The GHZ Forum

So i was at my job at Sega the other day, working on my top secret project, when i happened to turn around to a slightly familar sound. What i saw chilled me to the bone and caused to me startle out, "What the?! NiGHTS for the PC". And there it was, looking the same as the original version, but so much sharper. The framerate was a constant 60fps. I was about to ask the smiling face who was playing it how it was. I would have asked to try the game out, which would of surely turned my fingers into pleasured wangs. Reaching for the controller, i was an inch away...

Then i woke up.

Ironically, NiGHTS is the only game i've ever dreamed about. Once, before i had played the game, i dreamt i brought NiGHTS for the Genesis which played alot like Space Harrier.

BTW, this dream was probably inspired by the fact that Billy Hatcher is being released for the PC. Not a joke.

Well, if it makes you feel better... NiGHTS emulates decently on the latest version of SSF. Pretty good framerate, the sound is about 80% accurate, and it's very much playable. I'd say by next year's end, Saturn emulation will be taken a lot more seriously. SSF has made some tremendous progress the last few months. Radiant Silvergun plays pretty well, Sonic 3D Blast runs almost perfectly, etc.

Latest version was posted on the 18th. Look here.

Well, i already have the game and a working saturn, so thats no biggy.

It just looked so friggin' great in my dream and i wish it was real.

But it looks sharper running on an emulator, which seemed to be a key factor in your wishing it was real. In a way, it almost is real. Emulation has the potential to outperform the original hardware.

I seem to recall from long, long ago NiGHTS being released as part of Sega's "Sega PC" series. However, nothing turned up in any searches. Did I dream that, or does anyone else remember that?

Parn wrote:SSF has made some tremendous progress the last few months. Radiant Silvergun plays pretty well, Sonic 3D Blast runs almost perfectly, etc.

As far a graphics go, it has nothing on Cassini, but it has the best sound I've heard thus far on a Saturn emulator.

Oh, and it emulates Clockwork Knight 2 almost perfectly. This makes me very happy.

But what about Madou Monogatari? I so want to play the Saturn version of that series.

Bo wrote:I seem to recall from long, long ago NiGHTS being released as part of Sega's "Sega PC" series. However, nothing turned up in any searches. Did I dream that, or does anyone else remember that?

I remember that. I heard there would be two new stages, one was supposed to be themed like an attic made out of candy or something (I have to say that sounded rather lame)

WhoopA wrote:But what about Madou Monogatari? I so want to play the Saturn version of that series.

Never heard of it, but it looks simplistic enough for an emulator to handle.

In the NiGHTS, dream delight...

Thats a point, i hate the main theme's lyrics and singers.

This is irony at its most potent form.

Silv, I think the one you're talking about was an old April Fools gag.

There was supposed to have been that (and some other Saturn games) released in the Sega B-Club at one time, but I don't think it ever happened.

What is the status of Saturn emulation? I was under the impression that it's basically impossible to have it running properly due to the sloppy mess that was the original Saturn hardware. Is there any hope at all?

Silv's memory is the same one I have. I vaguely recall a mockup screenshot, but I think that might be my own imagination.

I messed with Saturn emulation over Thanksgiving after deciding I wanted to play NiGHTS. It took some doing, but the Cassini emulator made for a playable Clockwork Knight. NiGHTS didn't fare as well for me. I suspect better performance can be achieved by ripping the game disc to ISO and using a virtual CD program. I'm going to continue to mess with it when I have time.

I wanted to try SSF, but it requires a CPU with SSE2 support, and due to a quirk with my computer's BIOS, it won't run. If anybody can point me to a build that doesn't require SSE2, please do.

On Cassini, NiGHTS runs almost perfectly, sans the sound. Did you have problems actually running the game, or just getting it to start? If the latter, you just have to bash the start button to skip the cutscene, Cassini can't handle movies very well.

Actually, I think that version 5 can run movies to a certain extent, but I recall it giving me problems in one way or another, so I stuck with 4. I'll give 5 another shot some other time. SSF, on the other hand, runs movies just fine. Still runs fairly slower than Cassini, and it looks like ass.

Bo wrote:Silv's memory is the same one I have. I vaguely recall a mockup screenshot, but I think that might be my own imagination.

I remember it too. It was posted on UK site Game-Online (which is now known as CVG, PC Zone, Nintendo Magazine Online and various other titles).

The article can be found here

However, as GG! said, it was just an April Fools.

^_^

Those Monsterz!

You are the man, Big Smile.

Edit: Is 4.0 the latest version of Cassini? I think I was using a much older version in my last attempt.

Actually, that'd be 5.0, which can be found here. It requires 4.0 to work. You'd probably be better off with 4.0, though. 5.0 doesn't add much, and it seems to be a lot less stable.

Cassini is supposed to work on Windows 9x, but I think it has a dependency on a DLL from the 2k/XP version of DirectX (and my XP computer is a laptop with a slow CD-ROM drive). You can't just leech the DLLs from the 2k/XP DirectX installer files, either; tried that. If I get it running, I'll post how to do it.