The 3DFX - SEGA "Black Belt" dreamcast thread.

[ASSEMbler]

Because there is no good source of info besides the press releases, I have created this sticky thread so that people can post information regarding the 3DFX - SEGA joint project "Black Belt".

(do not move this thread)

The lawsuit was initially filed by 3Dfx, approximately one year ago against Sega America, Sega Enterprises and NEC seeking damages valued of roughly $155 million (EN, Sept. 8, 1997). The complaint originated when Sega terminated a contract with 3Dfx for the graphics company to build Sega's next generation gaming console (EN, July 28, 1997). NEC later said it was supplying Sega with the graphics engine, the PowerVR chip, for Sega's gaming console due out sometime next year.

In the lawsuit, 3Dfx said it believes that Sega has consciously attempted to deprive 3Dfx of its intellectual property and inhibit fair competition in the market for 3-D graphics chipsets. In addition, the company accused NEC and VideoLogic of "consciously and deliberately setting out to usurp the contract with Sega and force a breech of contract." 3Dfx alleges NEC officials were well aware of 3Dfx's contract with Sega and influenced Sega in some way to terminate the contract.

the court ordered Sega to return to 3Dfx all intellectual property, trade secrets and confidential information. The orders come as part of a lawsuit filed by 3Dfx after Sega terminated their development agreement without cause, according to 3Dfx, in July of last year (EN, July 28, 1997).


The doors of 3DFX close.


Questions are:

1.) As part of the settlement, all joint projects equipment to be destroyed. (9 out of 10)

2.) All material worked on by Sega with 3DFX returned to 3DFX.
(1 of 10)

3.) Sega has blackbelt material as part of settlement.
(1 of 10)

4.) Possibility "black belt" sits somewhere archived or
unnoticed. (1 of 10)

A. Technical documents must exist and should be sought out.
B. Seek out the remote possiblility of a pilfered unit. However, as a tech demo, it is sure to be large.
C. Demonstration to SOJ by SOA, die samples and proof of concept
must be validated.

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Now the easy part: find the answers :smt043



PD

[Johnny]

Hey i remember reading on a brazilian magazine, back in that time about Black Belt, then Katana, then DC :prayer:

I'll look for some info on my game magazine collection this weekend. :smt023

[VitAmen]

Hey Assembler.I have a photo of a poster displaying BlackBelt.It was posted on this board a long time ago by a guy named DreamcastMaster who used to work for Sega of Europe.

As for the answers you are seeking,i think the person with the most contacts here is you.There are 1 or 2 developers as well but i doubt anyone has as strong contacts as you havePossibilities are:
1)Sega has SURELY still the technical docs.
2)Most of the equipment was surely returned to 3Dfx.Maybe some third party developers have some early BlackBelt devkits as well.
3)If any Black Belts exist to this day,they should be in the hands of top executives/engineers or the company that bought 3DFX.
Do you think anyone here has contacts with any of these people?

Also i remmember that you were telling you had found just a board with the graphics chip of black belt.What happened with that?

I think we all agree here that if a working prototype of BlackBelt is found,it will probably be the biggest discovery.

[Blur2040]

Well...show us the poster...if it is indeed blackbelt...we'll know exactly what to look for.

Oh...and I also talked to ASSEMbler...about those 3dfx chips...interesting stuff...

I doubt any devkits made it to developers...considering that black belt was never an official type system. It was probably axed in favor of Dural as soon as they were both completed...why develop anything for something that may not make it to market?

Working black belt? If anything ever does come up...I don't expect to be a cohesive console...w/ a plastic box...controllers...etc...but more a pile of circuit boards thats somewhat organized...I believe assembler suggested something the size of a server...The only thing i can imagine working is some sort of tech demo...probably one which didn't impress sega enough to pick black belt over dural...

[Atax]

3)If any Black Belts exist to this day,they should be in the hands of top executives/engineers or the company that bought 3DFX.

That would be nVidia, iir.

[antime]

Some sources say the 3Dfx contract was terminated because Sega had a fit over 3Dfx's too detailed SEC filing (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1010026/0000891618-97-001792.txt) (search for "TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND LICENSE AGREEMENT"). The filing says the contract was made on February 28th 1997 and talks about how 3Dfx "will design" hardware for Sega, and I'd say it's more than likely whatever they had when the contract was terminated five months later never actually made it into silicon form. Prototype software could have been built on PCs using GLIDE and Voodoo cards, and while Sega probably had their own set of requirements for the hardware one could speculate that the end result would have been something similar to the Voodoo 2 (announced in November 1997).

[VitAmen]

I'll post the black belt poster shortly.At least that is what the guy that posted the photo claims it is.It might be a mock-up,but if i remmeber right he said it worked.Also i have read from other sources that the development on blackbelt was pretty advanced and after the contract fell out everyone left sega.

[AntiPasta]

I do remember reading somewhere that Daytona USA was ported to both DC prototype systems in the course of development... it seems a bit far-fetched though,.

[Blur2040]

Hmm...that doesn't seem too unbelievable, AntiPasta...Sega certainly would have the means to do it...they have the code for Daytona somewhere...

[ASSEMbler]

From what I heard, the tech demo was incoming (3dfx easy port)
and that the people at NEC were getting inside help from
their friends inside sega, and 3dFX had a shit fit.

The Japanese really wanted a home town solutions, so they were passing the general idea for the chipset to NEC and 3dfx didn't like that.

At that time NEC was trying to make a nice in the PC graphics card
biz, and it was seen as industrial espionage.

Now I know there's a blackbelt demo machine, it's just if they chipped the damn thing or not.

Nvidia may own the patents for 3dfx, but I doubt they would care about the hardware. It's like atari and jds. Took the name and patants and the rest went into the trash.

[VitAmen]

Here is what BlackBelt looked like.If the guy did not talk bullshit,then this must be it.Photo courtesy of DreamcastMaster.

http://www.react.gr/Blackbelt.jpg

[ASSEMbler]

That design seems alltogether plausible.

[Anonymous]

another question:
in terms of rendering speed, and pps, what would it have been able to do?

[Blur2040]

That doesn't seem all too unbelievable as a design for the system...even though its a bit bland...though I doubt they ever got it to a point where they could fit it all in there.

[MindChild]

3dfx hardware was great.... not only in performance and stability in its time, the GLIDE library, while a nightmare to end users, was FANTASTIC. By far the most simplistic, yet powerful graphics library I have ever had the priviledge of working with. In many ways, it was similar to OpenGL, but... I dont know how to explain it... just better.

Anyway, what I was getting to with this, is the GLIDE API translates very well to the hardware level API, without much driver work at all. The chips were designed with GLIDE in mind, so the software and hardware of it all worked fabulously together.

Especially in contrast to PowerVR, 3dfx hardware would have been wonderful... maybe even made a lot more difference in the life of this console.

[PC-FX Maniac]

The Black Belt looks pretty cool, where did you find that picture?

[VitAmen]

This is the most exciting thread.

Anyone with any info?

Keep in mind the following.Katana Devkits were shipped pretty early in the form of PC graphics cards so that the developers would begin to get accustomed with the PowerVR2 chipset.No SH4,no GD Rom system no nothing,just a Power VR card (inferior to the final dreamcast hardware) with the Kamui API.
That was the Set2.1 board.

So it is pretty possible something like this was shipped to developers for blackbelt.I'll dig out my KatanaR2 SDK and if it was shipped/built way before the lawsuit,then some devers might have blackbelt prototypes...If it shipped after the lawsuit,it probably being the first Katana devkit available to developers,then i think it is really dificult for Blackbelt to have left the doors of Sega and 3dfx.

Assembler,you once said you had found someone with a prototype board with the graphics chipset.What happened with that?

[GaijinPunch]

In this stupidly high stack of a Saturn Magazines I've got in my house, there was a very, very small "What is Project Blackbelt?" blurb. Yeah, it wouldn't have had much details, but it would've been something.... wish I marked that page.

[madhatter256]

I remember reading some PC World Magazine or was it Computer Shopper :smt017 . Anyway, it had an article about 3dFX and its upcoming video cards and other projects. Other than showing off the Voodoo2 cards and Voodoo 3, it had a picture of a circuit board that showed a chip with the name 3dFX and some VRAM chips next to it. It was pretty big with some areas that looked like there were supposed to be other chips, like CPU, RAM, etc. It wasn't your typical ATX board, this was something that was being made for a console, hopefully the blackbelt :), but it also had a VGA port. I'll try to look for it, hopefully I haven't thrown out that magazine along with tons of other ones.

This could be a "beta" mainboard for the black belt system for what 3dfx was shooting for.

BTW, 3DFX did make some Arcade boards. I think there was a fighting game that used a custom 3dfx chip and Gauntlet Legends, which my local college used to have in the cafeteria. Could those be linked possibly to the blackbelt system? I could track down where the Gauntlet Legends Arcade is because I know the manager of the cafeteria, of course this will have to wait until summer is over and I'm back in schoo.l

[jollyrogerdev]

Here are infos abot the "Vegas" 3dfx arcade hardware.
http://www.system16.com/atari/hrdw_vegas.html

Jollyroger

[SuperFunkNinjaYoshiiKun]

Just interested in the control system and VMU for the Blackbelt.

When was the VMU concept finalised? Was it before the Dural/Blackbelt showdown, and an integral part of the whole system, or was this a separate creation after the Dural/Katana system was settled upon? If the system was always gonna have the VMU, I suppose the design would be roughly the same.

I would be interested in the history of the control pad though. I'm sure everyone's seen the piccies of the proto DC pads. Was the design of the pads handled exclusively by Sega Japan? Surely that would mean any protos pads would be used for either system. That would mean that the BB would have used the standard DC pads?

[VitAmen]

It seems that if we do not speak with people who work/used to work for Sega/3dfx or someone pretty close to them,this thread will fall victim of endless speculation.....

[madhatter256]

Then we need to go to Santa Monica (or Palo Alto?) and go to nVidia's HQ, they have some ppl from 3dFX working there since they bought them out.

[VitAmen]

well,according to the Katana R2 build logs,which seems to be the first Katana devkit available to developers(this is implied by the Readme file in it),it was compiled on April 1998,way after the lawsuit business settled down(July 97 i think?)...So if we assume it was shipped to developers 1-2 months after it was completed,it seems that NEC/Videologic had something ready way after the lawsuit.

Did 3Dfx have anything ready earlier?the only proof is that poster above,but noone knows if it is true....

hl718 used to have info on dev systems,he might have heard something...
R u there hl718?

[jollyrogerdev]

Ahaaa, now I recognise you... :-)
I was wondering how you knew about the R2 libs...

Anyway tonight I'll check whether there are any dates stamped on the Set2 boards...

Jollyroger

[VitAmen]

cheers Fran;)

Do you still have the extra board?Drop me a mail whenever you can:)

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Hey! Can someone upload the R2 dev to a ftp? I would love to see it!!



PD

[VitAmen]

there is really nothing impressive.Just 4-5 tech docs and some demos,including the somewhat famous "Scud Race" Demo.But you cannot watch it unless you have the set2.1 card.

It would be a nice little project to port the Scud race demo to the current DC hardware.I do not think it will be too difficult.

I'll try to check it out during the summer when i will have time.

[Paulo]

there is really nothing impressive.Just 4-5 tech docs and some demos,including the somewhat famous "Scud Race" Demo.

Can we have pictures of the scud race demo ive never seen that demo!

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Do you have it? Could you upload it somewhere? I would love to see the early DC demos and docs. I can provide a FTP if you need.


PD


there is really nothing impressive.Just 4-5 tech docs and some demos,including the somewhat famous "Scud Race" Demo.But you cannot watch it unless you have the set2.1 card.

It would be a nice little project to port the Scud race demo to the current DC hardware.I do not think it will be too difficult.

I'll try to check it out during the summer when i will have time.

[VitAmen]

bummer....no source code for the scud race demo...only the executable:(

As for the R2 sdk,it is around 200 megs and i have just an isdn internet connection,so uploading would take really a lot of time.Also it is really useless.If you have seen later sdks there is nothing new to see.

The only cool part would be to have someone capture some of the demos.

Anyway,we are losing the point here,BLACKBELT info please:)

[Anonymous]

It has been said that the BlackBelt used some derivative of 3Dfx Banshee, or Banshee2/Voodoo3. any indication if that is correct, and any specific information on the whole chipset including graphics, CPU, audio, memory, etc. ?

[GigaDrive]

http://www.users.on.net/~iterations/images/Blackbelt.jpg

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

How big is the Scud binary? Maybe could you share it with us?


PD


bummer....no source code for the scud race demo...only the executable:(

As for the R2 sdk,it is around 200 megs and i have just an isdn internet connection,so uploading would take really a lot of time.Also it is really useless.If you have seen later sdks there is nothing new to see.

The only cool part would be to have someone capture some of the demos.

Anyway,we are losing the point here,BLACKBELT info please:)

[MIKA-L]

And if you could get it running, please grab some screens and put them online.

[VitAmen]

so yer hinting that this is a gigadrive heh?

Note:you cannot use the scud race demo without the set2 card.

[GigaDrive]

so yer hinting that this is a gigadrive heh?

no, not at all. GigaDrive was the early codename (in 1991) for Sega's 32-Bit console, which was said to be based off of their System32 arcade board. later the GigaDrive was re-worked and upgraded into the Saturn that was eventually released.

not at all related to BlackBelt, which would've been a generation beyond Saturn.

btw, I too would absolutely be thrilled to see some screen captures of the Katana Scud Race demo. I've been dying to see that since 1998.


here's what c&vg had to say about the Scud Race demo:

http://www.pczone.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=8991



Sega have commissioned a series of demos to show off the power of the Katana, including a short rendition of Scud Race running on the new hardware. The demo shows the Ferrari F50 from the game speeding around the small oval track introduced in the coin-op pseudo-sequel Scud Race Plus. Multiple camera angles are employed to show the car's progress around the track and the flexibility of the 3D engine. Minus a few effects (this demo was originally written for the incomplete development kit), the demo runs at the same frame rate and resolution as the arcade game. It's conclusive proof that Katana "does" Model 3. And that's pre-first generation software knocked up in a couple of weeks! Says our spy, "Katana's the first system that will match or even out-perform contemporary arcade hardware. Think out it: Megadrive conversions were some way off their arcade counterparts (Super Monaco GP) and we all remember the graphical compromises of Daytona USA on Saturn. This new system actually leap-frogs ahead of Model 3 in many important areas of the specification and as far I know, that's a first"

and

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/?page=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_story.php(que)id=8993&domain=nintendo



"The last demo was of Super GT. First part of the demo was just the first city track. No cars to race with. The camera just move continuously around the track. The camera could be pan 360 degree around as it goes around the track. When the camera was moving on a straight part of the race track, you can see pop up far way off. Of course, that could easily hidden with some fog effect. The glass house part of the track was easily done, since it as like the water effect,
but without the ripple of the water.

"The second part of the demo was two GT cars with a nice wax job on the straight road bridge over water. The two cars was waiving left and right. Again, first in shown in daylight, then at
night with the light from the street lights on the bridge. The last part was with only the headlight of the cars. Seeing the light car behind hit the one in front as it waived back and forth was incredible.

"That kind of lighting effects use to use huge amounts of time to render, the Katana is doing it in real time. The demos were basically showing of the 3D power of the Katana.

also, I pulled this from a Sega Base article:

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:Kj-MM0vWN70J:www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/segabase_archives/Why%2520the%2520Dreamcast%2520Failed.txt+%22Super+ GT%22+Katana+demo&hl=en



On 20 October 1997, Sega of Japan gave a private in-house demonstration to several software companies who had expressed interest in developing for Sega's next video game console. The console in question was the 128-bit Dural prototype system; the game demonstrated for consideration was a workable port of Sega's first-ever Model 3 arcade game, the highly regarded road racer Super GT (aka Scud Race in Japan). Sega's visitors were reportedly impressed by how well the arcade-quality port looked on the console.

[jollyrogerdev]

I'll try and put one of my Set2 cards in my PC and see if I can get the Scud Race demo up and running.
If I manage to, I'll post some screenshots and maybe a video on my website...

Jollyroger

[VitAmen]

yeah i know about gigadrive,if it actually ever existed...and btw,stay away from Segabase texts...Outdated and huge source of SERIOUS misinformation and speculation...i assume that is there where you heard about gigadrive,so that is why i doubt its existence;)

As for Dural,some say it was the Sega-Nvidia project.Segabase says Dural was the system the scud race demo run on,while we all know katana was the bizniss;)

Anyway,take care

[GigaDrive]

no I did not hear about GigaDrive from SegaBase, I read about it in EGM, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment and other magazines back in 1991-1993, until the preliminary Saturn info was revealed in summer and fall of 1993. usually if something is widely reported (such as the GigaDrive) there has to be some truth to it. SegaBase merely picked up on it. best thing to do if you doubt somethings existance, is try the internet. google the subject and see what the overall concensous is.


Dural was not the Sega-Nvidia project as far as I know. Dural is the Dreamcast. therefore Dural is also the Katana. they are all the same machine. just different code names. like Nintendo's Project Reality / Ultra 64 / Nintendo 64. they're all one and the same.

Dural/Katana (Dreamcast) ran the Scud Race demo.

BlackBelt of course, was Sega's internal competitor to Dural/Katana/Dreamcast.

does anyone recall the Black Belt HeadQuarters from 1997 ? ...it was basicly a BBS that sprung up shortly after the March 13 BlackBelt revelation by Next Generation Online.

the exact URL was: http://www.geocities.com/~bbhq/index.html

I remember having some interesting discussions there on BlackBelt and Dural....

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Do you know why this demo is tied up to the card? I mean, if the Set2 is a early DC dev kit, why the demo doesn't run on a standart DC like the demos from the others kits??

GigaDrive: You are right, Dural was Dreamcast's first project name, later renamed Katana.


I'll try and put one of my Set2 cards in my PC and see if I can get the Scud Race demo up and running.
If I manage to, I'll post some screenshots and maybe a video on my website...

Jollyroger

[jollyrogerdev]

The Set2 Development kit is a PCI card that contains an early prototype of the NEC/VideoLogic PowerVR2 graphics chip, that had a couple of features still missing compared to the final unit.

The R2 SDK libraries enabled early Dreamcast development by using the PC CPU to execute the applications with only the graphics primitives being actually handled by the prototype PowerVR2.

This is why the demo would not work on, say a Set5.24 Development kit, the binaries were compiled for a x86 processor and the graphics library was essentially a windows driver for the PowerVR card.

Jollyroger

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

That explains all...and it's very cool.

I would love to find one of those...


PD


The Set2 Development kit is a PCI card that contains an early prototype of the NEC/VideoLogic PowerVR2 graphics chip, that had a couple of features still missing compared to the final unit.

The R2 SDK libraries enabled early Dreamcast development by using the PC CPU to execute the applications with only the graphics primitives being actually handled by the prototype PowerVR2.

This is why the demo would not work on, say a Set5.24 Development kit, the binaries were compiled for a x86 processor and the graphics library was essentially a windows driver for the PowerVR card.

Jollyroger

[jollyrogerdev]

I have two Set2 boards, and I don't really want to sell them; some pictures of one of them are in my site:
http://jollyrogerdev.ath.cx

Jollyroger

[Anonymous]

I'm only going to say this, so take it at face value and nothing more.

One of the proto GD-Rs in my collection is an arcade perfect version of Blitz (which was never released in its original form). Midway simply recompiled the arcade code. In its arcade form the game ran on 3Dfx hardware (the Seattle board). The same was also done with Hydrothunder, however that ran on the more powerful Vegas hardware and didn't run quite as well. One might surmise that if source code, written for 3Dfx hardware could be recompiled and run perfectly on the DC that the DC compiler (made by Sega) had some awfully specific knowledge of the 3Dfx inner workings.

Running the disc is actually kind of cool because like I said *all* of the original stuff is there...including the "powered by 3Dfx" ad. Neat to see that running on a DC.

-hl718

[antime]

More likely Midway wrote some compatibility wrappers for Glide.

[Anonymous]

3dfx hardware was great.... not only in performance and stability in its time, the GLIDE library, while a nightmare to end users, was FANTASTIC. By far the most simplistic, yet powerful graphics library I have ever had the priviledge of working with. In many ways, it was similar to OpenGL, but... I dont know how to explain it... just better.


Yes the hardware was great but dont forget the chip that was going to be used was a voodoo 2, yes it was fast yes it could do a lot but it had many failiings just like the Voodo 3.

1:) Voodoo 2 did not support texture compression, where as the Nec PowerVR could compress around 100 meg of textures into its 8meg ram.
2:) 16 bit colour was all it supported in 3D.
3:) Voodoo chipsets were generally more expesnive because of it using more than 1 chip on the card usually 3.
4:) Voodoo 2 lacked many of the features that the powervr 2 had e.g. hardware bump mapping(looks amazing), texture compression.

I think sega were wise to go with the PowerVR2 as it was a much superior chip, even when the voodoo 3 came out 3dfx didnt fix the problems that the voodoo 2 had and thats what helped make them fall.

[ASSEMbler]

Japanese coders already liked the nec setup. Given that most games were coded in Japan, it was a wise decision.

[Anonymous]

Please anyone, show us some Scud-Race demo screens! :smt040

[Guapo79]

That was me :smt040 (above post)

I think threads like this are very interesting, please keep the info coming! :smt023

[jollyrogerdev]

Give me some time and eventually I should be able to post the screenshots.
Consider that the R2 SDK is meants to run on Windows98, my PCs at home are XP and 2000, I will have to work on it for a bit installing everything.

Jollyroger

[Guapo79]

With a reward like that (screens & stuff) take any time you need. I am looking forward to this :smt023

[SuperGrafx]

I'd also like to see some Scud Race screens. Please! ;)

[VitAmen]

hmm...jolly the docs report that on fast host systems (>300 mhz) the scud race demo crashes...if i remember correctly you will need to replace teh latest drivers with the previous ones...

[jollyrogerdev]

don't worry, I have read the R2 docs, I'll manage to run it at some point...

Jollyroger

[Guapo79]

Ok, we'll be eagerly waiting for the screencandy :drinkers:

[Paulo]

Ok, we'll be eagerly waiting for the screencandy :drinkers:

damn yes :smt023

[jollyrogerdev]

The goodies are out there :-) look for the Set2.1 topic...

Jollyroger

[Guapo79]

Tnx for the pics and vids, they are awesome! :smt040

Are there more tech-demo's that can be shown?

[jollyrogerdev]

Yes there are more, but most of them are simple demos like spinning cubes with light sources or examples of various texture formats...

Jollyroger

[Guapo79]

Are there any nice ones?

[jollyrogerdev]

hmm, nothing very exciting... :-)

Jollyroger

[Anonymous]

A pitty :smt009 I want more! :smt022

[negora]

Hi there!

I know that what I'm gonna say could start a big argument about this theme, but that Black Belt pic which someone has shown some messages before, I think, it's part of a group of internal pics of SEGA, showing different models of Saturn. Time ago I got some "private" information from a friend. Later, some of these pics were shown to some magazines and they published these pics...

Some of these pics are:

http://trashthesystem.co.uk/dreamennia/saturn-beep.jpg
http://trashthesystem.co.uk/dreamennia/saturn-famitsu.jpg
http://trashthesystem.co.uk/dreamennia/saturn-megafan.jpg

I haven't found the pic which has been showed here, but I'm almost sure that I looked this before...

About if there's any Black Belt protoype (including plastics) I doubt that hardly. As someone of you have said, I think it's merely circuits and more circuits. Usually, the design of a system starts when the components have been defintively choosen, althought they change the schemes later (althought there're some exceptions, sure)

Ops, I'm new :P . Salutes to you all.

[Alien Workshop]

Hi there!

I know that what I'm gonna say could start a big argument about this theme, but that Black Belt pic which someone has shown some messages before, I think, it's part of a group of internal pics of SEGA, showing different models of Saturn. Time ago I got some "private" information from a friend. Later, some of these pics were shown to some magazines and they published these pics...

Some of these pics are:

http://trashthesystem.co.uk/dreamennia/saturn-beep.jpg
http://trashthesystem.co.uk/dreamennia/saturn-famitsu.jpg
http://trashthesystem.co.uk/dreamennia/saturn-megafan.jpg

I haven't found the pic which has been showed here, but I'm almost sure that I looked this before...

About if there's any Black Belt protoype (including plastics) I doubt that hardly. As someone of you have said, I think it's merely circuits and more circuits. Usually, the design of a system starts when the components have been defintively choosen, althought they change the schemes later (althought there're some exceptions, sure)

Ops, I'm new :P . Salutes to you all.

Nice, but you should have posted those pics in the "The Original Saturn/Project Jupiter" Thread :smt023

[GigaDrive]

those are nice early Saturn pics. they should go in the Jupiter thread :)

[VitAmen]

Hey Negora!How are you?How's the weather at Spain?Remember me,iwe had communicated for your DC petition some time ago in case you needed help.

Anyway,it is possible that the "Blackbelt" Picture might be a Saturn design...CD,cart port,2 pads...

[negora]

Hola Vitamen and all ;) :

Oooops. Someone has known me, he he he. Well, althought I've been around here for some years, I've started to post recently. And I think I'll start to come here more frecuently, because I've found this place very interesting.

I'm sorry about that pics. I haven't seen the Jupiter / Saturn thread until this morning :P . Then, it was late for me to change the pics of place. Anyway, if you haven't done yet, I can put them there too.

Vitamen, it has passed much time Eh? ;) I think we all have changed much. At least, me :P . Nowdays, I'm a little more pragmatic. I love continuing finding rare items. It's sad, some time ago, I had to re-sell much material I had, since I've just began to work and, that years, I hadn't enough money to maintain them. Manye times I just "worked" like a simple representative between de seller and the buyer. I hope this changes from now :) .

Uys, I apologize you all for this "off topic" ;) . Coming back to the Black Belt theme, I remember that I've seen that "fake" Black Belt model before. And althought I didn't, look, as Vitamen comments, the components of the design. Even the ports are very similar to the Saturn ones. When I've sorted all my material, I'll try to look for any similar pic.

After having followed many projects very close, it's obvious that the design of a console starts when all the components and schemes are finished (or almost). The Katana project is the perfect example, since that all curious designs (including the pad) were started once SEGA of Japan had diagrams ready. In fact, the main form of a console isn't a direct decision of the case designers. Even the marketing department take part in this decision, having in mind some "psychological" aspects, like colors, basic forms... It sounds stupid, ok, but if experts believe this work... Because of all that it's why I think a project like Black Belt had ever any case design.

Salutes. I hope we've much to share among us :) .

[Anonymous]

The blackbelt photo shown in this thread is indeed one of the BlackBelt designs that were proposed from Sega of America.

Had this confirmed by an insider.

[ASSEMbler]

I would say that the working hardware is probably the size of a sophia, uses a custom ICE and is probably tucked away somewhere.

Even if the code for the demo gets out, you'll need to do a reverse emu just from the code.

It's not like M2 where there's finished "retail" units around.

I just want to confirm if part of the lawsuit involved handing the rights to the project over to SEGA, or if it involved destruction of the project items. It very obviosly wasn't at 3DO as that was picked clean in the auction.

It may have even been a demo done on a custom
pc...

The DC is in a PC style case, I would suspect black belt looks
similar though probably much larger.

[Anonymous]

the guy i talked with did not mention if there was something working made.He just told me that the unit pictured in the black and white poster was one of the many designs proposed by Sega of America.

Anothet guy from the same source told me that a working prototype was made and it ran a demo,albeit he did not know anything about its form.

[Anthaemia.]

I'm not too familiar with all the details regarding BlackBelt, and I know that I won't be the first person to point out the similarity between those prototype mock-up pictures and the Saturn. Does anyone else remember a different concept printed in C&VG that was essentially a Saturn with four controller ports? Was this an official design, or simply a guess from the magazine's art staff? Their recent attempts at creating a case for the Nintendo DS were actually quite accurate, or at least they will be if the hardware shown at E3 is the final design...

[Anonymous]

Read my 2 posts above.They are as official as they get.

The picture presented here was indeed a blackbelt design.The man who gave it was from Sega of Europe,the sources i spoke with are as official as they get.Now we only have to learn about the working prototype.

period.

[Anthaemia.]

From past experiences, it seems that people from Sega of Europe are more prepared to talk about prototype hardware (and software, for that matter) than their American or Japanese counterparts. Sadly, most of the important developments were either based in the US or Japan - SOE was sticking with SOA throughout the Saturn's life, though by the end they had grown closer to SOJ, so it's likely that this particular department has to answer to more NDA's than any other, which is surprising when you consider that workers can reveal such information as that mentioned in this topic already. Is there any information on the "Dural" project that can be leaked? I remember this being another name spread around in magazines during the Dreamcast's early R&D stages, but I always thought that "BlackBelt" and "Katana" were the official titles of the rival 128-bit designs led by SOA and SOJ respectively. This whole subject is why I love Sega so much - no other console manufacturer ever had so many confusing internal projects on the go at the same time!

[antime]

As was explained earlier in the thread, Dural is another name for Katana.

[negora]

Dural, Katana, Dreamcast... Just in the D day in which SEGA of Japan announced Dreamcast, they explained that up to 1000 names had been considered. Taking this into account... Now, it's time to find the famous list of names, he he he :P.

Talking about SEGA of Europe, I think in this like an "arm" directly "subjugated" to SEGA of Japan. However, since its origin, SEGA of America has always been much more independet and has been able to work more independtly. And, exactly, that's been the biggest problem at SEGA: each part did what almost they wanted. SEGA of Europe has been an expectator of the movements of each part. I like that, at the Present, it's able to take more active part in some projects, like producing or developing games (althought we haven't own studios here)

It's curious that an image of Black Belt come from Europe, taking in account that SEGA of America, at least in my opinion, has had much more problems to control the "theft" of `private information. And it's also surprising that they had a design of the cover without having a final internal structure of the console. I think it hasn't sense to start an external design without knowing what ports or structure a console is going to have. Sincerely, I've been following the SEGA saga since much time ago and I still think it's one of the most dark cases in its history...

Salutes.

[HI_Ricky]

Dreamcast have 2 development library, one is KatanaR and next is windowsCE SDK for dreamcast...

[madhatter256]

I bought a magazine from a locally owned video game store. Its an EGM mag and it talks about Sega's 64bit plans. I don't have a scanner but I'll have my friend scan a few pages of it.

It talks about 3DFX and why Sega chose the company. It also covers the SH chips from SH 1 - 2 - 3 - 3E - DSP - 4.

[GigaDrive]

I remember that article in EGM. its from either April, May or June 1997, in all likelihood.

[madhatter256]

I remember that article in EGM. its from either April, May or June 1997, in all likelihood.

Very close. Its from July 1997.

[GigaDrive]

thanks for the correction Madhatter, i thought it was spring 1997 but it was summer. probably written up in May or early June though.

[ASSEMbler]

Anyone have this in a good scan so I can put up a pdf on it?

Bump. Anyone care if these are sticky or not?

[Blur2040]

I think it's a good topic...but information doesn't exactly show up that often.

[palese]

The Black Belt looks pretty cool, where did you find that picture?

http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic78521.html

[bnwim]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Contacts: (Editorial Contact) (Investor Relations)

Chris Kramer Laura Onopchenko

3Dfx Interactive, Inc. 3Dfx Interactive, Inc.

408/935-4322 408/935-4312

chrisk@3dfx.com onopchenko@3dfx.com

http://www.3dfx.com


3DFX INTERACTIVE ANNOUNCES THAT SEGA ENTERPRISES LTD. HAS TERMINATED THE CONTRACT FOR 3D GRAPHICS PROCESSOR



SAN JOSE, Calif -- July 22, 1997 -- 3Dfx Interactive has learned from Sega Enterprises LTD. today that Sega will not use the 3Dfx 3D graphics processing chipset for the next generation Sega home gaming console.

This announcement comes despite an existing contract for 3Dfx Interactive to develop the 3D graphics engine for Sega's next video game system.

``We are disappointed with this notification, and believe that it is without legal justification,'' said Greg Ballard, President and CEO, 3Dfx Interactive. ``However, it is important to remember that Sega is only a fraction of our business, representing less than 10 percent of our projected 1998 revenue. Our base business of selling 3D accelerator chips into the PC market remains strong and is even strengthening. We will release our earnings after the market closes on Thursday, July 24, and anticipate that they will be consistent with analysts' expectations. In addition, the rest of 1997 already looks to be very positive.''

3Dfx Interactive has been working under contract with Sega since March of this year to develop and license a proprietary chipset for use in the new Sega game console. Sega has an equity investment of nearly $2 million in 3Dfx Interactive, and has funded development of the chipset to date.

3Dfx Interactive believes that, under the terms of its contract with Sega, this decision by Sega requires the Company to explore its options, including legal recourse.

3Dfx Interactive, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:TDFX ), develops high performance, cost-effective 3D media processors, software and related technology that are designed to enable a highly immersive, interactive and realistic 3D experience across the three primary interactive electronic entertainment platforms -- the personal computer, the home game console and the coin-operated arcade system -- as well as location-based entertainment ("LBE") systems. Current 3Dfx Interactive products include the Voodoo family of accelerator chipsets, Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush.

Note to Editors: This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations. A wide variety of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially. These include, but are not limited to, the growth rate of the interactive electronic entertainment industry and the related requirements for graphics systems, continued demand and market acceptance for the company's existing products, new product announcements or product introductions by the company's competitors and other competitive pressures, as well as 3Dfx Interactive's continued ability to develop and successfully market new products. Additional risks are described in the company's SEC report on Form S-1. This document is available upon request to the Company's Investor Relations Department and is posted on the SEC's home page on the World Wide Web.
3Dfx Interactive, Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush are trademarks of 3Dfx Interactive.



###

Sega Withholds Black Belt Announcement

Sega has decided against showing its new hardware hand this early in the game.

April 5, 1997

While both Microsoft and Sega were expected to make announcements regarding their roles in a new system, Black Belt, Sega has decided to hold back its announcement. Both companies know that leaks have revealed much of what current plans are, but Sega and Microsoft will be waiting before officially admitting the existence of the top secret hardware. It seems that the majority of Saturn owners are not pleased at the prospect of new hardware and the announcement of such a system is likely to `spook the horses' in terms of future Saturn sales.

To recap what is currently known of the system (which is still being designed), it will have:

- A 3DFx-based graphics sub-system
- 16MB general RAM
- 2-8MB texture RAM
- A Microsoft OS likely to be some form of DirectX as a part of its `arcade initiative'

The hardware design is being conducted in the US by both Sega and SegaSoft and does not include perennial hardware partner Lockheed Martin. Internal teams are already working on three games including Virtua Fighter 3, a soccer game and a basketball game. Third parties should be receiving development kits as early is the first quarter of 1998, with an ambitious Japanese release scheduled for Christmas 1998. The US isn't expected to see the system until mid-1999.

Black Belt CPU Comparison

There are currently two processors being considered for the CPU of Black Belt.

May 2, 1997

The PowerPC 603e and the Hitachi SH4 are currently the two processors under consideration by Sega for use in Black Belt. Both processors are extremely good at floating point calculations.

PowerPC 603e

Specification

16-Kbyte instruction and 16-Kbyte data caches
Superscalar--3 instructions per clock cycle
On-chip power management
32/64-bit data bus mode
Fully JTAG-compliant Performance

166 MHz
SPECint95* 3.9 (1) - 4.5 (2)
SPECfp95* 2.5 (1) - 3.3 (2)


200 MHz
SPECint95* 4.4 (1) - 5.1 (3)
SPECfp95* 2.8 (1) - 3.7 (3)


240 MHz
SPECint95* 4.9 (1) - 6.3 (3)
SPECfp95* 3.1 (1) - 4.6 (3)


*Estimated performance.
(1) 66 MHz Bus, L2 - 512 KB, 70 ns DRAM
(2) 66 MHz Bus, L2 - 1 MB, 60 ns DRAM
(3) 66 MHz Bus, L2 - 1 MB, SDRAM


Hitachi SH-4

While the SH-4 is not yet in production, it was initially announced at the Microprocessor Forum in October of 1996. Hitachi announced that it would have first silicon in the first quarter of 1997 with production beginning late in the second quarter of 1997.

The design of the SH-4 itself lends itself well to generation of 3D graphics. Current specifications are:

200MHz
360 Dhrystone v1.1 MIPS
2-way superscalar
32-bit integer, 64-bit floating point
8Kbyte instruction cache, 16Kbyte data cache
5 stage pipeline
floating-point unit that can do the following:




scalar product in 3 cycles, fully pipelined (single-precision floating point) using just 1 instruction
matrix transform in 7 cycles, partially pipelined, single- precision floating point, using 1 instruction. That's 16 multiplies and 12 additions, all single-precision fp, in 1 instruction.
208 or 256-pin package


1.8 Watts worst-case power consumption Even at the processor's initial announcement last October, certain magazines were already considering the possibility of its use in the next Sega console. According to the October 28th issue of Microprocessor Report: "The new core seems likely to appear in videogames, possibly from Sega, but it may not debut until 1998." Such predictions are looking more and more possible considering the proposed timing of Black Belt.

Prices have not yet been announced for the Hitachi chip yet, but it is expected to be the cheaper of the two possible solutions before Sega right now. As it stands now, Sega has still not made a decision as yet upon which processor to use as its CPU.

[Paulo]

Nice info!

Have you got a source for all of these?

[bnwim]

The Real Dural Specs

September 17, 1997

Coming straight from developer documentation and manuals


Dural. And super-console is definitely what it is. With blistering technology and incredible features, it looks like it'll make Sony and Nintendo's current game systems look flaccid by comparison. While these specifications aren't massively different from what Next Generation Online has reported in the past, they are the current definitive stats as far as the developer manuals specify. Dural, AKA Black Belt and Dragon (which actually refers to the Microsoft Windows CE OS), is an incredible piece of gaming technology that Sega have provisionally set for a Fall `98 release. But this is very dependent on the delivery of killer app software that is required to clearly demonstrate Dural as a quantum leap in gaming technology. We have seen many times in the past that superior technology alone is not enough to seduce consumers - it's games that maketh a system.

The machine has been developed by Sega in conjunction with a variety of big-name partners. Biggest of all has to be Microsoft, who are creating the WinCE Operating System which will allegedly make the Dural easy to use and allow for the development of non-gaming utilities. Certainly, a decent, intuitive operating system would be a first for a games machine, and with a modem, keyboard and mouse also in development, it's clear that Dural isn't just going to be a pure gaming machine. Three other partners are also involved in the hardware development - Hitachi, NEC and Yamaha who are supplying the Dural's SH-4 CPU, PowerVR2 graphics chip and ARM7 sound chip respectively.


UNDER THE HOOD

HITACHI SH-4 CPU

While the SH-4 is not yet in production, it was initially announced at the Microprocessor Forum in October of 1996. Hitachi announced that it would have first silicon in the first quarter of 1997 with production beginning late in the second quarter of 1997.

The design of the SH-4 itself lends itself well to generation of 3D graphics. Current specifications are:


- 200MHz
- 360 Dhrystone v1.1 MIPS
- 2-way superscalar
- 32-bit integer, 64-bit floating point
- 8Kbyte instruction cache, 16Kbyte data cache
- 5 stage pipeline
- floating-point unit that can do the following:
- scalar product in 3 cycles, fully pipelined (single-precision floating point) using just 1 instruction matrix transform in 7 cycles, partially pipelined, single-precision floating point, using 1 instruction. That's 16 multiplies and 12 additions, all single-precision fp, in 1 instruction.
- 208 or 256-pin package
- 1.8 Watts worst-case power consumption

Even at the processor's initial announcement last October, certain magazines were already considering the possibility of its use in the next Sega console. According to the October 28th issue of Microprocessor Report: "The new core seems likely to appear in videogames, possibly from Sega, but it may not debut until 1998." Such predictions are looking more and more possible considering the proposed timing of Black Belt.

GRAPHICS

If the SH-4 is the heart of the system, the PowerVR2 graphics chip are the lungs. With a screen-blistering 1.5 million polygons per second and with mip-mapping, texture filtering and hardware fogging, light and shadow, the PowerVR2 (otherwise known as Highlander) is capable of delivering incredible quality visuals. While these specs on the surface would indicate greater than Model 3 performance, rendering quality isn't expected to be as high as the expensive arcade board despite the impressive specs.

On an interesting technical note, the PowerVR chip supports both Open GL and D3D, which will apparently make ports to and from the PC relatively straightforward.

SOUND

A Yamaha audio ASIC will be used based upon the ARM 7 core (who licensed the technology from Advanced RISC Machines for exactly these sort of applications). Yamaha's version of the ARM7 is a small, but noisy beast capable of singing in 64 simultaneous voices (think of the potential - a full choral version of the Daytona soundtrack). It also sports a plethora of DSP effects that promise to make games sound as good as they look.

The base ARM7 chip uses 36,000 transistors and runs at a 45MHz clock speed pulling an average of 40 MIPs.

MEDIA

Dural is a CD-based games system, and Sega is utilizing a rather unusual Yamaha CD drive to this end. Running at 12x speed, Dural's CD-ROM features dual density capability that allows games to be delivered on either regular density CD's, Dural-specific 1 Gig super-density dics or both.

MODEM

Dural will definitely feature modem capability in the form of a card (possibly similar to PCMCIA specifications), but it is unclear at present whether or not this will come standard, or will be available as an add-on. Speeds being considered for the modem were not specified in the developer manuals. If Sega are serious about making this a truly next generation multimedia/gaming machine, we feel it should definitely come standard.

DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS

The Dural development system exists in rudimentary form at present, but developers will be receiving updated chips and kits over the course of several phases during the next five months to create a complete and final development kit by February `98. The final SDK is expected to be completed late spring of `98.

However, with only a year to go until the system hits the streets, it seems that developers will have their work cut out to create games for launch. Obviously, we'll keep you updated on this.

SUMMARY SPECS:

CPU: Hitachi SH-4 200 MHz CPU
GRAPHICS CHIP: PowerVR2 (Highlander)
SOUND CHIP: Yamaha ARM7-based ASIC
MAIN RAM: 8 Megabytes
VIDEO/TEXTURE RAM: 8 Megabytes
AUDIO RAM: 2 Megabytes
CACHES: 8k instruction/16k data/128K CD ROM buffer
MODEM: Modem card (possibly PCMCIA based)
OUTPUT: VGA and 640x240 anti-aliased RF
CD ROM: Custom dual format


Have you got a source for all of these?

Yes, the Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org) ;-)


Examples from 3dfx.com:

January 27, 1998 - Court Enters Injunction Against Sega (http://web.archive.org/web/19980421232242/http://www.3dfx.com/news/press/980127c.html)

September 2, 1997 - 3Dfx Interactive Files Lawsuit Against Sega Enterprises, Sega of America and NEC Corporation. (http://web.archive.org/web/19980421232242/http://www.3dfx.com/news/press/970902.html)

July 23, 1997 - 3Dfx Interactive Announces That Sega Enterprises Ltd. Has Terminated the Contract for 3D Graphics Processor (http://web.archive.org/web/19980421232242/http://www.3dfx.com/news/press/970723.html)

etc, etc ....


There are a lot of info at old websites, but some links doesn´t work

[Paulo]

Ah thats good cos not seen any of these before! Nice to have them on an official website.

[GigaDrive]

Sega Withholds Black Belt Announcement

Sega has decided against showing its new hardware hand this early in the game.

April 5, 1997

While both Microsoft and Sega were expected to make announcements regarding their roles in a new system, Black Belt, Sega has decided to hold back its announcement. Both companies know that leaks have revealed much of what current plans are, but Sega and Microsoft will be waiting before officially admitting the existence of the top secret hardware. It seems that the majority of Saturn owners are not pleased at the prospect of new hardware and the announcement of such a system is likely to `spook the horses' in terms of future Saturn sales.

To recap what is currently known of the system (which is still being designed), it will have:

- A 3DFx-based graphics sub-system
- 16MB general RAM
- 2-8MB texture RAM
- A Microsoft OS likely to be some form of DirectX as a part of its `arcade initiative'

The hardware design is being conducted in the US by both Sega and SegaSoft and does not include perennial hardware partner Lockheed Martin. Internal teams are already working on three games including Virtua Fighter 3, a soccer game and a basketball game. Third parties should be receiving development kits as early is the first quarter of 1998, with an ambitious Japanese release scheduled for Christmas 1998. The US isn't expected to see the system until mid-1999.


thanks for posting this one! I remember it

[GigaDrive]

http://217.158.191.134/pma/10112 from Totalgames.net link broken.




Dreamcast Story, The
''A do-or-die machine which will decide whether Sega stays in the hardware biz''



Dreamcast is a system born out of Sega’s darkest hour, a do-or-die machine which will decide whether the company stays in the hardware business. Its precursor, the 32bit Sega Saturn, had been widely expected to conquer the world with Nintendo’s own second next generation system heavily delayed -- due to the collapse of an alliance with Sony -- and neither Atari nor 3DO seriously threatening mass market success.

All that changed with the November ’93 announcement of the Sony PlayStation, a system which would heavily defeat Sega’s system and become a considerable influence on how Sega designed Dreamcast. Although there had been rumours of Sony producing a console, what came as a heavy shock to Sega was the technical superiority of the PlayStation. While the Saturn had been designed as perhaps the ultimate 2D arcade machine, albeit with a substantial 3D capability, PlayStation was totally committed to polygons.

Sega boss Hayao Nakayama angrily berated Sega’s engineers for their failings, but it was too late to totally redesign the system if the 1994 launch was too proceed. Instead, Sega added yet another processor to an already over-complicated design. In terms of raw power, the new Saturn was much more of a match for PlayStation, but it would never be an easy machine to program for. The twin CPU design in particular demanded highly specialised machine code rather than the C most Japanese developers prefered: barely a year after Saturn’s launch a key Sega manager admitted only one in a hundred programmers would have the skill to use the machine’s full potential.

Ironically, the Saturn’s Japanese launch would be Sega’s best ever performance in its home territory. Even a flawed version of Virtua Fighting was enough to transform the company’s traditional weakness in its home territory. Overseas, however, it was to be a different matter. Scepticism about the prospects of a CD-ROM machine succeeding in the cost-sensitive US market meant Saturn was originally partnered with a low-cost, cart-based system codenamed Jupiter -- principally due to American scepticism that a CD-ROM machine could be competitively priced. When Saturn was upgraded, Jupiter got axed in favour of Mars, an upgrade for Sega’s 16bit Mega Drive which was supposed to protect the company’s hugely lucrative US market. In fact, 32X was an unmitigated disaster, drawing vital developer support away from Saturn and destroying the company’s reputation among gamers who found themselves with an add-on with barely a handful of games.

The Saturn debacle would cost the jobs of Sega’s American and Japanese bosses, beside reducing its US empire to a ruin running up losses of $167 million in 1997. For any replacement machine the lessons were clear: a single format, complete user-friendliness for developers and a new brand -- so low had sunk the once mighty Sega name.

As soon as any console is launched, work is usually underway on a replacement but the Saturn’s troubles gave this process an unusual urgency for Sega. By 1995, rumours surfaced that US defence contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. were already deep into the development of a replacement, possibly even with a view to releasing it as a Saturn upgrade. There were even claims that during Saturn’s pre-launch panic a group of managers argued the machine should simply be scrapped in favour of an all-new LMC design.

Sega originally entered into partnership with LMC to solve problems with its Model 2 coin-op board, however by 1995 the relationship had soured somewhat with the Model 3 board suffering massive delays. Around the same time, 3DO began shopping around its 64bit M2 system. According to informed sources, Sega’s Japanese bankers had brokered an unwritten deal whereby Matsushita would manufacture M2 units, while Sega would concentrate on the software. M2 devkits were supplied to Sega in early 1996, with initial work reputedly concentrating on a Virtua Fighter 3 conversion for M2’s launch.

Sega’s M2 project soon fell apart however. 3DO’s Trip Hawkins blamed corporate ‘egos’ for the collapse, while Sega insisted its engineers were unconvinced M2 was the breakthrough technology they needed. Instead, the company was increasingly preoccupied by the PC market -- unlike Nintendo, it was fully prepared to convert its games onto the format and in mid-1995 it had entered into a partnership with PC graphics card manufacturer nVidia. Under the terms of the deal, Sega would supply ports of key Saturn titles exclusively for the nVidia PC graphics card. At the time, pundits wondered if Sega might be switching from Saturn to nVidia as its principal platform.

By 1996, this speculation was ebbing away as two clear frontrunners emerged in the PC graphics market: VideoLogic’s PowerVR and 3Dfx’s Voodoo chipsets. Sega approached both companies to be partners in two parallel Saturn 2 projects, each of which having minimal if any knowledge of the other. The 3Dfx-Sega of America project was codenamed Black Belt, while the VideoLogic-Sega of Japan system was known as Dural. Although console development is usually shrouded in total secrecy, Saturn 2’s development coincided with the rise of the Internet and Black Belt soon became a popular topic of gossip. For a time, many presumed Black Belt was the only new Sega system.

All this changed on July 22nd, 1997, when 3Dfx was informed them Black Belt was cancelled. It was a shattering blow -- "Our contract with Sega was considered to be gospel right up until we received the call," admitted marketing manager Chris Kramer. Two months later, 3Dfx issued a lawsuit against Sega while blaming VideoLogic’s Japanese backers, NEC, for bringing influence to bear on a decision which would otherwise have gone to 3Dfx. An initial burst of publicity soon gave way to highly confidential discussions which settled the lawsuit away from the public eye in August 1998.

For outsiders, 3Dfx had always been the favoured partner due to their leadership in the PC market, moreover Sega let it be known the decision to cancel wasn’t due to either performance or cost reasons. What may have been a factor is 3Dfx’s very strength made it a difficult partner for Sega, VideoLogic’s second-place status obviously made it the hungrier partner. Moreover, whereas 3Dfx see themselves as creating a new gaming platform around their Voodoo hardware and Glide software, VideoLogic were much more eager to use Microsoft’s Direct3D API.

Whatever the reasoning behind the decision, the PowerVR decision further dampened excitement about a machine soon to be redubbed Katana. In January ’98, UK trade newspaper CTW ran a savage onslaught upon the new format: "When one looks at a format owner that actually struggles to garner interest in its latest hardware announcements, you know it''s in trouble. From Black Belt to Dural and Katana, journalists have leapt into headline mode, but the level of disinterest elsewhere is palpable." Commenting upon the latest redundancies in America and Britain, Dinsey wondered whether the company was "giving up and trying to re-invent itself as a PC publisher."

In May, Sega gave its response with the official announcement of its new system, its specifications and that controversial name: Dreamcast. The marketing campaign began with the announcement of the marketing campaign and its $100 million budget for each territory: America, Europe and Japan. Sega boss Shoichiro Irimajiri put the cost of hardware development at $50-80 million, software development at $150-200 million, which with marketing added up to half a billion dollars.

The PR statements were suitably bullish: "Dreamcast is Sega’s bridge to world-wide market leadership for the 21st century" commented Sega US VP Bernie Stolar. "I am confident that Dreamcast will become a de facto standard for digital entertainment" claimed Sega chairman Isso Okawa. However, it was at E3 itself that the tide really began to turn for Sega with bravura software demos finally earning the machine journalists’ respect. Post E3 reports were full of adoration , as impressed by the restoration of Sega’s old self-confidence as the raw processing power on show. Dreamcast’s launch date was set as November 20th and this time all Sony can threaten is the announcement of new hardware -- 1998 is Dreamcast’s alone.

From E3 onwards, Sega orchestrated a careful drumbeat of announcements, including the launch of the VMS unit on July 11th to tie-in with the Godzilla movie and a much hyped August 22nd PR event for Sega’s old mascot in Sonic Adventure. In September, Sega ran an ad showing MD Eiichi Yukawa being abused by members of the public who preferred Sony -- and promising all would change with Dreamcast’s arrival. And so it is, everything now rests with the machine and its software.


Written By: Stuart Wynne

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Great read! SEGA's history after 1994 is very confusing. You can see SEGA lost theirs focus:
Partership with 3DFX, Nvidia, Matsushita, almost merging with Bandai...

It's a piitty for a great company :(

[BLUamnEsiac]

There was mention of PowerVR and Sega's next console (Dreamcast) in GamePro's May 1998 issue.
4916

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

I often think that if conditions had been just a little bit different in the late 90s, a different graphics company would have come out on top, and that would have had huge consequences on the graphics technology being used today. For example, I think if that company had been Real3D, we would be 5 or 6 years ahead of where we are now. If it had been 3Dfx... well, not really sure about that one.

[LeGIt]

Not sure what any of the above geForce vs VooDoo drama has to do with the Sega Black Belt though... > hits delete