what if Sega had patented the idea of using off the shelf components?

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Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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iirc, the genesis and dreamcast were all off-the-shelf components and the Saturn was mostly off-the-shelf components (i would guess the SCU and the VDPs were custom).

anyway, i was asking because both microsoft and sony are copying sega by not using any custom processors.

so i guess ip wouldve lead to more innovation if sega had patented the idea of using off the shelf components although i still favor abolition of ip.

unfortunately, sega was always better at picking parts... the genesis and saturn aged damn **cking well and the dreamcast wasnt even inferior to its primary competitor.

all of that said, i have to laugh at sony and nintendo for pissing away money on R&D when the Super NES was two years younger and wasnt superior to the genesis overall and when the Dreamcast was almost 2 years older than and not inferior to the ps2.

The free market won. Sega had good products, and faced the same pressures as other companies, but the market chose differently. I would think you would suppor that?

Also, the NES and Atari were "off the shelf" before Genesis. And if Dreamcast counts as off the shelf then so should most other consoles, considering you couldn't freely buy all the Dreamcast's parts.