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11527406 No.11527406 [Reply] [Original]

What if the PlayStation had simply never come out? No SNES CD, no PlayStation, no nothing. Just Nintendo and Sega in the fifth gen.

>> No.11527410

>>11527406
N64 would've still been based and Saturn would've still been the gay purple jester console with smash hits like Clockwork Knight and Mr. Bones. any other questions?

>> No.11527412

The Saturn… is saved

>> No.11527429

>>11527412
Unironically yeah. As the only CD console it would probably get SquareSoft and Enix's sole attention which would lead to millions more sales which would lead to developers bending over backwards to put games on it, no matter how troublesome the hardware. I don't know if it would eat up all the missing sales as I doubt they could lower the price as much as Sony did with the PlayStation in the latter half of it's life and a lot of people would buy N64's for its superior 3D but I see it easily surpassing the Genesis in sales by a fairly large margin.

>> No.11527458
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11527458

>Now here's how the Saturn could have survived....

>> No.11527460

Obviously zoomers would be buying 3D-4s by now (the 4th console after the 3D-0)

>> No.11527463

>>11527429
.... Or Final Fantasy VII would have been released on N64

>> No.11527505
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11527505

>>11527429
>As the only CD console it would probably get SquareSoft and Enix's sole attention
Knock-knock, it's Panasonic and we already have a CD console. 3DO had its own niche in Japan until it got massacred by PS1 and Saturn by around late 1995. Without Sony's MASSIVE marketing push it has a R.E.A.L. possibility of staying on the market.

>> No.11527564

>>11527505
PANASONICBROS WE EATING GOOD

>> No.11527576

>>11527505
>3DO had its own niche in Japan until it got massacred by PS1 and Saturn
It was competing with the PCD and to a lesser extent Mega CD.

>> No.11527595
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11527595

>>11527576
The point is that 3DO was starting to receive next gen games which were above CD-ROM-ROM/Mega-CD capabilities, until better consoles took its place. Without PlayStation, 3DO either lives long enough for Panasonic M2 to become reality or it gets stomped hard by Saturn alone.

>> No.11527601
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11527601

>>11527595
why couldn't we have at least seen nec, atari, 3do last into 6th gen. So many potentially interesting timelines and we got seemingly the blandest.

>> No.11527618
File: 179 KB, 720x405, inevitable.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11527618

>>11527406
Sony still enters the market in 1997 and crushes all resistance.

>> No.11527657

>>11527406
>3do survives for a few more years but still ultimately loses because the business model isn't competitive
>everyone still fucks off from nintendo because no cds
>saturn wins but not as hard as the ps1 did because some 3rd parties went to the 3do instead (mgs was originally a 3do game so maybe it'd still be one in this alternate timeline idk)
>a different gigantic company takes sony's role as "giant with infinite resources" and btfos everyone else in the 6th gen
A company like sony taking over was inevitable, there was too much money in the market to be ignored and sega/nintendo just weren't big enough to compete with companies like sony and microsoft.

>> No.11527673

>>11527460
That's an O. Not a 0

>> No.11527680

>>11527673
so the 3DS?

>> No.11527875

>>11527463
Nah, they hated cartridges, 64mb isn't enough for them when the finished game of the PS1 was spread across 4 different 660mb disks with all together still cost far less than a cartridge to produce. They would go with the Saturn.

>> No.11528073
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11528073

>>11527618

>> No.11528149

>>11527657
Yeah, the PSX was weird because it was basically like Sony was competing on Nintendo and Sega's level investment-wise despite the fact that they could have invested into videogames much more aggressively and won by default. But they won the generation on the cheap anyway.

>> No.11528158

I'm so glad to have a chance to post this
>https://ohga-shrugs.fandom.com/wiki/Ohga_Shrugs
Not sure why this exists but the level of effort is really absurd. Pretty sure it's just Sega fan essays

>> No.11528220
File: 177 KB, 480x360, 5iot9h.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11528220

>>11528158
>search "3DO"
>Timeline (Ohga Shrugs to 2000)
>1993
>October 4 - The 3DO console is released. However, due to its high price of $699 and lack of support, the system is soon discontinued.
>no more results
>mfw

>> No.11528324

>>11527406
I think ps1 took away a lot of development the would have happened for pc, just before ps1 launched you have stuff like flight unlimited and I think software would have gone more in that direction of more open worlds earlier. Tomb raider raider and other games would have been pc focused instead of so many game being optimized ps1 ports.

>> No.11528353
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11528353

>>11527406
Here's what would have happened...
>Sega wins because all third party developers would produce their best games on here such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 and Tekken. Games that would never appear on the N64
>Nintendo panics and develops a CD add-on to compete with Sega
>Sega still wins.
>Sega Dreamcast comes out in 2000 as a DVD based console.
Nintendo Gamecube also comes out, but not as a DVD console as to prevent potential piracy, they keep the mini-disc format.
>Microsoft comes in with the Xbox in 2001.
>The fight is still between Sega and Nintendo, leaving Microsoft in the dust.

That's exactly how it would play out. Anyone entertaining the thought of Panasonic's 3DO being competitive, are delusional as fuck.

>> No.11528367

>>11527463
impossible

>> No.11528375

>>11527406
Sega would've eventually filled the gap for Playstation games, while Nintendo would have adapted to a similar style to compete in later gens. Assuming Microsoft doesn't get in the mix for whatever reason, the Dreamcast would have been adapted a bit more to the style of popular american 6th gen games like GTA or CoD, while the Gamecube would have been practically the same as in our timeline. The Dreamcast would have been very successful, so SEGA would get to devolop a 7th gen console and Nintendo would design a console to compete with it, a sequel to the N64 and Gamecube, so not the Wii.

>> No.11528376

>>11527601
it's the same as with computers, and how the world standard evolved from the most niggerlicious shit ever (IBM) out of all the other more interesting and better designed architectures and operating systems from the 80s and 90s

>> No.11528391

>>11527406
Sega wins. Maybe not as hard as the Playstation did because Sony was a much better ran company and did so many things right beyond the hardware and Sega no doubt would have done some dumb shit. CD gave developers so much freedom and the industry would have gravitated to the Saturn. N64 carts are one of the all time video game blunders....maybe #1.

>> No.11528404

>>11528391
>N64 carts are one of the all time video game blunders....maybe #1.
Throughout the 2000s and even up until now those cartridges have survived in the hands of many small children where CDs would not have. It created huge brand loyalty for Nintendo which paid off.

>> No.11528405

>>11527406
TurboGrafx may have had a much bigger presence. It had CD games before Sega and Sony..

>> No.11528419

>>11528405
It flopped so hard in the west that it died before even the Sega CD was out. That could only have happened if it initially received vastly better advertisement, distribution, and localization investment.

>> No.11528436

>>11528419
The TurboDuo came out in '92 after the SegaCD was already on the market.

>> No.11528457

>>11527505
With a price cut they could have taken on the role Sony had. They actually understood the the western market unlike Sega of Japan which was insistent on hamstringing SoA and not letting them make decisions in the company's best interest. Sega was just too incompetent for the Saturn to ever be a success.
Namco was a big factor in the PS1's success. They were already sick of working with Nintendo and Sega so I could see them working with the 3DO's hardware instead. Square and Enix could go either way. Plus 3DO would have EA's sports games as exclusives. Yeah it would be a done deal

>> No.11528492
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11528492

>>11527412
What could have been...

>> No.11528569

Why is the Saturn so goddamn big.

>> No.11528648

Everyone's forgetting something: it was the PlayStation that convinced Sega to add 3D hardware to the Saturn.

It probably had an impact on the N64 too.

>> No.11528694

>>11528353
Nintendo already had a backup plan for competing with cd’s. They would just have launched the 64dd earlier

>> No.11528827

It's bizarre how certain people got longlasting psychological damage because Sony decided to enter the video game business.

>> No.11528830

>>11528367
it would've been a different game then ofcourse, without all the FMVs and prerendered backgrounds.

>> No.11528831

>>11527406
>If you erase an entire competitor from existence, would it have saved the Saturn???????
Holy shit. Also, no.

>> No.11528834

>>11528457
3do was too weak though, maybe if they launched a successor....

>> No.11528853

>>11527406
>saturn is le saved thread #ninejillion

funny I didnt even know this console existed and I was born in 91 and grew up with 5th gen but since I started coming to this honeypot its all I hear about.

>> No.11528858
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11528858

>>11528436
TurboDuo and TurboCD are different, the former came out years before SegaCD
>>11528419
to be fair they were running ads long before release. Picrel was on the back cover of a Batman comic I had in September 1988.

>> No.11528859

>>11528853
>never heard of Saturn when growing up
You must be from one hell of a remote shithole if you didn't even know about its existence back then.

>> No.11528860

>>11528858
*the latter, I need sleep

>> No.11528864

>>11528859
its actually kind of weird, because I lived in a gaming household. we had a genesis, and a dreamcast. we had ps1, n64. but somehow I have ZERO memories of this thing. no one I knew had one. I even asked my brother, and he legit had no clue what I was talking about, he thought I was talking about sega CD.

>> No.11528867

We're all very impressed by your story that definitely happened.

>> No.11528869

>>11528864
The system was definately obscure in the west, and knowing about it also had to do with if you read general gaming magazines and such. it's in the same boat as the 3do and Jaguar I think.

>> No.11528878

>>11527505
real

>> No.11529068

>>11528457
>Namco was a big factor in the PS1's success.
Yes absolutely.

>They were already sick of working with Nintendo and Sega

No. Namco hated Sega because of their 25 year bitter rivalry in arcades. Constantly fighting, copying each other's game and stealing eachother employees (Namco stole Virtua Fighter staff members). Many books have been written about it.

>so I could see them working with the 3DO's hardware instead.
If Playstation wasn't around, then yeah. Namco isn't going to put their best games on Sega hardware.

And stuff like Tekken isn't going to work on cartridge hardware UNLESS Nintendo uses the N64 DD which has a cartridge size limit of around 800 MB. Which Nintendo might do if Namco pushes them to do it.

>> No.11529074

>>11528864
>its actually kind of weird, because I lived in a gaming household. we had a genesis, and a dreamcast. we had ps1, n64. but somehow I have ZERO memories of this thing. no one I knew had one. I even asked my brother, and he legit had no clue what I was talking about, he thought I was talking about sega CD.

Yep. Same here. That's pretty the memory of every single American kid who grew up in the 90s. They had no idea what the Sega Saturn was.

Sega of Japan fanboys on this board seriously underestimate how badly the Sega Saturn screwed up in America. The system was a MASSIVE FAILURE and most retail stores refused to carry it. Japan really didn't understand the Western market at all. Japan thought America would accept any garbage they made like the Japanese fans do. Nope.

>> No.11529079

>>11527406
Then final fantasy 7,Metal gaer automatically become pc gaem.

>> No.11529112

>>11529068
>And stuff like Tekken isn't going to work on cartridge hardware
Huh, ignoring any FMVs, what about tekken requires that much memory?
3D Fighters are usually on the lower end of ROM size requirements.

>> No.11529132

>>11528376
Standards evolve due to accessability. Even fucking radio shack was able to make their own ibm-pc compatables.
That future came to pass because apple was apple even when they weren't trendy apple, and commodore thought itself the artsy-fartsy company for creatives who didn't need the commoner's market.

>> No.11529136

Finally... the Saturn would have a chance! If only Sony and Nintendo gave up...

>> No.11529197

>>11529112
The game is significantly bigger than the capacity of an N64 cartridge

>> No.11529791

>>11528694
Yet even Nintendo knew the 64DD would have flopped in the U.S.

>> No.11529818

>>11527595
>>11527505
Bizarre console.

>> No.11529862

>>11528853
>I was born in 91 and grew up with 5th gen
These two things are mutually exclusive.

>> No.11529927

>>11528869
>knowing about it also had to do with if you read general gaming magazines and such
No, it didn't. It just meant you were a pretty ignorant kid who didn't observe the world around them.
All it would have taken is one look-over of the game section of any department store, game store, pawn shop, video rental place, anywhere really that sold or rented games.

>> No.11530010

>>11528694
> Namco isn't going to put their best games on Sega hardware.
Namco put their on arcade ports on playstation because the system-11 was already a playstation anyway. Without the playstation they have nothing tying them down to a specific platform.

>> No.11530053

>>11530010
Namco strongly dislikes Sega. They are rivals. Namco specifically teamed up with Sony to hurt Sega.

>> No.11530068

>>11530053
that's fucking retarded, namco had plenty of genesis games and the dreamcast got soul caliber as a killer app

>> No.11530126

>>11530068
>that's fucking retarded,
Namco and Sega were bitter rivals in the arcade industry for 25 years.

>namco had plenty of genesis games
Have you actually looked at those games? They had around 7 Genesis games. None of them very good. And Namco was the *publisher* of the games. NOT the developer of those games. The games were either made by partner studios or American studios in partnership with Namco. Namco of Japan didn't make them.

>Dreamcast
>1999
In 1999, Namco had won the war with Sega by then. Sega was in very bad financial trouble. Sony Playstation had wrecked them. Namco was doing great financially. And IIRC, Sega desperately wanted a fighting game for the Dreamcast launch in North America. So Sega went to Namco, basically begged them, and paid Namco a ton of money. So Namco took their money and just ported Soul Calibur from their arcade cabinet. Wasn't even made from scratch and it wasn't even really a true Dreamcast exclusive.

>> No.11530148

>>11530126
>splatterhouse isn't good and also wasn't developed by namco
Both of these statements are false, you have no idea what you're talking about.

>> No.11530205

Nintendo wins but only just. Sega will get tons of developers that jumped on playstation, yeah saturn was more difficult to program for, but N64 was also difficult. Sega would have their 2d games, rpgs, and they will have the storeage capacity, and for those people able to afford two consoles sega would have been one of them.

Once the dreamcast came out - which was a big success technically, a lot more than the Saturn, and had some excellent games in the brief time it was around, there is no reason why Sega and Nintendo wouldn't be in for another fight. Very probably Nintendo would win out in the end, but Sega would have every reason to keep going as a hardware manufacturer.

>> No.11530220

>>11529862
I had a ps1 and n64 in the house by first grade

in what world is that not "growing up with"

>> No.11530258

>>11530220
Because by the time you were 10 the ps2 was already out. You did not grow up in the culture of the fifth generation. You are ps2/gc/xbox gen player.

>> No.11530357

>>11527505
Also better than Shiturn

>> No.11530363

>>11530148
Splatterhouse 1 was made by Namco, but it was never released on the Sega Genesis. You are confusing The Sega Genesis with the Turbo Gfx 16 and FM Towns consoles. Splatterhouse 1 was released on those consoles.

Splatterhouse 2 and 3 wasn't made by Namco. They were made by Now Productions.

>> No.11530394

>>11528353
True. Sega and Nintendo should have been the only two console makers in town. Sony and Microsoft suck balls.

>> No.11530739

Not gonna bother making another Saturn thread so excuse me while I hijack yours for a moment. Are there any good Saturn emulators on windows? Doing a little research showed that most don't seem to be that good yet but I'm retarded so I think it's better to ask the people.

>> No.11530750

>>11530739
>Are there any good Saturn emulators on windows?
Mednafen (Beetle Saturn) is considered the best.

>> No.11530860

>>11527410
Nintendo64 fighting game lineup, beat em up lineup, shmup lineups were the equivalent of a retarded grade schooler by comparison to the SEGA SATURN in those genre’s. SEGA was always the one to use the phrase “arcade at home”, and if Bernie Stolar wasn’t blocking all the 2d CAPCOM 4mb-expansion arcade ports from USA release, SATURN could have easily bested N64 as is, with PS1 out of the picture.

But… if Nintendo chose to also produce their strong genres in 32/64bit :

N64 easily won the entire 5th gen in 3d platformer’s, no doubt, had some great early FPS…

… but the fact it didn’t even have any great 2d games (Yoshi’s story is the closest ? Weak af) really hurt bad during the 5th gen.

Nintendo making 32bit/64bit 2d platformers, 32/64bit 2d top down Zelda titles, metroidvania titles, action-RPG’s, etc would have been epic.

So it’s not hating Nintendo at all, it’s wishing they made 32/64bit evolutions of YOSHI’S ISLAND, SUPER MARIO WORLD, Link to the Past, Kirby Superstars/Dreamland, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country. If they did that, those might be some of the most revered retro games of all time, to this day.

>> No.11532525

>>11530148
Lmao

>> No.11532678

>>11527429
> I don't know if it would eat up all the missing sales as I doubt they could lower the price as much as Sony did with the PlayStation in the latter half of it's life
A lot of Saturn's cost was in the RAM it used, which was about the same as the PS1. By 1996 the system was already being sold at a slim profit with RAM prices still falling and more chip consolidation to happen. By 1997 they had already consolidated the SH2s into one chip, the CD-ROM block into one chip, and the 68K + SCSP into one chip. At this point they were selling it at 20,000 Yen in Japan and most likely making a profit on it, and it was $149 in the US.

So they probably would have been able to lower the price by 1999/2000 the way Sony did with the PSOne if they made the same kind of cuts (remove the MPEG slot, switch to an external power supply, further consolidate chips, etc.)

>>11528457
>They actually understood the the western market unlike Sega of Japan which was insistent on hamstringing SoA and not letting them make decisions in the company's best interest
Sega of America didn't understand the western market either. It's why they massively fucked up with the 32X. Sega of Japan didn't start reigning in control until the 32X disaster. A lot of the bad decisions date back to before this and a lot of them are Sega of America's fault.
>>11529074
>Sega of Japan fanboys on this board seriously underestimate how badly the Sega Saturn screwed up in America.
And Sega of America fanboys on this board seriously underestimate how badly Sega of America screwed up their chances with the Saturn before it was even released. The issue wasn't the Saturn, it's hardware, or it's games. It was Sega of America going balls deep into the 32X and Genesis when they should have been putting those resources into the Saturn.

>> No.11532696

>>11529197
Proof? Howmuch data does the actual game take, ignoring fmvs

>> No.11532742

>>11530205
>Sega will get tons of developers that jumped on playstation, yeah saturn was more difficult to program for,
Saturn only was difficult to program because of their last minute decision to add a second CPU after seeing the capabilities of the PS1

>> No.11532774

>>11532678
>It was Sega of America going balls deep into the 32X and Genesis when they should have been putting those resources into the Saturn
SoJ pushed SoA to do the 32x. SoA wanted the Saturn earlier but SoJ was stuck up their own ass about pandering to the JP market even though the JP market treated them like shit.

>> No.11532775

>>11529927
>All it would have taken is one look-over of the game section of any department store, game store, pawn shop, video rental place, anywhere really that sold or rented games.
Most stores in the US didn't stock Saturn anything due to Sega fucking up their relationship with retailers.

>> No.11532790

>>11528694
The 64DD discs were, at max 64 Megabytes, still had a plastic caddy so they held virtually nothing but were also a fraction of the size of a CD, let alone the GDR and DVDs. It doesn't actually solve any problems.

>> No.11532828

>>11532678
>By 1997 they had already consolidated the SH2s into one chip, the CD-ROM block into one chip, and the 68K + SCSP into one chip. At this point they were selling it at 20,000 Yen in Japan and most likely making a profit on it, and it was $149 in the US.

1997 was way way way too late for Sega Saturn. It needed to have these hardware changes ready in 1995. 1997 is the year of Playstation 1 with Mega worldwide hits like FF7 and other games like Gran Turismo.

>> No.11532834

>>11532678
>And Sega of America fanboys on this board seriously underestimate how badly Sega of America screwed up their chances with the Saturn before it was even released. The issue wasn't the Saturn, it's hardware, or it's games. It was Sega of America going balls deep into the 32X and Genesis when they should have been putting those resources into the Saturn.

This is such awful bait. Come on anon. It's like you aren't even trying anymore. Nobody in their right mind believes this. Saturn was DoA in America. $399. No Sonic games. A Trashy glitchy Daytona USA. No Virtua Fighter Remix until later. Everything about the system was a rushed mess.

>> No.11532836

>>11532790
64 MB cartridges were expensive and only used by about 3 games. Having 64 MB for "free" would've quadrupled the storage space available for most games.

>> No.11532841

>>11527410
>Saturn would've still been the gay purple jester console with smash hits like
virtua cop, virtua racing, daytona, outrun, virtua fighter
and thats just from sega

>> No.11532847

>>11532836
still nowhere near enough to compete with cds

>> No.11533862

These hypothetical situation threads are so fucking stupid.

>> No.11533926

>>11527406
That depends what happens to the PS1 third party library, whoever gets them wins automatically, If you say they just don't exists then this is >>11527410 what happens

>>11532841
Yeah no one was buying a saturn in America to play arcade ports, people wanted a 3d Sonic CONSOLE game

>> No.11533928
File: 722 KB, 946x805, image.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11533928

>>11527406
>What if
Death.

>> No.11533946

>>11532841
No offense but the only game from that list that could have pushed Saturns was Daytona USA and Sega screwed up that game. They released a half baked game with tons of framerate problems and other issues. There's a reason why Ridge Racer 1 crushed Daytona USA in console sales.

>> No.11534956

>>11527406
Sega is going to have a better year at release, maybe not much with that price but in the end the n64 and sm64 just kill anything the saturn could do