UFO (Saturn V08)

UFO
System(s): Saturn V08
Developer: Sega Technical Institute
Development timeframe: 1995 Fall

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UFO is an unreleased Saturn V08 technical demo developed by Don Goddard around Fall 1995 to evaluate the capabilities of NVIDIA's prototype 32-bit hardware.

History

Development

“	...I had developed a really cool UFO game prototype that Michael Hara says he still remembers to this day (I had inteviewed there about 3 years later and said that was the only demo done with their curved surfaces that was a real game.) I had even floored a group of Japanese execs from SOJ (first time they came out to SOA) who were supposed to be stone faced and never crack a smile. When I presented the UFO game to them they were stoned faced until I turned on a TV with my demo and they could play it—they were smiling motherfuckers and couldn't believe they could play with it. They were like little kids. After they dropped the nVidia, I think I gave up on Sega. They had 'green-lighted' the whole UFO project, but two weeks later they werent going with nVidia and only had the Saturn. I thought 'oh well, there goes that game', but they said they 'loved the UFO game, do it for the Saturn.' I just shook my head. They had no idea how hard it would be to even do a crappy version of it on the Saturn. The UFO demo had not only curved surfaces but deformable mesh terrain, real-time scorch marks and up to 32 dynamic lights.	„
— Programmer Don Goddard

UFO was programmed by Sega Technical Institute's Don Goddard during the development of Sonic X-treme, with the demo being created to evaluate the Saturn V08 as a potential target platform for Sonic's 3D debut. Unfortunately, a number of issues resulted in Sega of America management quickly dropping the platform and concentrating on the Sega of Japan-produced Saturn.

Production credits

• Programmer: Don Goddard

Source:

Developer statements