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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Anyone else have a soft spot for the Saturn?

Sadly I never had the honor of owning or even playing Saturn. From what I hear its one of the most underrated consoles of all time.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

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Any real gamer has a soft spot for Sega. Saturn was a pretty sweet console. The most powerful 32-bit console. Also featured internal storage for game saves and had an expansion pack similar to the N64 that let it output some games in 480i. The Sega nipple on the 3D controller was actually nice to use too.

Fall backs.. technical nightmare to develop for. Complete lack of 3rd party support. Expensive at launch.




8th gen predictions. (made early 2014)
PS4: 60-65m
WiiU: 30-35m
X1: 30-35m
3DS: 80-85m
PSV: 15-20m

You're definitely not the only one. I had a hell of a time with the Saturn. Friendships were tested playing Virtual Fighter :))



Mr Khan said:
I still haven't had a chance to try NiGHTS.

Here's hoping for Wii U VC Saturn Emulation. Maybe at last consoles will have the power to do it <_>

 wouldnt have that issue if you had a PS3/60

OT no not the only one. I praised Saturn over PS1 in the heyday, too bad Sega screwed up so badly in the west. As least some Saturn games are being rereleased Fighting Vipers is still fun.



curl-6 said:

The Saturn was where Sega's fortunes took a turn for the worse. It was difficult to program for, had a botched surprise launch, and it was expensive compared to the PS1. 

The console itself seems to have gone down in history as "like a PS1, but crappy."

I disagree.

It might not have had the PS1's extensive libary or the N64's first party masterpieces, but games like Panzer Dragoon, Saturn Bomberman, and Nights into Dreams were great fun.

I owned an N64 and had access to a friend's PS1, but playing my cousin's Sega Saturn was awesome in its own right.

Am I the only one?

Never had a Saturn as a kid in the 90s cause I already had an N64 and a PS1. But I played a Saturn over at a friends house a few times and I really enjoyed it. I was always curious about it and have had the desire to own one as well as a Dreamcast which I never had.

I recently picked up a modded Saturn on ebay a few years ago though and bought a few games for it like Rayman, Astal, Tomb Raider. Trying to get a collection going. Some of the games for it are starting to become hard to find and expensive, that's why I burned a few backup discs to preserve the originals.

I completely agree, it's a shame the Saturn never made it big. It really was a beautiful machine, and the 2d games for it like Rayman, Nights, Astal are gorgeous. And even some of the 3D games don't look too bad on it. Don't know why Saturn gets such a bad reputation for 3D graphics. Believe it or not the Saturn is my favorite Sega console. Dreamcast is #2, the Genesis #3. I just get a different kind of vibe from it that I don't get from the PS1. Like it's a hardcore machine that was made for games, great games. 

By the way, have you ever seen the demo for Shenmue running on the Saturn? Everybody that says the Saturn can't do 3D needs to see that. It is the most underrated and underappreciated console in the history of consoles in my opinion.



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Dmick90 said:
curl-6 said:

The Saturn was where Sega's fortunes took a turn for the worse. It was difficult to program for, had a botched surprise launch, and it was expensive compared to the PS1. 

The console itself seems to have gone down in history as "like a PS1, but crappy."

I disagree.

It might not have had the PS1's extensive libary or the N64's first party masterpieces, but games like Panzer Dragoon, Saturn Bomberman, and Nights into Dreams were great fun.

I owned an N64 and had access to a friend's PS1, but playing my cousin's Sega Saturn was awesome in its own right.

Am I the only one?

Never had a Saturn as a kid in the 90s cause I already had an N64 and a PS1. But I played a Saturn over at a friends house a few times and I really enjoyed it. I was always curious about it and have had the desire to own one as well as a Dreamcast which I never had.

I recently picked up a modded Saturn on ebay a few years ago though and bought a few games for it like Rayman, Astal, Tomb Raider. Trying to get a collection going. Some of the games for it are starting to become hard to find and expensive, that's why I burned a few backup discs to preserve the originals.

I completely agree, it's a shame the Saturn never made it big. It really was a beautiful machine, and the 2d games for it like Rayman, Nights, Astal are gorgeous. And even some of the 3D games don't look too bad on it. Don't know why Saturn gets such a bad reputation for 3D graphics. Believe it or not the Saturn is my favorite Sega console. Dreamcast is #2, the Genesis #3. I just get a different kind of vibe from it that I don't get from the PS1. Like it's a hardcore machine that was made for games, great games. 

By the way, have you ever seen the demo for Shenmue running on the Saturn? Everybody that says the Saturn can't do 3D needs to see that. It is the most underrated and underappreciated console in the history of consoles in my opinion.

Yes I have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foZUcPQAMvg

If that's genuine it tops anything I ever saw the PS1 produce.



curl-6 said:
fillet said:

Disagree with the rest though, it was a pretty crap console not capable of enough 3d skills to make any kind of open world 3d game except Nights Into Dreams, the best we had other than "Bug" and "Bug Too!"...which wasn't proper 3d open world.

Real crappy 3d and no hardware transparency made it a dead dog, unfortunately. I loved mine...but the ports between it and the PS1 were sorely lacking usually a lower resolution and lacking the gourad shading the PS1 could do (Resident Evil port for example).

It could actually do some decent 3D, it was just hard to program for. Nights into Dreams, the Panzer Dragoon Games, and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos did 3D pretty well for the time. As for transparency, it could still be achieved; Burning Rangers did it.

I do vaguely remember hearing about transparency being achieved but it was by using some trick in software and used massive processing power to pull it off. Didn't use any of the 3d hardware so wasn't possible in general games except in specific situations where the hardware otherwise wasn't being taxed too much. This was well after I got rid of mine, I do have to say it was the end of my "gaming era" as a child the Saturn, the end of a time where you could settle down and forget everything and just go crazy for those high scores on VF2 and the 9x multiplier then go for a justice shot over and over again...absolutely loved it.

I was being a bit harsh on it previously, Fighters Megamix was also great for the time if I remember rightly, oh shit and Duke Nukem 3D but I only ever played a demo of that on the Saturn at the time and had it on PC anyway. Not sure it even got released outside of Europe or released at all in the end, did it? Was soooo long ago :(



Saturn did really fine in Japan. Too bad it didn't do the same in USA and Europe, else Sega would be still alive.

Anyway, I loved my Saturn. I still own the original Shining Force III discs. All 3 chapters + Premium Disc.

Also loved Sakura Taisen, Virtua Fighter 2, Dragon Force 1 and 2, Panzer Dragon Saga.



Miguel_Zorro said:

The Saturn came out almost 20 years ago.  Half of the kids around here weren't even born.


This! I recently had a small discussion with whateverhisname was and he said that (essentially) playstation was the reason grown-ups also started playing consoles which is definitely wrong ;) Sega was there before I told him but he said they "failed" and so didn't mention them. I think he just didn't know and probably never played on any Sega-console ;)

 

But OT:

YES! I loved my Saturn. It had definitely the best 2d-fighting-pad ever built and I played the hell out of it! :) I can't count how many laps I did on Daytona USA or Sega Rally, how many times I bet Dural in Virtua Fighter 2 and how many times I bet my stepfather in Street Fighter alpha 2 :D

The games I especially remember are

Nights into dreams (and the Christmas edition) - had to buy this on XBLA!

Saturn Bomberman (arguably the best Bomberman ever)

Fighting Vipers

Alien Trilogy (it had soo many bugs but was still fun)

Virtua Cop (2)

House of the Dead

Resident Evil

Tomb Raider!!

Sadly I never played Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga but I will do it on an emulator ;)



walsufnir said:
Miguel_Zorro said:

The Saturn came out almost 20 years ago.  Half of the kids around here weren't even born.


This! I recently had a small discussion with whateverhisname was and he said that (essentially) playstation was the reason grown-ups also started playing consoles which is definitely wrong ;) Sega was there before I told him but he said they "failed" and so didn't mention them. I think he just didn't know and probably never played on any Sega-console ;)

 


idk about sega being a big reason for adults playing games, maybe a little but not nearly as much as Playstation did. Sega did the whole mocking Nintendo thing during the Genesis days but that type of marketing seems to be directed more towards 10-15 year olds that dont want to be seen as kids anymore. Mortal Kombat is an example of this, blood for the sake of blood and over the top kills. Adults arent really into those type of things, more like teenagers and the dude-bros.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.