Message Excellent post, as always, @Jag85 . However, I wouldn't call Sega of America saints, and I don't think anyone else would either. They were, above all else, a group that was dedicated to producing badass, violent, western-developed games. Mortal Kombat with blood. The first version of Doom on consoles. This is who they were. I wouldn't expect the guys who all but inspired Columbine to have any chance of being Canonized.

Irimajiri himself said it: they didn't want to abandon the Genesis, but I think what they really meant was that the Saturn was a non-starter in the west. I think we should read between the lines and give Sega's U.S. marketing guys a little bit of credit. It has nothing to do with the launch or the marketing to say that Saturn games *did not appeal to westerners!!!*. It's a question of hardware and software above all else. Even a game like NFL Blitz or N64 Wrestling or Medal of Honor would never run on Saturn. Everyone disses on the 32X when it was a last-ditch effort to stave off the inevitable.

What we need to ask ourselves ITT is that with a perfect launch, 1.8m units shipped to North America becomes what? 3m? 4m? Someone give me a number. Someone tell me that the Saturn (or westerners themselves) were at least a bit of the "problem" from Sega's perspective.

With that said, we should let Joe Miller (RIP) speak for himself on this, which I'll Post below for Posterity. He was at the company long before Irimajiri and could therefore speak with greater authority as to the origins of the 32X. It's not farfetched to think that it was an idea already percolating in Sega's Japan R&D center. The fact that they ran with it was on them, and that ultimately falls on Kalinske. Miller was just an Engineer with a penchant for facilitating the development of violent and disturbing games like Corpse Killer, Night Trap, and Doom. It was Kalinske's job to make the right call and to get the buy-in from Japan imo.

Posted 2 days ago (2025-08-19 12:44:29)

Posting User Xizor32x

Moderated 52 minutes ago (2025-08-22 10:40:59)

Reason Moderated Offensive Material - Sexually explicit material, hate speech, violence / gore

Note from Moderator Suggesting that Doom "all but inspired Columbine" is disgusting and deeply offensive.

Moderation Action Deleted - Content deleted, user notified

Status Moderated

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5765127&forum_id=2:#49204485)

While Doom did not directly cause the Columbine High School massacre, the game and its culture heavily influenced the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The subsequent media frenzy surrounding the game was a classic example of blaming violent media for real-world atrocities, diverting attention from the perpetrators' deeper psychological issues and motives.

Evidence of influence and connection

A central part of their lives: Harris and Klebold were avid players of the first-person shooter game Doom, often connecting their computers to play together.

Custom levels: Eric Harris designed custom levels (WADs) for Doom under aliases like "Reb" and "Rebdoomer". While a persistent rumor claims he built a map of Columbine High School to practice for the attack, no such level was ever publicly released, though some sources indicate he created levels of his neighborhood.

Journal and video references:

In videotapes recorded before the massacre, Harris compared the planned attack to "playing Doom".

He also referenced the game's weapons, pointing out that his shotgun was "Straight out of Doom".

According to some accounts, he was also carrying a "berserk" power-up from the game when he died.

"God mode" fantasy: Investigators noted that Harris created a custom version of Doom where two players had unlimited weapons and ammunition and non-player characters could not fight back. In the same way, the killers acted out their fantasy with real weapons on defenseless students.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5765127&forum_id=2:#49204509)