Sega Model 3 emulation gets a big upgrade

VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
Because Model 3 has some of the most classic Sega games ever made (Scud Race, Daytona USA 2, Sega Rally 2...the list goes on and on) but before if you just used vanilla Supermodel you needed to launch every game and its variable options in a command line interface and I get that is not how most people want to interact with applications these days

So today Supermodel emulator got a brand new update with a ton of improvements, fixes and a brand new UI by default making everything plug and play / click and execute

And thats not too shabby!

 
Somehow these games just look and feel perfect to me, to this day.
The synergy between technology, art direction, geometry, color palette, texturing, animation, gameplay, graphics and sound is impeccable.
It all comes together to create an immersive experience that just leaves you full of joy and wonder.
Never thinking about jaggies or polygons or pixels.
You're just in the game.

Today's technology is far superior but the feeling hasn't been matched.
I don't need GTA6, give me an open world consistently rendered to look like Scud Race and I'm happy.
 
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Nice!
I use Supermodel with Winlator on the Quest 3 to play Star Wars Trilogy Arcade and Lost World Jurassic Park in mixed reality, so any improvements to the emulator are greatly appreciated.
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
Somehow these games just look and feel perfect to me, to this day.
The synergy between technology, art direction, geometry, color palette, texturing, animation, gameplay, graphics and sound is impeccable.
It all comes together to create an immersive experience that just leaves you full of joy and wonder.
Never thinking about jaggies or polygons or pixels.
You're just in the game.

Today's technology is far superior but the feeling hasn't been matched.
I don't need GTA6, give me an open world consistently rendered to look like Scud Race and I'm happy.
Click to expand...
Perhaps, that's because developers used to rely on bright colors without volumetric lighting.
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
Somehow these games just look and feel perfect to me, to this day.
The synergy between technology, art direction, geometry, color palette, texturing, animation, gameplay, graphics and sound is impeccable.
It all comes together to create an immersive experience that just leaves you full of joy and wonder.
Never thinking about jaggies or polygons or pixels.
You're just in the game.

Today's technology is far superior but the feeling hasn't been matched.
I don't need GTA6, give me an open world consistently rendered to look like Scud Race and I'm happy.
Click to expand...
I like your thinking on this.
 
Model 3 games still look gorgeous

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sRnEFrrAmCvwrOe8.jpeg
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
Somehow these games just look and feel perfect to me, to this day.
The synergy between technology, art direction, geometry, color palette, texturing, animation, gameplay, graphics and sound is impeccable.
It all comes together to create an immersive experience that just leaves you full of joy and wonder.
Never thinking about jaggies or polygons or pixels.
You're just in the game.

Today's technology is far superior but the feeling hasn't been matched.
I don't need GTA6, give me an open world consistently rendered to look like Scud Race and I'm happy.
Click to expand...
people often forgot if we are playing games, not life simulation.
but not all people like us dude, people will keep bitching about graphic, because they are only wants to see the stories in AAA graphic.
they should watch the movies or series rather than playing games.
well not all games need to be realistic. SEGA colors, contrast blue sky is kind of my favorite as well.

but again, people like us, are not many
lot of people will be triggered with our opinion : ))

I'm fine with both side btw, occasionally playing both style
 
People nowadays probably can't comprehend how completely insane the graphics and the smooth framerate of model 3 were at the time. At home you could play Ridge Racer 1 with horribly pixelated graphics, warping textures + z-fighting at 30fps and low resolution. Going into the arcade and seeing this ultra smooth high resolution experience was like a look into the future. It wasn't even fathomable to me back then we would ever get something comparable at home because it was so far ahead. Good times. I will never forget seeing Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades for the first time.

Will definitely install this.
 
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Windom Earle said:
People nowadays probably can't comprehend how completely insane the graphics and the smooth framerate of model 3 were at the time. At home you could play Ridge Racer 1 with horribly pixelated graphics, warping textures + z-fighting at 30fps and low resolution. Going into the arcade and seeing this ultra smooth high resolution experience was like a look into the future. It wasn't even fathomable to me back then we would ever get something comparable at home because it was so far ahead. Good times. I will never forget seeing Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades for the first time.
Click to expand...

Virtua Fighter 3 just blew my mind when I first saw it.

I recall hanging around the arcade with a friend and after having spent all our cash playing it we just watched others play it for a few hours.

Getting a Dreamcast with Virtua Fighter 3 was one of my happiest gaming moments, while not arcade perfect it was pretty damn close.

Still gorgeous to look at



 
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Windom Earle said:
People nowadays probably can't comprehend how completely insane the graphics and the smooth framerate of model 3 were at the time. At home you could play Ridge Racer 1 with horribly pixelated graphics, warping textures + z-fighting at 30fps and low resolution. Going into the arcade and seeing this ultra smooth high resolution experience was like a look into the future.
Click to expand...
In my childhood I used to believe that those arcades had a home console inside. I explained the better graphics and performance by assuming they had a better display than my TV at home.

P.S. Also when I saw Mortal Kombat 3 in arcades, I thought it was a SNES version of the game - more powerful than the Genesis that I owned.
😂😂😂
 
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Windom Earle said:
Going into the arcade and seeing this ultra smooth high resolution experience was like a look into the future.
Click to expand...
Well that was the best thing about the arcades. And it was always like that. Space Harrier in 1985 was nothing like what you could get at home. Took 10+ years and 2 console generations later for an arcade perfect console port.

Scud Race was similar. In 1996 it was at least a full generation ahead of the N64 or a Pentium PC with the best parts you can buy. Even the Model 2 was far ahead, let alone the Model 3.

When consoles and PCs reached parity with arcades in the early 2000s, it was the beggining of the end for the arcade market. Why bother go to the arcades when the best looking games are already in your home?
 
nkarafo said:
Well that was the best thing about the arcades. And it was always like that. Space Harrier in 1985 was nothing like what you could get at home. Took 10+ years and 2 console generations later for an arcade perfect console port.

Scud Race was similar. In 1996 it was at least a full generation ahead of the N64 or a Pentium PC with the best parts you can buy. Even the Model 2 was far ahead, let alone the Model 3.

When consoles and PCs reached parity with arcades in the early 2000s, it was the beggining of the end for the arcade market. Why bother go to the arcades when the best looking games are already in your home?
Click to expand...

By 2000 consoles had become mainstream home devices while arcades were shutting down left right and centre.

Arcade machines could have continued to push ahead, and we'd have likely seen PS360 graphics in arcades in 2002/2023, but I think by then there just wasn't enough money in the arcade business to justify it.
 
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Upscaling on Sega's arcade games looks so good.

They really chose a timeless way to present the art and graphics. They were so far ahead at that time
 
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=GabrielKnight= said:
I still remember clearly when I saw Scud Race and Virtua Striker 2 in arcades in 1996/1997

Graphics were truly insane

They still look good in higher res!
Click to expand...

Gorgeous sunny graphics, abysmal gameplay though.

It actually plays worse than the original, football games have to strike a balance between having responsiveness and realistic animations, Konami are the only developer to every understand and master this.

eFootball looks and feels great to play

EAFC also feels good to control, but it often skips transitional animations to achieve this.

 
Parazels said:
Perhaps, that's because developers used to rely on bright colors without volumetric lighting.
Click to expand...
I think you're right. It improves readability of the game as well, which facilitates immersion, because we can react quicker to what's happening on screen.
Together with a stable and fast frame rate (a solid 60 fps is fine), and a quick pace of events (common in racing, fighting, sports games etc), the player's brain forms a tight loop with the game, constantly looking for cues in the environment and quickly making decisions as the next frame is calculated and displayed.

Once you bring in complex lighting and other computationally heavy features, you inevitably add obstacles to this loop because the world becomes less readable, frame rate drops, image quality suffers (just compare those pristine shadows with today's physically accurate attempts that end up looking distracting half of the time), and now the player's brain is spending less time in the moment and more time confused about what to do, and noticing the wrong things (those that actually remind the brain that this isn't reality), which breaks immersion even further because as much as we wish games were life simulations, they are very far from them in every aspect except graphics.

So ultimately this pursuit of visual realism at the expense of other aspects of realism can end up breaking immersion. And I think immersion has a lot to do with what many gamers ultimately call "fun".
 
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Windom Earle said:
People nowadays probably can't comprehend how completely insane the graphics and the smooth framerate of model 3 were at the time. At home you could play Ridge Racer 1 with horribly pixelated graphics, warping textures + z-fighting at 30fps and low resolution. Going into the arcade and seeing this ultra smooth high resolution experience was like a look into the future. It wasn't even fathomable to me back then we would ever get something comparable at home because it was so far ahead. Good times. I will never forget seeing Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades for the first time.

Will definitely install this.
Click to expand...
I still remember when I saw it at the arcade... easily the best looking game ever at that point.

RetroGamingUK said:
By 2000 consoles had become mainstream home devices while arcades were shutting down left right and centre.

Arcade machines could have continued to push ahead, and we'd have likely seen PS360 graphics in arcades in 2002/2023, but I think by then there just wasn't enough money in the arcade business to justify it.
Click to expand...
Namco did so well with the System 11/22/whatever hardware that everyone jumped on board. It just made too much sense, one board based on console, easy ports. Also by the time Naomi came out, the games looked good enough for the arcade and great for the home. So that was the end for high end arcade hardware.
 
I can't even begin to describe the joy I felt when seeing Super GT (Scud Race) at the arcade back in the day.

Going to take some time to set this up on my sim rig, which will probably also send me down the Teknoparrot rabbit hole again. Never was able to get a couple of games set up properly but will try that again.
 
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