Virtua Cop 2 is the best light gun game on the saturn. Runs and plays great. Picked this up day one back in the day with a light gun. Good times. This game did the system proud!
Great game, great series. I loved the car chase in the first mission, it blew me away - I didn't think game graphics would ever top that and the tension in that sequence (for the time) was incredible. The environmental destruction in this game was also outstanding - watermelons, statues, paintings, phones etc could be smashed/knocked down by stray shots. I used to spend ages seeing how much of the locations I could wreck lol. I love HoTD but I prefer the sequel and I'd pick this over OG HoTD.
The Saturn port was really well done for the time. I no longer have my Saturn so these days it's hard to play anything other than the arcade original. Running on the m2emulator at 1080p with widescreen enabled and a Gun4ir gun with recoil is pretty sweet.
Yes, that humming sound! I have ordered a new scart lead just now actually, something has gone iffy with my current one, the picture is a little darker than it should be and that buzzing noise is noticeable at times!
Play this one again using the composite cable and check out the “new found” transparencies on the cop car. This was designed to be played with composite and looks quite a bit better than the RGB sharpened and meshed image. This effect is probably the most obvious in Virtual On and its many explosions. It’s all meshes until you use composite - then you see what the developers had in mind.
If you don't mind reduced clarity and colour quality then composite or RF cables will hide the mesh effect transparencies better, yes, simply due to the image being less clear.
@ I actually think that that’s what it was intended to be used with. Maybe give Virtual On a go as a side by side. I was positively surprised and prefer the composite view (actually by a lot). This could make an interesting video. If developers had known we would be viewing this with RBG or component, I think they would have opted for much less use of meshes.
@manueld885 The main reason mesh was used, to my knowledge, was due to the extreme difficulty to program full 3D transparency on the Saturn. If I remember rightly, it took 10x [maybe 100x, can't remember exactly!] the length of time on the Saturn in comparison to the Playstation, hence why nearly all 3D games on the Saturn use my worst enemy...the 'mesh effect' when they want transparency. As for doing a video of composite Vs rgb, I've though about this but my upscaler doesn't accept composite inputs so I'll have to have a think about it! To be fair, I'd probably do RF vs Composite vs RGB if I can pull it off!
@ yes - the mesh technique was in lieu of polygonal half-transparency thanks to the Saturn drawing quads instead of triangles. However, thanks to the “video degradation” effect that was also used on the genesis for transparency (background waterfall in Sonic 1), the mesh would appear blended and create a fully transparent effect when viewed via composite on a CRT. While meshes were a workaround, they were not meant to be noticed or seen. There’s a rgb v composite comparison video for virtual on - just have a look how much the picture and overall image changes for the better. And the cop car in virtual cop not only gains “full transparency” on its windows but even sports a gradient effect - only on composite. Using a good comb filter (retrotink etc) cleans up the composite image quite a bit - so you get the best of both. IMO
@@GameShackExtra I love playing them on the PC, because with a mouse, or trackball, you get the accuracy and speed of using something like a lightgun, without having to go dig one out.
@@gameshack1985 it's certainly not bad, but haven't recently played through both i definately like the Saturn versions better, they basically play as close to the arcade version as it ever got.
*Bang, bang! What's the best gun game on the Saturn: Virtua Cop 2 or House of the Dead?*
VC2! HotD is ass on a plate. The game itself is great, sure, but that Saturn port (and PC port) are just pants.
@simondaniel4028 They're still fun to play though lol
VC2 of course... Better graphics no weird loading times during the game. It's way better.
Virtua Cop 2 is the best light gun game on the saturn. Runs and plays great. Picked this up day one back in the day with a light gun. Good times.
This game did the system proud!
@@colinbaldwin7773 It's top stuff for sure!
Great game, great series. I loved the car chase in the first mission, it blew me away - I didn't think game graphics would ever top that and the tension in that sequence (for the time) was incredible. The environmental destruction in this game was also outstanding - watermelons, statues, paintings, phones etc could be smashed/knocked down by stray shots. I used to spend ages seeing how much of the locations I could wreck lol. I love HoTD but I prefer the sequel and I'd pick this over OG HoTD.
@Grandmastergav86 I love the car chase level too!
The Saturn port was really well done for the time. I no longer have my Saturn so these days it's hard to play anything other than the arcade original. Running on the m2emulator at 1080p with widescreen enabled and a Gun4ir gun with recoil is pretty sweet.
Aaah that classic ‘humming’ sound 1:44 … I got Virtua cop 1 on sale back in the day never got this till years later
Yes, that humming sound! I have ordered a new scart lead just now actually, something has gone iffy with my current one, the picture is a little darker than it should be and that buzzing noise is noticeable at times!
@@gameshack1985using my rad2x on a pc monitor have zero complaints (so far)
Play this one again using the composite cable and check out the “new found” transparencies on the cop car. This was designed to be played with composite and looks quite a bit better than the RGB sharpened and meshed image. This effect is probably the most obvious in Virtual On and its many explosions. It’s all meshes until you use composite - then you see what the developers had in mind.
If you don't mind reduced clarity and colour quality then composite or RF cables will hide the mesh effect transparencies better, yes, simply due to the image being less clear.
@ I actually think that that’s what it was intended to be used with. Maybe give Virtual On a go as a side by side. I was positively surprised and prefer the composite view (actually by a lot). This could make an interesting video.
If developers had known we would be viewing this with RBG or component, I think they would have opted for much less use of meshes.
@manueld885 The main reason mesh was used, to my knowledge, was due to the extreme difficulty to program full 3D transparency on the Saturn. If I remember rightly, it took 10x [maybe 100x, can't remember exactly!] the length of time on the Saturn in comparison to the Playstation, hence why nearly all 3D games on the Saturn use my worst enemy...the 'mesh effect' when they want transparency. As for doing a video of composite Vs rgb, I've though about this but my upscaler doesn't accept composite inputs so I'll have to have a think about it! To be fair, I'd probably do RF vs Composite vs RGB if I can pull it off!
@ yes - the mesh technique was in lieu of polygonal half-transparency thanks to the Saturn drawing quads instead of triangles. However, thanks to the “video degradation” effect that was also used on the genesis for transparency (background waterfall in Sonic 1), the mesh would appear blended and create a fully transparent effect when viewed via composite on a CRT.
While meshes were a workaround, they were not meant to be noticed or seen.
There’s a rgb v composite comparison video for virtual on - just have a look how much the picture and overall image changes for the better.
And the cop car in virtual cop not only gains “full transparency” on its windows but even sports a gradient effect - only on composite.
Using a good comb filter (retrotink etc) cleans up the composite image quite a bit - so you get the best of both. IMO
There was also a Windows port, which is basically the Saturn game running at a higher resolution.
One thing I've never done is play a lightgun game on a pc!
@@GameShackExtra I love playing them on the PC, because with a mouse, or trackball, you get the accuracy and speed of using something like a lightgun, without having to go dig one out.
If you can fill half an hour with thirty minutes of relentless blasting of enemies and have so much fun, you'll be a lightgun gamer, my son.
Easily one of the best games on the saturn.
I played the hell out of it back in the day.
This and House of the Dead are still so much fun!
The Saturn version is better than the PS2 version, same with the first game too.
I haven't played it on Dreamcast.
@@CaseTheCorvetteMan I'll get the ps2 collection at some point!
@@gameshack1985 it's certainly not bad, but haven't recently played through both i definately like the Saturn versions better, they basically play as close to the arcade version as it ever got.