![]() ![]() 2D games were a different story since the Saturn was the only hardware capable of sprite-based graphics out of the box. Games like Sonic R (released late in the console's lifespan) and the canceled ◊ Virtua Fighter 3 port showed that the Saturn could do 3D very well in the right hands and with the right programmer tricks. ![]() On paper, the Saturn should have topped the PS1 in terms of 3D graphics, but poor documentation on how to program graphics on a system with multiple processors such as the Saturn led to most Saturn ports not looking as good as the originals. At the time of design though, there was no clear winner between quads and triangles. Moreover, it made it impossible to directly port over games from the PS1 and N64. While this had some unique advantages such as reduced texture warping and better representation of round objects, quadrilaterals were nothing short of nightmarish for developers to work with. Unlike virtually every other 3D console (aside from the 3DO) or computer ever made, the Saturn used quadrilateral (rectangular) shapes in its 3D rendering rather than the more traditional triangles. The graphics card itself had technical issues that prevented developers from exploiting its full processing power. It was literally just individual processors with very little cross-talk between them. Back in the mid 90s, however, having entirely separate units just jacked-up the cost and the complexity of developing for the console. Not without precedent or prescience, because CPUs with multiple cores are the norm in video game consoles and PCs today multiple CPUs were nothing new to veteran arcade developers like Sega, who had already been utilizing multiple processor units in their arcade games, and subsequently adapted the paradigm into the Saturn hardware and subsequently into the Saturn derived Titan Video (ST-V) arcade board. Depending on which account you believe, Sega either slapped on a second CPU and graphics card, or planned the design from the start in order to be capable of both 2D and 3D, the former of which the PlayStation was notably less competent at. The irony is that those "two 32-bit processors" made the system far more difficult to develop for and played a major role in third-party companies favoring the PS1. Once the North American ads ( finally) started promoting it as a gaming system, one of them boasted about how the Saturn had two 32-bit processors while the PlayStation only had one. But the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation would hardly be the only thorns in the side for the Saturn. A new contender, and one with loads of cash and third-party goodwill? Surprisingly, a big problem. Facing off against one major competitor, Nintendo, was one thing, and one they could surmount by once again beating them to the market. Fast forward to the release of their next stand-alone console, the Saturn. They had major performance issues and not a lot of good games on them, so many faithful Sega customers got burned. It ultimately wound up being one of the many reasons they left the console market, although the company wouldn't succumb to its illness until 2001.ĭuring their heyday, Sega promoted some add-ons for the Genesis/Mega Drive, namely the Sega CD and 32X. Launched on November 22, 1994, the Sega Saturn was Sega's entry into the fifth console generation.
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