Sega's going to make a new console? my thoughts

[Mephiles550]

Ya but SOA disliked the idea of just upgrading the genesis into a new console and decided that It should be an addon when IMO it should have been the stand alone console. Sega should have worked more on the Sega CD to make more games like sonic Cd and snatched and Terminator. Port all of the 32x games to the neptune and sega would have been in a great spot at the time

[stu]

Ya but SOA disliked the idea of just upgrading the genesis into a new console and decided that It should be an addon when IMO it should have been the stand alone console. Sega should have worked more on the Sega CD to make more games like sonic Cd and snatched and Terminator. Port all of the 32x games to the neptune and sega would have been in a great spot at the time

I personally would of preferred Sega to have canned any 32 bit upgrade to the MegaDrive/Genesis, the Japanese plan would of only added a new CPU and doubled the number of colors displayed, which really wouldn't have made a difference. The problem with upgrades is that developer can't count on there being enough customers owning the upgrade to make it worth developing games specifically for that system, it also divides the market and it ended up diluting Sega's efforts for the Saturn.

As for the Saturn, instead of rushing the upgrade process and badly mangling the inclusion of the 2nd CPU and VDP chip, they could of delayed the launch to 1995 so that they could gone with either of 2 options

Option 1 would of been to have dropped the dual CPUs and incorporated 1 powerful CPU, maybe a PowerPC chip or an SH3 chip and thereby making the improved system more powerful than the PlayStation, but with a nice streamlined development system as well.
The 2nd option would of been to have stuck with the dual CPU and VDPs, but focused more time on putting together a better development system with proper documentation and tools, this would of simplified the development environment for the system and made it less of a headache for developers, even Yu Suzuki himself lamented some of the hardware decisions made with the Saturn. He is reported to have made the following statement.

Quote: "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."

Either of these would of been better than what eventually came out and it would of given Sega a chance against the PlayStation.



A couple of other options would of meant scrapping the Saturn spec entirely and developing a new system for 1996, these might of allowed Sony too long of an advantage though.

- Developing a CD based console and arcade system from the SGI chipset when they were offered it instead of passing it up and allowing the tech to go to Nintendo for the N64

- Buying up the 3DO M2 chipset from 3DO, since Sega was rumored to have been interested in it at some point and develop a new console and arcade system from that.

All these options are hypothetical possibilities, it's really easy to pick over the mistakes Sega made in the past, by using hindsight, but it is fun to speculate on what could of happened.

[Mephiles550]

You're right the saturn Should have been delayed! It was a system with potential and it was all burned to the ground! there wasnt even a mainstream sonic game released for the system minus the spin offs! I still want to play sonic-xtreme cause the music is so beautiful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmaDfHU303E
theres a link to the entire X-treme soundtrack in the vid's description BTW!

also Ever wondered why the saturn sold well in japan?
Because of this one guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V65dtKO ... re=related

If he was the mascot of the saturn in the west I'm sure the saturn would have DESTROYED the playstation! maybe not the N64 though.

[stu]

You're right the saturn Should have been delayed! It was a system with potential and it was all burned to the ground! there wasnt even a mainstream sonic game released for the system minus the spin offs! I still want to play sonic-xtreme cause the music is so beautiful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmaDfHU303E
theres a link to the entire X-treme soundtrack in the vid's description BTW!

also Ever wondered why the saturn sold well in japan?
Because of this one guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V65dtKO ... re=related

If he was the mascot of the saturn in the west I'm sure the saturn would have DESTROYED the playstation! maybe not the N64 though.

If you are interested in Sonic Xtreme and it's development, there is a very interesting website created and administrated by the Producer of the game Christian Senn. Not sure if you've heard about this before.

Here's a link to their forums and FAQ page:

http://www.senntient.com/forums/index.php
http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/FAQ.html

[Mephiles550]

Thanks for the link's stu! I knew that there were some fan attempts to revive sonic X-treme somewhere just never actually saw any other then some youtube vids!

It's a shame Yuji naka had to cancel the game just because it ran on the same engine as Nights into dreams.

[MrSega]

Thanks for the link's stu! I knew that there were some fan attempts to revive sonic X-treme somewhere just never actually saw any other then some youtube vids!

It's a shame Yuji naka had to cancel the game just because it ran on the same engine as Nights into dreams.

Yuji Naka had absolutely NOTHING to do with Sonic Xtreme being cancelled, he was never invovled in its development, in fact by 1996 he had already returned to SEGA of Japan. The only thing he did was express his disapproval for the game.

Mike Wallis canceled Sonic Xtreme. STI's head programmer told Bernie Stolar that Chris Senn wasn't going to finish it. Here's all the info on Sonic Xtreme including Wallis' confession:

http://www.sonic-cult.org

As for anyone who hated on the Saturn, the PS1 was a wussy,weak ass 3D console compared to Saturn, way more techinically inferior. It couldn't even handle alot of 2D games that required alot of RAM. And those looking to argue against the Saturn over PS1 having a better engine just rememeber this: Polygon Clipping. Showed up in alot of PSone games. Why? Simply because the poor PS1's lack of processing RAM which ran the preformance down and slowed down the 3D engine.

[Mephiles550]

Yuji Naka had absolutely NOTHING to do with Sonic Xtreme being cancelled, he was never invovled in its development, in fact by 1996 he had already returned to SEGA of Japan. The only thing he did was express his disapproval for the game.

Mike Wallis canceled Sonic Xtreme. STI's head programmer told Bernie Stolar that Chris Senn wasn't going to finish it. Here's all the info on Sonic Xtreme including Wallis' confession:

http://www.sonic-cult.org

As for anyone who hated on the Saturn, the PS1 was a wussy,weak ass 3D console compared to Saturn, way more techinically inferior. It couldn't even handle alot of 2D games that required alot of RAM. And those looking to argue against the Saturn over PS1 having a better engine just rememeber this: Polygon Clipping. Showed up in alot of PSone games. Why? Simply because the poor PS1's lack of processing RAM which ran the preformance

Thats what I meant Yuji naka demanded that sonic X-treme NOT used the nights/fisheye engine right?

As for the saturn I perfer it over the PS1 but I wish They could have delayed the console so it could display as much 3d graphical power as the Nintendo 64 did!

[craziestrufis]

Yuji Naka had absolutely NOTHING to do with Sonic Xtreme being cancelled, he was never invovled in its development, in fact by 1996 he had already returned to SEGA of Japan. The only thing he did was express his disapproval for the game.

Mike Wallis canceled Sonic Xtreme. STI's head programmer told Bernie Stolar that Chris Senn wasn't going to finish it. Here's all the info on Sonic Xtreme including Wallis' confession:

http://www.sonic-cult.org

As for anyone who hated on the Saturn, the PS1 was a wussy,weak ass 3D console compared to Saturn, way more techinically inferior. It couldn't even handle alot of 2D games that required alot of RAM. And those looking to argue against the Saturn over PS1 having a better engine just rememeber this: Polygon Clipping. Showed up in alot of PSone games. Why? Simply because the poor PS1's lack of processing RAM which ran the preformance

Thats what I meant Yuji naka demanded that sonic X-treme NOT used the nights/fisheye engine right?

As for the saturn I perfer it over the PS1 but I wish They could have delayed the console so it could display as much 3d graphical power as the Nintendo 64 did!

[MrSega]

Mephiles. You are correct, on one the last ditch efforts to get Sonic Xtreme off the drawing board was that STI asked Naka if they could use the Nights engine. Naka replied "Absoluetly NOT". He personally hated and resented Bernie Stolar and felt like the Sonic franchise needed a hitaus. One final ace in the hole STI came up with for Sonic Xtreme was the "Sonic Pool" engine which would have given Sonic the ability to run around in a billard-like 3D enviroment. Since it would have caused the game to miss the 1996 holiday season, this is when Wallis threw in the towel and give it up. However, what was left of the engine ended up in the 3D special stages of Sonic 3DBlast(which sucked BTW) which was Stolar's idea to port it to the Saturn in the first place. I seriously HATE Bernie Stolar.

[stu]

Thanks for the link's stu! I knew that there were some fan attempts to revive sonic X-treme somewhere just never actually saw any other then some youtube vids!

It's a shame Yuji naka had to cancel the game just because it ran on the same engine as Nights into dreams.

Glad you liked the links Mephiles. Glad to help