Sega Saturn: The Little Black Engine that couldve Been a Contender!








What Genesis "does", unfortunately, its successor could not. To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 32-Bit platform's official release, this retrospective covers the  lows and low blows of Sega's underrated console-The Sega Saturn.

Just the Specs


CPU2× Hitachi SH-2 (32-bit) RISC (28.6 MHz) Storage Internal RAM, cartridge GraphicsVDP1 & VDP2 video display processors


Rolling Start



Development of the Saturn began in 1992 and was designed with a new CPU from Japanese electronics company Hitachi. However, reports in early 1994 regarding the technical capabilities of Sony's upcoming PlayStation console had prompted Sega to include another video display processor (VDP) to improve the system's 2D performance as well as texture-mapping.


The Saturn had a dual-CPU architecture and a total of eight processors. Its games are in CD-ROM format, with a game library containing several arcade ports like Daytona and Virtual Fighter along with some original titles such as Panzer Dragoon.
However, due to the added VDP, many developers found it extremely difficult to program games for and that is why the finished product was often deemed inferior to Sony’s PlayStation games. Despite being more powerful than the PSX on record, third party developers had opted to make games for the PSX instead.

Failure to Launch



In March 1995, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske announced that the Saturn would be released in the U.S. on "Saturnday" (As in Saturday) September 2, 1995. However, out of desperation, Sega of Japan mandated a much earlier launch to give the Saturn an advantage over the PlayStation. Kalinske was against this drastic move however the top brass at Sega of Japan, insisted on going way ahead of schedule which was four months before its proposed release date.
During the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on May 11, 1995, Kalinske made a keynote appearance for the upcoming Saturn in which he revealed the release price at a steep $399 (bundled with a copy of Virtua Fighter) and described the features of the console. Kalinske also revealed that, due to "high consumer demand", Sega had already shipped 30,000 Saturns to Toys "R" Us, Babbage’s, Electronics Boutique, and Software Etc. for immediate release the backlash was swift as other competing stores were neglected and in retaliation refused to sell the consoles when it became widely available.

Virtua Fighter's relative lack of popularity in the West, combined with only two games between the surprise launch and September 1995, prevented Sega from capitalizing on the Saturn's early debut.

Although the Saturn was initially successful in Japan, it failed to sell in large numbers in the United States after its surprise May 1995 launch, compiled with the debut of the Nintendo 64 in late 1996, the Saturn rapidly lost its market share in the U.S, where it was discontinued in1998. Having sold 9.5 million units worldwide, the Saturn was considered a commercial failure. Without the company that played a significant role in the success of the Sega Genesis, the Saturn had faced with an uphill battle and eventually lost the Console War.



Slaystation



If there was one thorn in Saturn’s side, it wasn’t Nintendo. Instead, a Dark Horse made its entry, and Sega was no longer the other Big Kid on the block. With the emergence of Sony’s PlayStation, (PSX) It became a three-way race, and in the end, one had to lose out.

Namco, a longtime arcade competitor with Sega, also unveiled the Namco System 11 arcade board, which was based on raw PlayStation hardware. Although the System 11 was technically inferior to Sega's Model 2 arcade board, its lower price made it an attractive prospect for smaller arcades. 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 a fundamentally similar title, with the addition of detailed textures and twice the frame rate Tekken surpassed had Virtua Fighter in popularity due to its superior graphics, character design, story premise and nearly arcade-perfect console port, becoming the first million-selling PlayStation title. 

On October 2, 1995, in order to compete with Sony’s venerable PSX, Sega announced a Saturn price reduction to $299.



Also, high-quality Saturn ports of the Sega Model 2 arcade hits Sega Rally Championship, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Fighter 2 (running at 60 frames per second at a high resolution) hit retailers in hopes of proving that the Saturn’s processing power was up to pair against the PlayStation. This was perhaps a case of too little, too late as the PlayStation was gaining plenty of momentum from both game developers.  and most importantly, the consumer.

A high-quality port of the Namco arcade game Ridge Racer contributed to PlayStation’s early success, and garnered favorable comparisons in media to the Saturn version of Sega's Daytona USA, which was considered inferior to its arcade counterpart (Pop ins and bad frame rate .)

It's all in the games man!

Although inferior compared to PSX and Nintendo 64, Saturn still had an impressive library of games such as Guardian Heroes, Gun Griffon, Burning Rangers, Virtual On, Virtual Cop and Daytona just to name a few.



But it was the Heavy hitters that really stood out among the crowd and gave SEGA's competitors a run for its Money. When one hears about the Sega Saturn, its flagship title Panzer Dragoon often comes to mind the post-apocalyptic on rails Shooter was a massive hit in Japan and abroad.
For what programmers Team Andromeda had to work with, (the Saturn was very difficult when developing 3D games.)  They manage to pull it off with exciting visuals accompanied by a breathtaking soundtrack .
Sega didn't stop there. The Virtual Fighter series was like nothing ever seen or done before. The three-dimensional characters were mapped with a complex, yet surrealistic fighting mechanic.



The game's roster ranged from an Ninja to a Silvery Humanoid that is reminiscent of the T-2000 and what's also cool is that characters like Jacky and Sarah Bryant utilized moves that were straight from the legendary Bruce Lee.
The VF franchise paved the way for other well-known fighters: Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden, Dead or Alive, etc. To further cement their support for Saturn as well as maintaining the need for more innovative games, Sega, courtesy of the Sonic Team, released Nights into Dreams. 


Nights is compared to a score based racing game. However, you play as an androgynous harlequin in a phantasmagoria setting and the game was bundled with a new Analog 3D controller that was meant to enhance the performance of the gameplay and to compete against N64's proprietary Analog stick Controller.



 In keeping with the tradition of attack ads that mostly were used by Politicians running for election, Sega even made one for Nights. Its target, you guessed it-Nintendo!







Fade to Black


Due to frequent disagreements with Sega of Japan, Kalinske lost most of his interest in his work as CEO of Sega of America. And as of July 16, 1996, Sega announced that Kalinske would be leaving Sega after September 30th of that year. 




Despite the great quality of heavy hitters be it Nights into Dreams, the Panzer Dragoon series, along with the Virtua Fighter series, the Saturn's reception was mixed due to its complex hardware design and limited third-party support. Overall, it's seen as a niche Console yet more popular than Panasonic's 3DO, and Atari Jaguar which both underperformed when it came to sales and fanbase loyalty.

Bernie Stolar, a former executive at Sony Computer Entertainment of America (who was responsible for Sony’s marketing success of the PlayStation) was appointed to the role of president of Sega.



 Stolar believed that the Saturn had no future as the PlayStation was outselling the Console by 3-to-1 within the US market. To make matters worse, after the arrival of Nintendo’s console (N64) both Saturn hardware and software declined at a faster rate. As a result, Stolar had abandoned his support for the Saturn and instead focused on diverting his attention to Saturn’s successor-the Dreamcast!



Then in 1998 that Sega had decided to pull the plug on the Saturn but not long before releasing 2 very good games: Panzer Dragoon Saga and Burning Rangers. (The latter was developed by Yuji Naka- Creator of Sonic.)


Those games along with a port of House of the Dead were sold in limited quantities and made them more of a collectors' item. I sold my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga on eBay for $300.00 during the early 2000s.




Having sold only 9.5 million units worldwide, the Sega Saturn was considered a commercial failure. The failure of Sega's development teams to release a game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, known in development as Sonic X-treme, has also been considered a factor in the console's poor performance.


In hindsight it was Sega of Japan's management that has been criticized for its decision-making during the system's development and cancellation. And due to these bad decisions, eventually the Sega Corporation will be forced to exit the Hardware business.


In spite of its failures, the Saturn had proven itself to be a force to reckon with. Ambitious games, and innovative peripherals were among their strong suit and if only Sega's upper management had made more rational business decisions, this gaming console would have been a much stronger contender instead of an expensive Doorstop.

The Saturn is Dead,
Long live the Sega Saturn!