Saturn

Overview

Sega Saturn Console.

The Sega Saturn was released in 1994 in Japan, followed by worldwide release in 1995, and offered gamers 32-bit gameplay. The console was the successor to the Genesis (also known as the Mega Drive). It is estimated that the Saturn sold around 9.5 million units, although it has been estimated that as many as 17 million units were sold.

Sega developers worked two full years on the Saturn's hardware. At the time, the Saturn was a powerhouse with two CPU's and six more processors. The Saturn was a very complex machine as some of its parts were not designed to work together. Rumour has it that the Saturn was originally designed to have a single main processor, but after learning the capabilities of the new Playstation, the Sega Team added a new processor to increase performance. Part of the reason for the system's failure was the complex graphics hardware, which was often difficult to work with. Many ports that came to the Saturn were downgraded and completely rewritten. As a result, third-party support was very thin for the Sega Saturn.

The Sega Saturn was rushed to the Japanese market in November of 1994. As a result of the difficulty to make games for the Sega Saturn, as well as the rushed release, very few games were available at the Saturn's launch. In Japan, the Saturn sold around 170,000 copies on the first day they were sold. Despite being outsold by the Playstation, the Saturn's software had more sales than the Playstation's software did at the time.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei.

In North America, the set release date of the Saturn was originally September 2, 1995, one week before the release of the Playstation. This day wascalled "Saturnday," since September 2 fell on a Saturday that year. However, at E3 in 1995, Sega of America President Tom Kalinske was forced to announce an early release. The new release date was May 11, 1995, a good four months before the Playstation was to be released. This hurt the Saturn far more than it helped it. The Saturn ended up costing 100 USD more than the Playstation, and since most of the Saturn's third-party games were still scheduled to be released at the original launch date, the Saturn had very few launch titles. Many say this was a large factor in the Sega Saturn's eventual failure. The Saturn sold only 80,000 units by the time of the Playstation launch; in contrast, the Playstation sold 100,000 units upon its own launch. As a result of clashes with Sega of Japan about the management of Sega of America, the Saturn launch, and other issues, Tom Kalinske resigned in 1996.  Bernie Stolar, Kalinske's replacement, would become a controversial figure after stating at E3 in 1997 that the Saturn was not Sega's future.

In Europe, Sega systems had ruled the market since the 1980s. The Master System and Mega Drive were the top-selling consoles in Europe. However, when the Saturn was released in Europe in July 1995, the hype for the Playstation's upcoming release led to low Saturn sales there as well.

There were many different versions of the console. Sega allowed some companies who helped to make the Saturn to release their own versions of the console. Companies like Hitachi, JVC, and Samsung released their own Saturns with special features. In Japan, there were nine different models made by four different developers. In North America, there were only three models, all of which were made by Sega. In Europe and Australia, there were two models, both made by Sega.

By the end of the Saturn's lifespan in 1998, about 470 games had been released.  The final games released in 1997 and 1998, most notably Panzer Dragoon Saga, had low production numbers because of the system's impending demise.  As a result, these games typically have high prices today, with Panzer Dragoon Saga regularly selling for $200 on eBay. 

The system featured an option for memory expansion. There was a slot behind the CD tray where a storage card could be placed to save high scores, save files, and other data.

Saturn Net Link Device.

The Netlink modem was a cartridge that fit into the back cartridge slot of the Saturn (where the memory card fit into the system) and ran at a speed of 28.8 kbit/s connection in America and 14.4 kbit/s in Japan.  It used a dial-up service, since broadband was unavailable at the time.  There were web browsers available for navigating the Internet on the Saturn, but they were not used often. 

   There were five games that supported the modem:

• Virtual On
• Daytona USA CCE Netlink Edition
• Sega Rally Netlink Edition
• Saturn Bomberman
• Duke Nukem 3D

These games are playable online even today because of the direct-dial support built into the modem.  It uses the phone line in any home with the regular phone cable and, in a sense, "calls" the other Saturn console, regardless of its location within the same country.  Since it uses the phone line, anyone who tries calling that number will be told that it is busy or in use.  These games can only be played head-to-head.  For its time, this was a large technological advance, especially considering the earlier XBAND service for both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Hardware Specifications

Note: Sega Saturn has multiple Processors for specific operations. This made it difficult for many developers to make games for the Console.

CPU

  Processors

• Two SH-2 32-bit RISC at 28.63Mhz
• One SH-1 32-bit RISC 
  
• Two Custom VDP's at 6.7MHz
• Motorola 68EC000 at 11.3MHz
• Hitachi 4-bit MCU
  

• Maximum Colors on Screen: 16.7 Million (Tru-Color)
  
• Sprite, Polygon, Geometry System
• Frame Buffing at 256KB
• Texture Mapping
• Goraud Shading
• 512KB Texture Cache

• 5  Scrolling Backgrounds
• 2 Rotational Playing Fields
• 200,000 Texture Mapped Polygons Per-Second
• 500,000 Flat Shaded Polygons Per-Second
• 30-60 Frames Per-Second
• Screen Resolution: 320 x 244 - 720 x 576
• Possible A/V Outputs: Composite, S-Video, Component (RGB)

• Saturn Custom Sound Processing Unit
  
• Yamaha FH1 24-bit DPS Sound Chip at 22.6MHz
• 32 Channel PCM
• 8 Channel FM
• Sample Rate 44.1KHz

• Main Memory: 16MB
• Video Memory: 12MB
• Sound Memory: 4MB
• CD Cache Memory: 4MB

• 2x Functioning Speed
• CD-DA Capable (allows Audio CD Playback)
  
• CD G Capable
• CD EG Capable
• Video CD Capable (Optional Add-On)
  
• Photo CD Capable (Optional Add-On)