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Sega Saturn a worthy system to own?


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I've been wondering, what is the general thought on the Sega Saturn? I'm wondering if its something I should consider picking up. Seems like an interesting system to have, kind of a technological dead-end in the realm of the Virtual Boy.

 

It is nothing like the Virtual Boy. VB only had 14 U.S. games and 6 Japanese exclusives. The Saturn has around 250 U.S. games, and countless imports to be had. It was a huge success in Japan. There are tons of great games for it, even if you don't get into the imports. It is a great system to have.

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I've been wondering, what is the general thought on the Sega Saturn? I'm wondering if its something I should consider picking up. Seems like an interesting system to have, kind of a technological dead-end in the realm of the Virtual Boy.

I would say that it's a pretty good system. I picked mine up last year and have fun with it. But I did pick it up a few months after I picked up my Dreamcast. And if I had to make a choice, the Dreamcast is the way to go. IMHO, they're the same machine (not technology-wise) with tons of arcade ports. It just depends what era of games you're interested in.

So if you have the room and time and already have a Dreamcast, then go for it. But if you don't have a Dreamcast and only have room for just one other system, go with the Dreamcast.

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The Saturn is fantastic and if you decided to get one make sure that you get an 4 in 1 ram cart that will have the 1mb and 4mb upgrade ram as well as the ability to play import games, it will be worth the extra money, and you can play nearly arcade perfect ports of Street Fighter vs X-Men and Marvel Vs Street Fighter. Plus other great games like Fighters Megamix, Sonic R, Nights, and Panzer Dragoon.

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I've been wondering, what is the general thought on the Sega Saturn? I'm wondering if its something I should consider picking up. Seems like an interesting system to have, kind of a technological dead-end in the realm of the Virtual Boy.

I have been wondering this same thing myself. I asked around a little and most say to go Dreamcast. I pretty much skipped over the 32bit-64bit era as I was legal drinking age and was busy playing Golden Tee and hitting on large women :D

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I've been wondering, what is the general thought on the Sega Saturn? I'm wondering if its something I should consider picking up. Seems like an interesting system to have, kind of a technological dead-end in the realm of the Virtual Boy.

 

It is nothing like the Virtual Boy. VB only had 14 U.S. games and 6 Japanese exclusives. The Saturn has around 250 U.S. games, and countless imports to be had. It was a huge success in Japan. There are tons of great games for it, even if you don't get into the imports. It is a great system to have.

 

 

I know its nothing LIKE the Virtual Boy, but I compared it to the VB in the sense that there was some interesting technology used with the Saturn, such as the dual processors and such, that was basically abandoned. And I know there are a lot more games for it too!

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I've been wondering, what is the general thought on the Sega Saturn? I'm wondering if its something I should consider picking up. Seems like an interesting system to have, kind of a technological dead-end in the realm of the Virtual Boy.

 

It is nothing like the Virtual Boy. VB only had 14 U.S. games and 6 Japanese exclusives. The Saturn has around 250 U.S. games, and countless imports to be had. It was a huge success in Japan. There are tons of great games for it, even if you don't get into the imports. It is a great system to have.

 

 

I know its nothing LIKE the Virtual Boy, but I compared it to the VB in the sense that there was some interesting technology used with the Saturn, such as the dual processors and such, that was basically abandoned. And I know there are a lot more games for it too!

 

OK. I see. Well then. You should still pick one up. :D

 

I do also agree that if it comes down to a Saturn or Dreamcast, get the Dreamcast. I say get both, though.

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I think if you were to own a Sega Saturn i would import one from Japan where you would have a much larger and better game selection. :)

Yes, but the AR 4-1 cartridge alllows you to play imports as well as having extra RAM and ROM for games that need it. And I personally like the black color better.

 

EDIT: Oh, and I agree that if you don't have either, get both!

Edited by MCHufnagel
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I've been wondering, what is the general thought on the Sega Saturn? I'm wondering if its something I should consider picking up.

Yes, most definitly.

 

Like others have said, yes, get a 4-in-1 ram/memory cart. It's really a must have device.

 

I have been wondering this same thing myself. I asked around a little and most say to go Dreamcast.

Well, if you have to choose, yeah, Dreamcast. But if you can have both, get both. Saturn is nice.

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I think it all depends on wether or not you are willing to spend the money for the best games. A lot of the better games cost $40+. If you only play the cheap games you aren't getting full value out of your saturn. It might not be worth it until you play things such as Burning Rangers, Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3 etc. There are lots of great imports. I've jsut started getting into the imports and am enjoying my Saturn immensly. I'm playing Princess Crown right now and am loving it.

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Definitely the Saturn is a good buy. I've got a Dreamcast also, and the Saturn gets far more play time. Get yourself a Stunner or a Virtua Gun with it, as Virtua Cop 2 is one of the best arcade shooters to come to any home system IMO. Area 51 begs to be played on the Saturn as well. You might consider a Super Cobra in lieu of the Sega gun, since it will work with the PlayStation 1 as well.

 

Bear in mind that the analog controls are a bit unrefined. The Arcade Racer lacks analog acceleration and brakes (it lacks pedals altogether, in fact), and the 3D Pad (or NiGHTS pad) doesn't give a "tight" analog stick like the Dual Analog/Dual Shock and the N64 pads do. The triggers feel analog but are really a three position setup, out, middle, and in. I don't know if any games use the middle position, though.

 

Many of the best games have been mentioned already.

Sleeper hits, though:

D

Enemy Zero

Off World Interceptor Extreme

Solar Eclipse (sequel to Total Eclipse)

Tempest 2000

Virtual On

Worldwide Soccer Victory Goal Edition (Sega pretty much wrote the book on arcade soccer games, IMO)

World Series Baseball '98

 

Don't skimp on cartridges, either. The 4 in 1 is coming highly recommended, and I also recommend the official Backup cartridge for its extreme reliability.

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I think it all depends on wether or not you are willing to spend the money for the best games. A lot of the better games cost $40+.

I dunno, it all depends on what is avaialble in your neck of the woods.

 

Up in Oklahoma City, that GameXchange over on 50th & Meridian had a bunch of Sega Saturn games between $9.95 and $24.95, not all crap titles either. Had a big Dreamcast selection too. That was only a year, year and a half ago. I can't check myself anymore obviously. ;-) On the same token, down here in Miami, I ain't seen jack for those systems. :|

Edited by Artlover
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Bear in mind that the analog controls are a bit unrefined. The Arcade Racer lacks analog acceleration and brakes (it lacks pedals altogether, in fact), and the 3D Pad (or NiGHTS pad) doesn't give a "tight" analog stick like the Dual Analog/Dual Shock and the N64 pads do.

 

I'm not sure that I completely agree with this statement. Yes, the 3D pad doesn't have the same tightness to it as the N64 pad, but I don't think this makes it unrefined in the least. I actually like the fact that it is easily manipulated as I don't find myself fighting with it to try and get good analog control with it. I have found that even though the N64 may have analog controls, since the stick is so tight I find that it is hard to move it "just a little bit".

 

This is in stark contrast to the Saturn 3D pad as since it is easily moved, it requires very little effort to move it "just a little" or "a lot". I don't have to overcome some threshold to move the analog controls. I don't know if that makes sense to anybody else but me, but I honestly feel like the Saturn's analog controls are probably some of the best designed out there (when it comes to the analog portion alone, I would rank it above the Xbox and Dreamcast - and that's saying a lot as I love both of those controllers as well)

 

I guess it depends on what you "need" out of your analog controls. Either way, this is a must-have for NiGHTS (which is, in turn, a must-have for the Saturn - easily my favorite game for the system and one of my tops of all-time)

 

Besides that, I just love the look of the Saturn. It is larger than the PSX, a very deep, dark black color, and has some pretty nifty stuff you can plug into it (as previously mentioned, the 4-in-one cart that will let you play imports, etc). There is a good portion of top-notch titles out for it including my favorite compilation of Sonic games, Sonic Jam. As far as I know, this is the only version of Sonic which allows for the option of turning on Sonic's speed dash in Sonic 1. As you probably know, the speed dash didn't appear until Sonic 2. I don't believe that the Sonic Mega Collections for the Xbox/GC have this feature.

 

Additionally, it has Sonic R (an alright racing game I suppose), the original Need for Speed (pretty fun even if it is kinda old), Virtua Cop 1 & 2 (pretty good when using the light gun), Panzer Dragoon (as mentioned previously), and a ton of other games that I can't think of at the moment (I'm about 150 miles away from my stash at the moment or else I'd look :) )

 

Anyway, I don't think you'd be unhappy with the Saturn. The Dreamcast may still have nicer looking games (and a better library, admittedly), but you're really missing out if you only have one or the other.

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Definitely. It is a great system, a bit sad I sold mine to make some quick cash in college...I'm hoping someone picks up the pace on the emulation here soon. I'd love to emulate it well and play Burning Rangers on my PC.

SSF is making good progress.

 

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~phantasy/ssf/

 

Menus are in english.

 

 

 

I haven't messed with it recently, partially because my comp is a tad too slow(Actually, I've been told they sped up a bit right after the version I tested, so I guess I just don't care enough...).

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I got a Saturn on the cheap from a dude I know. Got it about 3-4 years ago with about 20 games.

I never played a Saturn before this. My first impression was not good. My second impression was not good either. I had the analog controller with Nights, so don't say "You have to try Nights before you can make a judgement."

 

Anyway, the titles I had pretty much all sucked major ass. I know there are probably some gems for the system, but I was not willing to dole out the extreme price they demanded. I would say, overall, I was disappointed with the Saturn.

 

But, suprisingly enough, I have been hankering to buy another one... :ponder:

Only, this time, I would put a mod chip in it. But, I cannot afford one anytime soon.

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Definitely. It is a great system, a bit sad I sold mine to make some quick cash in college...I'm hoping someone picks up the pace on the emulation here soon. I'd love to emulate it well and play Burning Rangers on my PC.

SSF is making good progress.

 

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~phantasy/ssf/

 

Menus are in english.

 

 

 

I haven't messed with it recently, partially because my comp is a tad too slow(Actually, I've been told they sped up a bit right after the version I tested, so I guess I just don't care enough...).

Well I can verify that SSF works pretty good and that it keeps getting better. Since I don't have any of the extra cartridges, I use SSF to play imports and games that require extra RAM.

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I enjoy the Saturn more as a collecting pursuit than a playing system. For me the games are too close to current games, in other words theres less nostalgia and more unflattering comparisons to more powerful consoles. Unless you're playing one of the delightful quirky exclusives you tend to wish you had a playstation instead. The collecting aspect is cool though, you can find a lot of stuff still in the wild going for cheap and some of its really fun, like the twin sticks or gun games.

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Definitely the Saturn is a good buy. I've got a Dreamcast also, and the Saturn gets far more play time. ...

 

Many of the best games have been mentioned already.

Sleeper hits, though:

...Tempest 2000...

 

They had Tempest 2K on the Saturn? Really? Damn... wish the Dreamcast did. And it sounds like there might be more gun games for Dreamcast (Dreamcast also has Virtual Cop 2, House of the Dead, and Death Crimson 2 (blah...). There is a little over ten games listed on the Light Gun wiki for DC ...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast_light_guns

 

That said, I have seen the Saturn and Dreamcast in action, yeh they are about the same. They both are fully capible to get on the internet (that is the part I find interesting), and really capible. Sounds like the 32 bit games on the Saturn could be interesting.

 

Behind the scenes it was said that up till the Dreamcast people were not very impressed with Sega support of their systems. They lost a few gamers during this time, but support was really nice other wise. Sega really invested in Dreamcast for about two years, long enough to get some crucial gimmicks out to market, and then it was discontinued. Seems really the Saturn and Dreamcast both have equal amount of titles.

 

If you are just starting out.. well ask yourself this... this might be the tie breaker... how do you like emulation? The Dreamcast can emulate REALLY well the Atari 2600, 5200, 800/400... haven't tried 7800 yet, does great ST emulation, so-so Lynx, and Jaguar is laughed at but I think possible (doesn't exist in other words.)

 

Still! If you like Atari games and other emulation (Colecovision, Intellivision) the DC is doing that well NOW. :)

 

(fold arms with a wink)

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Yes deffintly get a saturn it has alot of games to offer the imports are even better. If you do get one id recomend picking up either a jap system, or a mod chip for the imports. Here are some games both regions

 

USA

shining games

shining the holy arc

shining wisdom

Shining Force

Panzer dragoon games 1-3

Burning rangers

Mr. Bones

 

Jap

Raident silver gun

Lupin the 3rd

Xmen VS street Fighter

Real bout fatal fury special

fatal fury 3

Metal Slug

King of fighters 95/96/97

 

Yea theres a ton of great saturn games those are just some. Saturn arcade fighting games not to mention arn't crappy like on the playstation, also offers games that where never seen on any other systems.

Edited by BONK
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