1997: SEGA has to choose between PowerVR and 3Dfx for its next console

[airraid]

In early-to-mid 1997, SEGA has two next generation consoles in development.
The Sega of America designed 'Black Belt' using a derivative of the upcoming
3Dfx Voodoo2 or Banshee graphics technology.

The other console, designed by Sega of Japan using a derivative of the upcoming
PowerVR Highlander (PowerVR2) technology.

article from Next Generation August 1997






The decision was made known in July 1997. Of course we all know Sega
decided to go with PowerVR over 3Dfx.

That means Sega did not go ahead with Black Belt.
They went with the Dural system using PowerVR2 instead.

Dural got the official codename of 'Katana' later in 1997
and then the consumer name of Dreamcast in 1998.

[Snapple]

"Will first-party titles such as Manx TT keep the system alive?"

lul to that

They shouldn't have partnered with Mircosoft. It was they who sabotaged the Dreamcast in order to make Xbox thrive!

[Ze_ro]

They shouldn't have partnered with Mircosoft. It was they who sabotaged the Dreamcast in order to make Xbox thrive!

How do you figure that? The only hand Microsoft had in the Dreamcast was porting Windows CE to it so that some games could run on that for easier porting... and even then, only a few games used it.

--Zero

[strassy]

except for the NES, i always favored sega consoles for some reason.

on one hand, i feel like it's a shame they don't make them anymore, because i liked them.

on the other hand...i'm glad, because i'd probably still be wasting my money on systems with 2 year lifespans that i never played anyhow.

i think it was a "i want to like sega" thing with me. i enjoyed genesis, and for some reason i stayed loyal with game gear, sega CD, 32 X, saturn, and finally dreamcast. the only of those i got anywhere my money's worth out of was the saturn (for 2 reasons...Street Fighter Collection, that and the fact that i got it for 60 bucks, including 5 games, from a friend)

[MachineGex]

I remember going to E3 one year and all I could hear is some guy yelling "Sega...Power VR!!!" They had the volume turned way up and it could be heard on the enitre E3 floor.
It was all I heard for 3 days and burnt itself in my memory forever.

[airraid]

I remember going to E3 one year and all I could hear is some guy yelling "Sega...Power VR!!!" They had the volume turned way up and it could be heard on the enitre E3 floor.
It was all I heard for 3 days and burnt itself in my memory forever.

E3 1997 maybe?

The decision between 3Dfx and PowerVR was not known publicly by E3 1997 I don't think. Sega had not announced their new system. Although people WERE talking about it at the time. It was FIERCLY debated, what Sega should go with, 3Dfx or PowerVR.


At E3 1998, everything had long-since been settled. PowerVR was in (as of July the previous year) and Dreamcast was announced.

[j_factor]

I learned from that article that the reason Saturn failed commercially was because Sony paid for games like Wild 9 to be exclusive to the Playstation. When Wild 9 came out only for Playstation, that sure was a big blow to the Saturn!

Also: "Sega is showing no signs of abandoning its project until the next system is on the shelf" = LIES. All three of us who had a Saturn as our main system really resented the period of over a year when Sega published zero games. The day I beat Magic Knight Rayearth, I threw all my Saturn stuff in a box and dumped it at the local used game store, and bought a Playstation. When Dreamcast came out, I really didn't care.

[RASTAN]

heh. Good to see ole' Airraid is still at it with his nostalgia threads, some of it interesting and a lot of OCD to the extreme like his Ghouls 'N Ghosts threads all over the web.

/Rastan pulls out a lawn chair
and wonders how long this thread
may get.