As the Fifth Generation progressed, traditional users found themselves increasingly displaced by new, casual gamers – an ultimately much larger consumer group. The PlayStation’s arrival – more precisely, the novel way in which Sony managed their console – ushered in sweeping changes to the videogame consumer landscape, resulting in a significant market expansion, product standardization, and consumer ease-of-use. Being a gamer was almost a sub-culture phenomenon. It was common for gamers to comprehend the technology behind their games, to spend untold piles of quarters at the arcades, and even to take their systems with them as they traveled. The Saturn was conceived during the waning days of the industry’s ‘niche’ era a time where the consumer base was a small, often sophisticated group primarily served by dedicated companies like Nintendo and SEGA. Before diving in, it is important to explore context – for it, as much as any other factor, played a role in how the product was supported and how it fared in the greater story of the Saturn’s lifecycle. Here, we will explore the device itself, the firmware that shipped with the unit, and the support it received from developers – namely, which North American Saturn games are compatible with the device. Ultimately relegated to no more than a semi-functional curiosity, its story is nevertheless fascinating. Initially meant as a heavy user’s ultimate save file destination as well as a storage space for certain online (SEGA Saturn Networks) and homebrew ( Game Basic, Dezaemon 2) applications, this brilliant device – like so many SEGA peripherals – came along at the wrong time in the console’s life cycle. A SEGA-branded external drive which accepts standard floppy disks, it connects to the Saturn via the little-used Communications Port on the rear of the console. The Floppy Disk Drive remains one of the more obscure, misunderstood, and underdeveloped pieces of SEGA Saturn hardware ever released.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |