SEGA Saturn

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Chrisatwill
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SEGA Saturn

Post by Chrisatwill »

Having just bought one- any chance of this being on the cards?
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by ratsoalbion »

Essentially we have a list of all of the historical gaming platforms, so they're all on the cards potentially - dependent on getting a panel together.
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AndrewElmore
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by AndrewElmore »

I finally worked out my log-in info and was able to get onto the forum again lol. If there ever is a Saturn episode in the cards, I have so much affection to pour out for that wonderful system and all its delightful oddities.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by Simonsloth »

I would love a Saturn episode. I know next to nothing about the console and bought my 1st ever Saturn game for a rainy day (or when the stars align and I get to play on one).
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Alex79
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by Alex79 »

Wish I still had my Saturn. I even had Panzer Dragoon Saga. :(
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Wuqinglong
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by Wuqinglong »

I just got a Japanese Saturn a couple months ago so I could finally play Ninpen Manmaru on original hardware. Ironically I still haven't procured said game since the price skyrocketed in the interim since my friend showed it to me on his Saturn so many years ago.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn

Post by ratsoalbion »

OK, you've twisted my arm (see revised thread title).

Please add your thoughts, opinions, memories and experiences of the SEGA Saturn console and its library below.
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Alex79
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Re: Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn

Post by Alex79 »

Ha, amazing! Was this already planned or is it really as a result of the thread? Either way, look forward to listening!
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Wuqinglong
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Re: Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn

Post by Wuqinglong »

The Sega Saturn was something of an Enigma to me growing up. I knew about the Genesis, I knew about the Dreamcast, but I'm not sure I even heard about the Saturn prior to when I started university. As I only had Game Boys at home I could only get a taste of home consoles at friends' houses for the longest time and none of them ever had nor mentioned this machine. When I finally did become aware of this ill-fated machine's existence I was curious so I did some research, enjoyed the legendary Segata Sanshiro ad series, and that was that for a few years until a retro gaming collecting enthusiast friend afforded me the opportunity to play the console myself.

He had a disc for loading the different regions' BIOS of the system meaning we could play more than the somewhat limited North American library and was eager to show me a game our mutual friend had picked up for him while in Japan, an early 3D platformer called Ninpen Manmaru. It was unlike any 3D platformer I had ever played with its strange tank-like turning and small, almost dioramaesque, levels. I was fascinated and figured out how to emulate the game at home so I could play it through, roping in another friend to blind race it with me to see how fast we could beat it. What followed was hours of coming to grips with the movement mechanics of the game. Movement that once felt clunky and frustrating gradually became more fluid and quick. Jumps that were once impossible became second nature. I was hooked. In the months that followed I practiced speedrunning the game regularly and on one fateful Saturday morning, sleep-addled though I was, I beat the game in a time I felt did it justice to show how satisfying mastering the movement could be. It was a wonderful first impression of games on the Saturn.

I was ready to play more Saturn titles but unfortunately I did not own the console and other circumstances drew my attention away from Sega's ill-fated box. So all this time, to me personally, the Saturn has remained the machine that plays Ninpen Manmaru. I acquired a Japanese Saturn recently so perhaps it's time I changed this perception.
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Billy
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Re: Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn

Post by Billy »

If I could choose one console to play forever it would be my beloved Sega Saturn. I didn't grow up with a Mega Drive or a SNES. My childhood gaming was exclusively on Gameboy but nevertheless I was obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog and when my parents offered to buy me a console as a birthday present, I chose the Saturn over the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, relatively clueless as to the state of the so called console wars.

I played Sonic Jam for weeks on end and eventually got a second game: Sega Worldwide Soccer 98. I tried to play a whole 38 game season in one day as I didn't realise I had to pull the little tab out of the battery cover to enable game saves. I was pretty new to this and perhaps my innocence is what allowed me to love the console so much.

My best friend got a Saturn soon after and playing Saturn games with him into all hours of the night or pouring over issues of Sega Saturn Magazine for previews of upcoming games like Deep Fear or Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of my most cherished memories of that time.

It was apparently dying a death in the marketplace but we didn't care, we were able to pick up games for about £15 or less (Makro got hit hard), and the often limited selection meant playing what was available and finding hidden gems and unfamiliar genres. I remember one particular day coming home with Fighting Vipers, Skeleton Warriors and Sega Rally for £12.

We spent our weekends playing Manx TT Superbike, Valora Valley Golf or Worldwide Soccer tournaments, playing arcade classics like Virtua Cop, Daytona USA or House of the Dead, or sharing the controller for NiGHTS, Resident Evil or Tomb Raider. Even if some of the games we had weren't great, we played them to death anyway (shout out to Johnny Bazookatone).

I still have my Saturn and when I feel like adult life gets a bit overwhelming, it's the Saturn and its peculiar, charming library of games that I return to. Games that I missed as a child, I have discovered as an adult like Burning Rangers, Guardian Heroes or yes, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and my excitement and joy from gaming is renewed once again.

It is unquestionably my favourite console of all time and hopefully Sega will look kindly upon its prodigal child and celebrate it for the joy it certainly did bring to those who had it.
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EvilNinjaPhil
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Re: Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn

Post by EvilNinjaPhil »

Right, who do I need to bribe to get onto this show? Because the only way I can fully articulate how much the Sega Saturn means to me if is I'm on the show and no one else speaks and just listens to me for 4 hours or so as I wax lyrical. So, if [insert host name] is reading this out, then I clearly didn't bribe the right person so I'll cut to the chase and tell you a tale of tragedy:

I got my Saturn for Christmas in 1995, I think the first and indeed last Christmas where it was a viable contender to the PS1. I was in heading into the last 6 months of my GCSEs coming off a period of ill mental and physical health and I loved my Saturn. By the end of 1998 I was in the first year of college, now I had a saturday job, a PS1, an N64 and ChampMan 97/98 so the Saturn was a bit dusty, on the shelf, starting to be forgotten. So, when one of my new college pals said that he'd just borrowed a Saturn I talked it up, and then asked if he wanted to borrow some games. Amongst the games I leant him were:
  • Mass Destruction
    Virtua Fighter 2
    Fighters Megamix
    Worms
    Street Fighter Alpha 2
    Marvel Super Heroes
    Saturn Bomberman
    Nights In Dreams, with the Controller
    Virtual On
    Guardian Heroes
    Panzer Dragoon
    Panzer Dragoon Zwei
    And the pièce de résistance, Panzer Dragoon Saga
Several weeks later, he dropped out of college. This being the very late 90s there was no social media you could hunt people down with, we had mobiles but he didn't respond to any texts or calls. He simply vanished, gone, like Keyser Soze.

My Saturn collection was gone. At the time I was a bit blasé, because of the other machines and games I had. Hell, the Dreamcast would be out next year, and anyway I'll just buy the games again. But as time ran on, and as the value of some of these Saturn games exploded in the early days of eBay, I realised what I had lost. To confirm: I had picked up the copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for £35, just walking through an Electronics Boutique. £35, sat on a shelf. I can only assume that the guy who took my games was someone who knew the easiest and cheapest way to get a copy of Saga would be to invent time travel, go back to the 90s and convince some dumb rube to simply hand over his copy.

Every now and then I think about re-buliding this collection, but then I price it up and I wince and put those dreams away again. The Saturn remains my favourite console, the only one I kept until now, but those memories are tinged with sadness at what I lost.

Anyway, enough bringing the mood down; the Saturn is best worst console ever, its Sega at is most hubris-y and I love it to bits.
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Re: Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn

Post by EvilNinjaPhil »

Oh, what the hey, lets have some chat about Saturn Bomberman:

Saturn Bomberman is great and is arguably the last truely classic game in the franchise. It was a great encapsulation of what had come before from the great pixel art to the pin point gameplay. But as much as I enjoyed it, I always knew that I'd never enjoy all of Saturn Bomberman because I could never really play the 10 player mode. Not because of the lack of controllers and people, you could add in AI players to fill all the 10 player slots, but because of the graphics mode it used; it would switch to a much higher resolution and a 16:9 widescreen play area, making it even smaller and borderline unplayable on your usual 4:3 CRT set. Nope, as much as I loved it I would never get all I could out of the game.

OR WOULD I?

See, I was lucky enough to have a mother who worked at a large electrical retailer with a decent staff discount and a father with an over eager credit card, Thats how I asume we ended up with a sweet 28 inch Sony Trinitron Widescreen TV that was a flat as a snooker table, and thats how I played 10 player bomberman. Of course, using computer characters wasn't really the same; I thoroughly enjoyed it but it would be enjoyed on the basis that I would never play the game as it was intended, surrounded by 10 people. I could dream, but I would never play the game like that.

OR WOULD I?

A decade and a half later, I was on my way to Scotland to meet up with some pals from the Consolevania forum to play some games upstairs in a pub that was way way too hot. And a group of us had managed to scrounge together the 2 multitaps and 10 pads required for a full on proper 10 player game of Saturn Bomberman. The game was projected onto a sheet taped to the wall that kept falling down, but that didn't matter; here I was playing Saturn Bomberman with 10 other people at the same time. It was brilliant, and was made even more brillianter by me winning the tournament and being crowned King Bomb. This truely is my top gaming moment, and possibly of my life; marriage? Nope. Birth of children? Not a chance. The time I paid for a beer with a ten pound note and got change for a twenty pound note was now in second place, all thanks to Saturn Bomberman and a dream that never died.
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