What do you think about the SEGA Neptune?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Half-Genesis, half-32X and compatible with the SEGA CD, I think this thing had the potential to be really cool.

Of course, being in collision course with the Saturn meant that this thing was never going to see the light of day anyway, but I kind of like to imagine a scenario in which SEGA holds off even making the 32X, tells developers to start making games for the Neptune instead, and utterly destroys the SNES with time to spare to reestablish themselves as a prime competitor and roll out the Saturn properly and with time to support it fully.

I don't see the Neptune actually surviving after that (not with the PlayStation on the way) but having three separate libraries (Genesis, CD, 32X/its own) and bridging the gap before moving fully into CD-based systems could have worked marvels for both SEGA and their loyal customers without alienating them the way they did in our timeline.

What do you think?

 

[JG5009]

This thing would had been EXPENSIVE, that's for sure, I really don't see a way this would have changed the story of then simply because PSX was getting too close.

Sega should have ditched away the 32X altogether to patch all the issues of the Saturn instead.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Theoretically, in a world without the Saturn, this could have been… something. The issue is that 32X system development had tons of awful hurdles that no developer would want to deal with, especially when the PlayStation came out and showed how utterly inadequate the 32X was.

We also live in a timeline with the Saturn, a much better timeline, and that makes this thing a huge question mark. More than anything: who’s the target audience? It can’t be the people wanting a cheap 32 bit machine, as while it would have been cheaper than the Saturn and possibly PS1… it still would have been a chunk of change. It can’t be for people who want a next Gen system either, since the 32X’s capabilities, even at max spec, would be limited in comparison to the competition. It can’t be for the Japanese market, as they would have seen it as yet another attempt to coax people onto the Mega Drive. It COULD be for the U.S. crowd, since many would probably trade in their existing Genesis to get some extra funds for this machine, but then we ask the question of GAMES.


The only timeline where this guy would have worked, in any sense, is one where the Saturn doesn’t exist. It would then have all the focus of 32 bit development within SEGA, it would have had all the focus of third parties, and it would have MAYBE a fighting chance at doing… something. But in our current timeline, it wouldn’t save the 32X, as that system simply didn’t and doesn’t have the compelling software to keep itself upright for a large number of potential customers.

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

It would be expensive & excessive. Plus the 32x library is a bit small.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

This thing would had been EXPENSIVE, that's for sure, I really don't see a way this would have changed the story of then simply because PSX was getting too close.

Sega should have ditched away the 32X altogether to patch all the issues of the Saturn instead.

It COULD HAVE been around $200-$250? Maybe? But probably a lot higher at launch since it would be a Frankenstein of boards and chips. As they consolidated, it would go down in cost, but the damage at that point would have already been done to the system.


SEGA was frequently stupid with their hardware, but this was one disaster they thankfully avoided.






All told though: I think it looks neat. Not the best case design SEGA had, but not the worst. It’s perhaps a bit too similar to the Genesis 2 for my liking, which plays against it because that’s my least favorite Genesis model design. I like the patterns on it though!

 

[Zerpina]

As much as I love SEGA...

They always did seem to shoot themselves in the foot with marketing decisions. As @JG5009 said, they should have ditched the 32X stuff before it was a thing. Had they not tried to keep the Sega Genesis on life support, because that's all the 32X really was, like the Sega CD, and focused on the Saturn or Neptune, they might still be a console contender.

Though this would probably have killed the Dreamcast or pushed it back a console generation if it would have even come out at all.

The Neptune might have been cool, but it more or less is just a Sega Saturn system with weaker hardware, from what I remember from YouTube videos.

 

[solnK!]

It sounds cool but I don´t think it would have been a good idea to launch it

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Thinking about how the mid 90’s was rough for the Genesis. And a lot of pretty games came out at that time, so it wasn’t a super big hardware issue, but the problem was that SEGA of Japan was slowly abandoning it and SEGA of America was flooding it with awful games.

I love a few of the games from the west, there’s actually a lot of good ones, but there’s equal or more bad ones. And a lot of them had SEGA’s seal on them. A lot of them had SEGA credited AS A DEVELOPER. Poor games would make SEGA look less desirable over time because Nintendo not only had the stronger console… but the stronger brand. It’s sad too: games like Ristar and Comix Zone are genuinely good games late into the system’s life, but they couldn’t outweigh the amount of sludgy software that came out in 1993 and 1994 from western developers.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I'd really love to see what it looks like with the SEGA CD on.

It has the potential to be the coolest-looking beast of the cartridge era.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I'd really love to see what it looks like with the SEGA CD on.

It has the potential to be the coolest-looking beast of the cartridge era.

Oh heck yeah! I’ve only ever seen a SEGA CD, model 1 or 2, and never held or owned one. They’re something special to see in person and up close, and the lines of the model 2 would make this beast even neater!

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

If this released INSTEAD of the 32X it might have had a chance,.
But that still doesn't get around the core issue of the Saturn and the 32X lack of compatibility with the Saturn's architecture.

Sega of America's batsh!t plan for the 32x was for it to get ports of Saturn games and have said ports be sold for cheaper. Literally what Microsoft does currently with the Xbox series S vs X.
Pay more for higher fidelity graphics, pay less for the "base" option.

If the Neptune launched with the Megadrive/Genesis port advertised as backwards compatibility it could have worked. But it still would have been woefully underpowered compared to the 3DO/SAT/PSX/N64.

The Sega Pluto has the same inherent problem.

It would have been a fantastic upgrade for the Saturn made immediately redundant by the Dreamcast/PS2/GC/Xbox.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

The Sega Pluto

The what now?! First time hearing about that... Looks RAAAAAAD.

ALSO: I love the naming conventions of console manufacturers in the 90s.

Atari: Cats.

SEGA: Planets.

Nintendo: IDK... just put "Super" in there.

 

[DragonMals]

This should've been what the Genesis was like when it introduced. I need to remember through that the 32x is completely pointless since the Sega Saturn exists.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

So, the Pluto was actually something I wanted to bring to the thread. And it’s so IMMEASURABLY STUPID that I’m shocked a prototype was ever even greenlit.

What it is… is a Saturn and the Netlink adapter… all in one. It would have retailed for $700 in 1997 and would have been aimed to be a luxury item.

This is… absolutely stupid for numerous reasons. Why would ANYBODY in the U.S. market see the Saturn as a luxury option? The biggest thing they could never shake for the Saturn’s whole life was the fact that people thought it was underpowered. Word of mouth was BRUTAL on that. And what games even used netlink? There’s some compelling options, and those are cool, but not “I will spend $700” cool.

Post automatically merged: Today at 9:04 PM

The only thing the Pluto is anywhere near famous for is the fact that Adam Koralik, owner of one of the two working prototypes, is taking it to everywhere he travels to around the world. He has photos of it in China, in India, in central Mexico, in Italy, in Japan… everywhere. Here it is on its most recent trip to Brazil.

 

[Heinzu]

This console is new to me never heard of it. I have to say apart from the Dreamcast, I hardly know anything from Sega.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I love the Saturn. I love it so much. And I love the netlink adapter. But SEGA of America believed the Saturn could be saved by going all in on Netlink support and riding the wave of the internet. That would NEVER have worked because it was an expensive ADD ON to a thing that people already didn’t want in North America.

Just like the Genesis, they seemed to not understand that console gamers don’t want expansions… they want an all in one box. They want a thing to do a thing and not be a computer, with modules and updates and troubleshooting and all that. This is something that SOA never seemed to understand, and it was absolutely brutal.




This is also one of the reasons I love them, because I absolutely ADORE all this tech garbage. I’m only so harsh… because all of it is objectively stupid. But SUBJECTIVELY it’s the best goddamn thing ever.

 

[PhaseJump]

If Sega of Japan didn't matter and Saturn never existed. The Neptune would begin to make more sense. Sega still would have been destroyed by Playstation, and probably would have adopted M2 as the successor.

 

[Stare best girl]

better both 32X and this thing should have throwed to trash can and focus on Saturn

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

To me the Neptune is just the ultimate symbol of the problems going on between Sega's Japanese and American branches, and a lesson on why it's probably a good idea for branches of the same company to actually work with each other rather than compete against one another. I know both sides have their share of the blame as to why Sega ultimately ended up failing in the end, but in this situation I've always sided more with the Japanese branch.

Even if this was what the 32X was introduced as first, it still would've flopped. The 32X was the last push from Sega of America to try and squeeze out any pennies they could from the Mega-Drive/Genesis. Gamers were smart as well; the Saturn had already been announced at this point. Why the hell would anyone shell out money for an add-on with its own (Very small) library of games, when you already had knowledge that a better console was coming in only a years time? The sheer greed they expected people to put up with. I really think this absolute mess of a situation ended up souring Sega's image in the west and could be part of the reason the Saturn flopped outside of Japan.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It would have retailed for $700 in 1997 and would have been aimed to be a luxury item.

Maaaaaan did SEGA had some suicidal ideation back then.

I can't see anyone spending anywhere near that much on basically a gaming console, not even one that actually promised to do more (and the 3DO had already fallen on that pit when it released back in 1994 -- there was no need for SEGA to assume otherwise).

 

[Miles Miles]

Cancelling this was the right call. This wouldn't have helped SEGA at all.

 

[ThunderBoy]

https://www.gf1neptune.com/

 

[PhaseJump]

The new FPGA based Neptune clone coming out, the new replacement board from Cosam, and the MiSTer FPGA core is out in the wild. Everybody can more easily experience fairly accurate 32X gaming at a hardware level these days.

It's not worth it at all. The library isn't there.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

The new FPGA based Neptune clone coming out, the new replacement board from Cosam, and the MiSTer FPGA core is out in the wild. Everybody can more easily experience fairly accurate 32X gaming at a hardware level these days.

It's not worth it at all. The library isn't there.

I’ll be the devil’s advocate on that one and say that it could be neat!


… as a buildable kit. Put together as a retail product, the price goes way up. And a 32X itself is already a pretty penny these days!
It’s the kind of thing that is for those super collector enthusiasts and everyone else can just step back and wonder why.