Sega Saturn

[Flintlock]

I came across this excellent article about the ill-fated Sega Saturn and thought some of you might be interested in it, partly because it sheds some light on the Playstation's history as well.

Sega Saturn: how one decision destroyed PlayStation's greatest rival

Twenty years ago this week, at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles, the head of Sega of America accidentally killed the company’s Saturn video game console.

Tom Kalinske was in a bind. He knew that Sony was readying its new PlayStation machine for an autumn launch in the US (both the Saturn and the PlayStation had already been released in Japan at this point), and the hype was building. The creator of the Walkman, the portable music device that revolutionised the music industry, was coming after games. And it was serious.

Sony had spent 1994 on a global charm offensive. The company’s chief system designer, Ken Kutaragi, visited developers all over the world, bringing an impressive set of graphics demos (including the famed dinosaur 3D model) and promising a wealth of cool development tools and favourable production deals. Sega meanwhile, had been confusing and alienating its audience and development community with a string of add-ons for the hugely successful (but increasingly dated) Mega Drive, and a wealth of promises about new hardware platforms that never materialised. Sony had one product and one message: PlayStation is the future.

Source: the Guardian.

Did any of you own a Saturn? I didn't; I had wanted a Mega Drive but was never able to save enough pocket money, so my first console ended up being the Playstation, which was given to me and my brother as a present. The Saturn must have fallen through the cracks because I don't remember wanting one or even playing one at a friend's house. Its failure can arguably be thought of as the beginning of the end for Sega.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I knew a friend who had one, but I remember precious little about the system at all.




X

 

[Ghost X]

I had a megadrive, and would've probably got all the hardware expansions for it if I had the money because I was sadly obsessed with Sonic. I wanted all the Sonic games . Didn't get the expansions though, and fortunately that obsession ended by the time Saturn came along, and my sega controls malfunctioning didn't help. I was not remotely interested in Saturn from the games I'd seen. Oddly enough, I bought a SNES before I bought the Playstation. Abe's Oddysee sold that console for me.

 

[Lex]

Had a Mega Drive. I know one person period that had a Sega Saturn. It had weird hardware, a super dated controller and barely any games. I would say it's a shame but it's really not, Sega took a real misstep with that console. The Dreamcast however, was a bloody excellent console and it still annoys me that it failed so badly after its first year. I still have mine. One of the major reasons it failed is that you could literally just burn games to a CD and play them on the console XD. The PS2 was of course the other reason.

I mean seriously

Playstation just took over, and I'm not surprised. Even with the almost-failure that was the PS3, Sony are still on top when it comes to consoles.

The thing is, Sony aggressively marketed the original Playstation in the same way that Sega marketed the Mega Drive (I'm better than mario because x and y), but they haven't needed to since.

Also, absence of sonic games on the saturn killed it.

 

[ForceStealer]

My neighbor had a Saturn. I still had my Genesis, but I would go over to play the X-men fighting game with him a lot.

I didn't even like him that much

 

[Blade]

My experience with the Saturn is, I rented it from Blockbuster Video! No joke, back in the day you could RENT consoles for 3 days or so. I did it as a Birthday treat to myself years ago.

I rented a few games to go with it:

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
WipeOut

annnnd uhhh, I don't remember if I rented a 3rd game or not.

I had a blast playing it, to say the least.

There are some games that only the Saturn (and Dreamcast) can play successfully.

Even the PS2 port of Grandia 2 is a pale shadow of the Dreamcast version.

I highly recommend playing Radiant Silvergun if you haven't... or Silhouette Mirage (and it's distant cousin Ikaruga!)

NiGHTs in to Dreams is another gem too.

 

[Flintlock]

Nights into Dreams also came with this gem of a controller:

 

[Lex]

I'm very attracted to these arms for some reason

 

[Flintlock]

Whoa, I just noticed the Playstation symbols in those veins. I completely missed that when I read the article yesterday. I don't quite know how I managed that.

 

[Tetsujin]

Never owned a Saturn. I had a Mega Drive (and MEga CD) and a Dreamcast. Still have those actually.

 

[Blade]

Does anyone else remember the old "SEGA!" scream soundbyte? :3

I find it highly ironic that "Sony Pictures" is the one behind this "movie".

 

[Hisako]

Oh god that looks fuckin' gross

 

[Xelazander]

I still own a Saturn, and it still works!