Virtua Fighter (Arcade, 1993) Real Arcade Hardware Capture

Captured directly from the arcade board with my new capture card. This was a terrible run through even by my standards. you can see a much better one (in higher quality also!) here:
• Virtua Fighter (Arcade...
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[@superspecky4eyes]

I remember seeing this for the first time in the arcades. It was a massive sit down cabinet with the biggest tv screen I had ever seen at that time. It cost £1 a go compared to the normal 20p. It felt like it had arrived from outer space. It felt like the future.

[@ph-vf5hx]

Same here. In the (long since closed down) Lazer quest in Cambridge they had this in 93 and it was astounding. The rendering looked SO smooth and perfect at the time. Haha

[@TraumfresserBMofficial]

it was a $1 here in the states.

[@laazeerty]

image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s45d479059abc969b/image/i7f86f1951faa540a/version/1458204289/virtua-fighter-1993.jpg (me too when i was a very young girl ;) )

[@Immortalsouls]

I was so scared to play this game when I first played it in the arcades.. but quickly fell in love with it! Was blown away.

[@retromuel]

I think I first saw and played it on a giant Super Megalo arcade cabinet in a seaside town here in the UK and yeah I remember it being quite intimidating. The fact that it was 3D seemed kind of otherworldly at the time and so different to most of the stuff in the arcade. Such a great game to this day. The animation's still incredible. Thanks for watching.

[@Immortalsouls]

@@retromuel Yes, exactly. Very intimidating. I played the cabinet version in Sydney here in Australia. It had Siba on the side which always baffled me cos I really wanted to play with him. Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter 3 I relived all those moments of excitement again. Yet will never forget the first day. I was majorly impressed with the bridge under pass on Shun Di's stage that was never possible on the Sega Saturn. My 2 favourite characters are still Jacky and Lau. And I used them mainly in VF2, plus Lion Rafale and Shun Di. Good times!

[@bjraleigh1439]

@@Immortalsouls Was it a Timezone? I remember first seeing it in a Melbourne Timezone center.

[@Immortalsouls]

@@bjraleigh1439 Hey.. um.. not too sure. I was in some sort of arcade. Dunno if it was timezone specifically.

[@bjraleigh1439]

@@Immortalsouls we can just say it was in the sydney time zone, so either way it was.

[@jamesbullock9209]

When all we knew were 2-D fighter games animated by sprites on a linear field, seeing this game for the first time was truly mind-blowing. We didn't mind the blocky textures; just being able to fight in a 3-D environment gave us a glimpse of the future of gaming. Yes, it looks cartoonish today, but when it came out, we couldn't get enough of it. Fighting games were forever held to a new standard. Thank you for capturing this piece of gaming history!!

[@user-stanrbm]

Virtua Fighter is father of Tekken

[@wildgun95]

Tekken 1 is better than all virtua fighters combined.

[@SpaceDuppy]

@@wildgun95 Debatable but I truly enjoyed both games growing up.

[@lamiamekni2802]

@@wildgun95 why

[@gochem3013]

You mean the grandfather of all 3d fighting games

[@user-stanrbm]

@@gochem3013 Yes.

[@whiskyngeets]

What a great era to be a kid

[@napalmhardcore]

To my knowledge there still hasn't been an arcade perfect port and everything I've read has led me to believe that this game still hasn't been emulated properly. MAME apparently has collision detection issues (apparently most of the Model 1 games are broken) and while I've not been able to find in-depth analysis, the Astro City Mini drops frames from what I've seen. I can't even express how frustrating it is to me that the only time the Arcade version has had an official home release is on an underpowered novelty item for collectors. Historically, this game is incredibly important. It was one of the most influential games (if not THE most) of its time (perhaps ever) and was a major part of the industry's adoption of 3D games. It also played a large part in Sony's decision to focus attention on the 3D capabilities of the original PlayStation. Yes, a game that originally ran on Sega hardware prompted Sony to make their console more capable than Sega's own console when it came to 3D, which led to them dominating that generation. It completely revolutionised the fighting game genre and, in my opinion, nothing has significantly moved the genre forward since (yes, there have been incremental refinements, but nothing that's redefined the genre). No other game has blown my mind the way this did when I first saw it and I'm not sure there will be another leap that will have a similar effect on future generations due to the law of diminishing returns (perceived improvements become smaller over time). The fact that Sega, who traditionally love to repackage their old games, has not ported or included this as part of a collection is both disappointing and a bit of a head-scratcher. I'm pretty sure a collection including the first three or four instalments would sell. Yes, VF2 has seen a release on PS3/XB360 and is available as a mini game in one or more of the Yakuza games (as is VF5FS), but Virtua Fighter 1, 3 and 4 seem to have been relegated to history and I find that tragic. I find it frustrating and heartbreaking that this game remains so elusive. Sega have the means, but they won't give it to us (I WANT TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY SEGA, DON'T YOU LIKE MONEY?). We now have emulators that can run significant portions of the libraries of recent console generations (including PS3 which seemed unrealistic a few short years ago), yet this relatively primitive game from 1993 which (ignorant) people mock for its blocky graphics still hasn't been accurately emulated despite its hugely significant role, not only in the fighting game genre, but in gaming's history.

[@deltakid0]

Wow... I really enjoyed your comment, we share the same feeling, and I think SEGA won't give us the arcade perfect port we've been waiting all these years, I think it's probably easier to reverse engineer the system and do it ourselves, I've got tired of waiting, Daytona USA was the same disappointment.

[@Abon666]

The problem with porting VF1 is that it's all coded in Assembly, which was the only way that AM2 could even get 3D graphics up and running this smoothly at the time. As a result it's a lot harder to port this accurately to other hardware compared to games coded in a more high level language.

[@napalmhardcore]

@@Abon666 I wasn't aware it was written in assembly language and I'm not knowledgeable enough about coding to fully grasp the implications when it comes to porting. Surely though, when it comes to emulation, if the emulator is accurate it should run the game's code correctly. I would have imagined the difficulty of emulating a system scales with its complexity. If there are emulators for 6th and 7th generation consoles, shouldn't accurately emulating the Model 1 be relatively simple?

[@deltakid0]

@@Abon666 when I think of this I remember another reverse engineered game like Prince Of Persia which took 10 years to be disassembled and ported to SDL, hence SDLPOP, if such project took that long I can't imagine how long it will take to reverse VF1. On the other side, there is a lot of information about reverse engineered systems (RE), there are now several RE tools available such as Radare, Ghidra, now we got FPGA that emulates at hardware level, I think the task is not entirely impossible regardless of Yu Suzuki statement that the game was written in assembly

[@napalmhardcore]

@Pappetsu The gaming press at the time praised it, but I've heard a lot of complaints regarding the Saturn port. Apparently, it was rushed and suffers a number of glitches and performance issues. Remix was mailed to registered Saturn owners free in the USA and some people have said it was basically an apology for the state the original shipped in. I have heard that an FPGA core of the Arcade version is being developed for MiSTer. I really hope they can pull it off!

[@MadeInHell_92]

Jacky's theme is very iconic. What a memories...

[@wales2k4747]

Jacky, Sarah, and Kage had amazing theme songs in this game. Legendary musical composition, with a cherry on top.

[@falcolombardi6570]

Freaking love Sarah's stage and theme

[@stevenmorrison3659]

I like this a lot more than Tekken 1. The controls are so much more fluid.

[@pikkon899]

You're right. I forgot how butchered the controls in Tekken feel compared to Virtua Fighter and Tekken 3. I played these some 2 days ago for the first time since I was a kid and the difference in the controls is very noticeable.

[@Ye110wjacket]

Tekken was not really the same type of game. Apart from the weird floaty jumps, they tried to make the fighting as realistic as possible. Tekken was aiming for more excitement, and was more of a button bashing game. I think the Tekken games improved a lot over time. Each successive title was better than the last (though I remember some people didn’t like Tekken Tag and Tekken 4 that much). I always liked Tekken 4, however, and it might even be my favourite.

[@ThrackerZ0d]

@@Ye110wjacket people didn't liked Tekken 4 because it introduced walls and they were really wonky, there was nerfed movement and the launch roster was just small compared to the past games missing some characters that people liked a lot. And the whole aesthetic of a more serious story wasn't really enjoyed back then. (Real shame because since Tekken 5 the story just gets worse each game.) Also where did you heard that people didn't liked Tekken Tag? people loved the game graphics (they're still impressive to this day, no ideia how Namco put these super detailed character models in the ps2 back then.)

[@Ye110wjacket]

​@@ThrackerZ0d Tekken Tag didn't progress the story. It was a good game and very popular but at the time it debuted in the arcade the visuals looked dated, which is why the PS2 version had upgraded character models. When it came out some people moaned that the anti-aliasing wasn't very good. It was successful because Tekken was very popular at the time. I played it a lot but I remember some critics had some gripes with it on issues I mentioned. Tekken 4 was actually one of my favorites in the series and it is still quite good. Loved it them and I love it now.

[@DeathNeff]

Daddy of all 3D fighting Games

[@Manicman746]

of all 3d games, same year as doom

[@thegamerofthecentury3448]

The soundtrack of this game is amazing 😊

[@duman5596]

_I was blown away the first time I played this game back in the day. Then blown away again when the 2nd VF came out. I thought that I would never be blown away again. Then came the third...._

[@ni8anttana]

*This Game Is A Masterpiece*

[@Yo6Akimitsu]

Frrr VF on top always

[@hankhill9359]

Loved this game as a kid I would always play as wolf as I thought he had the most unique look of them and Akira was just imo op as hell

[@snowbork252]

I remember playing this in the arcade when it came out. My dad would bet on me vs the other dads and I would usually win. The rare time the old man and I would get along. Good times.

[@pete6705]

This game was very special to me, because it was the first real 3D game I ever saw. I remember seeing it at the arcade and just being blown away. I knew this was the future of video games, and realized that video games were about to be more amazing and advanced than I could have ever imagined

[@Shuyin781]

For all matter and purpose Virtua Fighters is the first Shenmue game.

[@gigamorphzine5393]

there was massive crowd at the arcades back in 93 when Sega first lauch this game, even i can't even try this game at that time 😅

[@iamccwwcc]

In 1993, ID software released DOOM and shock the whole world in the meantime SEGA released Virtua Fighter OMG Can you imagine that ?

[@RedzaMalaysianCrossover]

Happy 30th anniversary of the first Virtua Fighter! The grandfather of 3D fighting game.

[@Kruppt808]

the damage ranging on this game was crazy.

[@-castradomis-1773]

Those animations are *unreal* for 1993.

[@UltraTaco223]

4:16 if anyone is wondering what he says when he wins, its 十年早いんだよ！ with the meaning "(you need to practice for) 10 more years (to beat me)!"

[@Kruppt808]

Lau was my favorite, loved this game when it first came out. Memories.

[@Nicomanism]

Played this at Cidercade today. They have the actual arcade hardware in it, and was free to play .

[@TrouserTrumpet]

I just bought a Virtua Fighter arcade cabinet. First arcade machine purchase for me. All original and it originally was in an amusement park in my city I went to as a small kid. All I remember is that a kid took a shit in the ball pit. Good times.

[@retromuel]

That's awesome man. I'd love one myself, if I had the space!

[@ThrackerZ0d]

I can't imagine how people felt back then looking at these graphics when there was only Snes and Genesis games, 90s to the early 2000s video game industry was phenomenal.

[@justaaron2558]

Pure nostalgia for me. Love videos like this.

[@215neko]

Oh the music of the arcade ver. and the saturn ver. are slightly different.

[@retromuel]

Yeah the Saturn uses pre recorded music streamed straight from the CD so it sounds a little more sophisticated. The arcade essentially used chiptunes played "live" from a Yamaha YMW258-F chip. The sound board on the model 1 is huge - there's a shot of it in the video somewhere. Thanks for watching.

[@jfitnesshealth]

@2:07 , sarah punches and kicks to the beat like a kickboxing spare in the gym, oh snap lol

[@bjraleigh1439]

could probably argue the style of the first game exceeds the next two releases.

[@retromuel]

Yeah I think the style is pretty timeless. For me, the 3rd one's aged the most in terms of graphics style, although that's actually my favourite from a gameplay perspective. The single player AI is way better than the other two.

[@bjraleigh1439]

@@retromuel The third games graphics at the time seemed too good to be true. I remember just being blown away by how polished and fluid the game looked! Each new VF title was like a console generation leap in graphics. Insane looking back, that in just three years we experienced advancements in 3d graphics, which one could argue visually looks as big as the graphical difference between the ps2 and ps5 (going from vf1 to vf3), so 20 years of console gaming graphics squeezed into three one could say. Just Amazing. Makes sense why these games were so impactful just for their visuals to many gamers back then. They certainly are for me.

[@Yo6Akimitsu]

Pai was so cheap in this game. Even though VF2 was a better successor, I still preferred this game over VF2 because of its iconic flair and aesthetics. Idk VF1 was more special to me. I Love this game so much without it the world would never be the same as it's now with all this 3D technology. ;)

[@tmcttf8087]

It's cool how the staff roll shows you defeating your opponents throughout the arcade mode (and the staff roll theme in itself is a banger, surely), but it's just so funny how 13:07 comes along and recognizes Akira's fight with *Dural* as merely a *Bonus Stage,* and the moment Dural hands Akira's ass to him, the music abruptly stops, and yet Akira still performs his victory pose after straight up *losing* to Dural within the same stage as the words *"GAME OVER"* shroud the screen, it's like Akira is just acting like he has defeated Dural as the game addresses the true reality of the situation that he wishes to defy. 😂

[@TunaDad]

For some reason I was really good at this in 3rd grade and used to straight EMBARASS much older kids in front of their friends.

[@nr2676]

And in 2023 AM2 make only Hatsune Miku games + milking Hatsune Miku Project Sekai. What a waste of company.

[@youforget1000thingsaday]

God this brought me back to being in my laundromat back in 2001. My mom LOVED this game.

[@silburrrrdurrr]

i grew up with this game series and never knew this was the first 3d fighting game until 2020

[@megaheroes3611]

Honestly, I would buy a Sega fighting game collection. Imagine Virtua Fighter 1 - 4 and Remix and Kids, Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Battle, Fighting Vipers 1 and 2, Eternal Champions and Challange from the Dark Side, Dark Edge, Burning Rival and Fighters Megamix on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch and PC!

[@mr.bubwad5644]

Let's not forget Last Bronx!

[@ThrackerZ0d]

They need to make this thing real, instead of releasing Sega Genesis collection each decade.

[@alistairblaire6001]

Imagine youre playing SNES games at home then you see this at the arcade. There was nothing like it. The characters are huge on the screen, they have fluid motion, geometry...if you were lucky enough to actually play it, the controls feel incredibly responsive

[@rocznik83]

When Yu Suzuki was at the top of his game, he didn't bother to touch anything that was not going to be a high-end masterpiece.

[@isawicameiconqueredandcame3708]

Akira had this special move where he dashes forward and kinda bends his knees a bit and one arm goes beind the opponent and strikes the backbone of the opponent with the back of his fist. when he does that, there's this thunderclap sound effect. it was really awesome and imo the most difficult move to execute in the entire Vfighter game

[@mememerchant461]

Wait until you hear about the 1 frame knee

[@biggestbobo]

I love how during the end credits match replays it shows Dural KOing the player. Like the game giving you a final 🖕

[@neko_samurai]

I thought you were gonna get the comeback victory, then she hit you with the Excellent. RIP.

[@franciscobatalla7876]

Yo recuerdo cuando era chiquito me acompaño a mi mamá en una sala de juegos arcade los 90 me acuerdo mi vieja me pagó la ficha empecé jugar dos rondas y uno me perdí con Sarah yo elegí Jacky porque el pelo Rubio me gustó y el resto ni salvo otros juegos los mejores recuerdos de mi infancia

[@ludosanderz]

I still remember playing this for the first time, it was in the late 90s somewhere, I was around 8 or 9 years old and we went on our first trip to America, there was a mall we visited in Memphis If I remember correctly that had a small arcade, I played this game for hours...

[@Olivetank7]

We need a virtua fighter collection on switch.

[@user-fq8ln9rm7d]

11:34カウンター鉄山の減りがえげつなｗ

[@samuelkovanko7198]

Looks years ahead of its time!

[@Kapojos]

They should port this to the switch!!

[@McDaniel77]

I wish they would make a perfect arcade remaster like the Virtua Racing for Nintendo Switch. 🥰

[@yayarearaidernation510]

Akira with a mixture of PAUL and KING

[@Love-Sensibility]

No wonder there was a VF poster reference in Shenmue. Didn't know Yu Suzuki created both lmao. So revolutionary~

[@omnislashdude3397]

I luv that this game was in Hi Score Girl!

[@rommix0]

Because of the early 3D graphics, those facial expressions are so goofy.

[@scm64entertainment44]

Are you sure that was Charles martinet who said Fight One?

[@user-um8my2ts6k]

懷念，以前去保齡球館必玩

[@alsat8931]

11:31 Glitch in the matrix, a punch that does 80% dmg 😮

[@7th_Heaven]

Wow. THANKS FOR THE POST

[@thesch2867]

9:40 Boneless Akira

[@retromuel]

Haha. Smashed to smithereens.

[@retromuel]

The game was really pissing me off by that point actually. I completely forgot my Akira technique. You just have to land a big shoulder barge then bully him out of the ring by spamming the elbow.

[@thesch2867]

Retro Muel talking about strategies MC jab into throw "ticking" is pretty useful in VF1. Akira's knee is also pretty good against rising kicks if timed correctly you can get a MC and then do an elbow with that. Crouch backdasing and then doing a single palm by just pressing forward+P during crouch state is also a pretty good way to start a round with Akira especially against the cpu.

[@retromuel]

Thanks man. Yeah you can destroy Pai and Lau by ducking under their pppk combos and then single palming them. I used to be better at this but I've had the pcb locked away for a couple of years until I got my card recently. You can exploit the A.I quite a bit in the first two games - I think the 3rd one is the most fun in single player. I have all three and will get around to capturing all of them in the near future - perhaps doing some playthroughs with different characters etc.

[@retromuel]

Love your videos by the way. Just checked out your channel. Are you in the US?

[@unkles]

Sucks they cant release this arcade perfect port to us

[@otisboyd-wl3do]

Akira keep doing that juke

[@gc8972b]

fewer resources and lots of charisma

[@gordyowl9455]

12:00 games where the bad guy wins

[@robkrasinski6217]

When they released it on Saturn the music was changed to a remixed version and wasn't the same. I like the arcade music better. I have this Astro City mini from Japan and it has the first VF on it. I have VF2 on Xbox and it's arcade perfect, and I have a sealed VF2 from Japan for PS2 that was never released in the US. I never really played, 3, 4, etc. The Saturn VF2 was really cut down but it had the arcade music as well as remixed. There was also VF 1 and 2 on PC, the PC VF 1 has the same music from the Saturn.

[@heliomg20]

For the millenials who see this and think graphics are crappy, keep in mind this came out in 1993 - back in the day, it seemed like it was developed with extraterrestrial technology from 30th century. Yes, it was this shocking.

[@misterjersey5460]

12:34 Akira got knock the eff upp

[@Leo-xh8pp]

Very cool!!!

[@patoren3gou653]

Did this also use quadrilateral polygons like the Sega Saturn did

[@libcrypt98]

One of the most important games ever made!

[@StreetHierarchy]

They should have kept Virtua Fighter all blocky to distinguish it from other fighters of the time

[@redfoxbennaton]

How come the Saturn port doesn't have fingers but the arcade does?

[@wingzero2348]

This is ridiculous for 1993...tekken 1 looked and played like trash for 1994.

[@teemo3139]

haha I remember going to the arcade playing this then recreating fight scenes with my action figures then my parents promptly saying no more arcade for you.Blood type still befuddles me a little bit .. why would they have that as a character description?

[@mrzeldaman1]

Hello there, wonder if I could discuss using some footage for a new project? Let me know thanks

[@retromuel]

Hi. Sure we can. What's the best way to contact you?

[@Kytk7]

0:21 Samples of Sonic CD ?😮

[@RyuJoelPerez]

Joel Perez join virtua fighter vr

[@Virkach]

but in original arcades character's shadows were not in mesh, but in real shadows 😢

[@retromuel]

No. They were meshes, as they were in all Sega model 1 games.

[@edwardperez6294]

King of Fighters All Star x Virtua Fighter Final Showdown. Original Akira.

[@theproanimator8447]

how do I play this on emulator?

[@gokujoelperez3068]

Joel perez vf6

[@trunks5cell]

Saturn??

[@retromuel]

This is the arcade version.

[@FIGHTERSCHOICEArcade]

Real arcade hardware which is awesome!

[@darioscottkennedy]

Five hits and you get a KO

[@baalfgames5318]

4:09 Wait, what!?

[@dawn6658]

Some of the maps looks similar to fighters destiny. especially the city one. Or maybe fighters destiny copied this instead…

[@typingcat]

Yeah, but look at the faces. Just so comically bad. Looks like they used no polygons but used badly-drawn stick figure face texture.

[@retromuel]

The model 1 wasn't capable of texture mapping polygons. It's like trying to make a human face out of a few Lego bricks. The model 2 was capable of it and there's a massive improvement just a year or so later with Virtua Fighter 2.