Nemoide wrote:Was the Saturn's cartridge slot initially intended to be compatible with Genesis and 32X games?
Sometimes I imagine the alternate universe where it was. The 32X wouldn't have been seen as such a rip-off, since it would have *actually* done its job and served as a stepping stone for the next console generation. 32X would probably have gotten more games since Sega could market them to Saturn owners. If that happened, Sega probably wouldn't have gotten trounced so hard in America after the Genesis.
I don't think it was. I think the expansion slot in general was just for things like memory backup, RAM expansion, NetLink, or whatever else they would have come with at the time. I don't think Sega had any intention of having it play games. I tried to look up if anybody was ever able to load up a game on the cartridge slot (genesis or homebrew, anything), but no luck. I think the game has to do through all CD hardware.
It's certainly true that no extant version of the Sega Saturn can boot a Genesis or 32X game from the cartridge port.
That said, C'mon! We all know what Sega was like in the 1990s. They would throw practically anything at the wall to see what sticks. Sega Nomad, Sega CDX, JVC WonderMega, Aiwa MegaCD, Sega Pico. They even shoehorned Sega Genesis hardware into claw machine games. They came up with so many ways to combine Genesis hardware with other things, that it's not unreasonable to imagine a Saturn and Genesis combo unit. I bet at some point, someone at Sega of Japan R&D must have pitched a Sega Saturn / Genesis combo unit.
As far as we know, such a device was never made, but we still find out about Sega prototype hardware even into recent years. The Sega Neptune was something of a tall tale for a long time. The Sega Pluto was supposedly just a legend until a prototype surfaced a few years back. I just found out last year that there was a slim version of the Saturn released in Japan.
It's fun to dream, anyway. I guess that's what this thread is all about.
Well I never knew about the Saturn Slim, lol. So thanks for that!
A combo unit sounded like a much better idea than the 32x. 32x sales were always going to be low because people knew the Saturn was due to be released. It woulda been cool to have a like a regular Saturn and a Saturn "Pro" that played Genesis games as well. Or have some type purchasable expansion for the Saturn that used the cartridge slot to play Genesis games.
Old Username: sp957
Systems: Genesis, Super Nintendo, Saturn, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox 360, and Windows PC Handhelds: Gameboy Advance SP, Nintendo DSi, and New Nintendo 3DS
That hardware model wasn't uncommon in Japan at the time. Just look at stuff like the Twin Famicom and the Sharp X1 Twin, and also the PC-KD863G, which was a PC Engine built into a PC monitor.
What game is the closest Sega ever got to Ridge Racer?
and (Partially copy pasted from the same thread on the other forum)
WHY are Dreamcast S-video cables so shitty? Even if I get a VGA/Akura box (I am not adding that HDMI board) I'll still need it for unsupported games but I've had 3 of these things 2 had audio issues, of those 2 one just stopped outputting video, The "Good one" was having connection issues last night and the only way I could get my Framemiester to accept it was to use an S-video swtich and actual quality cables to get anything that even remotely looked good. By the time everything was looking ok, I didn't even want to play 3rd Strike.
You can force the vast majority of games into VGA mode. IIRC some of the higher end boxes have a switch for this vs unplugging a cable. On the upside, the DC composite is much crisper than most.
Fits into the discussion somewhere...
There were serious talks between Microsoft & Sega execs about the oXbox being fully backwards compatible. Reportedly the xbox live support killed the deal & we ended up with the Sega ports & exclusives. Man... DC software sales & legacy would've been much different. I imagine we would've seen reprints of DC games in XB cases. Just imagine... fun from our side. At least we got some awesome Sega love on the oXbox.
[EDIT/ADD] This entire MVG video on DC & oXbox link is amazing. Overview & source (Microsoft exec Sam Furukawa on Sega's Okawa's negotiations) of DC backwards compatibility on XB around 5:50 mark. https://youtu.be/lWGiHgTdLBc
Gee, I thought my DC looked pretty good over S-Video, but I'm also using S-Video off a switchable VGA box, so maybe that's a different thing.
As for how close Sega got to Ridge Racer? I like Ridge Racer, but Sega is the best arcade-style racing developer out there. Between Daytona, Sega Rally, and many others, I think Sega, overall, did better than Ridge Racer.
I'm confused. The Beharbros adapters definitely have settings to just send the interlaced RGB video signals over VGA or Scart. I assume the HDMI one works the same way. Why would you need to use an S-video cable?
marurun wrote:As for how close Sega got to Ridge Racer? I like Ridge Racer, but Sega is the best arcade-style racing developer out there. Between Daytona, Sega Rally, and many others, I think Sega, overall, did better than Ridge Racer.
