Tom Kalinske: American Samurai

[Melf]

Sega-16 takes a comprehensive look at the tenure and sudden departure of the most successful CEO in Sega of America history in the article Tom Kalinske: American Samurai.

[kool kitty89]

Wow, I finally ended up reading this article and noticed the discussion thread here.
Maybe it's that the article is so old (though the thread was put up much more recently), or that similar discussion on the topic were already taking place, but I for one am a bit surprised that no comments were forthcoming. (especially from certain members who rather oppose some of those views -or others who take a more moderate view on things)

I think it's a bit extreme in some respects and, as in many cases, puts too much emphasis on SoJ's contributions to the problems (and listing SoJ as a whole rather than addressing conflicts within that vary division) in proportion to SoA -which may have had very different problems, but did contribute tot he mess as well, in part due to simply clashing with some of SoA's decisions and others for seemingly no reason at all.

Many things seem rather unclear surrounding the issue: like did SoA actually oppose the Mars project before taking it on and making it their own way. When exactly did the Sony and SGI relations take place, what was SoJ's plans for the "Gigidrive" and what exactly was it prior to getting dropped in 1993 with Sony's threatening specs? etc etc. What was the actual context of the botched spring '95 release of the saturn: did SoA's opposition contribute to the mess? (perhaps being less problematic if they'd just gone with the flow and made sure it was set-up properly with retailers and developers)
How much was actually "discontinued" in 1995 (hardware seems to have been manufactured to '97 at the very least)
Several titles were released in 1996 (some Sega published), and a lot had been released in '95.

What exactly were the original plans for "mars," were they intended to mesh with the original Gigadrive design? (was it something like the supergrafx, or something more)
Japanese engineers and management opposing the Mars design (or at least the 32x) compared to Nakayma insisting an interim console was needed, and SoA apparently offering little resistance.

Then there's the question on why SoA emphasized FMV titles so much for marketing the Sega CD.. not an issue about releasing such titles, but simply relying so heavily on them when even the 3DO wasn't. (not pushing for the advanced hardware features and "3D" capabilities as much, lest alone conventional games with amazing soundtracks)
Especially with the laserdisc arcade market as a warning.

Why did Nakayma ignore not only Kalinske's warnings, but also concerns form prominent Japanese associates/staff, like Okawa, during the Saturn's lifetime. (Sega actually starting to turn around with Okawa as President)

Too much open ended issues IMO.

Interesting article nonetheless.

[j_factor]

My understanding is that the Gigadrive was powered by an NEC V60 CPU, as used in the Model 1 and System 32 arcade boards, and it was a combination of the two in terms of capabilities. If that's true, their "going back to the drawing board" when seeing the Playstation specs certainly makes sense, as Model 1 level graphics obviously wouldn't be very competitive. System 16 (the site) says the Model 1 can do 180,000 (flat shaded) polygons per second, which is the number Playstation is listed as capable of with texture mapping and gourad shading.

I would imagine that a lot of the article's lack of clarity is the deliberate result of a lack of firm answers to these questions from reliable sources.

[Christuserloeser]

^ Giga Drive sounds like a Mega Drive compatible machine - kinda like a MD with a built-in 32X or something like that. Which was what SOJ's designers proposed to SOA.

In my opinion the main issue is the lack of interviews with the Japanese side.

I think it's very likely that the whole idea of having two systems (upgraded MD/G and 'real' 32-bit system) is the result of SOA's confidence in the success of the Genesis and reluctance to introduce a new platform.

The problem was that 32X was just that: a new platform.

[ooXxXoo]

That's it...As soon as I hit the Mega million jackpot I'm rebuilding Sega... And a new system to launch...

[kool kitty89]

My understanding is that the Gigadrive was powered by an NEC V60 CPU, as used in the Model 1 and System 32 arcade boards, and it was a combination of the two in terms of capabilities. If that's true, their "going back to the drawing board" when seeing the Playstation specs certainly makes sense, as Model 1 level graphics obviously wouldn't be very competitive. System 16 (the site) says the Model 1 can do 180,000 (flat shaded) polygons per second, which is the number Playstation is listed as capable of with texture mapping and gourad shading.

I think that's an assumption made from the fact that the concept was built around a system capable of system 32 quality 2D, close to model 1 3D and possibly cut-down model 2 type games.
Rather like the Genesis was meant to be somewhat comperable to the system 16 (and other Sega boards), but was an all-new design. (with chunk of th eVDP reserved for SMS compatibility, plus the Z80)


Also, on the PSX's figures, I believe those (while not the super exaggerated early figures), are still ideal values for peak performance. Also, I believe that's not for gouraud shaded, but "light sourced" polygons, which could simply be flat shading with lighting effects. (different shades for lighting/shadow effects, but still a solid shade per polygon, no gradient)

Some articles claim the original Saturn was very similar to the final one sans the SH2s, using the SH-1 as the main CPU. But that's a bit dubious as the SH-1 is optimized more as an embedded controller than CPU (though soem game consoles have used MCUs in place of CPUs) and the later saturn design seems to be modified in different ways. (it seems pretty advanced for something intended for 1993, it would have been hugely expensive, probably worse than the 3DO -other than the fact it would be sold under a different business model)

The original mars project is also quite vague in design: Sam Pettus's limited description sound like it might be a bit like the supergrafx (by the 128 colors, it could mean 2x genesis VDPs overlaid), but he's not a particularly reliable source for tech descriptions unless he's quoting exactly and not paraphrasing. (a lot of butchered tech info in some of his articles)

I would imagine that a lot of the article's lack of clarity is the deliberate result of a lack of firm answers to these questions from reliable sources.

Exactly my point. There's certain things that aren't so cut and dry, and such should be made clear rather making assumptions.

^ Giga Drive sounds like a Mega Drive compatible machine - kinda like a MD with a built-in 32X or something like that. Which was what SOJ's designers proposed to SOA.

No, from everything I've read surrounding mars (granted pettus's article is the most extensive), it seems that Nakayma felt a need for an interim system to precede Saturn, probably spurred by their dumping the original gigiadrive/saturn in 1993. It might have made sense (as would the 32x) had the Saturn taken around another year to release than it did, but that wasn't the case, and by the time the 32x was nearing release (early/mid '94), that should have been quite clear and would have been the proper time to cancel it in light of that. --Unless, of course, SoA was kept out of the loop in the progress of the Saturn and SoJ wasn't interested in shutting the 32x down.

Had they caught it early enough, a lot less advertising would have been wasted, games in development could be shifted to the Saturn (if SDKs were forthcoming), and of course, no waste of money on hardware or confused consumer base.

I'm not sure if that just ties into the problematic communication between SoJ and SoA, or if SoJ genuinely wanted to screw SoA over (perhaps to "teach them a lesson" as the article implies), I'm not sure.
But if SoJ was paying attention and cared what happened to the western market, they would have stepped in and forced SoA to scrap the 32x... after all they had no qualms about doing just that (on a grander scale) a few months later.

In my opinion the main issue is the lack of interviews with the Japanese side.

I think it's very likely that the whole idea of having two systems (upgraded MD/G and 'real' 32-bit system) is the result of SOA's confidence in the success of the Genesis and reluctance to introduce a new platform.

Having 2 systems out only makes sense if the Saturn really had been delayed until '95/96 in Japan, but that wasn't the case.

The problem was that 32X was just that: a new platform.

Just as an upgraded genesis/MD would be.


Now, we could speculate all over the place, but in the context of a semi-evolutionary design as witht he SG-1000->SMS->MD (with a fair amount of tacked-on hardware simply for compatibility, but not in the extreme), what was proposed back here: http://sega-16.com/forum/showthread....saturn+genesis
That really would have fit the bill in the style of Sega's line of home consoles as well as the concept for gigadrive.
An alternate to the dual VDP set-up, of course, is using a simple bitmap display controller instead (like the 32x), they probably could have built that into a single chip with the modified ASIC from the Sega CD. (and limited the genesis VDP to its old capabilities)
The latter might make more sense given that the color bus had long been removed from the newer versions of the genesis VDP, so they'd have had to change production again, or simply build a new ASIC including a doubled VDP with the bus connected internally.
Given they'd already licensed the core from samsung and designed the custom chips using it, the SVP chip might have been a good inclusion to the design as well (for a similar purpose to Sony's GTE in the PSX), later consolidated into one of the ASICs, of course.

That, and it probably wouldn't have used SH2s if Sega really intended it to be released in 1993. (early 1994 would be the earliest -which does give some support to the presumption that the early saturn used an SH1 and the SH1 does seem a little bit excessive for simply being a disc drive/cache manager -though it probably helped that Sega was also getting the SH2s from Hitachi)

Maybe some day the early Saturn/GigaDrive prototypes or blueprints will be uncovered, or possibly early propositions for project Mars. We need people like Curt Vendel doing Sega stuff! (Atari Historian --to the point, recently uncovered plans for the Atari 3200/Sylvia, countering many wrong assumptions made about the platform and really shedding light on it)

It would really be interesting if such plans turned out to be something along the lines of our speculations. Hell, the 3200 turned out to be a lot like what I'd been discussing for an alternate tot he 5200 on AtariAge just a few months prior to the plans being posted. (basically a modified TIA supporting CTIA/GTIA like capabilities to work with ANTIC from the 8-bit chip set with similar I/O hardware as the VCS --major difference being use of SRAM for main memory rather than DRAM as with the 800/5200 and my discussion)

That's it...As soon as I hit the Mega million jackpot I'm rebuilding Sega... And a new system to launch...

[Melf]

I think it's a bit extreme in some respects and, as in many cases, puts too much emphasis on SoJ's contributions to the problems (and listing SoJ as a whole rather than addressing conflicts within that vary division) in proportion to SoA -which may have had very different problems, but did contribute tot he mess as well, in part due to simply clashing with some of SoA's decisions and others for seemingly no reason at all.

From every single person I've spoken too, from the US and European side, the conflict came from Japan. Granted, I've not spoken to any SOJ executives to get their side, but why is that? Why is it that American and European execs are willing to talk about what happened, but no Japanese Sega people will? I really, really wish someone would.

Many things seem rather unclear surrounding the issue: like did SoA actually oppose the Mars project before taking it on and making it their own way. When exactly did the Sony and SGI relations take place, what was SoJ's plans for the "Gigidrive" and what exactly was it prior to getting dropped in 1993 with Sony's threatening specs? etc etc. What was the actual context of the botched spring '95 release of the saturn: did SoA's opposition contribute to the mess? (perhaps being less problematic if they'd just gone with the flow and made sure it was set-up properly with retailers and developers)
How much was actually "discontinued" in 1995 (hardware seems to have been manufactured to '97 at the very least)
Several titles were released in 1996 (some Sega published), and a lot had been released in '95.

A lot of these questions have been talked about, and there are reasonable answers to most, but I doubt we'll ever see any ironclad information about any of them until Japan starts to talk.

Then there's the question on why SoA emphasized FMV titles so much for marketing the Sega CD.. not an issue about releasing such titles, but simply relying so heavily on them when even the 3DO wasn't. (not pushing for the advanced hardware features and "3D" capabilities as much, lest alone conventional games with amazing soundtracks)
Especially with the laserdisc arcade market as a warning.

FMV was the buzz word of the era. If you look at what anyone related to SOA's marketing or multi-media team says, it was the trend of the era. I think they should have seen how limited it was, but people were buying it, so that's what they did. When sales dried up, so did the FMV games.

Why did Nakayma ignore not only Kalinske's warnings, but also concerns form prominent Japanese associates/staff, like Okawa, during the Saturn's lifetime. (Sega actually starting to turn around with Okawa as President)

Nakayama was caught between a rock and a hard place. His own board of executives was really pressuring him to do what was best for Japan, no matter what the cost. In the short term it was the right decision, but overall it really hurt Sega down the line. Nakayama didn't want to take power away from SOA or SOE; they were doing really well. He was especially hurt from having to pull rank on Kalinske, the man he recruited personally. That's why he resigned as chairman when Kalinske left.

)

I would imagine that a lot of the article's lack of clarity is the deliberate result of a lack of firm answers to these questions from reliable sources.

This. No one from Japan wants to talk.

[shinobimusashi]

From every single person I've spoken too, from the US and European side, the conflict came from Japan. Granted, I've not spoken to any SOJ executives to get their side, but why is that? Why is it that American and European execs are willing to talk about what happened, but no Japanese Sega people will? I really, really wish someone would.

-melf

has everyone completely ruled out the japanese mafia directly influencing sega of japan? im a big mma fan and my all time favorite fights to watch used to be japanese based "Pride fighting championships" which was a very successfull promotion in japan selling out massive 50k+ arenas every show and obtaining widespread media coverage even venturing into las vegas us soon before they mysteriously went out of bussiness and sold thier fighters contracts to the ufc. they were proven to have connections with the japanese mafia(whatever its called?) thier original ceo and president even commited suicide and was found hanging in a room. that would explain some of the more bizzare decisions made by soj.

awesome article, one of the best on the site. does leapfrog make the leapster? surely they do. thats a pretty awesome little handheld for kids. my son had one at 3 and now my 4 year old daughter has one and its surprisingly impressive as a portable gaming device. kalinske did do an awesome job at leapfrog.

i do know that the 32x was a product of soa but ive heard that they were under pressure from soj to make it is that true? if so then they really had no reason to strip him of his authority.

[Guntz]

This article is still awesome. It addresses the whole story very nicely IMO.

Before reading that article, I never knew Kalinske went to LeapFrog after quitting Sega. That would definitely explain the incredible success that company it's had. Years ago I wondered how LeapFrog was doing so well, then I read that article and found out why.

[Baloo]

Tom Kalinske is the man. Excellent article, I remember reading it a while back.

[Christuserloeser]

Kalinske is an incompetent idiot who ruined the company.

From every single person I've spoken too, from the US and European side, the conflict came from Japan.

I don't doubt that at all.

The US and European side had no idea what they were doing, and more importantly: even less of an idea what their mistakes were.

To blame someone else rather than to question your own actions is a very comfortable and easy thing to do.


To have SOA and SOE, who mostly did public relations and publishing (and a piss poor job at that), blame SOJ, who did all the good games plus the hardware, is pretty funny.

Quite sad too, as you rarely hear the Japanese talk negative about the Western Sega divisions in public.

The problem was that 32X was just that: a new platform.

Just as an upgraded genesis/MD would be.

Yeah, that was my point: Refusing to introduce a new [compatible?] platform just to introduce a different platform (and in form of yet another add-on no less) doesn't make any sense.

SoJ genuinely wanted to screw SoA over (perhaps to "teach them a lesson" as the article implies)

Ridiculous.

[Guntz]

Kalinske is an incompetent idiot who ruined the company.

rofl.

I think somebody loves SoJ's games a little too much. Kalinske has the business history to prove his worth. He was 'the man' as Baloo put it.

[Baloo]

Come on ChristusErloser....had it not been for Tom Kalinske, the Genesis would've never made SEGA as successful as it became around 1991. And look at his past track record with Hot Wheels and Barbie. This dude knew what he was doing.

[Melf]

Kalinske is an incompetent idiot who ruined the company.

Kalinske brought unprecedented success to Mattel before coming to Sega, and then did the same thing for Leapfrog after leaving. You might not like the man, but you can't dismiss his acumen for business. He knows his stuff.

The US and European side had no idea what they were doing, and more importantly: even less of an idea what their mistakes were.

The US division was totally under SOJ's control during the Master System's run, and it had 2% of the market. That jumped to 65% under SOA and Kalinske. SOE grew from marketing arcade machines to a large publisher when it became a separate branch with its own leadership. That sounds to me like they knew what they were doing.

I don't know why you keep bringing this up, as though Japan was some magical fairy land full of great games and hugely successful consoles that made the world green with envy. The truth is that the mighty SOJ failed very badly with the Mega Drive, and it never came close to emulating the success of its two branches. All those awesome games you always mention did NOTHING for Mega Drive sales in Japan at all.

To blame someone else rather than to question your own actions is a very comfortable and easy thing to do.

At least they're talking. SOJ's people have said nothing on the matter. If they did the right thing and everyone else messed up, why are they afraid to talk about it? Why hasn't Nakayama or anyone else given interviews since '95? Why the silence?

To have SOA and SOE, who mostly did public relations and publishing (and a piss poor job at that), blame SOJ, who did all the good games plus the hardware, is pretty funny.

Lol, this is just blatantly wrong. SOA was a HUGE publisher of games, contributing very handidly to the success of the Genesis in America through a massively successful sports line (so successful it lasted through two more platforms and the transition to software only), and a ton of American-made games that sold well. It also did public relations very well. So well that it managed to take away Nintendo's monopoly in America and become the major hardware player in that territory, something SOJ NEVER accomplished. Again, all those magical Mega Drive games did nothing to push the console in Japan, while the American games you dislike so much gave SOA the lead over Nintendo for several holiday seasons in a row.

I think you should look at who had success with the Genesis in its territory before you decide who did a good job at marketing and distribution. Those were not SOJ's strengths at all.

Quite sad too, as you rarely hear the Japanese talk negative about the Western Sega divisions in public.

You never hear them talk at all. At least the western branches are willing to speak up

Ridiculous.

The opposite, and I can cite almost a half dozen interviews with SOA and SOE people that back up the SOJ envy claim, and that's just my work. Steven Kent, who you dismissed before as a guy with a wrong opinion, spoke to TONS of people from SOA, SOE, and even some from SOJ, and they said the same thing.

I really shouldn't have even answered your post, as I remember you never cited any of your claims the last time we had this discussion. Can you show anything - interviews, news articles - ANYTHING from the era that proves that all the research I've done over more than 5 years and several books published on the matter are wrong?

[roundwars]

I don't know why you keep bringing this up, as though Japan was some magical fairy land full of great games and hugely successful consoles that made the world green with envy. The truth is that the mighty SOJ failed very badly with the Mega Drive, and it never came close to emulating the success of its two branches. All those awesome games you always mention did NOTHING for Mega Drive sales in Japan at all.

It isn't really a fair comparison IMO; market conditions in Japan weren't anywhere near as favorable to Sega as in the US and Europe. The US division was the most successful because that was where the opportunity was. However, I will say that SOA probably did a better job exploiting those opportunities than SOJ would have if they had tried to handle it themselves.

had it not been for Sonic the Hedgehog, the Genesis would've never made SEGA as successful as it became around 1991.

Fixed that for you