The Place to Discuss Sega, the Saturn, and NetLink
https://www.saturnleague.com/phpBB3/
LOL. He really seems booty battered over not having $200 to buy a Netlink when it was new.Honestly, this device is probably not even worth discussing. It cost $200 and was compatible with a grand total of 5 games. Nobody owned it, and with good reason.
You have to remember, the NetLink was released at the same time when Internet usage was really hitting the mainstream in the US. This was already right in the middle of the famous AOL disk mailbomb campaign, and cyber thriller movies like "The Net" and "Hackers" were already out on video. As such, a lot of people had computers and were connecting to the internet. Hell, people were playing online deathmatch in Quake by this time.
So, we had computers and modems and all that, and here comes this $200 device for our gaming box in the living room that does basically the same thing, but is worse because it costs three times as much and only supports 5 games. We Saturn gamers simply ignored this device.
It wasn't even a breakthrough technological marvel or anything of the sort. It was just a repackaging of existing and widely used technology, sold at a huge markup and compatible with almost nothing.
If nothing else, the Saturn NetLink was really just Sega testing the waters for the true gaming console revolution to come, which was the Dreamcast with it's built-in modem, which was the first time online multiplayer gaming in the living room hit the mainstream.