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Developer Heart: Sega Saturn Devkits

Until the fifth generation, the hardware of consoles was approximately equal in performance and differed very slightly. What can not be said about 32/64-bit machines, which began to flood the market since the beginning of 1993. It was then that the carefree contra Sega vs Nintendo turned into the struggle “all against all . ” The fifth generation gave rise to avalanche-like changes in the industry, when each manufacturer tried to make his system more powerful than that of competitors. So in just 3 years the segment has stratified into outspoken leaders led by Sony and outsiders led by Atari. The 32-bit bar was lifted exorbitantly high for the debutants of the generation, burying the dreams of those few gamers who believed in the power of Atari Jaguar, 3DO and 32X.

Fortunately, healthy competition has highlighted the best of the best. And it’s about them that we’ll talk about now, and more specifically about devkits to these systems.



So the company, once called Service Games , but familiar to everyone just like Sega, did not just keep up with the trends, but conducted active work in this direction. The key to success was the Sega arcade backlog formed by machines such as Sega System 1, Sega System 2, Sega System 16, which ultimately led to the creation of the advanced Sega Genesis console console for 1988. In the same year, the Sega System 24 was released, and two years later - the Sega System 32, which had a 32-bit RISC processor in its womb. Sega was so busy with hardware that soon arcade rooms appeared, working with full 3D-polygonal graphics. The Sega Model 1, and then the succeeding Sega Model 2, were not just successful, they were revolutionary machines for 1990 and 1993, respectively.

Needless to say, the architecture of Sega Saturn in abundance borrowed the functions of at least four Sega arcade systems. Saturn's multiprocessor circuitry included 2 Hitachi SH-2 CPUs, 3 DSP math coprocessors, as well as 2 video processors (VDP1 and VDP2), which were paired and responsible for rendering the foreground and background, polygons and sprites. As a result, the quadrangular polygon engine was developed based on the Sega Model 1 engine, and a separate graphics processor for 2D backgrounds was based on the Sega System 24 GPU.



But not only the Sega Saturn layout was tricky for third-party developers. The lack of an operating system and a complex programming environment requiring assembly knowledge significantly complicated console support at the start of sales. The only development tool at that time wasSega Saturn Programming Box from the Japanese company Sophia Systems, but even he did not support the C language. This development station, which looked like an industrial computer, not only had an impressive appearance, but also an astronomical price of $ 30 thousand. It is not surprising that the latter did not allow the system properly distributed among small studios and independent developers.



Interestingly, some Sega Saturn Programming Box kitshad only one SH-2 CPU, despite the fact that the exterior was the same. All ports and switches were located on the front panel: two connectors for gamepads, SCSI II, AV-out, VCD-port for connecting a CD, Serial emulator, as well as on, reset buttons and toggle switches for turning on / off third-party devices and modes. The system was omnivorous and ran software not only from CD-R, but also from any region (PAL, NTSC).

In addition to the programming tool, Sophia Systems has released the Sega Saturn Graphics Box, a graphics station for game designers and the Sega Saturn Sound Box for sound engineers and composers. External resemblance related both systems with the parent, combining them into a triune set of the developer of early games 1994-1995.



In mid-1995, the Sega Sophia was superseded by the cheaper Saturn CardDev , which could work both with the Sega Saturn Programming Box and directly with the Sega Saturn debugging console. Saturn CardDev was issued in two revisions: revision A (by Sega of America) and revision B (by the parent company Cross products). Due to problems with the power supply, revision A was extremely unreliable, and revision B was widely used. Devkit was connected to the computer via the SCSI interface (via the SCSI Card Kit integrated into the PC), and to the console through the cartridge slot. The development environment was SNASM2 software, which worked directly with SH-2 processors.



Speaking of SNASM2. Cross products has developed a whole family of devkits not only for Sega, but also for Philips CD-I and Atari Jaguar. Machine SNASM2 Saturn Development System is very reminiscent of the architecture of SNASM2 32X Development System and has a very convenient tool for development. SNASM2 included assembler for SH-2 and 60k processors, a powerful multiprocessor linker and GNU compiler, which allowed working directly with assembler, C and their combination. And due to the split-screen, code debugging took place in real time on one monitor.



The station’s advanced interface was connected to the Saturn CD Switch debug console via an NMI cable, which allowed the programmer to access each console processor. The rest isSNASM2 Saturn Development System duplicated its own developments on Saturn CardDev . I note that these devkits were appreciated by Sega. Therefore, she, without hesitation, bought the company Cross products, so that in the future development machines and debugging consoles were produced under the Japanese brand. By the way, Saturn CD Switch , like Sega Saturn Programming Box, was “region free” and could run debugging games not only from CD-R, but also from an external drive. And this drive was the so-called Mirage Universal CD emulator , designed specifically for emulating CD-ROMs in real time. The capacity of the device was 1 GB and allowed to store up to two games on it.



But perhaps the most extravagant debugging tool was the IS Electronics Sega Saturn Address checker . There were several revisions of the device from a horizontally oriented machine almost a meter long to the standard debug Sega Saturn.



Moreover, the console version was similar to the Saturn CD Switch, with the exception that there were 32 LEDs, a reset LED switch, and a regional toggle switch on its right front. 32 indicators were located on a small board, where two Lattice ispLSI 1032 chips performed real-time verification of memory addresses. The indicators were highlighted only when the machine was accessing the prohibited areas of RAM, thereby signaling errors that had been achieved. Initial (“long”) revisionInstead of a series of LEDs, the Sega Saturn Address checker had only a SCSI port, and the SH-2 processors were installed on removable boards - just like in the Sega Saturn Programming Box layout .



Separately, it is worth mentioning the Hitachi E7000 debugging microcomputer , which was paired with the Sega Saturn Programming Box or Sega Saturn Address checker. But after the success of CardDev and SNASM2, the insanely expensive E7000 never gained popularity in the camp of independent developers.



I note that Cross products are not the only ones who were able to use Sega Saturn iron to the maximum. Psygnosis in collaboration with SN Systems created a unique PSY-Q Saturn system, which facilitated the difficult life of developers of games for Sega Saturn. Using the same development approach, Psygnosis reached the optimum for C programming for both Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn.



A distinctive feature of this system was its low cost, since it was a retail Sega Saturn, a developer cartridge PSY-Q and a SCSI Adapter Card for connecting a workstation to the console. But, unfortunately, only three projects from an extensive library of games were developed using this programming tool: Bubble Bobble also featuring Rainbow Islands, Batman Forever - The Arcade Game and Battle Stations.

By the way, the complex architecture of Sega Saturn throughout the life cycle was difficult to curb. And, despite the extensive line of devkits, the developed connections and the potential of internal studios, Sega was not able to consolidate its dominant position after Genesis. The growing influence of the PlayStation and aggressive marketing of Nintendo exposed Saturn's weaknesses and its promotion policies so much that the collapse of the system was simply inevitable.

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