Former Sega dev. manager Kenji Tosaki recently explained the impact the Nintendo 64's analog stick had at Sega. He said that while the Saturn 3D controller had a short development process, Sega had to restart it twice once they saw Mario 64. The analog control was clearly the future of gameplay. - ThreadSky

sega-16.bsky.social • 4 days ago

Former Sega dev. manager Kenji Tosaki recently explained the impact the Nintendo 64's analog stick had at Sega. He said that while the Saturn 3D controller had a short development process, Sega had to restart it twice once they saw Mario 64. The analog control was clearly the future of gameplay.

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sega-16.bsky.social•4 days ago

A meeting was held on Dec. 5, '95. "I clearly remember that this was the first time I had ever attended a meeting where the game development, hardware, and sales divisions were all gathered together to discuss something collaboratively," Tosaki said. Yuji Naka insisted on analog control for Saturn.

sega-16.bsky.social•4 days ago

Switching the Saturn's controller to an analog version was a problem because of the console's multi-site production across Japan and Asia, requiring major changes in manufacturing. The change would also impact many games in development, as their control would need to be changed to analog input.

sega-16.bsky.social•4 days ago

Naka’s team would develop a game to rival Mario 64, and an analog controller would be released simultaneously. It would become the new standard, and other developers would be encouraged to consider how to apply it. Sega's software division would be involved in planning and discussion its creation.

sega-16.bsky.social•4 days ago

At that time, Mr. Naka’s team had already developed a prototype of NiGHTS and was facing difficulties with character controls using the digital directional pad, meaning game development was underway.

sega-16.bsky.social•4 days ago

However, the hardware team had not made any progress. They had a blank slate with little research done on analog input devices. Thus, the hardware team needed to start from scratch, beginning with studying and researching analog input technologies.

sega-16.bsky.social•3 days ago

The N64 was scheduled to release on April 21, '96. Sega began work in Jan. '96. The N64 was delayed to June 23, '96, and NiGHTS arrived just two weeks later. Sega took only 7 months to research, develop, design, produce, and sell the controller.

Source: Beep21.

pabloscar1.bsky.social•3 days ago

That's very interesting, thank you for sharing!!

I know very little about the Saturn and less about Hall effect analog controllers, but that's what the Saturn 3D controller had, right?

I learned about magnetic based sticks years ago when servicing my DC controllers and...

(1/2)

pabloscar1.bsky.social•3 days ago

... and even aside all the current drift issues many sticks have, I wonder why potentimeter based sticks were and still are the standard.

Is there any mention on why Sega went with a magnetic stick?

(2/2)

sega-16.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm glad you enjoyed the thread! They don't mention it in this article, but there will be a volume 2, so I'll update with another thread when that article comes out.

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