/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3323435
Sega of Japan turned down a partnership with Sony because they didn't want to share power with them, and then they turned down a partnership with Silicon Graphics because "the chip is too big," which is code for "we don't want to work with a filthy American company." Sega almost had their hands on the graphics chip that powered the N64, and they turned it down because they wanted to keep all hardware development inside Japan (at least that's the most likely reason, but Sega of Japan never gave their real reason officially).

The Sega Saturn was one board room vote away from essentially being an N64 with a CD drive. Instead the system they made was an under-powered developer's nightmare that was significantly more expensive to manufacture than the SGI-based system would have been, and ultimately Nintendo ended up getting the spoils that Sega left behind. The SGI deal falling through is quite arguably the biggest single blunder in Sega's entire history.

Sega of Japan is the primary reason for Sega's downfall. Their leaders were terrified of taking any risks, and they were constantly getting jealous of Sega of America to the point that they started sabotaging them outright. The 32X was the most infamous example. Everyone at Sega of America said "this thing is terrible, just let us have the Saturn," and they eventually compromised by making it be an add-on for the Genesis rather than a full console, although it still ended up cannibalizing the Saturn's launch (which was a fuck up all of it's own since they shipped it without telling anyone, particularly the developers).

A friend of mine is generously giving me his modded Japanese Saturn, complete with an AR 4MB cart.

This is my first Saturn and needless to say, I'm excited.

Any recommendations for games I should get first and foremost? I don't mind burning discs (did that a fuckton with my dreamcast), so there's really no limit.

Also, Saturn general.