Well the last update answered a lot a questions for me, but there's just one more that went unanswered, are we going to check on either Atari's or NEC's reaction to Sega's newfound success.
Welcome to the Next Level: Sega, Nintendo, and a Battle for the Ages
- Thread starter HeX
- Start date
Atari, NEC, Trip Hawkins, and all the other wannabe entries in the Console Wars will eventually be explored, though we'll probably focus mostly on Sega and Nintendo for the foreseeable future.
Granted, they did, though I hesitate to call them a true "competitor" to Sega and Nintendo in the same way I would hesistate to describe Sega as a "competitor" to Nintendo in the 1980s. NEC, SNK, Atari, and the 3DO are all just chihuahuas yapping at the heels of the Nintendo and Sega dobermans.
That game was released in beyond the genesis...it was OK,become a new franchise thereOne of the things you could do to differentiate this TL from the Player Two Start world, it could be sticking to OTL ideas that were never adopted rather than coming up with original content. Just because if Thrill Kill were actually released, heads would explode.
R&D
January 20, 1993
If there was anything Tom Kalinske enjoyed about his increasingly frequent visits to Tokyo, it was the tours of Sega's Research and Development division. It made up for the politics and the strange intercompany mindgames-fueled civil war that increasingly defined the relationship between Sega of Japan and Sega of America. Today was no different, and though he had a meeting with Hayao Nakayama and Sega's board of directors later in the afternoon, this morning was all about the future.
Nakayama himself greeted the team from America, which included Kalinske, of course, as well as SOA's marketing guru Al Nilsen and the liaison between them and SOJ, Shinobu Toyoda. Formalities settled, they were introduced to the mad scientists behind Sega's newest innovations, the R&D team. They tended to start with the scraps and build up to the biggest and best ideas they had, so it was no surprise when the first few stops felt more lackluster than one would expect from a video game titan such as they. Eventually, though, they got to the good stuff.
"This is what we've taken to calling the 'Pico,'" explained one team member through a heavy Japanese accent.
Kalinske picked up the colorful device, a friendly mix between a coloring book and an Etch-a-Sketch that opened like a clamshell. Dangling from the side was a yellow "Magic Pen" that was the key to unlocking the imagination within, and nearby was a cartridge slightly larger than that of an NES that slotted into the machine. "What is it?" he asked, his curiosity piqued.
"It's better to show you than to explain," another of the team members said, taking the Pico from his hands and sliding in the cartridge. A nearby TV blinked to life, and the game booted up to a blank with the iconic "Se-ga!" cheer. Satisfied, the device was returned to Kalinske, who was urged to try it out.
He touched the pen the pad, and let out a little shout of excitement when a dot appeared on the screen. Continuing to experiment, Kalinske scribbled a crude illustration, a wonky, off-center version of Sonic The Hedgehog. "It's a drawing game!" he exclaimed.
"It's all that and more," confirmed the development team. "That is the flagship title for the Pico, Mario Paint but better, though this is not merely a pallet but a portal into a child's mind."
"This will be the best-selling children's toy of the year!" Kalinske gushed. "Sonic Paint is one thing, but we can use this to prove the worth of video games! This is the window to edutainment!"
After being assured that the Sega Pico would prove its worth when it it released in Japan that summer, Kalinske and company moved along to the final stop of their tour, one that the R&D guys couldn't seem to hold back their emotions over. "Our last stop is actually a two-for-one deal, as you Americans say. Sega has always been at the cutting edge of hardware, and we intend to stay that way. We were the first to enter 16 bits, and we shall be the first to enter 32 as well," the team announced.
They unveiled their final prototype--or, rather, their final two prototypes. With the money flooding in from Sonic 2's runaway success, Sega could afford to experiment, and these two items they had in development were the fruits of that leap into the unknown. Firstly, the team displayed something in between hardware and a peripheral, a new add-on that could slide into the Genesis' game slot to use the 16-bit console as a battery for the 32-bit tech inside, effectively doubling the machine's power.
Nakayama stepped forward, politely explaining, "Of course, with Project Saturn in development, we did think that selling an entirely new and additional piece of technology would be... tone deaf."
Al Nielsen, who was examining the hardware, wondered, "Oh, so is this off the table? What about the Jaguar? Aren't you worried about that?"
Nakayama smiled. "Well, in doing the math, as they have so graciously instructed us to, it has become very clear to us that Atari is unlikely to garner much in the way of third-party support on their new home console endeavor. I have been speaking with my friends at Acclaim and they cannot stop talking about how difficult it is to program games for that machine."
"And besides," said Hideki Sato, head of Sega's hardware development, "We have something far better, and much cheaper. No doubt you've heard of the Nintendo Super FX chip?"
Kalinske sighed. Heard about it? Had he ever! Nintendo had joined forces with a company called Argonaut to create a computer chip that would greatly enhance the power of the SNES, allowing it to render polygons in a pseudo-3D environment. Worse still, the game being used to launch this tech was a new property handcrafted by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. Yuji Naka was a phenomenal game designer, but if there was anyone who had the Midas touch, it was Miyamoto.
"I have," he confirmed.
"Well, think of this as the yin to the Super FX's yang," Sato declared, picking up a fairly natural-looking Genesis cartridge from the table with its motherboards and microchips exposed. "This is the Sega Virtua Processor, or SVP. Stronger than the FX, faster than the FX, better than the FX. Though the games will have to be more expensive, of course."
"How much more expensive?" Kalinske asked.
"Well, currently, we think selling a game using the SVP would cost around a hundred US dollars."
The Americans gawked. "A hundred dollars?" they repeated in shock.
"Surely the price will go down eventually, though," Al Nilsen said.
"Most certainly. And the company, Nakayama-san has assured me, will eat some of the cost. I'd expect an SVP game to cost around seventy or eighty dollars by this time next year," Sato explained.
"That's still an awful lot of money," Kalinske lamented.
"Well, it certainly is a good thing we have some excellent games and arcade ports in the works for it," Nakayama countered. "We are split, Tom, and I'd like to hear your opinion. Project Mars, or the SVP?"
Tom Kalinske laughed. "The SVP, of course. Sega needs to show up Star Fox."
"Well, I suppose it's good that you agree. Project Mars is on indefinite hiatus. We had already decided that one of our three 32-bit projects needed to be put to the wayside for now."
Kalinske nodded and apologized to the R&D team for their wasted efforts, but in his mind, he knew that Sega had just dodged a Banzai Bill-sized bullet.
Tom Kalinske: No, no, if I'm being honest I didn't really see much of Project Saturn before we'd already struck the deal.
(Really? What did you see besides that?)
Kalinske: Oh, a lot of stuff. Sega was always at the cutting edge when it came to video game tech back then. Mister Nakayama convinced me to take the job at SOA with a flashy show of the Game Gear, remember. We were the first to color on a handheld, the first to 16-bits, and the first to 32-bits. Funny story there about the road to 32--at one point or another, the R&D team was working on a peripheral for the Genesis that would play 32-bit games.
(Project Mars, if I remember my obscure mid-Nineties trivia correctly?)
Kalinske: Precisely. I took one look at it and immediately knew we couldn't bring it to America. It would never sell! Luckily, Japan was thinking the same thing. Three pieces of 32-bit hardware would dilute the Sega brand. So Project Mars was scrapped, and the Virtua Processor survived.
(The SVP was pretty far ahead of its time. You even marketed it as "The Next Generation--Now." Did you have any idea at that time of how big the Battle of the Chips would be in the grand scheme of the Console Wars?)
Kalinske: *laughs* You talk about it like Sonic was busting down the door to Nintendo HQ with a Tommy gun. I certainly thought well of the Virtua Processor but no, I didn't have any idea how big it would make us. We just wanted to beat Star Fox!
-- From a 2006 Game Informer interview
If there was anything Tom Kalinske enjoyed about his increasingly frequent visits to Tokyo, it was the tours of Sega's Research and Development division. It made up for the politics and the strange intercompany mindgames-fueled civil war that increasingly defined the relationship between Sega of Japan and Sega of America. Today was no different, and though he had a meeting with Hayao Nakayama and Sega's board of directors later in the afternoon, this morning was all about the future.
Nakayama himself greeted the team from America, which included Kalinske, of course, as well as SOA's marketing guru Al Nilsen and the liaison between them and SOJ, Shinobu Toyoda. Formalities settled, they were introduced to the mad scientists behind Sega's newest innovations, the R&D team. They tended to start with the scraps and build up to the biggest and best ideas they had, so it was no surprise when the first few stops felt more lackluster than one would expect from a video game titan such as they. Eventually, though, they got to the good stuff.
"This is what we've taken to calling the 'Pico,'" explained one team member through a heavy Japanese accent.
Kalinske picked up the colorful device, a friendly mix between a coloring book and an Etch-a-Sketch that opened like a clamshell. Dangling from the side was a yellow "Magic Pen" that was the key to unlocking the imagination within, and nearby was a cartridge slightly larger than that of an NES that slotted into the machine. "What is it?" he asked, his curiosity piqued.
"It's better to show you than to explain," another of the team members said, taking the Pico from his hands and sliding in the cartridge. A nearby TV blinked to life, and the game booted up to a blank with the iconic "Se-ga!" cheer. Satisfied, the device was returned to Kalinske, who was urged to try it out.
He touched the pen the pad, and let out a little shout of excitement when a dot appeared on the screen. Continuing to experiment, Kalinske scribbled a crude illustration, a wonky, off-center version of Sonic The Hedgehog. "It's a drawing game!" he exclaimed.
"It's all that and more," confirmed the development team. "That is the flagship title for the Pico, Mario Paint but better, though this is not merely a pallet but a portal into a child's mind."
"This will be the best-selling children's toy of the year!" Kalinske gushed. "Sonic Paint is one thing, but we can use this to prove the worth of video games! This is the window to edutainment!"
After being assured that the Sega Pico would prove its worth when it it released in Japan that summer, Kalinske and company moved along to the final stop of their tour, one that the R&D guys couldn't seem to hold back their emotions over. "Our last stop is actually a two-for-one deal, as you Americans say. Sega has always been at the cutting edge of hardware, and we intend to stay that way. We were the first to enter 16 bits, and we shall be the first to enter 32 as well," the team announced.
They unveiled their final prototype--or, rather, their final two prototypes. With the money flooding in from Sonic 2's runaway success, Sega could afford to experiment, and these two items they had in development were the fruits of that leap into the unknown. Firstly, the team displayed something in between hardware and a peripheral, a new add-on that could slide into the Genesis' game slot to use the 16-bit console as a battery for the 32-bit tech inside, effectively doubling the machine's power.
Nakayama stepped forward, politely explaining, "Of course, with Project Saturn in development, we did think that selling an entirely new and additional piece of technology would be... tone deaf."
Al Nielsen, who was examining the hardware, wondered, "Oh, so is this off the table? What about the Jaguar? Aren't you worried about that?"
Nakayama smiled. "Well, in doing the math, as they have so graciously instructed us to, it has become very clear to us that Atari is unlikely to garner much in the way of third-party support on their new home console endeavor. I have been speaking with my friends at Acclaim and they cannot stop talking about how difficult it is to program games for that machine."
"And besides," said Hideki Sato, head of Sega's hardware development, "We have something far better, and much cheaper. No doubt you've heard of the Nintendo Super FX chip?"
Kalinske sighed. Heard about it? Had he ever! Nintendo had joined forces with a company called Argonaut to create a computer chip that would greatly enhance the power of the SNES, allowing it to render polygons in a pseudo-3D environment. Worse still, the game being used to launch this tech was a new property handcrafted by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. Yuji Naka was a phenomenal game designer, but if there was anyone who had the Midas touch, it was Miyamoto.
"I have," he confirmed.
"Well, think of this as the yin to the Super FX's yang," Sato declared, picking up a fairly natural-looking Genesis cartridge from the table with its motherboards and microchips exposed. "This is the Sega Virtua Processor, or SVP. Stronger than the FX, faster than the FX, better than the FX. Though the games will have to be more expensive, of course."
"How much more expensive?" Kalinske asked.
"Well, currently, we think selling a game using the SVP would cost around a hundred US dollars."
The Americans gawked. "A hundred dollars?" they repeated in shock.
"Surely the price will go down eventually, though," Al Nilsen said.
"Most certainly. And the company, Nakayama-san has assured me, will eat some of the cost. I'd expect an SVP game to cost around seventy or eighty dollars by this time next year," Sato explained.
"That's still an awful lot of money," Kalinske lamented.
"Well, it certainly is a good thing we have some excellent games and arcade ports in the works for it," Nakayama countered. "We are split, Tom, and I'd like to hear your opinion. Project Mars, or the SVP?"
Tom Kalinske laughed. "The SVP, of course. Sega needs to show up Star Fox."
"Well, I suppose it's good that you agree. Project Mars is on indefinite hiatus. We had already decided that one of our three 32-bit projects needed to be put to the wayside for now."
Kalinske nodded and apologized to the R&D team for their wasted efforts, but in his mind, he knew that Sega had just dodged a Banzai Bill-sized bullet.
---
Tom Kalinske: No, no, if I'm being honest I didn't really see much of Project Saturn before we'd already struck the deal.
(Really? What did you see besides that?)
Kalinske: Oh, a lot of stuff. Sega was always at the cutting edge when it came to video game tech back then. Mister Nakayama convinced me to take the job at SOA with a flashy show of the Game Gear, remember. We were the first to color on a handheld, the first to 16-bits, and the first to 32-bits. Funny story there about the road to 32--at one point or another, the R&D team was working on a peripheral for the Genesis that would play 32-bit games.
(Project Mars, if I remember my obscure mid-Nineties trivia correctly?)
Kalinske: Precisely. I took one look at it and immediately knew we couldn't bring it to America. It would never sell! Luckily, Japan was thinking the same thing. Three pieces of 32-bit hardware would dilute the Sega brand. So Project Mars was scrapped, and the Virtua Processor survived.
(The SVP was pretty far ahead of its time. You even marketed it as "The Next Generation--Now." Did you have any idea at that time of how big the Battle of the Chips would be in the grand scheme of the Console Wars?)
Kalinske: *laughs* You talk about it like Sonic was busting down the door to Nintendo HQ with a Tommy gun. I certainly thought well of the Virtua Processor but no, I didn't have any idea how big it would make us. We just wanted to beat Star Fox!
-- From a 2006 Game Informer interview
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The same when started to research for P2S and later on Sega generation, The more i read the more i got suprised all the ideas sega got and how the botched them in execution, later on i was start to get angry how the awful management was, Nintendo, Sony and even MS show how good managment help you to survive. Later on SEGA got lucky Michael Katz commissioned and later Kalinske capitalzed on Sonic to make the console popular in NA, if wasn't by them, SEGA would have been a mere footnote by saturn era.
Nope, not according to the book Console Wars, at least. There's a chapter in there where he and Al Nilsen are shown the 32X for the first time, and they kind of smile, nod, and then whisper to each other, "We can't bring that to America."
Anyways, going the Super FX route instead of flooding the market with add-ons that'll get like three games total is a very good way to keep up relations with consumers.
Also, Nivek, I was wondering--did you and RySenkari find like a database online of every game released in the 16-bit era listed in chronological order? Because that would really help me out.
I need to get console wars, because Eidoloon(again that could be contradictory/conflicting account but i did give eidoloon inn some credibility, they were the one masterfully chronicles the palatine war was the saturn development) say than 32X was a idea to try to improve the sega CD ended up becoming standalone console just because the SEGAs didn't knew what would be mega drive sucessor(project away and later project saturn were still high secrets in SEGA of japan) so what was the idea of cocktail napkit become...well, the nerd explained it better.
There not a single one, wikipedia help, there was one for every snes game, Magic engine did have one for every single PC-engine game, the same sega retro for SEGA
the rest...comb over mobygames, giant bomb and looks for release date, 16bit gen was from 1987.1995 with the outliner being nintendo games at times(some sega brazilian games too)
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Some, yes, but not very much if I'm honest. This TL will be focused on gaming first and foremost.
A little gift via eidolon inn https://twitter.com/eidolonsinn
I assume these are some of the ideas you had planned for Laughin' Place had you got to the point where the games really start.
I certainly think I'll like TTL too then.
I certainly think I'll like TTL too then.