Lost In Translation/Virtua Fighter

This page is a stub for arcade games that are part of the Lost In Translation series using information based on MAME (version 0.113u2).
For an example of preferred content and layout please refer to Out Run or The Ninja Warriors.

Virtua Fighter
Manufacturer	Sega
Released	1993
Control Method	8-way Joystick 3 Button(s)
Main CPU	V60 (@ 16.000 MHz) 68000 (@ 10.000 MHz)
Sound CPU	Stereo YM3438 (@ 8.000 MHz) (2x) MultiPCM (@ 8.000 MHz)
Video Details	Raster (Horizontal) 496 x 384 pixels 60.00 Hz 8,192 Palette colours
Screens	1
ROM Info	26 ROMs 30,932,992 bytes (29.50 MiB)
MAME ID	vf

About The Game

Virtua Fighter is a 3-D, one-on-one fighting arcade video game.

The battle system is simple, yet complex. There are 3 buttons : Punch, Kick and Guard. Movement is strictly confined to a horizontal plane.

Battles are won by draining the energy bar of your opponent or by pushing your opponent off the edges of the ring (known as a 'Ring-out').

When a 'Draw' is declared (timer reaches zero with both fighters having an equal amount of energy), a Sudden Death match is held on a very small platform, making a win by Ring-out that much more probable.

The game favours tactical play over mindless button bashing, and the gameplay is balanced accordingly to reflect this.

Trivia

An instant success in Japanese arcades, Virtua Fighter (or VF for short) brought the versus beat 'em up kicking and screaming into the next generation. Like "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior", a substantial number of clones ("Toshinden", "Tekken", "Dead or Alive") would follow in its wake, each with their own tweaks to the formula.

Among the game's many innovations, the most profound were the true-to-life animation (all the more impressive considering no motion capture technology was used) and the realistic move-sets of the game's eight characters.

Virtua Fighter serves 180,000 polygons per second. This is the first 3-D polygonal one-on-one fighting game.

During Virtua Fighter's development, the game featured an Arabian fighter named 'Siba'. He was replaced later on in the final prototypes by Akira, as the developers felt that the game needed a karate fighter similar to Street Fighter's Ryu. Siba was brought back as an unlock-able character in the Saturn game 'Fighter's Megamix', in all his VF1 style glory.

Tips and tricks

Play as Dural

First, you must beat the computer Dural and have 2 games worth of credits in the machine ready to go. After beating the game, have one player press Start and pick a character. As soon as that character finishes smiling, but before the game actually starts, player 2 should press Start to interrupt the process. If your timing is perfect, and the stars are perfectly aligned, and you've been a good boy or girl, player 2 may come in as Dural.

See Credits

You can get the credits of the programmers to come up on the screen by holding down a Start button during the demo. When it comes to the standard demo with Sarah kicking Kage, the credits will come up. Keep holding the Start button to keep the credits coming or else they will freeze.

Kage's Face Mask

It seems that after about 3,000 plays, the mask on Kage falls off instead of just his headband. You can see his teeth and a scar on his cheek.

Series

1. Virtua Fighter (1993)
2. Virtua Fighter 2 (1995)
3. Virtua Fighter Remix (1995)
4. Virtua Fighter Kids (1996)
5. Virtua Fighter 3 (1997)

   Virtua Fighter 3 - Team Battle (1998)

6. Virtua Fighter 4 (2001)
7. Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution (2002)
8. Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary (2003, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Virtua Fighter 4 Final Tuned (2004)
10. Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation - Judgment Six No Yabou (2004, Sony PlayStation 2)
11. Virtua Fighter 5 (2006)
12. Virtua Fighter 5 R (2008)

Staff

Coordinator & Main Designer

Seiichi Ishii

Main Programmer

Toru Ikebuchi

Programmers

Shin Kimura

Takeshi Suzuki

Eisuke Miura

Kazuhiko Yamada

Masahiko Kobayashi

Naomi Ota

F.Y. Bertrand

Tetsuya Kaku

Designers

Kunihiko Nakata

Youji Kato

Toshiya Inoue

Yoshinao Asako

Masataka Aochi

Tomohiro Ishii

Jeffery Buchanan

Mika Kojima

Program Supports

Keiji Okayasu

Hiroaki Shoji

Music Composer

Takayuki Nakamura

Planning Support

Manabu Tsukamoto

Producer & Director

Yu Suzuki

Cabinet and Artwork

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  Virtua Fighter arcade cabinet.

• 

  Virtua Fighter flyer.

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  Inside of the Virtua Fighter flyer.

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  Inside of the Virtua Fighter flyer.

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  Back of the Virtua Fighter flyer.

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  Alternate Virtua Fighter flyer.

Ports

Consoles

Sega Saturn (1994)

Sega 32x (1995)

Sega Master System (1996, "Virtua Fighter Animation")

Sega Game Gear (1996, "Virtua Fighter Mini")

Computers

PC [MS Windows 9x, CD-ROM] (1996)

Soundtrack Releases

Album Name	Catalogue No.	Released	Publisher	Comments
Virtua Fighter "Sega Saturn" Image by B-univ: Neo Rising	TYCY-5406	1994-12-21	Toshiba EMI	CD version.
Virtua Fighter & Virtua Fighter 2 MUSIC TRACKS	TYCY-5480~1	1996-01-31	Toshiba EMI	2 CD version.
Virtua Fighter	TYCY-5386	1994-03-23	Toshiba-EMI	CD version.
SEGA Saturn Virtua Fighter Maximum Mania	TYCY-5409	1994-11-30	Toshiba EMI	CD version.
SEGA Saturn History ~Saturn Was Young~ First Volume	WWCE-31052~3	2004-10-27	Wave Master	2 CD version.
Club Saturn	MM 86013-2	1997-11-11	Breakdown Records	CD version.
CLUB SEGA	MJCA-00003	1997-10-17	Marvelous Entertainment	CD version.
Saturn Sampler Audio CD	MMSJAN96	1996-01-01	Mean Machines Sega	CD version.
Virtua Fighter ~ Akira/Kage	TYDY-2056	1994-01-19	Futureland / Toshiba EMI	CD version.

References

The contents of this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
The sources used include MAME (version 0.113u2) and history.dat (revision 1.28 - 2008-10-18).
Please see http://www.arcade-history.com for credits.