The Satellaview

[thanonyx]

I'm fascinated by the Satellaview, how about you? I love learning new things about it. then again, I love learning about video game history in general, but I digress. It was a neat idea at the time, video game that could be played when they were broadcast live via satellite. It also broadcast interviews and gaming magazines as well. During gameplay there would even be live narration. This service lasted from April 23, 1995 to June 30, 2000. Unfortunately the cartridge for the Satellaview could only hold one game at a time and some games were divided into multiple parts. This makes finding the games for it nowadays really really hard and as far as Nintendo in concerned the Satellaview is persona non grata. Occasionally they'll release content from its games like some of the Satellaview exclusive F-Zero tracks being included in F-Zero 99. Other than that they never even talk about it or its games.

If you want to know more watch this video I found from DidYouKnowGaming

And if you're interested in Satellaview emulation for your SNES emulator of choice check out this website where a group of Satellaview fans are trying to recreate its unique experience.

Satellaview+

satellaviewplus.github.io

 

[Don Patch]

It's nifty biz, for sure.
I love that some cats are trying to recreate it. Nerds are wonderful, ain't they!?

 

[Gorse]

The company that Nintendo partnered with to make this thing, St. GIGA, has the single coolest name of anything, ever. That name alone deserves a 26-episode mecha series about a giant robot (referred to in-series as a "Saint" model) who defeats massive intergalatic devil-aliens using electrified fists that can transform into different weapons based on the Bible – whips, crosses, hot oil launchers, etc. Halfway through the series, St. GIGA could get an upgrade which gives him angel wings and/or a halo.

Of course, his life force would be tied to a waifish blonde-haired woman who's in a coma for the first 2/3rds of the series (with her hands clasped directly above her heart), then awakens right at the end to bond with St. Giga and defeat the Ultra-Devil. NINTENDO, I HAVE A SCRIPT READY FOR YOUR REVIEW

 

[Jeff]

A really good idea before Nintendo created the Wii channels, Miiverse and Switch Online. It should make a comeback for those with a Switch Online account so players can play BS Zelda, BS F-Zero 2, BS Mario USA, etc.

 

[UnDubious]

They don't talk about the games because there isn't much to talk about. Most of them aren't full-fledged games on the level of those they'd release on cartridges, they're more like mini-games. I beat Treasure Conflix, which was a Square game that was fan translated about two years ago. It's good, basically a mini-RPG where the core gameplay is searching for treasure on a Mode 7 world map with a radar and occasionally fighting real-time airplane battles (there are also RPG towns). It's only a few hours long, though - you can tell it wasn't a regular release. Definitely a highlight of the Satellibrary.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

We need more consoles that stack on top of addons. Like the GCN or the Tower of Power from the Mega Drive

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

It’s one of those things where I feel like I can’t truly speak on it because I’m a westerner. The best thing about the add on seems to be the community it built, creating virtual spaces where everyone could come together.

Hearing more and more about Nintendo’s Japanese hardware efforts around this time makes me so upset that we don’t have similar things now, but for a worldwide audience. Though, I think the smaller audience base is part of what made things like Satteliview possible in the first place. I salute the Super Famicom faithful who were truly there at the time!

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 4:55 PM

We need more consoles that stack on top of addons. Like the GCN or the Tower of Power from the Mega Drive

Actually getting a true, working, modded to not suck Tower of Power is a dream of mine. One day, that dream will become a reality. But, for now, it remains just a dream.

 

[Graw]

Meh. I tried the satellaview Zelda games. They weren't very fun. You also had to pay for the service. It seems mostly like an early attempt at games as a service to me. I'm kind of glad it never really caught on at the time because it's bad enough what gaming turned into as it is with companies thinking you should just keep paying them forever for the same shit. At least we had that time period where you could actually own games. If satellite streamed games became viable and popular greedy ass game companies would have been all over that shit pumping out trash tier satellite games.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Meh. I tried the satellaview Zelda games. They weren't very fun. You also had to pay for the service. It seems mostly like an early attempt at games as a service to me. I'm kind of glad it never really caught on at the time because it's bad enough what gaming turned into as it is with companies thinking you should just keep paying them forever for the same shit. At least we had that time period where you could actually own games. If satellite streamed games became viable and popular greedy ass game companies would have been all over that shit pumping out trash tier satellite games.

Oh yeah, that’s mad true. Nintendo, for all their faults, always tries their best with their software. Imagine a world where gaming went the way of, dare I say it, cable TV in the late 2000’s. Just a glut of low quality stuff flooding the market that was cheap and easy to just stream into people’s faces.

For all the bad in the current age of gaming, I count my blessings that we don’t live in a time where we have to rely on mega corporations to let us play. Satelliveiw was basically cable TV, but for games, where you had to catch a game in its time slot, and you really couldn’t play it that much beyond its dedicated airing date. Long term that sounds like a nightmare for everyone!

 

[AncientBehemoth]

Yeah many games from Satellaview are lost media. Japan should raid some of the 30+ yo neet's houses maybe they'll find those lost media games there.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Yeah many games from Satellaview are lost media. Japan should raid some of the 30+ yo neet's houses maybe they'll find those lost media games there.

Just… the whole of Japan? The entire country? All descending on one person’s house?

That includes Miyamoto and his allegedly very stupid son, right?

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 5:59 PM

On a non-joking note, I feel a certain kind of way about private collectors. I empathize with the plight of not wanting to garner the attention of
*checks notes*
…the entire goddamn world, especially if you have in your possession an item that is not preserved and is of some value to a community. That said, I think if you don’t take the chance to anonymously work out deals and dump things, you’re being very selfish.

I’m a Doctor Who fan, right? And much of the show’s earlier years (1960’s) is missing. We KNOW that there are some episodes in the hands of private collectors that don’t exist in the archive. I ask of those people: why not get them preserved? Brother, you can still own the original film reels! That’s one of a kind enough! It harms the community to not be able to AT LEAST see the thing you have!

 

[HextarVigar]

I wouldn't think something like that would work too well - satellite back then wasn't as good as it is now, and if you had trees in the area that could block the signal...

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I wouldn't think something like that would work too well - satellite back then wasn't as good as it is now, and if you had trees in the area that could block the signal...

Japan is a small country that is very tightly packed. Other countries… not so much. Remember, Japan was ALL IN on the internet long before the U.S. was, and there was a reason for that: they didn’t have to worry about having a giant country with massive amounts of nothing in it! Satellite stuff was much the same, as Japan was able to get more stable connections thanks to those same factors.

 

[RageBurner]

STV games are neat curiosities, but little else for the most part.

 

[thanonyx]

STV games are neat curiosities, but little else for the most part.

True, but still, every piece of video game history must be preserved at all costs.

 

[HextarVigar]

STV games are neat curiosities, but little else for the most part.

Could have panned out something interesting, though - imagine pay per view but with games: you could rent it for a couple of days and even have an external drive to save your progress on.

 

[RageBurner]

Could have panned out something interesting, though - imagine pay per view but with games: you could rent it for a couple of days and even have an external drive to save your progress on.

Yeah that would have been incredibly forward thinking.

 

[HextarVigar]

Yeah that would have been incredibly forward thinking.

It would have been like renting games normally, but never having to worry about late fees, or losing the manual. And since the game wouldn't physically exist, you wouldn't have to worry about someone renting it first.

 

[Gorse]

Could have panned out something interesting, though - imagine pay per view but with games: you could rent it for a couple of days and even have an external drive to save your progress on.

I remember when they used to do this in hotels. You'd get an N64 controller and could pay like $16 for an hour of gameplay – I actually did it once with Kirby 64. A fun idea, but really overpriced.

 

[HextarVigar]

I remember when they used to do this in hotels. You'd get an N64 controller and could pay like $16 for an hour of gameplay – I actually did it once with Kirby 64. A fun idea, but really overpriced.

For an hour? I would have made it two or three days.

 

[NeonKnights]

I beat the non broadcast version of BS Zelda no Densetsu last year. It was pretty good even though it didn't have any of the timed events the the original had. Lodgenet was pretty interesting especially since the first one I played was at Howard Johnson the number one place for Sega video game fun.
Where kids go Hojo with Sega.

 

[SpcDaicon]

A very interesting product but was way ahead of the tecnological capabilities of the time.

If you look hard enough, you will find Japan had ton of things and services that look like they came out of sci-fi