The Sega Saturn at 30: a pioneering games console ripe for rediscovery

It is one of the greatest injustices of video game history that the Sega Saturn is widely considered a failure. The console, which was launched in Japan on 22 November 1994, almost two weeks ahead of the PlayStation, is continually and pejoratively compared to its rival. We hear about how Sony produced a high-end machine laser targeted at producing fast 3D graphics, while Sega's engineers had to add an extra graphics chip to the Saturn at the last minute. We read that Sony's Ken Kutaragi provided creators with a much more user-friendly development system. We know that Sony undercut the price of Sega's machine, using its might as a consumer electronics giant to take the financial hit. All of that is true, but what aren't always mentioned are the vast success of the Japanese Saturn launch, and the extraordinary legacy that Sega's 32-bit machine left behind.

What I remember is this: Edge magazine reporting from Akihabara in Tokyo, where its Japanese correspondent had joined a queue outside the major Laox computer game centre to try and snag one of the thousand or so machines not already preordered by fans. Two-and-a-half hours later, the writer emerged with his purchase, which included a copy of Virtua Fighter, the best arcade fighting game of the year. It was a lucky buy: the shelves were emptying fast all over town. Sega shifted an unprecedented 200,000 units that day.

I joined Edge as a writer the following September and was there for two years, coinciding with the creative height of the Saturn's short life. What was obvious to me at the time, and still rings true now, is that Sega's first-party output on the machine was among the best the decade had to offer. Arcade mega hits Sega Rally and Daytona USA set the agenda for a new era of stylish 3D racers, while Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Last Bronx brought complexity and depth to one-on-one fighting games. Sega's platform-exclusive titles were equally vivid and groundbreaking: Panzer Dragoon, Nights Into Dreams and Burning Rangers were imaginative and richly visual, reinventing staid genres for a new generation. But I also loved the eccentric experiments: the toy-like platformer Clockwork Knight, the weird, frantic puzzler Baku Baku Animal, the self-consciously silly Virtua Fighter Kids.

It is often said that what Saturn lacked was support from third-party developers, but that was not the case in Japan. The veteran shoot 'em up creator Treasure developed two of its greatest titles, Radiant Silvergun and Guardian Heroes, for the machine. Even now, if you want to play classic 2D shooters, Saturn is the place, with Batsugun, Battle Garegga and Darius Gaiden all considered essentials of the genre.

Atlus converted the arcade hit DonPachi and produced the underappreciated role-playing adventures Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner and Princess Crown. For horror fans there was Warp's survival thriller Enemy Zero, while Capcom produced a Saturn port of Resident Evil which included an exclusive mini-game as well as new enemies and outfits. Capcom also put many of its greatest fighting games of the era on to Saturn, including X-Men: Children of the Atom (originally a home exclusive on the system), X-Men vs Street Fighter and Darkstalkers 3.

Sega also had decent developer support in Europe, where coders brought up on home computers were experienced at programming in assembly language, which Saturn supported (PlayStation had a more rarified development environment, based around C). Core Design originally targeted Tomb Raider at the machine (and also made the unjustifiably forgotten action adventure Swagman for the console); Psygnosis brought over WipeOut; Gremlin produced its top-down brawler Loaded for both consoles. And Knutsford-based Traveller's Tales, which would go on to make the Lego series, co-created underrated racer Sonic R with Sonic Team, which was a wonderful technical showcase for the Saturn, with smooth frame rates and gorgeous transparency effects.

The Saturn was innovative in other ways. Saturn Bomberman remains arguably the best title in Hudson's explode-'em-up series, especially considering its support for chaotic 10-player matches via two multitaps. The Saturn was the first major console to offer online gaming via its Net Link modem, which allowed players to take part in head-to-head sessions of Sega Rally Championship and Virtual On over the internet as early as 1997. One of the third-party titles to support the tech was Shadows of the Tusk, a deck-building strategy role-playing game (years before the genre hit mainstream popularity) which came with its own physical pack of cards. Also, Sega's 3D Control Pad, an analogue controller designed specifically for Nights Into Dreams, beat the Nintendo 64's pad to market by several weeks.

There was a time – perhaps a year, maybe even two – when there was nothing inevitable about the demise of the Saturn. It held its own, matching everything Sony and its lead development partner Namco could throw at it. Daytona v Ridge Racer, Virtua Fighter v Tekken, Virtua Cop v Time Crisis. And this rivalry was an absolute boon for gamers, pushing 3D game design and creating the technical expertise that would be needed for the next generation of open-world 3D console titles. There is a reason why, 30 years after its launch, you can go on eBay or specialist retro gaming sites and find refurbished or modified Saturns for sale – often region-free, with switches to flip between the European 50Hz or NTSC 60Hz TV options – and it's because the games I have mentioned here are still worth playing on their original format, their original home. The Saturn didn't stick around as a mass consumer device but it was a success in many ways. We need to talk more about it when considering the history of video games.