Why Did The Super Nintendo Satellaview Fail? - Gaming History Documentary

[@1983capcomfan]

I Love the way you say: "I'am Lady Decade and this is" with such conviction. In my head you walk around your house and say it for everyday things like: "I'am Lady Decade and this is the last soda in the refrigerator" or "I'am Lady Decade and this is a sink full of dishes" it would be really funny to see you act this out at the end of a video or something like that click like if you agree.

[@nightowl8363]

Then TopHat man just says "Yeeeaaaaaahhhhh".

[@scurvy3113]

I do this alot

[@GabePuratekuta]

It's not a normal thing that everyone does?

[@mick82]

It's so convincing it's almost ILLEGAL

[@missmijana]

absolutely relate!! her voice is so catchy! 💕:’)

[@AmaroqStarwind]

My favorite thing about the Satellaview is the 512 kilobytes of extra RAM. Imagine what SFC/SNES developers could do with that.

[@hidarimak]

Considering how most of the functionality could have been attained through a dialup modem, I'm surprised that Nintendo opted instead for such a pricey and convoluted system. A 33.6k modem add-on probably would have been under $100 (10,000 Yen), with 8 MB of RAM to keep the downloaded game while the console remained powered on. A Nintendo subscription could have provided access with games to download, a Nintendo gaming news page, their "podcasts", and who knows what else. Requiring a specific satellite dish service almost makes the 32X seem reasonable by comparison.

[@atariboy9084]

Nintendo had done something that was way ahead of other gaming systems look at the time line on what they had done but never made it to the US state: 1988 - Family Computer Network System: The Family Computer Network System, also known as the Famicom Net System or Famicom Modem, is a video game peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer, released in September 1988 only in Japan. 1995 - Satellaview: The Nintendo Satellaview, or Broadcast Satellaview X (BS-X), is a satellite game and news delivery add-on for the Super Famicom, which was only released in Japan. It allows players to subscribe and connect to St. GIGA and download games and news updated from 4-7PM. The unit was released in 1995 and retailed for ¥14,000. Some games could only be played at certain times, while others were downloaded to the BS-X Cassette, a small memory cartridge. The service was supported up until 2000 with the last game release being in 1999. 1999 - 64DD: The 64DD, colloquially referred to as the Nintendo 64DD, is a magnetic disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console developed by Nintendo. The system could connect to the Internet through a now-defunct dedicated online service called Randnet for e-commerce, online gaming, and media sharing. Calling it "the first writable bulk data storage device for a modern video game console" Nintendo seem to created many head of the time technology for there systems but never fully committed and this reminded me of how Kodak invented digital camera back In 1975 but Kodak killed it in favor for old films and but by the time others started to make cheaper and better digital cameras it was too late for Kodak to jump in the bandwagon and we all know how Kodak ended up.

[@aprilvereen3169]

I wish I had made the original killer instinct for the 64 but I love playing the SNES version of killer instinct the original first one on Xband modem so did my interest in gaming

[@dv7533]

I like the technological hoops they had to jump through to get this system working, I've played the English fan-translated version of "The Legend of Zelda - Ancient Stone Tablets" and it is quite fun how they worked with the system limitations and fixed playtime window. I can recommend checking it out.

[@kadosho02]

I honestly wonder why these special edition variants of games, with the Satellaview are not yet available on the Switch Virtual library. Would add some neat playability, but who knows

[@dv7533]

@@kadosho02 This is just a guess, but I think the copyright might be a problem, copyright of the games might be shared between Nintendo and St.GIGA, which is defunct now. So St.GIGA's copyright might be difficult to track and obtain now.

[@Dairunt1]

I would have loved a "Master Quest" for ALTTP's GBA port that recycles Ancient Stone Tablet's new dungeons.

[@LuigiBlood]

This is a pretty good sum up of what Satellaview is. I just wanna add these things: You never needed the St. GIGA monthly subscription to play Satellaview. A lot of people assumed this, but the reality was that the signal would be unscrambled at specific times for the so called "Super Famicom Hour" to use the Satellaview service free of charge, funded with advertisements. The subscription was solely for St. GIGA's own radio program. I spoke with Satellaview players about this and I was surprised, and was pretty much told that in Japan there was no confusion about that. That said the sum was still hefty just to play it. And then I wanna add that the 8M Memory Pack actually means 8 Megabits, which is 1 Megabyte. But a lot of people tend to confuse both so I don't blame you.

[@iamthebiggs252]

I would love to see Nintendo release a "The Satellaview Collection" on their online store, or something similar.

[@kyles8524]

or you could just get a super console X with the entire library on it

[@iamthebiggs252]

@@kyles8524 Yeah? I honestly didn't know that was a thing. Thanx!

[@pepeshadilay]

That Zelda 1 super Nintendo remastér can be found online as a rom .....

[@shenmuebaloff]

The satellaview was an interesting piece of hardware is sad that we didn't get it here, but at least some of the content is saved and preserved for the gaming comunity, it could be a failure in Nintendo eyes, but at least it was more successful than the N64 DD, I'll be waiting the Sega Channel video.

[@andrewbrooks2001]

Sega also had the Mega Drive Game Library (Toshokan) in Japan. It was paid subscription service, that came with a cartridge (memory) and a modem. The Game Library allowed you to download and play titles online that started in 1990. The Service started in Japan only in 1990, and servers shut down in March of 1993. After that, Sega of America brought the service to the US with an improved feature set and cable modem. Gave gamers 50 different titles that rotated, calender specific background themes, competitions, and Sega News. I kind of with they had a gaming hub title like Nintendo. So a Sony Playstation Home with a Sega themed spin. Anyway, so Sega had a similar service in two markets before Nintendo. Lol

[@brichan1851]

I always enjoy your videos and those of your hubby. You two are such a valued treasure of gaming historians. Without you, many of these important subjects, titles, and systems would be lost to many of us. Thank you so much.

[@MemeCastGuy69]

Nintendo's biggest competition at the time, SEGA, completely one upped this at the same time as the Satellaview... SEGA CHANNEL. I was actually lucky enough to have had SEGA Channel. SEGA teamed up with Time Warner Cable to stream games to the Sega Genesis through an adapter and the cable TV wire. They would have a library of roughly 40 games, and every month they would change out about half of them and keep the most popular games available for another month. I do not remember their ever being any actual PvP gaming against other people on SEGA Channel, but you also did not have to play at certain times of the day, you could just play whenever.

[@MemeCastGuy69]

lol I wrote this before getting to the part where she actually does mention SEGA Channel

[@josuerosas9304]

I'm surprised this wasn't released in America. It would have been popular in rural areas where game stores are far away. Specially parts of the country that can't be reached by cable but by satellite.

[@Sly88Frye]

Actually I'm not sure if it would have been popular in those rural areas. I mean it still didn't sell that well in Japan and I know Japan's full of a lot of big cities but there's a lot of rural areas in Japan as well. I mean honestly I'm under the impression that people in rural areas back then barely any of them had access to internet at all and that's saying a lot considering that back then the majority of people in the world didn't really have internet anyway.

[@zacharyrollick6169]

​@@Sly88Frye I agree. I live in a rural area and didn't get satellite internet until 2008.

[@Sly88Frye]

17:25 Yeah that novelty golf game on the satella view absolutely reminded me of Kirby's Dream course. I really wish how laboratories would make another Kirby's Dream course. It's an awesome spin-off to the series and just so much fun. It's also ripe for The possibilities of allowing players to customize their own courses I've always thought that would be awesome to do on Kirby Dream course

[@digitizer3627]

This channel is "a necessity, for gracious living!".. love you Lady Decade!

[@freddy902]

This video was awesome, you've been wanting to make a video on this for a while now. Also thanks to this video the Super Nintendo Satellaview is less of a mysterious forgotten peace of hardware to me.

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

Now this kind of content is just fascinating to see. All the ways this thing was ahead of its time is just amazing.

[@pepeshadilay]

This was 1991 version of Xbox game pass

[@AcornElectron]

Keep up the good work lass and, as always, stay safe. Nice to see old hardware being kept current. Just because some other f***er has covered it doesn’t mean it’s not worth the Lady Decade take!

[@MichaelTaylor-qp2xf]

Hiroshi Yamauchi was both a maniac and a genius.

[@froststarlite5571]

Hello lady decade just wanted to say I love watching your videos when they come out when I like watching stuff about gaming history and consoles you're the one I go to

[@rayceeya8659]

Wow, 504kb. I remember when that ws huge.

[@bertiebassat5545]

These videos are quality, surprising how many times these large corporations had poorly performing products, there seems to be a recurring theme with expansion products being an epic fail, given back in the day everyone was obsessed with “bits”, “graphics”, “arcade perfect conversions”, “display colour count” and how many “sprites would be on screen, it’s no surprise that these often in between neither here nor there, advancements were doomed to fail. I remember so many of these releases and they were instant flops, everyone was always lusting after a new actual console that promised so much more than extending the life of a previous generation device with some clunker of an add on, Sega seemed to do the most damage to there user base by redirecting customers to focus elsewhere every time they released some expensive add on, it was really interesting time though and reading the magazines about the next latest and greatest was exciting stuff!

[@thelonejedi538]

I don't remember ever seeing burnable dvd mini discs, and cd mini's barely held any data. Not exactly the most sophisticated or difficult to to circumvent part of their anti-piracy measures, but still neat. I still think Sega's GD-rom on Dreamcast was a brilliant anti-piracy protection, that sadly only failed because of a flaw elsewhere. Sega obviously thought it was so good it was all they needed, which is why it became trivial to burn games after the ability to read the data on gd-roms was available

[@Captofthisship]

Mystery holes are scary, I seen one before. Never again, I said. Can't wait to see your sega channel video though, keep em coming.

[@barcelonahola7911]

Good job as usual,just a small correction,St.Giga also played great old skool House,Drum n'Bass and Techno.I've been recovering sets from the internet from years ago.Greets from the sunny and ruined Spain Ms Decade!

[@ozzyfozzy4261]

Am I the only one who keeps hearing "Lady Decay"?

[@TJDious]

Yes. See a doctor.

[@ozzyfozzy4261]

@@TJDious Better not, they wont let me leave and I will have to escape again...

[@lazarushernandez5827]

That should be for a Halloween special, with appropriate make up and props.

[@John_Malka-tits]

Great heavy metal name

[@saturn1returns]

I have a St. Giga vinyl record. It's pretty cool ambient techno. It was expensive though.

[@greenkoopa]

14:48 this is the picture we show our kids to remind them 🐢

[@Formulastreet]

Every time I need to fall asleep. You never failed.

[@quietyoutuber]

I have a home mad arcade that is a emulation system that you can see on my channel I have the BS Zelda games even the SNES ones that im not sure that most people know about . I really love you content. Thanks for all the history on the gaming systems and the games

[@backup368]

St. Giga a satellite radio service...that's only accessible to Japan.

[@gkwgeek4509]

Thanks for sharing some great info about this awesome piece of gaming history!

[@markfleming7705]

Watching lady decade videos, 'a nessecity for gracious living', really look forward to these. One minute seriousness then a sarky comment :)

[@StrongStyleNinja]

This channel is a NECESSITY FOR GRACIOUS LIVING!!!

[@MisterSandmanAU]

Trick Question: It didn't, it sold at least 116,000 units. For comparison, there were around 17 million Super Famicom systems in Japan at the time. Which is still a few thousand off of 1%. Not groundbreaking success, but still very much not a failure.

[@tgheretford]

Well ahead of its time and easier to do with satellite data rates, 16-bit cartridge ROM sizes and memory capacity. It would never work for the next generation of consoles as the storage requirements would be excessive (1GB hard drives would be an expensive consumer upgrade by the mid-90s), data rates would make downloading a CD-ROM game take a very long time and the price would be out of the reach of a lot of people. Not the first legal game download service, not by a long stretch, GameLine for the Atari 2600 came out a good decade before.

[@Dex99SS]

Sega Channel was better.... Was just simpler, more accessible. But in all honesty, all of this was a crapload too expensive for most folks.

[@killboi207]

One of those things that makes you wonder- "What were they thinking?!"

[@DuwangKaizer]

Imagine if they did a UK version with Sky TV.

[@rhsxo]

Sega Channel was awesome! Many years of memories playing it.

[@skateboardblues]

Sega Channel! Very much looking forward to that episode.

[@goodkaji]

I remember someone mentioning this sort of service available for the old intellivision console via cable.

[@Doodoovessel]

Amazing video super informative and professional

[@andrewbrooks2001]

Think Sega of America had a better setup with the Sega Channel (1994-1998). But the Nintendo Intelliview sounds pretty awesome.

[@Gameboy-Unboxings]

Man this is one of the best looking attachments for sure.

[@MakeOrBreakSociety]

I'd love to see you cover the SEGA channel add-on for the Genesis/Mega Drive

[@MarkMifsud]

Please cover the Sega Genesis modem that was available in Japan, back in the late 80s.

[@nickolaswilcox425]

ive got one of these, that power bracket for whatever reason seems to be rather brittle and prone to breaking, this doesnt hinder use too much but it is an annoyance. im still waiting on someone to make a broadcast substitute that works with the original hardware, the current replacements only work on the emulator version an additional note, its got a spot where you can connect a hard drive to it, but at current there is no way to make it use a hard drive

[@pnisdump3174]

LADY DECADE IS A BEAUTIFUL BISH

[@metal_kitsune]

true

[@JMFSpike]

What's weird is that although it was far ahead of it's time, it also came out far too late in the consoles' life to make any real impact. Saturn and Playstation had just come out in Japan about 6 months before this did, so the vast majority of people had likely moved on to those. Man, St. Giga stayed with it to the bitter end. The last physical Super Famicom game came out 5 months *before* they dropped all Satellaview support, and the last game period came out only 5 months after. Funny how people always think of Dreamcast as being the first console to go online, because there were several consoles that did it years before DC. DC was the first to use it pretty much the same way it's used today, but the Bandai Pippin, Saturn, Super Famicom, Genesis, and even the Famicom (I'm guessing a future video is coming on this one) had tested the waters before. 1:50 Nothing to debate because you're spot-on. As big of a blunder as it was to go with cartridges for the N64, the whole SNES CD add-on fiasco lead to Nintendo creating a new rival, who (after the deal went sour) almost immediately took over as top dog for 2 whole generations.

[@ogeidnomar4601]

In Japan it seems different generation consoles overlap moreso than they do in the west. The Famicom was supported until 1994 or 2003 based on some technicalities. Super Famicom Nintendo Power Cartridges were a thing from 1997 all the way until 2007. Well into the Wii's time on the market.

[@harrisonallen651]

Just imagine those exclusively Japanese Mario games we could’ve got for our regular consoles outside Japan

[@stephenrobinson9709]

Just a quick one lady... Do you own any ZX Spectrum games on cassette?.. I noticed that rubber speccy on your unit. I had a speccy growing up in the 80s. My fav game was 'Dymamite Dan'! 👍👍

[@Teknoman]

What game was the music at the very end from?

[@Riz2336]

It's a good thing some of the games have been preserved

[@vfletes1]

I've always stated that we buy what we use to know as the Demo Disc... And the so called day 1 patch is the actual game.. We have been buying demo discs for a while.. They just don't call it that.. They say day 1 patch that's why they are massive in size...

[@joshb6470]

omg 1995 was not 30 years ago it was yesterday!!!!

[@jakraziel]

Someone did a port of the BS zelda to the regular Snes i enjoyed having a go at that one.

[@michaelelsy2209]

Games over the Internet will never catch on.

[@VirajKathwadia]

This system is such a pain in the backside when it comes to adding the various games that came out for it on my SNES Classic Mini. Bleh...

[@True_black_swordsman]

Satellite gaming in 95!!! That was cool!!

[@corrupt_riot]

It’s so crazy to me that you actually OWN it

[@bretlewallen]

Your videos are an absolute pleasure. So much depth. Keep doing what you’re doing 😁

[@ideitbawxproductions1880]

"Best Selection"... now I know the real meaning behind BS without my mind plunging into the gutter

[@Durrpadil]

It was too cool for school and humanity wasn't ready for it.

[@pantherhd1]

Damn SNES is like gameboy level all games where the same it’s rubbish when ps1 was out in 1996 and poor kids had this.Only good games where Mario No GTA only ps1 and wasn’t the game on early 2000s and now

[@pvtb1ab]

I think I love you work

[@insertuselessname]

Interesting one Lady. I only ever read about this in game magazines ( bunking off school reading the magazine section in WH SMITHS). As you said it wouldn't been possible here in UK due to Mrs Thatchers & John Major Conservative government didn't believe computers and Internet were going be future, that why we were behind most of the world, unlike the Japanese who governments were helping put money into project like Internet and technology. I hope if I get another chance to live on earth again hope to be born in 70s - 80s Japan they had banging technologies till then its game over, UK for me 😪😪😪.

[@tgheretford]

No fan of the Tories but they did with the BBC introduce the Computer Literacy Project in the 1980s to give the UK a head start in the emerging implementation of computers in the workplace in the future. It's how we ended up with the BBC Micro and successor Archimedes computer in every school up until the mid 90s until IBM PCs with Windows became widespread because that was what workplaces were using.

[@insertuselessname]

@@tgheretford It was my 2 older brothers told me back in mid 80s about that, in there day they were using BBC & RM nimbus computers but still had type writers cause they didn't believe computers were going take off the way it evolved, I vaguely remember my brother spectrum 128 horrible noise when loading up never loaded up on its tapes some times, kids now in days don't know how well they got it 👍.

[@brandongovreau9218]

I have a theory they're using the same satellites they used for the satellite view but for the online capability for the Nintendo switch

[@geekehUK]

What was the data rate? Was it faster than a 56K modem?

[@Yakobu90]

A SNEScessity for grey-cious living. Nope, ignore me.

[@Cheesemeister]

The memory packs were 8 megabit (1 megabyte), not 8 megabyte.

[@MyChocow]

Snes is probably the most milked system ever made....still love it

[@julesgamergourmand]

Super nintendo, the best console Nintendo of all time.

[@RandyScribner]

My friend had Sega TV through cablevision

[@EvaFull]

Not the same with the obvious Green Screen background. Especially when you use B-Roll where you are clearly in the game room.

[@richardorourke4243]

wish i could spend a month in your teck room :)

[@kyles8524]

well now I know what satellaview is on my superconsoleX lol

[@UlisesBarboza]

nice! but dont move to much the console cant take a nice screen shot lol

[@cecgamesvariados]

Cool 👍🏻

[@digipunk618]

Woo!! New video.

[@LadyDecade]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@istrasci]

After watching many of your videos, I've come to the conclusion that I don't live graciously.

[@greenkoopa]

The BS Satellaview was a highly erotic experience. I've heard. I'm American, I never played it 🐢🐢🐢

[@GabePuratekuta]

I've said this a few time. Nintendo hates its own games.

[@gameshack1985]

You're the female equivalent of Nostalgia Nerd! No bad thing at all!

[@kabukimanindahouse]

nintendo came along with a dill? how gracious of them, to provide st. giga with free food ingredients

[@Kit_Bear]

I wonder if there's a way to get this internet enabled and connected to a server?! I just hate to see vintage bricked hardware.

[@hola-gy8te]

nah, don’t think it’s possible to do so anymore. game servers are able to be replicated, but for the satellaview to work again you’d have to throw a specific type of satellite to space and have a radio station be willing to broadcast ancient games through their network. and all of the recent footage already have roms saved into their pcs so they just have the emulator think it’s downloading from the satellite.

[@Kit_Bear]

@@hola-gy8te I'm sure it can be emulated through the internet rather than a satellite. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even need to be the internet. just rig something up where the games are stored locally, emulate the receiving interface code through reverse engineering one and push the code into the coax input. I don't know the technical stuff about it but I'm sure it can be done somehow.

[@ROBLOGNICK]

WHAT A COUP!

[@Ryuhei64]

Wow, how exclusive is to own a Satellaview with its box? A lot, but, more or less than a 64DD and box?

[@pastaman64]

When gaming as a whole becomes 100 years old, will you change your youtube name to lady century?

[@dergrunepunkt]

With respect, "Gracious living" is getting old and a bit annoying TBH

[@rogersmith494]

damn that was pretty bad ass

[@rogersmith494]

to be a rich kid in japan... the wonders!

[@bobcooper82]

A young ones reference! You ma'am have gained 1 simp.

[@daryljr5361]

Might have been pretty good if it would've made it to North America 🌎 and yet Sony is still on top after all of the forgetful systems

[@dogebad]

hi thats me

[@strongultraslibya3321]

The one message

[@Ubersnuber]

The Satellaview was a glorified radio receiver, warts and all. Even hinting to podcasts and such is a disservice nobody needs. Unless missing a podcast episode is something anyone experienced, and they didn’t, because podcast is, by definition, recorded audio.

[@gjergjaurelius9798]

Bunch of shitty add ons Nintendo made. I’ll take sega cd and 32x any day.

[@JamesShow]

What mystery hole?

[@JunkerDC]

my internet is still slow I can only watch KZbin on my 4g service

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Could be worse, you could still be using dialup in 2022

[@JunkerDC]

I wish they still had dial-up

[@andrewjackson244]

BOOBA!!