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[Kazza]

​

The Sega Saturn launched in Japan on the 22nd of November 1994 for 44,800 yean (around $450), exactly 25 years ago today. In contrast to the infamous US launch, it was massive success, selling out it's initial stock of 200,000 units on day one, and by the end 1995 it was still in pole position in terms of sales, even ahead of Sony's Playstation:

Despite it's launch massively outperforming that of the US the year after, in terms of launch games, the Japanese launch was actually much inferior, with Virtua Fighter and Myst being the only two standout titles, the other three consisting of a basic puzzle game, a mahjong game and an FMV game:

The games released in the months leading up to the western launches weren't much better either, with only a trickle of decent games making their way to the shops, most notably Clockwork Knight a few days after launch, Panzer Dragon in March 1995, Daytona USA and Astal in April, Cyber Speedway in May and Shinobi Legions in June. Much like Mario 64 in the US, it seemed that the main launch title, Virtua Fighter, was enough of a draw for Japanese consumers.

While Japanese Saturn advertising is indelibly linked to the legendary Segata Sanshiro, my research reveals that he didn't actually appear in the earliest Saturn ads. Much like the US ones, the Japanese launch ads were strange mix of futuristic, dystopian settings and strange looking crazy people:

It's interesting that Sega of Japan copied the American slogan, "welcome to the next level". That wasn't the only inspiration they took from their US counterparts. Despite having initial reservations about Sega of America's strategy of directly attacking Nintendo, the Sega of Japan of 1994 weren't above throwing shade at their competitors, as this anti-Sony Playstation ad shows:

The monkeys (edit: apes) must have proved popular, as they turned up in other ads too, including this amusing one for the excellent SRPG, known variously as Mystaria, Riglord Saga and Blazing Heroes, depending on your region:

Of its third party support, few were as important to the Saturn as Capcom and its 2D fighting games, and this young lady seemed to be a regular fixture in their ads of the time:

Of course, perhaps no ad was more important to the Saturn's early success in Japan as this one for the port of the arcade smash hit, Virtua Fighter:

The early Japanese Saturn ads are an interesting bunch, and worth watching here, if you have a spare 10 minutes.

I'll finish with recommending this recent video from Sega Lord X, where he discusses his experience importing the Japanese console on day one:

​

And don't forget to check out our excellent Neogaf Saturn community page:

NeoGAF Official SEGA SATURN Community

SEGA SATURN: AN OVERVIEW (October 22, 2019) -- Sega Saturn is Sega’s 32-bit home videogames console. It was released in Japan on November 22, 1994, the United States on May 11, 1995 and UK/Europe on July 8, 1995. It was the direct competitor to Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64, Atari Jaguar and...

www.neogaf.com

Happy 25th birthday Saturn!

 

[Kazza]

Although it sounds a little unbelievable now, the day before Sega of Japan was poised to launch the Saturn, Sega of America decided to launch the 32X in the US, at a much cheaper price of $159.99, giving Genesis owners a 32-bit upgrade on a budget. Just like the Saturn launch in Japan, the launch of the 32X in America was a big success, with over a million pre-orders and all 600,000 available units sold out before Christmas of 1994. The launch line-up, although small, was stronger than that of the Japanese Saturn, and offered Genesis owners true next-gen experiences not possible on the base console:

​

Although their advertising for the 1995 launch of the Saturn would prove lacklustre, Sega of America (and Europe, for that matter) proved they still had the magic touch, with these great ads:

The video ads used the same "angry black guy" as the Sega CD ones:

​

This infomercial is just bizarre though:

​

Sega of America CEO of the time, Tom Kalinske, was in buoyant mood when interviewed by Edge magazine in March 1995, saying "Now, I can sit here and tell you today that no matter how great Saturn is, or PlayStation is, or Ultra 64 is, we will outsell them by an enormous amount with 32X - simply because of the price." Alas, just like the initial success of the Saturn in Japan, it wasn't to last, and the 32X would be pretty much dead within a year of launch.

I'm going to finish the 32X section as I did the Saturn one, with another Sega Lord X video, with what I think is a very fair assessment of the console:

​

 

[Kazza]

Sega of Japan hasn't forgotten, and has sent out this tweet wishing the console a happy 25th birthday:




It seems that Sega of America didn't think it appropriate to mark the yesterday's anniversary of the 32X with a tweet though

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Love my Saturn. It's a wonderful time-capsule slice of the arcade scene from that era. The Saturn is still plugged in and gets used regularly on one of the CRTs downstairs.

I never played one as a kid, though. That aspect of the console is missing for me.

 

[Kazza]

Love my Saturn. It's a wonderful time-capsule slice of the arcade scene from that era. The Saturn is still plugged in and gets used regularly on one of the CRTs downstairs.

I never played one as a kid, though. That aspect of the console is missing for me.

I got my Saturn Christmas 1995 and I think it was a great console at the time as well. Including gifts and pocket money, I could really only afford to get around 10+ games a year, so never felt that there was a lack of games I wanted to buy. Even frequent renting from my local Blockbuster Video wasn't enough to cover all the games I wanted, and I have enjoyed catching up with all games I didn't have a chance to play (and some I didn't even know about at the time) these past few years via emulation.

Even being a huge Sega fan back then, I still didn't see the point of buying a 32X knowing that the "real" 32-bit experience in the form of the Saturn had already been released in Japan and would soon be coming to the west. That said, my opinion of it has got better since then. Still, releasing the SVP chip instead as a separate $50 lock-on cart, as they originally intended, would have been a far better option in hindsight. They could then have sold the likes of Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Star Wars etc as separate $40 cartridges. A lock on cart is a different proposition form a completely new console/add-on, as the 32X was. So long as they were honest and said they only intended to release a handful of polygon games for it, then customers wouldn't have felt ripped off, as many did when the 32X was discontinued so early. This video gives a good overview:

 

[Kazza]

By the way, can anyone tell which Playstation game the monkey on the right is playing?

 

[Ma-Yuan]

I got my Saturn after my Dreamcast but now I own three^^ Two Japanese and one cd drive broken one PAL Version. Love the hell out of this machine. And its a shame I rarely find time to play it. But thats also true for all my other retro consoles and newer ones.

 

[Kazza]

While people often talk about an alternative history where Sega cancelled the 32X before launch, another interesting scenario is one where they decided to cancel the Saturn before launch instead and positioned themselves as the low cost 32-bit system for that gen. Could Sony's $300 Playstation have competed with Sega's $160 32X (which would have likely been even cheaper by the time the Playstation launched in late 1995)?

It would be interesting to see if the 32X would have been able to handle the likes of Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter 2, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Sega Rally. This tech demo is pretty impressive, but the system never really got the chance to show what it was really capable of:

 

[TheContact]

I loved the Sega Saturn. Guardian Heroes and Nights into Dreams were such amazing games. I remember that goofy ass controller that you could get with Nights too.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I got my Saturn Christmas 1995 and I think it was a great console at the time as well. Including gifts and pocket money, I could really only afford to get around 10+ games a year, so never felt that there was a lack of games I wanted to buy. Even frequent renting from my local Blockbuster Video wasn't enough to cover all the games I wanted, and I have enjoyed catching up with all games I didn't have a chance to play (and some I didn't even know about at the time) these past few years via emulation.

Even being a huge Sega fan back then, I still didn't see the point of buying a 32X knowing that the "real" 32-bit experience in the form of the Saturn had already been released in Japan and would soon be coming to the west. That said, my opinion of it has got better since then. Still, releasing the SVP chip instead as a separate $50 lock-on cart, as they originally intended, would have been a far better option in hindsight. They could then have sold the likes of Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Star Wars etc as separate $40 cartridges. A lock on cart is a different proposition form a completely new console/add-on, as the 32X was. So long as they were honest and said they only intended to release a handful of polygon games for it, then customers wouldn't have felt ripped off, as many did when the 32X was discontinued so early. This video gives a good overview:

I think the big miss in the transition from the Genesis "family" over to the Saturn was a lack of b.c. for SEGA CD games. I realize there were valid technical and business reasons for doing so, but SEGA could've carried that mentality forward and had three CD generations on the Dreamcast while the PS2 only had two, a respectable advantage.

There was also the suggestion at one point that the Saturn cartridge slot could be used (or could take an adapter) that payed Genesis cartridges. Ahh, what could have been.

I wasn't a console owner during the 90s (PC + Game Boy) but the divide between Saturn and PS1 seemed more about game preference than game availability. Saturn had tons of arcade games so if that was your jam Saturn seemed like the way to go.

 

[CyberPanda]

<3 sega

 

[cireza]

Got both consoles when I was a kid, 1 or 2 years after their release. Eventually caught up with the Dreamcast at launch.

I love these consoles, I still have them and play them very often. 32X does not have many games but there is quality. I would have loved to see more games for the add-on. Combined with the Mega-CD, there was great potential. Not too sure of what it could have proposed in terms of 3D though, I think it was very limited on that regard. But for RPGs, 2D games, a lot would have been possible. For example, Symphony of the Night could run on 32XCD, no reason it would not I believe. All backgrounds would be handled by the MegaDrive (with its limited color palette) and sprites+effects by the 32X. The Mega-CD is there to offer the space on the disc, as well as the soundtrack. And it could eventually do a few background effects.

The 32X was also limited in its capability to display quickly what it draws, because each pixel has to be attributed its color (this is not the system of sprites, layers and palettes that you see on Genesis). So some things were actually challenging on this add-on. It was designed to be used with the MegaDrive after all.

 

[Carna]

Anybody playing Panzer Dragoon Saga to this day, if they own a expensive copy off of eBay :/

 

[ManaByte]

I miss Sega and Am2 games. I’d kill for a new Sega console that had just Am2 arcade games on it and fuck everyone else crying for cinematic over the shoulder first party games.

 

[sid2vicious]

These ads are very... sexual.

 

[cireza]

Anybody playing Panzer Dragoon Saga to this day, if they own a expensive copy off of eBay :/

Well I have my PAL copy, bought when the game was released 20 years ago

Did not follow the prices of the game but I have many late PAL games I love (Shining Force III, Dragon Force, Burning Rangers etc...).

 

[Saber]

Do you think Sega could do a collection of games from Saturn? I'm still hoping for a day where they make a collection out of Shinning Force 3.

 

[Naibel]

Happy birthday Saturn <3 !

I was very young when it came out in Europe so I had a lot of catching-up to do once I eventually heard of this machine a decade or so later.

I went with a PAL Saturn at first but then migrated to a white Japanese one, due to the slew of incredible Japanese-only exclusives. It now is one of my if not my favorite console ever ( I mean duh, Segata Sanshiro is my avatar ) !

For example, I just played Dead or Alive yesterday and I'm blown away by the high-res graphics. Every gamer that still clings on to that "Saturn can't do 3D" stereotype needs to pay more attention to its library of incredible 3D games. And the 2D Capcom fighting games. My. Freaking. God ! What a machine I tell ya !

As for the 32x, I recentely bought one at an okay price on Ebay, with After Burner, Virtua Racing and Doom. I have yet to play them but on the emulator they were great fun and pretty impressive-looking for the time.

Maybe that add-on should've never came out, as the 32X fiasco was a major nail in Sega's coffin, but some very nice games on it made that system kinda worth it IMO. There was a lot of untapped potential.

 

[ManaByte]

Do you think Sega could do a collection of games from Saturn? I'm still hoping for a day where they make a collection out of Shinning Force 3.

I want an Am2 anthology series. A VF collection, racing collection, etc.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Happy 25th to the best gaming console ever made and the console home to the best shooters of all time too

 

[stranno]

Was Tama the first balance-puzzle ever developed?

I know this kind of balancing-mazes were really popular back in the Symbian/iOS days, when manufacturers included the first gyroscopes in phones, but i dont know if Tama was the first game ever featuring those mazes.

Of course i'm talking about videogames, the physical wood game is very old.

 

[Kazza]

cireza you're French, right? Could you please translate the top line (something about Natasha devouring something)? Despite not knowing French, I guess the second line says "the revolutionary new system for the Megadrive".

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

While people often talk about an alternative history where Sega cancelled the 32X before launch, another interesting scenario is one where they decided to cancel the Saturn before launch instead and positioned themselves as the low cost 32-bit system for that gen. Could Sony's $300 Playstation have competed with Sega's $160 32X (which would have likely been even cheaper by the time the Playstation launched in late 1995)?

It would be interesting to see if the 32X would have been able to handle the likes of Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter 2, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Sega Rally. This tech demo is pretty impressive, but the system never really got the chance to show what it was really capable of:

I don't think a $160 32X would've fared all that well in the long term, honestly. PS1 and especially N64 would've dropped their prices low and soon enough to where any priced 32X option wouldn't have seemed as attractive in comparison, especially considering you'd still need a Genesis to use it.

Guess they could've went with the all-in-one Neptune approach and thrown in a CD drive for Mega CD compatibility, price it around $200 and upgraded the graphics capability some. But honestly how big was backwards compatibility as a selling point back in the '90s?

FWIW, the interesting thing about 32X is that it, since the 3D was done through software (it had no dedicated polygonal graphics processor), it could do triangles. I guess theoretically speaking the Saturn could've done triangles as well if you ignored the VDP1, but it would've been through software engines running on one of the CPUs, meaning tasks like game logic and A.I would likely of been reduced to only one SH2. Those 32X demos, I'm guessing, were done using both CPUs, and there's also no game logic being processed with them. So realistic visual output-wise, full-potential 32X or even slightly-upgraded Neptune all-in-one would not have likely produced visuals beyond launch Saturn Daytona, Panzer Dragoon 1, or Clockwork Knight games (for 3D).

Overall I think skipping Saturn and going with the Neptune as an all-in-one legacy system might've helped consolidate their 16/quasi 32-bit line into a single product and they could've made it powerful enough to handle more visually demanding 2D games (lots of CPS2 Capcom and Neo-Geo SNK ports, for example), but it also would've held back 32-bit gaming visions like Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Deep Fear etc., likely necessitating development for those targeting the PS1 and having downscaled Neptune ports as an option.

cireza you're French, right? Could you please translate the top line (something about Natasha devouring something)? Despite not knowing French, I guess the second line says "the revolutionary new system for the Megadrive".

Makes me pretty steamed we're never gonna get kick-ass advertisements like this ever again. Thanks, perpetually-outraged snowflake generation >(

 

[cireza]

cireza you're French, right? Could you please translate the top line (something about Natasha devouring something)? Despite not knowing French, I guess the second line says "the revolutionary new system for the Megadrive".

Who wants to devote himself to explain to Natasha the new system that is going to revolutionize the MegaDrive ?

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Great 25 years of the most underrated 2D Powerhouse console of all time!!!!

I should really get onto Dragon Force soon.

 

[Alexios]

Saturn sucks

 

[Afro Republican]

Lol massive success? Even the Mega Drive sold double the Saturn at launch, and it had more challenging competition.

The Sega Saturn launched in Japan on the 22nd of November 1994 for 44,800 yean (around $450), exactly 25 years ago today. In contrast to the infamous US launch, it was massive success, selling out it's initial stock of 200,000 units on day one, and by the end 1995 it was still in pole position in terms of sales, even ahead of Sony's Playstation:

Lol what?

Sega:

FY94-95	840.000	840.000
FY95-96	1.660.000	2.500.000
FY96-97	2.300.000	4.800.000
FY97-98	800.000	5.600.000
FY98-99	300.000	5.900.000

Sony:

1994	280.000	280.000
1995	1.370.000	1.650.000
1996	2.689.095	4.339.095
1997	5.193.055	9.532.150
1998	4.514.775	13.752.795
1999	2.927.856	16.680.651

Sony was ahead day 1 and never fell behind. It was already near double the Saturns sales by late 95.

NIntendo:

FY96-97	2.040.000	2.040.000
FY97-98	1.110.000	3.150.000
FY98-99	1.210.000	4.360.000

Nintendo started nearly neck-neck with the Saturn coming out two years late.

 

[Afro Republican]

While people often talk about an alternative history where Sega cancelled the 32X before launch, another interesting scenario is one where they decided to cancel the Saturn before launch instead and positioned themselves as the low cost 32-bit system for that gen. Could Sony's $300 Playstation have competed with Sega's $160 32X (which would have likely been even cheaper by the time the Playstation launched in late 1995)?

This is exactly what the Jaguar did so no it doesn't work. You also need to remember that the 32X was a reaction to the Jaguar in the first place.

Saturn should have launched as it was originally intended, it would have had moderately good 3D, amazing 2D, and nothing blocking the cart port from being BC with Genesis games. It also would have been cheaper than the PS by default.

 

[EightBit Man]

The Saturn outsold the PlayStation in Japan...until Final Fantasy VII became the thing. Yes, it did better than the Mega Drive in Japan; it was SEGA's best-selling console in Japan.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

By the way, can anyone tell which Playstation game the monkey on the right is playing?

*ape

 

[Afro Republican]

The Saturn outsold the PlayStation in Japan...until Final Fantasy VII became the thing. Yes, it did better than the Mega Drive in Japan; it was SEGA's best-selling console in Japan.

Dude I literally posted the Media Create sales above. There was never a time the Saturn was ahead, The Saturn was already collapsing by the end of 1996 going into Janaury 1997, which at the end of that month is when FF7 came out in Japan. So no, that's just not factual. By this point the Saturn would barely sell over 1 million more units within the next two years AFTER January and then be discontinued.

Edit: Also while the Saturn ended up selling more than the Mega Drive, you could argue the performance was worse since the Mega Drive started out stronger and had more competition, it had the NES and other older consoles, it had the new comer NEC with the PC engine, a still moderate though falling PC market, and the Super Famicom later. A gap of less than 3 million apart isn't really a compliment tot he Saturn.

 

[stranno]

There was an Star Wars: Rebel Strike project for Saturn, WTF! (more like Star Wars: Panzer Dragoon Strike tbh).




Proto is available at Archive(dot)org.

https://archive.org/details/spikeartreup

 

[EightBit Man]

Dude I literally posted the Media Create sales above. There was never a time the Saturn was ahead, The Saturn was already collapsing by the end of 1996 going into Janaury 1997, which at the end of that month is when FF7 came out in Japan. So no, that's just not factual. By this point the Saturn would barely sell over 1 million more units within the next two years AFTER January and then be discontinued.

Well, it doesn't disprove what I said. Final Fantasy VII was announced in very early 1996. To say that the Japanese people were hyped for this game would be a understatement. Until that the Saturn was doing fine.

 

[Tarin02543]

My setup and games I bought in 2019:

 

[Afro Republican]

Well, it doesn't disprove what I said.

Yes it does because your claim was that the Saturn was AHEAD until FF7 when that's not the case. You're backtracking.

Your original quote:

The Saturn outsold the PlayStation in Japan...until Final Fantasy VII became the thing.

The spin about "anticipation" meant nothing either, PSX didn't see a massive growth until after it came out, not in 1996, also the PSX was always ahead so that's not really relevant either way.

I will say that the Saturn first two fiscal years were likely it's best in terms of sales in japan. Not sure what made the sales collapse at the end of 1996 going into 1997 though.

 

[cireza]

Lol massive success? Even the Mega Drive sold double the Saturn at launch, and it had more challenging competition.



Lol what?

Sega:

FY94-95	840.000	840.000
FY95-96	1.660.000	2.500.000
FY96-97	2.300.000	4.800.000
FY97-98	800.000	5.600.000
FY98-99	300.000	5.900.000

Sony:

1994	280.000	280.000
1995	1.370.000	1.650.000
1996	2.689.095	4.339.095
1997	5.193.055	9.532.150
1998	4.514.775	13.752.795
1999	2.927.856	16.680.651

Sony was ahead day 1 and never fell behind. It was already near double the Saturns sales by late 95.

NIntendo:

FY96-97	2.040.000	2.040.000
FY97-98	1.110.000	3.150.000
FY98-99	1.210.000	4.360.000

Nintendo started nearly neck-neck with the Saturn coming out two years late.

This a thread about how awesome the 32X and Saturn are. Go create your own thread about sales numbers, nobody cares here.

Currently in the process of burning Policenauts to play the game in English on my Saturn tonight. It will be the first time I play this game, always great to discover new stuff on old consoles years later, thanks to the people making this translation. I hope that it will be just as good as Snatcher on Sega-CD.

 

[Afro Republican]

My setup and games I bought in 2019:

Neo Geo CD looks very similar to the Saturn now that I think about it. If someone has a Black one it would be interesting to see a Black Saturn next to a Neo Geo CD. Especially an American one.

 

[Afro Republican]

This a thread about how awesome the 32X and Saturn are. Go create your own thread about sales numbers, nobody cares here.

Currently in the process of burning Policenauts to play the game in English on my Saturn tonight. It will be the first time I play this game, always great to discover new stuff on old consoles years later, thanks to the people making this translation.

Sorry brah, but you can't make a Saturn thread while adding historical claims that are BS and expect them to not be challenged because you want everyone to fall in line and just say the system is "awesome" that's not how it works. However, now that the false claims has been addressed we can move back to games.

I've actually played Policenauts, I think you'll enjoy it, although if your a fan of Snatchers UI (I'm not) it will probably throw you off.

As for other Saturn games, I personally think that it's a shame that there weren't more light gun games of the same caliber as Virtua Cop. I think the other light-gun games are ok, but I feel like we didn't get enough of the big boys on it.

 

[cireza]

we can move back to games.

Do you have any childhood memories to share about the Saturn or 32X ?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

You guys should REALLY stop feeding the troll; that guy clearly has a hatred for SEGA that isn't normal, and not something a mentally-stable adult would have, either. It's actually pretty embarrassing. You have to be pretty dedicated to constantly hate something with that much negativity, when you could spend that, 'ya know, discussing or doing things you ACTUALLY like.

Do you have any childhood memories to share about the Saturn or 32X ?

Doesn't matter; if they're a grown-ass man they should stop acting like a 12-year old child with these kind of topics. I've not seen someone triggered that badly over people merely discussing retro gaming with a given brand in a very long time.

Ironically it just verifies all the thoughts people had about them holding these discussions in bad faith. Can't expect much from people lacking expected mental maturity though :/.

 

[MetalSlug]

Oh how I wish I never traded in my Saturn + games shortly into the year 2000

 

[Tiamat2san]

Saturn is one of my favourite console of all time.
I missed those days , importing Japanese games and consoles.
Importing Japanese game magazines , looking intensely every pictures in it.
The excitement when opening a new game.
2D fighting golden era, the Saturn was awesome for those kind of games.
And some erotic puzzle games too!

 

[Afro Republican]

You know the fanboi juice is flowing when addressing historical facts means you hate a company. BTW the original Xbox was a commercial failure guess I hate Xbox now, durrrrr.

Oh how I wish I never traded in my Saturn + games shortly into the year 2000

I should have kept those extra copies of the Panzer games.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

"Addressing historical facts"

Yes, by bringing up sales numbers (that pretty much everyone here already knows), unprompted, in a thread not discussing/focused on sales numbers. And when that shtick is your go-to primary opening discussion point in EVERY thread focusing on that one particular console maker, time and time again. And in a rather hostile/confrontational tone, as if you're furiously fighting some injustice by responding in such a way.

That's an unmistakable pattern; it's just being sniffed out as it deserves.

...Anyways....

5 IPs the Saturn Sorely Needed

I always enjoy these type of videos, because it goes to show how much the infighting between the divisions really blinded SEGA as a whole from prioritizing certain IPs in given regions the way they should've.

Also in case the Playboy magazines weren't enough xD...

 

[Afro Republican]

"Addressing historical facts"

Yes, by bringing up sales numbers (that pretty much everyone here already knows)

Which is why 4 users cited false facts and 3 gave out wrong numbers (which I didn't prompt derp), because everyone knows, oh they don't know, that's why they were corrected. Don't be mad that you always have flawed logic in every post, just because I correct facts doesn't mean I "hate" something no matter how much you want it to. If you want to have the thread go back on topic you'll shut your lips and move on like the others. Otherwise you're going to extend this pointless argument where you have zero standing on anyway. You basically just stalled the thread for no reason after people were already starting to move on. Remember you jumped in this thread after everything was already settled to start a fight, lol poor guy.

So I'll be quoting another users outside of this subject and all you have to do is let it go. Cook? Ok.

 

[Afro Republican]

There was an Star Wars: Rebel Strike project for Saturn, WTF! (more like Star Wars: Panzer Dragoon Strike tbh).




Proto is available at Archive(dot)org.

https://archive.org/details/spikeartreup

If that was given a good budget and a reasonable amount of time, it would be quite the looker on the Saturn.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Look Afro, there's definitely some unresolved animosity in you against the brand, that much is quite clear. You basically act like like the Negative Nancy. 4 people (a whopping 4 people) said something you think is wrong...you must've never heard that there's a right and wrong way to frame your responses. Acting like a corner stoop kid peeved off over the slightest perceived wrongdoing as if it's a maliciously intended act that must be corrected else the annals of history come crumbling down, isn't the best way to get people to value or agree with your points.

Especially when, again, the general topic at hand isn't about what you're trying to shift it off-course to. You've done this in other threads, too, and they all have the same thing in common: it's always in regards to SEGA. If that gets sniffed out, then it gets sniffed out, you really can't blame people for noticing and choosing not to engage further due to that. Just look at the previous thread you made :S.

At least you somewhat seem to be trying to stay more on-topic now. Kind of, I suppose. Must be taking a lot of restraint though I guess. But if you can try staying more on-topic, we can just squash this here and be on our way.



Keeping with the thread, the Western Saturn advertisements were always weird AF, I don't think they did it too many favors in terms of advertising though it's cool seeing them in retrospect simply because some of this stuff would never fly with modern audiences these days.

This one in particular has some downright creepy ass vibe near the end; the way the music's playing, dude's laugh, and basically saying something that could be interpreted as encouraging suicide taken out-of-context o.0

 

[Kazza]

I think the big miss in the transition from the Genesis "family" over to the Saturn was a lack of b.c. for SEGA CD games. I realize there were valid technical and business reasons for doing so, but SEGA could've carried that mentality forward and had three CD generations on the Dreamcast while the PS2 only had two, a respectable advantage.

There was also the suggestion at one point that the Saturn cartridge slot could be used (or could take an adapter) that payed Genesis cartridges. Ahh, what could have been.

I wasn't a console owner during the 90s (PC + Game Boy) but the divide between Saturn and PS1 seemed more about game preference than game availability. Saturn had tons of arcade games so if that was your jam Saturn seemed like the way to go.

I remember reading a thread about this on the sega-16 forums. Apparently, the Saturn did have a 68k Motorola processor, which hints that backwards compatibility may have been part of the plan at some point, but other chips were missing and would have been expensive to add in. A kind of "Megadrive power base converter" might have been possible, but again not cheap. There was another interesting post (which unfortunately I can't find now) where I beleive someone put forward a suggestion of using a beefed-up ASIC chip as one of the Saturn VDPs, thereby allowing Mega CD BC too. An interesting idea, but not sure if practical.

Towards the end of the 16-bit era you started to see more cross-platform 3rd party games, and that continued into the 32-bit era (the Saturn got very good support in the first year or so), but each system still ended up with a large library of exclusive games (except the 3DO, which ended up getting many of its best games cannibalised). I think PC owners had much more reason to purchase a console back then, although Sega ported a lot of Saturn exclusives to PC, so an N64 or PS1 would possibly have been a better choice for them.

I don't think a $160 32X would've fared all that well in the long term, honestly. PS1 and especially N64 would've dropped their prices low and soon enough to where any priced 32X option wouldn't have seemed as attractive in comparison, especially considering you'd still need a Genesis to use it.

Guess they could've went with the all-in-one Neptune approach and thrown in a CD drive for Mega CD compatibility, price it around $200 and upgraded the graphics capability some. But honestly how big was backwards compatibility as a selling point back in the '90s?

FWIW, the interesting thing about 32X is that it, since the 3D was done through software (it had no dedicated polygonal graphics processor), it could do triangles. I guess theoretically speaking the Saturn could've done triangles as well if you ignored the VDP1, but it would've been through software engines running on one of the CPUs, meaning tasks like game logic and A.I would likely of been reduced to only one SH2. Those 32X demos, I'm guessing, were done using both CPUs, and there's also no game logic being processed with them. So realistic visual output-wise, full-potential 32X or even slightly-upgraded Neptune all-in-one would not have likely produced visuals beyond launch Saturn Daytona, Panzer Dragoon 1, or Clockwork Knight games (for 3D).

Overall I think skipping Saturn and going with the Neptune as an all-in-one legacy system might've helped consolidate their 16/quasi 32-bit line into a single product and they could've made it powerful enough to handle more visually demanding 2D games (lots of CPS2 Capcom and Neo-Geo SNK ports, for example), but it also would've held back 32-bit gaming visions like Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Deep Fear etc., likely necessitating development for those targeting the PS1 and having downscaled Neptune ports as an option.

As I understand it, CD drives were still fairly expensive at the time (not to mention all the extra chips contained within the Mega CD), so I guess they would have left the Mega CD as an optional add-on for any Neptune system, in order to keep the price down.

Another interesting question would be how the 32X/Neptune woild have performed in Japan in the absence of the Saturn? Since that would have been the only home console offering a port of Virtua Fighter, presumably it would have sold pretty well.

*ape

Apologies to our simian cousins, but they all look the same to me Is that racist? Simian-ist maybe?

 

[Crowza]

My favorite console of all time!

 

[pramod]

By the way, can anyone tell which Playstation game the monkey on the right is playing?

My guess is probably a really shitty game..maybe Jupiter Strike?