What the fuck was the point of these? I'm reading they were

>>3805807
Virtua Fighter was extremely popular in Japan. So popular, that for the first time ever, Sega consoles were selling well in Japan. The VF CG discs also had popular j-pop songs with karaoke versions in them. Karaoke is huge in Japan; Sega had numerous karaoke services and consoles in the 90s, and some services even alive even today.

So the point of all of this was: they made money.

What's stranger is the Aquazone discs. It's your basic Win95 fish tank screensaver. There were 6 of them (1 main disc, and 5 option discs to add more fish)...

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>>3805818
Yes, I know it was a system seller for Saturn in Japan, and basically put Sega on map, and all that stuff. But still, why would you buy a disc of CG portraits of Lau Chan? For 1 karaoke song? Saturn had no mic too, right?…

You know, I'd expect this stuff to come for free with a magazine. And even then I'd probably miss it. Maybe I'm simply used to PC mags of the '90s coming with gazillions of wallpapers, but still this idea of paying $15 for essentially an audio single with awkward character portraits is baffling to me at best.

>>3805829
Most people only bought the Sarah and Akira discs to support their waifu and husbando respectively. They were released in order of the character's popularity, so poor Jeffrey's was released last.

>>3805829
I understand what you mean, but fandiscs are still a concept proven to work. The Tales of has how many of those now, 4 or 5?

In a minor scale, the PSX version of Real Bout Fatal Fury Special came with an extra CD where you could interview the characters and give them presents. Even Geese.

>>3805864
*the Tales of series

I forgot to add, the NES version of Athena came with a cassette of the Psycho Soldier theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxqeHgNhjA

>>3805829
>But still, why would you buy a disc of CG portraits of Lau Chan? For 1 karaoke song? Saturn had no mic too, right?…

It's not any different from buying a cd single of a hit song.

Except this one is interactive and has some nice pictures on top.

And you don't need a mic to sing to your TV.

>>3805864
>In a minor scale, the PSX version of Real Bout Fatal Fury Special came with an extra CD where you could interview the characters and give them presents. Even Geese.
But that's my whole point. It comes with the game for free (or maybe a small extra), has detailed info for all 20 or so characters, contains interviews with seiyuus, etc.

And VF character portraits CD has this: https://youtu.be/faR7E3e0Wvw . That's it. This sold for $15 separately for each character. A whole collection would cost $150. That's the difference.

Isn't this a bit too much for too little, even speaking of fan-oriented stuff?

>>3805807
Japan is weird.

>>3805906
>It's not any different from buying a cd single of a hit song.
I doubt it was a hit song though. It's hard to think of it as a single also because it's labeled "CG portrait series" with no name of the artist/song on the cover. And even then, $15 is a bit steep for a single even today, let alone back then (I mean adjusted for inflation).

I'd understand if they put all of these on one CD with many songs, but just one… And the Game Gear version is just weird, I hope it has at least some gameplay, otherwise it's basically worthless.

>>3805908
That's nowhere near as stupid as a fish tank emulator for 5800 yen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13m0sIBbKeM

>>3806053
Well I agree, but this doesn't make it any more smart of a purchase. Both are pretty ridiculous

>>3806061
It's a collectors piece for diehard fans. For $15 it doesn't sound bad, unless of course you want to go full retard and buy all of them.

>>3805829
There was a karaoke unit for the Saturn and the HiSaturn with one build in.

>>3806070
Interesting, thanks

>>3805908
>https://youtu.be/faR7E3e0Wvw
This is fucking retarded. Maybe it was kinda cool back when low-quality CG was the norm, but even then it couldn't have been worth the $15.

>¥1,280
So more like ten bux
It's not too different than buying a CD single with some extra character content
Besides, 3d rendered anything was the cheese back then

>>3805807
I had the PC version of 2, and the portraits (no music) were included

>>3805818
>Aquazone
>this shit spawned a full series
>doesn't even look good
>Xbox 360 version
Gawd
Why Saturn had so many non-games?

>>3805870
I sung the american version for the lulz. Much magical much girl
http://vocaroo.com/i/s05SJJRtKwQz
r8

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>>3805807
>What the fuck was the point of these? I'm reading they were sold for ¥1,280 each (around $15 or so)


This is gonna blow your mind but back in the mid 90s we couldn't just go online and find a fucktillion pictures of our favorite characters.

We had to do with art books, magazine spreads, whatever. I remember paying like 5 bucks for a shitty game magazine just because it had a small ass picture of Morrigan in it before.

so yeah 15 bucks for a dick of CGs of a character? not too weird

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>>3806281
>r8

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ITT: Saturn non-games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISM-A80TtbA

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BR and proud

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>>3807546
Kek

Presumably cheap to produce + hype for CD content + hype for 3D images = easy profit

>>3807548
>>3807546
>>3807540
Where do you get these hi-res covers from?

File: GODYMAIW2_Saturn_JP_Box_Front.jpg (907KB, 1400x1400px) Image search: [Google]

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>>3807585
Sega Retro

>>3807630
what is this game it looks cute

File: PCeY_Saturn_JP_Box_Front_SG.jpg (979KB, 1400x1400px) Image search: [Google]

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>>3807673
>game
This is not a game. Saturn have plenty of cute non-games.

>>3807684
How is Pia Carrot not a game?

>>3807010
This

>>3807087
what
ten bucks and like someone else said it's not like you could just find videos off the internet back then

Why not just make a book of CG art then? And, you know, for all characters. Way cheaper and more logical than 10 CDs.

>>3808020

It was a new technology. Yeah it's silly in hindsight but at the time it was hype shit. Also you can get more shit on a disc than you could on a magazine.