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| Developer(s) | SEGA | ||
| Manufacturer(s) | SEGA | ||
| Console Type | Console | ||
| Generation | Fifth | ||
| Release Date(s) | |||
| November 22, 1994 (Japan) May 11, 1995 (North America) July 8, 1995 (Australia) July 11, 1995 (Europe) | |||
| Discontinued | 1998 (North America, Europe) 2000 (Japan) | ||
| Best selling game | Madden NFL 97 | ||
| Media | CD-ROM | ||
| CPU | 2x Hitachi SH-2 @ 28.6 MHz | ||
| Predecessor | SEGA Genesis | ||
| Successor | Dreamcast | ||
The SEGA Saturn was a fifth-generation home video game console released by SEGA, competing with the Nintendo 64 and Sony's PlayStation. Its development was supervised by Hideki Sato, SEGA's director and deputy manager of research and development, and according to the project manager Hideki Okamura, the project of a new console started over two years before the Saturn was formally revealed at the Tokyo Toy Show in 1994. "Saturn" was initially just a codename for the console that stuck into release, named after Saturn being the sixth planet of the sun and the SEGA Saturn being their sixth console (counting the 32X).
Like the other consoles during the fifth generation, the Saturn was able to display games in both 2D and 3D graphics, thanks to two Hitachi SH-2 chips, giving it extra processing power to generate a 3D world. The system's launch title, a faithful port of the arcade game Virtua Fighter, showed off its capabilities, and sold at a nearly one-to-one ratio. However, due to Sony attracting more third-party developers and launching the PlayStation at a lower price point, it began outpacing the Saturn in terms of sales by the end of 1995. When the Nintendo 64 released the next year, sales went down by even more, and SEGA lost its market share in the U.S.
While it remained fairly popular in Japan, even outselling the Mega Drive there, it fizzled out in every other region and was discontinued in 1998. Having only sold 9.26 million units worldwide, it was a commercial failure. The cancellation of Sonic X-treme, which would have been the first 3D entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, is considered to be a factor in its subpar performance. The Saturn was also criticized for a lack of substantial third party support and complex hardware design.
Controllers[]
Standard Controller[]
The standard controller.
The SEGA Saturn's controller was an evolution of the six-button controller of the SEGA Genesis. It had an almost identical button layout, with a directional pad, Start button, and six face buttons - A, B, C, X, Y, and Z. New to the Saturn was the addition of L and R as shoulder buttons. It had a bulky, yet comfortable design, like that of the Genesis controller.
3D Control Pad[]
The 3D Control Pad.
The 3D Control Pad was SEGA's answer to the Nintendo 64 implementing full analog controls. It released with NiGHTS into Dreams, and featured an analog stick above the directional pad, along with the buttons that were already on the standard controller. This allowed for much more intuitive movement in a 3D environment. To avoid compatibility issues with games that weren't made to support analog controls, a switch below the Start button can be turned on or off to disable the analog controls. The controller itself was much larger, having a circle-like shape in order to support the additional control stick.
List of SEGA Saturn Games[]
Any page that has the SEGA Saturn Games category on them will be added here automatically.
