The Sega Saturn is a success story.
Thirty years ago today, the Saturn arrived on North American shores on May 11, 1995. Over the next three years, fans enjoyed a library of nearly 250 games.
As we rang in the new year in 1999, those games had largely disappeared from store shelves, and the Saturn’s story could have ended there — but it didn’t. A community persisted. People kept playing their Saturns, talking about their Saturns and, eventually, developing new games for their Saturns.
Today, that community thrives. People are sharing their favorite Saturn games … in videos, on social media, at conventions … even online, using homebrew software to revive the system’s NetLink and XBand titles.
And fans are getting new experiences to enjoy on their Saturns all the time. Homebrew developers are doing amazing things, showing what the hardware can do with brand new games. Meanwhile, translators and hackers have unlocked dozens of games from the Saturn’s Japanese library with English patches.
And accessibility to the Saturn is better than ever thanks the development of emulators, ODEs and FPGAs.
People are still playing the Saturn, talking about the Saturn and loving the Saturn.
Happy 30th anniversary, Sega Saturn. You’ve succeeded in creating a legacy that endures to this day — and, surely, well into the future.
Be the first to comment