Tech Specs | DREAMS COME | CPU TRUE | | 2 x SH-2 32bit CPU @ 28Mhz | | Memory | | . VRAM: 12Mbits | . Main RAM: 16Mbits | . Sound RAM: 512K | . Buffer RAM: 512K | . Boot ROM: 512K | . Battery RAM: 32K | | Graphics | | . Resolution: 352 x 224 | . 640 x 224 | . Colours: 24bit palette, 32,000 onscreen | . Sprites/polygons: VDP1 chip, dual frame buffer | . Backgrounds: VDP2 chip; 5 planes, 2 rotation planes | | Sound | | . 16bit 68EC000 processor @ 11.3Mhz | . Yamaha FH1 processor | . FM, PCM, 44.1KHz sampling frequency, 32 voices | . DSP 128 steps/44KHz | | Data Storage | | . Double-speed CD-ROM drive | . Cartridge slot | | It wasn't supposed to happen. The possibility that its | next generation hardware would face competition simply | hadn't figured in Sega's calculations. So when news | broke in November 1993 that Sony was developing a | videogames system capable of revolutionary performance, | all hell broke loose. Those who had seen the machine | working claimed that it was far more powerful than | anything Sega had planned. Most threatening was the | disclosure that it was to be released in late 1994 - the | same time as the Saturn. To Sega's dismay, a powerful | new rival had arisen overnight. | | Sega's president, the feared Hayao Nakayama, was among | the first to be informed. His reaction was typical. | He immediately marched down to his consumer research | and developement division and proceeded to ridicule the | sum of his team's achievements over the previous year. | For Sega to be beaten by Sony in the videogames arena | (an area in which Sony had little previous experience) | was unforgivable. | | The shock the Sony revelation cause to Sega can't be | overstated. `There had been rumours,' recalls one | Japanese Sega employee, `but Sony's announcement took | alot of people by surprise. It wasn;t just the | technology that worried people; it was the fact that | Sony was planning to enter a market that Sega thought | it would have completely to itself.' | | Sega's kneejerk reaction was to delay its Saturn | development programme by a few months to incorporate | a new video processor into the system. Not only would | this boost its 2D abilities considerable (something | that Sony's machine was less proficient at); but it | would also provide better texture-mapping for 3D graphics. | | Unfortunately, this played havoc with the Saturn's | carefully worked-out schedule, to the extent that many | pundits thought that Sega wouldn't make it to the | market in 1994. Some people even expected the company | to cancel the Saturn and concentrate its efforts on | something more powerful for 1996. | | One prominent developer who visited Sega Of Japan's | Saturn division told Edge: `There's simply no way that | Sega will be releasing the Saturn this year. They're | behind on the hardware, behind on the software, and it's | very hard to see how they can do it.' | | But, contrary to expectations, Sega has done it. The | reality is that its 32bit machine has now been launched | in Japan, and the same system is on its way to the US | and the UK later next year. | | It was originally planned that the Saturn would be | released in two forms: a CD-ROM-based machine; and a | cartridge-only console, developed under the project | name Jupiter. Compatibility between Saturn and Jupiter | was to be achieved by means of a plug-in CD-ROM drive | containing extra RAM. However, Sega anticipated that | it would be problematic trying to sell higher-price, | inferior versions of the same games that were available | on CD-ROM. The solution was to scrap Jupiter, this is | exactly what happened just a few months later. It was | decided at this point that Saturn would be a CD-ROM | console (the CD-ROM drive was to be developed by JVC), | but with a cartridge slot for expansion or data saving. | | At around the same time, Sega made another important | decision. It recognised that its most valuable market | was the United States, and that it had to retain the | enormous userbase it had built up with the Genesis. | The answer was the Mars project, which resulted in the | system we now know as the 32X. | | Essentially, Jupiter became Mars, but whereas there had | been a degree of compatibility between the Saturn and | the Jupiter, it was decided that Mars would be a | completely standalone system. Although the 32X and | Saturn contain the same CPUs (but running slower in | the 32X) the architecture was never designed to be | compatible. And according to Sega, it has `no plans | to release an adaptor'. | | The launch of Saturn in Japan is Sega's most important | hardware release ever. Even though the company is | placating its (admittedly minimal) Mega Drive installed | base with the 32X (called Super 32X in Japan), which | appears on Japanese shelves just two weeks after the | Saturn launch, Saturn is by far the main event. Whether | the Japanese will take to the 32X isn't known, but demand | for the Saturn is high, even surpassing the momentum that | has been building up for the PlayStation launch. | | Sega, which has always been sidelined in the Japanese | consumer market, is now in a make-or-break situation | with the Saturn. The company can't afford a reprise of | the set-back it suffered in the early 1990s when the | Mega Drive lost out to the SFC, and it admits that the | next few months will be tough in the Japanese market. | | `Sega is terrified of what Sony is doing,' revealed one | Japanese source. `They brought the machine forward by | a week to try and screw Sony, and the fact that Virtua | Fighter is the only game worth buying for the machine | doesn't seem to concern them. In the first week they're | counting on the game to shift several hundred thousand | units.' | | Sega has announced that it plans to ship 500,000 units | before Christmas. By this time next year, the company | hopes to have sold two million Saturns. | | Saturn's marketing budget is rumoured to be huge, and a | massive campaign is running on Japanese TV right up to | the launch. | | `We have to do this because of the PlayStation,' said an | anxious PR manager. `We have to reach a 70% share of | the next-generation hardware market. `If we don't get | at least 50% of the market share, we think that thirdparty | development will be slow. Thirdparties willnot want to | develop for a machine that has less than this level of | penetration.' | | SOJ's PR department has been working overtime during the | Saturn launch period. Its efforts to boost Sega's | profile within the Japanese gaming fraternity have focused | on getting extensive coverage for the development of | important titles like Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA. A | myriad of Japanese games magazines have closely followed | the Saturn conversion of Virtua Fighter since its debut | at the Tokyo Toy Show (the version shown there was only | two weeks into development) and its designer, AM2 head | Yu Suzuki, has now attained almost star-like status | among Japanese gamesplayers. | | Opening the doors to the media in this way has proved | to be a shrewd move for Sega. It has given the company | new credibility in Japan by showing that it isn't affraid | to reveal the more intimate details of its preparations | for Saturn. Japanese games companies are traditionally | reticent about discussing technical issues with the press, | so Sega's new approach is like a breath of fresh air to | people used to fighting the obsessive secrecy of | organisations like Nintendo. It's just the latest change | in a company that is keen to internationalise itself. | Anyone who has visited Sega in Japan will appreciate this | - Japanese Sega officials will shake Westerners' hands, | whereas a courteous bow will win you more favour at | Nintendo. | | Sega's decision to license the Saturn technology was a | strategic coup which bodes well for sales of the machine. | In a move aping 3DO's open technology policy, Sega has | licensed the Saturn hardware to three main Saturn | development partners: Victor (JVC), Hitachi and Yamaha. | All three companies have Saturn compatible machines in | the pipeline, with Victor's V-Saturn machine (set to | appear some time after the Sega version) apparently | packing some new features. | | In another 3DO-stle ploy, Sega is using Hitachi to | handle a large part of Saturn's distribution in Japan. | Hitachi will make the Saturn available through its | chain of home electrical shops (which means Sega doesn't | have to rely solely on game stores) via a distribution | company called Hitachi Mediaforce. This brings the | number of retail outlets carrying the machine up to | about 7000 and provides Sega with the broad sales | platform it needs. | | But, of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project | goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics | company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a | CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi | technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to | Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the | same team is now working on preliminary 64bit | technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 | - or the `SuperH RISC Engine', according to the logo | emblazoned on the chip. | | The SH-2 is a small (2cm square) but fast RISC chip that | has been designed primarily to process graphics. Like | all RISC processors, it's more streamlined than | conventional RISC-based chips and can carry out | instructions in far fewer clock cycles. | | According to the chief Hitachi technician who perfected | the chip, `The SH-2 has a high calculation efficiency. | For magnifying, reducing and rotating 2D and 3D graphics, | it's very fast. Apart from workstations, no chip can | change coordinates as quickly.' | | The question of the Saturn's technical ability is the | most controversial aspect of the entire saga. Ever | since Sony-induced revamp, the Saturn has had more than | its fair share of teething problems. Only recently were | development systems updated to the point where they | could be called `final'. Originally, the Saturn was | supposed to have one main CPU, but it was specced up to | include another when tests revealed that a single chip | was too slow. And the system control unit, or SCU - one | of the main components of the Saturn architecture - has | been subject to continual change. | | The CPUs aside, the Saturn architecture is processor- | intensive. As well as the twin SH-2s, there are five | independent processors, including a sprite chip (VDP1), | a background chip (VDP2) and - the piece de resistance - | 16bit custom sound board designed by Yamaha. | | `Saturn's sound hardware is phenomenal,' one developer | told Edge. `It's way, way better than the PlayStation's | sound - you can basically plug a synthesiser straight in | and play it through MIDI.' | | Like Sony's PlayStation, the Saturn `cheats' by using a | sprite engine to generate its polygons. Rather than | creating true, depth-buffered polygons, the VDP1 maps | sprites to geometry, which is much less demanding of | processing power. In a game like AM2's Virtua Fighter | the characters are actually constructed from hundreds | of mapped sprites. (The PlayStation works in a similar | way, but has a geometry engine that can process more | polygons.) | | The upshot is that Saturn is an exceptional 2D powerhouse. | For arcade-perfect conversions of traditional bitmapped | 2D games, it's in a class of its own. It delivers a | huge number of scaled and rotated sprites, and can also | shift up to five independant backgrounds (with two | seperate rotation fields also available). | | Saturn's 2D power is confirmed by software developers. | `It's a very nice machine,' believes one. `For | conventional 2D arcade games it's awesome.' | ******* Saturn hardware schematic ******* Fr buffer Fr buffer CD ROM 256K / 256K | | / CD Drive___SH-1 ___RAM __ VDP1____________Texture ROM 64K 20MHz 512K | RAM 512K | | Cart ______| `A' Bus |__ VDP2____________RAM Expansion | `B' Bus | 512K SCU ___________________| `CPU' Bus 28MHz 16bit Bus |__SCSP_____________68EC00 | DSP 28MHz || 11.3MHz |___________ || Boot Sub | | ||___________________RAM ROM ------ SH-2 SMPC | 512K 512K Main | | Stereo DAC | Controller 16bit 44.1 KHz RAM 2Mb Battery RAM 32K | With 3D graphics stealing the limelight in the arcades, | it's odd to discover that Sega emphasis on 2D performance | can be tracked back to its arcade division. The success | of arcade games like Virua Racing led to a belief within | the company that it had amassed the company more | experience of games technology than any other videogames | manufacturer. US president Tom Kalinske hinted as much | back in mid-1993 when he revealed the existence of the | Saturn project. | | But the projected overlap between Saturn and Sega's | Model 1 technology - as used in Virtua Fighter and Virtua | Racing - proved to be optimistic. As with most Sega | technology, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment | of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at | just 16MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the | bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by | four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included | in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the | SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible | arcade system. | | The development of the ST-V (Titan) board has provided | Sega with a dual-purpose coin-op platform. Firstly, it | is intended as a low-cost arcade system, in direct | contrast to expensive dedicated unliked like the Model | 2-powered Virtua Fighter 2. It offers acceptable 3D | performance but is primarily a powerful 2D engine, most | suited to handling the latest beat 'em ups and sprite | based action games. Sega hopes that the low price will | encourage its widespread use throughout the arcade | industry as a multi-purpose arcade system. | | But ST-V is also a testing ground for future Saturn games. | The system is based on the Saturn chipset, with the main | techical differences being the use of silicon instead | of CD-ROM as a storage medium (the relationship between | the two systems is similar to the one between the | cartridge based Neo-Geo and the Neo-Geo CD) and the | capacity for upgraded graphics performance. | | Sega currently has ten games in the pipeline for the ST-V, | including AM2's Golden Axe: The Duel, and Tantoaru, a | puzzle game from AM1. But enthusiasm for ST-V within | Sega isn't high/ Says Yu Suzuki: `I think it will be hard | to develop good software for the ST-V. It's not that I | think the hardware is bad, but personally, I've got more | interest in high end machines. Because of the low, | though, ST-V will be Sega's new flagship hardware for | the coin-op market.' | | Flagship or not, ST-V is emerging as the Ford Escort of | the coin-op market - affordable, yet unremarkable. It | wil be interesting to see how it fairs against Sega's | Model 2 Ferraris. | | Given that Saturns's success hinges on the translation of | games like Virtua Fighter, AM2 is the lynchpin of Sega's | software policy. The work undertaken by Yu Suzuki and | his AM2 team over the past six months has been as much a | learning curve for them as it will be for other Saturn | developers. | | `We couldn't port software from the Model 1 hardware to | the Saturn,' explains Virtua Fighter project leader Keishi | Okayasu. `The V60 and the SH2 [SuperH] are entirely | different chips. The original code needed a lot of work | to make it run.' | | It seems that the biggest headache for the team has been | coping with the twin central processors and maximising | the machine's power to display as many polygons as possible. | Both SH-2 chips in the Saturn run at 28MHz (whereas in the | 32X version they run at 23MHz). Although the combined | capacity of both chips is 56 MIPS, they don't run in | true parallel. The CPUs have a problem accessing main | RAM at the same time - one chip has to wait for the other | and this slows down the overall performance considerably | (although the problem can be minimised by using a RAM | cache). | | `Trying to program two CPUs has its problems,' admits | Yu Suzuki. `Virtua Fighter uses a different CPU for | calculating each character. The two CPUs start at the | same time but there's a delay when one has to wait for | the other to catch up. One very fast central processor | would be perferable. I don't think all programmers | have the ability to program two CPUs - most can only | get about one-and-a-half times the speed that you get | from one SH-2. I think that only one in 100 programmers | are good enough to get this kind of speed out of the | Saturn.' | | Programming in assembly (the chip's own language) is the | only way to get fast results. However the Japanese | traditionally use C, which leads to a significant drop | in performance. In assembly it's possible to achieve | a two-to fivefold speed increase over C in such contempt | that they maintain that assembly is actually more than | 20 times faster. | | Sega's in-house development of titles like Virtua Fighter | has spearheaded the push to get the best results out of | the Saturn. `In AM2 we use C for the first few steps and | then assembly after that,' says Yu Suzuki. `We managed | to get the twin CPUs running at about 1.8 times the speed | of a single chip - that would have been impossible using | C.' | | The results, of course speak for themselves: Saturn Virtua | Fighter is fast and smooth, and although the polygon count | is slightly lower than it is in the arcade, it's a | faitful conversion. | | And that's good news for Saturn. Sega's arcade pedigree | is the machine's greatest asset. The fact that the | entire initial batch of Saturns has been pre-booked by | Japanese gamers can be directly attributed to the Virtua | Fighter factor, and if Sega manages to convince more | gamers that acquiring a Saturn means buying into an | established coin-op hit factory, the machine could do | very well indeed. | | Ultimately, there are many people who will put loyalty to | Sega and confidence in the company's confirmed gameplay | expertise before any of the machine's perceived technical | limitations. | | Shiny entertainment's Dave Perry is one such devotee: ` | I am a Sega man at heart,' he says. `I'm behind Sega | all the way. Sega makes the world's best arcade machines | and is offering a way to bring them into the home. The | best thing Sega has is the confidence in its brand. | Daytona USA is on the way. I placed my order a month | ago...' ______________|_________________________________________________________ | S | SATURN RELEASE SCHEDULE A | ======================= T | R U | *November 22 1994 E R | L N | Virtua Fighter (Y8800)........................Sega E | Mahjong Goku (Y5800)..........................Shanor S A | Tama (Y5800)..................................T.Warner.I C S | Wanchai Collection (Y7800)....................Sega H E | E | *December 1994 D | U | Chinese Detective.............................Sega L | Goal Racer (Y6800)............................Sega E | Clockwork Knight (Y4800)......................Sega | Gotha.........................................Sega | Myst..........................................Sunsoft | | *February 1995 | | Great Wall of China...........................Sunsoft | Gamesmaster...................................Sunsoft | Hissatsu Pachinko Collection..................Sunsoft | Cotton 2......................................Sunsoft | Quo Vadis.....................................Gramus | Zero Four Champ Special.......................Media Ring | | *1995 | | Race Drivin'..................................T.Warner.I | New Legend Of Shinobi.........................Sega | Pebble Beach Golf Links.......................Sega | Greatest 9....................................Sega | Masters (Provisonal Title)....................Sega | Deadlus.......................................Sega | Virtua Hang On................................Sega | Rampo.........................................Sega | Victory Goal..................................Sega | Van Battle....................................Sega | Dynamic Fantasy (Provisonal Title)............Sega | Blue Seed.....................................Sega | Magic Knight Ray Earth........................Sega | Basketball Saturn (Provisonal Title)..........Sega | Daytona USA...................................Sega | Gail Racer (Provisonal Title).................Sega | Virtua Tennis (Provisonal Title)..............Sega | Ice Hockey (Provisonal Title).................Sega | Panzer Dragoon................................Sega | Tomcat Alley Saturn (Provisonal Title)........Sega | Sim City 2000.................................Sega | Ecco The Dolphin Saturn (Provisonal Title)....Sega | Fantasy Earth (Provisonal Title)..............Sega | League Road Saga (Provisonal Title)...........Sega | Side Pocket (Provisonal Title)................Sega | Overdrive.....................................Zoom | 4D Boxing (Provisonal Title)..................Victor | Hardcore......................................Virgin | The 11th Hour/The 7th Guest...................Virgin ______________|_________________________________________________________ B C | U Y | BURN CYCLE REVIEW R C | ================= N L | E | Format : CD-i REVIEWED ON | Publisher : Philips | Developer : Trip Media CD-i | Price : œ45 | Release : Out Now (UK) BY +EDGE+ | | Ever since CD was thrust upon unsuspecting programmers | two years ago, debate has raged in the games industry | about wether it will prove to be a benefit or a | hindrance. One camp accuses the silver disc of being | a gameplay killer, while others argue that its huge | storage capacity offers limitless potential. Philips' | CD-i system has itself borne the brunt of much of the | criticism aimed at CD as a games medium, with titles | like The Seventh Guest held up as proof of CD's | limitations. | | At first sight, TripMedia's latest project, Burn Cycle | looks like providing further ammunition for CD's (and | CD-i's) detractors. On the surface, it's yet another | ill-conceived attempt at an `interactive movie', with | sumptuous visuals, orchestral sound, an intricate plot | and professional actors but, one suspects, little | gameplay. | | However, as anyone who plays it will discover, Burn | Cycle is different. Its immersive gameworld, genuinely | dramatic gameplay and extraordinary attention to | detail from start to finish make it arguably the first | real success in the campaign to bring Hollywood | production techniques to videogames. | | The game casts you as Sol Cutter, a freelance hacker | who becomes infected with a military-grade virus (the | `Burn:Cycle' of the title) during an information trawl. | You have exactly two hours to neutralise it before it | turns your brain to pig fodder. To succeed, you have | to overcome the amnesia which is a side effect of the | Burn:Cycle and uncover the motive for your attempted | assassination. This is a pretty hackneyed plot by any | self-respecting cyberpunk's standards, but what keeps | you enthralled is the way it's executed. | | Burn:Cycle stands out because of its wonderfully | realised environment - each location on the map is | beautifully pre-rendered. Although this means that you | don't have complete freedom to explore, the epic scale | of the scenery ensures that you never feel caged (which | is where Myst went wrong). Although the picture degrades | briefly when you're moving between areas (the resolution | sharpens when you reach your destination to reveal all | the detail in the scene), the pixelation is somehow | completely in keeping with the game's atmosphere. | | As well as those sections of the game over which you | have control (the vast majority), Burn:Cycle offers a | vast variety of video clips which advance the plot and | enhance the atmosphere but are never allowed to | dominate the proceedings. The video footage is | complemented by an immense variety of speech and music | running the gamut from foot-tapping club tunes to the | surreal twitterings of a glided Buddha. | | Beneath the splendour of its presentation, Burn:Cycle | is an accomplished blend of puzzles, combat and strategy | The puzzles are all challenging enough to give you a | sense of achievement when you've completed them but | never so difficult that they thwart you completely. | The strict two-hour time limit makes it imperative that | you solve them as quickly as possible, which gives the | whole game a seriously frantic edge. | | The combat sequences are a major part of the game's | appeal. Although not nearly as gory as the cut scenes | the main reason why the game carries a `15' certificate | - they're reassuringly bloody and extremely satisfying. | Occasionally, the cursor moves too slowly across the | screen for you to stand a fair chance of making a kill, | but this problem is largely confined to the first | section of the game and never really threatens your | enjoyment. | | Burn:Cycle could well prove to be a turning point in | the CD-i's fortunes. At last, someone has realised that | imagination and flair count for far more than a huge | budget, and that's a significant development. | | EDGE RATING: ----- 7/10 | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | FINAL FANTASY III | ================= FINAL FANTASY | III | Format: SNES | Publisher: Square Soft REVIEWED ON | Developer: In-House +SNES+ | Price: œ70 (import) | Release: Out-Now (US) BY !EDGE! | | In its first week onsale in Japan, Final Fantasy III | sold over two million units. This figure would | ordinarily make dollar signs flash up in the eyes | of any software salesman in the West. Until you | mention the fatal phrase `roleplaying game'. RPGs, | we're told, don't sell outside Japan. You can get | away with action-orientated titles like Secret Of | Mana and Zelda, but true roleplayers are regarded | as a lost cause. | | But if any RPG is destined to be an exception to the | rule, it's Final Fantasy III (which was actually called | Final Fantasy VI in Japan). This is a game that is | indubitably at the pinnacle of it genre. The graphics | - a sophisticated combination of digitised images and | traditional artwork - are arguably the most detailed | ever seen on the SNES. Battles - which take place | in realtime - are fast and offer a huge variety of | magic, weapons and attacks. And the magic is sumptuous | (although not quite as good as Mana's score). | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | S S | SOUL STAR O T | ========= U A | L R | Format: MEGA-CD REVIEWED ON | Publisher: Core +MEGA-CD+ | Developer: In-House | Price: œ40 REVIEWED BY | Release: Out-Now !EDGE! | | Amidst the deluge of unappetising pap that has been | the Mega CD's staple diet since its launch, has been | a couple of outstanding titles. The ultrafast 3D | `copter arcade sim Thunderhawk was one of the first | games to give the add-on credibility. But unfortunately, | very little of any real quality followed until the | release of the impressive but flawed Battlecorp, another | 3D effort. Now Core Design, the creator of both these | titles, has finally released what could be regarded as | the third instalment in a 3D trilogy: Soul Star. | | Core claims to have fulfilled its pledge to push the | Mega-CD to its limits. Although it's easy to see the | link between Thunderhawk and Soul Star, it's just as | obvious that this is an evolutionary leap. The scaling | is smoother than in any other Mega CD game and objects | have little of the usual alrming tendency towards | blockiness. | | Compared to the previous two games, though, Soul Star | is essentially very simple. The ability to roam around | the play area has been taken away from you in most of | the levels and replaced with more traditional high- | octane blasting. The result is a conventional shoot | 'em up that isn't going to attract any gasps for | inventiveness but, with its slick graphics and fun | gameplay, is possibly the best example of the genre | you're likely to find on the Mega CD. | | EDGE RATING: 7/10 | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | CHARTS | ====== | | *Arcade [Dedicated] G | A | 1. Daytona USA (Sega) M | 2. Suzuka 8 Hours 2 (Namco) E | 3. Revolution X (Williams) C | 4. Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega) H | 5. Out Runners (Sega) A | R | *Arcade [PCBs] T | S | 1. Gunbird (Psikyo) | 2. V Shoot (Namco) | 3. Raiden DX (Seibu) | 4. Super X (Mitchell) | 5. Fantasic Journey (Konami) | | *UK [all formats] | | 1. Urban Strike (EA) [MegaDrive] | 2. Mortal Kombat II (Acclaim) [MegaDrive] | 3. Jurassic Park (Ocean) [SNES] | 4. Sonic the Hedgehog II (Sega) [MegaDrive] | 5. Jungle Book (Virgin) [SNES] | 6. Cool Spot (EA) [MegaDrive] | 7. Stunt Race FX (Nintendo) [SNES] | 8. Aladdin (Sega) [MegaDrive] | 9. FIFA Soccer (EA) [SNES] | 0. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega) [MegaDrive] | | *US [all formats] | | 1. Mortal Kombat II (Acclaim) [SNES] | 2. Mortal Kombat II (Acclaim) [MegaDrive] | 3. Maximum Carnage (Acclaim) [SNES] | 4. Urban Strike (EA) [Genesis] | 5. NHL Hockey '95 (EA) [Genesis] | 6. Bill Walsh Football '95 (EA) [Genesis] | 7. Power Rangers (Bandai) [Gameboy] | 8. Brain Lord (Enix) [SNES] | 9. Maximum Carnage (Acclaim) [Genesis] | 0. Mortal Kombat II (Acclaim) [Gameboy] | | *JAPAN [all formats] | | 1. Dragon Ball Z (Bandai) [SFC] | 2. The King of Fighters '94 (SNK) [NEOGEO] | 3. Yu yu Hakusho (Treasure) [MEGADRIVE] | 4. Samurai Shodown (Takara) [SFC] | 5. Kirby's Teeshot (Nintendo) [SFC] | 6. Human GP3 (Human) [SFC] | 7. Mother 2 (Nintendo) [SFC] | 8. Xak III (NEC HE) [PC ENGINE] | 9. Demon's Blazon (Capcom) [SFC] | 0. Rockman Megaworld (Capcom) [MEGADRIVE] | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | GAME HOUSES FLOCK TO SILICON CITY | ================================= S | I | Over the past year, the relationship between games L | producers and the purveyors of high-end graphics I | technology has become increasingly cosy. The C | Nintendo/Silicon Graphics deal is the highest-profile C O | example of the growing collaboration between the two I N | fields, but there are many other graphics specialists T | looking for a slice of the lucrative games market, Y | and just as many entertainment companies searching | for new developments to give their games a technological | leg-up. | | So it came as no surprise to see the recent Silicon | Graphics show in Yokohama, Japan, attended by gamehouses | eager to see what the leading-edge computer technology | company had to offer. The theme of `Silicon City' | was the intregration of high-end graphics with affordable | home entertainment, with Rare's Donkey Kong Country well | employed as a 16bit taster of what new technology can | provide for games. | | The focus of the show was a range of new Silicon Graphics | hardware. Indigo Extreme, Power Indigo and Power Onyx | are obviously upgrades rather than revolutionary steps | forward, but they generated excitement nevertheless. | Also appearing for the first time was the latest version | of the Challenger fileserver. Based on a MIPS 8000 | chip running at 200MHz, this hardware made almost every | other piece of technology at the show seem positively | antedeluvian. | | The ubiquitous Sony was also present, a month before the | launch of the PlayStation in Japan. The company was | represented on this occassion by its Sony Music | Entertainment divison, which was touting the PlayStation | game Kileak The Blood, a futuristic firstperson 3D | robot shoot `em up laden with pre-rendered cut-scenes | The SME connection is due to the game's score, but the | dazzling reflective lightning effects and realtime | texture mapping on offer made it relevant to anyone with | an interest in the future of game graphics. | | And for Y3,200,000 (about œ20,000) you can be a proud | wearer of a Cyber Glove. This device was developed by | SolidRay to facilitate the manipulation of virtual | objects such as molecules and architecture models. | Add an Onyx and you've got one hell of a Doom set-up... | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | `CYBERSLED' *PRE-SCREEN* | ======================== C | Y | Format: PlayStation B PS-X | Publisher: Namco E | Developer: In-House R | Release: January '95 S | Origin: Japan L | E | Sony has already reaped the benefit of Namco's commitment D | to the Playstation in the form of a conversion of Ridge | Racer, which will be used to help kickstart the launch | of the machine over the next few weeks. | | In addition, Namco intends to release a new Playstation | game ever month after launch. January's release is set | to be a conversion of the superb Cybersled coin-op. A | Battlezone for the 90's, Cybersled debuted in the arcades | in September 1993 and, like Namco's ageing System 21 | `Polygonizer' board. | | Cybersled is a simple game at heart. Armed with a meaty | machine gun and a handful of guided missiles, you choose | one of six different tanks, known as `battlesleds', and | enter into a deadly tournament against other tank | commanders. Once you're in the arena, it's a question of | kill or be killed. | | Weapon specifications dictate most of the battle tactics | in Cybersled. The heavy machine gun is best in close | combat: all you have to do is point it at your enemy and | let rip. The missiles are much subtler and give the | game significant extra depth. You have to get a lock-on | before you can launch one, but if the enemy is far enough | away he can take evasive action to avoid it, or even | take it out with one of his own missiles. Missile stocks | are limited, and it takes between two and five hits to | destroy a tank. | | Crucial to Cybersled's success in the arcades was a | link-up feature. This capability will be incorporated | into the Playstation conversion as a splitscreen mode, | with similar onscreen shield, missile and radar guages. | wether the PlayStation's link-up capacity will also | be exploited by the game hasn't yet been announced. | | Namco has introduced an additional two views for the | oneplayer Playstation game: one behind and above the | battlefield, and another in the cockpit. This is in | addition to the traditional behind-the-tank arcade | view. However, Namco has still not decided whether | to include the coin-op's two-view zoom function in the | splitscreen mode - the fear is that it could prove | confusing. | | But the most noticeable difference between the Playstation | and the arcade game is, of course , the inclusion of | texture-mapping : both the arena and all the vehicles take | advantage of the machine's considerable power and are now | resplendent with detail. | | The effectiveness of the new splitscreen format is unproven | but as long as it manages to deliver the tense two-player | action for which the Cybersled coin-op was renowned, the | Playstation game looks like being another feather in the | caps of both Namco and Sony. | ______________|__________________________________________________________ | | `CLOCKWORK KNIGHT' *PRE-SCREEN* | =============================== C | L *SATURN* | Format: SATURN O | Publisher: SEGA C | Developer: IN-HOUSE K | RELEASE: DEC 9 (JPN) W | ORIGIN: JAPAN K O | N R | A new platform hero will be accompanying the launch of I K | the Saturn in Japan. Sega's unlikely star is a tiny G | wind-up tin man called Pepperouchau, who features in H | the Saturn's flagship platformer, Clockwork Knight. T | Sega will be hoping that he proves as popular to the 32bit | generation as the irrepressible Sonic was in the 16bit | era. | | Sega is developing new visual techniques for Clockwork | Knight to make use of the Saturn's graphics capabilities | One of the most obviously innovative features of the game | is its comprehensive use of 3D parallax scrolling. | Instead of Pepperouchau marching past flat bitmaps (like | in Sonic), everything he passes changes perspective | according to his position. As he walks towards an object | you see one side of it; as he moves on across the screen | the other side comes into view. This is given added | impact by the fact, that every object in Clockwork Knight | is exquisitely designed. | | Clockwork Knight's graphics are the result of the Saturn's | exemplary 2D ability - the hardware is essentially a | sprite and background shifter. The textured 3D in | Clockwork Knight isn't constructed out of true polygons | with every pixel assigned a depth co-ordinate. Instead, | sprites are used. A 3D effect is created by defining | flat geometric shapes onscreen which are tapered to create | an impression of perspective. Sprites are then mapped | onto them and distort as they scroll by. Because the | shapes (such as building blocks with several facets | visible, or a wall receding into the distance) are drawn | to appear three-dimensional, the sprites mapped onto | them also convey depth and solidity. | | Pseudo-3D it may be, but the results are undeniably | impressive - Clockwork Knight is an incredibly good- | looking platformer with fantastic parallax scrolling. | And the whole shebang moves at a fast 60fps. | | To match these impressive 3D visuals, Sega has added | some problem-solving elements to Clockwork Knight's | gameplay. It has to be said that the puzzles aren't | particularly challenging, but working them out still | delivers satisfying rewards. For example, on one of | the later levels you have to load a battery into a | toy train. This done, you can leap aboard for a free | ride as it chugs off through Toyland. | | This proves very useful, as you have to cover a | greatdeal of ground to get anywhere in Clockwork Knight | The object of the game is to rescue Pepperouchau's main | squeeze, a music-box fairy called Chelsea. As is made | clear in the wonderfully imaginative intro sequence and | by means of cut-scenes throughout the game, Toyland will | be destroyed if you don't rescue her. So Pepperouchau | sets off to accomplish just this with the help of a few | friends. His task isn't made any easier by the fact that | many of Toyland's usually placid inhabitants have turned | into rampaging fiends. | | Clockwork Knight is an attempt to marry traditional | platform gameplay with 32bit technology. The primary | attraction is without doubt the beautifully designed | characters and 3D backgrounds. However, it's debatable | whether the level of challenge in the game will provide | a sufficient draw. Then again, Sonic wasn't exactly | overburdened with depth... | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | S | `STARBLADE' *PRE-SCREEN* ON PS-X T | ================================ A | R | Format: PLAYSTATION B | Publisher: NAMCO L | Developer: IN-HOUSE A | Release: FEB '95 D | Origin: JAPAN E | PRE | In late 1991 the coin-op taking pride of place in every - | arcade was Namco's Starblade, a shoot 'em up that broke SCREEN | new ground for arcade games with its stylish polygon | visuals. To generate these stunning graphics, Starblade | employed Namco's System 21 board, which was developed | for the 1989 race game winning run, subsequently appeared | in the Xevious sequel Solvalou, and was used more recently | in Cybersled. | | The Starblade coin-op relied on a LaserDisc to store its | background graphics, dragging off the pre-rendered polygons | as the player moved through the game. Only the enemies | constructed from around 1,000 polygons and displayed at | 60fps, were generated in realtime. Texture-mapping was | absent but later made it into the backgrounds and some | of the enemies in Galaxian3. | | Because of its use of polygons instead of sprites, | Starblade was a very influential game - apparently, the | Nintendo development team which worked with Argonaut on | Starfox for the SFC used it for inspiration, copying some | elements (like the music) uncomfortably closely. | | Namco cleverly disguised Starblade's linear gameplay and | player's lack of control over events by using a game | screen that was larger than the actual screen. Although | your ship flies on rails throughout the game, the fact | that the screen scrolls left and right slightly when you | move the joystick creates the impression that you've got | limited directional control. | | As a result of the restrictive environment, Starblade's | gameplay is extremely basic. You control the crosshair | gunsight of your ship and have to pick off various | targets - fighters, power sources and weapons on larger | ships - as they queue up in front of you. | | Both the story and the structure of Starblade owe a great | deal to Star Wars. Your home planet has been targeted | by the Red Eye, a giant space station armed with a | highly destructive wave cannon. As the elite pilot | chosen by the Star Fleet Federation to fly the Geosword | fighter, you have to attack the enemy fleet guarding the | Red Eye, penetrate the space station and destroy its | Octopus generator. | | It's likely that Namco will employ the same technique to | stream graphics off CD that Game Arts pioneered in the | Mega CD blaster Slipheed: instead of relying on streamed | video (which wouldn't match the coin-op's crisp | LaserDisc visuals), Starblade will probably load pre- | calculated geometry off the CD, resulting in a much | clearer picture. However, the inclusion of a texture- | mapped mode could cause problems. | | Although PlayStation Starblade is only 50% complete, | Namco is confident that the game will be arcade perfect, | its pedigree gives it a head start, but the gameplay | raises a fundamental question: can a linear shoot 'em up | designed for quick arcade thrills succeed with the | gameplay-hungry and VFM-conscious home gamer? Time will | tell, but if any game can manage it, it's Starblade. ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | `RAIDEN' *PRE-SCREEN* FOR PS-X R | ============================== A | I | The scrolling shoot 'em up is one of the most rigidly D | defined genres in videogames. It's therefore not E | something you expect to see on a new console eager to N | show its polygon-handling credentials. So it's | surprising that one of the first releases for the PRE | Playstation is a conversion of the doyen of the uptight - | no-messing vertically scrolling blasters, Seibu's SCREEN | Raiden. (`Raiden' is Japanese for thunderbolt, hence | the Mortal Kombat character of the same name.) | | Raiden was released in the arcades in June 1990, at a time | whenvertically scrolling blasters had already been passe | for many years. It's a testament to the sheer playability | of the game - and the pull that pure shoot 'em ups still | exert - that it was a huge success, both in Japan and | overseas. Raiden II, which followed at the end of 1993, | repeated the simple formula, with the added bonus of | new weapons. | | The Playstation version of Raiden, provisionally titled | The Raiden Series, is now about 70% complete, with three | of the eight levels finished. According to Richard | Honneywood, co-programmer with Kazutoshi Shoji, the game | is an amaigam of both Raiden arcade titles. | | `At first we tried to make a conversion of Raiden II,' | admits gaijin Honneywood, a recent American graduate of | a Japanese programming university. `It wasn't until a | few months later that we decied to include some Raiden | stages in the conversion.' | | This is the first time that Seibu itself has handled a | conversion of Raiden. `Some conversions have been done | on other formats [Famicom, PC Engine, Mega Drive, FM | Towns] by other companies, but we weren't happy with | them,' says Honneywood. `They were okay but were far | from the real arcade versions. We wanted a good | conversion so we decided to do it ourselves.' | | Both Raiden coin-ops were played on tall, narrow screens | to reproduce this, the Playstation game offers two | different modes. One scrolls vertically but all the | graphics are compressed to fir onscreen. The second | mode scrolls sideways but is otherwise a perfect | conversion. `It has the exact coin-op graphics, the | exact same size, so it plays exactly the same way,' | claims project manager Tetsuya Kawaguchi. `There's | just one small point: with the side-on version you | have to stand your monitor on its side to get the same | vertical-scrolling effect as the coin-op.' | | Even though there are radical differences between the | custom coin-op arcade board and the Playstation, the | conversion process for Raiden has been relatively | straight forward. | | `The PlayStation is a polygon machine and we don't use | many polygons in Raiden; we use sprites,' explains | Honneywood. `But in the PlayStation, the sprites and | the polygons can be operated in the same way. We | succeeded in managing sprites in almost the same way | as polygons.' And parallax scrolling? `It can do it | but it's not the best hardware for it.' | | Despite Raiden's graphical intensity, Seibu had no | problems with CD-ROM access time. `Sometimes we need | more data for the bosses,' admits Honneywood, `but we're | trying to avoid loading delays during the game.' | | It helps that Raiden's music isn't competing with the | graphics for CD-ROM access. Instead, Seibu is using | the PlayStation soundchips (although it ventures that | the machine could do with more sound memory). | | Along with Konami's Ultimate Parodius, Raiden is the | first real test of the PlayStation's bitmap abilities | With Raiden offering 800 and 900 sprites onscreen and | a palette of 2148 colours, it looks as if the machine | will pass with distinction. And that won't do Seibu's | reputation with the purists any harm at all. ______________|__________________________________________________________ | | DOOM & DOOM II MASSIVELY UPGRADED AND COMING TO 3DO | =================================================== | DOOM I&II | California based Art Data Interactive have stunned the | 3DO community by grabbing probably the most lucrative UPGRADED | license of them all. Early next year ADI will be | releasing conversions of Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth, FOR +3DO+ | ID Software`s enormously successful shoot-em ups ADI | have already been given ID`s source code and are busy | converting it to the 3DO. While company president Randy | Scott was insistent the gameplay would be identical: | "theres no way we would touch that, its just go out and | shoot everything!", the game`s presentation will be | massively upgraded. 24Bit Cinepak film sequences will | provide in-game links while actual game graphics are | being entirely overhauled.Rather than use 8 colour | bitmaps, ADI will be using Hi-Res,full colour sprites. | The audio is also likely to be totally redone, and | there`s even plans for new monsters, weapons and levels. | | ADI were previously best known for their relationship | with Mirage, from whom they`ve licensed their just | finished conversion of Rise Of the Robots. Another | Mirage conversion seems likely, but in the meantime | they`re hard at work on Hollywood sets filming for an | interactive 3DO movie. As yet the title and design is | being kept tightly under wraps but we expect to hear | more soon. Overall ADI plans to release at least five | 3DO titles during 1995. ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | ** SEGA SATURN ** ARRIVES AND NOW REVIEWED | ========================================== | I HAVE THE | Saturn has now been released by the masters of arcades *SEGASATURN* | SEGA, and I have now owned one a short while along AND HERES | with 1 title till tommorow (Virtua Fighter). Okay SOME INFOZ | so im going to give ya some information on this hard | core system with der 2 32Bit CPU's etc. | | First of all im not going to go into specs as thats | all above in the big information file from Edge | magazine. | | When you first open the box to the machine apart from | all the usual Japanese junk mail you will notice a | big watch style battery. Also when you finally get to | the machine you will notice it is about the same size | as a Panasonic REAL FZ-1 Multiplayer. The machine has | 2 Play ports for Mouses, Joysticks, Joypads. On the | back you will notice a power port and a 8 pin small | S-VHS style AV port for RGB/COMP etc. Also there is | a communications port and further along is a flap. | If you remove the cover to this flap you will notice | looking down the corridor a edge connector??? dunno. | | The battery goes into the area free behind the cover | which allows all your Bios changes to stay in memory. | If you dont use it you will just keep getting the | Japanese default language's etc everytime you power | up. | | You will notice the joypad has Megadrive/Genesis | flavour about it. It's just like the Genesis original | Sega pad except it has eight playable buttons and a | start button etc but no select button like usual. | The cross piece is still nice a large but more springy | and has a nice textured soft touch to it. With small | pads you normally have bloody small cross pieces which | leave your finger acheing like a girlie dog's behind in | eet, fortunately Sega have not gone the NEC way. | | Ok now we power up, you are presented with a Bios system | for changing the Time/Date/Year etc and other settings | such as deleting internally saved software positions etc. | There is an option called `Languages' where you can choose | between around 8 languages such as Japanese, English, | French, Spanish, Dutch etc etc. This language stuff | comes in useful, but we knew Sega would do something like | this seeing as the Genesis (US) and the Megadrive (JAP) | converted US->JAP games and so forth. | | When you've set all the options etc, you are entered into | a futuristic spacecraft cockpit. This contains various | options you can choose for playing CD's etc etc. You can | play your CD's or games via this area and everytime you | do something you get told on the screen (so if you open | the CD-ROM top it says drive door open etc). | | When you play various CD's you can do the usual arranging | of tunes and stuff like the 3DO, but you can also change | the pitch of tunes so they are slow talking etc or fast. | You can also change the tunes and add certain levels of | Surround Sound (great echoooooosssss) haha. | | If you dont want to leave the options on screen whilst | you play your CD's all night, you can hide them and have | an intro playing. The intro is presented by a forward | towards starfield and a like mysty purple Milky Way | in the background, which spins round gradually to stop | any burning of the screen if used for long periods etc. | Also you have this gigantic lightsourced polygon spaceship | spinning in and out for the screen and flying here there | and everywhere. All this looks impressive and gives | people a little jaw drop session on a 33" widescreen TV. | | If you are in the cockpit, you will notice two polygon | cubes either side of the bottom corners of the screen. | These spin and bounce towards the screen also changing | color to suit the music as equalisers etc. | | The system is very well built indeed and looks very stylish | and the part for our next-generation genre. | | Whilst scanning the Japanese in the manual I noticed | pictures of what Sega plan to release for the system | soon. They were as follows:- | | SEGA SATURN JOYSTICK | SEGA SATURN MOUSE | SEGA SATURN JOYPADS | SEGA SATURN INFRA_RED JOYPADS | SEGA SATURN 3.5" DISK DRIVE | SEGA SATURN QUERTY KEYBOARD | SEGA SATURN PC COMPATIBLE ? (looked like a mini tower PC) | | Looks to me like this machine is going to seriously rock | what with having far more power in 2D performance and | music performance then the PS-X and being a Sega machine | Sheeeeeesssssh the future is bright for ** SEGA ** | | 2TUFF ----> 9/10 for style and its presentation | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | `VIRTUA FIGHTER' REVIEWED NOW!!!!!!! | ==================================== | | Title: VIRTUA FIGHTERS VIRTUA FIGHTER| Publisher: SEGA | Developer: AM2/SEGA REVIEWED ON | Size: 1 CD +SATURN+ | Language: ENGLISH | BY ++2TUFF++ | ** GOOD POINTS | | @ The speed the game loads, is incredible throughout, | from start to finish. If this title never had the | message now and again `Please wait loading' (which | takes about 2 secs) you would think it was on | silicon SERIOUS! | | @ The speed of the game and polygons is incredible, | there is no slowness about it. This makes it | feel much better and more playable. It also | ain't as sluggish as its arcade version on the | Model 1 board from Sega. | | @ The sound is great haha, just like the arcade | with some nice sound effects etc and it really | gives you the feeling your in the local arcade. | | @ The game is full of playability and lastability it | blows Streetfighter II etc like a brush against | dust. | | @ Just like the arcade what can I say? | | ** BAD POINTS | | @ Sometimes now and again (not regular) theres a | glitch in the polgon replays (WWWOOOOWWW) | | ** REVIEW | | This game is incredibly realistic and plays like a dream. | It has loads of great looking moves from Martial Arts and | the world of Professional Wrestling, which when executed | look just like its being shown on TV (So realistic). | | The game is virtually spot on the arcade and plays much | better, which when you consider the Model 1 arcade costs | a fortune its so kewl. You must remember this is the | VERY FIRST game written and they are normally stale for | all machines so obviously we will see some great software | for the Saturn, if this is the standard they can produce | this fast. | | 2TUFF RATINGS:- | | * GRAPHICS.........9/10 | * SOUND............9/10 | * PLAYABILITY......9/10 | * LASTABILITY......9/10 | * OVERALL..........36/40 (90%) | ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | `CRIME CRACKERS' *TRAILER* FOR PS-X C | =================================== R | I | Machine: PLAYSTATION C M | Publisher: SONY R E | Developer: SONY A | Style: RPG/ACTION C | Release: TBA K | Status: 90% COMPLETE E | R | RPG? RPG? Action game, more like. This is being heavily S | pused by Sony as a hardcore RPG, but it's actually a | leisurely action game. TRAILER | | Admittedly there's an aweful lot to think about - you | have to crack codes, solve puzzles, etc - but you also | have to shoot stuff. | | The game is set in a robot infested future, controlled by | an evil super-computer. The good news is that you are a | heavily armed future agent on a mission to save the world. | | This plays sort of like a cross between Doom and Final | Fantasy. Although the statistics-related RPG bits have | been refined to a point almost beyond recognition, they | still exist and the game has the same complex feel of a | typical RPG. | | Crime Crackers does feature some very smooth polygon | action and some utterly convincing texture-mapping. The | other creatures you meet in this `world' move convincingly | and smoothly too. | | The music however, is a tad cheesy, so let's hope that | changes when this sees the light of day in Blighty. ______________|__________________________________________________________ | A | 3DO'S FUTURE IS STARTING... | =========================== N | E | To look even rosier following the news that Super Street W | Fighter 2 X is causing great excitement in Japan, where 3 | 3DO's operation is still relatively small, but growing, D | 200,000 units are expected to shift before Christmas, O | and Panasonic's new, sleeker FZ-10 console can only | attract further sales. | | As you can see from the shot below, the joypad has also | been made more palm-friendly. It's been reduced in size, | the action buttons rotated into more natural positions, | and the stop/play buttons made much more easily accessible, | Pressable, even. It's far less cumbersome that the | original pad and sits superbly in your hands. | | Can't wait for Panasonic's six-button joypad to be | released to coincide with SSF2X... ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | ADVANCED ORDERS FOR SATURN AND PS-X A | =================================== D | V | The Playstation and Saturn in Japan have been so A | overwhelming that the new generation consoles have O N | in effect sold completely out, a month before they hit R C | the shelves. Even these pre-orders were restricted to D E | one per customer. The Neo Geo CD has also shifted in E D | huge numers, and is proving very difficult to get hold R | of. This means that importers in this country will S | have a tough job obtaining sizeable quantities of the | machines unless they too had ordered well ahead of the | launch date. ______________|__________________________________________________________ | | JVC'S SATURN V | ============ - | S | The Saturn - the V-Saturn (or RG-JX1) managed to completly A | sell out in Japan...before Sega's own Saturn did! In a T | move befitting a giant electronics company, the V-Saturn U | comes with an MPEG port at its rear (not to be confused R | with the cartridge port on the top). An MPEG cartridge N | will then be available for about œ50 which will allow | you to experience true FMV and films and everything. ______________|__________________________________________________________ | C | COLOR DEVICE O | ============ L | O | Seeing as most of these NEW consoles etc are using D R | Multisync (+ the usual 60Hz), people with normal E | TV's etc watch out. Heres a device that will give V | you perfect Color on your TV via composite video I | C | TV SYSTEM CONVERTER E | * Play NTSC equipment on your PAL Monitor/Scart TV. | * Converts NTSC video signal to Pal Composite Video | Signal. | * Ideal for 3DO, Jaguar etc. | * Complete unit supplied with cables etc. | | Although i have a top of the range 33" widescreen Philips | TV I tried my Saturn and Playstation on my normal 60Hz | 24" Philips TV with this device and it works perfect. | The only time i have every saw this device play up was | with a mates Sony Tritron 22" it flickered now and again | as if the luminace etc was delayed! Maybe his Tv was | fucked! | | Price is œ59.99+œ2.00 p&p | Contact: DATEL ELECTRONICS +44 (0) 1782 744707 ______________|_________________________________________________________ | | `VIRTUA FIGHTER' REVIEWED NOW!!!!!!! 2 V | ====================================== I | R | Game: VIRTUA FIGHTER T | Format: SEGA SATURN F U | Review: CVG Issue No158 I A | Date: 14th December `94 G | H | The last machine to generate so much interest in the T | office was the arrival of one of the first Super Famicoms E | in the UK with Marioworld. But this really is something R | else. What Virtua Fighter represents is $15,000 worth of | arcade kit reproduced almost blow-for-blow on an REVIEWED ON | (eventually) affordable home machine. This isn`t magazine | propaganda designed to get you unnecessarily excited about S | a piece of kit. The Saturn has fullfilled its potential, A | delivering a knockout blow to 16-bit gaming systems and T | sending people scurrying of to the bank to check their U | balance. Virtua Fighter impresses without resorting to R | graphics streamed off CD and without packing a disc full N | of cut-scenes you`ll invariably skip past. It`s a genuine | example of the capabilities of the system. Something made BY *CV&G* | all the more impressivGraphicse as it bucks the trend of | debut games on new systems turning out to be utter tosh, | and was produced in a rush, with a deadline that was | pulled forward so the system would have a big name title | to be released with. | | You`re probably familiar with Virtua Fighter-the second | offspring of Sega`s recently formed AM2 development | department. It combines cutting edge arcade technology | with motion capture techniques and some excellent gameplay | design. The result was a game that wasn`t Street Fighter. | People appreciated it and Virtua Fighter went on to be | one of the most popular coin-ops of the year. | | Obviously the graphics are a major draw for this game. | No matter how many times we play Virtua Fighter on the | new Saturn, we still can`t quite get used to the realism | of the moves or the smoothness of the 3D. But it isn`t | all visuals. Backing up the polygon protagonists is some | great gameplay, with each fighter having his or her own | particular style to master, which adds depth to the | gameplay and horsss of experimental button pushing as | you try to work out the special aatacks. The Saturn may | be too dear for most people whilst on import, but if | you`ve been sitting on the proverbial fence waiting to | see what the finished article was capable of you`ll be | sorely tempted to part with the pounds when you see this. | | Team Verdict: | ------------- | | 1) Everything about this game oozes class;the moves are | superlative, the sound samples crisp, and the action | is totally realistic. Guaranteed to satisfy even the | most jaded of players. Well done Sega! | | 2) Not since we had a Streetfighter coin-op in the | office has a game generated so much interest;Virtua | Fighter on Sega`s new wonder machine has everything; | graphics, gameplay and addictiveness-ad infinitum, but | it`ll cost ya! | | 3) Oooh crikey, this is absolutely brilliant. It`s as | close to arcade perfect as you would believe and it`s | mighty playable with it. Obviously the work of some | strange supernatural force. Virtua Fighting on Sega`s | new console is ace! | | Overall Verdict: | ---------------- | | Its not often that I`m impressed these days, but Virtua | Fighter has exceeded all my rather limited expectations. | When you consider the feasibilty of producing this | conversion in such a short space of time, for a machine | whose specs are constantly changing and with Sega anxious | to ensure everything is going to plan. So credit to Sega | for producing an excellent machine, and even more to AM2 | for it`s near-perfect conversion of this fantastic game. | It`s a shame that it costs so much for the privelege of | playing it. | | Graphics:96 | Sound:94 | Playability:95 | Value:89 | OVERALL:94 ______________|__________________________________________________________ Greetings +=-----=+ Seven7Seven, Maximilien, I.B.M, Yohan, Fabio, Intreq, Dream-Master, Dan Protocol, Lyt0x, Keanu, Data-Stream, Diabolik, Scrote, Mike, Phil-Douglas Tom, Skeleton, Swayzar, Micro, Paradise King, Professor, Bluewater Shredder, Oldman, Legend, Kreator, Big Boss, Dream-Warrior, Linebacker Cypher, Kid Curry, Sober, Blaster, Anthraxus, Ice-D, No Carrier, Scott Blue Aardvark, Talon, Trebenae, Sigma Seven, Icon, Gilby, Thrash, Felix Loony Toon, Murd-ra, Rat, TCM & Joker, Mac, Big W, Leprosy, Diavolator Cybertron, Mad-Turnip, Jonathon H, Biofeedback, Hot Tuna, TWK, Mr At&t Salamanda, R$-John, Moon, Sac, Potscan, Night Assassin, Wing Leader Scanner, R2D2, MDR, Zygote, Deadlock, Ruthless, Ramraider, Undertaker, Sherrif, Scooter, Munchie, M.Bison, Skeleton SPECIAL GREETS TO: Seven7Seven from NUMbers DATAZINE WAS MADE USING:- Environmentally Green friendly 486 33Mhz PC Text EDIT on DOS v6.2 DATAZINE WAS SPREAD USING:- US Robotics 16.8 HST ASL modem P.S CLOCKED RIDGE RACER (PS-X) YA'LL! Thanx for reading -2TUFF '94