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Sega Saturn: Star Wars - Rebel Strike Unreleased Beta

ERROR

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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.
 

Yakumo

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From the beginning (whenever that was)
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.
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.
 

Blur2040

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***Sigh...it took me 15 plus years to get to ~~2k posts on AG. Here we go again.***

Well, it's a proto, so I can excuse it for looking messy. Also, amazing what you guys dig up 25 years after the fact...but...

Am I the only one who is much more intruiged at the mention of a Stars Wars Arcade Saturn port?
 
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Tongara

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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.
Would you mind giving us a few examples? I am sure fellow Saturn nuts (such as myself) would appreciate it!

That said, I think it does indeed look great for a Saturn game.
 
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ActSean

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This is awesome! Does the beta not have any sound??
 

Cerv3ro

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Thanks for sharing this video. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been to cancel this proyect after seeing how advanced it is, and how technically good it is.
Many questions arise when seeing this and as others comment around here, why is there no sound? Maybe emulation?, it would be interesting to know what date was planned for the release and if there are more working levels.
 
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Galdius

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Amazing find and thanks for sharing!
I'd never heard of this game but it looks like it could have some potential.
 

Allie

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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?
 
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Kal

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Man, there's something kitsch-y about the Saturn I absolutely adore. Especially with the Saturn's 3D games. Panzer Dragoon Saga is so aesthetically pleasing, and this looks neat too. Thanks for sharing!
 

ERROR

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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?

This was done with sgl I’m almost positive. Just like the sonic Xtreme here.





The Rebel Strike is A very early build with a bunch of debug stuff. For instance. You can change back and forth from a walker to speaker bike. There is lighting stuff to mess with. A character model viewer.

There is paperwork also that shows it made it pretty far into development. Not sure how far exactly. They had cinematics made.

So about Star-Wars Arcade. I am a massive 32x Guy. I would love to find something related to the Saturn remake. I read it was an enhanced version with texture mapped ships.
 
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jollyroger

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XenForo says Oct 18, 2008, but actually I originally register in 1998...
Amazing find!!
Is this ever going to be released?
 
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MentalMan

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The playable bits of gameplay look very similar to the Dreamcast SW game "Demolition".
 
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Greg2600

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Saw this on other forums, but great thanks for sharing. Very cool to see what SEGA was working on.
 

Allie

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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?
 
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MentalMan

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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?

From the perspective of a development team especially in those years, it certainly makes a lot of sense to go back to a previously explored idea which may have some groundwork done on the basic programming. Rudimentary player movement code and core rendering usually comes first even out of necessity alone. Attempting to compare gameplay footage between the two titles, it sure is a somewhat uncanny resemblence to the saturn original.

Fascinating stuff, developments on game engines running on the sega saturn bought a lot of great progress towards future dreamcast titles it seems.
 

ERROR

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Saw this on other forums, but great thanks for sharing. Very cool to see what SEGA was working on.
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.
 

ERROR

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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?

That is very cool. The knowledge in here is so great. I love it.

This was done by the Sega Interactive Development Division of Sega of America.

The time line is very possible that the team that created Luxoflux brought the ideas over in 97. This Star Wars Rebel Strike build is dated 1/97. They had to be working on it for awhile before this build also and kept working on it much longer. I can get more info.
 
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unclejun

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That's a cool find!
The large pic from the article in OP's post is from one of Rebel Assault cutscenes.
The one at the bottom is a grab from the movie, and it was used in Rebel Assault intro as well.
61h5ZjN.jpg
 
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