Sega Pluto prototype revealed

Cool. Possibly explains why the netlink Saturn games got their own catalogue number series.

 

Pretty crazy considering how few NetLink games there were. One could have hoped the cartridge slot on that model wasn't absolute garbage.

 

Part of me would doubt it only because I could see half a boardroom going "lol Uranus" and skipping to Pluto... :P

 

Given the rumours that Sega CD was the moon, Earth would have been fitting as the Megadrive.

Some of those codenames turn up at the most unexpected places though. The picture magic was Janus, wasn't it? I wonder if all those Sega graphic tablets, digital cameras, and the Mega Jet had any internal codenames. Or the Sega Karaoke Commander.

 

I could have sworn that I read somewhere that the Mega Drive was known as Project Venus in Japan due to the fact that it was the Mark V (and V is for Venus in case you missed it).

I know the Nomad was Project Venus in Sega US development, but I could have sworn it was different in Japan. But I haven't found any sources.

 

Nomad is the Venus

 

Does the planet naming system go back to 1988 though? How far back hae we traced it? Only 1990?

 

Well I have a (completely unsubstantiated and definitely wrong) theory that Nomad was known as Venus in Sega US offices, but only because they were unaware of the Project V connection from the late 80's Sega of Japan. SOJ secretly referred to the American Nomad project as "Project Uranus", but never openly to SOA's face. And thus all planets are now filled :specialed:

 

Ties in well with this

 

And I guess that makes the Mark III Middle-earth

I'm pretty sure that's the only source of the rumours, unless there is any other documented evidence of a Project Moon?

 

No evidence regarding the Sega CD being Moon, other than the bios having an image of the moon (which itself is unsubstantial as it's only in the us/uk bios), and the existence of Lunar games (which has fuck all to do with it).
Still, it would be quite logical. If Earth is the Megadrive, Moon is it's first viable expansion of humanity, and Mars is the second viable one.

For the nomad, the motherboards actually say IC BD VENUS MAIN. Not sure where, if anywhere, Mercury is stated for the Game Gear.
Saturn and Titan are no brainers.
Picture Magic ROMs have JANUS in the header.
Neptune is well known... but while we are at it, what is the first source to call it as the Neptune?

I want to see the insides of the Mega Jet and dump the roms for the SKC. Maybe they can tell us more.

As for the Mark V -> Venus connection, I don't think that was the case. They still used the old Mark 1-2-3-4 lineup at the time... But if Venus was just a generic term for the MD hardware, then Sega CD would be Earth, so we have the inner planets of the solar system all lined up in order.

 

It's pretty groundbreaking when you think about it - it would have been the first (??) video game console to have internet support straight out of the box, presumably pre-dating the Dreamcast by a few months.

Nintendo and Sony didn't really get their act together on this front until 2006 - talk about ahead of its time

 

The PS2 did support Internet, it was just by cable. Same as the Xbox and GC IIRC.

 

Might have been a year or two, not just a few months.

And it wouldn't have been ground breaking. The machine might have had a modem connection, but its the online service that would be the deciding factor. How did existing Netlink games connect, wasn't it direct dialing?

 

So this fellow over on Destructiod... Apparently has the other Pluto. He didn't even know what it was, until the Assembler thread came along.

 

Apparently, the 001 guy is planning to sell it on eBay so, if somebody has serious plans to preserve and document it for posterity, it might be that time again to unite forces with other forums before people start outbidding each other for the same cause.

 

Shouldn't we try to contact him to negotiate for like, preservation? Maybe we can cut him a good deal? I wouldn't mind starting a fund to get it off his hands or something.

 

First source I remember reading about it at the time was this.

GC didn't support an internet connection out of the box. It required one of these