HiGame

One of the problems with maintaining access to classic game libraries is the physical age of the hardware required to play various titles in their original incarnations. Classic Famicom and NES systems tend to suffer problems with their front loading mechanisms, while aging CD-ROM drives in PlayStation-era hardware cause problems of their own. Now, one hacker has found a way around a similar problem in Sega Saturn hardware — even though solving the issue required cracking the console’s DRM.

The Sega Saturn was the follow-up to the Sega Genesis / Sega MegaDrive (outside North America) and competed head-to-head against the Sony PlayStation. The Saturn’s hardware was arguably more powerful than the PlayStation’s, but also much more difficult to program, with a dual-core CPU, a custom sound processor, two video display processors, and associated controller chips. Its 3D engine used quadrilaterals, rather than triangles, as the underlying primitive structure, which also made it more difficult to program.The platform sold 9.26 million units over its lifetime, but only sold well in Japan, which accounted for over half its unit shipments. Even so, there were a number of critically acclaimed titles for the platform, including Virtua Fighter, Nights into Dreams, Sega Rally Championship, and Panzer Dragoon Saga.


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