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alienjesus
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Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by alienjesus Sat Jan 01, 2022 9:04 am

Hi all

Each month of 2022 I'm going to start a thread to discuss a particular console. I'd love everyone to join in - let me know what you think of the console's library, it's controller, it's legacy - anything like that! I'll be covering a selection of consoles (portable and handheld) from the 2nd to the 7th generation of gaming over the course of the year.

Share memories of your time with the system for us to enjoy! Play some games for that system this month and tell us about them if you're so inclined!

Most of all, let's just get a discussion going!


For January, I've chosen the Sega Saturn as our focus for the month. Released in 1994 in Japan and 1995 elsewhere, this was Sega's entry in the 5th generation of gaming, competing against the likes of the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo 64.

Saturn was not a huge success for Sega, selling around 9 million units (less than the Master System!) but it was a reversal of fortunes to some degree as it was quite successful in Japan - as opposed to Sega's prior systems which saw far more success in the west.

What do you think of the Saturn? Do you have any favourite's you'd recommend? Why do you think it was a flop? Share your thoughts in this thread!
Last edited by alienjesus on Sat Jan 01, 2022 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by ElkinFencer10 Sat Jan 01, 2022 10:42 am

I think the Saturn was criminally underrated, and while I understand why it flopped outside of Japan, the West really missed out on a great console. House of the Dead, Panzer Dragoon, Die Hard Arcade, Radiant Silvergun, and Daytona USA were all awesome games that you could only get on Saturn. It's a shame that the low sales and unusual architecture kept more 3rd parties from supporting it.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by SpaceBooger Sat Jan 01, 2022 5:16 pm

I love my Saturn and am currently on disc 2 of the fan-translated version of Grandia.

I bought my Saturn used when Shining Wisdom came out. I read about it in a magazine and loved the Shining Force games on the Genesis, so I saved up and got the console, Shining Wisdom, Astal, and Bug. Needless to say, Bug was the most played game of those three for me since Shining Wisdom was a bit of a letdown.
A year before joining this site I purchased a modchip off of this site and then sold my Model 1 Saturn and purchased the easier to mod Model 2 from Ebay. I modded it and just recently beat Shining and the Holy Ark last month. It is alive and kicking, but there is an issue with powered controllers not working. If you read my other post it all had to do with a blown fuse or resistor on the MB. I don't know if the issue was there when I bought the Saturn or if it was my doing.

Today I came across a risky and odd Saturn (you can read more about it in this post) drove for 3 hours and took a risk on buying a Saturn for $80 that may be modded or not work at all. Sure enough, it is both modded to play burnt games and has a region switch AND the controller port works.
I just got done playing a round of Virtua Cop 2.

I wish the Saturn was not so hard to emulate because there are tons of great games for it that need to be played. Shining Force 3 all scenarios have been translated and are awesome. The Saturn version of Grandia plays so much better than the PS1, plus it's a Game Arts game - those all should be played on SEGA systems. The Lunar games are almost finished being translated. The fan translation of Policenauts is phenomenal. Just last month Bulk Slash was just translated and released. I have not yet played it but I am interested. Like, I said too bad you almost need real hardware to play Saturn games.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Chk991 Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:31 pm

I love the Saturn. I don't own one now but I owned a few around 6-7 years ago. Shameful to say but I fried two of the things, kind of weird that they still kept working but had a weird color tint. The one I did have that was working properly still gave me a bit of issues with losing saves but that could be the action replay I bought too. Other than that I had a blast with the Saturn and got a crap ton of games I've been eyeing for years.

Been wanting to get back into playing Saturn games via emulation since It's gotten better since.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by bmoc Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:55 pm

SpaceBooger wrote:I wish the Saturn was not so hard to emulate because there are tons of great games for it that need to be played. Shining Force 3 all scenarios have been translated and are awesome. The Saturn version of Grandia plays so much better than the PS1, plus it's a Game Arts game - those all should be played on SEGA systems. The Lunar games are almost finished being translated. The fan translation of Policenauts is phenomenal. Just last month Bulk Slash was just translated and released. I have not yet played it but I am interested. Like, I said too bad you almost need real hardware to play Saturn games.

Saturn emulation has come a long way in the past few years. Polymega emulates Saturn really well and it is just running a customized version of Mednafen.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by PartridgeSenpai Sat Jan 01, 2022 8:08 pm

alienjesus wrote:Hi all

Each month of 2022 I'm going to start a thread to discuss a particular console. I'd love everyone to join in - let me know what you think of the console's library, it's controller, it's legacy - anything like that! I'll be covering a selection of consoles (portable and handheld) from the 2nd to the 7th generation of gaming over the course of the year.

Share memories of your time with the system for us to enjoy! Play some games for that system this month and tell us about them if you're so inclined!

Most of all, let's just get a discussion going!


For January, I've chosen the Sega Saturn as our focus for the month. Released in 1994 in Japan and 1995 elsewhere, this was Sega's entry in the 5th generation of gaming, competing against the likes of the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo 64.

Saturn was not a huge success for Sega, selling around 9 million units (less than the Master System!) but it was a reversal of fortunes to some degree as it was quite successful in Japan - as opposed to Sega's prior systems which saw far more success in the west.

What do you think of the Saturn? Do you have any favourite's you'd recommend? Why do you think it was a flop? Share your thoughts in this thread!


This is a great idea, AJ! This is a perfect excuse for me to give the Saturn some more attention before winter break is over~

Also the Saturn undersold the Mastery System? Damn, that IS poor sales :o
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Gucci
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Gucci Sat Jan 01, 2022 8:33 pm

I like the “console of the month” idea, a lot.

I can’t quite contribute anything meaningful here as my first and only Sega console was the Dreamcast.

I do see that emulation is an option. I might take a look at that.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by o.pwuaioc Sat Jan 01, 2022 9:20 pm

The Saturn is basically a dedicated shmup machine for me, although I also love it for its fighters (specifically Vampire Savior and COTA), the light gun games, and Metal Slug, which I prefer to the PS2 version for some unquantifiable reason.
Last edited by o.pwuaioc on Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by ElkinFencer10 Sun Jan 02, 2022 10:44 am

Saturn emulation still isn't flawless, but it's totally playable these days. I think it was a year or two ago that folks finally cracked it.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Ziggy587 Sun Jan 02, 2022 12:29 pm

Great idea, AJ ! I'm looking forward to all of the threads throughout the year.

So I semi-recently (mid-2020) posted my history with the Saturn in this post, but I'll sum it up here.

I can remember when the Saturn was current gen hardware. I always saw ads for it in Game Pro and thought it looked awesome. I had an N64 that gen, and that was it. But the early 2000's were a great time for retro gaming. There was tons of stuff on eBay, and most things were very cheap. That's when I picked up my first Saturn, a round button model 2. A friend at the time gave me whatever Saturn stuff he had left in his closet. An oval button model 1 that wouldn't read discs, a model 2 controller, an official Sega memory cart, and disc only copy of Shining the Holy Ark. I had another friend at the time sell me a stack of mint CIB games for $2-5 each. Then I got a Racketboy mod chip.

But for the last 10 or so years, I didn't play much Saturn for various reason. I sold off most of the games that I had, keeping just a half dozen or so. Then in mid 2020 I bought a Fenrir (a disc drive emulator) for that oval button model that couldn't read discs, and I've been having a blast playing it. Shining the Holy Ark was always one of my favorite games for the system, and now I finally beat it. I can appreciate more genres now compared to back when I first got my Saturn. For example, I really didn't care for shmups at all back then but now I love them. There are just so many games that I wouldn't give the time of day 20 years ago, but now I find enjoyable.

The Saturn is a great example of an underdog console that actually has an awesome library of games. There's still tons I have yet to try. Maybe this thread will help me with that.
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