Sega Pluto: The Console That Never Was
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themadlionsfan
Members Posts: 9,133 ✭✭✭✭✭
in IllGaming
If you’re into the what-if/could-be scenarios of the gaming industry, then this story is for you. On the forum Assembler Gamers, something called the SEGA Pluto has emerged.
A user named Super Magnetic claims to have been “sitting on” the information of this console for 14 years, and has pictures to prove it. While it hasn't been verified that Super Magnetic ever worked for SEGA, or that his prototype console is real, the picture below are pretty compelling evidence. Read on!
What is the SEGA Pluto? Apparently, it’s a modified SEGA Saturn (hence the logo). In short, “it’s a Saturn with a Netlink built in,” according to Super Magnetic. Better yet, he “was told that only two of these prototypes were made – and this is #2.”
Super Magnetic reports that it’s “definitely the heaviest console” he’s ever held, and even managed to turn the console on. It works, though, as he notes, he couldn’t “even imagine how [he’d] go about testing the Netlink part of this device.” But just the fact that this thing actually exists and that SEGA may have been thinking about either redoing its failing Saturn system or releasing another one (pre-Dreamcast) is amazing.
SEGA was continuously ahead of the curve with online play being built into its console. It created a monthly subscription service, the SEGA Channel, in 1994 that was compatible with the SEGA Genesis, and SEGA Saturn also had online play through the aforementioned Netlink. The Pluto simply integrated it permanently, a huge step forward for a mainstream console at the time.
SEGA was still first to market with an online-ready mainstream console when it released the Dreamcast in 1999. So if anything, the Pluto was a halfway step between the failed Saturn and the promise of the dial-up ready console the company would later release.
Pretty cool, huh?
A user named Super Magnetic claims to have been “sitting on” the information of this console for 14 years, and has pictures to prove it. While it hasn't been verified that Super Magnetic ever worked for SEGA, or that his prototype console is real, the picture below are pretty compelling evidence. Read on!
What is the SEGA Pluto? Apparently, it’s a modified SEGA Saturn (hence the logo). In short, “it’s a Saturn with a Netlink built in,” according to Super Magnetic. Better yet, he “was told that only two of these prototypes were made – and this is #2.”
Super Magnetic reports that it’s “definitely the heaviest console” he’s ever held, and even managed to turn the console on. It works, though, as he notes, he couldn’t “even imagine how [he’d] go about testing the Netlink part of this device.” But just the fact that this thing actually exists and that SEGA may have been thinking about either redoing its failing Saturn system or releasing another one (pre-Dreamcast) is amazing.
SEGA was continuously ahead of the curve with online play being built into its console. It created a monthly subscription service, the SEGA Channel, in 1994 that was compatible with the SEGA Genesis, and SEGA Saturn also had online play through the aforementioned Netlink. The Pluto simply integrated it permanently, a huge step forward for a mainstream console at the time.
SEGA was still first to market with an online-ready mainstream console when it released the Dreamcast in 1999. So if anything, the Pluto was a halfway step between the failed Saturn and the promise of the dial-up ready console the company would later release.
Pretty cool, huh?
Comments
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I loved my sega Saturn
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wonder if it's legit. could be a fan made mod.
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I used to have Sega Channel when i was like 5. Broke my heart my step dad said they were re calling them. Took it out of my sega and out of my life.
Was the most awesome thing ever invented had almost every sega game in there, and got to play demos of games that werent out yet. -
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Segaaaaaa damn i miss the 90's
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SEGA!
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I can't front, Sega was ahead of it's time. Sega CD birthed the PS, and the cd format of games.
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darkone360 wrote: »I can't front, Sega was ahead of it's time. Sega CD birthed the PS, and the cd format of games.
No it didn't. There were multiple CD based systems before the Sega CD.
This was out when the SNES and Genesis were still big. -
those look like ethernet ports on the back of the console. broadband was brand new technology and extremely rare and expensive at the supposed time this console was made.
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The Lonious Monk wrote: »darkone360 wrote: »I can't front, Sega was ahead of it's time. Sega CD birthed the PS, and the cd format of games.
No it didn't. There were multiple CD based systems before the Sega CD.
This was out when the SNES and Genesis were still big.
I thought the Sega CD was out before Turbo Grafx? If not, my bad?
Has anybody owned a 3DO?
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darkone360 wrote: »The Lonious Monk wrote: »darkone360 wrote: »I can't front, Sega was ahead of it's time. Sega CD birthed the PS, and the cd format of games.
No it didn't. There were multiple CD based systems before the Sega CD.
This was out when the SNES and Genesis were still big.
I thought the Sega CD was out before Turbo Grafx? If not, my bad?
Has anybody owned a 3DO?
No, Turbo Grafx was same gen as SNES and Genesis -
darkone360 wrote: »The Lonious Monk wrote: »darkone360 wrote: »I can't front, Sega was ahead of it's time. Sega CD birthed the PS, and the cd format of games.
No it didn't. There were multiple CD based systems before the Sega CD.
This was out when the SNES and Genesis were still big.
I thought the Sega CD was out before Turbo Grafx? If not, my bad?
Has anybody owned a 3DO?
No, Turbo Grafx was same gen as SNES and Genesis
Yeah, the Sega CD was actually designed in response to the Turbo CD. -
darkone360 wrote: »
Has anybody owned a 3DO?
I did. Madden, Crash n Burn, Total Eclipse were great, GEX was GOAT