Hard Boiled - Unreleased Sega Saturn Prototype - August 1997

Article: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2024/...
Hidden Palace Download: hiddenpalace.org/Hard_Boiled_...)
Hard Boiled is a futuristic rail shooter somewhat in the vein of Night Striker where the player controls a hover vehicle with some ability to rise off the ground while dodging obstacles and shooting energy weapons at enemies. It features five missions with CGI cutscenes and an electronic dance music soundtrack.
Plot-wise, the game is a sequel to a three-issue comic book miniseries in 1990 to 1992 written by Frank Miller and published by Dark Horse Comics.
It was announced in a July 2, 1996, press release by would-be publisher GTE Entertainment as coming to PC, Saturn and PlayStation from French developer Cryo Interactive. As the Sega Retro page for Hard Boiled tells it, GTE Entertainment got out of the video game business before the game was finished, leading Cryo Interactive to publish the PS1 version themselves in their home territory, Europe, in October 1997.
A Japanese publisher, Sieg, handled the PS1 game there the following year on July 30, 1998, but a publisher was never found for the North American market nor for the Saturn or PC ports.
Cryo Interactive released one Saturn game, Atlantis: The Lost Tales, a PAL exclusive adventure game similar to Myst published by Sega in March 1998.

[@starlightwitch12]

I didn't know this Sega Saturn version of Hard Boiled existed, since I played the PS1 game years ago.

[@SEGASATURNSHIRO]

Yeah, neither did I.., and I've also played the PlayStation version 🤷

[@delalicanto7432]

This project could perfectly use the VDP2 for the floor and would avoid deformities near the camera, in addition to improving performance and aesthetics in general. Very good anyway.

[@mxggo9046]

This really reminds me of Scorcher.

[@SEGASATURNSHIRO]

Yeah, same!

[@Mr_x_19922]

This is pretty cool, it is like a mix between Scorcher and Amok for the Saturn

[@JEY74]

For me, technically the Saturn surprise me more than Dreamcast

[@jakobholgersson4400]

I went into this video hoping to see an unreleased game based on the John Woo movie. That would've been interesting.

[@sneakingelephant]

LOL exactly the same reason I came and I was disappointed. At least we still have stranglehold

[@ThoughtformsOfTheSubconsciousM]

I love that were getting stuff like this, just awesome!

[@captRhay]

rad soundtrack

[@whickervision742]

It's not Hyper Zone🎶 This ain't Hyper Zone 🎶 But that's what this reminds me of.

[@segare-trop-vieux3932]

Interesting that a prior beta of that game has full transparency effects during the explosions but the game struggles with the framerate and therefore the developers took the decision to make them opaque

[@slashrose3287]

video and/or download link of the prior beta?

[@devonwilliams5738]

It looks like the road is collapsing behind you.

[@pixelpoppyproductions]

That’s just because of how they have clipping set up. Also, this is only a prototype…

[@whickervision742]

Saturn hardware couldn't near frustum clip polygons to save its life.

[@mxggo9046]

Looks pretty cool

[@jongeo]

Sweet, I'm going to try this out now. I wish there were an easier way to stay up to date on this stuff.

[@SEGASATURNSHIRO]

I mean... It *just* dropped today, and you know about it sooner than most of the internet, so you're pretty up to date... 😉😆

[@85bitsdeveloper]

Very curious to see (using emulator) how they used vdp2

[@SEGASATURNSHIRO]

Are you using SSF? What do you observe in terms of VDP2 implementation?

[@pixelpoppyproductions]

Looks like they are using most likely NBG1 or RBG0 for scrolling/rotating the background. Everything else looks like VDP1. No special effects like XL2’s many amazing demos, but solid enough for a prototype!

[@slashrose3287]

@@pixelpoppyproductions NBG0 for HUD, everything else is VDP1, according to SSF (disabling it disappear everything on screen). Great use of fading clipping, shame everything onscreen is lower than PS1 counterpart (probably due to VDP1 fillrate limitations). Schorcher is technically above this game though.

[@pixelpoppyproductions]

@@slashrose3287 you're right, it's all VDP1 - it's a strange choice, because they don't really utilize VDP2 at all (RGB0 would have been the obvious choice for the skybox). using VDP1 to render the skybox isn't often done, although it's possible, because drawing really large quads tends to be slow due to clipping issues etc. But that's often how Saturn ports went, quick and dirty and often not using the hardware to it's full potential..

[@slashrose3287]

@@pixelpoppyproductions Same happened with PS3 Bayonetta conversion from X360, running HALF original speed beaause developer only used PS3 main CPU and not SPU. in the same way, games which makes extensive use of VDP2 like Radiant Silvergun are almost impossible to convert to PS1 due to combined VDP1 and VDP2 fillrate (the only real way is to reprogram the entire game engine to take advantage of target hw, something which is NOT cost / time effective). SS is a powerful 3D console WHEN you use VDP1 and VDP2 (with BOTH CPUs involved in 3d math/game logic/else, possibly with SCU DSp for matrix transformation), you have clear proof with recent Unreal SS demo done by programming god XL2 with its own SS game engine, the same Frogbull is using for current SS MGS "conversion" right now).

[@Mitsuraga]

Game looks pretty cool. Has this not been done with Metal Fist, yet?

[@SEGASATURNSHIRO]

Well, I don't know about Metal Fist, but it was literally done with Hard Boiled (same game), which did get released on PlayStation...

[@Mitsuraga]

I guess it really depends on how far along in development Metal Fist got, and whether or not anyone can find a working prototype copy.

[@DrSoda.]

Cool 😎 thanks for sharing. God bless. Jesus loves you!