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The Sega Saturn is a home video game console released in the mid-1990s as part of the fifth generation, succeeding the Genesis. Featuring a complex dual-CPU architecture and eight processors, its games were primarily on CD-ROM and included ports of popular arcade games. Initially successful in Japan, the Saturn struggled in the US due to an early launch and competition from the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Despite notable titles like Nights into Dreams and Panzer Dragoon, it is considered a commercial failure, eventually replaced by the Dreamcast in 1998.

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History

Background

In the early 1990s, Sega had success with the Mega Drive (known as the Genesis in North America),3 backed by aggressive advertising campaigns and the popularity of its Sonic the Hedgehog series.4 Sega also had success with arcade games; in 1992 and 1993, the new Sega Model 1 arcade system board showcased Sega AM2's Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter (the first 3D fighting game), crucial to popularizing 3D polygonal graphics.5678910 The Model 1 was expensive, so several alternatives helped bring Sega's newest arcade games to Genesis, such as the Virtua Processor chip used for Virtua Racing, and the 32X add-on.11

Development

Development of the Saturn was supervised by Hideki Sato, Sega's director and deputy general manager of research and development.12 According to project manager Hideki Okamura, the project codenamed Saturn started over two years before its announcement at the Tokyo Toy Show in June 1994.13 It was developed by the same team that developed the System 32 arcade board.14 Sato regrets that he did not go with the Model 1 arcade hardware as a base, as he was too concerned of leaving all the developers behind that were focused on sprites rather than 3D, which were the majority of developers.15

In 1993, Sega and the Japanese electronics company Hitachi formed a joint venture to develop a new CPU for the Saturn, which resulted in the creation of the "SuperH RISC Engine" (or SH-2) later that year.1617 The Saturn was designed around a dual-SH2 configuration. According to Kazuhiro Hamada, Sega's section chief for Saturn development during the system's conception, "the SH-2 was chosen for reasons of cost and efficiency. The chip has a calculation system similar to a DSP [digital signal processor], but we realized that a single CPU would not be enough to calculate a 3D world."1819 Although the Saturn's design was largely finished before the end of 1993, reports in early 1994 of the technical capabilities of Sony's upcoming PlayStation console prompted Sega to include another video display processor (VDP) to improve 2D performance and 3D texture mapping.202122 Sega considered making CD-ROM-based and cartridge-only versions of the Saturn, but discarded the idea due to concerns over the lower quality and higher price of cartridge games.23

According to president Tom Kalinske, Sega of America "fought against the architecture of Saturn for quite some time".24 Seeking an alternative graphics chip for the Saturn, Kalinske attempted to broker a deal with Silicon Graphics, but Sega of Japan rejected the proposal.252627 Silicon Graphics subsequently collaborated with Nintendo on the Nintendo 64.2829 Kalinske, Sony Electronic Publishing's Olaf Olafsson, and Sony America's Micky Schulhof had discussed development of a joint "Sega/Sony hardware system", which never materialized due to Sega's desire to create hardware for both 2D and 3D visuals and Sony's competing notion of focusing on 3D technology.303132 Publicly, Kalinske defended the Saturn's design: "Our people feel that they need the multiprocessing to be able to bring to the home what we're doing next year in the arcades."33

In 1993, Sega restructured its internal studios in preparation for the Saturn's launch. To ensure high-quality 3D games would be available early in the Saturn's life, and to create a more energetic working environment, developers from Sega's arcade division were asked to create console games. New teams, such as the Panzer Dragoon developer Team Andromeda, were formed during this time.34 In early 1994, the Sega Titan Video arcade system was announced as an arcade counterpart to the Saturn. In April 1994, Acclaim Entertainment announced it would be the first American publisher to produce software for the Titan.35

In January 1994, Sega began to develop the 32X add-on for the Genesis, as a less expensive entry into the 32-bit era. The 32X was approved by Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama and widely supported by Sega of America employees.36 According to the former Sega of America producer Scot Bayless, Nakayama was worried that the Saturn would not be available until after 1994 and that the recently released Atari Jaguar would reduce Sega's hardware sales. As a result, Nakayama ordered his engineers to have the system ready for launch by the end of the year.37 The 32X would not be compatible with the Saturn, but Sega executive Richard Brudvik-Lindner pointed out that the 32X would play Genesis games, and had the same system architecture as the Saturn.38 This was justified by Sega's statement that both platforms would run at the same time, and that the 32X would be aimed at players who could not afford the more expensive Saturn.3940 According to Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller, the 32X familiarized development teams with the dual SH-2 architecture also used in the Saturn.41 Because the machines share many parts and were prepared to launch around the same time, tensions emerged between Sega of America and Sega of Japan when the Saturn was given priority.42

Launch

Sega released the Saturn in Japan on November 22, 1994, at a price of ¥44,800 (equivalent to US$440 at the time).43 Virtua Fighter, a faithful port of the popular arcade game, sold at a nearly one-to-one ratio with the Saturn console at launch and was crucial to the system's early success in Japan.444546 Though Sega had wanted to launch with Clockwork Knight and Panzer Dragoon,47 the only other first-party game available at launch was Wan Chai Connection.48 Boosted by the popularity of Virtua Fighter, Sega's initial shipment of 200,000 Saturn units sold out on the first day.495051 Sega waited until the December 3 launch of the PlayStation to ship more units; when both were sold side by side, the Saturn proved more popular.5253

Meanwhile, Sega released the 32X on November 21, 1994, in North America, December 3, 1994, in Japan, and January 1995 in PAL territories, at less than half of the Saturn's launch price.5455 After the holiday season, however, interest in the 32X rapidly declined.5657 Half a million Saturn units were sold in Japan by the end of 1994 (compared to 300,000 PlayStation units),58 and sales exceeded 1 million within the following six months.59 There were conflicting reports that the PlayStation had a higher sell-through rate, and the system gradually began to overtake the Saturn in sales during 1995.60 Sony attracted many third-party developers to the PlayStation with a liberal $10 licensing fee, excellent development tools, and the introduction of a 7- to 10-day order system that allowed publishers to meet demand more efficiently than the 10- to 12-week lead times for cartridges that had previously been standard in the Japanese video game industry.6162

In March 1995, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske announced the Saturn's launch in the U.S. on "Saturnday" (Saturday), September 2, 1995.636465 However, Sega of Japan mandated an early launch to give the Saturn an advantage over the PlayStation.66 At the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on May 11, 1995, Kalinske gave a keynote presentation in which he revealed the release price of $399 (including a copy of Virtua Fighter67), and described the features of the console. Kalinske also revealed that, due to "high consumer demand",68 Sega had already shipped 30,000 Saturns to Toys "R" Us, Babbage's, Electronics Boutique, and Software Etc. for immediate release.69 The announcement upset retailers who were not informed of the surprise release, including Best Buy and Walmart;70717273 KB Toys, which was not part of the early launch, responded by refusing to carry the Saturn and its games.747576 Sony subsequently unveiled the retail price for the PlayStation; Olaf Olafsson, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), summoned Steve Race to the stage, who uttered "$299", and then walked away to applause.7778798081 The Saturn's release in Europe also came before the previously announced North American date, on July 8, 1995, at £399.99.82 European retailers and press did not have time to promote the system or its games, harming sales.83 The PlayStation launched in Europe on September 29, 1995; by November, it had already outsold the Saturn by a factor of three in the United Kingdom, where Sony had allocated £20 million of marketing during the holiday season compared to Sega's £4 million.8485

The Saturn's U.S. launch was accompanied by a reported $50 million advertising campaign including coverage in publications such as Wired and Playboy.868788 Early advertising for the system was targeted at a more mature, adult audience than the Genesis ads.8990 The early rescheduling yielded only six launch games (all published by Sega) because most third-party games were scheduled around the original launch date.919293 Virtua Fighter's relative lack of popularity in the West, combined with a release schedule of only two games between the surprise launch and September 1995, prevented Sega from capitalizing on the Saturn's early timing.949596 Within two days of its September 9, 1995, launch in North America, the PlayStation (backed by a large marketing campaign9798) had more units sold than the Saturn had in the five months following its surprise launch, with almost all of the initial shipment of 100,000 units being sold in advance, and the rest selling out across the U.S.99100

A high-quality port of the Namco arcade game Ridge Racer contributed to the PlayStation's early success,101102 and garnered favorable media in comparison to the Saturn version of Sega's Daytona USA, which was considered inferior to its arcade counterpart.103104 Namco, a longtime arcade competitor with Sega,105106 also unveiled the Namco System 11 arcade board, based on raw PlayStation hardware.107 Although the System 11 is technically inferior to Sega's Model 2 arcade board, its lower price made it attractive to smaller arcades.108109 Following a 1994 acquisition of Sega developers, Namco released Tekken for the System 11 and PlayStation. Directed by former Virtua Fighter designer Seiichi Ishii, Tekken was intended to be fundamentally similar, with the addition of detailed textures and twice the frame rate.110111112 Tekken surpassed Virtua Fighter in popularity due to its superior graphics and nearly arcade-perfect console port, becoming the first million-selling PlayStation game.113114115

On October 2, Sega announced a Saturn price reduction to $299.116 High-quality Saturn ports of the Sega Model 2 arcade hits Sega Rally Championship,117 Virtua Cop,118 and Virtua Fighter 2 (running at 60 frames per second at a high resolution)119120121 were available by the end of the year and were generally regarded as superior to competitors on the PlayStation.122123 Notwithstanding a subsequent increase in Saturn sales during the 1995 holiday season, the games were not enough to reverse the PlayStation's decisive lead.124125 By 1996, the PlayStation had a considerably larger library than the Saturn, although Sega hoped to generate interest with upcoming exclusives such as Nights into Dreams.126 An informal survey of retailers showed that the Saturn and PlayStation sold in roughly equal numbers during the first quarter of 1996.127 Within its first year, the PlayStation secured over 20% of the entire U.S. video game market.128 On the first day of the May 1996 E3 show, Sony announced a PlayStation price reduction to $199,129 a reaction to the release of the Model 2 Saturn in Japan at a price roughly equivalent to $199.130 On the second day, Sega announced it would match this price, though Saturn hardware was more expensive to manufacture.131132

Changes at Sega

After the launch of the PlayStation and Saturn, sales of 16-bit games and consoles continued to account for 64% of the video game market in 1995.133134 Sega underestimated the continued popularity of the Genesis, and did not have the inventory to meet demand.135136 Sega was able to capture 43% of the dollar share of the U.S. video game market and sell more than 2 million Genesis units in 1995, but Kalinske estimated that "we could have sold another 300,000 Genesis systems in the November/December timeframe."137 Nakayama's decision to focus on the Saturn over the Genesis, based on the systems' relative performance in Japan, has been cited as the major contributing factor in this miscalculation.138

Due to long-standing disagreements with Sega of Japan,139140 Kalinske lost interest in his work as CEO of Sega of America.141 By early 1996, rumors were circulating that Kalinske planned to leave Sega,142 and a July 13 article in the press reported speculation that Sega of Japan was planning significant changes to Sega of America's management.143 On July 16, 1996, Sega announced that Kalinske would leave Sega after September 30, and that Shoichiro Irimajiri had been appointed chairman and CEO of Sega of America.144145 A former Honda executive,146147 Irimajiri had been involved with Sega of America since joining Sega in 1993.148149 Sega also announced that David Rosen and Nakayama had resigned from their positions as chairman and co-chairman of Sega of America, though both remained with the company.150151 Bernie Stolar, a former executive at Sony Computer Entertainment of America,152153 was named Sega of America's executive vice president in charge of product development and third-party relations.154155 Stolar, who had arranged a six-month PlayStation exclusivity deal for Mortal Kombat 3156 and helped build close relations with Electronic Arts157 while at Sony, was perceived as a major asset by Sega officials.158 Finally, Sega of America made plans to expand its PC software business.159160

Stolar was not supportive of the Saturn, deciding it was poorly designed, and publicly announced at E3 1997 that "the Saturn is not our future".161 Though Stolar had "no interest in lying to people" about the Saturn's prospects, he continued to emphasize quality games for the system,162 and later said that "we tried to wind it down as cleanly as we could for the consumer".163 At Sony, Stolar had opposed the localization of Japanese games that he decided would not represent PlayStation well in North America, and advocated a similar policy for the Saturn, although he later sought to distance himself from his actions.164165166 These changes were accompanied by a softer image that Sega was beginning to portray in its advertising, including removing the "Sega!" scream and holding press events for the education industry.167 Marketing for the Saturn in Japan also changed with the introduction of Segata Sanshiro (played by Hiroshi Fujioka), a character in a series of TV advertisements starting in 1997; the character eventually starred in a Saturn game.168169

Temporarily abandoning arcade development, Sega AM2 head Yu Suzuki began developing several Saturn-exclusive games, including a role-playing game in the Virtua Fighter series.170 Initially conceived as an obscure prototype, "The Old Man and the Peach Tree", and intended to address the flaws of contemporary Japanese RPGs (such as poor non-player character artificial intelligence routines), Virtua Fighter RPG evolved into a planned 11-part, 45-hour "revenge epic in the tradition of Chinese cinema", which Suzuki hoped would become the Saturn's killer app.171172173 The game was eventually released as Shenmue for the Saturn's successor, the Dreamcast.174175

Cancellation of Sonic X-treme

Main article: Sonic X-treme

As Sonic Team was working on Nights into Dreams,176 Sega tasked the U.S.-based Sega Technical Institute (STI) with developing the first fully 3D entry in its popular Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game, Sonic X-treme, was moved to the Saturn after several prototypes for other hardware (including the 32X) were discarded.177178179 It featured a fisheye lens camera system that rotated levels with Sonic's movement. After Nakayama ordered the game be reworked around the engine created for its boss battles, the developers were forced to work between 16 and 20 hours a day to meet their December 1996 deadline. Weeks of development were wasted after Stolar rescinded STI's access to Sonic Team's Nights into Dreams engine following an ultimatum by Nights programmer Yuji Naka.180181182 After programmer Ofer Alon quit and designers Chris Senn and Chris Coffin became ill, Sonic X-Treme was cancelled in early 1997.183184185 Sonic Team started work on an original 3D Sonic game for the Saturn, but development shifted to the Dreamcast as Sonic Adventure.186187 STI was disbanded in 1996 as a result of changes in management at Sega of America.188

Journalists and fans have speculated about the impact a completed X-treme might have had on the market. David Houghton of GamesRadar described the prospect of "a good 3D Sonic game" on the Saturn as "a 'What if...' situation on a par with the dinosaurs not becoming extinct".189 IGN's Travis Fahs called X-treme "the turning point not only for Sega's mascot and their 32-bit console, but for the entire company [and] an empty vessel for Sega's ambitions and the hopes of their fans".190 Dave Zdyrko, who operated a prominent Saturn fan website during the system's lifespan, said: "I don't know if [X-treme] could've saved the Saturn, but [...] Sonic helped make the Genesis and it made absolutely no sense why there wasn't a great new Sonic title ready at or near the launch of the [Saturn]."191 In a 2007 retrospective, producer Mike Wallis maintained that X-treme "definitely would have been competitive" with Nintendo's Super Mario 64.192 Next Generation reported in late 1996 that X-treme would have harmed Sega's reputation if it did not compare well to contemporary competition.193 Naka said he had been relieved by the cancellation, because the game was not promising.194

Decline

From 1993 to early 1996, although Sega's revenue declined as part of an industry-wide slowdown,195196 the company retained control of 38% of the U.S. video game market (compared to Nintendo's 30% and Sony's 24%).197 Eight hundred thousand PlayStation units were sold in the U.S. by the end of 1995, compared to 400,000 Saturn units.198199 In part due to an aggressive price war,200 the PlayStation outsold the Saturn by two to one in 1996, and Sega's 16-bit sales declined markedly.201 By the end of 1996, the PlayStation had 2.9 million units sold in the U.S., more than twice the 1.2 million Saturn units sold.202 The Christmas 1996 "Three Free" pack, which bundled the Saturn with Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2, and Virtua Cop, drove sales dramatically and ensured the Saturn remained a competitor into 1997.203

However, the Saturn failed to take the lead. After the launch of the Nintendo 64 in 1996, sales of the Saturn and its games were sharply reduced,204 and the PlayStation outsold the Saturn by three-to-one in the U.S. in 1997.205 The 1997 release of Final Fantasy VII significantly increased the PlayStation's popularity in Japan.206207 The game helped push PlayStation sales ahead of the Saturn in Japan, after the PlayStation and Saturn had been very close in Japan prior to the game's release.208 As of August 1997, Sony controlled 47% of the console market, Nintendo 40%, and Sega only 12%. Neither price cuts nor high-profile game releases proved helpful.209 Reflecting decreased demand for the system, worldwide Saturn shipments during March to September 1997 declined from 2.35 million to 600,000 versus the same period in 1996; shipments in North America declined from 800,000 to 50,000.210 Due to the Saturn's poor performance in North America, 60 of Sega of America's 200 employees were laid off in late 1997.211

As a result of Sega's deteriorating financial situation, Nakayama resigned as president in January 1998 in favor of Irimajiri.212 Stolar subsequently acceded to president of Sega of America.213214 Following five years of generally declining profits,215 in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998, Sega suffered its first parent and consolidated financial losses since its 1988 listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.216 Due to a 54.8% decline in consumer product sales (including a 75.4% decline overseas), the company reported a net loss of ¥43.3 billion ($327.8 million) and a consolidated net loss of ¥35.6 billion ($269.8 million).217

Shortly before announcing its financial losses, Sega announced that it was discontinuing the Saturn in North America to prepare for the launch of its successor.218219 Only 7 Saturn games were released in North America in 1998 (Magic Knight Rayearth is the final official release), compared to 119 in 1996.220221 The Saturn lasted longer in Japan,222 with Irimajiri announcing in early 1998 that Sega would continue supporting the Saturn in Japan after its successor was released.223 Between June 1996 and August 1998, a further 1,103,468 consoles and 29,685,781 games were sold in Japan, giving the Saturn a Japanese attach rate of 16.71 games per console, the highest of that generation.224 As of February 1997, the attach rate was four games per console worldwide.225

Rumors about the upcoming Dreamcast, spread mainly by Sega, were leaked to the public before the last Saturn games were released.226 The Dreamcast was released on November 27, 1998, in Japan and on September 9, 1999, in North America.227 The decision to abandon the Saturn effectively left the Western market without Sega games for over one year.228 Sega suffered an additional ¥42.881 billion consolidated net loss in the fiscal year ending March 1999 and announced plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs, nearly a quarter of its workforce.229230

Worldwide Saturn sales include at least the following amounts in each territory: 5.75 million in Japan (surpassing Genesis sales of 3.58 million there231), 1.8 million in the United States, 1 million in Europe, and 530,000 elsewhere.232 With lifetime sales of 9.26 million units,233 the Saturn is considered a commercial failure,234 although its install base in Japan, where it did better than the West,235236 surpassed the Nintendo 64's 5.54 million,237 where it became Sega's highest-selling home console.238 The Saturn ultimately shipped more than 6 million units in Japan.239 Lack of distribution has been cited as a significant factor of the Saturn's failure, because the system's surprise launch had damaged Sega's reputation with key retailers.240 Conversely, Nintendo's long delay in releasing a 3D console and damage to Sega's reputation caused by poorly supported Genesis add-ons are considered major factors allowing Sony's establishment in the video game market.241242

Technical specifications

Hitachi SH-2Saturn Custom Sound Processor (SCSP)Motorola 68EC000
Video Display Processor 1 (VDP1)Video Display Processor 2 (VDP2)Saturn motherboard

Featuring eight processors,243 the Saturn's central processing units are two Hitachi SH-2 microprocessors clocked at 28.6 MHz and capable of 56 MIPS.244245246 It uses a Motorola 68EC000 running at 11.3 MHz as a sound controller; a custom sound processor with an integrated Yamaha FH1247 DSP running at 22.6 MHz248: 6  capable of up to 32 sound channels with both FM synthesis and 16-bit 44.1 kHz pulse-code modulation;249 and two video display processors:250 the VDP1 (which handles sprites and polygons) and the VDP2 (which handles backgrounds).251: 9  Its double-speed CD-ROM drive is controlled by a dedicated Hitachi SH-1 processor to reduce load time.252 The System Control Unit (SCU), which controls all buses and functions as a co-processor of the main SH-2 CPU, has an internal DSP running at 14.3 MHz.253: 6, 8  It features a cartridge slot that allows memory expansion,254 16 Mbit of work random-access memory (RAM), 12 Mbit of video RAM, 4 Mbit of RAM for sound functions, 4 Mbit of CD buffer RAM and 256 Kbit (32 KB) of battery backup RAM.255 Its RCA video output256 displays at resolutions from 320×224 to 704×224 pixels,257 with up to 16.78 million colors.258 The Saturn measures 260 mm × 230 mm × 83 mm (10.2 in × 9.1 in × 3.3 in). It was packaged with an instruction manual, control pad, stereo AV cable, and 100 V AC power supply consuming approximately 15 W.259

The Saturn had technically impressive hardware at the time of its release, but its complexity made harnessing this power difficult for developers accustomed to conventional programming.260 The greatest disadvantage was that both CPUs shared the same bus and were unable to access system memory at the same time. Making full use of the 4 KB of cache memory in each CPU was critical to maintaining performance. For example, Virtua Fighter used one CPU for each character,261 while Nights used one CPU for 3D environments and the other for 2D objects.262 The Visual Display Processor 2 (VDP2), which can generate and manipulate backgrounds,263 has also been cited as one of the system's most important features.264265

The Saturn's design elicited mixed commentary among game developers and journalists. Developers quoted by Next Generation in December 1995 described the Saturn as "a real coder's machine [for] those who love to get their teeth into assembly and really hack the hardware [with] more flexibility [and] more calculating power than the PlayStation". The sound board was widely praised.266 Lobotomy Software programmer Ezra Dreisbach described the Saturn as significantly slower than the PlayStation,267 whereas Kenji Eno of WARP observed little difference.268 In particular, Dreisbach criticized the Saturn's use of quadrilaterals as its basic geometric primitive, in contrast to the triangles rendered by the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64.269 Ken Humphries of Time Warner Interactive remarked that compared to the PlayStation, the Saturn was worse at generating polygons but better at sprites.270 Third-party development was initially hindered by the lack of useful software libraries and development tools, requiring developers to use assembly language. During early Saturn development, programming in assembly had a speed increase of two to five times above higher-level languages such as C.271

Sega responded to complaints about the difficulty of programming for the Saturn by writing new graphics libraries which were claimed to make development easier.272 Sega of America purchased a United Kingdom-based development firm, Cross Products, to produce the Saturn's development system.273274 Treasure CEO Masato Maegawa stated that the Nintendo 64 was more difficult to develop for than the Saturn.275 Traveller's Tales founder Jon Burton said that though the PlayStation was easier "to get started on [...] you quickly reach [its] limits", whereas the Saturn's "complicated [hardware could] improve the speed and look of a game when all used together correctly".276 A major criticism was the Saturn's use of 2D sprites to generate polygons and simulate 3D space. The PlayStation has a different design, based entirely on 3D triangle-based polygonal rendering, with no direct 2D support. As a result, several analysts described the Saturn as an "essentially" 2D system.277278279 For example, Steven L. Kent stated: "Although Nintendo and Sony had true 3D game machines, Sega had a 2D console that did a good job with 3D objects but wasn't optimized for 3D environments."280 The Saturn hardware is extremely difficult to emulate.281

Model 1 North American/European controller3D PadNetLink Modem
Model 2 North American/European controllerSaturn multitapRAM backup cartridge

Several Saturn models were produced in Japan. An updated model in a recolored light gray (officially white282) was released at ¥20,000 to reduce the system's cost283 and raise its appeal among women and younger children.284285 Two models were released by third parties: Hitachi released the Hi-Saturn (a smaller model equipped with a car navigation function),286 and JVC released the V-Saturn.287 Saturn controllers have various complementary color schemes.288 The system also supports several accessories. A wireless controller powered by AA batteries uses infrared signal to connect.289 Designed to work with Nights, the Saturn 3D Pad includes both a control pad and an analog stick for directional input.290 Sega also released several versions of arcade sticks as peripherals, including the Virtua Stick,291292 the Virtua Stick Pro,293 the Mission Analog Stick,294295 and the Twin Stick.296 Sega created a light gun peripheral, the Virtua Gun, for shooting games such as Virtua Cop,297 and the Arcade Racer, a wheel for racing games.298299 The Play Cable connects two Saturn consoles for multiplayer gaming across two screens,300301 and a multitap connects up to six players to the same console.302303 One console with two multitaps can support up to 12 players.304 Other accessories include RAM expansion cartridges,305 keyboard,306 mouse,307308 floppy disk drive,309 and movie card.310311

Like the Genesis, the Saturn had an Internet-based gaming service. The Sega NetLink is a 28.8k modem for the cartridge slot for direct dial multiplayer games312 Daytona USA, Duke Nukem 3D, Saturn Bomberman,313 Sega Rally, and Virtual On: Cyber Troopers.314 In Japan, a pay-to-play service was used.315 It can be used for web browsing, email, and online chat.316 Because the NetLink was released before the keyboard, Sega produced a series of CDs containing hundreds of website addresses so that Saturn owners could browse with the joypad.317 In 1995, Sega announced a variant of the Saturn featuring a built-in NetLink modem318 codenamed Pluto, but it was never released.319

Sega developed a Saturn-based arcade board, the Sega ST-V (or Titan), intended as an affordable alternative to Sega's Model 2 arcade board and as a testing ground for upcoming Saturn software.320 The Titan was criticized for its comparatively weak performance compared to the Sega Model 2 arcade system by Yu Suzuki,321 and it was overproduced by Sega's arcade division.322 Because Sega already had the Die Hard license, members of Sega AM1 working at the Sega Technical Institute developed Die Hard Arcade for the Titan to clear excess inventory.323 Die Hard became the most successful Sega arcade game produced in the United States at that point.324 Other games released for the Titan include Golden Axe: The Duel and Virtua Fighter Kids.325326

Game library

Main article: List of Sega Saturn games

Much of the Saturn's library is Sega's arcade ports,327 including Daytona USA, The House of the Dead,328 Last Bronx, Sega Rally Championship, the Virtua Cop series, the Virtua Fighter series, and Virtual-On.329 Saturn ports of 2D Capcom fighting games including Darkstalkers 3, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 were noted for their faithfulness to their arcade counterparts.330331 Fighters Megamix, developed by Sega AM2 for the Saturn rather than arcades,332 combined characters from Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter to positive reviews.333 Highly rated Saturn exclusives include Panzer Dragoon Saga,334 Dragon Force,335 Guardian Heroes,336337 Nights,338339 Panzer Dragoon II Zwei,340 and Shining Force III.341342343 PlayStation games such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Resident Evil, and Wipeout 2097 received Saturn ports with mixed results.344 The first-person shooter PowerSlave featured some of the most impressive 3D graphics on the system, leading Sega to contract its developers, Lobotomy Software, to produce Saturn ports of Duke Nukem 3D and Quake.345346 While Electronic Arts's limited support for the Saturn and Sega's failure to develop a football game for late 1995 gave Sony the lead in the sports genre,347348349 "Sega Sports" published Saturn sports games including the well-regarded World Series Baseball and Sega Worldwide Soccer series.350351

Due to the cancellation of Sonic X-treme, the Saturn lacks an exclusive Sonic the Hedgehog platformer; instead it received a graphically enhanced port of the Genesis game Sonic 3D Blast, the compilation Sonic Jam, and a racing game, Sonic R.352353 The platformer Bug! received attention for its eponymous main character being a potential mascot for the Saturn, but it failed to catch on as the Sonic series had.354355356 Considered one of the most important Saturn releases, Sonic Team developed Nights into Dreams, a score attack game that attempted to simulate both the joy of flying and the fleeting sensation of dreams. The gameplay of Nights involves steering the imp-like androgynous protagonist, Nights, as it flies on a mostly 2D plane across surreal stages broken into four segments each. The levels repeat for as long as an in-game time limit allows, while flying over or looping around various objects in rapid succession earns additional points. Although it lacked the fully 3D environments of Nintendo's Super Mario 64, the emphasis by Nights on unfettered movement and graceful acrobatic techniques showcased the intuitive potential of analog control.357358359 Sonic Team's Burning Rangers, a fully 3D360 action-adventure game involving a team of outer-space firefighters, garnered praise for its transparency effects and distinctive art direction, but was released in limited quantities late in the Saturn's lifespan and criticized for its short length.361362363

Many of the system's well-regarded titles were exclusive to Japan.364 Some of the biggest killer apps for the Saturn in Japan were the Sakura Wars series.365 Co-developed by Sega and Red Entertainment, Sakura Wars mixes elements of tactical RPGs, anime cutscenes, and visual novels.366 That and Grandia367 helped popularize the Saturn in its homeland, but never had a Western release due to Sega of America's policy of not localizing RPGs and other Japanese games that might have damaged the system's reputation in North America.368369 Some games that launched on Saturn, such as Dead or Alive,370371 Grandia,372 and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete only had a Western release on the PlayStation.373 Working Designs localized several Japanese Saturn games before a public feud between Sega of America's Bernie Stolar and Working Designs president Victor Ireland resulted in the company switching their support to the PlayStation.374 According to the review aggregator GameRankings, Panzer Dragoon Saga is the most acclaimed Saturn game;375 it was praised for its cinematic presentation, evocative plot, and unique battle system. However, Sega released fewer than 20,000 retail copies in North America in what IGN's Levi Buchanan characterized as an example of the Saturn's "ignominious send-off" in the region.376377378 Similarly, only the first of three installments of Shining Force III was released outside Japan.379 The Saturn's library also garnered criticism for its lack of sequels to high-profile Genesis-era Sega franchises, with Sega of Japan's cancellation of a planned third installment in Sega of America's popular Eternal Champions series cited as a significant source of controversy.380381382

Later ports of Saturn games including Guardian Heroes,383 Nights,384 and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers385 continued to garner positive reviews. Partly due to rarity, Saturn games such as Panzer Dragoon Saga386387388 and Radiant Silvergun389390 are noted for their cult following. Due to the system's commercial failure and hardware limitations, Saturn projects such as Resident Evil 2,391 Shenmue, Sonic Adventure, and Virtua Fighter 3392393 were cancelled and moved to the Dreamcast.

Reception and legacy

At the time of the Saturn's release, Famicom Tsūshin awarded it 24 out of 40, higher than the PlayStation's 19 out of 40.394 In June 1995, Dennis Lynch of the Chicago Tribune and Albert Kim of Entertainment Weekly praised the Saturn as the most advanced console available; Lynch praised the double-speed CD-ROM drive and "intense surround-sound capabilities" and Kim cited Panzer Dragoon as a "lyrical and exhilarating epic" demonstrating the ability of new technology to "transform" the industry.395396 In December 1995, Next Generation gave the Saturn three and a half stars out of five, highlighting Sega's marketing and arcade background as strengths but the system's complexity as a weakness.397 Four critics in Electronic Gaming Monthly's December 1996 Buyer's Guide rated the Saturn 8, 6, 7, and 8 out of 10 and the PlayStation 9, 10, 9, and 9.398 By December 1998, EGM's reviews were more mixed, with reviewers citing the lack of games as a major problem. According to EGM reviewer Crispin Boyer, "the Saturn is the only system that can thrill me one month and totally disappoint me the next".399

Retrospective feedback of the Saturn is mixed, but generally praises its game library.400401 According to Greg Sewart of 1UP.com, "the Saturn will go down in history as one of the most troubled, and greatest, systems of all time".402 In 2009, IGN named the Saturn the 18th-best console of all time, praising its unique game library. According to the reviewers, "While the Saturn ended up losing the popularity contest to both Sony and Nintendo [...] Nights into Dreams, the Virtua Fighter and Panzer Dragoon series are all examples of exclusive titles that made the console a fan favorite."403 Edge noted that "hardened loyalists continue to reminisce about the console that brought forth games like Burning Rangers, Guardian Heroes, Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga".404 In 2015, The Guardian's Keith Stuart wrote that "the Saturn has perhaps the strongest line-up of 2D shooters and fighting games in console history".405

Retro Gamer's Damien McFerran wrote: "Even today, despite the widespread availability of sequels and re-releases on other formats, the Sega Saturn is still a worthwhile investment for those who appreciate the unique gameplay styles of the companies that supported it."406 IGN's Adam Redsell wrote "[Sega's] devil-may-care attitude towards game development in the Saturn and Dreamcast eras is something that we simply do not see outside of the indie scene today."407 Necrosoft Games director Brandon Sheffield said that "the Saturn was a landing point for games that were too 'adult' in content for other systems, as it was the only one that allowed an 18+ rating for content in Japan [...] some games, like Enemy Zero used it to take body horror to new levels, an important step toward the expansion of games and who they served."408 Sewart praised the Saturn's first-party games as "Sega's shining moment as a game developer", with Sonic Team demonstrating its creative range and AM2 producing numerous technically impressive arcade ports. He also commented on the many Japan-exclusive Saturn releases, which he connected with a subsequent boom in the game import market.409 IGN's Travis Fahs was critical of the Saturn library's lack of "fresh ideas" and "precious few high-profile franchises", in contrast to what he described as Sega's more creative Dreamcast output.410

Sega has been criticized for its management of the Saturn. McFerran said its management staff had "fallen out of touch with both the demands of the market and the industry".411 Stolar has also been criticized;412 according to Fahs, "Stolar's decision to abandon the Saturn made him a villain to many Sega fans, but [...] it was better to regroup than to enter the next fight battered and bruised. Dreamcast would be Stolar's redemption."413 Stolar defended his decision, saying, "I felt Saturn was hurting the company more than helping it. That was a battle that we weren't going to win."414 Sheffield said that the Saturn's quadrilaterals undermined third-party support, but because "nVidia invested in quads" at the same time, there had been "a remote possibility" they could have "become the standard instead of triangles [...] if somehow, magically, the Saturn were the most popular console of that era."415 Speaking more positively, former Working Designs president Victor Ireland described the Saturn as "the start of the future of console gaming" because it "got the better developers thinking and designing with parallel-processing architecture in mind for the first time".416 In GamesRadar, Justin Towell wrote that the Saturn's 3D Pad "set the template for every successful controller that followed, with analog shoulder triggers and left thumbstick [...] I don't see any three-pronged controllers around the office these days."417

Douglass C. Perry of Gamasutra noted that, from its surprise launch to its ultimate failure, the Saturn "soured many gamers on Sega products".418 Sewart and IGN's Levi Buchanan cited the failure of the Saturn as the major reason for Sega's downfall as a hardware manufacturer, but USgamer's Jeremy Parish described it as "more a symptom [...] than a cause" of the decline, which began with add-ons for the Genesis that fragmented the market and continued with Sega of America's and Sega of Japan's competing designs for the Dreamcast.419420421 Sheffield portrayed Sega's mistakes with the Saturn as emblematic of the broader then-decline of the Japanese gaming industry: "They thought they were invincible, and that structure and hierarchy were necessary for their survival, but more flexibility, and a greater participation with the West could have saved them."422 According to Stuart, Sega "didn't see [...] the roots of a prevailing trend, away from arcade conversions and traditional role-playing adventures and toward a much wider console development community with fresh ideas about gameplay and structure".423 Pulp365 reviews editor Matt Paprocki concluded that "the Saturn is a relic, but an important one, which represents the harshness of progress and what it can leave in its wake".424

Notes

Bibliography

References

  1. Japanese: セガサターン, Hepburn: Sega Satān /wiki/Japanese_language ↩

  2. In Asia, the console's name is commonly romanized as SegaSaturn. ↩

  3. Sczepaniak, John (2006). "Retroinspection: Mega Drive". Retro Gamer. No. 27. pp. 42–47. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2014. http://www.sega-16.com/2006/09/retroinspection-mega-drive/ ↩

  4. Kent 2001, p. 431. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  5. "Virtua Racing – Arcade (1992)". GameSpot. 2001. Archived from the original on April 12, 2010. Retrieved June 6, 2014. cf. Feit, Daniel (September 5, 2012). "How Virtua Fighter Saved PlayStation's Bacon". Wired. Archived from the original on October 14, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2014. Ryoji Akagawa: If it wasn't for Virtua Fighter, the PlayStation probably would have had a completely different hardware concept. cf. Thomason, Steve (July 2006). "The Man Behind the Legend". Nintendo Power. Vol. 19, no. 205. p. 72. Toby Gard: It became clear to me watching people play Virtua Fighter, which was kind of the first big 3D-character console game, that even though there were only two female characters in the lineup, in almost every game I saw being played, someone was picking one of the two females. https://web.archive.org/web/20100412225953/http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/15influential/p13_01.html ↩

  6. Leone, Matt (2010). "The Essential 50 Part 35: Virtua Fighter". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2016. https://archive.today/20120719110526/http://www.1up.com/features/essential-50-virtua-fighter ↩

  7. Donovan, Tristan (2010). Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant. p. 267. ISBN 978-0956507204. One of the key objections to 3D graphics that developers had been raising with Sony was that while polygons worked fine for inanimate objects such as racing cars, 2D images were superior when it came to animating people or other characters. Virtua Fighter, Suzuki's follow-up to Virtua Racing, was a direct riposte to such thinking [...] The characters may have resembled artists' mannequins but their lifelike movement turned Suzuki's game into a huge success that exploded claims that game characters couldn't be done successfully in 3D [...] Teruhisa Tokunaka, chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, even went so far as to thank Sega for creating Virtua Fighter and transforming developers' attitudes. 978-0956507204 ↩

  8. Mott 2013, pp. 226, 250. "Virtua Racing [...] was perhaps the first to treat polygons not as a graphical gimmick but as an opportunity to expand the boundaries of traditional driving games [...] It's like witnessing the discovery of fire [...] [Virtua Fighter] establish[ed] the template that future 3-D fighters would follow". - Mott, Tony (2013). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. New York: Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2090-2. ↩

  9. Kent 2001, pp. 501–502. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  10. "Virtua Fighter Review". Edge. December 22, 1994. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. Virtua Fighter's 3D characters have a presence that 2D sprites just can't match. The characters really do seem 'alive', whether they're throwing a punch, unleashing a special move or reeling from a blow [...] The Saturn version of Virtua Fighter is an exceptional game in many respects. It's arguably the first true 'next generation' console game, fusing the best aspects of combat gameplay with groundbreaking animation and gorgeous sound (CD music and clear samples). In the arcades, Virtua Fighter made people stop and look. On the Saturn, it will make many people stop, look at their bank balance and then fork out for Sega's new machine. Over to you, Sony. https://web.archive.org/web/20141210173015/http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/virtua-fighter-review/ ↩

  11. McFerran, Damien. "Retroinspection: Sega Saturn". Retro Gamer. No. 34. pp. 44–49. ↩

  12. Harris 2014, p. 386. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  13. "EGM Interviews SEGA SATURN Product Manager HIDEKI OKAMURA". EGM2. Vol. 1, no. 1. July 1994. p. 114. Hideki Okamura: [Saturn] was just a development code name for hardware that was adopted by the Japanese development staff. The name has become common knowledge and it has a nice ring to it. /wiki/EGM2 ↩

  14. 株式会社インプレス (May 23, 2016). "「Game On」トークイベント「セガハードの歴史を語り尽くす」レポート 歴代セガハードの生みの親が集結した夢のキャスティングが実現！". Game Watch (in Japanese). Retrieved October 15, 2022. http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/758667.html ↩

  15. Manson, Leonard (December 29, 2021). "New Saturn Development Details: "I Regret Not Basing It On The Model 1"". Somag News. Archived from the original on January 27, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220127081720/https://www.somagnews.com/new-saturn-development-details-i-regret-not-basing-it-on-the-model-1/ ↩

  16. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  17. Pollack, Andrew (September 22, 1993). "Sega to Use Hitachi Chip In Video Game Machine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014. Sega Enterprises said today that it would base its next-generation home video game machine, due in the fall of 1994, on a new chip being developed by Hitachi Ltd [...] One Sega official said Hitachi's chip was attractively priced and would be designed with Sega's needs in mind [...] Yamaha is expected to provide sound chips and JVC the circuitry for compressing video images. cf. "Sega to add 64-Bit Processor to New Saturn System!". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Vol. 5, no. 53. December 1993. p. 68. There are reportedly seven different processors in the Saturn. The main processor will be a custom 32-Bit RISC chip under joint development by Sega and Hitachi. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/22/business/company-news-sega-to-use-hitachi-chip-in-video-game-machine.html ↩

  18. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  19. "NG Hardware: Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 12. December 1995. pp. 45–48. The early pictures and technical breakdowns have remained relatively close to the final system, perhaps because the system was completed far earlier than many people realize [...] It was too late to make major alterations to the system, so, at the cost of pushing the launch schedule slightly, a video processor was added to the board to boost its 2D and 3D texture-mapping abilities. The real processing power of the Saturn comes from two Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors running at 28 MHz. These processors were specially commissioned by Sega and are optimized for fast 3D graphics work. ↩

  20. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  21. "NG Hardware: Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 12. December 1995. pp. 45–48. The early pictures and technical breakdowns have remained relatively close to the final system, perhaps because the system was completed far earlier than many people realize [...] It was too late to make major alterations to the system, so, at the cost of pushing the launch schedule slightly, a video processor was added to the board to boost its 2D and 3D texture-mapping abilities. The real processing power of the Saturn comes from two Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors running at 28 MHz. These processors were specially commissioned by Sega and are optimized for fast 3D graphics work. ↩

  22. "NG Hardware: Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 1. January 1995. pp. 44–45. Sega has spent the last nine months or so playing catch-up with Sony after a publisher-friend tipped Sega off about the power of PlayStation. ↩

  23. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  24. Sewart, Greg (August 5, 2005). "Sega Saturn: The Pleasure And The Pain". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2016. https://archive.today/20140317211403/http://www.1up.com/features/pleasure-pain?pager.offset=0 ↩

  25. Fahs, Travis (April 21, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Sega". IGN. p. 6. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=6 ↩

  26. Dring, Christopher (July 7, 2013). "A Tale of Two E3s – Xbox vs Sony vs Sega". MCVUK.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170222190759/http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/tale-of-two-e3s-xbox-vs-sony-vs-sega/0118482 ↩

  27. Harris 2014, p. 465. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  28. Fahs, Travis (April 21, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Sega". IGN. p. 6. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=6 ↩

  29. Harris 2014, p. 464. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  30. Dring, Christopher (July 7, 2013). "A Tale of Two E3s – Xbox vs Sony vs Sega". MCVUK.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170222190759/http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/tale-of-two-e3s-xbox-vs-sony-vs-sega/0118482 ↩

  31. Horowitz, Ken (July 11, 2006). "Interview: Tom Kalinske". Sega-16. Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Tom Kalinske: I remember we had a document that Olaf and Mickey took to Sony that said they'd like to develop jointly the next hardware, the next game platform, with Sega, and here's what we think it ought to do. Sony apparently gave the green light to that [...] Our proposal was that each of us would sell this joint Sega/Sony hardware platform; we'll share the loss on the hardware (whatever that is, we'll split it), combine our advertising and marketing, but we'll each be responsible for the software sales we'll generate. Now, at that particular point in time, Sega knew how to develop software a hell of a lot better than Sony did. They were just coming up the learning curve, so we would have benefited much more greatly [...] I felt that we were rushing Saturn. We didn't have the software right, and we didn't have the pricing right, so I felt we should have stayed with Genesis for another year. https://web.archive.org/web/20090207173139/http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=214&title=Interview%3A%20Tom%20Kalinske ↩

  32. Harris 2014, p. 452. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  33. Kent 2001, p. 509. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  34. "The Making Of [...] Panzer Dragoon Saga Part 1". Now Gamer. December 17, 2008. Archived from the original on July 24, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2014. Kentaro Yoshida: We thought we'd have no problem making games that were superior to PlayStation games. https://web.archive.org/web/20140724042310/http://www.nowgamer.com/features/894677/the_making_of_panzer_dragoon_saga_part_1.html ↩

  35. "News Digest". RePlay. Vol. 19, no. 8. May 1994. p. 14. https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-19-issue-no.-8-may-1994/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2019%2C%20Issue%20No.%208%20-%20May%201994/page/14 ↩

  36. McFerran, Damien (2010). "Retroinspection: Sega 32X". Retro Gamer. No. 77. pp. 44–49. Scot Bayless: The 32X call was made in early January [1994] [...] There's a part of me that wishes the Saturn had adopted the 32X graphics strategy, but that ship had sailed long before the greenlight call from Nakayama. ↩

  37. McFerran, Damien (2010). "Retroinspection: Sega 32X". Retro Gamer. No. 77. pp. 44–49. Scot Bayless: The 32X call was made in early January [1994] [...] There's a part of me that wishes the Saturn had adopted the 32X graphics strategy, but that ship had sailed long before the greenlight call from Nakayama. ↩

  38. Kent 2001, p. 494. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  39. McFerran, Damien (2010). "Retroinspection: Sega 32X". Retro Gamer. No. 77. pp. 44–49. Scot Bayless: The 32X call was made in early January [1994] [...] There's a part of me that wishes the Saturn had adopted the 32X graphics strategy, but that ship had sailed long before the greenlight call from Nakayama. ↩

  40. Beuscher, David. "Sega Genesis 32X – Overview". Allgame. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141210012639/http://allgame.com/platform.php?id=35 ↩

  41. Horowitz, Ken (February 7, 2013). "Interview: Joe Miller". Sega-16. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved May 25, 2014. Joe Miller: I'd say that the rhetoric around the deteriorating relationship is probably overblown a little bit, based on what I've read. Nakayama-san and SOJ knew they had a strong, proven management team in place at SOA, and while everyone was concerned about growing the business, neither side lost confidence in the other. http://www.sega-16.com/2013/02/interview-joe-miller/ ↩

  42. McFerran, Damien (2010). "Retroinspection: Sega 32X". Retro Gamer. No. 77. pp. 44–49. Scot Bayless: The 32X call was made in early January [1994] [...] There's a part of me that wishes the Saturn had adopted the 32X graphics strategy, but that ship had sailed long before the greenlight call from Nakayama. ↩

  43. "Sega Saturn" (in Japanese). Sega Corporation. Archived from the original on July 16, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014. http://sega.jp/fb/segahard/ss/ ↩

  44. Kent 2001, pp. 501–502. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  45. "Virtua Fighter Review". Edge. December 22, 1994. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. Virtua Fighter's 3D characters have a presence that 2D sprites just can't match. The characters really do seem 'alive', whether they're throwing a punch, unleashing a special move or reeling from a blow [...] The Saturn version of Virtua Fighter is an exceptional game in many respects. It's arguably the first true 'next generation' console game, fusing the best aspects of combat gameplay with groundbreaking animation and gorgeous sound (CD music and clear samples). In the arcades, Virtua Fighter made people stop and look. On the Saturn, it will make many people stop, look at their bank balance and then fork out for Sega's new machine. Over to you, Sony. https://web.archive.org/web/20141210173015/http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/virtua-fighter-review/ ↩

  46. "Sega and Sony Sell the Dream". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 17. February 1995. pp. 6–9. The December 3 ship-out of 100,000 PlayStations to stores across Japan ... was not met with the same euphoria-charged reception that the Saturn received ... Saturn arrived to a rapturous reception in Japan on November 22. 200,000 units sold out instantly on day one ... Japanese gamers were beside themselves as they walked away with their prized possession and a near-perfect conversion of the Virtua Fighter coin-op ... Sega (and Sony) have proved that with dedicated processors handling the drive (the SH-1 in the Saturn's case), negligible access times are possible. /wiki/Edge_(magazine) ↩

  47. "The Making Of [...] Panzer Dragoon Saga Part 1". Now Gamer. December 17, 2008. Archived from the original on July 24, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2014. Kentaro Yoshida: We thought we'd have no problem making games that were superior to PlayStation games. https://web.archive.org/web/20140724042310/http://www.nowgamer.com/features/894677/the_making_of_panzer_dragoon_saga_part_1.html ↩

  48. Semrad, Ed (December 1994). "Saturn... Ahead of its Time?". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 65. p. 6. /wiki/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly ↩

  49. "Sega and Sony Sell the Dream". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 17. February 1995. pp. 6–9. The December 3 ship-out of 100,000 PlayStations to stores across Japan ... was not met with the same euphoria-charged reception that the Saturn received ... Saturn arrived to a rapturous reception in Japan on November 22. 200,000 units sold out instantly on day one ... Japanese gamers were beside themselves as they walked away with their prized possession and a near-perfect conversion of the Virtua Fighter coin-op ... Sega (and Sony) have proved that with dedicated processors handling the drive (the SH-1 in the Saturn's case), negligible access times are possible. /wiki/Edge_(magazine) ↩

  50. Fahs, Travis (April 21, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Sega". IGN. p. 8. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=8 ↩

  51. Harris 2014, p. 536, gives a lower figure of 170,000. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  52. "Sega and Sony Sell the Dream". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 17. February 1995. pp. 6–9. The December 3 ship-out of 100,000 PlayStations to stores across Japan ... was not met with the same euphoria-charged reception that the Saturn received ... Saturn arrived to a rapturous reception in Japan on November 22. 200,000 units sold out instantly on day one ... Japanese gamers were beside themselves as they walked away with their prized possession and a near-perfect conversion of the Virtua Fighter coin-op ... Sega (and Sony) have proved that with dedicated processors handling the drive (the SH-1 in the Saturn's case), negligible access times are possible. /wiki/Edge_(magazine) ↩

  53. Kent 2001, p. 502. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  54. Buchanan, Levi (October 24, 2008). "32X Follies". IGN. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2013. https://ign.com/articles/2008/10/24/32x-follies ↩

  55. "Super 32X" (in Japanese). Sega Corporation. Archived from the original on July 16, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2014. https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/32x/ ↩

  56. McFerran, Damien (2010). "Retroinspection: Sega 32X". Retro Gamer. No. 77. pp. 44–49. Scot Bayless: The 32X call was made in early January [1994] [...] There's a part of me that wishes the Saturn had adopted the 32X graphics strategy, but that ship had sailed long before the greenlight call from Nakayama. ↩

  57. Beuscher, David. "Sega Genesis 32X – Overview". Allgame. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141210012639/http://allgame.com/platform.php?id=35 ↩

  58. "Japanese Stats Give Saturn the Edge". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 19. April 1995. pp. 10–11. This equates to the Saturn shifting an average number of 17,241 units a day and the PlayStation 15,789. /wiki/PlayStation ↩

  59. "Sega Saturn: You've Watched the TV Commercials...Now Read the Facts". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 8. August 1995. pp. 26–32. ↩

  60. "History of the PlayStation". IGN. August 28, 1998. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/1998/08/28/history-of-the-playstation ↩

  61. Kent 2001, p. 504. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  62. "The Making Of: PlayStation". Edge. April 24, 2009. p. 3. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20141018182151/http://www.edge-online.com/features/making-playstation/3/ ↩

  63. Kent 2001, p. 516. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  64. "Let the games begin: Sega Saturn hits retail shelves across the nation Sept. 2; Japanese sales already put Sega on top of the charts" (Press release). Redwood City, California. Business Wire. March 9, 1995. Archived from the original on October 25, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014 – via The Free Library. https://web.archive.org/web/20141025012132/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Let+the+games+begin%3a+Sega+Saturn+hits+retail+shelves+across+the...-a016634009 ↩

  65. Reisinger, Don (January 31, 2008). "Why the Saturn was the worst major console of all time". CNET. Retrieved March 13, 2023. https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/why-the-saturn-was-the-worst-major-console-of-all-time/ ↩

  66. Harris 2014, p. 536. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  67. "Sega Saturn launch takes consumers and retailers by storm; retailers struggling to keep up with consumer demand" (Press release). Redwood City, California. Business Wire. May 19, 1995. Archived from the original on October 25, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016 – via The Free Library. https://web.archive.org/web/20161025111725/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+Saturn+launch+takes+consumers+and+retailers+by+storm%3B+retailers...-a016867843 ↩

  68. Cifaldi, Frank (May 11, 2010). "This Day in History: Sega Announces Surprise Saturn Launch". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2016. https://archive.today/20130629122913/http://www.1up.com/news/day-history-sega-announces-surprise ↩

  69. Kent 2001, p. 516. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  70. Dring, Christopher (July 7, 2013). "A Tale of Two E3s – Xbox vs Sony vs Sega". MCVUK.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170222190759/http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/tale-of-two-e3s-xbox-vs-sony-vs-sega/0118482 ↩

  71. Schilling, Mellissa A. (Spring 2003). "Technological Leapfrogging: Lessons From the U.S. Video Game Console Industry". California Management Review. 45 (3): 12, 23. doi:10.2307/41166174. JSTOR 41166174. S2CID 114838931. Lack of distribution may have contributed significantly to the failure of the Sega Saturn to gain an installed base. Sega had limited distribution for its Saturn launch, which may have slowed the building of its installed base both directly (because consumers had limited access to the product) and indirectly (because distributors that were initially denied product may have been reluctant to promote the product after the limitations were lifted). Nintendo, by contrast, had unlimited distribution for its Nintendo 64 launch, and Sony not only had unlimited distribution, but had extensive experience with negotiating with retailing giants such as Wal-Mart for its consumer electronics products. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

  72. Reisinger, Don (January 31, 2008). "Why the Saturn was the worst major console of all time". CNET. Retrieved March 13, 2023. https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/why-the-saturn-was-the-worst-major-console-of-all-time/ ↩

  73. cf. "Is War hell for Sega?". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 13. January 1996. p. 7. Tom Kalinske: We needed to do something shocking because we were $100 more than the other guy [...] I still think [the surprise launch] was a good idea. If I had it to do over again would I do it a little differently? Yeah, definitely. I wouldn't take the risk of annoying retailers the way we did. I would clue them in and do an early launch in a region or three regions or something so we could include everybody. ↩

  74. "K-B Toys tells its side". IGN. September 28, 1996. Retrieved July 6, 2023. https://www.ign.com/articles/1996/09/28/k-b-toys-tells-its-side ↩

  75. Reisinger, Don (January 31, 2008). "Why the Saturn was the worst major console of all time". CNET. Retrieved March 13, 2023. https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/why-the-saturn-was-the-worst-major-console-of-all-time/ ↩

  76. Kent 2001, p. 516. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  77. Dring, Christopher (July 7, 2013). "A Tale of Two E3s – Xbox vs Sony vs Sega". MCVUK.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170222190759/http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/tale-of-two-e3s-xbox-vs-sony-vs-sega/0118482 ↩

  78. Harris 2014, p. 545. - Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8. ↩

  79. Kent 2001, pp. 505, 516. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  80. Patterson, Patrick (May 12, 2015). "This Week in Gaming History: How E3 1995 changed gaming forever". Syfy Games. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20151225204734/http://www.syfygames.com/news/article/this-week-in-gaming-history-how-e3-1995-changed-gaming-forever ↩

  81. Keith Stuart (May 14, 2015). "Sega Saturn: how one decision destroyed PlayStation's greatest rival". the Guardian. Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180330025923/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/14/sega-saturn-how-one-decision-destroyed-playstations-greatest-rival ↩

  82. McFerran, Damien. "Retroinspection: Sega Saturn". Retro Gamer. No. 34. pp. 44–49. ↩

  83. "Dear Saturn Mag, I've Heard the Saturn Couldn't Handle Alex Kidd... Is This True?". Sega Saturn Magazine. Vol. 1, no. 2. December 1995. p. 51. /wiki/Sega_Saturn_Magazine ↩

  84. Horsman, Mathew (November 11, 1995). "Sega profits plunge as rivals turn up the heat". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 20, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sega-profits-plunge-as-rivals-turn-up-the-heat-1581404.html ↩

  85. "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Business Development/Europe". SCE. Archived from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20140728173744/http://scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataeu_e.html ↩

  86. "Sega Saturn: You've Watched the TV Commercials...Now Read the Facts". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 8. August 1995. pp. 26–32. ↩

  87. "Sega Saturn gets astronomical send off with landmark marketing campaign; Sega breaks $50-million marketing campaign to support surprise launch at E3" (Press release). Los Angeles. Business Wire. May 11, 1995. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2015 – via The Free Library. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+Saturn+gets+astronomical+send+off+with+landmark+marketing...-a016940474 ↩

  88. Finn, Mark (2002). "Console Games in the Age of Convergence". In Mäyrä, Frans (ed.). Computer Games and Digital Cultures: Conference Proceedings: Proceedings of the Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference, June 6–8, 2002, Tampere, Finland. Tampere University Press. pp. 45–58. ISBN 978-9514453717. 978-9514453717 ↩

  89. "Sega: Who Do they Think you Are?". Next Generation. No. 14. Imagine Media. February 1996. p. 71. /wiki/Next_Generation_(magazine) ↩

  90. "Sega TV: Turn On, Tune In, Buy Hardware". Next Generation. No. 14. Imagine Media. February 1996. p. 74. /wiki/Next_Generation_(magazine) ↩

  91. "Sega Saturn launch takes consumers and retailers by storm; retailers struggling to keep up with consumer demand" (Press release). Redwood City, California. Business Wire. May 19, 1995. Archived from the original on October 25, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016 – via The Free Library. https://web.archive.org/web/20161025111725/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+Saturn+launch+takes+consumers+and+retailers+by+storm%3B+retailers...-a016867843 ↩

  92. "1995: The Calm Before the Storm?". Next Generation. No. 13. Imagine Media. January 1996. p. 47. /wiki/Next_Generation_(magazine) ↩

  93. Kato, Matthew (October 30, 2013). "Which Game Console Had the Best Launch Lineup?". Game Informer. p. 3. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/10/30/which-game-console-had-the-best-launch-lineup.aspx?PostPageIndex=3 ↩

  94. Sewart, Greg (August 5, 2005). "Sega Saturn: The Pleasure And The Pain". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2016. https://archive.today/20140317211403/http://www.1up.com/features/pleasure-pain?pager.offset=0 ↩

  95. Fahs, Travis (April 21, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Sega". IGN. p. 8. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=8 ↩

  96. Kent 2001, p. 533. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  97. Kent 2001, p. 504. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  98. DeMaria & Wilson 2004, p. 282. - DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2004). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games. Emeryville, California: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. ISBN 0-07-223172-6. ↩

  99. "History of the PlayStation". IGN. August 28, 1998. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/1998/08/28/history-of-the-playstation ↩

  100. Kent 2001, pp. 519–520. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  101. Kent 2001, p. 502. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  102. Parkin, Simon (June 19, 2014). "A History of Videogame Hardware: Sony PlayStation". Edge. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20141129042841/http://www.edge-online.com/features/a-history-of-videogame-hardware-sony-playstation/ ↩

  103. "Daytona USA". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 21. June 1995. pp. 72–75. Although AM2 has managed to replicate the coin-op tolerably well, Saturn Daytona fails to capture the arcade experience that PlayStation Ridge Racer so convincingly delivers. cf. McNamara, Andy; et al. (September 1995). "Prepare Yourself for the Ultimate Racing Experience". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 20, 1997. Retrieved April 15, 2014. Daytona rules the arcade, but I think Ridge Racer dominates the home systems. cf. Air Hendrix (August 1995). "Pro Review: Daytona USA". GamePro. Vol. 7, no. 73. p. 50. Daytona pales in comparison to Ridge Racer for the Japanese PlayStation, which takes an early lead with better features, gameplay, and graphics. https://web.archive.org/web/19971120013114/http://www.gameinformer.com/sep95/rracer.html ↩

  104. Mott 2013, p. 239. "A disastrous home version [of Daytona USA] for the Sega Saturn in 1995 is reviled for its choppy frame rate and flickering polygons". - Mott, Tony (2013). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. New York: Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2090-2. ↩

  105. Leone, Matt (2010). "The Essential 50 Part 35: Virtua Fighter". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2016. https://archive.today/20120719110526/http://www.1up.com/features/essential-50-virtua-fighter ↩

  106. Kent 2001, p. 582. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  107. "Tekken". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 21. June 1995. pp. 66–70. Namco took a significant risk in basing its Tekken coin-op on raw PlayStation hardware, considering that it would be competing directly with Sega's Model 2-powered Virtua Fighter 2 [...] For once, a home system can boast an identical conversion of a cutting-edge coin-op [...] Namco's research section managing director, Shegeichi Nakamura [...] explains: "When Sony came along we decided to go for a low-cost system—in short, we've left the big arcade stores to Sega and VF2 and Tekken has been sold to smaller arcade centres" [...] Namco has a further four titles planned for System 11, all of which are likely to make the jump to the PlayStation. ↩

  108. "Tekken". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 21. June 1995. pp. 66–70. Namco took a significant risk in basing its Tekken coin-op on raw PlayStation hardware, considering that it would be competing directly with Sega's Model 2-powered Virtua Fighter 2 [...] For once, a home system can boast an identical conversion of a cutting-edge coin-op [...] Namco's research section managing director, Shegeichi Nakamura [...] explains: "When Sony came along we decided to go for a low-cost system—in short, we've left the big arcade stores to Sega and VF2 and Tekken has been sold to smaller arcade centres" [...] Namco has a further four titles planned for System 11, all of which are likely to make the jump to the PlayStation. ↩

  109. Tokyo Drifter (April 2002). "Virtua Fight Club". GamePro. Vol. 14, no. 163. pp. 48–50. ↩

  110. "Namco". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 1. January 1995. pp. 70–73. ↩

  111. "Tekken". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. p. 82. ↩

  112. "An Audience With: Katsuhiro Harada – on 20 years of Tekken and the future of fighting games". Edge. September 23, 2013. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20141129114830/http://www.edge-online.com/features/an-audience-with-katsuhiro-harada/ ↩

  113. Tokyo Drifter (April 2002). "Virtua Fight Club". GamePro. Vol. 14, no. 163. pp. 48–50. ↩

  114. Mott 2013, p. 254. - Mott, Tony (2013). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. New York: Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2090-2. ↩

  115. cf. Scary Larry (August 1995). "Pro Review: Virtua Fighter". GamePro. Vol. 7, no. 73. p. 48. The graphics were state-of-the-art when this game was released in the arcades a year ago. Other fighters—notably Tekken and Toh Shin Den—now make better use of the polygon engine. /wiki/Battle_Arena_Toshinden ↩

  116. "Sega Announces $299 Sega Saturn Core Pack; "Virtua Fighter Remix" Pack-In Available for $349" (Press release). Redwood City, California. Business Wire. October 2, 1995. Archived from the original on May 4, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014 – via The Free Library. Sega of America Monday announced that, effective immediately, it will dramatically drop the price of its high-end Sega Saturn system to $299. https://web.archive.org/web/20140504225632/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+announces+%24299+Sega+Saturn+core+pack%3b+%27%27Virtua+Fighter+Remix%27%27...-a017512731 ↩

  117. cf. Reiner, Andrew; et al. (January 1996). "Easy Left, Baby". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 20, 1997. Retrieved September 16, 2014. I'm far more impressed with this title than I was with Daytona. cf. "Top Gear". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 14. February 1996. p. 160. https://web.archive.org/web/19971120011601/http://www.gameinformer.com/jan96/rally.html ↩

  118. cf. Reiner, Andrew; et al. (January 1996). "Rendered and Ready to Wear". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 20, 1997. Retrieved September 16, 2014. cf. "Stunning". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 14. February 1996. p. 162. Totally eliminates the hit or miss polarity of other light-gun games and adds a whole new level of detail to the genre. https://web.archive.org/web/19971120011638/http://www.gameinformer.com/jan96/vcop.html ↩

  119. "Virtua Fighter 2 is Here at Last!". Next Generation. Archived from the original on April 19, 1997. Retrieved April 12, 2014. [The VDP2] can generate and manipulate 3D backgrounds. This leaves the twin processors free to deal with manipulating the fighters themselves. The result is swift, elegant animation at 60 frames a second—the same speed as the VF2 coin-op ... Sony's machine does not have an equivalent of the VDP2, so the demands for better animation and more realistic movement are placing greater and greater pressure on its central processor. https://web.archive.org/web/19970419221618/http://www.next-generation.com/news/113095b.html ↩

  120. Marriott, Scott Alan. "Virtua Fighter 2". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141114131607/http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=1982 ↩

  121. cf. "Platinum Pick: Virtua Fighter 2". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 13. January 1996. p. 179. The ultimate arcade translation [...] the best fighting game ever. cf. "Excellent!". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 14. February 1996. p. 160. A general attention to detail that sets a new mark for quality game design. ↩

  122. McFerran, Damien. "Retroinspection: Sega Saturn". Retro Gamer. No. 34. pp. 44–49. ↩

  123. "Sony fights Sega on US streets". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 13. January 1996. pp. 14–16. ↩

  124. "Sony fights Sega on US streets". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 13. January 1996. pp. 14–16. ↩

  125. "Sega captures dollar share of videogame market again; diverse product strategy yields market growth; Sega charts path for 1996". Business Wire. January 10, 1996. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Estimated dollar share for Sega-branded interactive entertainment hardware and software in 1995 was 43 percent, compared with Nintendo at 42 percent, Sony at 13 percent and The 3DO Co. at 2 percent. Sega estimates the North American videogame market will total more than $3.9 billion for 1995. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+captures+dollar+share+of+videogame+market+--+again%3B+diverse...-a018001580 ↩

  126. Kent 2001, p. 533. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  127. "Just Who Is Winning the 32-Bit War?". Next Generation. No. 17. Imagine Media. May 1996. p. 22. /wiki/Next_Generation_(magazine) ↩

  128. Finn, Mark (2002). "Console Games in the Age of Convergence". In Mäyrä, Frans (ed.). Computer Games and Digital Cultures: Conference Proceedings: Proceedings of the Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference, June 6–8, 2002, Tampere, Finland. Tampere University Press. pp. 45–58. ISBN 978-9514453717. 978-9514453717 ↩

  129. "History of the PlayStation". IGN. August 28, 1998. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2014. https://ign.com/articles/1998/08/28/history-of-the-playstation ↩

  130. "Saturn Comes Down to Earth". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 83. Ziff Davis. June 1996. pp. 14–15. /wiki/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly ↩

  131. Kent 2001, p. 532. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  132. "Sony's Video Games Onslaught Continues!". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine. No. 7. Emap International Limited. June 1996. pp. 72–73. /wiki/Emap_International_Limited ↩

  133. Kent 2001, p. 531. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  134. Gallagher, Scott; Park, Seung Ho (February 2002). "Innovation and Competition in Standard-Based Industries: A Historical Analysis of the U.S. Home Video Game Market". IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. 49 (1): 67–82. doi:10.1109/17.985749. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

  135. "Sega captures dollar share of videogame market again; diverse product strategy yields market growth; Sega charts path for 1996". Business Wire. January 10, 1996. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Estimated dollar share for Sega-branded interactive entertainment hardware and software in 1995 was 43 percent, compared with Nintendo at 42 percent, Sony at 13 percent and The 3DO Co. at 2 percent. Sega estimates the North American videogame market will total more than $3.9 billion for 1995. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+captures+dollar+share+of+videogame+market+--+again%3B+diverse...-a018001580 ↩

  136. Kent 2001, p. 531. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  137. "Sega captures dollar share of videogame market again; diverse product strategy yields market growth; Sega charts path for 1996". Business Wire. January 10, 1996. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Estimated dollar share for Sega-branded interactive entertainment hardware and software in 1995 was 43 percent, compared with Nintendo at 42 percent, Sony at 13 percent and The 3DO Co. at 2 percent. Sega estimates the North American videogame market will total more than $3.9 billion for 1995. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sega+captures+dollar+share+of+videogame+market+--+again%3B+diverse...-a018001580 ↩

  138. Kent 2001, p. 508. - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  139. Dring, Christopher (July 7, 2013). "A Tale of Two E3s – Xbox vs Sony vs Sega". MCVUK.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20170222190759/http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/tale-of-two-e3s-xbox-vs-sony-vs-sega/0118482 ↩

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  141. Kent 2001, p. 535. Michael Latham: "[Tom] would fall asleep on occasion in meetings. That is true. These were nine-hour meetings. Sega had a thing for meetings. You'd get there at 8:00 A.M. and then you'd get out of the meeting at, like, 4:00 P.M., so he wasn't the only person [...] It wasn't the failure of the Saturn that made him lose interest; it was the inability to do something about it. He was not allowed to do anything. The U.S. side was basically no longer in control". - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

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  238. Extension, Time (March 24, 2023). "It's Official! Sega Poll Reveals Fans Want The Sega Saturn Mini Next". Time Extension. Retrieved August 30, 2024. https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/03/its-official-sega-poll-reveals-fans-want-the-sega-saturn-mini-next ↩

  239. "【連載】セガハードストーリー第5回 家庭用ゲーム機新時代の幕開け『セガサターン』" [[Series] Sega Hardware Story Vol. 5 - Dawn of a New Era of Home Video Game Consoles: Sega Saturn] (in Japanese). Sega. March 1, 2018. Archived from the original on January 23, 2025. Retrieved January 23, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250123210959/https://www.sega.jp/history/hard/column/column_05.html ↩

  240. Schilling, Mellissa A. (Spring 2003). "Technological Leapfrogging: Lessons From the U.S. Video Game Console Industry". California Management Review. 45 (3): 12, 23. doi:10.2307/41166174. JSTOR 41166174. S2CID 114838931. Lack of distribution may have contributed significantly to the failure of the Sega Saturn to gain an installed base. Sega had limited distribution for its Saturn launch, which may have slowed the building of its installed base both directly (because consumers had limited access to the product) and indirectly (because distributors that were initially denied product may have been reluctant to promote the product after the limitations were lifted). Nintendo, by contrast, had unlimited distribution for its Nintendo 64 launch, and Sony not only had unlimited distribution, but had extensive experience with negotiating with retailing giants such as Wal-Mart for its consumer electronics products. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

  241. Finn, Mark (2002). "Console Games in the Age of Convergence". In Mäyrä, Frans (ed.). Computer Games and Digital Cultures: Conference Proceedings: Proceedings of the Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference, June 6–8, 2002, Tampere, Finland. Tampere University Press. pp. 45–58. ISBN 978-9514453717. 978-9514453717 ↩

  242. DeMaria & Wilson 2004, pp. 282–283. - DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2004). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games. Emeryville, California: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. ISBN 0-07-223172-6. ↩

  243. Beuscher, Dave. "Sega Saturn – Overview". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141114110452/http://www.allgame.com/platform.php?id=26&tab=overview ↩

  244. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  245. Schilling, Mellissa A. (Spring 2003). "Technological Leapfrogging: Lessons From the U.S. Video Game Console Industry". California Management Review. 45 (3): 12, 23. doi:10.2307/41166174. JSTOR 41166174. S2CID 114838931. Lack of distribution may have contributed significantly to the failure of the Sega Saturn to gain an installed base. Sega had limited distribution for its Saturn launch, which may have slowed the building of its installed base both directly (because consumers had limited access to the product) and indirectly (because distributors that were initially denied product may have been reluctant to promote the product after the limitations were lifted). Nintendo, by contrast, had unlimited distribution for its Nintendo 64 launch, and Sony not only had unlimited distribution, but had extensive experience with negotiating with retailing giants such as Wal-Mart for its consumer electronics products. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

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  252. "Sega and Sony Sell the Dream". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 17. February 1995. pp. 6–9. The December 3 ship-out of 100,000 PlayStations to stores across Japan ... was not met with the same euphoria-charged reception that the Saturn received ... Saturn arrived to a rapturous reception in Japan on November 22. 200,000 units sold out instantly on day one ... Japanese gamers were beside themselves as they walked away with their prized possession and a near-perfect conversion of the Virtua Fighter coin-op ... Sega (and Sony) have proved that with dedicated processors handling the drive (the SH-1 in the Saturn's case), negligible access times are possible. /wiki/Edge_(magazine) ↩

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  257. VDP1 User Manual. Sega of America. June 27, 1995. p. 134. ↩

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  260. Kent 2001, p. 509. "In theory, Saturn, which featured two Hitachi SH2 32-bit central processing chips, was more powerful than PlayStation. The truth was that the SH2 chips were somewhat inferior to the chip Sony had selected ... and allotting different operations to both of the processing chips proved nearly impossible". - Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. ↩

  261. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  262. "Nights into Dreams (review)". Edge. August 2, 1996. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. cf. "Nights Into Dreams Retrospective". Edge. June 8, 2007. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. cf. "Retrospective: Nights Into Dreams". Edge. March 15, 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. The 3D environments were drawn by one processor, while another handled the 2D enemies, hoops and trees, melding them seamlessly to create a smooth, surprisingly fast-moving game that still looks striking today. https://web.archive.org/web/20141224050554/http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/nights-dreams-review/ ↩

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  264. "NG Hardware: Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 12. December 1995. pp. 45–48. The early pictures and technical breakdowns have remained relatively close to the final system, perhaps because the system was completed far earlier than many people realize [...] It was too late to make major alterations to the system, so, at the cost of pushing the launch schedule slightly, a video processor was added to the board to boost its 2D and 3D texture-mapping abilities. The real processing power of the Saturn comes from two Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors running at 28 MHz. These processors were specially commissioned by Sega and are optimized for fast 3D graphics work. ↩

  265. "Virtua Fighter 2 is Here at Last!". Next Generation. Archived from the original on April 19, 1997. Retrieved April 12, 2014. [The VDP2] can generate and manipulate 3D backgrounds. This leaves the twin processors free to deal with manipulating the fighters themselves. The result is swift, elegant animation at 60 frames a second—the same speed as the VF2 coin-op ... Sony's machine does not have an equivalent of the VDP2, so the demands for better animation and more realistic movement are placing greater and greater pressure on its central processor. https://web.archive.org/web/19970419221618/http://www.next-generation.com/news/113095b.html ↩

  266. "NG Hardware: Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 12. December 1995. pp. 45–48. The early pictures and technical breakdowns have remained relatively close to the final system, perhaps because the system was completed far earlier than many people realize [...] It was too late to make major alterations to the system, so, at the cost of pushing the launch schedule slightly, a video processor was added to the board to boost its 2D and 3D texture-mapping abilities. The real processing power of the Saturn comes from two Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors running at 28 MHz. These processors were specially commissioned by Sega and are optimized for fast 3D graphics work. ↩

  267. "Interview: Ezra Dreisbach". Curmudgeon Gamer. July 9, 2002. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Ezra Dreisbach: And really, if you couldn't tell from the games, the PSX is way better than the Saturn. It's way simpler and way faster. There are a lot of things about the Saturn that are totally dumb. Chief among these is that you can't draw triangles, only quadrilaterals. https://web.archive.org/web/20070927211250/http://curmudgeongamer.com/article.php?story=20021008212903265 ↩

  268. Bettenhausen, Shane; Mielke, James. "Kenji Eno: Reclusive Japanese Game Creator Breaks His Silence". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2016. Kenji Eno: But, the PlayStation and the Saturn aren't that different, so moving it [Enemy Zero] to Saturn wasn't too difficult. https://archive.today/20140322061518/http://www.1up.com/features/kenji-eno-breaks-silence?pager.offset=6 ↩

  269. "Interview: Ezra Dreisbach". Curmudgeon Gamer. July 9, 2002. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Ezra Dreisbach: And really, if you couldn't tell from the games, the PSX is way better than the Saturn. It's way simpler and way faster. There are a lot of things about the Saturn that are totally dumb. Chief among these is that you can't draw triangles, only quadrilaterals. https://web.archive.org/web/20070927211250/http://curmudgeongamer.com/article.php?story=20021008212903265 ↩

  270. "Primal Rage Interview". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 83. Ziff Davis. June 1996. p. 66. The PlayStation does polygons much better, but [Primal Rage] is a sprite-based game, and the Saturn obviously has better sprite handling. We can do better compression. One of the big differences between the PlayStation and the Saturn versions is that the Saturn has 64 colors for each of the dinosaurs and background sprites, as opposed to the PlayStation, which has only 16 color sprites. /wiki/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly ↩

  271. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  272. "NG Hardware: Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 12. December 1995. pp. 45–48. The early pictures and technical breakdowns have remained relatively close to the final system, perhaps because the system was completed far earlier than many people realize [...] It was too late to make major alterations to the system, so, at the cost of pushing the launch schedule slightly, a video processor was added to the board to boost its 2D and 3D texture-mapping abilities. The real processing power of the Saturn comes from two Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors running at 28 MHz. These processors were specially commissioned by Sega and are optimized for fast 3D graphics work. ↩

  273. Horowitz, Ken (February 7, 2013). "Interview: Joe Miller". Sega-16. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved May 25, 2014. Joe Miller: I'd say that the rhetoric around the deteriorating relationship is probably overblown a little bit, based on what I've read. Nakayama-san and SOJ knew they had a strong, proven management team in place at SOA, and while everyone was concerned about growing the business, neither side lost confidence in the other. http://www.sega-16.com/2013/02/interview-joe-miller/ ↩

  274. "The official development system". Edge. Vol. 3, no. 23. August 1995. p. 55. ↩

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  277. McFerran, Damien (2010). "Retroinspection: Sega 32X". Retro Gamer. No. 77. pp. 44–49. Scot Bayless: The 32X call was made in early January [1994] [...] There's a part of me that wishes the Saturn had adopted the 32X graphics strategy, but that ship had sailed long before the greenlight call from Nakayama. ↩

  278. "Sega Saturn". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1995. pp. 36–43. Sega's knee-jerk reaction was to delay its Saturn development program for a few months to incorporate a new video processor into the system. Not only would this boost its 2D abilities considerably (something that Sony's machine was less proficient at), but it would also provide better texture mapping for 3D graphics ... Of course, Hitachi's link with the Saturn project goes much deeper. In 1993, the Japanese electronics company set up a joint venture with Sega to develop a CPU for the Saturn based on proprietary Hitachi technology. Several Hitachi staff were seconded to Sega's Saturn division (it's now believed that the same team is now working on preliminary 64-bit technology for Sega), and the result was the SH-2 ... As with most Sega hardware, Model 1 was basically an expensive assortment of bought-in chips. Its main CPU, an NEC V60 running at just 16 MHz, was simply too slow for the Saturn. And the bulk of Virtua Racing's number crunching was handled by four serial DSPs that were way too costly to be included in any home system. Sega's consequent development of the SH-2 meant that it could also produce a Saturn-compatible arcade system. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-002/page/n37/mode/2up ↩

  279. "Inside the PlayStation". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 6. June 1995. p. 51. ↩

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  281. Moss, Richard (June 2, 2014). "Life after Death: Meet the People Ensuring that Yesterday's Systems Will Never be Forgotten". Edge. Archived from the original on December 2, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. Hackers are still unsure how some components work. https://web.archive.org/web/20141202205555/http://www.edge-online.com/features/life-after-death-meet-the-people-ensuring-that-yesterdays-systems-will-never-be-forgotten/ ↩

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  333. "Fighters Megamix for Saturn". GameRankings. Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2014. cf. McNamara, Andy; et al. (May 1997). "Fighters Megamix – Saturn". Game Informer. Archived from the original on August 24, 1999. Retrieved March 19, 2014. This has to be one of the finest fighters to ever grace consoles. cf. Williamson, Colin. "Fighters Megamix Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014. cf. "Fighters Megamix". Next Generation Online. February 3, 1998. Archived from the original on August 31, 1999. Retrieved December 18, 2016. The best console fighter yet. https://www.gamerankings.com/saturn/197327-fighters-megamix/index.html ↩

  334. "Panzer Dragoon Saga for Saturn". GameRankings. Archived from the original on January 9, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2014. cf. "Panzer Dragoon Saga". Game Informer. May 1998. Archived from the original on August 24, 1999. Retrieved March 26, 2014. Only Final Fantasy VII tops it. cf. "Panzer Dragoon Saga Review". Edge. March 25, 1998. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. Adds a creative depth only SquareSoft games can currently rival. cf. "Panzer Dragoon Saga". Next Generation Online. May 14, 1998. Archived from the original on August 29, 1999. Retrieved December 19, 2016. One of the best RPGs ever. https://www.gamerankings.com/saturn/198258-panzer-dragoon-saga/index.html ↩

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  342. Shining creators Hiroyuki Takahashi and Shugo Takahashi have named Shining the Holy Ark and Shining Force 3 their favorite games in the series. See "Power Profiles: Takahashi Brothers". Nintendo Power. Vol. 21, no. 229. August 2008. pp. 80–83. /wiki/Shining_the_Holy_Ark ↩

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  351. cf. "Sega Sports Does It One More Time". Game Informer. November 1995. Archived from the original on August 24, 1999. Retrieved March 19, 2014. World Series Baseball is by far the smoothest baseball game ever made. cf. "Worldwide Soccer '98". Game Informer. January 1998. Archived from the original on September 30, 1999. Retrieved March 19, 2014. The graphics are smooth, and the physics are perfect. https://web.archive.org/web/19990824140309/http://www.gameinformer.com/cgi-bin/review.cgi?sys=sat&path=nov95&doc=series ↩

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  355. Buchanan, Levi (February 2, 2009). "What Hath Sonic Wrought? Vol. 10". IGN. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2014. Steven Spielberg, CES 1995: This is the character! This is the character that is going to do it for Saturn! https://ign.com/articles/2009/02/02/what-hath-sonic-wrought-vol-10 ↩

  356. "Bug!". Next Generation. Vol. 1, no. 9. September 1995. pp. 88–89. ↩

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  362. Buchanan, Levi (September 3, 2008). "Burning Rangers Retro Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014. A wholly competent (but somewhat workmanlike, as the Saturn was not as good at 3D as the PSone or N64) action-adventure game. https://ign.com/articles/2008/09/03/burning-rangers-retro-review ↩

  363. Mott 2013, p. 353. - Mott, Tony (2013). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. New York: Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2090-2. ↩

  364. Extension, Time (May 10, 2024). "Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?". Time Extension. Retrieved August 29, 2024. https://www.timeextension.com/features/is-it-time-to-change-the-narrative-on-the-sega-saturn ↩

  365. "Sakura Wars Strikes the Dreamcast - IGN". October 19, 1999. https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/10/19/sakura-wars-strikes-the-dreamcast ↩

  366. "An introduction to Sakura Wars, the RPG series created to save the Sega Saturn". Eurogamer. April 15, 2020. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-04-15-an-introduction-to-sakura-wars-the-rpg-series-created-to-save-the-sega-saturn ↩

  367. Sewart, Greg (August 5, 2005). "Sega Saturn: The Pleasure And The Pain". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2016. https://archive.today/20140317211403/http://www.1up.com/features/pleasure-pain?pager.offset=0 ↩

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  369. cf. "Japan Votes on All Time Top 100". Edge. March 3, 2006. Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20141010035551/http://www.edge-online.com/features/japan-votes-all-time-top-100/ ↩

  370. "Best Saturn games of all time". GamesRadar. March 6, 2014. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2014. But that doesn't mean it's a total bust. Numerous excellent games were released for the console, which was supported primarily in the mid-to-late 1990s, including a variety of original Sega classics and several stellar third-party releases. RPG and fighting game fans, in particular, enjoyed a healthy array of options on the platform. https://gamesradar.com/best-saturn-games-all-time/ ↩

  371. cf. "Catching up with Tecmo's Prince of Darkness". Game Informer. Vol. 15, no. 140. December 2004. p. 203. Tomonobu Itagaki: Saturn was a great machine, great system. If someone were to ask me if I want to make a game for PSone or Saturn I would—100 percent of the time—make games for the Saturn. /wiki/Tomonobu_Itagaki ↩

  372. "Best Saturn games of all time". GamesRadar. March 6, 2014. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2014. But that doesn't mean it's a total bust. Numerous excellent games were released for the console, which was supported primarily in the mid-to-late 1990s, including a variety of original Sega classics and several stellar third-party releases. RPG and fighting game fans, in particular, enjoyed a healthy array of options on the platform. https://gamesradar.com/best-saturn-games-all-time/ ↩

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  376. Buchanan, Levi (September 3, 2008). "Burning Rangers Retro Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014. A wholly competent (but somewhat workmanlike, as the Saturn was not as good at 3D as the PSone or N64) action-adventure game. https://ign.com/articles/2008/09/03/burning-rangers-retro-review ↩

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