Sega Saturn

The Sega Saturn is a 32 bit video game console that was first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe.The system was discontinued in Europe and Australia in 1998, April 1999 in North America, and in 2000 in Japan.While the system was popular in Japan due to its successful marketing such as with the character Segata Sanshiro, it failed to gain a similar market share in North America and Europe against its competitors Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64.According to a July 2007 GamePro article, the Saturn had sold 9.5 million units. However in Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries (on p. 131) it was stated that the console had sold 17 million units.

Development

Sega's 27-member Away Team, comprising employees from hardware engineering, product development and marketing, worked for two years to design the Sega Saturn's hardware. The Saturn was a powerful machine for the time, but its design, with two CPUs and six other processors, made harnessing this power extremely difficult. Also, many of the ancillary chips in the system were "off the shelf" components, increasing the complexity of the system because the components were not specifically designed to work together. Rumors suggest that the original design called for a single central processor, but upon hearing of the Sony PlayStation's capabilities, a second processor was added late in development to increase potential performance[who?]. “	One very fast central processor would be preferable. I don't think all programmers have the ability to program two CPUs — most can only get about one-and-a-half times the speed you can get from one SH-2. I think that only 1 in 100 programmers are good enough to get this kind of speed [nearly double] out of the Saturn. ” —Yu Suzuki reflecting upon Saturn Virtua Fighter development.[3] Third-party development was initially hindered by the lack of useful software libraries and development tools, requiring developers to write in assembly language to achieve good performance. At least during early Saturn development, programming in assembly could offer a two to fivefold speed increase over the C language.[3] To save development costs and time, some programmers would utilize only one CPU. One such case was with Alien Trilogy. The implementation of dual CPUs within the Saturn was not ideal. The biggest disadvantage of the architecture was that both processors shared the same bus and had problems accessing the main system RAM at the same time. The 4 KB of cache memory in each CPU was critical to maintaining performance. In general, very careful division of processing, in addition to the already-challenging task of parallelizing the code, was required to get the most out of the Saturn. One example of how the Saturn was utilized was with Virtua Fighter's use of one CPU for each character.[3] Compared to the PlayStation, the Saturn's hardware was difficult to work with because of its more complex graphics hardware and lesser overall performance, as noted by Lobotomy Software programmer Ezra Dreisbach.[4] In order to bring Duke Nukem 3D and PowerSlave/Exhumed to the Saturn, Lobotomy Software had to almost entirely rewrite the Build engine to get adequate performance from the Saturn.[4] Also, during testing of an unreleased Quake port for the PlayStation, the Saturn's performance was found to be notably inferior for the game.

Unlike the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 which used triangles as its basic geometric primitive, the Saturn rendered quadrilaterals. This proved to be a hindrance because most of the industry's standard design tools were based around triangles. One of the challenges brought forth by quadrilateral-based rendering was problems with making some shapes, notably triangular objects. This can be seen in the Saturn version of Tomb Raider, in which triangular rocks are not rendered as well as other systems' versions of the game.[4] The hardware also lacked light sourcing and hardware video decompression support, the latter being a major disadvantage during a time when full-motion video was quite popular. Still, if used correctly, the quadrilateral rendering of the Saturn had advantages. It could potentially show less texture distortion than was common with PlayStation titles, as demonstrated by several cross-platform titles such as Wipeout and Destruction Derby. The quadrilateral-focused hardware and a 50% greater amount of video memory also gave the Saturn an advantage for 2D game engines and attracted many developers of RPGs, arcade games and traditional 2D fighting games. With creative programming, later games like Burning Rangers were able to achieve true transparency effects on hardware that used simple polygon stipples as a replacement for transparency effects in the past. The cartridge slot was useful for adding extra RAM or storage devices for saving games to the system. One ROM cartridge was released with King of Fighters '95. which contained part of the game data because not enough RAM was available. Two different RAM cartridges were released for the system; a 1 MB RAM cart by SNK for King of Fighters '96 and a 4 MB RAM cart by Capcom for X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Both companies were known for their sprite-based 2D competitive fighting games and many of their subsequent games utilized their respective cartridges.

Performance in the Marketplace

The Japanese Saturn was released in November 1994, just a few weeks ahead of its rival, Sony's PlayStation.[5] Approximately 170,000 machines were sold the first day the console went on sale. Many of the games that made the Saturn popular in Japan, such as the Sakura Taisen series and various console role-playing games, or even most Japanese games in general, were never released in foreign territories as it was assumed at Sega of America and Sega of Europe that they were not appealing to a Western audience. The last commercial licensed release in Japan and last official game for the system was Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku Hozonban Perpetual Collection, released by MediaWorks on December 4, 2000. [edit]North America By the end of 1994, the 16-bit video game era was in twilight in North America and gamers were eagerly anticipating the new 32-bit machines from Japan. In early 1995, Sega president Tom Kalinske announced that the Saturn would launch in the U.S. on "Saturnday", (Saturday) September 2, 1995. This date was greatly anticipated by gamers and the media. It also allowed Sony to announce that the PlayStation release date would be one week later on September 9, 1995. However, at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May 1995, Kalinske announced that the "Saturnday" date was a ruse and that the system was being released nationwide by a few select retailers immediately (May 11, 1995). It appeared that Sega had a real opportunity to take a commanding 4-month lead in the 32-bit race by beating the PlayStation to the market. The "surprise attack" launch backfired on Sega for several reasons. The Saturn was released at a high price point of US$399, while Sony announced a US$299 price for the PlayStation at E3 itself, as a response to the Saturn's earlier release.[6] The early launch also meant that the Saturn had only a handful of games available at the moment, as most third party games were slated to be completed and rolled out around the original September 2 launch date, and as many successful Japanese titles were not imported. Third party publishers, particularly these based in North America, were angered as the surprise launch prevented them from capitalizing on the momentum inherent in an anticipated, planned release. Essentially the only software available on the shelves at launch was software released by Sega. Many within the gaming industry viewed the early launch as a calculated move to give Sega larger sales of Saturn software at the expense of independent developers. In addition, the retailers who were not included in the early launch (most notably Wal-Mart and KB Toys) felt betrayed, with some retaliating by supporting Sega's rivals. This resulted in Sega having difficulties with these distributors for the Saturn (and also for its successor, the Dreamcast). For example, Sega's actions so angered KB Toys that the latter refused to release the Saturn at all, and actually went as far as having some retailers remove anything Sega-related in stores to provide more retail space for the Saturn's competition instead. By the time of the PlayStation's release on September 9, 1995, the Saturn had sold approximately 80,000 systems. The PlayStation sold over 100,000 units upon release in the U.S., and Sega's dreams of early domination of the new generation of hardware were quickly forgotten. From 1995–1997 the Saturn became the "other" system, running a distant third behind the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation. However, it was the preferred system for many arcade and import gamers. These gamers eagerly anticipated having Sega's arcade games ported to the system, and many of the popular and most preferred games were available in Japan only. Sales of the Saturn would generally spike as new arcade ports were released, but would die off again shortly after. By the end of 1997, Sega had announced that it would develop a successor (the Dreamcast), causing console sales and game releases to drop dramatically. The Saturn's commercial failure caused Sega to lose US$267.9 million and layoff 30% of its workforceEurope Despite the success of Sega's previous consoles in Europe and although the Sega Saturn was launched in Europe in July 1995 — a few months before the newcomer PlayStation's release — the momentum for Sony's console amongst consumers began to build rapidly, stalling Saturn sales in the region. As a result, the Sega Saturn never enjoyed the success it achieved in Japan or even the post-launch hype the machine was awarded in North America, leaving the market almost solely in the competition's hands. By the time that the Nintendo 64 hit European shelves in early 1997, the Saturn's sales had long since stagnated. The last commercial licensed release in Europe was a survival horror game called Deep Fear, released by Sega Europe in November 1998. However, support for the Sega Saturn in the UK was bolstered by the successful publication of Sega Saturn Magazine. Although the publication of the magazine technically ran parallel to the last commercially released games, it dedicated the bulk of its pages to reviewing Japanese releases and news relating to the eagerly anticipated Dreamcast. In another marketing blunder, Sega refused to give EMAP (the publisher of Sega Saturn Magazine) the Official Dreamcast Magazine licence in the UK, despite a large and extremely loyal fanbase.[8] End of an era

As price drops continued throughout the 32-bit era, the system board design of the Saturn was not as easy to condense in a cost-saving manner and Sega fell behind after price drops offered by Nintendo and Sony. As a marketing strategy, Sega bundled three of its best selling games (Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2) with the system in order to keep the more expensive Saturn competitive with its rivals. This was not entirely successful as gamers preferred to purchase game titles of their own choice instead, so they turned to cheaper competing systems.

Compatibility

In addition to playing games, all of the Saturn models could play music CDs, CD+G, and CD+EG discs. A software disc was sold by Sega to allow the playing of PhotoCDs ('Photo CD Operating System'). An MPEG decoding hardware module was released by Sega, JVC and Hitachi, allowing VideoCD playback. JVC later released a VideoCD module that included the software for displaying PhotoCDs, eliminating the need for a software disc. However, these modules were releases in Japan only due to the popularity of the Video CD Format. In order to use one on a North American Saturn, a region converter must be used. There were some titles that could be played on both North American and Japanese consoles. Street Fighter Alpha 2 was one of the titles that could be played on both regions systems without a converter. Scud: The Disposable Assassin, which was only released in the North America, was compatible with both European and Japanese Saturns, in addition to North American Saturns. It is one of the very few region-free Sega Saturn games.