Datazine, 7

---- D ---- A ---- T ---- A ---- Z ---- I ---- N ---- E ---- -- S -- E -- V -- E -- N -- Virtua Everything: 2TUFF Articles: EDGE MAGAZINE U.K (FUTURE PUBLISHING) The DATAZINE issue #7 Contents:- ----------------------------------- PLAYSTATION: SONY REVEAL GAMEPLAN SEGA ON TRACK WITH SATURN MODEL 2: SEGA'S SECOND WAVE NINTENDO 64BIT EXTRA NEWS NINTENDO SNES CD + MORE GOODIES SUPER 32X SHAPING UP METAL JACK (SONY PS-X) *PREVIEW* RAYMAN (JAGUAR) *PREVIEW* SOFTWARE CHARTS GREETINGS ----------------------------------- PLAYSTATION: SONY REVEAL GAMEPLAN Typed By: 2TUFF (-------------------------------) Sony's prelaunch strategy for the Playstation in Japan is to focus on software. The company recently held their second press event in Tokyo, during which Japanese game journalists (and Edge) were invited to see the preliminary line-up for the highly anticipated console. Unlike the previous meeting in early May, no new details about the Playstation hardware were furnished on this occasion, apart from the news that the CPU has been finished and the system is now ready for manufacture. `We've completed the prototype stage,' a Sony official told Edge. `All we have to do now is set up the mass production system before we can go on sale.' The R3000A CPU (a MIPS-designed RISC chip that is already widely used in the computer sector) is now incorporated in a custom chip that also includes both the 3D coordinate algorithm processor (aka GTE) and the image data resolution processor. This is the result of a joint development between Sony Computer Entertainment and chip manufacturers LSI Logica, and, according to Edge's source, it means that the PS-X will offer even greater performance than previously thought. `It's so powerful now,' he quipped, `that we almost feel we should lower the performance.' Altough Sony's hardware expertise is beyond question, doubts have been expressed in Japan about the number of titles that will be available at launch. Sony's preview of software in development took place in a large room containing rows of Playstation development systems as well as a few finished units. 13 games were presented throughout the day; unsurprisingly, the most advanced titles were from Sony themselves, notably the polygon racing game, Poly Poly Circus Grand Prix, and a shoot 'em up entitled Philosoma (previously known as Ora-194). According to Poly Poly's producer, Kazunori Yamauchi, racing games are `the best genre to show off the capabilities of the hardware. Our ambition is to make this the world's best polygon racing game.' The shoot 'em up, Philosoma, is more standard fare but does include some breathtaking special effects. It offers vertical and 3D sections as well as horizontal scrolling, and some nice scaling effects. Anyone expecting to see Ridge Racer or any other Namco Playstation projects was disappointed; the company chose not to make any revelations, but Namco are known to be converting Ridge Racer as a Playstaion link-up game (a steering wheel accessory with proper feedback will also be available for lovers of the arcade experience). Those who've seen the Playstation version in its current state claim that it's not arcade perfect but is still impressive. Sony's event also gave Edge the first chance to try out the Playstation's stylish ergonomic controller. Apparently, the pad - which nestles very well in the hand - was one of the hardest aspects of the system to design; a final version was only chosen after ten different prototypes had been tested. During the day, Edge also took the opportunity to look at the rear of the machine. Besides the serial port link-up, and S-Video and Composite sockets, the Playstation also includes an RGB socket, and a small plate conceals an expansion socket for connection to a hard drive or modem. With the Japanese release of the Playstation now pencilled in for December 9, only one small detail remains shrouded in secrecy: the price. A Sony spokesman recently told Edge: `It will be less than œ320 and not close to œ320.' Potential Playstation owners will just have to be patient. SEGA ON TRACK WITH SATURN Typed By: 2TUFF (-----------------------) The roll-out of Saturn at the Tokyo Toy Show in June raised doubts in some minds about whether Sega would be able to pull off the launch in time for November. Software was teething badly, few titles were playable to any recognisable degree, and all the controllers were attached to walls hiding bulky development stations rather than Saturn units. Of course, this has been a familiar story at many hardware launches - things are rarely as advanced as companies would like them to be. Now, a few months down the line, Sega are in a position to start showing off some prime development projects. A central component of Sega's PR effort to build up Japanese support over the next couple of months is in-house coin-op division AM2, headed by Yu-Suzuki. AM2 are currently converting the overwhelmingly popular (in Japan, at least) Virtua Fighter to the system, and work also on the Saturn version of the exemplary polygon shifter Daytona USA also began recently. Showing off titles at such an early stage of development is a crucial part of Sega's prelaunch strategy in Japan. Giving specialist gaming magazines the opportunity to trace the progress of popular arcade titles like these is one way of ensuring that fans of the arcade games stay interested, and hopefully buy the Saturn when it's launched. But Sega aren't just relying on arcade translations. One of the biggest titles to be pushed by Sega at launch will be Clockwork Knight, a game which has been in development at Sega Of Japan for over a year. All the graphics seen in the game have been rendered using Softimage's Creative Environment tools running on Silicon Graphics - an early SGI demo of the game was used by Sega's marketing department to sell the console to developers (and tease delegates at the Winter CES). A pivotal factor in the development of software for Saturn is Sega's Titan arcade board. Titan has been developed primarily as a hothouse for arcade games which can then be quickly and easily ported over to the Saturn (the first title will be Golden Axe: The Duel). As such, it shares much of Saturn architecture while boasting a bigger memory and en even better sound board (Saturn's Yamaha sound board is one of the best around, by all accounts). Both Saturn and Titan rely on architecture that is essentially 2D-based. Instead of a fully Z-buffered 3D environment, sprites are mapped onto geometry and scaled and distorted. Depth is assigned to the pieces, so it's possible to have walls and other objects scaling away into the distance (as seen in Clockwork Knight) and scrolling past in true perspective as the player moves. 178 companies have signed licence agreements with Sega, with the list now including established Sony and Nintendo licensees Capcom, Konami and Namco. As was the case with the Mega CD, other hardware companies will be producing their own versions of the Saturn: only recently Hitachi announced that they would be manufacturing a Saturn-compatible machine, and it's thought that JVC (who are also involved with the production of the standard machine) will also turn out their own version, rather like the Wondermega and X'ye Mega CD combo. With the Saturn now expected to hit Japanese shelves within a week of the launch of the Playstation (probably beforehand) at a price of œ320 Japanese players now face a tough decision. Of course for those with enough yen to spare, it will be no problem at all... MODEL 2: SEGA'S SECOND WAVE Typed By: 2TUFF (-------------------------) As Sega of Japan start firing up their hype machine in readiness for this November's assault on the Japanese console market, AM2, the company's coin-op development division, have unveiled their latest consignment of arcade games (incorporating both Model 1 and some Model 2 technology). With 3D technology now penetrating to all corners of the coin-op industry, Sega can't afford to rest on their laurels. Two games rolled out recently for Japanese arcade fans were Desert Tank and Wing War. Wing War throws prospective fighter pilots into the cockpit of a variety of different aircraft, while Desert Tank players find themselves at the controls of a tank in the middle of a sandy skirmish. Desert Tank is the second game to use Martin Marietta's texture-mapping board, one of the central components of the Sega Model 2 IG (image generation) PCB that powers Daytona USA. This technology, which can handle around 300,000 polygons per second, offers greater 3D performance than any current coin-operated amusement hardware. Not as impressive, but still firmly at the leading edge of low-end IG technology, is Sega's Model 1 board, which was first used in Virtua Racing and now provides the polygon generation for Wing War. This system allows you a certain degree of freedom to roam within a set perimeter (shown by the radar), but essentially you're flying on rails - Nintendo used a similar system in Starfox on the SNES. Other Model 2 games currently in development include the follow-up to Virtua Fighter, as well as a Galaxian3 style space shoot 'em up, and a motion-based game incorporating Sega's VR1 system which represents the company's attempt to break into the VR entertainment market. Sega are also using the Model 2 board for their next big `Virtua' coin-op, Virtua Cop. In this game you take the role of a Robocop style law enforcer, infiltrating texture-mapped enemy bases. Currently only 60% complete, the game includes a full polygon-based enemies. Lousy scenario, predictable gameplay, but incredible graphics. A full report on all the latest developments in the arcade entertainment field will appear in issue 15, when Edge reports from the JAMMA coin-op show at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Tokyo. NINTENDO 64BIT EXTRA NEWS Typed By: 2TUFF (-----------------------) Following the debut of the Ultra 64 at the Summer CES, more details have surfaced about Nintendo's arcade and home hardware. Although the latest Ultra 64 chipset runs at 80Mhz, Edge has discovered that when the home system finally appears at the Summer CES in Philadelphia next May, that figure will rise to 90-100Mhz. As Edge revealed in issue 12, Williams' Cruisin' USA, which currently runs on a custom 32bit Bally Midway board, will be upgraded for the Nintendo system. NINTENDO SNES CD + MORE GOODIES Typed By: 2TUFF (-----------------------------) A CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom has long been rumoured, and it now seems that a prototype is awaiting the go-ahead at Nintendo's Kyoto HQ. Containing a Super FX chip (MkIII) and a 32bit R3000A CPU, the finished unit could be unveiled at Tokyo's New SOftware Exhibition in November. Other tentative projects at NCL include a 32bit VR system (with projection technology originally developed by Hasbro), a 32bit Newton-style handheld, and a CD-ROM drive and VR headset for the Ultra 64. SUPER 32X SHAPING UP Typed By: 2TUFF (------------------) Super 32X software is steadily shaping up. Spearheading the attack of what is already being dismissed by some as a Christmas stocking filler with a limited future is Virtua Racing Deluxe, boasting twice the number of polygons of the SVP-boosted Mega Drive version, a frame rate of 20fps (instead of 15fps) and 256 colours onscreen. VR fans will be in their element when it arrives towards the end of the year. Extra enhancements also include a choice of three cars and three new tracks. Other emerging titles for the new system include Bullet Fighters (3D robot shoot 'em up), Metal Head (3D robot shoot 'em up) and Ultimate Fighting (gaudy-looking SFII clone). METAL JACKET (SONY PS-X) *PREVIEW* Typed By: 2TUFF (--------------------------------) Generally, the first few titles for new games machines fail to fully exploit the potential of the hardware. With the possible exception of the Super Famicom, looking back on a platform's initial offerings is a sobering experience, especially in terms of visuals. So when one of the first games scheduled for release on the new format is graphically superb to virtually every game currently available, it's obvious that the machine is something special. No-one wins any prizes for guessing that the hardware in question is the Sony Playstation, with its complement of advanced silicon. And the game with the honour of being the first to take advantage of that power is Metal Jacket. Running at around 60fps in true colour, Metal Jacket is a futuristic 3D strategy/fighting game with gloriously texture-mapped polygon graphics. The `metal jacket' of the title is a six-metre-tall robot. There are eight of these heavily armed behemoths in the game, each with its own assault capabilities, operated from a control room inside your metal jacket, you engage in battle with other robots, taking advantage of the wide variety of combat options available, including day or night battles and the range of different terrains. Metal Jacket is the game that could allow the dream of playing fullspeed, eightplayer arcade-quality games at home to be realised. Using the bundled connectors, each member of the game's robotic octet is eligible for human control in a multiplayer battle. As there probably won't be eight Playstations in this country when the game is released, many people will be seriously thinking of emigrating to Japan. RAYMAN (JAGUAR) *PREVIEW* Typed By: 2TUFF (-----------------------) It's a matter of record that no console has ever succeeded without a cutesy platform game. Ever since Super Mario Bros first appeared on NES screens, every home machine has been obliged to offer its own equivalent to Nintendo's seminal platformer, and players have felt equally obliged to devote substantial portions of their life to playing them. With both Mario and the pretender to the platform throne, Sonic, still enjoying unmatched popularity, the Jaguar's contribution to the genre needs to be impressive to make any kind of impact. And that contribution is Rayman. The game plunges you into the computer generated fantasy world of Hereitscool, a product of the imagination of Jimmy, a ten-year old boy. Within this world Jimmy is The Rayman, a character with the power to animate objects around him. Rayman is striving to protect Hereitscool from an evil presence threatening Jimmy's make-believe world and save his imaginary friends before it's too late. Because the NTSC version trundles along at only 30 frames per second (most platformers run at 60fps), the animation in Rayman himself can call on over 50 animation sequences, and he meets more than 50 detailed enemies during his ten-level journey. All this takes place with a playing area 40 screens long and four high. With the game obviously aimed at a young audience, crunch time for Rayman is Christmas, when it will be up against Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country. It could be tough going for the Jaguar. SOFTWARE CHARTS Typed By: 2TUFF (-------------) **Edge readers' most wanted** 1. POLY POLY CIRCUS GP (Sony Playstation) Running at 60fps (and bearing a passing resemblance to Nintendo's Wildtrax) this racer from Sony Computer Entertainment will be available for the December launch of the Playstation in Japan. 2. KILLER INSTINCT (Ultra 64) The 3D beat 'em up Killer Instinct is the first of a pair of Rare games in this month's chart. 3. IRON SOLDIER (Jaguar) The German-developed Iron Soldier has become the game Jaguar owners really want to see. 4. DONKEY KONG COUNTRY (Snes) Rare's second entry, Donkey Kong Country, shows off just what the Snes can do when it's pushed 5. THE NEED FOR SPEED (3DO) The provisionally titled The Need for Speed is all set to become the definitive 3DO driving game. **Arcade: dedicated** 1. Daytona GP Sega -------------------------- 2. Ridge Racer Namco -------------------------- 3. Lethal Enforcers II Konami -------------------------- 4. Suzuki 8 Hours II Namco -------------------------- 5. Virtua Racing Sega **US: All formats** 1. FIFA International Soccer Electronic Arts (SNES) ------------------------------- 2. NBA Shodown EA (SNES) ------------------------------- 3. MLBPA Baseball EA (Genesis) ------------------------------- 4. NHL Hockey '94 EA (Genesis) ------------------------------- 5. Andretti Racing EA (Genesis) ------------------------------- 6. NBA Jam ACCLAIM (SNES) ------------------------------- 7. Donkey Kong Nintendo (Game Boy) ------------------------------- 8. Super Metroid Nintendo (SNES) ------------------------------- 9. World Series Baseball Sega (Genesis) ------------------------------- 0. Secret of Mana Square SOft (SNES) Greetings +=-----=+ Seven7Seven, Maximilien, I.B.M, Yohan, Fabio, Intreq, Dream-Master, Dan Protocol, Homer, Hot Tuna, Keanu, Data-Stream, Diabolik, Scrote, Mike Phil-Douglas, Tom, Skeleton, Swayzar, Micro, Paradise King, Professor Bluewater, Shredder, Oldman, Legend, Kreator, Big Boss, Dream-Warrior Cypher, Kid Curry, << OTHERS FORGOTTEN >> Thanx for reading -2TUFF '94