- Joined
- Jun 4, 2019
- Messages
- 10
Man, this looks like it would've been a fun game too! Thanks for sharing!
Nah, it doesn't look great for a Saturn. Beleive me. As one of the biggest Saturn nuts out there I've seen much better.It’s funny.... When I hear people say it looks like crap it really baffles me. For a Saturn game it looks incredible!! The particle effects are incredible!! It really is a work of art.
Would you mind giving us a few examples? I am sure fellow Saturn nuts (such as myself) would appreciate it!Nah, it doesn't look great for a Saturn. Beleive me. As one of the biggest Saturn nuts out there I've seen much better.
I'm taking a total shot in the dark with this, but I suspect what we're looking at isn't anything more than the most basic engine test for a game that never was. Indeed, the footage reminds me of quite a few early US-developed Saturn games such as Black Fire, Ghen War and Congo - it wouldn't even surprise me if this was using the same engine as one of those titles, or perhaps it was built on a more advanced version of their underlying technology? I've also seen Off-World Interceptor Extreme mentioned as a possible base, even though that was a third party upgrade to an older 3DO release. Of course, it's still possible the core engine was shared with that game. However, I'm fairly sure Rebel Strike was running on Sega's own proprietary code, if not even the Sega Graphics Library.
As for what a Saturn edition of Star Wars Arcade might have looked like, the two* other Model 1 conversions it received should give some indication, though I also suspect whoever was behind this would have simply ported over the 32X code and bolted on a few minor improvements. At the very least, a higher frame rate, improved polygon counts, better overall draw distance and perhaps an increased resolution could have been expected. On the other hand, it may have turned out to be a blatant cash grab rushed out to profit on Star Wars enjoying a resurgence in popularity with the original trilogy being "remastered" along with hype building for the imminent prequel trilogy, which I believe had already been announced by 1997.
*Wasn't a Saturn conversion of Wing War also briefly in development, only to be scrapped in favour of Wing Arms, which is technically considered its spiritual successor?
The playable bits of gameplay look very similar to the Dreamcast SW game "Demolition".
You might be onto something, there... Now I think about it, Star Wars: Demolition was the work of Luxoflux - a studio founded by Peter Morawiec with Adrian Stephens in January 1997. If their names don't seem familiar, they were both members of Sega Technical Institute and involved somewhat with Sonic Xtreme just months earlier. Also, I believe it was Peter's Sphere Renderer engine technology powering the ill-fated Sonic Saturn and abandoned "Sonic Pool" bonus level concept (which nearly ended up being recycled for the Saturn version of Sonic 3D), plus he'd previously created the special stages of Sonic 2. Could it have been Luxoflux, or at least some interim group, responsible for Rebel Strike?
What other forum have you seen this on? I’d like to check it out. I guess I just assumed this was the first post about it.Saw this on other forums, but great thanks for sharing. Very cool to see what SEGA was working on.
You might be onto something, there... Now I think about it, Star Wars: Demolition was the work of Luxoflux - a studio founded by Peter Morawiec with Adrian Stephens in January 1997. If their names don't seem familiar, they were both members of Sega Technical Institute and involved somewhat with Sonic Xtreme just months earlier. Also, I believe it was Peter's Sphere Renderer engine technology powering the ill-fated Sonic Saturn and abandoned "Sonic Pool" bonus level concept (which nearly ended up being recycled for the Saturn version of Sonic 3D), plus he'd previously created the special stages of Sonic 2. Could it have been Luxoflux, or at least some interim group, responsible for Rebel Strike?