Kenji Tosaki talks SAT/DC Peripheral Design, Reveals “Virtua Visor” - RetroRGB

[stu]

Came across this on my Google Feed...


https://www.retrorgb.com/kenji-tosaki-interview.html

Quote" While the Saturn had a variety of great controllers and peripherals, a vast majority would agree that the 3D Analog Control Pad was perhaps one of the greatest. Dreamcast also touted several of its own clever and innovative add-ons, but most folks can’t deny the shear brilliance and significance of the VMU (Visual Memory Unit). These innovations lead the way as industry firsts and would be copied and iterated upon by SEGA and others.
Imagine our surprise then, when SHIRO! recently had the opportunity to interview the very man, Kenji Tosaki, responsible for creating these awesome devices (in addition to many others) in an open forum question & answer session, where several members of our community were able to participate! We were honored to host this absolute legend of gaming history and were surprised by several fascinating pieces of previously unknown information that Tosaki-san revealed. It is with great pleasure and excitement that we share this interview with you now. We hope you enjoy!"

In the interview they talk about quite a few addons for both the Saturn and the Dreamcast, including the Saturn 3D Pad, the Virtua Gun, the VMU and most interestingly the “Virtua Visor”, which I had never heard of. Apparently it is unrelated the the Sega VR system that was being developed for the Megadrive/Genesis. The interview goes in to a lot of detail on the development of these products. Also the interview touches on the rumored development of the VF3 upgrade cartridge for the Saturn.

Quote "SHIRO!: Do you know anything about the Virtua Fighter 3 accelerator board for Saturn?
TOSAKI: I had an idea for an accelerator cartridge. However, it was expected to be too expensive to manufacture and the performance was not high enough to justify the costs, so it would have been canceled. If the planning had progressed to the stage of considering commercialization, the industrial design team would have started moving, but that was not the case…"

Hope you enjoy!!

[Baloo]

Great article!! Thanks for sharing! I thought this portion based on the unknown gyro controller was interesting as well, how it looks like the Nintendo Wii controller effectively ripped it off. I wonder if they ever saw it? SEGA truly was ahead of the curve technology-wise. Too bad they weren't able to commercialize it and team up with SONY.

SHIRO!: You mentioned working on Dreamcast’s industrial design. Did you design the console’s shell? What else did you design?

TOSAKI: I’m not an industrial designer, but I was manager of the industrial design team, and I oversaw the planning and decision-making process for its product design. I remember that development of the Dreamcast controller started right after the development of Saturn’s 3D Control Pad. I planned the initial design concept and was in charge of research for the man-machine (control input) interface, which also started around that time.

SHIRO!: Was there a specific reason for not including two analog sticks after Sony and other third-parties had done so?

TOSAKI: It was the game developers that didn’t want dual analog 3D sticks at all. Interestingly, Sonic’s Yuji Naka suggested a controller that looked like a vertical TV remote. I suggested that it should be equipped with a gun pointer and a gyro sensor. Putting the two ideas together, it looked similar to a Wii remote (though it wasn’t supported by anyone), so a few years later, I was surprised when I saw the Wii. I really respect Nintendo.

[axel]

Repped. It's crazy how much stuff Sega had in development in the 90s. Not too surprised it didn't get released though, the tech just wasn't there at the time. I had heard that Sega had a chance to get the same tech as the Virtual Boy before Nintendo, but Kalinske shot it down, he said after having already released the Game Gear it wouldn't make sense to go back to a single color display.

I wonder what that Wiimote-like controller would have cost in the 90s. Maybe it would have been better suited for the arcade market than home consoles.

[roce]

Wiimote would have been possible and almost as cheap back then. Remember that Nintendo is cheap - normal AA batteries, some infrared, a basic gyro, a cheap speaker. BT may have been replaced with radio.

[axel]

Wiimote would have been possible and almost as cheap back then. Remember that Nintendo is cheap - normal AA batteries, some infrared, a basic gyro, a cheap speaker. BT may have been replaced with radio.

The original Wiimotes don't even have a gyro, just the IR sensor and accelerometer. So maybe it could have been done.

[Leynos]

Amazing find and read. Thank you. Seeing the potential for the 3D pad is insane. That answers the question I had when I posted the Saturn VMU a while back. I also had no idea the analog was different. He was SEGA's Gunpei Yokoi in a sense.

Wii ripped off Xavixport more than anything. The only major difference between the two was Wii was from Nintendo and had a much better budget for a system/games and marketing.