re: Track changes; the original F1 on PlayStation featured the silly chicane at Montreal that featured in the 1994 and 1995 races, before that section of the track was reworked for 1996. The Senna-in-the-cockpit licencing quirk has always intrigued me. One of the Super Famicom F1 games has a podium screen after each race and when Senna wins, the engine cover of his car appears inset: I believe after a subpar karting game in his name was released (a few years after his death) that the Senna family made it quite difficult to licence his name and likeness, with Sony only being able to include content relating to him in a GT game with the condition that a documentary on the Instituto Ayrton Senna accompany it. This stance seems to have softened somewhat recently as he's appeared in Codemasters/EA F1 games as an Icon driver.
Yeah I bet the Senna family may have looked to take control of rights. Speaking of F1 I do wish SEGA would have delayed F1 Live Information. To include all the drivers and F1 tracks and included a 1994 mode and make the game a real follow up to F1:BTL. The lack of a proper F1 on the Saturn was the genre that hurt me the most. I think in most other Genre's the Saturn could hold it's own against the PS 1
On that note, I recall reading in a magazine back then that Sega were working on bringing Murray Walker in to do the commentary for the localised Live Information, obviously that never happened (guess he was tied down with Psygnosis for the PS1 game) and the whole "live commentary" aspect of it was scrapped for the West.
I don't remember reading that . It's a shame because the LIVE part was a neat nice idea and something totally different. The only issue was it did add a lot of slowdown, but I enjoyed seeing the different camera angles and action it offered when you were playing.
I guess if we're sticking to 'little' things, then I wish SEGA had actually cared about releasing PSO2 in the west far earlier than it did. I feel like it would have done better here, if it had... Almost anything else I wish SEGA had done differently would be way more major than that.
I've been getting back into Saturn lately, since I got a flash cart and upscaler so I can play the real thing in some degree of modernity. Anyway... I really wish the Vectorman games had Saturn releases similar to what Sonic 3D Blast got. I suppose 2D was "passe" at the time but damn those games would have popped on Saturn with a higher palette and CD audio.
I think they take SD cards or something that you load with ISOs that are then executed by the cart's software. Either way I'm curious as to how they are; wanna play Panzer Dragoon Saga again but I'm short of a thousand quid innit.
There all kind of ways to get flash cart functionality on Saturn. I believe the Pseudo Saturn Kai can play games off an sd card. There's a card that plugs into the slot that was used for the VCD expansion card with an sd card slot. Not to mention, there's several ODEs available for Saturn.
Jupiter lives! Yeah, it's a FPGA-powered flash cart called the SAROO that's sprung to life the last few months after a few years of quiet development. Just load up a microSD card for it, pop it into your cart slot, and it autoboots right to its menu. Compatibility isn't perfect (it especially struggles with homebrew) but it's seeing constant improvements in that regard through firmware updates and I've been very happy with mine. I've never been one to really complain about loading times but it's a pretty dramatic difference.
I've always thought that SEGA should have dropped the Mega Drive in 1994 and moved all their production to Saturn. We could have had a 24bit colour version of Comix Zone with a 2-player option and also a proper CD soundtrack and IMO SEGA should have ported Sonic CD to the Saturn for the western launch with improved graphics on the 3D bonus section and full-screen Cinepax FMV.
If Murray was out of reach, I think they should have reached out to Bob Varsha (ESPN/Speedvision F1 commentator) instead. I also noticed the American releases of PS1 F1 games with commentary would probably benefit from Varsha also commentating.
You needed a few people to handle the commentary in F1 Live. I would have liked it if SEGA had given to the task to the likes of James Allen
Yeah Saturn and Dreamcast with a F1 game, and a proper footie game for DC, would have really helped in Europe. Also wish Revenge of Death Adder was on Saturn and Spikeout was in Dreamcast.
It never made any sense to me that SEGA never ported over Revenge Of Death Adder and Abrbian Fight to the Saturn when SEGA released the Multi-Tap, it would have been a great showcase not only for the Saturn's 2D gfx but also a great showcase for the Multi-tap with 4 player action. I also wish SEGA had released the white Saturn in the West too. To get rid of the horrible black Western Saturn that showed up dust and looked so boring in the shops when next to the Playsation
It's 1991 and Sega is launching the Mega CD, except in this bizarro timeline it's not an add-on but a new standalone console "Super Mega Drive." It has a cartridge slot for backwards compatibility with the original mega drive but has a CD-drive as the main method of publishing games (because its cheaper). It has an expanded colour palette to match the Game Gear (which means a Super Game Boy style add-on is now possible) and has the sprite scaling hardware of the Mega CD. It's now pretty much on par with (or better than) the Super Nintendo, but with the added benefit of CD storage space and CD audio. All of this tech makes it more expensive than the SNES though, but the games can be sold for much cheaper. The Mega Drive and Super Mega Drive can co-exist for a while, but it's clear that Sega is winding down the Mega Drive and heavily pushing the Super Mega Drive. In Japan, this probably goes okay, as the Mega Drive wasn't as popular as the Famicom/Super Famicom or the PC Engine. But in the USA, it's a bit of a problem. The Mega Drive is only just starting to take off as the must own gaming device now that Sonic the Hedgehog has run rings around Super Mario World, but gaming magazines are reporting on this new "replacement" console in Japan. How does Sega of America manage this? Do people start to hold off on buying Mega Drives, because there will be an upgraded one available in 1992? Will people who bought a mega drive in 1991 get angry that the system is now obsolete less than 12 months later? Does this harm Sega's reputation? Is it viable for Sega to offer a buyback scheme for people who want to trade in their old mega drives for a Super mega drive? How cost effective is it for Sega to refurbish second-hand consoles for resale? They could be repackaged for resale in other markets, like South America. Or could the parts be harvested for re-use in the Super mega drive (eg the FM sound chip, or the 68k), or is this recycling practice too costly? The buyback scheme is more about "apologising" to early adopters, by giving them a reward for staying loyal to Sega, but I was wondering whether there would be some kind of benefit from buying back used consoles, or whether they would just end up in landfill. I was also wondering how this new reality would fare in the PAL territories. PAL regions successfully maintained the Master System and Mega Drive as the two-pronged approach for "entry-level/casual/younger gaming" and "pro/older gaming" but I'm not sure the Master System would survive a three-pronged approach with the Super Mega Drive in the mix.
I meant in terms of the things it lacked when compared to SNES (ie colour palette and sprite scaling hardware). The SNES now has no advantages.
