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PandaMonium Games: Virtua Cop Documentary (4 Hours Analysis & Retrospective)

Have you every played any of the Virtua Cop games (Saturn, Arcade, PS2 etc.)?

  • Yes

    Votes: 33 91.7%
  • No

    Votes: 3 8.3%

  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .
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Just thought I'd drop a link for those of you interested. Currently an on-going premier btw. Pandemonium Games is an excellent Youtube channel for Sega Saturn content; they've got a goal to review every American Saturn game released but almost all of these reviews are a lot more than the typical ones. They usually go very in-depth on the development history and quirky, obscure details related to the game itself, so for gaming history aficionados and Saturn lovers in particular this channel's content is a must-watch.

I'm gonna give the Virtua Cop one a watch on Sunday; it's a big chunky one (again, roughly 4 hours), but even from the five minutes I randomly caught it's the usual high-quality stuff. Great info on the state of Saturn and PlayStation development kits and release timings for them, roughly from 47 minutes in (well, from when I popped into the stream, anyway). Seriously great stuff; here's a link to their Youtube channel as well so you can see their other vids.
 
This is some professional grade research. How they managed to get ahold of all that video footage inside the AM2 studio is fascinating.

Yes I played Virtua Cop at the arcade many times. I didn’t really get into gun games until T2 and Time Crisis.

It really, truly is. He did similar stuff WRT the Virtua Fighter Remix one, too, tho that one is obviously a lot shorter. I had no idea Sega were practically sitting on a near-finished (if not 100% finished) version of that before the Saturn even released in NA. Guess they wanted to double-dip xD.

Hopefully more of the classic light-gun games come to current-gen consoles and PC in the future. There's kind of been some solutions made for them interface-wise, I think there's one that doesn't rely on Joycon or Wiimote-style controls either but I'd need to look into it more. There's so many fun cool ones just languishing or where the only options are pricey(ish) copies or sailing the high seas for ROMs.
 

Rat Rage

Member
Fuck yeah!! PandaMonium's does some really well-made & researched retro-gaming videos. Very entertaining and very informative.
Truly a highly underrated youtube channel.
People should also check out his NBA Jam TE documentary - IMHO one of the best retro gaming documentaries I've ever seen!
 
I have virtua cop 1 and 2 for pc.
Sadly, they don't work very well with modern hardware.

Not even running it in virtual mode helps? Were the PC versions of VC 1 & 2 DOS or Windows 95? There are some W95 emulators that might be worth looking into.

Unless those ports also required the NV1 card, which I guess would make them impossible to play without having one of those cards.

Fuck yeah!! PandaMonium's does some really well-made & researched retro-gaming videos. Very entertaining and very informative.
Truly a highly underrated youtube channel.
People should also check out his NBA Jam TE documentary - IMHO one of the best retro gaming documentaries I've ever seen!

Not sure if I've seen their NBA Jam TE doc yet, but I'll make sure to do it after watching through the Virtua Cop one. Their channel is on my shortlist among awesome retro gaming channels and now gaming analysis channels as well.
 

Knightime_X

Member
Not even running it in virtual mode helps? Were the PC versions of VC 1 & 2 DOS or Windows 95? There are some W95 emulators that might be worth looking into.

Unless those ports also required the NV1 card, which I guess would make them impossible to play without having one of those cards.



Not sure if I've seen their NBA Jam TE doc yet, but I'll make sure to do it after watching through the Virtua Cop one. Their channel is on my shortlist among awesome retro gaming channels and now gaming analysis channels as well.
1st game i couldn't get to run on win10 so haven't even bothered trying win11.

Vc2 WILL load and run on win11 but you can't do much with the video settings and the mouse moves extremely fast even when set to lowest sensitive in game.

No music either, but I think that was on the cd.
 
4 hours ?

There's actually some gaming documentaries even LONGER than that x3. But very few of those have interviews with large chunks of the original development team. I'm about halfway through the Virtua Cop one and the dev interview parts have been among the most insightful, easily.

1st game i couldn't get to run on win10 so haven't even bothered trying win11.

Vc2 WILL load and run on win11 but you can't do much with the video settings and the mouse moves extremely fast even when set to lowest sensitive in game.

No music either, but I think that was on the cd.

So with VC2 I'm guessing you are stuck with windowed mode that can't adjust? Also sounds like maybe some of the game logic for I/O (at least for that port) could've been tied to CPU speeds.

A legit good W95 or W98 emulator would be a great thing, instead of just needing to rely on compatibility mode for anything non-DOS.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Virtua Cop 2 (バーチャコップ2) is a light gun arcade game that was released in 1995 and later ported to home console systems, including the Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast. Both versions of the game are essentially identical, with the same levels, gameplay mechanics, and overall experience.

In Virtua Cop 2, players take on the role of a member of the Virtua City police force and must use their light gun to shoot their way through a series of criminal cases. The game features fast-paced, action-packed gameplay, with players taking on a variety of enemies and boss characters as they progress through the game.

One of the key features of Virtua Cop 2 is its use of realistic 3D graphics, which were impressive for the time. The game also features a variety of weapons to choose from and a variety of gameplay modes, including a two-player co-op mode.

Virtua Cop 2 Saturn Review

If you own the light gun peripheral, then this is one of the best games the Saturn library has to offer. It takes everything that was great about the first Virtua Cop and improves on it: More variety, longer levels, higher replay value – the works. Virtua Cop 2 is one of the main reasons why you should dig your Saturn out of storage every once in a while. If you’re a fan of light gun shooters, this game certainly is an absolute must.

Virtua Cop 2 Dreamcast Review

Basically it's a conversion of the PC conversion of the Saturn conversion of the arcade. This means that the problems in the earlier conversions are still evident here. The new revamped models actually look worse than the arcade originals. The worst thing of all is the frame rate. The game runs at 30 fps which is inexcusable especially considering that more advanced gun games like Confidential Mission run at a solid 60 fps. It doesn't sound like much but the lower frame rate really hurts the frenetic feel of this game.

Veredict

Virtua Cop 2 is one of the best gun games ever made but this Dreamcast port is a very average version of it. It would have been far better if Sega released a Virtua Cop pack containing arcade perfect ports of Virtua Cop 1 and 2 seeing as they are aging a bit now and the asking price is a little steep for one flawed title.

00:00 Intro
00:13 Intro Comparison (Dreamcast vs Saturn)
01:40 Title Screen Comparison (Dreamcast vs Saturn)
01:46 Gameplay Scene 1 Comparison (Dreamcast vs Saturn)
03:47 Gameplay Scene 2 Comparison (Dreamcast vs Saturn)
06:22 Gameplay Scene 3 Comparison (Dreamcast vs Saturn)
08:22 Game Over Compariso (Dreamcast vs Saturn)
05:42 Outro

Games Featured

Virtua Cop 2 (Sega Saturn 1996) AM R&D Dept. #2 | US Version
Virtua Cop 2 (Sega Dreamcast 2000) AM R&D Dept. #2| JP Version
 

Ozzie666

Member
I really wish there was an Analgoue Console version of this with updated display etc. I wonder if they could FPGA the Saturn. I've been trolling ebay looking for used ones, so tempted. Also, this documentary is pretty insane, His NBA Jam one is pretty good too. That theme song sticks in your head though.
 
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