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Note
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Note Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:30 pm

o.pwuaioc wrote:Double oof. The US cases are bad enough, those European ones are dreadful. I knew they were bad, but having never seen one in person, I didn't know they were that awful.

The US cases alone have driven me to only own Japanese games, except a big box set for Virtua Cop 2. While there are some US games I still wanted (chiefly Dragon Force, maybe Need for Speed, which is supposed to be better than the PS1 version, but a very different game from the JP version), I've always been tempted to just sell my current console and get a Japanese one instead. I can still use Action Replay to play US games, right? Or would I have to get it modded all over again?


Those European cases remind me of the PS1 cardboard longboxes, which suffer from some of the same issues. It stinks to see the artwork start to come off the case, because the glue is drying out. One trick I saw to help with this, is to gently use a glue stick along the top between the artwork and the box underneath. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it could be a good solution.

Regarding using an Action Replay on a JP console, this is my exact setup, and it works just fine. There are minor language issues with a few games, such as Die Hard Arcade. It's not too substantial, but for this game, the language and text will appear in the language based on the console you're playing on. So in Die Hard Arcade, all the Quick Time Events come up with the descriptions in Japanese text (even though it's a US copy of the game), so I never know what I'm supposed to press. Lol. I think this affects a few other releases as well.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by o.pwuaioc Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:55 pm

Note wrote:Regarding using an Action Replay on a JP console, this is my exact setup, and it works just fine. There are minor language issues with a few games, such as Die Hard Arcade. It's not too substantial, but for this game, the language and text will appear in the language based on the console you're playing on. So in Die Hard Arcade, all the Quick Time Events come up with the descriptions in Japanese text (even though it's a US copy of the game), so I never know what I'm supposed to press. Lol. I think this affects a few other releases as well.

Oh, yeah, that information is what I would be looking for. Although, I can change the language settings, no?

viewtopic.php?t=26883
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by corn619 Fri Jan 14, 2022 10:16 pm

I didn't get to play the Saturn until 2009 as I mostly was a Nintendo guy back in the day. I was blown away the moment I fired up Radiant Silvergun and Guardian Heroes. It did have a pretty decent amount of good games given the amount of time it was around. I've been pondering about buying another Saturn the last few months. Reading this thread has definitely swayed me even further into that direction lol.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Ziggy587 Mon Jan 17, 2022 6:56 pm

I haven't been posting in this thread, but I've pretty much been playing the Saturn every day.

Mega Man X4 - I played this game for the first time a few years ago on the PS1. I rather enjoyed it, and I've always been curious to check out the Saturn version. It plays exactly the same, as far as I can tell. The only real differences to speak of are some minor things with the graphics. Like a lot of Saturn ports, there's some dithered transparencies while the PS1 has real transparent things, like the spotlights in the opening level. Although there's one level where X is partially submerged in water, and that looks about the same in both versions. The Saturn has an animated background in the lava/volcano stage, arguably better than the PS1 version. In the PS1 version, that background just kind of slowly pulses in brightness. I think the PS1 version edges out for me. Although that background looks much nicer in the Saturn port, you don't really watch it while you're playing. The dithered spotlights stick out like a sore thumb though. But for such a blink and you miss it thing (those spotlights) I don't think you can go wrong with either version.

Shining Force III - Scenario 1 - I think I said before, I started to play this game years ago but stopped when I learned that Scenario 2 and 3 were being translated. I was enjoying the game, so I figured I would wait for those translations to be finished. Well, that was a good 10-15 years ago LOL. So I've been playing the fan translated version of Scenario 1, and I got past the furthest point I can remember playing from 10-15 years ago. Turns out, that wasn't very far at all. I forget how many hours my save files says, but it's somewhere around 8 right now. I just got on the train, after that battle where you have to try and save the refugees. I heard that, aside from gaining 10 experience points per character for each refugee that stays alive, if you save all of them you get something special in a later scenario. So it took a few tries, but I managed to save all of them. I had to use the egress spell to escape the battle, which kind of worked out anyway since it helped me to grind a little. I don't know if I'll finish Scenario 1 before the end of January, but I definitely wont be finishing all three of them. I'm not sure how I'll progress after I finish the first scenario. I might take a break in between them.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by ZRofel Fri Jan 21, 2022 12:51 pm

I keep meaning to post in this thread, because the Saturn has always been one of my favorite retro consoles. It just has a such a singular, unique library. You can basically look at a screenshot and know it's a Saturn game.

I bought my Saturn when I was in college because I was just starting to get into retro collecting, and there were a lot of Saturn games that were beginning to catch my attention. EGM had recently published one of their "Greatest Games of All Time" lists, and there were a number of Saturn games that looked amazing, including ones like Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Shining Force III. This was years ago, so while things were starting to rise in price, you could still get a lot of the heavy-hitters for reasonable amounts of money. I was also just starting to notice the import scene too, and obviously the Saturn is one of those consoles, like the TG-16, that's essentially defined by its import library. I'm pretty sure the first Saturn game I bought was actually an import Dragonball Z fighting game, that weird 3-on-3 one people typically call Dragonball Z Legends. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a "good" game, but it's definitely a really interesting one that kind of encapsulates the unique things going on with the Saturn (there was a PlayStation version too, but as I understand it, the Saturn version is better).

By this point, though, I've basically accepted that I'm done collecting for the Saturn, outside of maybe the odd cheap import. The handful of games that I would still like to add to the collection have just become too expensive to be worth it for me. Thankfully, I'm really happy with my collection as it is, as I've got tones of games that I really love. And a few years back, when that program was released that allowed you to play burned games on an unmodded Saturn if you flashed a memory card, I actually bought a pre-configured board for, like, $20 and 3D printed my own shell. So now I've got a weird little pumpkin-orange cartridge I can pop into my Saturn whenever I want to play Panzer Dragoon Saga or Psychic Killer Taromarou without having to take out a second mortgage on my house :P

When I was still living with my parents, my brother and I would often kill an afternoon brawling through some of the alternate paths in Guardian Heroes trying to figure out what was the "ideal" route. It's such an excellent co-op game since the combat is super tight and there's always something new and interesting to see. It's probably my overall favorite Saturn game, but there are plenty of others that I really enjoy. I always come back to Radiant Silvergun, as I feel like it really hits that sweet spot for me with shooters, where it's tough, but doesn't quite cross over into impossible bullet hell territory. Dragon Force is a really unique strategy RPG that ate up a ton of my time when I was in college. I don't think I ever totally completed the campaign, but I really loved the giant battles with dozens of sprites and the rhythm of gradually conquering and maintaining territory. I'm hoping to play the fan-translated sequel at some point in the not-too-distant future.

As far as my recommendations, I think my first has to be Three Dirty Dwarves, which I think I originally learned about on this site. It's a weird 2-D brawler with a very "European cartoon" art style and a really bizarre story about psychic children whose D&D characters come to life and have to rescue them from the military. So you end up wandering through these grungy, quasi-fantasy versions of U.S. locales fighting orcs, crazed hobos, runaway trucks, junkyard dogs, and all sorts of other wackiness. The first boss is some kind of monster man wearing an outfit made out of live dogs, and the second is an entire gym that rises up off its foundation and slowly wanders around the boss arena attacking you. Each of the three dwarves plays totally differently, and you cycle through them with a button press. The combat is super breezy because almost everyone goes down in one hit, including your dwarves, but they're only stunned, and if you can slap them upside the head before all three are taken down, they'll jump back into the rotation. In the game's best moments, it creates a wildly manic feeling during battles, where you're constantly juggling between taking out enemies and reviving fallen dwarves before you get wiped out. It's also one of those games where every level is different, so in one level you're playing a game of baseball, but you're trying to hit balls to defeat opposing players before they can take out your runners on base. And in another your three dwarves are riding a wrecking ball into a building to try and take out a dragon who keeps poking his head out of windows. Highly recommended.

Another fun one is Super Tempo, a zany 2-D platformer. The best way I could describe it would be like a heavily-anime-influenced Warner Bros. cartoon. Like Three Dirty Dwarves, it's another one where every level is kind of something different. The "core" levels are 2-D platformers that play a bit like something along the lines of Rayman, or maybe the old Tiny Toons platformers, but there are also horizontal shooter levels, levels that play kind of like puzzle/adventure games, and strange game show interludes where you can win furniture for your home that may or may not matter at all. It's an import, so some of the story is a little difficult to parse. And the whole thing is just incredibly bizarre. For example, the first level has a section where you have to swim up a waterfall, but when you get to the top you find that the entire waterfall is an enemy peeing off a cliff. The second level features you assembling the Musicians of Bremen because you need them to get through a door for some reason. Eventually the protagonist gets turned into an evil American-comics-style superhero by the villain and you need to play as his girlfriend for a few levels to turn him back to normal. It's weird, weird stuff. But again, definitely recommended.
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Ziggy587 Sat Jan 22, 2022 9:47 am

ZRofel wrote:I keep meaning to post in this thread, because the Saturn has always been one of my favorite retro consoles. It just has a such a singular, unique library. You can basically look at a screenshot and know it's a Saturn game.


I enjoyed the read, thanks for sharing!
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by Note Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:32 pm

o.pwuaioc wrote:Oh, yeah, that information is what I would be looking for. Although, I can change the language settings, no?

https://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26883


I actually didn't even realize you could change the language settings on the console, so I appreciate you sharing that link. My battery on the Saturn is currently dead, but once I replace it, I'll see if adjusting the language affects those sequences in Die Hard Arcade.

ZRofel wrote:I keep meaning to post in this thread, because the Saturn has always been one of my favorite retro consoles. It just has a such a singular, unique library. You can basically look at a screenshot and know it's a Saturn game.


Also enjoyed reading your post, so thanks for sharing!
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by alienjesus Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:13 pm

I've enjoyed the posts guys, keep them coming! There's only 5 days left of January before I post a thread for February, so let's keep the Saturn train rolling!

I thought that today I would share my Saturn collection. I think it's pretty decent, it certainly has some of the big name Western releases in there.

Here's some of my PAL games:
Image

More PAL games and my Japanese Saturn games:
Image

And finally, one last game because I realised I'd taken the photos and missed it as it was on the shelf waiting to be played:
Image
Image
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by prfsnl_gmr Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:22 pm

That’s, basically, a perfect Saturn collection, AJ! The only way to make it better would be to throw away your copy of Rayman. :lol:
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Re: Console of the Month (Jan 2022): Sega Saturn

by marurun Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:32 pm

Absolutely lovely! A top-tier Saturn collection is pricey but such a thing of beauty.
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