Shenmue

The original Saturn version of the later epoch-making Dreamcast game.

Sega's Shenmue was perhaps the company's largest game. Yu Suzuki's dream project was allegedly seven years in the making and changed several times along the way. When it finally arrived for Dreamcast, it was considered an epoch-making release, that made more with the console than thought possible - but the game is even more impressive.

Shenmue was originally planned for release on the much weaker Saturn console, where the game was near to completion. But in the end the technical problems accumulated - among others where the space issue and the game would have required eight cd-roms - so AM2 decided to move the large production onto Sega's next console.

Presumeably there are no available prototypes of the Saturn version, but by completing Shenmue II for Dreamcast or Xbox one can open up for a short movie of it. These pictures are from this movie and demonstrates the great likeness to the final product on Dreamcast.