¶N¤ž02SEGA SATURNž01 


 ¢02Written By:¢03 Hightower/Devious.


¢02 Basically  the consoles which we love
 and   dedicate  a  lot  of  our  time
 playing  are just getting too boring.
 What we need is something to grab our
 attention  and  say  'holy  fragaroly 
 would  ya look at this!'. Well grab a
 peek  at  these  specs  for  the  new 
 ¢15SATURN ¢02system from Sega:

¢03 FORMAT  :¢02  CD-ROM   (300k/sec)    and 
 cartridge.
¢03 CPU     :¢02  Two Hatachi SH2 32bit RISC 
 chips running at 27 MHz 50MIPS.
 CO-PRO's:  Hitachi  SH1,  24bit  DSP,
 Motorola 68000, GFX co-pro.
¢03 MEMORY  :¢02 Work RAM      - 16 Megabits
 Video RAM - 12 Megabits, Sound RAM- 4 
 Megabits, CD  Buffer RAM - 4 Megabits
¢03 COLOURS :¢02 16 277 216.
¢03 VIDEO   :¢02 Alpha Channel, MPEG.
¢03 SROLLING:¢02 Five hardware planes: zoom,
 rotation  horizontal scrolling in two 
 planes.
¢03 3D GFX  :¢02 900 000 polygons/sec garaud 
 Shading texture Mapping.
¢03 SPRITES :¢02   Four   hardwarez   sprite 
 planes   plus   two  hardware  sprite 
 rotation scaling planes.
¢03 SOUND   :¢02   16bit   68EC000,   PCM 32 
 channels FM eight channels.
¢03 PRICE   :¢02  $50 000  or  $310 or about 
 $AU650.
        ¢01 RELEASE : ¢03November 94

¢03 [pheeew!] ¢02that's cool for a console I
 guess. Looking at the screen shots of
 Virtua  Fighter  and  Virtua  Soccer,
 there   really   isnt   much   of   a 
 difference  between  the  Saturn  and 
 coin-op versions.

 Originally, the Saturn was going to a
 a  CD-ROM  only  with an extra add-on
 cartridge  port.  But  they  now have 
 decided  to release the Saturn with a
 cartridge  port  and  a CD-ROM drive, 
 plus   releasing   a  cartridge  only
 machine codenamed '¢15Jupiter¢02'.

 The  reason  for  the two machines is 
 due   to   the   battle   for  market
 domination.    The   cartridge   only
 machine  will  be  just under $200 or 
 $AU400.   This   means   it  is  more
 affordable,  but  will  have the same 
 horse power as its CD-ROM sister.

 There  are  rumours  of  a US release 
 around christmas. But this depends on
 the strength of the ¢03Genesis/Megadrive¢02
 and  the  number of 32bit games which 
 will  be  available  by  the expected 
 release time.

 Microsofts  ¢03[urk!]¢02 involvement in the
 operating   system   has   delayed  a
 non-japanese  release  by a couple of
 months.  I  don't  know  if this is a 
 good  move but I guess they know what 
 they  are doing. But we must all look
 at  MSDOS and Windows, to make up our 
 own minds¢03[g]¢02.

 As  for the games to be released ¢01SEGA¢02
 say  that they already have about 40+
 titles   in   development  in  Japan.
 Currently, the only official releases
 are  Virtua Fighter¢03[cool!]¢02 and Virtua
 Soccer.  But  there will also be your
 usual   3D   shooting,   action   and 
 adventure  type games. Conversions of
 Daytona  and  Sonic  coin-op are also 
 under way.

 The  main  rival of the Saturn is the 
 PS-X  from  Sony. It is rumoured that 
 the  PS-X will be released around the 
 same  time.  This  could  be of great 
 concern to Sega and this is why.

¢03 'It  claims  to be the worlds fastest 
 VR  system.  Its  able to render five
 million  Gouraud-shaded  triangle/sec
 and    four    million   Phong-shaded
 triangle/sec      with    spectacular 
 lighting and photo-texturing.'
                     ¢01  - EDGE June '94¢02

 If   that   doesnt   make  you  drool 
 uncontrollably all over your keyboard
 then maybe you should get back to you
 SNES or Genesis and leave us to enjoy 
 'the next level' ¢03[G]¢02.

 Well  thats  enough  dribble from me. 
 But  in  closing  I would like to say
 that  it's  not  how  good  the intro 
 sequence is or the 210 channel stereo
 sound   200   billion   Phong  shaded 
 polygons/sec   real   texture  mapped 
 photo realistic it is. Its simply the 
 playability of it.

 Lately,  software  houses are pushing 
 the   hard   sell,   by   trying   to
 make    the   best   rendered   intro 
 sequences  to grab your attention and
 losing sight of game playablility. 
 Sure  the  ever playable classics are 
 making  a come back but all they have
 done  is  fed them a few steroids and 
 re-packaged  them. No truely original 
 stuff,  bar  a  few  outstanding  new 
 games, are being released.

 Anyway,  enough from me I could go on 
 for a few pages yet but won't.

 To  contact  me  for  whatever reason 
 such  as  threats,  flames, giving me 
 your sisters phone number, and so on.

¢01 E-Mail:¢03ST952D41@139.230.16.10 
¢03 [valid 4 95 only . . . . ]
¢01 Snail Mail:¢02  PO BOX 707, 
   MIRRABOOKA 6061, Western Australia, 
   Australia.

¢03 Greetz  to  everyone, especially EDGE 
 magazine  for the great info and high
 standard every month. Make mine EDGE!
¢01 [Nice little plug for them, only wish
 I was on the payroll!]¢02