If you think the so-called console wars are heated and stormy today, it’s a summer breeze compared to the way things were in the 90s, first between Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, and then between PlayStation and Saturn.
As the latter was a commercial flop (barely ten million units sold) and generally a nightmare to develop games for, it was often considered less capable than the PlayStation – a perception that is still considered true today. However, Argonaut founder Jez San knows more about retro hardware than virtually anyone else, having created classics like Star Glider and Star Fox, among others, and he has a very different take on the matter.
In an interview with My Life in Gaming, he explains that the Saturn was actually the more capable of the two, but begins by lamenting how difficult it was to make games for it:
“The Saturn was more powerful, it shouldn’t have been harder to develop for.
You are doing a port, so if anything you’re trying to make it look as close to the PlayStation, and that’s the hard thing.”
Apart from this shortcoming though, it’s all praise for Sega’s classic console, and he continues:
“But the Saturn itself is a very good system, and more powerful than the PlayStation… it was exceptionally more powerful than the PlayStation at the time, but we had built it for the PlayStation and the Saturn guys had to make it as close as they could.”
What do you think, was the Saturn actually the more powerful of the two?
Thanks, Time Extension.