Sega Saturn Vs Sony Playstation 1

[paranoid marvin]

You have to wonder what Sega were thinking when they released the Saturn - was it just a case of getting the machine out before the PS1 was released

The DC wasn't released that long after the Saturn - had Sega advanced so far technologically in such a short period of time? Or was the DC the machine that the Saturn was going to be if it hadn't been for Sony?

Certainly if it had been a toss-up between the DC and N64, Sega would surely have won

[bolda]

To be fair, the 3DO had built in memory for storing games, and it had an expansion slot for extra memory and a VCD cart and it would beat the saturn on the fact you could have 8 controllers with no multi-tap (out of the box) and a headphone socket in the controller. Plus the built-in CD audio-visualiser thingy was better than both the PSX and Saturn. And it was released before the Saturn - so argueably the Saturn wasn't that innovative.

The 3DO failed because the games were rubbish. I suspect this, to a much lesser degree, was the same for the Saturn.

Fair point. I think this suggests that PS1 was almost a backward step in terms of technical capability, given the 3DO, Saturn and even Jaguar had been released before it but boasted some features missing from the PS1. Don't get me wrong though, the PS1 obviously had enough about it to get both developers and gamers flocking to it that the other consoles didn't have. I got my PS1 years before I got a Jag or Saturn

[paranoid marvin]

The PS1 had it's limitations,but it also had on board software programmers who were able to hide those limitations in the majority of the games - considering it came out early in the life of the PS1 , Tomb Raider was a monumental achievement for the machine

[RivaOni]

You have to wonder what Sega were thinking when they released the Saturn - was it just a case of getting the machine out before the PS1 was released

The DC wasn't released that long after the Saturn - had Sega advanced so far technologically in such a short period of time? Or was the DC the machine that the Saturn was going to be if it hadn't been for Sony?

Certainly if it had been a toss-up between the DC and N64, Sega would surely have won

There were 4 years between the Dreamcast and the Saturn, roughly.

Wasn't the Saturn released during E3 in the US and SEGA made their opening presentation by announcing you could buy it right at that very moment?

[bolda]

Actually, what I just said was complete bullsh1t... the PS1 wasn't a step backward at all as it handled 3D better than any console that came before it. Even the \"mighty\" 64-bit Jaguar struggled with 3D compared to the PS1. 3D games also play much more \"smoothly\" on PS1, in no small part due to the analogue controllers which quickly became the \"de-facto\" PS1 controller. The analogue controller for the Saturn didn't really take off in the same way and I don't know if an analogue controller ever came out for the Jaguar?

Ooooh, I just can't decide which side of the fence I'm on with this one!

[paranoid marvin]

You have to wonder what Sega were thinking when they released the Saturn - was it just a case of getting the machine out before the PS1 was released

The DC wasn't released that long after the Saturn - had Sega advanced so far technologically in such a short period of time? Or was the DC the machine that the Saturn was going to be if it hadn't been for Sony?

Certainly if it had been a toss-up between the DC and N64, Sega would surely have won

There were 4 years between the Dreamcast and the Saturn, roughly.

Wasn't the Saturn released during E3 in the US and SEGA made their opening presentation by announcing you could buy it right at that very moment?

wow , you're right!
Didn't realise it was 4 years between the Saturn,I thought it was closer to 2 years.

Even so, I still believe that Sega thought they could steal a march on Sony by realeasing their machine first ,even though they must have realised it was going to be technically inferior to the PS1 (in relation to 3D anyway) - just like happened when Sega released the (arguably) inferior Megadrive before Nintendo's SNES

[learnedrobb]

No they didnt try to steal the March on Sony as such, Sega panicked.

The Saturn was deep into development when the PS1 was announced, and Sega realised that 3D polygons were the way forward. So they hastily added some rudimentary poly-pushing oomph to the spec and rushed the machine into retail. Had they been more composed and held backa couple of more months, they might have had a better chance, with a more developed machine, but alas, it was not to be.

And as for the SNES being technically superior to the MD.....well, thats an entirely different subject altogether.

[jimid2]

Actually, what I just said was complete bullsh1t... the PS1 wasn't a step backward at all as it handled 3D better than any console that came before it. Even the "mighty" 64-bit Jaguar struggled with 3D compared to the PS1. 3D games also play much more "smoothly" on PS1, in no small part due to the analogue controllers which quickly became the "de-facto" PS1 controller. The analogue controller for the Saturn didn't really take off in the same way and I don't know if an analogue controller ever came out for the Jaguar?

Ooooh, I just can't decide which side of the fence I'm on with this one!

Wait a minute - didn't Nintendo release the first analog controller with the N64? As I remember it, my original PS1 joypad didn't have an analog controller, just the D-pad and buttons... It wasn't until after the N64's analog joystick became common knowledge that Sony redesigned their controllers with an analog stick - or have all these recreational pharmaceuticals finally taken their toll?

[will2097]

Actually, what I just said was complete bullsh1t... the PS1 wasn't a step backward at all as it handled 3D better than any console that came before it. Even the "mighty" 64-bit Jaguar struggled with 3D compared to the PS1. 3D games also play much more "smoothly" on PS1, in no small part due to the analogue controllers which quickly became the "de-facto" PS1 controller. The analogue controller for the Saturn didn't really take off in the same way and I don't know if an analogue controller ever came out for the Jaguar?

Ooooh, I just can't decide which side of the fence I'm on with this one!

Wait a minute - didn't Nintendo release the first analog controller with the N64? As I remember it, my original PS1 joypad didn't have an analog controller, just the D-pad and buttons... It wasn't until after the N64's analog joystick became common knowledge that Sony redesigned their controllers with an analog stick - or have all these recreational pharmaceuticals finally taken their toll?

When did the Sega Saturn Analogue pad for Nights come out?

(the 3DO had an Analogue flight stick too. What a machine! )

[Cornelius]

The Sega Saturn was underappreciated in it's time because it really wasn't great in it's time at all. Not for me. At the time I wanted a Sega console for Sonic. Nothing else. I didn't want Virtua Fighter because I hated fighting games nor did I want Sega Rally because I hated driving games. Sonic didn't come until later and when he finally did arrive it was in the form of remakes. Sonic R was the only new game and that's no reason to buy a Saturn at all. It has value as a retro console alright but all I ever saw on the shelves at the time was Sonic 3D and Sega Rally. It has much more value as a retro console because shooters and 2D stuff came out on it later on and their quality is practically unmatched with competing 2D games on other formats.

So it's value compared to the Playstation 1 has changed over time. So back in the past when they were modern consoles the PS1 was pretty bad I thought but even that was more interesting than the Saturn which just wasn't interesting at all with it's library of one racing game and one fighting game. Nowadays however as a retro console the PS1 is almost worthless whereas the Saturn is really good.

[Lord Innit]

The Saturn was caught between two stools,namely 2D and 3D.It was designed as a 2D powerhouse that could also do 3D,but when the Playstation specs came out,Sega rushed in an extra chip to try and compete.This probably made the console harder to make games for.

Still,Duke Nuk'em showed what could be done in the right hands.The hi-res graphics in Virtua Fighter 2 were impressive.2D fighters came up trumps over their PS1 versions.

I bought the Saturn knowing it was going to fail.Never regretted it.It is still connected to my TV after 11 years.

[Sega2006]

My Saturn has seen far more hours of play than any Playstation could hope to see

[bolda]

Wait a minute - didn't Nintendo release the first analog controller with the N64? As I remember it, my original PS1 joypad didn't have an analog controller, just the D-pad and buttons... It wasn't until after the N64's analog joystick became common knowledge that Sony redesigned their controllers with an analog stick - or have all these recreational pharmaceuticals finally taken their toll?

There's not much in it to be honest. The N64 analogue controller was introduced in late 1996. The original Playstation came with a digital-only controller (I've still got one of these but rarely use it). However, the first dual-analogue controller was introduced in April 1997 and superceded by the dual-shock controller later that year.

NiGHTS into Dreams came out with an analogue controller in summer 1996.

Of course, analogue PC joysticks have been around much longer. Even the Atari STe had 2 15-pin joystick ports for analogue joysticks although I don't know of a single game that makes use of them!

[will2097]

You could play the Need for Speed on the 3DO with Analogue flight stick in 1994. The PC definately has analogue sticks yonks before anything else.

I'm going to press home this point that the real innovative console system during the CD wars of the early to mid-90s was really the 3DO. That is until someone listens. Then I will stop.

[bolda]

You could play the Need for Speed on the 3DO with Analogue flight stick in 1994. The PC definately has analogue sticks yonks before anything else.

I'm going to press home this point that the real innovative console system during the CD wars of the early to mid-90s was really the 3DO. That is until someone listens. Then I will stop.

But this thread is about Saturn vs PS1 and their respective merits!