Saturn System Link
A third party version of the Sega Saturn Taisen Cable, providing a serial link between two consoles. A limited number of titles supported multiplayer over this cable.
Description
A third party serial-link cable for the Sega Saturn. This connects two Saturn consoles directly utilising their communication ports for multiplayer over two consoles on separate screens.
A limited number of titles primarily released in Japan supported multiplayer over this cable including:
- Daytona USA Circuit Edition
- Doom
- Gungriffon 2
- Hyper 3D Taisen Battle Gebockers
- Hyper Reverthion
- Steeldom
Serial link cables were always relatively untapped by developers due to the perceived unpopularity of needing two consoles and two TVs back in the 90s. In the subsequent decade consoles would embrace multiplayer up to 16 consoles and 16 TVs with LAN multiplayer.
The PlayStation had a similar cable, which received wider, albeit still limited software support. A similar cable and small selection of games would be found on the Dreamcast. In my opinion, Sega always missed out on implementing this feature. Their wide library of high quality arcade conversions, which often already linked between two cabinets, were perfect to implement with both traditional split-screen and multi-console multiplayer. On the Saturn Daytona USA Circuit Edition is the stand title to try out the feature.
