keyboard adapter, required for connecting a keyboard to the Saturn for web browsing According to Yutaka Yamamoto, Sega of America's director of new technology, the Saturn's design allowed it to access the internet purely through software: "Sega engineers always felt the Saturn would be good for multimedia applications as well as game playing. So they developed a
kernel in the
operating system to support communications tasks." While the Net Link was not the first accessory which allowed console gamers in North America to play video games online (see
online console gaming), it was the first to allow players to use their own
Internet service provider (ISP) to connect. While Sega recommended that players use
Concentric, the Sega Net Link enabled players to choose any ISP that was within its technical specifications. The device was capable of connecting at a 28.8 kilobit/s connection in America In addition, to allow users to browse with just the Saturn joypad, Sega produced a series of CDs containing hundreds of website addresses. The browser included a space magnifying function. The Planetweb browser was written in
C, and runs on just 570 KB, whereas a typical PC browser of the time used up about 6 MB. At the time most television screens ran at a lower resolution than computer monitors, so the browser used
anti-aliasing to smooth out the edges of onscreen text characters. Five games were released that supported the NetLink. All five were released in late 1997, nearly a year after the NetLink itself. It was a runner-up for
Electronic Gaming Monthlys Best Peripheral of 1996 (behind the Saturn analog controller). Despite the media excitement over the device and its prominent appearance in Sega's marketing campaign, less than 1% of Saturn owners purchased the NetLink in 1996. Over its lifetime, an estimated 50,000 NetLink units were sold in North America, half of Sega's original goal. In 2017, fans were able to make the NetLink work a modern highspeed connection with
VoIP. ==Net Link Zone==