[img width=400 height=329]http://theniftyperson.tripod.com/niftystuff/mvs/mario_vs_sonic.jpg[/img]
Anyone who experienced Gaming in the 90's knows about the fierce (and awesome) War fought between Nintendo and Sega. In the end, Nintendo won, but it was, without a doubt, the biggest War in Gaming History.
People know me as a huge Nintendo Fan, but I love Sega too. Only a few of my friends are aware that I grew up with a Genesis and SNES in my house.
Anyway, with the 16-Bit War over, it was time for the 32-Bit War. The competitors? Sony and Sega.
[img width=300 height=160]http://gamesnet.vo.llnwd.net/o1/gamestar/objects/516005_widget.jpg[/img]
(This was before God of War and Crash Bandicoot was Sony's mascot, see...)
Sega would go on saying "Hey! We've got TWO CPUs in our Console! Sony only has one! Plus, ours will be in stores first!". So what went wrong? Sega broke street date, so that turned off fans who were unprepared for it's arrival. Also, the inclusion of a second CPU made it difficult for Game Programmers to make games for the console. It also didn't help Sega that Sony was releasing games that people thought were better. They also released (way) more than Sega did for the Saturn. With victory all but guaranteed for Sony, Sega eventually gave up, and the 32-Bit War came to an end.
Am I saying people hate the Saturn? Hell no. In fact, as far as I know, it has a bigger cult following than the PS1 in this day and age. I could be wrong though, so don't quote me on that. Also, if it's any consolation to Sega fans, Sony's first batch of PS1 Consoles had overheating problems due to poor construction materials. In fact, I think I once read about that batch of consoles actually melting somewhere!
Anyway, that's it for the story of the 32-Bit Wars. Keep an eye out for my next article!
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I think the Saturn appears to have a larger following right now because those that are ga-ga over it are incredibly loud and vocal about its awesomeness. Talking to a few independent retro store owners has given me the impression (at least in my neck of the woods) that PS1 games are some of their biggest sellers due to a nostalgia factor. Nintendo systems are great sellers too, as is the Genesis and to a lesser extent the Dreamcast. Saturn seems to be Sega's forgotten system in the mainstream mindset. Buying games for a system you've never owned is a bit of a risk and many people are loath to research, and in many cases some of the games that people say are the best happen to be expensive making them less likely still to try and find one.
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I believe another thing that went wrong with the Saturn was the commercial failure of the Sega-CD and 32X add-ons for the Genesis system. Having been burned twice in a row, Sega's customer base was understandably skeptical of the quality of the company's latest release. Sadly, this attitude, combined with and magnified by the failure of the Saturn, pretty much sunk Sega's reputation in the hardware arena, a rep not even the Dreamcast could revive.
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Another major problem with the Saturn was that due to it is early release, there was a big gap after launch before new titles came onto the US market. I bought a Saturn on release and loved playing Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon, and Daytona USA, but it was really hard waiting months for anything else to be released. I remember calling Sega to ask about when new games were going to be released, but was told simply prior to Christmas. Even though I picked up a Playstation, I still loved a lot of the Sega exclusives and played it a lot. Heck, I bought Panzer Dragoon Saga and Magic Knight Rayearth when they were released.
I think the Saturn gets so much love for all of the fantastic Sega titles that never found a home anywhere else. Titles for most other systems can easily be found on Virtual console, PSN, or Live Arcade, but Saturn titles are few and far between. I hope that with the success of Radiant Silvergun and Guardian Heroes we'll get a chance to see more titles soon.
Thanks for posting and making me fondly remember my early days with the Saturn.
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I remember that bit like it was yesterday. The 32-bit wars were not as grandiose as the 16-bit wars by any stretch.
I was personally much more affected by the 32-bit wars as opposed to the 16-bit wars because I never had a 16-bit console until two years ago! I was still rockin' my NES playing T2 (I loved the movie so much I tortured myself through this game) and SMB3.
When it came time for me to finally get a new console it was 32-bit. I remember reading about the Saturn and the system specifications had me dreaming of awesomeness. I was finally going to get myself a Sega!
Well, being a young lad with virtually nill for video game loot I was VERY budget oriented to the point where I didn't even get a 32-bit console until the playstation had been out for a year.
By this time it was clear that the Sony Playstation was the "smart" way to go. It had way more games, the graphics for most games were superior on the Playstation (this still haunts me to this day since the Saturn was FAR superior hardware-wise).
So, I got a Playstation because the games were plenty, all my friends seemed to have one (Still only know of one person in my entire life who owned a Sega Saturn when they were current systems), and I got a good deal on a used one.
After that upset I never looked back and went exclusively to Sony consoles...until my collecting started.
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