The problem with emulating the Sega Saturn is the architecture. Sega kept adding CPUs and other chips that make emulation quite challenging. Developers are just now figuring out most of them and getting decent compatibility going across the board. I believe there are eight essential chips that need emulating on the Sega Saturn while the Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation only have 1 or 2 at most.
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I never knew that! Thanks for the info. I love the Saturn for its controller and 2D arcadey games supremacy
You are welcome.
I remember reading interviews with people that worked at Sega during the Saturn launch and they all said the same thing at the end of the day. The Saturn was intended to be a 32-Bit 2D powerhouse - like a truly souped up Sega Genesis and there were plans to bring many 16-bit franchises over.
Problem is, Sony was very adamant about pushing 3D and Sega panicked, adding several 3D chips at the last minute - causing more confusion on the hardware for 3rd parties - probably more troublesome than the early launch.
They also didn't share the "good" dev kits with 3rd parties unless they were exclusive to Saturn (i.e., none) so the true power of the Saturn would never be realized. Sega would never have the time to truly eek out the power of the system and 3rd parties that might (Konami, Capcom, etc) weren't given a fair shot at it.
No wonder companies pushed their PlayStation releases more.
It seemed at every step of the journey Sega was intent on shooting themselves in the foot with the Saturn. I mean, I know Sega America higher ups were very vocal later on about not wanting to do the 32X and preferring to push the Saturn but Sega Japan forced the 32X on them.
Old gaming publications had tons of interviews with various executives that went into these details. I wish I still had them, I would scan the interviews, at least, and post them.