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[the androgyne]

If anyone speaks Japanese, can we ask the devs via twitter why widescreen isn't there? Given that Sega patched NiGHTS, who knows what can happen if enough people clamor for it.

Just got my wife to ask if they can add it

 

[Rlan]

Also! For the past month or so I've been running an Image Tumbler called Old Game Mags, in which I've been posting articles and covers from game magazines from the 80's, 90's and early 2000's.

The collection I had accrued, through my own site as well as others who love and trying to make old game mags available to others with scanning, made me remember just how much stuff there was about Virtua Fighter back in the day. Sega Saturn Magazine, CVG, Mean Machines, all those mags wouldn't shut up about VF2. Maybe it's because they were a obviously more Sega Centric (honestly I've found it difficult to find an issue of EGM where they give a toss about any of the games).

Here's some of the more recent ones I've posted:

Next Generation Magazine Issue #1

Mean Machines Sega #39, January 96 - After numerous previews, a review of Virtua Fighter 2 — 97%!

Official Sega Saturn Magazine Issue #1 - Showcase on Virtua Fighter 2.

Sega Saturn Magazine Issue #2, December 1995 — A Coin-Op Segment dedicated to Fighting Vipers Beta.

CVG Magazine Issue #174 — Article about the Arcade version of Sonic The Fighters

Follow it if you wish! I've had a bunch of dun looking through old mags and stuff.

 

[TheOGB]

Those videos and music got me hyped. Buying Fighting Vipers and Sonic, I'll be back for VF2.

 

[HyperHip]

Man I was hoping for an actual training mode for these games. Oh well time to wreck fools with Bark online.

 

[Trojan X]

This is excellent, Rlan. Thanks for sharing.

 

[the androgyne]

Thanks for the scans Rlan! You got me motivated... unfortunately i don't have a scanner...
I also got a bit snap-happy and took some Saturn port stories, guides and reviews while i was at it! And a touch of Model 1 & 3

 

[BdoUK]

This is excellent, Rlan. Thanks for sharing.

Agreed. I still have boxes and boxes of old EGMs and GameFan magazines stored at my parent's house. Next time I'm there I'll have to dig them out for old times sake.

Just wanted to add that the VF2 emulation is amazing! Like many of you I've been waiting for an arcade perfect port of the title since it was released in the arcades. It's awesome that it's finally available and for a very reasonable price.

 

[IrishNinja]

loving the scans! bookmarking Rlan's page now

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Gotta say that these games look fantastic. I love, love, love those crisp Model 2 polygons. Looks great in HD.

Quite happy with playing the games in 4:3 large.

 

[Trojan X]

If the game is now out in EU then I'll purchase the PS3 version (only because my Virtua Stick works on the PS3 and I don't have an arcade stick for the Xbox). Look out for me online.

 

[Tizoc]

If the game is now out in EU then I'll purchase the PS3 version (only because my Virtua Stick works on the PS3 and I don't have an arcade stick for the Xbox). Look out for me online.

EU PSN release date is next week IIRC.
Just get them off of US PSN, Bestbuy.com have re-stocked on $20 PSN cash codes.

Man I was hoping for an actual training mode for these games. Oh well time to wreck fools with Bark online.

Haha same here, but there's always Versus mode =P

 

[Anticitizen One]

Why cant I go back to the 90s?

 

[Trojan X]

EU PSN release date is next week IIRC.
Just get them off of US PSN, Bestbuy.com have re-stocked on $20 PSN cash codes.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the tip, Tizoc.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Why cant I go back to the 90s?

You gotta Run in the Nineties first.

I miss SEGA Saturn Magazine.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Just got my wife to ask if they can add it

Thanks!

 

[dsmoke1986]

One of the Model 3\Naomi Virtua Striker 2 games would be a much better bet from Sega to release in this form.. The first Virtua Striker has aged horribly and was never any good to begin with.

To be honest, I'd be willing to bet most people would hate the DC Virtua Striker 2 which is infinitely better than the prequel.... I quite like it though. Something pretty cool about rating the goals.. Of course, I am totally willing to concede that the controls feel so automated that it almost plays itself.

Virtua Striker 2 DC version is my favorite soccer game of all time...It plays so well, the automation of it that all critics panned at the time, made the game so fun to play in my opinion. We used to play that a ton in college.

Hope they include it on one of these collections.

 

[Shadow Hog]

As for widescreen... while I think it'd look awesome, fighters don't tend to do well with changes to aspect ratio, from what I've heard anyway, so I still doubt they will do it.

2D fighters don't, yeah, as the boundaries of the fight were designed around the original 4:3 ratio and expanding the borders to the sides would extend the boundaries of the fight, making it less of an authentic port. 3D fighters like these have the boundaries set by the arena you fight in instead (walls in Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters, a lack thereof in Virtua Fighter 2), and the camera already supports the fighters going to the extreme edges of said arena, so extending the camera's view to the sides wouldn't introduce any particular bugs in that sense.

The issue would more be with art assets that were only designed for 4:3, such as the character select screens or the game's HUD, or fixing the viewing frustum such that the polygons now exposed on the left and right don't vanish because they think they're off-screen when they now aren't.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Bought both FV and VF2, will probably buy Sonic off the EU Store next week.

FV plays MIGHTY FINE with the TE stick. Its really great. I stick with full screen, its not perfect but looks good enough. Graphics are charming still. Much better than Saturn version ofcourse, although I can immediately feel that it wasn't that far off in terms of gameplay.

You gotta Run in the Nineties first.

I miss SEGA Saturn Magazine.

Best magazine ever. I still have some 20 issues of those.

 

[Trojan X]

Virtua Striker 2 DC version is my favorite soccer game of all time...It plays so well, the automation of it that all critics panned at the time, made the game so fun to play in my opinion. We used to play that a ton in college.

Hope they include it on one of these collections.

I've always said this to SEGA but...

Virtua Strikers' graphics + Sega Worldwide Soccer's Controls = the best arcade football game

 

[SkylineRKR]

Folks, although the Virtua Fighter series has moved on and hence 2 can feel a bit dated, I highly recommend Fighting Vipers to fight fans. Nice original mechanics, cool/retro 90s character design, and just a ton of personality abound... definitely give it a go.



I tried a couple of matches today, getting similar performance to VF5: FS.

Yeah, I like FV more than VF2. Its not that VF2 is bad, its just that I can't really get into it anymore while I have no problems entering FS.

FV is very easy to get into, has simple combos and is just quite fun to play even right now. There is a nice flow to this game. The fact that this series never evolved beyond the second game (which itself wasn't a huge step up) probably helps as well. FV is just fun.

 

[HueyFreeman]

Rian, Androgyne... these are just awesome.

One of my favorite old VF2 spreads was from a Diehard Gamefan magazine, covering the upcoming Saturn port - it had these gorgeous huge photos covering the pages with very little text (lol). Anybody have that one?

Just got my wife to ask if they can add it

Oh man, +2 for you. Also you have the finest avatar on the internet, congratulations.

we should hit up Sega and let them know that we want 16:9 support. where did the Nights fans contact Sega to get their patch done? we should do the same thing haha. if PC emulators can run Virtua Fighter 2 in 16:9, Sega can too..

Anybody have a contact email?

What's the sales pitch for Fighting Vipers? Like what makes it unique/better than its rivals like Tekken, Virtua Fighter, and Battle Arena toshinden?

The armor and fence mechanics keep the fights super fast and intense, and the triple takes add a lot of drama. It's quite distinct from Tekken or VF.. as for BAT, well it's a good game for one

At 5 bucks, if you're a fight fan who's enjoyed those other three games and never played FV... this is one of the great no brainers of all time. Just do it.

 

[TheOGB]

Just bought StF and FV. Gonna get back into Sonic first before jumping into Fighting Vipers for the first time.

 

[BdoUK]

One of my favorite old VF2 spreads was from a Diehard Gamefan magazine, covering the upcoming Saturn port - it had these gorgeous huge photos covering the pages with very little text (lol). Anybody have that one?

I'm sure I do somewhere. I'll dig it out and post a few pics when I find it. I have pretty much every issue of GameFan from that time period.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Fighting Vipers looks and runs like a dream. HD + AA. Great arcade port, but wish Sega put some saturn bonuses in and music. Oh well.

Awesomeness track.

Big Mahler can suck a dick - much harder then on Saturn.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Big Mahler can suck a dick - much harder then on Saturn.

I think the Saturn versions had a Very Easy mode. These arcade versions are hard!

 

[dark10x]

Model 2 games run at 57hz, and since they wait for the screen to be drawn to update all game logic, changing their refresh rate will change the speed that they run at. All modern consoles run at 60hz, so there are a few ways to handle this refresh rate gap:

- Change the speed of the game to 60hz to match the modern hardware, increasing the speed of everything by ~4-5%
- Render 57 individual frames during the 60hz cycle and repeat a few frames each second
- Have screen tearing all over the place

They went with the second approach, which means you'll get a few frames of "stutter" each second.

Some of the M2-developed Sega Ages 2500 PS2 releases of Model 2 games let the user select between 60hz and 57hz. I prefer speeding the game up in most cases, so I'm hoping that option shows up here.

Do we have any information on this? The stutter approach is absolutely awful, I feel, and completely ruins the fluidity of the games. Increasing game speed slightly in order to hit 60hz is much preferred.

The 57 Hz thing is really bizarre, though, as that would require CRT monitors that supported that refresh rate. It's a very abnormal refresh rate.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

I think the Saturn versions had a Very Easy mode. These arcade versions are hard!

On normal I mean.

 

[HueyFreeman]

Do we have any information on this? The stutter approach is absolutely awful, I feel, and completely ruins the fluidity of the games. Increasing game speed slightly in order to hit 60hz is much preferred.

The 57 Hz thing is really bizarre, though, as that would require CRT monitors that supported that refresh rate. It's a very abnormal refresh rate.

have you played the ports though? I actually find it hard to believe people can actually notice that without a frame counter.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Out cheaped B.M. by doing constant 1K with Grace. I don't notice much different between easy and normal. Console was easier for sure.

 

[JazzmanZ]

So whats with Sonic the fighters? its got new characters now?

 

[Tain]

Do we have any information on this? The stutter approach is absolutely awful, I feel, and completely ruins the fluidity of the games. Increasing game speed slightly in order to hit 60hz is much preferred.

The 57 Hz thing is really bizarre, though, as that would require CRT monitors that supported that refresh rate. It's a very abnormal refresh rate.

There are a lot of arcade games that use non-60 Hz frequences. I see it often in MAME. Cave's first generation hardware output at a similar frequency. R-Type's hardware actually outputs at 55 Hz (which is why PS1 R-Type is so much faster).

Maybe arcade displays are more flexible? Or maybe old TV sets support a range of frequencies depending on the other parameters of a resolution (front porch, rear porch, all that other stuff in PowerStrip that I don't quite understand)? I'm not quite sure on these details. I do know that older home consoles output different frequences that are around 60 Hz but not exactly 60 Hz.

have you played the ports though? I actually find it hard to believe people can actually notice that without a frame counter.

I noticed it immediately in Virtua Fighter 2 in the RGG5 demo. If you try both approaches back to back (as I've done with games in MAME) it's very apparent.

 

[Shadow Hog]

So whats with Sonic the fighters? its got new characters now?

Metal Sonic and Dr. Robotonic Eggman were always in the game; they just were never playable (not even in the GC rerelease).

Honey from Fighting Vipers, in cat form, was technically already in the game, hidden in its code, half-finished. This is the first time she's been tidied up and made playable proper.

 

[Neo Samus]

we should hit up Sega and let them know that we want 16:9 support. where did the Nights fans contact Sega to get their patch done? we should do the same thing haha. if PC emulators can run Virtua Fighter 2 in 16:9, Sega can too..

I thought NiGHTS was 16:9? Or are you referring to the Saturn Version on the port?

 

[U n i o n 0015]

I thought NiGHTS was 16:9? Or are you referring to the Saturn Version on the port?

He's referring to the fact that the controls for NiGHTS' control issues got patched after release, so maybe this trio can get a 16:9 patch after release.

 

[Emperor Bohe]

I bought Virtua Fighter 2 on XBLA. hit me up if you wanna run some matches... I suck though.

anyways, if you guys wanna help make 16:9 a possibility, hit up Sega here:

There are two links for Sega's support:

America: https://segaofamerica.zendesk.com/home
Europe and other countries: https://support.sega.co.uk/home

Click "submit a request" to open a ticket with support.

that's what people did when they wanted Nights HD to be patched, and it worked out successfully for them..

 

[Rlan]

Honey from Fighting Vipers, in cat form, was technically already in the game, hidden in its code, half-finished. This is the first time she's been tidied up and made playable proper.

Yup. At the time the word was that they made Sonic The Fighters because someone made Sonic & Tails as a test while making the game (which is true, they're in the FV code, check it here), they then made Virtua Fighter Kids as a "test" of giant head fighting and all their expressions basically for a Sonic fighting game.

So at some point though this they turned:

Into:

Her moveset is entirely stolen from other characters, and she was never officially in the game. People found her later on through hacking, with her main issues being:

1 - She has a weird Derp-eye thing going on where she can't look forward
2 - Her Vs. Image is of Eggman

They've fixed that in this version of the game.

There were also numerous other hacky characters people can play as too which aren't in this one. In this one you can play as Eggman and Metal Sonic by pressing Start on Sonic or Bean, but you can also play as:

- Rocket Metal
- Non-Suit Eggman
- Eggman Henchmen

As seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcclpdOVs4I

These models are used for the intro, and they probably just slotted them into the game with moves so they wouldn't crash, or something

 

[TheOGB]

Got every StF achievement in under half an hour. That's cool. Also,

Metal Sonic in Sonic the Fighters is the single most diabolical, unapologetically cheap-ass penultimate fighting boss ever

And now I remember what people mean when they say the game is unplayable :|

 

[Neo Samus]

He's referring to the fact that the controls for NiGHTS' control issues got patched after release, so maybe this trio can get a 16:9 patch after release.

Oh wow, I didn't know that sega patched the controls on NiGHTS.

On topic, I got VF2 and FV. Both are the perfect ports that I've been waiting for since I bought the saturn versions so many years ago. Bring on more Model 2 conversions!

 

[Shadow Hog]

Yup. At the time the word was that they made Sonic The Fighters because someone made Sonic & Tails as a test while making the game (which is true, they're in the FV code, check it here), they then made Virtua Fighter Kids as a "test" of giant head fighting and all their expressions basically for a Sonic fighting game.

Weren't they working on a Saturn version of this game at some point? It's kinda disappointing they never finished it; it wouldn't have been killer-app or anything, even considering all the other Sonic games for the console were spin-offs of one sort or another, but it'd have been appreciated. It's just, if VFKids was purely made as a test for the Fighters, and that made it to the Saturn while StF didn't... blegh.

 

[HueyFreeman]

I bought Virtua Fighter 2 on XBLA. hit me up if you wanna run some matches... I suck though.

anyways, if you guys wanna help make 16:9 a possibility, hit up Sega here:



that's what people did when they wanted Nights HD to be patched, and it worked out successfully for them..

Nice, requested. Thanks, man

 

[Bucket-o-roadkill]

I've always said this to SEGA but...

Virtua Strikers' graphics + Sega Worldwide Soccer's Controls = the best arcade football game

This is so true. Sega Worldwide Soccer 97' and 98' on the Saturn was absolutely incredible, I loved the gameplay. When Sega Worldwide Soccer 2000 came out with the Dreamcast, imagine my annoyance to see it was developed by Silicon Dreams and was simply a higher res update of their inferior World League Soccer games from the 32bit consoles. Not that I'm still bitter or anything......

Do we have any information on this? The stutter approach is absolutely awful, I feel, and completely ruins the fluidity of the games. Increasing game speed slightly in order to hit 60hz is much preferred.

The 57 Hz thing is really bizarre, though, as that would require CRT monitors that supported that refresh rate. It's a very abnormal refresh rate.

There's a model 2 emulator out there and if you run Daytona USA on it you can DEFINITELY notice the stutter. It's absolutely infuriating.

 

[Kokonoe]

Would have gotten this if it was on either PC or Wii U. Guess I'll try a demo on 360.

 

[Slygmous]

Apparently Metal Sonic and Eggman are only available in multiplayer modes, which is why I couldn't find them. Wish I could practice on the CPU but oh well.
I wonder how many people will disconnect when I pick Metal.....

 

[Grimsen]

Gonna try the vf2 demo tonight. I hope it's arcade perfect. It was the first fighting game I was really good at.

These am2 releases make me sad arcades are gone.

 

[HyperHip]

Played a good amount of ranked in Sonic the Fighters. As expected Sonic's everywhere with the occasional Fang. Even more lol worthy is that Auto users are out in full force. Overall I managed to get to rank 5 on the leaderboards with Bark, think I try player matches for a bit.

 

[Kokonoe]

Guess I'll post this from the SonicGAF thread.

Wow, this Sonic Fighters game is wicked entertaining. I had to change my controls, but once I did to A - > Kick, B - > Block, and X - > Punch, really fun. It's kinda like some silly version of Tekken.

Yeah, this game is really fun and arcadey.

 

[tiggerkiddo]

It's the perfect sort of arcade game, does have that Tekken feel to it. I noticed I can also do special moves so to speak. Tried juggling but the timing seems tight...eh, maybe it'll be worth a fiver...we'll see down the line! Eh...for five, I may just buy it anyway!

 

[Rlan]

Weren't they working on a Saturn version of this game at some point? It's kinda disappointing they never finished it; it wouldn't have been killer-app or anything, even considering all the other Sonic games for the console were spin-offs of one sort or another, but it'd have been appreciated. It's just, if VFKids was purely made as a test for the Fighters, and that made it to the Saturn while StF didn't... blegh.

Word always was there was going to be one, but I think at the time the AM Convert Teams were pretty busy with porting over Daytona USA CCE (1996), Virtua Fighter Kids (1996), Virtua Cop 2 (1996), Virtual On (1996), making Fighters Megamix (1996), and Porting over Last Bronx (1997), Manx TT Superbike (1997) and Die Hard Arcade (1997).

Sonic The Fighters was probably not a big game for them, and more dumb fun. It may not have hit hard in Japanese arcade like Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers did, which was where the money was for Japan.

 

[Emperor Bohe]

just sent a ticket to Sega about adding 16:9 widescreen support. everyone should do the same so that they know it is demand! =D

There are two links for Sega's support:

America: https://segaofamerica.zendesk.com/home
Europe and other countries: https://support.sega.co.uk/home

Click "submit a request" to open a ticket with support.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Holy crap, Mahler's Falcon Hurricane Punch can do up to like 80%.