Eastern Mind

Eastern promises: Konami’s Cobra System

While none can deny the present-day concern with graphical performance in games, so widespread among the obsessed game playing and reviewing community, the struggle to achieve the best visuals is an age-old one. While going about one of my old magazines, as usual, I rediscovered a small column of information regarding a long-forgotten episode of entertainment history where Konami challenges SEGA’s leading position as the arcade manufacturer with the most significant innovations of its time. First of all it’s necessary to consider how the use of arcade fighting game genre has always been associated with the employment of the latest technologies. Here, the detail is placed upon the characters who, invariably, are required to obey to strict anatomical proportions using a considerably higher number of polygons per model, not to mention accurate collision detection.

Aside from modeling of on-screen fighters, their animation was also one of the most strenuous efforts programmers and game creators in general had to face. If there ever was great pioneer - an epitome of the 3D Fighting genre if you will - that would have to be the original 1993 Virtua Fighter where, in spite of blatant similarities and inspirations drawn from CAPCOM’s Street Fighter II, a new era of combat simulators initiated. In a time of reduced polygon count and texture mapping, the movements of each character were fundamental in defining each fighter with a unique sense of personality. Shortly after, as the 1990 decade unfolded, both the detail of textures and animations incremented dramatically. Even with NAMCO’s investment in the Tekken series, a game often hailed for its accessible controls and difficulty curve, SEGA’s Virtua Fighter games remained at the top of the arcade room hi-tech fixture.

A major player in the coin-op scene, Konami felt somehow threatened by the unbelievable technology SEGA introduced to players around the world during the Model 1 and Model 2 epoch: and yet it would be the third and final Model 3 that would eventually lead them to rebate with a new arcade system and game that was not only said to match SEGA’s stunning work in games like Virtua Fighter 3 - consensually regarded as one of the most impressive leaps in graphics technology of all time, while still an exceptionally functional game - as it would, supposedly, outdo it.

As specified in the news report of that 1997 magazine, Konami launched a rather aggressive marketing campaign months before any actual materials were shown. Raising the bar on SEGA’s one million polygon per second spectacle (at the time, polygon count figures were mandatory in any arcade or console system description), the company’s new arcade prototype “Cobra” could, in theory, produce and skilfully manipulate an unbelievable figure of 5 million polygons per second. Apart from detailed character models, Fighting Bujutsu featured full 3D backgrounds as well as a dynamic time and weather system that enabled conditions to change between bouts (as declared on the flyers).

In 1996, SEGA bestowed 3D fighting games with the gift of gameplay depth: with the use of one single button in VF3, it was possible to have the character sidestep, not only to displace himself more freely about the fighting arena; but also to evade, when pressed in the correct timing, some of the opponent’s attacks. The issue of actual 3D movement in these games was always a hazardous topic as it is known that, even today, 3D combat games are played, essentially, in two dimensions albeit the occasional movement towards the front or back of the screen. If Tobal No. 2 is the first console game in its type to bring true 3D movement to the fighting area, Fighting Bujutsu was quite possibly the absolute first game to employ it.

Considering the earliest promises from Konami, Fighting Wu-Shu (as it’s also known) succeeded in offering a new technical landmark as, indeed, the company had announced. In spite of that, the actual graphics of the game showed clear contrasts between unbelievable details and assets that were, truth be told, reminiscent of the previous generation of arcade games where Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken 2 or Dead or Alive were the most virtuous examples. Being the only existing game for the Cobra System board, Bujutsu lacked the animation detail from its greatest competitor, often shifting between smoother movements and abrupt transitions that Konami, unlike the experienced programmers at SEGA, was unable to avoid. From a purely technical standpoint, the most impressive aspect of the game would have to be the lighting system, as the PowerPC-based hardware allowed multiple (some say up to 8) light sources and atmospheric effects. But, as it so often happens in gaming, the use of appealing visuals is enough, at best, to draw the arcade-going audience’s attention for a few coins.

Konami’s lack of experience in the area of combat games caused this promising project to remain in history as a curiosity, rather than a genuine classic. It’s ephemeral prosperity, notwithstanding, has led to a second installment of the game - one that never left Japanese arcade rooms - where the only noticeable difference was the use of alternative character costumes.Because of the noteworthy investment made by Konami in this project and its advertisement, this arcade cabinet was also distributed throughout the United States and Europe in that same year of 1997. An interesting piece of trivia: some of the original Wu-Shu game properties were to be found in a later PlayStation release, also from Konami, under the name Bugi (or Kensei: The Sacred Fist).

Ultimately, the challenge proposed to SEGA and the announced dethronement of Virtua Fighter by the hands of this powerful new hardware was but a lighthearted fallacy. Not only did the Cobra turned out to be much less powerful than anticipated (in fact no more than a very clever evolution of their Hornet arcade board, therefore incapable of moving the 5 million polygons figure at the 640x480 pixel resolution as initially assured) as it didn’t even cause any major changes in player’s habits. As for SEGA’s, no official statements regarding this matter were ever released; although the inclusion of the character Lei-Fei in VF 4 Evolution - a shaolin monastery warrior disciple with more than arbitrary resemblances with Sho-Fu, the protagonist of Konami’s game - might provide a clue as to their laid-back attitude towards new and emerging competitors in the coin-op race. The rest is history.

Arcade Flyer Source [ Arcade Flyers ] / Cobra Hardware info [ System 16 ]