I found my old stockpile of Sega Saturn stuff!!

[Original_Name]

From when I got my Sega Saturn on my birthday in 1996 to when I gave the poor thing some much-needed rest on 9/9/09, I actually amassed a pretty nice Sega Saturn collection. My father's just as much of a video game nerd as I am, and he had gotten a Sony PlayStation as a birthday present for himself in 1996 (which was only six days prior to mine) - basically, my childhood was a video-gaming orgy during that time period. It had been really cool to share the Sega Genesis with my father in years prior (he taught me how to pick out good games, and picked out a few classics for us on his own accords - I wouldn't have grown up with Gunstar Heroes, Shinobi III, and Thunder Force IV had it not been for his good taste), but the Saturn-PlayStation era in the Halsey household was an incredible time to be a gaming-obsessed youth -- I focused on the Saturn, he focused on the PlayStation, and between our collecting and sharing we had a great fucking time. Later we would share the Dreamcast, but he got alot busier after that... anyway, the point is, I got to play a ton of great new games for two systems at once, which most gamers don't get to experience in their youth.

Anyway, my father kept all the cases and manuals to the PlayStation games, and he actually has a really well-kempt collection of games including some rarities like black-label Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears, and Final Fantasy Tactics. I always kinda envied that because I hadn't been wise enough to keep my cases and manuals around. I'd put all of my disks in a booklet and done who-knows-what with the packaging (and even lost a couple of my old games, I'm ashamed to say), only to have it all lost to time -- or so I'd thought (cliche).

So I was attempting to clean out my closet - which I don't think has been done since around 2001 (I'm mostly a very orderly person, but the closet is pretty much a lost cause at this point) - and I come across this cardboard box with doodles of Sonic the Hedgehog, NiGHTS, the Hornet car, Temjin, Astal, Jean-Luc Lundi riding Luci from Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and various Virtua Fighters, Street Fighters, and X-Men. Inside I find the mostly-uncracked cases and manuals of Astal, Albert Odyssey, Die Hard Arcade, Fighters Megamix, Guardian Heroes, NiGHTS into Dreams..., Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Shining the Holy Ark, Virtua Cop 2, and Virtual ON. That's nearly my entire original Saturn collection -- I don't know what happened to my Sonic Jam, Sonic R, Dark Savior, Daytona USA: CCE, Sega Rally, and Three Dirty Dwarves cases, but still! So much geeky nostalgia hitting me all at once!

What I was most surprised to find however were the five games I'd imported back in the day - X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Saturn Bomberman, Bomberman Fight!!, Grandia (the reason I bought an Action Replay back in the day... Gamespot and Dave's Sega Saturn page convinced my eight year old self that I'd be able to play it without knowing Japanese... that just didn't work out. So I've been hating Bernie Stolar ever since), and Soukyugurentai Otokuyo. Yeah, a game that I'd been wanting to check out forever, I bought when I was eight years old and tucked away when the Dreamcast came out soon after without ever knowing its name. I just looked at the back of the box and thought it looked neat and bought it, played it a few times, and had it kick my ass without ever knowing its name (seeing as I can't read Japanese). So yeah, I've owned fucking Soukyugurentai since 1999. I love my life.

Anyway, not only am I reuniting myself with some great old games that I had thought were thrown out or sold or something, but I get to experience the glorious nostalgic kick of owning nearly all of my old Saturn games' packaging, complete with the bargain-bin stickers which made Saturn game buying such a joy.

[Pichu]

=P Awesome!!!

[Hatta]

Great story. The moment you realized what you had must have been awesome.

[aka DaBigKahuna]

Thanks for sharing...a nice read.

[Devezu]

Are you going to sell it?
I would like a Saturn.
________
<=.^^.=>
___---___

Edit - Looks to serious - I'm just kidding. Congratulations on such a find.

[softwhere]

I was gonna ask the same question! haha. I know I'd take that Guardian Heroes case off your hands.

[samsonlonghair]

What a small world! I just found some long lost Sega goodness too. Read about it here:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... =1&t=20207

[Original_Name]

The stuff won't be for sale, since none of the games are copies in my collection. I'd had all of the disks for the NTSC-U games, I just didn't know that the cases and manuals to them had been preserved. Also, the NTSC-J games had yet to be replaced in my collection, so I won't be selling them either. Sorry for any disappointment.

Anyway, @Hatta - Yeah, I was absolutely shocked when I realized what it was - when I get my camera fixed, I might take a picture of the box, as the doodles are pretty amusing. Honestly, it was absolutely amazing to look through the manuals of NiGHTS, Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Albert Odyssey, but the biggest shock to me was the fact that I'd blindly bought Soukyugurentai - I mean, it's not quite like finding a copy of Radiant Silvergun or Psychic Assassin Taromaru or something, but I had NO IDEA that was the game I'd bought when I was younger... I had vague memories of buying a shoot-'em-up game, but I'd never realized it was something as godly as Soukyugurentai. I don't even think I'd ever even played the Battle Garegga demo that comes on this copy of the game, either. Anyway, I played a good bit of Souky and X-Men vs. Street Fighter today and had a fucking blast -- got to level 4 in Souky, which I'm sure is way further than I ever got as a tyke. Fucking amazing game.

@samsonlonghair - I actually saw that after I posted this story up! I would've commented on it, but honestly, I was too excited to play my first round of X-Men vs. Street Fighter in more than a decade, then get my mitts on some rounds of Souky. Congratulations, though! I've never had the joy of misplacing, then locating a long-lost console before! I do remember finally wising up and bringing my own Genesis out of the attic around 2004, though -- I don't know what it is about pulling an old console out and playing it again for the first time in years, but it's the only thing that compares to getting one new in the first place.

[Original_Name]

Man, really though - this bring back a ton of memories. I remember buying or receiving every single one of these games.

Birthday of '96 - Receive Sega Saturn with Sega Screams Demo Disk and NiGHTS Sampler; receive Sonic Jam as a gift.
Late '96 - Buy NiGHTS by influence of NiGHTS Sampler.
Christmas of '96 - Receive Daytona USA: CCE, Dark Savior, Three Dirty Dwarves, Virtua Cop 2, and Virtual ON by influence of Sega Screams Demo Disk as gifts.
Throughout '97 - Buy Albert Odyssey, Astal, Fighters Megamix, and Shining the Holy Ark used completely on whims. I purchase Sonic R the day it comes out - it and NiGHTS were the only games I ever actually bought new for the system.
Christmas of '97 - Receive Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Sega Rally by influence of that one Sega ad with the naked lady as gifts.
First Half of '98 - Buy Die Hard Arcade used by the influence of the arcade machine at my local bowling alley. Saturn drought ensues. I'll never forget searching endlessly for copies of Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Shining Force III to no avail due to their limited print-runs.
Second Half of '98 to Early '99 - Buy imported copies of Bomberman Fight!!, Grandia, Saturn Bomberman, Soukyugurantai Otokuyo, and X-Men vs. Street Fighter before commencing to save up for the Sega Dreamcast.

[Original_Name]

Oh, man! I just remembered something about buying Soukyugurentai! I remember being torn between it and what I just looked up and found was called All Japan Pro Wrestling Featuring Virtua. I remember it so clearly now! I was at the games store - they had this rack of import Saturn games - only ten games at a time, two vertical rows of five. I remember not knowing which one to get because All Japan Pro Wrestling had Wolf and Jeffrey in it from Virtua Fighter (hence its "Featuring Virtua" moniker) so I knew it HAD to be good, but I already had Fighters Megamix and wrestling wasn't really my thing, but then I didn't know if the other cool-looking game would be good or not. I finally took the gamble and bought Soukyugurentai, even though it made me feel a little bit guilty to buy it over my beloved Virtua Fighters. Man, so much nostalgia.