Sega Saturn merchandising letter and pamphlets

[Control Issues]

So... I worked at Target in the mid to late 90s in the Electronics department.  I was selling Playstations, Saturns, and Nintendo 64s.  We had a game wall that I think was like eight 4 foot sections.  When I started, it was pretty even at 4 sections for Saturn and 4 for Playstation.  Then the N64 came out and the Saturn section started shrinking.  At one point, I think it was one section for Saturn, four for Playstation, and three for N64.  Then Saturn eventually got pushed to the back endcap and a section on the back wall, and then discontinued.  Anyway, at some point during my tenure there, Sega of America sent retailers a kit with a video and some training materials on how to better sell the Saturn console.  (They were trying anything they could.)  For some reason... I kept the stuff they sent.  So in this imgur album is a scan of the stuff we were sent... a letter on Sega letterhead to the retailer, a card for the salesman to keep and refer to, and one of the pamphlets that was supposed to go in a holder on the counter for customers to take home.  I file this in the "probably incredibly rare but worthless" class of collectibles.  lol

https://imgur.com/gallery/2ZX4upv

[Justin]

Cool scan! I hung onto a few of those brochures, I think I still have them somewhere. Funny you posted this now, yesterday I came across an old newspaper clipping from Friday, May 12, 1995 with a Sega "Head For Saturn" advertisement. This was printed at the bottom of the TV schedule for that night.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I loved Saturn...but I didn't find too many games I liked for it.  D...I enjoyed D.  Darius, D-Force, Sega Rally, Sonic 3D Blast, Daytona (of course), Horde, most pinball games, Virtua Cop was loads of fun with the light gun, and SimCity 2000 played better on Saturn than on PS.  That's about all I remember.  I like the first console design and favor the second controller design.

[Justin]

3 hours ago, kamakazi20012 said:

I loved Saturn...but I didn't find too many games I liked for it.  D...I enjoyed D.  Darius, D-Force, Sega Rally, Sonic 3D Blast, Daytona (of course), Horde, most pinball games, Virtua Cop was loads of fun with the light gun, and SimCity 2000 played better on Saturn than on PS.  That's about all I remember.  I like the first console design and favor the second controller design.

I think a lot of players felt that way. Sega tried to get out ahead of Sony and Nintendo and launched Sega Saturn about six months early. A little premature. Genesis was huge at the time. Yet I remember Saturn launching without a Sonic game, or really any killer apps other than Virtua Fighter. I wanted Daytona USA, Sega Rally and Panzer Dragoon, but there should've been good launch titles from the very beginning that everybody would clammer too. Sonic The Hedgehog, Ecco The Dolphin, a fighting game more like Tekken without the "Virtua" motif, and definitely some sports games that had put Sega on the map with Genesis.