Virtua Fighter (arcade game)
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| Virtua Fighter | |
|---|---|
 North American arcade flyer of Virtua Fighter. |
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| Developer(s) | Sega-AM2, Sega-AM1 (Remix) |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Seiichi Ishii (Main designer) Toru Ikebuchi (Main programmer) Yu Suzuki (Producer & Director) |
| Composer(s) | Takayuki Nakamura |
| Series | Virtua Fighter |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Saturn, 32X, R-Zone, Windows |
| Release date(s) | Arcade INT November 1993 1995 (Remix) Saturn JP November 22, 1994 NA May 28, 1995 EU July 8, 1995 JP July 14, 1995 (Remix) NA 1995 (Remix) EU October 27, 1995 (Remix) 32X JP October 20, 1995 NA 1995 EU November 30, 1995 Windows 95 (Remix) NA August 31, 1996 EU 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) ELSPA: 3+ |
| Input methods | 8-way joystick & 3 buttons, gamepad, mouse & keyboard |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Model 1, ST-V (Remix) |
Virtua Fighter (バーチャファイター Bācha Faitā) is a 1993 fighting game developed for the Sega Model 1 arcade platform by AM2, a development group within Sega, headed by Yu Suzuki. It is the first game in the Virtua Fighter series, and the first arcade fighting game to feature fully 3D polygon graphics. It has been ported to several home video game consoles including the Sega Saturn and Sega 32X. A port with enhanced graphics was also released for Microsoft Windows.
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[edit] Overview
The Virtua label indicates that the onscreen action takes place in 3D. The images were created using wireframes and flat-shaded quads. Beyond 3D, it retained the staple of multiple characters, each with their own distinctive moves.
Unlike other fighting games of the time (such as Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat), the game relied on a control stick and only three buttons, Punch, Kick, and Guard although different situations and button combinations led to a vast variety of moves for each character.
The game is highly regarded for its in-depth fighting engine and real world fighting techniques, and was considered revolutionary upon release.
[edit] Characters
- Akira Yuki -- Birthdate: September 23, 1968—A Kung Fu teacher from Japan, fights with (Bajiquan)
- Pai Chan -- Birthdate: May 17, 1975—Martial arts movie star from Hong Kong, fights with Ensei-Ken (Mizongquan)
- Lau Chan, Pai's father—Birthdate: October 2, 1940—Cook from China, fights with Koen-Ken (Tiger-Swallow Fist)
- Wolf Hawkfield -- Birthdate: February 8, 1966—Professional wrestler from Canada, fights with Professional Wrestling
- Jeffry McWild -- Birthdate: February 20, 1957—Fisherman from Australia, fights with Pancratium
- Kage-Maru ("Kage") Hagakure—Birthdate: June 6, 1971—Ninja from Japan, fights with Ninjutsu
- Sarah Bryant -- Birthdate: July 4, 1973—College student from San Francisco, CA, fights with Jeet Kune Do (Sega changed her fighting style to "Martial Arts" in Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution)
- Jacky Bryant, Sarah's older brother—Birthdate: August 28, 1970—Race car driver also from San Francisco, fights with Jeet Kune Do
- Dural, A gynoid-like creature. Dural is the game's boss character. She is also, somewhat inexplicably, Kage's mother. She fights with a mix of all the other characters styles.
An Arab fighter named Siba was planned, and his character model even appeared on some Virtua Fighter arcade cabinets (though, in some cases, Akira's name was placed under his portrait). He was ultimately dropped, but later appeared in the Sega Saturn Fighters MegaMix game.
[edit] Reception
Though its distinctive, computer-rendered visuals would be obsoleted less than 2 years after its 1993 arcade release, Virtua Fighter revolutionized the fighting game genre. Up until that time, fighting games (such as Capcom's Street Fighter series) were designed and rendered on sprite-based 2D graphics hardware—both the character animation and background scenerey were composed of 2D sprites and tilemaps, mosaiced together to produce a pseudo-3D visual appearance. Virtua Fighter dispensed with the 2D primitives, replacing them with flat-shaded triangles rendered in realtime, by the Model 1's 3D-rendering hardware.
[edit]
Virtua Fighter was awarded Best Sega 32X Game of 1995 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.[1]
A Sega Saturn version and a PC-based version for the Nvidia NV1 3D-graphics card used (4-sided) quadratic surfaces, a departure from the de-facto standard triangles primitive used in nearly all modern 3D hardware.
[edit] Virtua Fighter Remix
Virtua Fighter Remix was an update of the original Virtua Fighter with higher-polygon models (when compared to the Sega Saturn port; the original Sega Model 1 arcade game has higher-polygon models than Remix) , texture mapping and some gameplay changes. It was given free to all registered Saturn owners in the US via mail.[2] It also had an arcade release on the ST-V (an arcade platform based on the less powerful Sega Saturn) and later ported to Microsoft Windows as Virtua Fighter PC. The game was developed by Sega-AM1.
[edit] Legacy
The popularity of Virtua Fighter and Sega's 3D racing title, Virtua Racing, were smash hits with arcade gaming audiences, and marked the beginning of video games rendered with 3D graphics.
[edit] References
- ^ Electronic Gaming Monthly's Buyer's Guide. 1996.
- ^ http://www.gamespot.com/saturn/action/virtuafighterremix/index.html
[edit] External links
- Virtua Fighter (arcade game) at the Killer List of Videogames
- Virtua Fighter Remix at the Killer List of Videogames
- Arcade version referenced and shown within this 2002 video piece on the history of Polygon Graphics
- VFDC VFDC
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