Model 3 emulation tested within Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
It’s not alone either, as a second Model 3 game is also included - Fighting Vipers 2.
But how close is it really?
Thanks toLike a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, now we can find out.
To understand Sega’s Model 3 arcade technology, we need to put 1996 into context.
But then there wasVirtua Fighter3.
The Model 3 could push huge polygon counts for the time with high resolution textures and genuine anti-aliasing.
VF3 itself introduced inverse kinematics allowing proper foot placement on uneven surfaces.
Many of them, even the arcade games, often struggled to maintain even 30 frames per second.
It was truly mind-blowing in comparison to games that would ship years later on other hardware.
This truly felt like dipping your toes into the future to experience visual quality that had never existed.
Model 3 supports advanced lighting and color blending features as well.
Alas, Daytona USA 2 remained in arcades.
Despite Dreamcast releasing not long after, it never received a proper home conversion.
In time, hope was lost and we feared that Daytona 2 would never receive a home conversion.
That is - until now.
Recently, Sega finally unveiled its own in-house emulator designed to play Model 3 arcade games.
There is no option to change this but it works well enough, I suppose.
Using the game’s introduction, we can draw comparisons between the emulated version and real hardware.
If you look a little closer, however, differences do manifest.
Beyond this, texture filtering is handled differently - it’s vastly superior on real Model 3 hardware.
However, the ability to tweak aspect ratio and select arbitrary resolutions is certainly worthwhile.
Every time I drop in a quarter - virtual or otherwise - I can’t help but smile.
I just hope they eventually consider releasing a standalone package.
Of course, Daytona USA 2 is not alone.
The new Like a Dragon also includes an emulated Fighting Vipers 2.
Much like Daytona 2, Fighting Vipers 2 operates in 4:3 with a CRT filter enabled.
It also runs at 60 frames per second during gameplay providing fluid motion without judder.
It uses the same high-resolution rendering and plays pretty well though with a minor caveat.
What we can do, however, is compare and contrast with the Sega Dreamcast version.
I had always assumed the Dreamcast version was, more or less, arcade-accurate.
Character textures are of a higher resolution on Model 3 and shadows are drawn completely differently.
Furthermore, background texture work is of a much lower res on Dreamcast as well.
Fighting Vipers 2 is a weird one overall, though.
It’s a fun game but it’s not among my favorite Sega arcade titles from this era.
Someone deep within Sega still clearly cares.
The emulation isn’t flawless but it’s more than good enough and sets the stage for future releases.
Will Sega ever get around to releasing Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3 retro collections?
The games are there.
The quality is there.
And now we know that the emulation is good enough too.
Over to you, Sega.
