Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

SMS, Genesis, 32X, Sega CD, Saturn, Dreamcast
User avatar
omer
16-bit
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:39 pm
Location: virginia

Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by omer »

It's good to see people who love video games and retro game lovers to love video games as much as I do. I never really TRULY got into video games until I bought a Sega Saturn. I was the kid who's parents never bought him a video game system because of negative impact it could bring me, Until.... in 1998 I saved up all my money enough to buy a Playstation for $150! (price at the time at Toys R Us). I fucking love this system! At that time it was PS1 vs N64. I didn't own a N64 at the time so I loved comparing the two systems with my friends because they were so different, but we all know which one was the better system (PSX :D) From then on I'd play video games off and on until I got tired of playing video games and stopped playing completely.

10 years later...

I get a phone call from my friend who worked at Goodwill. He tells me out of the blue, "...Oh yeah by the way, some dude brought in a Sega Saturn. If you want it I can sell it to you for $8.00. It comes with all the original box, chords, couple games, and 2 controllers." Without thinking I immediately came to the store and bought it! It came with a decent amount of games but the one that stood out was definitely Die Hard Arcade. I used to play it at the arcade rooms all the time. I always knew about the 32-bit Saturn, but I never played one before! I never even seen one in real life because none of my friends owned one. I like the most of us, bought the mighty Playstation. I never understood why the Saturn was not a success...It's been plagued here in North America by very bad marketing techniques, no support from Japan, and shitty upper management aka Bernie Stolar.

So I did A LOT research on the Saturn and found out it to be an amazing video game console. What really gets my attention about the Saturn is that technically it's a superior system than the Playstation just harder to program for. Don't ask me why that matters. I guess it's the fact that I like everyone else owned a Playstation and not a Saturn. I grew to love the Saturn fairly quickly because of the true power and capabilities it has. To top it off it has a giant Japanese library filled with many fucking great games unheard of here in the states. I quickly googled "modchip for Saturn" and Racketboy's site was the first site to pop up in the results...Racketboy is so cool that he sent me another chip because my dumbass accidentally bent the mod chip while trying to push it in slot where the lens cable goes into. From then on the rest was history...I now have a giant CD-r collection of North American and foreign games. To this day I play my Saturn almost everyday. The games I play the most by far are Radiant Silvergun and Street Fighter Zero 3 (how cliche, I know). I play it on my 32" LCD Sony T.V. with S-video quality. The Saturn is truly my favorite system and I cherish it dearly and for an older console it looks sexier than any console I know of still to this day!


Pros:
-An awesome library of great games
-Blessed with an AMAZING controller
-Very solid well designed console, will last forever...
-32-bit powerhouse
-Most 2D ports are superior on this system and the library is unmatched
-Games load fast!
-3D games are just incredible but has to be programmed for properly to take advantage of its true potential.
-Internal memory
-BIOS screen and options. Also when you open the disc tray while a game is running, the BIOS opens immediately rather than the console freezing like most CD based video game systems.


Cons:
-Memory is cartridge based
-Many inferior 3D ports because of the lack of good programmers who understand the system
-Lack of good U.S. titles (I'd like to go in detail about why, but most of you know why the Saturn was not a success in the U.S.)



Here's what I now own for my chipped Model2 Saturn:

Grey Model1 Japanese controller (refurbished it myself)
Model2 American controller
ST PadPro (fuck this controller)

Sega (Japan) licensed 4MB RAM Cartridge
Memory Card PLUS Cartridge (works flawless)

21 original copy games in their cases (most valuables are Die Hard Arcade, Panzer Dragoon Zwei II, Virtua On)

and 250+ back up copies of the best games I could download from http://www.sega-saturn.us (unfortunately got hacked August 10th, 2009 but will be back up).

okay thanks for reeding!!!!!!!!!! :P :P :P :P :P :P
Last edited by omer on Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
DaGamingMonkey
128-bit
Posts: 875
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:02 am
Location: Orange County, CA

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by DaGamingMonkey »

to be honest... I picked up a Saturn from a flee market in box, I have only played it maybe twice.
Of course maybe I need to find better games.
I heard there's great fighters on it.
User avatar
DCsegaDH
128-bit
Posts: 610
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:04 am
Location: Mesa,Arizona
Contact:

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by DCsegaDH »

I hardly play mine either, I like the system a lot but I don't have that many games. I have a hard time finding most of them and when I do their close to $15 with a broken case. The mod chip install looked kind of confusing so I got a Action Replay instead.
Systems: Sega Dreamcast(x2), Sega Genesis(x2), Sega Saturn, Sega CD, Genmobile (portable Genesis), FC Twin, PSX, PS2(x2), GBA, SP, Xbox 360, N64, Showcase Arcade
silverback
24-bit
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 7:46 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by silverback »

I have a Saturn and have a good amount of games, some supposed to be ground breaking.

I think its pretty poor compared to the PS and to a lesser extent the N64.

Also i think the controller is some hideous Megadrive pad that had tumors and miss shaped it and made it bigger.

I really wanted to love the saturn, I sunk quite a bit of money into it but I can't.
Own: Spectrum 48k x2, Amiga 500, NES, SNES, Gameboy Color x 3, Gameboy Advance, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Master System II x 2, GameGear x 4, Megadrive x 2, Saturn, Dreamcast x 3, Playstation x 3, PSP 2003, PS2 Slimline, PS3 Slimline 160GB, Xbox, Xbox 360 Elite
User avatar
Original_Name
Next-Gen
Posts: 1157
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:02 pm
Location: Nashville, TN
Contact:

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by Original_Name »

To truly dislike the Sega Saturn you must:

- Be against burning games/have limited funds.
- Not be able to read Japanese.
- Not care too much for arcade titles.
- Not care too much for shmups.
- Not care too much for fighters.
- Not care too much for 2D graphics.
- Not care too much for minimalist controllers.
- Not have tried the 3D controller if you subscribe to the latter.
- Not have played Panzer Dragoon Saga. :wink:

I think most people who are underwhelmed by the Saturn went in expecting a Dreamcast or something. It's not quite to that level, but I'd argue it's better than the Nintendo 64 with its relatively equal number of triple-A titles as well as a far more robust selection of quality, unique "underground" titles. Basically, the Saturn is hardcore as all fuck, so it's understandable that it wouldn't be popular with everyone.
gtmtnbiker
Next-Gen
Posts: 4320
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:14 pm
Location: Massachusetts

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by gtmtnbiker »

@omer,

It would be nice if you could call out the Japanese games that you like on the Saturn console with a 1-2 line description of why you like it.
User avatar
Anayo
Next-Gen
Posts: 2018
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:18 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by Anayo »

I've got a Sega Saturn and I love the thing to pieces. I think the best game I've ever played for it would be Shining Force III. It's very addictive and well constructed. Dragon Force was amazing as well, but reeeaaly time consuming.

Aside from RPG's, the Saturn has some great arcade style games I love to sit down and play, like Die Hard Arcade, Virtua Cop II, Vampire Savior, and the Japanese port of Metal Slug. Probably the weirdest and most original game I have is NiGHTS into Dreams; the graphics and music are absolutely mesmerizing and the gameplay is nothing short of one of a kind. When I play that game it makes me think, "Outside of that PS2 port that never made it stateside and a crappy Wii sequel, I'm playing an awesome game 90% of everyone else has never touched." It actually kind of makes me angry I didn't hear about it sooner or that it's not more popular than it is today.

Of course the Saturn isn't without its fair share of overrated titles. IMO Guardian Heroes and Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2 get just a little more praise than they deserve (they're still good, just not "lose your composure" good.) But all in all the Saturn is a very weird and cool system that many, many gamers haven't experienced fully, making it kind of like a secret treasure hunt for folks who missed out during the Playstation/Nintendo 64 days and want something new.
User avatar
General Chaos
128-bit
Posts: 696
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:51 pm
Location: Toronto

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by General Chaos »

The Saturn is my favorite console of all time, and will most likely remain so. While I agree that getting into the import scene vastly expands the library, there are still a great number of high quality US releases. Most of these are listed in the guides on this site. You are definitely right about the controller as well. It's consistently named as one of if not the best controller ever produced.
User avatar
Ziggy
Moderator
Posts: 14913
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:12 pm
Location: NY

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by Ziggy »

I bought my Saturn for no particular reason at all, I just wanted a different system. Came with Virtua Fighter 2 and I never owned many games for it after that, few good titles here and there. I read once that Shining Force 3 was rare, and I found it disc only on eBay for $10 so I picked it up. I ended up making a swell looking DVD case for it and sold it for $50. A friend gave me his old copy of Shining the Holy Ark, and I love that game. After playing through Symphony of the Night on PS1 for the first time, my friend and I learned of the Saturn version. So I saved up my bones and bought a copy. At this point, and for a few stale years, SOTN was the only reason I was keeping my Saturn.

At this point, the number of games I owned for Saturn could be counted on one hand. It wasn't until after I started visiting Racketboy that I got back into my Saturn. I went on a buying spree and bought up a few of the more popular and inexpensive titles, and a few more expensive ones like Shining Force 3 (closer to $80 complete this time. damn, should have kept the other one). But then I got a chip from Racketboy and never looked back.
User avatar
corn619
Next-Gen
Posts: 2270
Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:48 pm
Location: Lincoln, Rhode Island

Re: Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

Post by corn619 »

I love my Saturn and Dreamcast. I love the fact they have tons of original content, and I don't have to download a 400MB patch everytime I want to play a game.
Post Reply