One of the first 32bit systems with a 32bit bus and 32-bit cpu's.
Only released in Japan, the Victor Saturn 2 came in a whiteish case
in contrast to the usual black. This is an authorized clone of a Saturn
built by JVC-Victor. Other third-parties licensed to make saturns were Hitachi, and Yamaha.
The Saturn was hugely successful in Japan when first launched and the game Derby Stallion sold over
5 million copies. This special edition clear case saturn was released to mark the event.
Sega linked forces with Hitachi to develop their SH2 32 bit and 64 bit chips. This would enable
the Saturn to play games like Virtua fighter and Virtua Racing to bring the 3D arcade experience
into the home.
Two of these 32 bit chips were in the Saturn CPU. From a game developers point of view, this made
the Saturn a nightmare to programme. The coders were slow to get to grips with the powerful chips
and headed to Sony to publish their games instead.
This made Saturn a slow starter on hard hitting titles. Games like House of the Dead and Shining Force
III released in the planet's dying years when developers were just getting to understand
the power of the console.
When launched in America on May 11th 1995, the Saturn cost a heafty £300. This was four weeks
earlier than Sega had planned but they wanted to get a head start on Sony's PS1 release.
However, Sony had learnt a lot from Sega's mistakes. They undercut the launch price by £100
along with a slick advertising campaign. After this hammerblow, Sony continued to woo the developers;
slowly booting Sega out of the stratosphere, which it finally did in 1998.
Virtual Fighter came from the arcades, developed by Yu Suzuki; he started a franchise that would thrive for years.
Using just three buttons on the joystick you could punch, kick and block, shout and make whooping sounds,
just like the arcades.
It used 3D polygonal graphics which fought in the styles of wrestling to Kung Fu.
This game sold as fast as the console.
Chilloutgames