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Sega Saturn

Sega’s 1993 Virtua Fighter gets an AI makeover

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We always thought that Sega’s polygonal 1 on 1 arcade fighter, VIRTUA FIGHTER looked awesome.

After taking off our nostalgia-tinted glasses, we can now see how lo-fi  (but still cool) they look, especially after some AI shenanigans bringing each of the fighters on the roster to be life-like.

With ChatGPT being all the rage, it would seem there is another AI tool gathering steam in the form of Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image deep learning model capable of generating photo-realistic images. Clever Tech Artist, Colin Williamson put this learning model to the test by feeding it the original Virtual Fighter polygonal images from a Sega Saturn emulator into the Stable Diffusion model. The results, as you can see, are darn scary and impressive all at the same time)!

Surely Skynet is now coming for us all….

[story & image source: technabob]



Visiting The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum

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We are reminiscing about the time we were invited by the Weird and Retro crew to join them in Sydney for the 2015 EB Expo – it was such an amazing experience!

Before the EB Expo shenanigans, we took time out to visit The Gamesmen in Penshurst (NSW), to check out their awesome (Retro) Game Museum.

The Gamesmen has been an Australian game store icon for almost 40 years and it is still going strong. Back in the day, we used to love receiving their catalogues which we would pore over each page, drooling at the latest gaming systems and games – we just wish we had kept those catalogues! Oh yeah, luckily for us (and all of you), The Gamesmen folks have made electronic copies of their old catalogues, so go here now and enjoy some intoxicating nostalgia.

Anyway……… This pilgrimage was a long time coming and fulfilled our wish to go and check out the museum in person. We definitely weren’t disappointed and we were glad to have ticked this off our bucket list. The sixty plus photos we took below from the game museum does not do it any justice – to see it in person was amazing. However, the next best thing to going there was to share what we saw, and as you will see below, your nostalgic senses will not be disappointed.

There was no one favourite section, but the glassed cabinets were like a time machine looking back at our childhood, daydreaming about owning and playing the systems and games on display. The video games system timeline mural was another highlight, reflecting how far gaming has come. The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum had truly encapsulated our past, leaving a delectable mark on our 8-bit brain.

Make sure you scroll through each image slowly, as you do not want to miss anything!

Approaching the Mecca of Australian Video Gaming!

images remain the copyright of ausretrogamer

PS: Special thank you to the Weird and Retro team for inviting us to be part of their WaRrior crew for the 2015 EB Expo and for a memorable road trip!

 

Retro Inspired Covers of Modern Sega Games

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Just in case you have been visiting Mars and just came back to this planet, SEGA is celebrating their 60th Anniversary this year.

Amongst their celebrations, they have designed a heap of retro inspired alternate covers of modern Sega games, like Alien Isolation and Persona 4 on the Genesis / Mega Drive, Puyo Puyo Tetris on the Dreamcast, Valkyria Chronicles on Sega Saturn, Yakuza 0 on Game Gear, and many many more.

Check out the rest of the cool retro inspired alternate Sega game covers here.

image source: Sega 60th Anniversary

 

A Rare Look Inside SEGA In The Mid 90s

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We couldn’t only feature Nintendo, so to balance things in the universe, here is the follow-up to the series of translations from the French documentary “Otaku”, this time taking a rare look inside Sega, their Sega vs Nintendo rivalry and Sega arcade games from the mid 90s.

Oh yeah, there is ample footage from the 31st Amusement Machine Show (1994 JAMMA Convention) in Japan! Once again, big thanks to Game Escape for the English subtitles!


source: Game Escape

 

The Sega Saturn Laptop That Will Give You Wood!

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Oo’er, this is one slick portable wooden Sega Saturn!

c_mon’s creation is the first Sega Saturn laptop we have ever seen, and definitely the one and only wooden Sega Saturn lappie! Oh yeah, don’t get too excited about buying one, this was a commissioned piece for one lucky gamer.

For posterity’s sake, here are the specs:

  • CNC-cut wood with CNC artwork / engraving
  • 5″ Sony PSOne screen
  • Standard Sega Saturn controller ports
  • Power and Reset buttons
  • Cooling fan
  • EL wire used to look stylish
  • Stereo sound with composite video
  • 9V 4A DC adaptor

image source: Chevy presents totally awesome tuesadays via bitfixgaming

 

Top 5 Games Charts: December 1997

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top5gamescharts_title_Dec97Rewind the clock 18 years to December 1997 and take a gander at what the top games were on the Saturn, Playstation and PC. Surprised? Well, you shouldn’t be. The Christmas games charts were always a great barometer of the types of games that we were going to see more of in the coming new year. Suffice to say, the iterative annual sports titles (your FIFAs and Maddens), including driving games (Formula 1), were always going to play their part in the charts.

Browsing through the list of top games from 18 years ago, it is great to see that there was a mix of gaming genres, from driving formula 1 cars and flying elite helicopters, to wiping out zombies, throwing a football and to the inevitable first-person shooters. What were you playing 18 years ago?

PSX_150x150 1) Formula 1 ’97 (Psygnosis)
2) Nuclear Strike (Electronic Arts)
3) Abe’s Odyssee: Oddworld (GT)
4) Track & Field Platinum (Konami)
5) Parappa The Rapper (Sony)

 

1) Sega Worldwide Soccer ’98 (Sega)
2) Last Bronx (Sega)
3) Resident Evil (Capcom)
4) Wipeout 2097 (Psygnosis)
5) Madden NFL ’98 (Electronic Arts)

 

1) Command & Conquer: Red Alert – The Aftermath (Virgin Games)
2) Quake: Replay (GT)
3) Total Annihilation (GT)
4) Flight Sim ’98 (Microprose)
5) Hexen 2 (Activision)