What happened with this system? I remember when it first dropped my boy copped Virtua Fighter 2 and I was over his house every damned day. The drunk monk was my dude. There were so many combos to learn it made the game fun besides the incredible graphics. Then we had games like Panzer Dragon. I mean what really went wrong with the Saturn? What was that cartridge part in the back for? Was is backwards compatible to the Genesis? I actually have a Saturn in my possession. I don't have any games or extras for it like power cord or whatever. Should I invest a lil doe into seeing what's up with this system? Is it worth it?

3rd party games.

what do you mean?

>I mean what really went wrong with the Saturn?

Hard to make 3-D games for it compared to PS, lack of third party support. It did pretty well in Japan tho.

What was that
>cartridge part in the back for? Was is backwards compatible to
>the Genesis?

No. You could put RAM expansions back there that worked with certain Capcom games. This never came to the US, but many Saturn owners imported.

I actually have a Saturn in my possession. I
>don't have any games or extras for it like power cord or
>whatever. Should I invest a lil doe into seeing what's up with
>this system? Is it worth it?

Imo, no. Just about every great Saturn game except Panzer Dragoon Saga and Nights can be found somewhere else. Most of the great games will cost an arm in a leg or be impossible to find. If you want to get an old Sega system, you'd be much better off with a Dreamcast.

That's just my opinion though.

I copped X-Men vs. Street Fighter and an 8mb Pro Action Replay cartridge and had the arcade perfect version at home while other cats were rocking that awful version on the PS1.

SEGATA SANSHIRO!
SEGATA SANSHIRO!
SEGA SATURNNNNN, SHIRO!!!

> I actually have a Saturn in my possession. I
>>don't have any games or extras for it like power cord or
>>whatever. Should I invest a lil doe into seeing what's up
>with
>>this system? Is it worth it?
>
>Imo, no. Just about every great Saturn game except Panzer
>Dragoon Saga and Nights can be found somewhere else. Most of
>the great games will cost an arm in a leg or be impossible to
>find. If you want to get an old Sega system, you'd be much
>better off with a Dreamcast.
>
>That's just my opinion though.

They have every video game system known to man. They had alot of Saturn Games too. Including Nights, Panzer Dragoon Saga. It had all the capcom fighters, and all the king of fighters on Saturn. They also had the Saturn RAM expansions as well. They'll also mod your system to play backup copies of your games. And they also have the expansion used to play imports as well. They have a website just google to get the phone number. They'll take orders for ya as well.

FuncoLand used to be like that back in the day.
In Columbia of all places... The Doc's gotta hit his people down there up.

It burned out on me though so I'm copping another one today. I just got Shemnue in the mail last week and I'm ready to dig in deep. I already know I'm gonna have crazy Japan nostalgia from playing this.

>What happened with this system? I
>mean what really went wrong with the Saturn?

Bernie Stolar

Sega of America happened. They didn't bring over any of the good Japanese games that would've given it a niche chance in the system wars (Saturn crushed N64 in Japan) and as previously mentioned, they had zero third party support

then Bernie Stolar came along

combined with one of the worst launches in console history and outright terrible marketing

also Bernie Stolar

>I actually have a Saturn in my possession. I
>don't have any games or extras for it like power cord or
>whatever. Should I invest a lil doe into seeing what's up with
>this system? Is it worth it?

only if you plan on spending a lot of time on Ebay and spending more money than you thought you would

Sega Saturn's are a big collector's item right now, with the best American and Japanese games going from $20-$200

I don't even want to speculate on how much I've spent buidling up my Saturn library, but I have dozens of Japanese Saturn games in nearly mint condition along with a US and an 2nd edition white Japanese Saturn (those are badass...even got the matching white 3-D controller and the all-black Stunner)

>I don't even want to speculate on how much I've spent buidling
>up my Saturn library, but I have dozens of Japanese Saturn
>games in nearly mint condition along with a US and an 2nd
>edition white Japanese Saturn (those are badass...even got the
>matching white 3-D controller and the all-black Stunner)

Damn, that's cool as hell.

are a little "tighter" - the buttons are crisper and the input/response time is more exact than the US versions

which makes them even more excellent for fighters

A lot of Saturn's architecture was designed to be able to crank out some bitching 2d games and creating the 3d ones was a real pain in the ass. PS1 came out with an extremely 3d friendly architecture and developers were able to get some (relatively) impressive looking games up and running much easier than on the Saturn.

Plus a poorly timed launch without any killer-apps. If they had held that thing until they could show VF2, Panzer Dragoon 2, the Virtua Cops and the Daytona games they might have been able to make more waves. Instead PS1 came along with Ridge Racer, Battle Arena Toshinden, Wipeout and some others and the Saturn was stuck playing catch up with all those titles.

I had a Saturn, too, and it fucking kicked ass. I imported KoF '97 before it was easy to get those games in the US, plus I played the living shit out of all the Street Fighter Alphas that they put on that system (6-button controller, too -- hell yeah). Nights was awesome and Virtua Fighter 2 is still better than like 90% of the fighting games released since then. I never did get Panzer Dragoon Saga, although all I've heard is that it's pretty legendarily good.

In the end, though, I would say the Dreamcast was better and is easier to track things down for nowadays.

In my estimation, the Saturn was awesome for niche-market cats (like me) who loved 2D animation and generally old-school type games. Meanwhile, PSX was blowing up on the 3D tip and that's where most people were going.

I never got a Saturn- I always played my friends', but if I can find one for a decent price, I think it's worth getting just for Radiant Silvergun, aka the greatest shooter ever. Look at the ebay prices for that game...

You need to add "Guardian Heroes" to your collection ASAP
and maybe check out this site: www.sega-saturn.com
It should help you with all you need to know about the late/great Saturn

That's one of my favorite games EVER. That game was amazing. I've beaten that thing so many times it's criminal. The need to re-release that game somehow, it was fucking AMAZING.

>That's one of my favorite games EVER. That game was amazing.
> I've beaten that thing so many times it's criminal. The need
>to re-release that game somehow, it was fucking AMAZING.

They did a re-release on the GBA, but I heard it was generally lackluster. Meanwhile Treasure also did a version of Gunstar Heroes for that system, and it's supposed to rock.

--Maurice

oh yeah, I know all about this... My friends and I dedicated an entire night to 6 player matches. Ahh, sweet memories...

I also heard the remake for GBA was bad, but the *Gunstar* Heroes follow-up, Gunstar Super Heroes, is muy fun- already played through several times.

...sega really fucked up with the saturn ..not with the system itself, but with the promotion and marketing ..i think sega should have never messed with a 32X and cd-rom and all that ..when u see so many failed attempts u get skeptical ..and cats were a little skeptical of sega at that point ..especially with sony on the scene with a clean slate and great press

Ok, lets' start at the beginning (sorta):

The Saturn came at a time when Sega was trying to save itself from the diasterous 32X and the unlaunched Neptune (Genesis/32X hybrid). Initially, the Saturn was supposed to be backwards compatible with Sega CD and 32XCD games, but with the Sony PSX right around the corner they had to scrap that fuctionality at the last minute.

The Saturn was supposed to be launched in September of '95, but Sony was planning on launching their PSX around the same time. Sega decided to do an early release on the Saturn with the couple of titles it had finished, most notably Virtua Fighter. The early launch meant that 3rd party devs didn't have time to get their head around the system and get titles out at launch. This, along with the $399 price tag, gave the Saturn a cool reponse in the US (Japan loved the damned thing).

The Saturn hardware was also hard to program for. It has a pair of Hitachi processors in it, but they're not in parallel AND they can't access memory at the same time. The initial games for the Saturn only used one of the processors, because the developers hadn't figured out how to program for both of them. They did eventually figure it out, but by then it was too late for the Saturn.

The other issue (which was already mentioned), was Sega of America's own fuck-ups. The fact that the PSX and N64 both launced with superior games didn't help either, but Sega's mis-management of the console pretty much killed it.

<edit>

The thing that kills me about the whole "the best games were in Japan and weren't released here" bit is that Sega, and the rest of the world, had seen it happen with another console - the PC Engine/TurboGrafx16. NEC utterly refused to bring over the best games for that console, and fucked up their deal with Capcom to release Street Fighter II in the US (allowing Nintendo to strong arm Capcom). The console died in the US because of the same things that happened with the Saturn: Lack of advertising, lack of 3rd party support (in the US), lack of good titles (all the good games were stuck in Japan), and just plain poor management.

you would think that they had learned from NEC's fuck-ups...

---------------------------

Somebody inbox me a Coney Dog w/Chili Cheese Fries...

yeah, I gotta MySpace page too...
http://www.myspace.com/poppageorge

"Nigga fuck shows, I don't have to be seen/ You makin demos while I make that cream" - MC Ren

great launch - check
high percentage of quality games - check
beautiful graphics - check
great 1st party sports games - check
system is easy to develop for compared to it's competitor - check
revolutionary (for consoles) online play - check

man, how could it fail?


--
new xbox live tag: soul shot ya
http://live.xbox.com/member/soul%20shot%20ya

My ass picked the Saturn over PS1. This is around Xmas. I played a couple games VF2 and Earthworm Jim, I beat them both....QUICK. I went to Blockbuster to rent games. They didn't have crap for it. I was like look at all the PS1 games!

I took that thing back and got a PS1 and never looked back!

I got two NESes, Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, PS1, PS2! I will not add the SATURN to that collection! That's how much I hate that thing!

Pe@ce

>system is easy to develop for compared to it's competitor -
>check

The Saturn, while very advanced for its time, was hindered by what may be called too much of a good thing. In short, the developers went a bit overboard on the design. I took the following from a Wikipedia article about the Saturn:

"The Saturn was a powerful machine for the time. However, the Saturn design, with two CPUs and 6 other processors, made it difficult to get the maximum performance out of the console. Rumours had it that the original plan called for a single processor, but a second one was added in late development when the designers realized they had underestimated the PlayStation's 3D capabilities. The parallel design was too complex for many game developers. Yu Suzuki is reported to have said:

One very fast central processor would be preferable. I don't think that all programmers have the ability to program two CPUs - most can only get about one-and-a-half times the speed you can get from one SH-2. I think only one out of 100 programmers is good enough to get that kind of speed out of the Saturn."

The rest is here, friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn

--Maurice

compared to the PS2

Ha, I'm funny.

--Maurice

ridiculously easy to copy games. no need for a mod-chip.
just throw the CD-R in that bitch and ur good to go.

http://www.sega.com/corporate/corporatehist.php?item=corporate_history

that looks kinda cool

____________________
www.myspace.com/chamilton


Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home - -she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place

or whatever that scrolling beat-em up was called... that was good!

-may- be the greatest game ever created.
------------------------------
Soulseek Name = Purevidence786

Great game this was.
It was crazy to see all of these characters together, and the interesting roster selection was also cool.

fighting with the daytona car was hilarious

--
new xbox live tag: soul shot ya
http://live.xbox.com/member/soul%20shot%20ya

>

Fighters Megamix was cool, but the graphics were not too good, but the big attraction to fighters megamix was that you could use VF3 moveset.

the graphics weren't high-res like VF2 and were crushed by anything Namco offered on PS, but I wouldn't call them bad.

---------------------
it's like salt in the cornea.
http://www.myspace.com/thievinstealberg
holler @ my nigga thadreid.
http://www.myspace.com/thadreid

I was like this shit's mad wack.

http://www.sega-saturn.com/videos/Shenmue_Saturn.mpeg
____________________
www.myspace.com/chamilton


Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home - -she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place

if that was a Saturn launch game,they win the war,and we have a Dreamcast 2
____________________
www.myspace.com/chamilton


Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home - -she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place

Used to love playin' that.

X-men vs. Street Fighter
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
Nights and others


What killed Sega more than anything else was the fact they were manufactoring.....Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Gamegear, Sega 32X, Nomad, and Sega Saturn at the same fucking time....When the Dreamcast came out, it was a rushed system b/c it was so easy to bootleg and the software sales weren't up to par. Damn shame b/c dreamcast was a great system...it still is a great system. Just think if Dreamcast would have waited to release againest the PS2 and had hi-speed internet and DVD playback. PS2 wouldn't have stood a chance in hell againest the Dreamcast.

Grandia Memorial Package + Prelude -- YES (c) Marv

anyway, I hooked up the dusty console and there are a TON of games that still are very playable

Sega Rally and Panzer Dragoon Zwei, specifically -- they actually look *good*, in a 3-D retro way

getting perfect scores on all the hard paths in Zwei, then watching your dragon morph into the original joint from Panzer Dragoon remains classic

plus the fighting games are unbeatable...the undisputed best edition of Street Fighter Zero 3 and only home port of Vampire Savior

and of course, the misunderstood glory that is NiGHTS (*wipes tear*)

now I just need to find some fucking Twin Sticks...

and it's still dope.

and I don't even read kanji/Japanese

graphics (these effects should not be possible on a Saturn!), art design (flawless), battle system (genius), length (perfect)...masterpiece

is flawless and near genius.

>What happened with this system? I remember when it first
>dropped my boy copped Virtua Fighter 2 and I was over his
>house every damned day. The drunk monk was my dude. There were
>so many combos to learn it made the game fun besides the
>incredible graphics. Then we had games like Panzer Dragon. I
>mean what really went wrong with the Saturn? What was that
>cartridge part in the back for? Was is backwards compatible to
>the Genesis? I actually have a Saturn in my possession. I
>don't have any games or extras for it like power cord or
>whatever. Should I invest a lil doe into seeing what's up with
>this system? Is it worth it?

Only the Imports to be honest. Sega Saturn was very big in Japan as opposed to the United States. If you have room for it, I would definitely say go for it. classics like Nights into Dreams, XMEN VS. STREET FIGHTER, Last Bronx, and Shinobi Legions are great games that just don't get old. I gave my Sega Saturn to my sister, but I'm about to take it back. I was trying to do a gaming appreciation type thing for her, but she just plays her Nintendo D.S. That's so Raven game like that bitch just came out yesterday. I bought her cot damn New Super Mario brothers yaw, but she PLAYS RAVEN OVER MARIO. OK, I apologize for going off on a tangent. I actually like the Saturn over the Dreamcast.

that thing is perfect. DC's was too small and the stick had that odd grip pebbling on it.

They knew they had something with that controller.

One more gen. and they probably could have perfected it. I suppose you could say Microsoft finished the job for 'em.

>that thing is perfect. DC's was too small and the stick had
>that odd grip pebbling on it.

The Controller sucked as well.

with the 2 rows of three buttons... and slapped a place for the VMU in it.

That Saturn pad (especially the later ones, and the Japanese ones that were more refined versions of the later pads... not the early octagons of doom) still is the GOAT.

With a "select" button, it would have been the undisputed GOAT.

I was addicted for awhile. I also had the really good soccer game, but I can't remember the title.

I liked the Bug! games alot too

the depth perception made some jumps frustrating as fuck.

>

That was Sega CD homeboy, that was another good system.

i will gladly destroy anybody anywhere anytime saturn or arcade

I been looking for eons

one of the best scores ever


----------------------------


O_E: Your Super-Ego's Favorite Poster.



"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "Cosmic Slop"

Also, did Saturn ever have the BIG Sonic game?

It was an excellent system for fighters. The Doc copped a Saturn late in its life, a 4-in-1 Action Replay, and soon, we were making arcades obsolete, especially after Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter came out (eff Marvel for being bitch and blocking direct imports of that game over Nori-freakin'-maro).

arcade perfect games AT HOME? this was just not possible!

after loading up X-Men vs. Street Fighter on the Saturn, I sat for 10 minutes in absolute stunned paralysis

Sega started the trend of matching-or-outdoing the arcade at home with the Saturn.

That RAM cart was the shit. Especially the Action Replay because you didn't have to switch out carts to play the SNK games that were on it.

X-Men Vs. Street Fighter got so much burn... it's a shame a lot of players here had to deal with the really crappy Playstation version of that game.

Damn sons...I have a Saturn in a box somewhere around here. I know for sure I have Fire Pro Wrestling: 6 Man Scramble (which was the shit), but I don't remember what else. Man, I have too many old systems. If I come up with some crazy inventory revelations, I'll holler back.

Jimaveli

>What happened with this system? I remember when it first
>dropped my boy copped Virtua Fighter 2 and I was over his
>house every damned day. The drunk monk was my dude. There were
>so many combos to learn it made the game fun besides the
>incredible graphics. Then we had games like Panzer Dragon. I
>mean what really went wrong with the Saturn? What was that
>cartridge part in the back for? Was is backwards compatible to
>the Genesis? I actually have a Saturn in my possession. I
>don't have any games or extras for it like power cord or
>whatever. Should I invest a lil doe into seeing what's up with
>this system? Is it worth it?

That damn Nights into Dreams Christmas edition Demo. I also remember World Series Baseball 98. It was the first baseball game running on those damn polygons.

Best baseball game until that point.

Period.

>Best baseball game until that point.
>
>Period.

Yeah the homeruns were crazy on that game. World Series Baseball 98 was the first game that introduced custom baseball stances. I played with Jose Canseco and Mark Aquire, smashing those steroid home homeruns.

how did AM2/3 make the dual processors run so beautifully...Sega Rally *still* looks good!

I miss the playability of Sega's arcade racers -- four tracks, three cars but the gameplay depth goes on for hours

I would go for it, but it seems like all the best games are super expensive and super hard to find.

I've seen most of them on Ebay for $30-50 including shipping.

just need an Action Replay (plays Japanese games and works as a 4 meg RAM cart) -- I'd say goes around $30 on Ebay

some of the games are expensive, but plenty aren't...especially if we're talking imports.

(these are all import Ebay prices BTW...shipping gets a bitch too if you don't order in bulk, since they're mostly from Japan)

$3-5
- Sega Rally Championship (better than the US version b/c it shipped later and AM3 tweaked things)
- Fighting Vipers
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Virtua Cop
- Virtua Cop 2 (Stunner is about $10)
- Virtual On (kinda dated in comparison to OOT, but still fun to me)

$6-10
- Nights
- Fighters Megamix
- Panzer Dragoon Zweii
- Street Fighter Zero/Alpha 2
- Vampire Savior: Darkstalkers 3
- Dead or Alive
- Last Bronx
- Marvel Super Heroes
- Daytona: Championship Circuit Edition
- Sonic Jam
- Enemy Zero
- Samurai Showdown III
- Samurai Showdown IV
- Manx TT
- Sega Touring Car Championship
- Shining Force III: Scenario 1 (yes, a RPG in Japanese...but since it's a strategy RPG you really need zero knowledge of kanji and there are plenty of walkthroughs online)
- Grandia (same as Shining Force...tons of internet help for parts you get stuck on and the PS translation was shit anyway)

$11-20
- Christmas Nights
- X-Men vs. Street Fighter
- Panzer Dragoon Azel (trust -- this game is just as good in a foreign language. I had no trouble beating it sans English and it runs about $150 cheaper than the US version)
- Policenauts (text adventure...still finished it w/some internet walkthroughs despite being in Japanese)
- Cyberbots
- Guardian Heroes (side scroller, so you won't need to understand much...about $50 cheaper than the US version)
- Sonic R
- House of the Dead
- Layer Section (2-D shooter)
- Pocket Fighter (Street Fighter with big heads)
- Marvel Super Heroes vs. X-Men

yeah it's not *dirt* cheap, but you can put together a solid little collection (minus system costs) for less than $100. most of the 3-D games are semi-unplayable (Burning Rangers is doing things not meant for a Saturn), but the 2-D stuff is still golden.

I have hardly splurged on a Sega Saturn game...I've spent way too much cumulatively, but the most I think I ever paid was for Street Fighter Zero 3.

fuck buying Radiant Silvergun for $200. that's rape.

I just placed a bid on a system.

I remember I was SO HYPE to get one. Then stores never had them in stock and the PlayStation had such a lower price (and the first two Twisted Metal games) that I wound up getting that. By the time I actually had a job of my own and could afford another console, Saturn was dead and I got a 64.

IMO the whole "SaturnDay" switch is what started the death of the Saturn. That thing backfired on Sega in every imaginable way. They should've had enough consoles ready so that after the surprise early launch there would have been more in stores later that month (instead of never.)

When you alienate all your third party developers just so you can get a cheap surprise, that's an L.
When your competition takes advantage of you on price and availability, that's an L.
Paddlin the school canoe . . . oh you better believe that's an L.

CEO of Sega of America - Tom Kalinske - took the stage first and shocked the entire videogame world by informing everyone that the Saturn's launch date was, in fact, that day.

Systems and a handful of games had been shipped to retailers nationwide and would go on sale that morning with an MSRP of $399.99. This was four months earlier than the "official" release date of Sept. 2.

It seemed Sega had won the first battle as Sony Computer Entertainment America President Steve Race took to the stage next to discuss his plans for the PlayStation. After organizing a few pages and readying what seemed like it would be a long, boring speech, he leaned forward and said one thing, "U.S. $299."

- 1up.com

>It seemed Sega had won the first battle as Sony Computer
>Entertainment America President Steve Race took to the stage
>next to discuss his plans for the PlayStation. After
>organizing a few pages and readying what seemed like it would
>be a long, boring speech, he leaned forward and said one
>thing, "U.S. $299."

LTDAO. The Doc can't remember what that was in 1995 dollars but ...sheeeeeeeeeit.

http://download.gamevideos.com/Podcasts/Retronauts/013108.mp3