In the early 1990s there was competition between Sega’s Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo. Nintendo leads in its home country of Japan, but the Mega Drive is strong in Europe and the United States. Sega USA wanted to keep the console (called the Genesis) alive longer with two combinable attachments: called the Sega CD with a CD drive and the 32X, which provided more power, more color, and more sound. Sega Japan, on the other hand, is looking for a successor to stay ahead of Nintendo: its Nintendo 64 would not arrive until June 1996. Finally, you do both: the Mega Drive is upgraded; And at the same time his successor Shani appears.
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This is an exciting time. A few days after the Saturn, Sony launched the PlayStation on the market. Two 32-bit consoles turn everything upside down. Now 3D instead of 2D. CD-ROMs now replace cartridges. In this country, you can initially get excited only from afar: both devices are only due to arrive in Europe a year later. You don’t get your news from tickers or YouTube, but from monthly magazines. After all, you can already exchange information electronically via mailbox, Fidonet, Usenet or, quite stylishly, CompuServe. There are also screenshots about this; And as luck would have it, the dealer received a VHS cassette with moving images.
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Many games for the Saturn are from Sega itself and are based on successful arcade versions. Among the titles that characterized the console at the time and are now considered classics are:
- “Virtua Fighter”: Slot Machine Success is one of the Saturn’s launch titles. Instead of 2D like the first “Street Fighter”, the fighting game features 3D models made of colored polygons. A successor a year later depends on the design of the models and motion capture.
- “Saturn Bomberman”: Considered one of the best adaptations of the series. Up to 10 players compete against each other in front of a screen. This is made possible by Multitaps, adapters that allow up to six gamepads to be plugged into each controller port.
- “Nights Into Dreams”: Sonic Team’s colorful platforming game could pass for “Sonic.” It is also available bundled with an analog controller.
- “Tomb Raider”: Lara Croft experiences her first adventures on the planet Saturn: The developer Core Design is closely associated with Sega and developed, among other things, exclusive games for the first Sega CD. The DOS and PlayStation versions would not arrive until several weeks later.
- “Daytona USA”: an arcade racing game based on the popular arcade title.
- “Sega Rally Championship”: another adaptation of the slot machine. One of the first rally games and one to simulate different driving behavior depending on the surface.
- “Sonic Jam”: A compilation of the Mega Drive’s Sonic games, embedded in a three-dimensional lobby. Yet it’s not the Sonic 3D you’d expect.
- “Panzer Dragoon”: a fast rail shooter with 3D real-time calculations (where you move through the levels as if running on rails).
- “Radiant Silvergun” by Treasure: A shoot’em-up for arcades that has only been released in Japan, but is becoming an insider tip internationally.
- “Shining the Holy Ark”: Saturn is less famous for its role-playing games; But they exist; Like the sequel to the Mega Drive game “Shining in the Darkness”, which is part of the long-running Shining series.
All kinds of accessories are also available for the Saturn, such as a steering wheel as well as a modem, keyboard and mouse for web surfing and some online games.
promising start
Only five games left to start, but it’s been a good start in Japan. Sega would be able to sell 500,000 consoles by the end of 1994; Sony only 300,000. It is said that Sega has not yet taken Sony into account with its PlayStation. It is one of several competitors, along with the 3DO, CD-i, and other CD-based consoles. But she starts off unexpectedly strong. And a real competitor to Nintendo is yet to come.
Sega and Sony planned to enter the US market (larger than Japan) in September 1995 with their own 32-bit machines. To get ahead of Sony, Sega surprisingly announced an immediate release of the console at the (first) E3 in June 1995 for $399. In retrospect, this was certainly a mistake, as there was neither an attractive range of games nor the dealers prepared for it – and they reacted with a sniff.
And just an hour later, Sony blew away Sega with just one word: “299.” A great moment in marketing. American boss Steve Race is asked to step forward for a “brief presentation”, he simply says and walks away. “299”. $100 less than Sega. By the way, Nintendo only presented the Virtual Boy at E3 1995.
The Saturn came to Germany on July 8, 1995 at a price of 750 Marks. Will arrive on PlayStation 29th September – for 599 points.
reasons for failure
As a sort of home version of a slot game very popular in Japan, the Saturn performed well in Japan, overtaking sales of the Mega Drive and, in retrospect, it was considered the most successful Sega console in Japan. Is. But Saturn proved to be a flop at the international level. PlayStation sales were ten times higher (and Nintendo 64 sales were three times higher).
It’s not just the high price. There are several things that come together to prevent the Saturn from being successful, including the confusing choice of Mega Drive alongside the Sega CD and 32X.
- The console is technically powerful, but instead of a stronger and faster processor there are two RISC chips from Hitachi. And all types of sub-processors. Developers find it difficult to take advantage of the performance, especially controlling both processors in parallel, especially since beginners lack proper developer kits and have to develop games in assembler.
- This gives the Saturn the image of a console primarily for 2D, while the PlayStation appears more advanced.
- Sony is launching a massive marketing campaign to launch its first console. Even though the manufacturer has little to do with games so far, everyone knows the name of the inventor of the Walkman.
- Sony enjoys the support of countless developers in Japan such as Namco (Sega’s closest rival in arcade machines) and Square, who are no longer loyal to Nintendo with “Final Fantasy VII”.
When the Nintendo 64 came out in 1996, Sega pulled emergency brake and focused on a successor: the Dreamcast came out in 1998, just four years after the Saturn. Many projects started for the Saturn only came to the Dreamcast. This is one reason there are no good Sonic games available for the Saturn. Even though the Saturn sold slightly better than the Dreamcast, looking back it may be Sega’s least famous console. But even today he has a loyal fan base. A popular contact point is the SHIRO project! With a website, podcast, and even a print magazine.
(MKI)
Of forest paths and rustling leaves: photos from week 46
