The Real Sega Pluto

Just gave it a scratch, and it's white underneath, so does that mean it's CNC? If so, I'll be very careful with it, although it does feel quite sturdy.

omp -- I knew a couple of people who were there since the 16-bit days, but they generally were on the business side of things (finance and such).

 

Yes, it's a mockup, CNC. So didn't get very close to mass production at all.

 

Interesting. Perhaps it's using a bunch of standard parts (motherboard, etc) inside then? (Which may account for the weight and size of the device.) Looks like I'll have to open this thing up (carefully of course) sometime very soon.

 

Would make sense as you have a modem and I guess a VCD card above it, and yet there is a VCD card slot still on the motherboard. Unless it's not a VCD card above the modem??

 

Yeah, hard to say what that is above the modem -- could be just an empty expansion port? I wish I could open it without opening the case. Now that we know the case is resin, I'm gun-shy about opening this thing up...

 

Thanks for sharing this obscure piece of hardware.

 

Wow, that would be amazing. I'll PM you and let's discuss this, ASSEMbler.

 

You have my respect, My five family members in the past had died of cancer and another one is giving up really soon.

Do it for the charity.

 

A grand isnt " alot of money" for this. Id imagine it would go for A LOT more than that.

 

That's a good idea. I'd throw a bid at that.

 

I would give any money to his family and let them do as they want with it. I can only imagine how hard it is for them without him around. Either way, doing something like that would be a great thing of you to do.

 

Looking at the case itself and the placement of both the lid & back compartment (battery/VCD), I bet it's just the regular Saturn mobo with extra space on the right where we have some connectors for the extra modem hardware.
Interesting to see what the top bracket is for...
The Saturn is actually not really userfriendly with just one port, as there are several cartridges available....

So what could it be:
-VCD : NO (still present in original place)
-Netlink modem : NO (present, reason for prototype)
-Memory Card: I'm thinking NO, because this is the original purpose of the current slot
-Action Replay: I'm thinking NO, not an official product anyways, and it would enabl usage of imports LOL
-ROM cart: nah, only 2 (?) games have this
-RAM cart: I say YES, at least very feasible, because there were quite a lot of games supporting this.
It could potenially also be used for boosting the modem/a built-in browser's speed/buffer!

I think I covered all of the carts, or did I miss something?

 

It was probably going to be pitched at the Web TV market that was popular at the time, so extra storage would make sense. I'd risk opening that top panel and seeing if there is anything inside.

 

Good point about the WebTV market -- that was something we went for with the Dreamcast as well, with TV friendly websites and whatnot. 1999 was a million years ago, eh?

 

That's a great idea.

 

x

 

I would auction both and give the profits to his family, if you ask me.

@Super Magnetic

First of all, R.I.P. Monkfish, he will never be forgotten here, no doubt.

Very kind of you to show us this Pluto prototype, and best of all, thanks for answering our questions and being active in this thread - that does you great honour

About the Dee Dee Planet & other Dreamcast unreleased games / betas/ whatever dev stuff you might have, there's a ton of people that would be really interested in seeing it being released, feel free to share it or sell it to us

 

Wow, that's a really nice piece of Sega history! Thanks for sharing!

Also, sorry for the loss of your friend, it's always sad when community members pass away especially those who are battling with their health.

 

A truly incredible piece of history, and a beautiful looking system!

If this has a US bios, chances are that it was being developed in the USA, making the Pluto the first of two Sega consoles designed and developed outside of Japan (as far as I know - the second being the Nomad, which was an evolution of the japanese Mega Jet.)

This is the most exciting news for Saturn fans since the Saturn Shenmue video leak!

Thanks so much for showing us this amazing bit of kit!