Well... The Sega Saturn is officially the best thing ever.

[Original_Name]

The best course of action for a Sega Saturn if you're not going to mod, since it can be so expensive to collect for, is not to buy alot of games at once. The Saturn is a system which has some neat little games at bargain-bin prices as well as some mind-blowing gaming experiences for considerable prices. To start out though, there are a number of games which command high prices on their US editions which are actually pretty cheap imports - so if you buy an Action Replay for $25-30, buying Japanese copies of games that aren't highly dependent on text such as Guardian Heroes, Burning Rangers, and Saturn Bomberman (normally $50-60 a piece in the US) for about $20, the Action Replay has already paid for itself. But let's say you set aside $100 for Saturn games every four months - you could buy one big game with a big price (like say, Shining Force III or Dragon Force which go for around $80) with just a couple of cheaper diversions during your spending quarter to give you some variety (such as Astal, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Clockwork Knight 2, Sega Rally, Virtual ON, or Galactic Attack for ~$10 or conversely, titles such as NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Die Hard Arcade, or Legend of Oasis for ~$20). So that means if you were to spend $100 bucks in four months, you'd occupy yourself for a long time with a game like Shining Force III for $80 and then have some nice pick-up-and-play arcade-y titles such as Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Galactic Attack for $10 a piece, or possibly get an expensive title like Dragon Force for ~$80 and just one game high-quality game from the $20 bracket, such as NiGHTS for $20, which would also run you around the same $100 dollar price point. Then from time to time, you could save up an extra amount of time for one of the really expensive titles - so, say if you waited 8 months, you'd have $200 so you could purchase Panzer Dragoon Saga for $150 and Soukyugurentai for $50 during that quarter. Now, are Panzer Dragoon Saga and Soukyugurentai worth saving for eight months, you ask? Yes. Yes, they are.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is to buy in moderation. There are ALOT of great Saturn games on there, and ALOT of dollars to be spent in order to amass a quality collection, so don't rush yourself or else you'll find yourself with a case of buyer's remorse, no matter how great the games are - and remember, only do this if you're not keen on modding your console. I'd recommend modding over collecting for this console in a heart beat. There are so many wonderful games like Radiant Silvergun, Bulk Slash, or Thunder Force V which are must-plays, but simply not worth the exorbitant prices they command. Also, once you've modded, you can burn a few games that are too deeply buried in the Japanese language to be accessible to the average American player, thus not worth his hard-earned dollars - such as Grandia, Princess Crown, or Sakura Taisen - but are more than worth the price of a CD-r just to see running on the system.

In conclusion, fuck Bernie Stolar.

[the7k]

Yeah, if you look in the right places, you can get GREAT, GREAT deals on Saturn games.

I got Sakura Taisen Collector's Edition for $10.
I got a huge lot of about 40 games for $90, including shipping.
I got Grandia for $0.01. No joke. Bidding started at 1 cent, and no one tried to challenge me.

[mas]

I was thinking of getting either a saturn or dreamcast because both systems are awsome and the dreamcast has alot of the sequels like daytona virtua fighter sega rally but after reading this forum I'm buying a saturn and getting me an action replay but is there one with a 4mb also so I can play the imports and play games like xmen vs sf and castlevania?

[the7k]

What every Saturn owner needs to have:

Action Replay 4-in-1
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-k8- ... 0-1b2.html
S-Video Connection
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-k8-49-en-70-uh.html

[Breetai]

I was thinking of getting either a saturn or dreamcast because both systems are awsome and the dreamcast has alot of the sequels like daytona virtua fighter sega rally but after reading this forum I'm buying a saturn and getting me an action replay but is there one with a 4mb also so I can play the imports and play games like xmen vs sf and castlevania?

Or just buy a Japanese Saturn.

[Ack]

I bought a Saturn a little over a year ago. It's unfortunate that it was a Model 1, including Model 1 controllers, but included with it was the Saturn light gun, and copies of Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Racer, D, Ghen War, Robotica, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Die Hard Trilogy, Daytona USA, and NBA Jam TE.

Since then I have picked up several more domestic releases I was interested in, and imported a handful of fighters that I'd always wanted to play. No fighting game fan's collection is complete without a Saturn.

[Breetai]

I bought a Saturn a little over a year ago. It's unfortunate that it was a Model 1...

What's unfortunate about that? I really don't like the round buttons on the model 2 much at all. The model 1 looks better.

[Ack]

I bought a Saturn a little over a year ago. It's unfortunate that it was a Model 1...

What's unfortunate about that? I really don't like the round buttons on the model 2 much at all. The model 1 looks better.

The downside was that the controllers matched, so I've got those beefy Saturn controllers with the shoddy shoulder buttons. I need to get some of the model 2 controllers really bad.

[fastbilly1]

Saturn is the reason I came to this site in the first place. I met Racket on another site and bought a 4 meg cart from him and he suggested to take a look at his site for game suggestions.

I bought mine when the three pack ins were available, but one of my cousins got it on launch. So I knew what games I wanted to buy before I got the console. Baku Baku, VF2, Die Hard Arcade, Vampire Saviour, Virtua Cop 1&2, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Xmen Children of the Atom, the list goes on. Man I do love arcade games.

If you are not afraid to try something different, the Saturn has alittle of everything. But watch out, it can become a addicition. I cut mine when I ended up with four Saturns, 20+ controllers, and around 100 games. Boootay has about the same count as I do, but he has beaten more...curse you backloggery.

[Breetai]

I bought a Saturn a little over a year ago. It's unfortunate that it was a Model 1...

What's unfortunate about that? I really don't like the round buttons on the model 2 much at all. The model 1 looks better.

The downside was that the controllers matched, so I've got those beefy Saturn controllers with the shoddy shoulder buttons. I need to get some of the model 2 controllers really bad.

Oh, haha. I didn't even think of that! When you said model 1, I was thinking a grey Saturn with the regular controllers. I totally forgot that the American model 1 had those larger control pads.

Ironically, my first Saturn was and American model 1 with those larger pads. To be honest, I liked those pads. I have a couple USB American Saturn model 1 pads and enjoy them. Perhaps I'm the only one?


FTR, I'm at 80-something Saturn games now with hardly any fillers like sports games. My backloggery says 90-something because of compilations like the four Konami Deluxe packs and Phantasy Star Collection. My main Saturn is a Japanese model 1, but I've had an American model 1 (and have sold a few of these), American model 2, Hong Kong model 2, Japanese model 2s (sold many), V-Saturn model 1 and V-Saturn model 2 (currently for sale). It's definitely my favourite system, the more I think about it. PC Engine is second.

For fun, here's some of the different Saturn lots I've gone though in the past 3 months. My favourite looking Saturn is the model 1 V-Saturn: