Sega Saturn AND Dreamcast were underrated by far and ahead of their time. If Sega hadn't stopped making consoles, imagine what the current generation Sega would be like. Unfortunately we'll never know.
OMG!!!! I own a Saturn (like everybody should!) and when I first saw this I nearly fell off my seat! It's absolutely amazing, it's breathtaking especially considering this is a Saturn game! It just goes to show that when properly programmed, the Saturn was FAR ahead of the competition! Thanks for uploading!!
@GonoManiax Also, I've read a Yu Suzuki (and another AM2 game programmer) interview, they did this Shenmue Saturn version in less than 8 months! Dunno how long would've taken to program the whole game, but bearing in mind the known programming issues and hardware limitations of the Saturn, it's still impressive.
Demon Rantz PS1 was better of lighting and stuff But Sega Used something that No Developers ever heard of for the system If they had a change, they would of teach them how to understand it Damn if they ever made a Dreamcast 2, this system would of been better than PS4 And Xbox One
Dare I say this, but this looks very close to a PS2 game, although this was released on the Dreamcast later on! May sound exaggerating, but looking at the majority of the PS2 games I've played, and comparing that with this, the polygons look similar enough, with the facial expressions and all. The Saturn had quite a bit of power. My two cents.
A ton of PS2 games began as PS1 games and just beefed up the polygon count. It wasn't until 3 or so years into the life of the PS2 that developers even started using the vector units.
! I've never seen such good graphics on the Saturn. I thought I had some pretty good looking games for that console, but this must be the best that was ever created visually on the Saturn. Astonishing.
This actually looks really good. I say it pushes the Saturn more than it does DreamCast. Its amazing that they have face modeling close to the DreamCast version!
I have to say, for a Sega Saturn, this looks amazing. But I have to agree with the comment below, it looked even better on Dreamcast. There are games put out even now (though admittedly not many) that don't look as good as Shenmue did on a damn Dreamcast 10 years ago. So ahead of its time and what a great game
Nine years ago, I was 14... The I remember seeing so emotioned this video for the first time... Ahh, I dreamed once and twice and a million time to find the original code of the game and finishing it... I can't imagine the change that this game could had made on the market... wow.. Actually PS just can't do any closer like this
As much as the Dreamcast game is possibly the best graphic engine they could do at the time (99/2000) with a pretty powerful hardware, it would've been a DREAM having this game on Saturn. It looks amazing.
This makes me so sad that it didnt come out on the saturn! Would totally rock the world back then!. Also it makes me happy that the released beta or whatever video is out here on youtube. This shows what the saturn could do, and its better than anything shown on the ps1 back then. If only it was easier to program for then maybe just maybe..
Imagine if this came out on the Saturn in 1998. It could've been as big as Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, but of course Sega of America wouldn't have localized it anyway.
That looks pretty impressive, and there's a lot of footage from both Shenmue I and Shenmue II. No wonder the development costs were so high for this game, they had to make the entire game two times, on two different consoles. Can you imagine if this game had come out on Saturn? Shenmue I on DC was four "GD-ROMS", so on Saturn it would have been like eight or nine CDs.
yeah its pretty incredible, ive seen early PS2 games that looked quite a bit worse. the programmers who managed to push the saturn this far despite its difficulties are absolute geniuses.
Si este juego hubiera sido lanzado... (¡a pesar de que seguro iba a ocupar 8 CD'S!) se podria haber convertido en uno de los juegos mas avanzados de la historia. Este prototipo si logro mostrar aproximadamente el 100% de las capacidades del Sega Saturn.
I wonder how far along this game was before they decided to move it onto the Dreamcast. The coding must still exist somewhere behind locked doors over at Sega. I'd play through it again just to play it on the Saturn. It looks great!
Well, if you get a bit technical, the N64 is a way better machine than the saturn, faster, more ram, etc. The Psx tho, well, it was pretty on par with the Sat.
Very impressive. For every single old console, new potential could be found with the knowledge of every passing year, for VERY impressive games that could never be thought possible on their time... with the very same hardware.
You're correct. It was known as the "CRX" expansion mechanism. Saturn/Model 2 hardware used an old 3D engine that lacked key 3D features PSX had, CRX helped add those missing features. With the cartridge, it would have be a no brainer to port Model 3 and M2 CRX arcade games to Saturn.
Looks better than any playstation or n64 game that I've seen.I would like to see them release this one if only a playable demo oh yeah give us shemue 3 already!!!
Yeah, I agree that the management for the Saturn, especially in North America, left something to be desired. It really was a perfect storm of hardware being misunderstood, developers not willing to learn new tricks, and marketers dropping the ball. Though I hate to be too mad at Stolar, given that he did a pretty stellar job with the Dreamcast launch.
man, back then characters didnt have as many polygons as the characters do in shenmue, also faces in the 32bit era basically had painted on textures, and sometimes just textured shadows (ala metal gear solid on ps1), but here the faces move with pretty decent animations for the time, im still amazed to this day.
These effects may look dated now, but when we're talking about late 1990's...this was cutting edge. It takes me back, even now the graphics are not that bad....if you really think about it.
This video always amazes me - if you notice theres so many scenes that are here from the final game but different completely! Also alot of this is from Shenmue 2 - with Ren etc..... Always makes me wonder just HOW MUCH they got done on the Saturn - and if anythings left of it........
@evilmajikman. Shenmue II was released on the Dreamcast in Japan and the European Union, so the story can be followed properly. In the Xbox version though, there was a DVD with the complete story of Shenmue on in case you missed it. Watch that. :)
La saturn era mas potente q la psx, el problema fue que erw muy dificil de programar y solo un grupo selecto de desarrolladores lograba sacar el verdadero potencial de esta bestia de 32 bits
I agree you, this game was a head of its time, even today the game looks amazing on the DC. I wish saga would release the final series on this generation console.
Give Yu Suzuki the Sega Hardware, and this is what you get. Now we just need him to release on something like the Wii U. You could use the "screen" for all sorts of stuff. This was the best game on Dreamcast. If you haven't played Shenmue on the DC, you missed out big time.
Impressive! There's no denying those shaky polygons that plagued the PS1 and Saturn, but the amount of detail is almost ridiculous at times. (Most games didn't even bother with things like 3-D eyebrows, separate fingers, and non-round shadows back then.) And I bet there are a lot of neat, deceptive tricks going on, too (as in, what you don't see won't hurt you- dynamic model detail, etc.). Interesting, too, how much Shenmue 2 stuff is here already (confirming that they were made simultaneously!
@KCwellard Utilizing the Saturn's second CPU wasn't necessarily uncommon. Utilizing it efficiently is another story, but if anyone could do it, it was Sega's own Yu Suzuki and the AM2 team. Virtua Fighter 2 for the Saturn was a showcase for their expertise, running 60 frames per second in 704x480 resolution. I have no idea how Shenmue would have turned out, considering the nature of a 1 on 1 fighting game vs an expansive adventure game, but what I see here is pretty impressive all the same.
@Stopmotionist I already did. Twice the resolution is not something to scoff at, and is clearly an objective improvement. Besides, what do those stats really mean? Twenty million polygons per second? At what resolution? How many frame per second? How many levels of anisotropic filtering and multisampling, if any? Is that with per-pixel lighting, per-vertex lighting, or no lighting at all? How could you possibly know if those stats refer to the same conditions for both systems?
@Draknfyre You are both right. It was a codename for PS1, and also the name of late version of the PS2 that had a HDD included, and could receive and record TV and DVDs.
I heard that back in the day, a Virtua Fighter RPG was being developed so it must have originated from the Saturn version. I also read that even Shin Ishikawa mentioned 2 years was spent working on the Saturn version of Shenmue.
Remember when i finished shenmue 2 on xbox and i was treated to this, loved the music but most of all I could not believe this was on the saturn and I didnt even know
hm.. i did read some places that this is not an RAW sega saturn exactly, but a sega saturn using an cartridge with a external DSP thing that does help the saturn push out more triangles. Would be interessing if sega did used this cart to port model 3 games to the saturn and etc.
Saturn had three processors. one for 2D graphics, one for 3D graphics, one for audio. The processors worked kind of like the duel processors did back in the days with the Pentium Pro's, The challenge was having the three processors work together. Many people think it had six to nine processors because of the complexity, but that's misinformation. It would have ran loops around the PS
The Saturn was TRULY powerful and trumped PSX and nearly everything. It's 3D engines were too complex for most programmers to handle. In 1997 Yu Suzuki and AM2 had figured out how to utilize its power.
@TheShadowParliament I agree. These visuals are absolutely stunning for their time. The game looks playable by today's standards. The quality of the motion capture also deserves special mention.
It's impressive to see what they were capable of, particularly with the facial animation (moving mouths!), although the guy walks a bit like he's constipated and the people don't seem to have moving hands.
@Stopmotionist At this point, all you can really look at are early Dreamcast games (the only ones that exist, really, besides shooters from ~2005-2006) versus early Playstation 2 games.
@nicholasthetaylor Bear with me, I'm trying to visualize it retrospectively, during the days I had a PS1. Lol. It's just such a damn far cry from the Saturn's typical problematic 3D output! But out of curiousity, what in your opinion was the PS1's biggest graphical stronghold?
And they said... 'The Saturn can't handle Polygons...'
This is SO IMPRESSIVE for a 32Bit System from 1994!!
Sega Saturn AND Dreamcast were underrated by far and ahead of their time. If Sega hadn't stopped making consoles, imagine what the current generation Sega would be like. Unfortunately we'll never know.
Infinite Spectrum They were great at making consoles but they sucked in financial ways
Finally, the true power of the sega saturn...
OMG!!!! I own a Saturn (like everybody should!) and when I first saw this I nearly fell off my seat! It's absolutely amazing, it's breathtaking especially considering this is a Saturn game! It just goes to show that when properly programmed, the Saturn was FAR ahead of the competition! Thanks for uploading!!
Wow. Talk about quality eye-candy.
I didn't think the Saturn would have potential like this.
It looks great!
Holy crap. That looks like a masterpiece.
very impressive for the sega saturn. I actually like the look of low tech games.
Wait, is that Lip Sync for this System????
My gawd, this game is better than the PS1 System
@@CaptainNight Popful Mail for Sega CD had lip sync too.
@GonoManiax Also, I've read a Yu Suzuki (and another AM2 game programmer) interview, they did this Shenmue Saturn version in less than 8 months! Dunno how long would've taken to program the whole game, but bearing in mind the known programming issues and hardware limitations of the Saturn, it's still impressive.
Wow! This is far beyond anything the PSX was capable of.
Mitjitsu Meh PS1 was still better
Demon Rantz I think Saturn owners got the last laugh now.
Demon Rantz PS1 was better of lighting and stuff
But Sega Used something that No Developers ever heard of for the system
If they had a change, they would of teach them how to understand it
Damn if they ever made a Dreamcast 2, this system would of been better than PS4 And Xbox One
Anthony Jr. Rodriguez Sega doesn't have enough money to make consoles again.
I know but still
What a jewel, and way to showcase the power of the Saturn
Dare I say this, but this looks very close to a PS2 game, although this was released on the Dreamcast later on! May sound exaggerating, but looking at the majority of the PS2 games I've played, and comparing that with this, the polygons look similar enough, with the facial expressions and all. The Saturn had quite a bit of power. My two cents.
A ton of PS2 games began as PS1 games and just beefed up the polygon count. It wasn't until 3 or so years into the life of the PS2 that developers even started using the vector units.
! I've never seen such good graphics on the Saturn. I thought I had some pretty good looking games for that console, but this must be the best that was ever created visually on the Saturn. Astonishing.
This actually looks really good. I say it pushes the Saturn more than it does DreamCast.
Its amazing that they have face modeling close to the DreamCast version!
They truly had an amazing graphics engine there.
Sega Saturn was a BEAST
I have to say, for a Sega Saturn, this looks amazing. But I have to agree with the comment below, it looked even better on Dreamcast. There are games put out even now (though admittedly not many) that don't look as good as Shenmue did on a damn Dreamcast 10 years ago. So ahead of its time and what a great game
Nine years ago, I was 14... The I remember seeing so emotioned this video for the first time... Ahh, I dreamed once and twice and a million time to find the original code of the game and finishing it...
I can't imagine the change that this game could had made on the market... wow..
Actually PS just can't do any closer like this
When programmed properly the Saturn was an amazing machine. Alot more powerful than the PSX.
As much as the Dreamcast game is possibly the best graphic engine they could do at the time (99/2000) with a pretty powerful hardware, it would've been a DREAM having this game on Saturn.
It looks amazing.
The story of Shenmue the game is almost as tragic as the story it tells. I hope we someday get to see the end of this amazing series.
Incredible! If it didn't say it was for Saturn, I'd have thought it was for Dreamcast. Every character feels ALIVE, they're so well animated.
This makes me so sad that it didnt come out on the saturn! Would totally rock the world back then!. Also it makes me happy that the released beta or whatever video is out here on youtube. This shows what the saturn could do, and its better than anything shown on the ps1 back then. If only it was easier to program for then maybe just maybe..
Damn! It looks impressive for a 32bit game.
The reason the texture was so good was because of the quadrilateral based polys as opposed to triangles.
Imagine if this came out on the Saturn in 1998. It could've been as big as Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, but of course Sega of America wouldn't have localized it anyway.
Wow. This is really amazeing for the Saturn.
This is amazing how sega could even get this game to near completion on the sega saturn during the mid 90s.
I've got to say, those are some absolutely killer graphics for the Saturn, I think anyone would have done a barrel roll back then if they played this.
This music would be so good for a Shenmue 3 trailer!
That looks pretty impressive, and there's a lot of footage from both Shenmue I and Shenmue II. No wonder the development costs were so high for this game, they had to make the entire game two times, on two different consoles.
Can you imagine if this game had come out on Saturn? Shenmue I on DC was four "GD-ROMS", so on Saturn it would have been like eight or nine CDs.
yeah its pretty incredible, ive seen early PS2 games that looked quite a bit worse.
the programmers who managed to push the saturn this far despite its difficulties are absolute geniuses.
Its amazing what they were able to get out of the Saturn
This is incredible! I would love to play this version on my Saturn. It's crazy how good this looks!!
Si este juego hubiera sido lanzado... (¡a pesar de que seguro iba a ocupar 8 CD'S!) se podria haber convertido en uno de los juegos mas avanzados de la historia. Este prototipo si logro mostrar aproximadamente el 100% de las capacidades del Sega Saturn.
this is incredible for the saturn!
This intrigues me. LOOKS AMAZING. Someone actually put in the effort and utilized the power of the Saturn's processors!
Man this is impressive....
I wonder how far along this game was before they decided to move it onto the Dreamcast. The coding must still exist somewhere behind locked doors over at Sega. I'd play through it again just to play it on the Saturn. It looks great!
this beats the metal gear solid 1 graphics any day
The graphics are awesome. This was going to utilize the Saturns 2nd processor, was it not?
KCwellard yes, and it far beyond of what the PSX was capable.
this looks better then ps1 and n64 games! The Sega Saturn was a powerful machine! Panzer dragoon Sage is the perfect example!
Well, if you get a bit technical, the N64 is a way better machine than the saturn, faster, more ram, etc. The Psx tho, well, it was pretty on par with the Sat.
JohnSams PSX had very underpowered hardware for its day, but the people didn't knew that Saturn was really more powerful than Playstation.
This, Sonic Xtreme and Ico (PSX) for presidency!
And Dinosaur Hunter/Star-Fox Adventures cancelled for n64 also was going to push the console to the absolute limits...
Remember I unlocked this video and was delighted. I would definately buy a Saturn right now to play Shenmue this way.
Very impressive.
For every single old console, new potential could be found with the knowledge of every passing year, for VERY impressive games that could never be thought possible on their time... with the very same hardware.
I still am stunned whenever I look at this ......the very idea it could have looked that good on Saturn
You're correct. It was known as the "CRX" expansion mechanism. Saturn/Model 2 hardware used an old 3D engine that lacked key 3D features PSX had, CRX helped add those missing features. With the cartridge, it would have be a no brainer to port Model 3 and M2 CRX arcade games to Saturn.
Looks better than any playstation or n64 game that I've seen.I would like to see them release this one if only a playable demo oh yeah give us shemue 3 already!!!
The detail on the character models are quite stunning for the time. It seems to be as detailed as the ones made by R* in GTA III and its sequels.
That would have been amazing. Those graphics are freakin beautiful. I would have loved playing that build of the game.
As great as this looks, Dreamcast and Shenmue were a perfect match
Yeah, I agree that the management for the Saturn, especially in North America, left something to be desired. It really was a perfect storm of hardware being misunderstood, developers not willing to learn new tricks, and marketers dropping the ball.
Though I hate to be too mad at Stolar, given that he did a pretty stellar job with the Dreamcast launch.
I would LOVE this music to be used for the Shenmue 3 trailer!
man, back then characters didnt have as many polygons as the characters do in shenmue, also faces in the 32bit era basically had painted on textures, and sometimes just textured shadows (ala metal gear solid on ps1), but here the faces move with pretty decent animations for the time, im still amazed to this day.
my god for a Saturn game this looks amazing if it was released back then I bet it would of come on about 6 discs lol.
Indeed, Im playing the game for the first time right now on DC. It's awesome and it was amazing for it's time on how interactive the world is.
SGI Tech is derived with MIPS who were behind the design of the Model 3 Lockheed Martin 3D graphics engine, Its a Trilateral version of LM Real 3D.
These effects may look dated now, but when we're talking about late 1990's...this was cutting edge. It takes me back, even now the graphics are not that bad....if you really think about it.
@jacksprat1990 - Well, maybe, but if you take a peek at the facial textures in this video and in GTA3, they seem to be of similar resolution.
wow!! i cant believe THAT is the saturn! that actually looks pretty damn good!
@strykah92 well in america it was that way. the saturn from 95-97 in north america. it was around from 94-2000 japan.
@GonoManiax i agree i would of loved this version..its so grainy n dark which gives it that special flair..they should released this!
when shenmue came out for dreamcast it was the most impressive game out I'm positive if it was released on ps2 it would have gotten real praise
This video always amazes me - if you notice theres so many scenes that are here from the final game but different completely! Also alot of this is from Shenmue 2 - with Ren etc.....
Always makes me wonder just HOW MUCH they got done on the Saturn - and if anythings left of it........
@evilmajikman.
Shenmue II was released on the Dreamcast in Japan and the European Union, so the story can be followed properly. In the Xbox version though, there was a DVD with the complete story of Shenmue on in case you missed it. Watch that. :)
@nooblet911
It also had a dedicated sound processor, whereas the N64 handled audio through the GPU and CPU.
Esto demuestra lo que pudo y no quisieron, que fuera la mejor consola con un poco de esmero, aún no he visto ningún juego de psx con esa calidad..
La saturn era mas potente q la psx, el problema fue que erw muy dificil de programar y solo un grupo selecto de desarrolladores lograba sacar el verdadero potencial de esta bestia de 32 bits
I agree you, this game was a head of its time, even today the game looks amazing on the DC. I wish saga would release the final series on this generation console.
this is downright amazing for the saturn
Give Yu Suzuki the Sega Hardware, and this is what you get. Now we just need him to release on something like the Wii U. You could use the "screen" for all sorts of stuff.
This was the best game on Dreamcast. If you haven't played Shenmue on the DC, you missed out big time.
I wish Sega made consoles still existed. The company was always for the true gamers.
the old memories of sega in the past . much better than the few games it gives now these days. i think somewhere they lost the magic touch
Oh the Nostalgia! I swear, if they don't finish this series before I die, my hungry ghost will haunt Yu Suzuki's ancestors for all eternity!
Impressive! There's no denying those shaky polygons that plagued the PS1 and Saturn, but the amount of detail is almost ridiculous at times. (Most games didn't even bother with things like 3-D eyebrows, separate fingers, and non-round shadows back then.) And I bet there are a lot of neat, deceptive tricks going on, too (as in, what you don't see won't hurt you- dynamic model detail, etc.).
Interesting, too, how much Shenmue 2 stuff is here already (confirming that they were made simultaneously!
@KCwellard
Utilizing the Saturn's second CPU wasn't necessarily uncommon. Utilizing it efficiently is another story, but if anyone could do it, it was Sega's own Yu Suzuki and the AM2 team. Virtua Fighter 2 for the Saturn was a showcase for their expertise, running 60 frames per second in 704x480 resolution. I have no idea how Shenmue would have turned out, considering the nature of a 1 on 1 fighting game vs an expansive adventure game, but what I see here is pretty impressive all the same.
@Stopmotionist I already did. Twice the resolution is not something to scoff at, and is clearly an objective improvement. Besides, what do those stats really mean? Twenty million polygons per second? At what resolution? How many frame per second? How many levels of anisotropic filtering and multisampling, if any? Is that with per-pixel lighting, per-vertex lighting, or no lighting at all? How could you possibly know if those stats refer to the same conditions for both systems?
@Draknfyre You are both right. It was a codename for PS1, and also the name of late version of the PS2 that had a HDD included, and could receive and record TV and DVDs.
I heard that back in the day, a Virtua Fighter RPG was being developed so it must have originated from the Saturn version. I also read that even Shin Ishikawa mentioned 2 years was spent working on the Saturn version of Shenmue.
This is.. amazing.
Just unbelievable.
Remember when i finished shenmue 2 on xbox and i was treated to this, loved the music but most of all I could not believe this was on the saturn and I didnt even know
Amazing grapich (for that time), just look at the details, animation and enviroments. I really want to try out the Saturn!
sega always have been great with console, i remember when dreamcast come out, i was amaze with the amazing graphic
hm.. i did read some places that this is not an RAW sega saturn exactly, but a sega saturn using an cartridge with a external DSP thing that does help the saturn push out more triangles.
Would be interessing if sega did used this cart to port model 3 games to the saturn and etc.
the grapfiks is better then all psx games !!
@hoodedkillaray
Yeah, it's speculated that Sega actually started 2 BEFORE 1. Which would explain why it was less interactive.
This only took them 6 months to program (per 1up's interview with Suzuki). Amazing!
Saturn had three processors. one for 2D graphics, one for 3D graphics, one for audio. The processors worked kind of like the duel processors did back in the days with the Pentium Pro's, The challenge was having the three processors work together. Many people think it had six to nine processors because of the complexity, but that's misinformation. It would have ran loops around the PS
if it's realy a real-time animations,
the textures and the animations are AMAZING!
@Copperskull1 Wow! So, what was the most difficult program that you wrote on the Sega Saturn?
I kind of prefer the jacket-less, arm band wearing look of Ryo in this version.
I'm quite amazed that it pretty much contains both Shenmue 1 and 2... they were that far on the Saturn already....
WOW! saturn was a damn powerfull console
The Saturn was TRULY powerful and trumped PSX and nearly everything. It's 3D engines were too complex for most programmers to handle. In 1997 Yu Suzuki and AM2 had figured out how to utilize its power.
@TheShadowParliament I agree. These visuals are absolutely stunning for their time. The game looks playable by today's standards. The quality of the motion capture also deserves special mention.
the saturn had online capabilities too
It's impressive to see what they were capable of, particularly with the facial animation (moving mouths!), although the guy walks a bit like he's constipated and the people don't seem to have moving hands.
This video also seems to have some early scenes that would later find it's way into the sequel.
@AFXisgreat
I see your point and mostly agree, but for a 32-bit game (especially a Saturn one) this game would have had more detail then any of them.
@poncho828 probably 4 sense the DC used 3 disks and it had only a little more storage than a regular cd
@Stopmotionist At this point, all you can really look at are early Dreamcast games (the only ones that exist, really, besides shooters from ~2005-2006) versus early Playstation 2 games.
@nicholasthetaylor Bear with me, I'm trying to visualize it retrospectively, during the days I had a PS1. Lol. It's just such a damn far cry from the Saturn's typical problematic 3D output!
But out of curiousity, what in your opinion was the PS1's biggest graphical stronghold?