What if the Saturn had been 2D-only

We all know the original Saturn was spec-wise a system32 with the 3D abilities of a model1 (ie: no texture mapping, among other things). But I was thinking, what if Sega instead of making the Saturn absurdly complex it just left it as it was, or even make 2D-only and release a library full of AAA 2D games like most of those that got stuck in Japan?

It seems like a better alternative than the shitty 3D of the 32bit era

 

I've often wondered what it would be like if Sega had released a 2D Sonic game for the Saturn. The Saturn wasn't terrible for 3D games; I think people criticize it more than it deserves. Some games looked like crap, but some were pretty impressive for the hardware - Sega Rally, VF2, DOA, for example. It was a great platform for 2D games, though.

 

The sega saturn had the specs in some ways to be able to do 3D, and I do commend them for doing some really nice 3D games such as the ones mentioned by Lalilulelo. The thing is that you have to think of the marketing ideas for overseas. In Japan, most people were still very much fine with 2D graphics, such as the fighters that got ported, the shmups, the racers, and what have you. Overseas 3D was taking soaring, and that was the "in-thing" to do. Mind you, I love the sega saturn, but the thing is you have to try and appeal to the American/Foreign markets. If it had been a pure 2D machine, I think it would have been a JPN exclusive machine, and no one would of been able to enjoy it.

 

The reason why the Saturn failed in the United States was because Bernie Stolar didn't want 2D games on our shores. And Sega Japan isn't exactly blameless, as they rushed the 3D side of the Saturn, giving very little help to program the damn thing. The system does 2D great, but I still feel it could've used another year in development and that the company shouldn't have wasted time with the 32X.
If Sega were smart, the moment they heard Sony was breaking with Nintendo, they should've jumped on that opportunity instead of developing their own hardware (which isn't as good quality as their main competitor in terms of reliability.)

 

At those times, 3d was a must and perceived as the future. No way it would have performed better being 2d only

 

Well, if the Saturn was made to be a 2D powerful, it will be competing with the Neo-Geo ..... Which sounds OK, but still though, I don't think it would have helped them at the time because of Sony's Playstation itself. Then people would also dismiss by virtue of being unable to do 3D graphics, and I remember the Neo-Geo starting to slip at that time.

 

I think it would've automatically failed if it stuck to 2D only. Though having 2.5D type games wouldn't been to bad for the system i guess. Also why couldn't SEGA just use a graphics card type hardware Windows uses for their Sega PC titles?

 

You are looking at it in hindsight. At the time when we were coming off 2D games and crappy FMV seeing a home console playing Virtua Fighter or Daytona at anywhere near arcade quality was a pretty amazing sight.

 

Yeah, everyone back in the mid 90s was all in a tizzy about the super ugly 3D polygons. Not gonna lie, myself included.

 

Yes, the mid-90s were a pretty awful time for video games thanks to THREE DEE. Even mediocre or crappy games like Croc or Toshinden seemed to be popular simply because they were in THREE DEE, not to mention the horrible X-TREEEEME tropes used in games such as Twisted Metal and (Re)Loaded (most of the Saturn's big games thankfully stayed away from that 90s dark age comic book type crap, which might be one of the reasons why they aged so well).

But yeah, if the Saturn had been 2D only, it would've died an even quicker death in the West.

 

Ironically, SEGA in designing the Saturn early on were probably closer to our present thinking: 3D wasn't mature enough yet to look sufficiently decent, so we should focus on 2D. A bad marketing decision then, but would probably have made the Saturn a distinctive system for all those who couldn't stand 3D graphics, and it would make it a more desirable retro console too!

 

Id have to also agree that it wouldnt have done as well as a 2D only system, especially here in the states.

On a side note, ive seen mention made a few times recently of how "shitty" early 3d games graphics were. Them early days were very necessary for it to evolve and improve. I almost think of the Saturn and PS1 like the atari of the 3d-era. Not much of it is still playable nowadays, and almost all of it has aged terribly and looks awful, but it was the stepping stone that got the ball rolling, so to speak.

 

Well most user created games from Game Basic Saturn looks pretty good looking for those PS1 look-alike type 3D graphical games made for it.

 

I think it's similar to what you're seeing now with the PS2/Xbox/GC era. Games that are trying to look "realistic" age poorly (seriously, look at some action games from the PS2, they look terrible) whereas stylistic and/or cartoony games age alright (Mario Kart 64 still looks pretty good, and Wind Waker is one of the better looking GC titles out there, hell even Crash Bandicoot still looks alright)

 

It would be a more niche console, sure thing that we could get almost perfect conversions from the arcade, but 3D was the deal, like the others said, it wouldn't last enough, maybe even less than the final one.

Stolar 2D hate and 32x were little things compared to screw up the main product hardware which gave problem to developers to develop the 3D games which were the new trend, had saturn a well developed hardware for 3D it could even beat the Nintendo 64 in sales thanks to the CD.

I know that Stolar made bad decisions in the 32-bit era, but when he said that Saturn wasn't Sega future, it was a painful truth and then ordered the development of Dreamcast, which fixed these problems, but died early thanks to the Saturn.

 

Can you point us some pics or videos about those game basic?

 

Here's one: http://youtu.be/Wmtuu81jvlU

This one looks pretty impressive a bit imo: http://youtu.be/eNhrG1_Y_aE

And lastly this one too: http://youtu.be/KQsjwrg50Vk

Now if only there were more 3D created games likes these released for the Saturn, it could've encouraged a few third party developers to make a few games for the console

 

The Saturn's 3D hardware is what makes it "powerful" at 2D games. To be remotely competitive without 3D at the time would still require rotation and distortion SFX which are precursors to 3D anyway. Moving to 3D gave all types of games more flexibility.

 

While you're throwing what-ifs out there, what if Saturn had only one SH-2 CPU but was significantly faster to make up for the computing power and also making it simpler to get the most out of the system. What if Sega had provided better development tools and software to make it as easy to develop games as for the Playstation? What-if Sega had been able to reduce cost of the Saturn hardware over time to have pricing in line with PS1?

But they didn't know all the things we know now.

 

Had it never been 3D we would have never got games like Nights into Dreams or Panzer Dragoon, games which were some of my favourites from the entire generation. Also some games were arguably superior on the Sega Saturn, Grandia springs to mind, a game that had a faster frame rate, better textures and richer colours compared to the Playstation counterpart, it's probably one of the most visually impressive games the console has to offer and nothing the console has to be ashamed of. If only someone would do a translation.

http://www.sega-saturn.com/saturn/grandia.htm