Dear Pesky Partners... - A Nintendo-Philips Timeline

[SubparLario]

Hello, and welcome to Dear Pesky Partners! Before we get into the timeline proper, I'd like to make a short introductory post addressing a few things about it.

What is this timeline's focus?
While video games are one of this timeline's main focuses, this timeline will also take a look at pop culture as a whole. TV, movies, music, books, and celebrities are all things I'll be talking about in this timeline. The one exception is politics; I'll only be covering that if it's a really big deal.

Is that title a reference to Hotel Mario?
Out of universe, yes. In-universe... no. You'll see what I mean when we get there.

I have an idea for this timeline!
I'll admit it: there's a lot of franchises or people out there that I'm not very familiar with. Since I didn't grow up in the 90's, I lack a certain connection and context to the era. Although I try my best, there are always people with better judgement than me. I will gladly take guest contributions for this reason! If you have an idea, send me a PM and I'll see what I can do with it. Speaking of which...

List of Contributors:
This is a running list, and names will be added regularly. Contributors are always mentioned at the beginning of updates they helped with.

@Nivek has been an invaluable source of information on the gaming industry for this timeline, helping me develop the exact point of divergence and giving feedback on my ideas. If it weren't for the Player 2 Start timeline that he co-created with RySenkari, I likely wouldn't have made this timeline in the first place. I can not thank him enough.
Cherry, my best friend, has been a great resource for stuff relating to Sega. She doesn't have an account on this site, but you can follow her on Twitter here. (@_DevCherry)
My significant other, Shiny, has assisted me with the music industry for this timeline, as well as a little bit of help with film. He also doesn't have an alternatehistory.com account, but I can't link to his social media at the moment.
My step-dad Jeff has given me some ideas for film and a few video games, in addition to lots of encouragement.

With that out of the way, it's time to dig into the timeline for real!​

 

[SubparLario]

ACT I (1987-1991)​

Yamauchi's Predicament (Mid 1987)

“You know, if it wasn’t for that deal with Nintendo back in 1987, I doubt Philips would still be in the video game industry to this day. Because it really changed both Philips’s and the gaming industry’s trajectory.” - Stephen Radosh, President of Philips Interactive[1] in an interview with IGN in 2013.

Hiroshi Yamauchi was sitting at his desk in Nintendo’s headquarters. He had just finished reading status reports on Nintendo’s biggest project yet: the Super Famicom, a 16-bit successor to their highly successful Famicom game console. Things were going swimmingly; the audio processor chip was being developed by a team at Sony, led by a man named Ken Kutaragi. By this point, even though the Famicom was still selling well, the system was 4 years old. Its American counterpart, the NES, had released less than 2 years ago and was rapidly picking up steam. And yet, even with all that good news… Yamauchi was worried.

All because of three letters: NEC. Not just one of the largest electronics companies in Japan, but in the entire world. Bigger than both Nintendo and Sony combined. And NEC was going to release their own 16-bit game console, the PC Engine, in September. The games looked much better than what Nintendo was offering at the time. It would even receive an accessory to play CD-ROM-based games later on. That was where Sony would come in, Yamauchi hoped - having co-developed the CD itself, they could develop a similar CD add-on for the Super Famicom. But, there was always that chance Sony wasn’t fully up to the task, or that they might try to backstab Nintendo. Yamauchi was determined to not let Nintendo slip behind NEC, and wanted to consider every option available to him.

Suddenly, he remembered something. Sony developed the CD in tandem with another company. That company…was Philips. Sure, they weren’t Japanese like Sony was, but that could be an advantage rather than a hindrance. The European video game market was largely controlled by computer manufacturers like Commodore, Atari, and Sinclair. Nintendo had barely made a dent in the region outside of Scandinavia so far. The NES was licensed out to a motley crew of distributors in each country. Philips could give them that edge in the region by helping consolidate distribution. They had also developed the “Compact Disc Interactive” format with Sony last year. The “CD-i,” as it was called, would allow for interactive experiences on CD-ROMs. So Philips at least seemed to have some interest in the video game industry. But to figure that out, he needed to actually contact Philips.

And so, Yamauchi reached for his phone, as he was about to make a very important call.[2]

Footnotes:
[1] OTL, Stephen Radosh was the vice-president of Philips Interactive Media seemingly up until its dissolution, as well as the creator of Hotel Mario. ITTL, he’ll eventually get promoted to president as the division still exists to this day (albeit renamed to simply “Philips Interactive” in 1996.)
[2] This is the POD for the timeline. There is no exact date for it, however.

Next time, we'll take a look at the beginning of negotiations between Nintendo and Philips!
(As a small aside, I have drafts for the first five chapters already completed, so expect updates to come soon)​

 

[Nivek]

Thanks for the kudos,good luck with your tl

 

[SubparLario]

Thanks for the kudos,good luck with your tl

You're welcome, and thanks for the well wishes! I really appreciate your help.

 

[SubparLario]

The Negotiations WERE Short (Late 1987)

Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln were both still suffering from a bit of jet lag when they finally made their way to Philips's headquarters. The trip from Redmond, Washington to the Dutch city of Eindhoven was a long one, after all, but they had important work to do. The President and Chairman of Nintendo of America were sent to the Netherlands by Hiroshi Yamauchi in order to scope out a potential deal regarding the Super Famicom, and especially a CD add-on for the system. Even if a deal couldn't be reached on that, the two were instructed to also try to pursue a distribution partnership with them. The NES's European market share was still behind the various personal computers at the time.

Either way, as the meeting began, Philips explained that they were more than capable of producing a sound chip with similar specifications to Sony's SPC-700 audio processor. In regards to their own video game efforts, Philips also detailed how the Green Book not only specified the Compact Disc Interactive format, but also the specifications for a series of CD-i players. Philips hoped to create the next generation of multimedia with these CD-I players that could not only play games, but also play video, music, educational content, and perhaps even network with each other.

However, Howard Lincoln wasn't so sure if Philips had the right idea. "In a way, these CD-I consoles feel like watered-down personal computers that can play CD's. And at the projected price of this thing… consumers might as well buy a PC and CD player separately. But… consider how well the Nintendo Entertainment System is doing. We believe that our successor hardware will do just as well. Once enough of them are in households, releasing a CD add-on with these multimedia capabilities would be more enticing to consumers as they would be getting an upgrade to an existing device rather than a completely new one. Nintendo would act as a vessel for your multimedia future, and we would share in the profits."

The suits at Philips realized that he had a point. As ambitious as they were, Philips was lacking in experience with the video game industry. Meanwhile, Nintendo had years of experience, creating massive hits like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers, and almost single handedly reviving the North American video game industry. Progress on Philips's CD-i players had been… slow, so far. The likelihood that it wouldn't meet its planned 1989 release was steadily rising. If Philips really wanted to take a crack at the video game industry and multimedia, they'd need a bit of help.

Although it would take a few more meetings throughout the rest of 1987 (especially with Nintendo's main Japanese branch,) a deal would ultimately be hashed out between Nintendo and Philips. Philips would replace Bandai SV as the distributor of Nintendo hardware and software in the Benelux region. Additionally, beginning with the Game Boy, Philips would become the distributor of Nintendo products in the rest of Western Europe (barring Scandinavia, which is still controlled by Bergsala.[1]) Philips was now a second party developer for Nintendo systems as well. Finally, Philips would assist in the development of the Super Famicom as well as a CD add-on for it.

Alas, that meant Sony was no longer in the picture. Nintendo felt that Philips was simply more ambitious and had more reasonable demands compared to Sony. Mr. Yamauchi was especially interested in Philips's mention of networking; it was a goal of his to eventually connect all of the Nintendo fans of Japan to each other, and Sony was seemingly disinterested in the idea. So if Sony wanted to get into the gaming industry, they'd either need to strike out on their own or find a different partner. But Yamauchi thought little of it.

Sony, on the other hand, was quite peeved. While the APU contract hadn’t been fully finalized before Nintendo sought out Philips, it seemed as though their partnership was guaranteed. And the fact that they had been pushed aside for Philips of all companies definitely rubbed salt in the wound. If Sony wanted a shot at the video game industry, they’d need to find another partner. Hopefully, another company would show interest in their SPC-700 chip; Ken Kutaragi had sent it out to multiple different companies, after all.

Footnotes:
[1] One of the few compromises Nintendo had to make with Philips. Bergsala had been working with Nintendo since the Game & Watch days, and Nintendo didn't want to lose their long-time ally. So they stay as the distributor for Scandinavia.

Next time, we'll take a look at the public unveiling of the Super Famicom in Japan. See you then!​

 

[SubparLario]

Famicom: The Next Generation (Late 1988 Part 1)

“The Super Nintendo’s CPU had been a major point of contention between Nintendo and Philips during development. The console that Philips was developing before Nintendo sought us out was going to use a 15 MHz Motorola 68000, but some people at Nintendo (including ShigeruMiyamoto) wanted to use a 3.58 MHz 65C816 processor, since it was a 16-bit version of the 6502 used on the NES. Ultimately, Philips convinced Nintendo that a faster chip would help with the implementation of a CD-ROM peripheral later on. The compromise we made was that the SNES would use a 10 MHz 68000, and Philips would help familiarize Nintendo with the architecture. Some people got a port of Super Mario Bros. 3 running on the SNES fairly quickly, and that formed the basis for Super Mario World.” - Dr. Bernard Luskin, founder of Philips Interactive Media, in an interview with EGM about the Super Nintendo’s development in 2010.

November 21st, 1988

At Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto, over 200 members of the Japanese press had gathered together to witness the proper unveiling of the Super Famicom. While Nintendo’s president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, had initially name-dropped the Super Famicom a year prior and dropped tidbits here and there, this was the first time the public would actually get to see the system. The Famicom and its international counterpart, the NES, were big successes for Nintendo, and it was finally time to show off their next-generation hardware. As Yamauchi had put it, “I think that if we continue like this with the Famicom, players will get bored... a dangerous situation.”

The showcase began with the announcement that the Super Famicom would NOT be backwards compatible with the original Famicom, at least not directly. The 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU was an entirely different architecture compared to the Famicom’s 6502-derivative. However, the Super Famicom would have an A/V input for a “Famicom Adapter,” a redesigned Famicom that uses the Super Famicom’s controllers and has A/V out.[1] Speaking of the controllers, they featured four face buttons as well as two shoulder buttons on top of them. The system would also feature 8 kilobytes of Work RAM, though this would be increased to a much more useful 128 kilobytes when the console released.

The Super Famicom’s graphics capabilities were nothing to scoff at either. 256 colors could be displayed on screen at any time, out of a possible 32,768 colors. The number of sprites that can be displayed was increased, and sprites could also be scaled and rotated on the fly. Sprite flickering, which was incredibly common on the Famicom, would be less common on the Super Famicom. 8 different background modes, numbered 0 to 7, allowed for up to four different background layers for more advanced scrolling techniques like parallax, and Mode 7 allowed for one background layer that could be rotated and stretched much like a sprite. A demo featuring a biplane flying and landing was used to show off this particular feature.

And then there was the audio hardware. Nintendo had partnered with the Dutch company Philips to produce the Super Famicom’s audio processor. While there had been rumors circulating that Nintendo was either working with Sony or Philips, this was the first time their relationship was made public. Named the SAS-1000 (standing for “Super Audio System,”) the 25 MHz chip has 8 channels of sampled audio and outputs in stereo. It is also capable of applying effects like echo and reverb on the fly. [2]

But what about the games? While no games were shown off (only demos for the system’s power,) Nintendo did confirm that “Super Mario Bros. 4” and “The Legend of Zelda 3” were in development, as well as three original titles for the system. Philips also revealed they were working on two games of their own, and Enix had previously confirmed that Dragon Quest V would release on the Super Famicom. Namco was also moving ahead with developing Super Famicom games, impressed by the console’s capabilities.

There were, however, certain questions that Nintendo refused to answer at the time. When questioned about whether or not a CD add-on was planned for the system, Nintendo stated that it was still under consideration. It was a perfectly reasonable question; NEC’s CD-ROM2 add-on for the PC Engine was only 2 weeks away from its release. Nintendo responded similarly when asked about a modem for the Super Famicom. Enix in particular was interested in the potential for a modem, wanting to make multiplayer games over a network. Unbeknownst to the public, both of these add-ons were in the very early stages of development in collaboration with Philips. However, the two companies wanted to show off the base console before announcing any accessories for it, believing the system should stand on its own first.

With the PC Engine releasing in 1987, and the Sega Mega Drive coming out only a month prior, Nintendo was finally making their way into the 4th generation of video games. And they weren’t going at it alone, as Philips would be right there next to them.

Footnotes:
[1] Much like OTL, the “Famicom Adapter” will be scrapped and ultimately become the Famicom A/V and the top-loader NES.
[2] Overall, it’s fairly similar in specs to Sony’s SPC-700 chip.

Next time, we'll see Sega's internal reaction towards the Super Famicom reveal. Until then, have a good weekend!​

 

[Nivek]

Great chapter, yeah that adapter was such bizarre thing otl (but make sense for Japan,the lack av in NES)

 

[CourtlyHades296]

Thanks to the stronger processor of TTL's Cartridge SNES compared to OTL, Gradius III will be nowhere near as laggy as OTL's SNES version.

 

[SubparLario]

I've never played any of the Gradius games, so I didn't know that was a problem. The faster processor definitely helps the SNES a lot here, and Sega can't use "Blast Proceessing" as a gotcha in this timeline because of that.

 

[Nivek]

I've never played any of the Gradius games, so I didn't know that was a problem. The faster processor definitely helps the SNES a lot here, and Sega can't use "Blast Proceessing" as a gotcha in this timeline because of that.

I think gradius 3 was the programming,as fan patches have improved speed , regardless that's almost neo Geo speed

 

[anchorman2k3]

Famicom: The Next Generation (Late 1988 Part 1)

“The Super Nintendo’s CPU had been a major point of contention between Nintendo and Philips during development. The console that Philips was developing before Nintendo sought us out was going to use a 15 MHz Motorola 68000, but some people at Nintendo (including ShigeruMiyamoto) wanted to use a 3.58 MHz 65C816 processor, since it was a 16-bit version of the 6502 used on the NES. Ultimately, Philips convinced Nintendo that a faster chip would help with the implementation of a CD-ROM peripheral later on. The compromise we made was that the SNES would use a 10 MHz 68000, and Philips would help familiarize Nintendo with the architecture. Some people got a port of Super Mario Bros. 3 running on the SNES fairly quickly, and that formed the basis for Super Mario World.” - Dr. Bernard Luskin, founder of Philips Interactive Media, in an interview with EGM about the Super Nintendo’s development in 2010.

November 21st, 1988

At Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto, over 200 members of the Japanese press had gathered together to witness the proper unveiling of the Super Famicom. While Nintendo’s president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, had initially name-dropped the Super Famicom a year prior and dropped tidbits here and there, this was the first time the public would actually get to see the system. The Famicom and its international counterpart, the NES, were big successes for Nintendo, and it was finally time to show off their next-generation hardware. As Yamauchi had put it, “I think that if we continue like this with the Famicom, players will get bored... a dangerous situation.”

The showcase began with the announcement that the Super Famicom would NOT be backwards compatible with the original Famicom, at least not directly. The 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU was an entirely different architecture compared to the Famicom’s 6502-derivative. However, the Super Famicom would have an A/V input for a “Famicom Adapter,” a redesigned Famicom that uses the Super Famicom’s controllers and has A/V out.[1] Speaking of the controllers, they featured four face buttons as well as two shoulder buttons on top of them. The system would also feature 8 kilobytes of Work RAM, though this would be increased to a much more useful 128 kilobytes when the console released.

The Super Famicom’s graphics capabilities were nothing to scoff at either. 256 colors could be displayed on screen at any time, out of a possible 32,768 colors. The number of sprites that can be displayed was increased, and sprites could also be scaled and rotated on the fly. Sprite flickering, which was incredibly common on the Famicom, would be less common on the Super Famicom. 8 different background modes, numbered 0 to 7, allowed for up to four different background layers for more advanced scrolling techniques like parallax, and Mode 7 allowed for one background layer that could be rotated and stretched much like a sprite. A demo featuring a biplane flying and landing was used to show off this particular feature.

And then there was the audio hardware. Nintendo had partnered with the Dutch company Philips to produce the Super Famicom’s audio processor. While there had been rumors circulating that Nintendo was either working with Sony or Philips, this was the first time their relationship was made public. Named the SAS-1000 (standing for “Super Audio System,”) the 25 MHz chip has 8 channels of sampled audio and outputs in stereo. It is also capable of applying effects like echo and reverb on the fly. [2]

But what about the games? While no games were shown off (only demos for the system’s power,) Nintendo did confirm that “Super Mario Bros. 4” and “The Legend of Zelda 3” were in development, as well as three original titles for the system. Philips also revealed they were working on two games of their own, and Enix had previously confirmed that Dragon Quest V would release on the Super Famicom. Namco was also moving ahead with developing Super Famicom games, impressed by the console’s capabilities.

There were, however, certain questions that Nintendo refused to answer at the time. When questioned about whether or not a CD add-on was planned for the system, Nintendo stated that it was still under consideration. It was a perfectly reasonable question; NEC’s CD-ROM2 add-on for the PC Engine was only 2 weeks away from its release. Nintendo responded similarly when asked about a modem for the Super Famicom. Enix in particular was interested in the potential for a modem, wanting to make multiplayer games over a network. Unbeknownst to the public, both of these add-ons were in the very early stages of development in collaboration with Philips. However, the two companies wanted to show off the base console before announcing any accessories for it, believing the system should stand on its own first.

With the PC Engine releasing in 1987, and the Sega Mega Drive coming out only a month prior, Nintendo was finally making their way into the 4th generation of video games. And they weren’t going at it alone, as Philips would be right there next to them.

Footnotes:
[1] Much like OTL, the “Famicom Adapter” will be scrapped and ultimately become the Famicom A/V and the top-loader NES.
[2] Overall, it’s fairly similar in specs to Sony’s SPC-700 chip.

Next time, we'll see Sega's internal reaction towards the Super Famicom reveal. Until then, have a good weekend!​

I really like this TL so far. I've always preferred the idea of a Nintendo-Philips collab rather than a Nintendo-Sony collab (mostly to have the SNES CD and the PlayStation in the same timeline but that must've been butterflied here.

 

[CrashBandicam]

The Negotiations WERE Short (Late 1987)

Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln were both still suffering from a bit of jet lag when they finally made their way to Philips's headquarters. The trip from Redmond, Washington to the Dutch city of Eindhoven was a long one, after all, but they had important work to do. The President and Chairman of Nintendo of America were sent to the Netherlands by Hiroshi Yamauchi in order to scope out a potential deal regarding the Super Famicom, and especially a CD add-on for the system. Even if a deal couldn't be reached on that, the two were instructed to also try to pursue a distribution partnership with them. The NES's European market share was still behind the various personal computers at the time.

Either way, as the meeting began, Philips explained that they were more than capable of producing a sound chip with similar specifications to Sony's SPC-700 audio processor. In regards to their own video game efforts, Philips also detailed how the Green Book not only specified the Compact Disc Interactive format, but also the specifications for a series of CD-i players. Philips hoped to create the next generation of multimedia with these CD-I players that could not only play games, but also play video, music, educational content, and perhaps even network with each other. Mr. Yamauchi had

However, Howard Lincoln wasn't so sure if Philips had the right idea. "In a way, these CD-I consoles feel like watered-down personal computers that can play CD's. And at the projected price of this thing… consumers might as well buy a PC and CD player separately. But… consider how well the Nintendo Entertainment System is doing. We believe that our successor hardware will do just as well. Once enough of them are in households, releasing a CD add-on with these multimedia capabilities would be more enticing to consumers as they would be getting an upgrade to an existing device rather than a completely new one. Nintendo would act as a vessel for your multimedia future, and we would share in the profits."

The suits at Philips realized that he had a point. As ambitious as they were, Philips was lacking in experience with the video game industry. Meanwhile, Nintendo had years of experience, creating massive hits like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers, and almost single handedly reviving the North American video game industry. Progress on Philips's CD-i players had been… slow, so far. The likelihood that it wouldn't meet its planned 1989 release was steadily rising. If Philips really wanted to take a crack at the video game industry and multimedia, they'd need a bit of help.

Although it would take a few more meetings throughout the rest of 1987 (especially with Nintendo's main Japanese branch,) a deal would ultimately be hashed out between Nintendo and Philips. Philips would replace Bandai SV as the distributor of Nintendo hardware and software in the Benelux region. Additionally, beginning with the Game Boy, Philips would become the distributor of Nintendo products in the rest of Western Europe (barring Scandinavia, which is still controlled by Bergsala.[1]) Philips was now a second party developer for Nintendo systems as well. Finally, Philips would assist in the development of the Super Famicom as well as a CD add-on for it.

Alas, that meant Sony was no longer in the picture. Nintendo felt that Philips was simply more ambitious and had more reasonable demands compared to Sony. Mr. Yamauchi was especially interested in Philips's mention of networking; it was a goal of his to eventually connect all of the Nintendo fans of Japan to each other, and Sony was seemingly disinterested in the idea. So if Sony wanted to get into the gaming industry, they'd either need to strike out on their own or find a different partner. But Yamauchi thought little of it.

Sony, on the other hand, was quite peeved. While the APU contract hadn’t been fully finalized before Nintendo sought out Philips, it seemed as though their partnership was guaranteed. And the fact that they had been pushed aside for Philips of all companies definitely rubbed salt in the wound. If Sony wanted a shot at the video game industry, they’d need to find another partner. Hopefully, another company would show interest in their SPC-700 chip; Ken Kutaragi had sent it out to multiple different companies, after all.

Footnotes:
[1] One of the few compromises Nintendo had to make with Philips. Bergsala had been working with Nintendo since the Game & Watch days, and Nintendo didn't want to lose their long-time ally. So they stay as the distributor for Scandinavia.

Next time, we'll take a look at the public unveiling of the Super Famicom in Japan. See you then!​

I wonder if the networking capabilites of the SNES and the SNES-CD ITTL will result in the SNES and (maybe) SNES-CD versions of Yoshi's Cookie having networking capabilites and Pokemon being made as either a SNES or SNES-CD title, if by "networking", you mean linking multiple SNES and SNES-CD systems and peripherals and TVs together, and not connecting to another or multiple players on the internet. Either way, you have my interest.

 

[SubparLario]

I really like this TL so far. I've always preferred the idea of a Nintendo-Philips collab rather than a Nintendo-Sony collab (mostly to have the SNES CD and the PlayStation in the same timeline but that must've been butterflied here.

I'm glad you're enjoying this so far! I also find the idea of Nintendo and Philips working together to be very interesting, but for slightly different reasons. At the beginning, Philips was focused on advertising the CD-i as this all-in-one multimedia player for your living room. Casuals were their main demographic, and only positioned the device as a game console when that didn't work. So it'll be interesting when they try that multimedia route while having the backing from a much bigger name in the video game industry.

I wonder if the networking capabilites of the SNES and the SNES-CD ITTL will result in the SNES and (maybe) SNES-CD versions of Yoshi's Cookie having networking capabilites and Pokemon being made as either a SNES or SNES-CD title, if by "networking", you mean linking multiple SNES and SNES-CD systems and peripherals and TVs together, and not connecting to another or multiple players on the internet. Either way, you have my interest.

There'll be an SNES modem, and Yoshi's Cookie could certainly be a title for it. A link cable accessory (kinda like the PS1) isn't necessarily out of the cards either. (Mainline) Pokemon will stay on the Game Boy, though.

 

[Nivek]

CD-i as this all-in-one multimedia player

Phillips real goal was to CDI to be the format of the future, that played everything from music, games, interactive software and even movies but the CDI players flopping did killed the standard (also failing to deliver the SNES CD,that might have saved it...at least for videogames) ,who knows here

 

[SubparLario]

(I meant to get this update out last night, but some family stuff popped up and I was a bit down because of it. I'll be alright, though.)

There Is… Another (Late 1988 Part 2)

If there was one company that had the biggest reaction towards the Super Famicom reveal, it was none other than Nintendo’s competitor, Sega. From the outside, nothing seemed amiss. But internally, Sega was quaking in their boots. Their 16-bit console, the Mega Drive, had only been out for a month at this point, and yet the Super Famicom would seemingly surpass it in every regard. Colors. Audio. Sprites. Even processor speed.[1] Both systems used Motorola 68000 CPU's. Why would developers want to limit themselves to the weaker Mega Drive hardware, when the Super Famicom was right there? Sega needed something to get a leg up on Nintendo and differentiate themselves. And they had at least one idea of how to get ahead.

Almost immediately, work began on a CD add-on for the Mega Drive. Sure, NEC was releasing one of their own for the PC Engine in December, but Nintendo and their new partner Philips had been avoiding any questions asking if they'd be making one too. If Sega could beat Nintendo to market, they might have a shot. Tomio Takami was tasked with leading the development of the Mega-CD. From the beginning, the add-on needed to at least equal the PC Engine CD-ROM² in terms of power, but with additional RAM. Takami also wanted the add-on to implement sprite scaling and rotation, a key feature of not only Sega's current arcade hardware, but the Super Famicom. But a partner would be a necessity if Sega wanted to develop such an add-on. CD technology was new, and Sega had nowhere near the technological might to produce drives of their own.

Takami had begun creating a list of potential partners for developing the Mega-CD. So far, his list included Matsushita, Pioneer, and the most likely candidate, JVC. But suddenly, after rediscovering a little sound chip that Sega had been sent, Takami remembered one other company who they could partner with.

Sony. You know, one of the two companies that developed the CD in the first place?

They had sent the SPC-700 sound chip to Sega and many other corporations back in 1987. While Sega had some interest in the chip's capabilities, the Mega Drive was so far along in development that they didn't have the ability to implement it into the system. But now, Sega could actually use it for the Mega-CD, and perhaps get Sony on board to help develop other aspects of the console. And upper management agreed, as a meeting would be set up between Sony and Sega to hash out negotiations. Sony, and especially Ken Kutaragi, was eager to finally have another company interested in partnering with them. Sony President Norio Ohga had one demand regarding a potential Mega Drive add-on: that Sony would have complete control over its software library, including games that Sega themselves developed.

Sega's response? Absolutely not.

This caused Ohga's blood to boil. At least, until he realized what was at stake here. Sony had already been burned by Nintendo before. This might be their last chance to partner with another company to get into the gaming industry, at least for a while. Would Sony even be able to make a console on their own and have it succeed? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, after all.

Throughout 1989, a deal would finally be struck between Sega and Sony. Sega and Sony would have control over their respective first and second party Mega-CD games, and would share control over third-party titles. With that, Takami and Kutaragi could get to work on the Mega-CD. While Takami originally wanted the add-on to use a 12.5 MHz 68000, Kutaragi believed that a 22 MHz NEC V810 would reduce load times far more. Sony would also mass-produce a custom graphics processor that would allow for sprite scaling and rotation. And as for the SPC-700? Well, Ken Kutaragi believed he could upgrade it even further, resulting in the SPC-800; a beast with 4 more audio channels and additional memory.

As the fourth generation of video games began to kick off, it seemed as though more friends were being made compared to enemies. How long these friendships would last, however, was yet to be seen…

Footnotes:
[1] The one advantage the Sega Genesis had over the SNES in our timeline doesn't exist here.

Next time, we'll be hopping back over to Nintendo and Philips. I think you're all BOUND to enjoy it. ​

 

[CourtlyHades296]

I imagine that Phantasy Star IV is a Sega CD title ITTL thanks to the increased memory of TTL's Sega CD.

 

[Screwhorn77]

Oh well, seems we're heading right into CD Add-on War territory here. Who knows, there might even be talk of a fourth-and-a-half generation ITTL...

 

[Nivek]

Oh well, seems we're heading right into CD Add-on War territory here. Who knows, there might even be talk of a fourth-and-a-half generation ITTL...

Excatly, that helped the main problem mega CD did have otl... besides CD, it relied too much on the base Mega drive system and seems western developers were more interested in filling the CD with video that making games for it (seriously even the More generic rpg have more gameplay that any FMV 'game') , here they could sell it to try more games.

 

[SubparLario]

I imagine that Phantasy Star IV is a Sega CD title ITTL thanks to the increased memory of TTL's Sega CD.

That sounds about right. Sega and Sony will want to have more big-name titles for the add-on here, something that it struggled with OTL. While you'll still get FMV slop like Nivek mentioned, there'll be more actual games too.

Oh well, seems we're heading right into CD Add-on War territory here. Who knows, there might even be talk of a fourth-and-a-half generation ITTL...

Yes we are! Especially since TTL's Sega CD is a much better-designed machine; cheaper, more capable, and easier to work with. Ken Kutaragi knows his stuff; its development won't be the (literal) dumpster fire that it was OTL.

 

[Nivek]

I imagine that Phantasy Star IV is a Sega CD title ITTL thanks to the increased memory of TTL's Sega CD.

That sounds about right. Sega and Sony will want to have more big-name titles for the add-on here, something that it struggled with OTL. While you'll still get FMV slop like Nivek mentioned, there'll be more actual games too.

It was planned but moved to Mega Drive once the Mega CD flopped, here it could be continued on CD, THE plotline was massively different, with Alis Landale back as MC and a plotline based more about Dark Force/Profound Darkness origins(might retcon II? We might never know) before being changed to the end of the algo system plotline

Yes we are! Especially since TTL's Sega CD is a much better-designed machine; cheaper, more capable, and easier to work with. Ken Kutaragi knows his stuff; its development won't be the (literal) dumpster fire that it was OTL.

SEGA CD's main issue was that the CPU should have been stronger and used the vanilla mega drive as co-processors, not the OTL inverse, plus seems SEGA trying to keep in secret just fucked relationship with third parties and the high price(because sega lacked volume partners) slowly killed it. At least NEC pushed Interesting Games on CD.