One thing that stood out with the jump to 32-Bit was racing games. Genre fans, such as myself, had spent years enjoying racing games that featured scaling sprites that stuttered quite a bit in many cases (especially home console racing games). When Sony and Sega started showing off their 32-Bit consoles, it was a no brainer that racing games were one of the leading genres featured. Sure, there was pop-in, we quickly got used to it or just quit bitching about it, but the overall graphics were lightyears ahead in quality than the 16-Bit consoles, no matter how many enhancement chips were put in a cart, could match. One title that Sega’s Saturn never got was Need for Speed II SE as EA became quite shy about supporting the hardware rather quickly in its life. A fan is fixing that oversight.
A Work in Progress Already Revving Its Engine Loudly
While the game may look like it needs a lot more work in the graphics department, I ask that you look at the original PlayStation version that was released. This was simply the “look” of racing games of the 32-Bit era. Sure, we had standouts such as the Wipeout franchise, Ridge Racer, etc but those are exceptions to the rule. Much like wearing rose colored nostalgia glasses and looking at 16-Bit and thinking “everything” was as good as the Sonic or Mario franchises – exceptions to the rule again.
What is here in this video, featuring “Update 2” in the title, is quite a bit of general racing goodness.
Optimization Comes Later
You may be looking at the video above and can easily tell, that is not 60, let alone 30 Frames Per Second. Your eagle eyes would certainly be right, according to the developer, the game runs around 15 to 20 FPS, again, about what 32-Bit consoles could produce, even with official development kits (or what Sega would call an SDK anyhow).
The developer states in the video description that they are optimizing for a 2 mb version first (stock Saturn) as that is what the original PlayStation version was. There may be optimization later for the 4 meg expansion cart but no promises.
I have no idea how this port is being developed – what SDK is being used, if any, etc. Just what we see in the video and that is impressive.