I'm thinking pretty much all of the retailers that Sega made contracts with IOTL before the surprise launch, including KB Toys. The main difference here is that without there being a surprise launch, the Saturn actually got sold in these stores as scheduled.
All that solved, yeah seems SEGA didn't broke goodwill with retailer, but Saturn will be a slowburner. The Knuckles 32x moved to genesis could be a nice game into early era too
 
Launching into Orbit (part 2)
Nearly 5 months since the Saturn was released in Japan, the system finally reached American shores on May 13th, 1995 (the final day of the first Electronic Entertainment Expo, AKA E3, where the system's release and price was announced) for $299. This day was heavily marketed as "Saturnday" by Sega and was especially hyped during the final month before the release of the system. The system came with a much larger library than it did in it's Japanese release, with more original games as well as ports. These titles include:

  • Panzer Dragoon
  • Clockwork Knight
  • Virtua Fighter
  • Daytona USA
  • Space Harrier
  • Tempo
  • DOOM
  • Virtua Racing
  • Mortal Kombat 2
  • Knuckles' Chaotix
  • Need for Speed
  • Road Rash
As was the case of the Japanese launch, the American launch was successful, with about 400,000 units sold between May and June, with Virtua Fighter and Knuckles' Chaotix being among the most successful launch titles (although the latter received mixed to average reviews as people criticized the game's gameplay gimmicks and level design). By the end of the year, the system sold about 2 million units in the states alone. Though just as what happened in Japan, the system received tough competition from Sony's Playstation, as the latter had gained traction since it's release due to the success of exclusive third party titles, primarily Namco titles such as Ridge Racer and Tekken. With the success of both the Saturn and Playstation as well as the forthcoming release of Nintendo's mysterious project, it was clear to both consumers and insiders that the console wars would no longer be a two-sided war, but a three-sided one. Either way, it's clear that this generation of gaming would be a strong one.
 
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Entering a new Reality
Between November 22nd and November 24th, 1995, the seventh annual Shoshinkai trade show (also known as the Space World trade show) was held by Nintendo as a separate event from E3. During this time, Nintendo would reveal and test new products that were either already released by that time or were to come out in the near future. While this year's show did have anticipated titles to look forward to on the SNES such as Star Fox 2 and Donkey Kong Country 2, the real exciter of the event was Nintendo's next system, the Ultra Nintendo Entertainment System. Originally called the Nintendo Ultra 64, the UNES differentiated from it's predecessors in multiple ways, most notable the ability to generate 3D graphics without the need of any extra addons or chips (while the SNES did have 3D games, they required the use of chips within the individual cartridges, such as Argonaut's FX chip). Besides the obvious graphical overhaul, the UNES came with a disk-based format provided by Electronics company Philips, rather than a cartridge based one. Various games were also revealed to the public, although a good portion of footage served only as tech demos not related to the final goal. Perhaps the most popular and most hyped of all of these was Super Mario Adventure, the newest title in the Mario franchise and the first to be rendered in full 3D graphics.

Another major announcement made for the event was that of the Ultra-Online, an addon for the UNES dedicated to providing an internet service called UltraNet, meaning that players using this device could connect to the Internet through their console, upload progress from their games, catch up with the latest Nintendo news, and even play online multiplayer on games that allow it, all via a paid subscription [1]. The Ultra-Online adapter was slated to be released by late-1996, although some issues would arrive that would delay the addon past its intended release date.

The UNES was given a full price of ¥25,000 in Japan (In the US that would amount to about $250) and would be released on April 21st, 1996 in Japan, with American and European releases slated for later (though like the Ultra-Online, the UNES itself would be delayed, albeit by a lesser margin). While there was some disappointment regarding the system ditching the cartridge format and the lack of major third party titles at launch, there was still considerable support for the console both at home and abroad, and Nintendo were not ones to disappoint.

[1] think of it as an ATL version of the N64DD, which of course would not exist given the UNES' specs compared to the N64's.
 
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] think of it as an ATL version of the N64DD, which of course would not exist given the UNES' specs compared to the N64's.
Amazing news, wonder if now RANDnet or equivalent could be a sucess for nintendo, that would make nintendo the first with official online, wonder what come next, amazing update buddy
 
Amazing news, wonder if now RANDnet or equivalent could be a sucess for nintendo, that would make nintendo the first with official online, wonder what come next, amazing update buddy
UltraNet is essentially an earlier ATL equivalent of Randnet, with many similar functions, albeit a tid bit more primitive. Whether or not it is a success is up for speculation for now.
 
UltraNet is essentially an earlier ATL equivalent of Randnet, with many similar functions, albeit a tid bit more primitive. Whether or not it is a success is up for speculation for now.
Yeah still nice Nintendo pushing it early, waiting to see if become sucessful or no.
 
Butterfly: if Goldeneye is butterflied then my whole generation gets a +0.5 to our GPAs ITTL. If Starcraft is also butterflied make that a +1.5 GPA.

If DOOM had also been butteflied I would have graduated Magnum Cum Laude ITTL.
 
Butterfly: if Goldeneye is butterflied then my whole generation gets a +0.5 to our GPAs ITTL. If Starcraft is also butterflied make that a +1.5 GPA.

If DOOM had also been butteflied I would have graduated Magnum Cum Laude ITTL.
Are you talking about the original doom or not? Cuz if yes then you're probably still not graduating since butterflies pretty much only start really happening by '95 to '96.
 
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