Sega Saturn for Beginners

[Popo]

Just placed a bid for an auction for one - sitting at 500 yen at the minute, fingers crossed!

Most of the ones on this auction site are junks though... the one I bid on specifically says it's in working order and the seller looks legit, but still...

Anyway!

[Popo]

Woohoo, got it! Went for 1,200 in the end, not bad.

Now the intolerable waiting to take ownership...

[Oracle]

Daytona circuit edition arrived today, had a quick blast on all the tracks.

I can't tell the difference atm, I may need to do a back to back playtest though.

[trickytree]

Should be fairly clear after the comparison.

Did you listen to the attract sequence tune on CCE? Awesome cheese.

[Popo]

I took delivery of my new Saturn this morning - joy!

It came with Virtua Fighter and VF2 - both of which I'm still utterly hopeless at - Daytona USA CCE, which, in terms of halding, doesn't seem to differ from the PAL version as far as I can tell, Ultraman (awful!) and Gundam (woeful!).

Daytona USA CCE is a really strange game as, despite being almost broken and unplayable, it's got some nice tracks and is weirdly addictive - a real nostalgia piece as far as I'm concerned. The Dreamcast version of Daytona was all kinds of aces though.

I also bought pretty much mint copies of Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei and Shining Force 3 parts 2 and 3. The former remains really great fun - I haven't had time to get into Shining Force 3 as I have school shortly, but I'm looking forward to it, since I never actually played them.

Hoping to pick up Sega Rally, NiGHTS, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and a Marvel one (Xmen vs Street Fighter was mega) without having to trek all the way to Akiba.

Edit - oh, actually there's an option that allows you to choose between slow, normal and quick handling in Daytona USA. Quick let's you drift much more easily.

[Alexlotl]

Isn't Ultraman one of the two games (the other being KoF '95) that uses a custom cart (rather than a standard RAM pack) to hold some of the data? I find them intriguing - they're essentially CD/cartridge hybrids, making them fairly unique in console-land.

My bought-from-a-random-on-a-random-forum Model 1 Saturn is finally in the post. Great price (for NZ), but it required a lot of patience. I'm hoping it'll have 64-pin IC model 2 innards, so I can mod it with one of the chips Rob Webb sells. Looks a damn sight easier to 60Hz mod, too.

[Oracle]

Should be fairly clear after the comparison.

Did you listen to the attract sequence tune on CCE? Awesome cheese.

Contact we have ignition!

Brings back memories of summer 7 and rinsing the game with my brother

[trickytree]

As much as the original Daytona tunes are obviously awesome (and they're in CCE, with remixed versions too), the additional cheesy rock stuff suits the game perfectly also. I'm going to have to go play this now. RIDE LIKE THE SONS OF ANGELLLLLLLLLSSSSSSS!!!!

[strider]

This thread is inspiring me to re-start my Saturn collection... Don't make me do it guys, I can't afford to buy Panzer Dragoon Saga again!!!!

[Rev]

Speaking of PDS, I really enjoyed Disc 1. Was the rest of it good and is it still?

[strider]

Speaking of PDS, I really enjoyed Disc 1. Was the rest of it good and is it still?

Yes it's brilliant, the ending is still great as well and makes Hideo Kojima's effort in Sons of Liberty look pathetic (and overlong) by comparison.

[Rev]

One of my most annoying gaming memories was looking at a display of PDS for £38.99 and deciding to "get it when it is cheap". There must have been 30 copies all on one shelf.

[trickytree]

Yes it's brilliant, the ending is still great as well and makes Hideo Kojima's effort in Sons of Liberty look pathetic (and overlong) by comparison.

This is true - the ending manages to out-weird any MGS.

[Oracle]

Once I've "completed" fallout three I'm going to restart pds

[Popo]

One of my most annoying gaming memories was looking at a display of PDS for £38.99 and deciding to "get it when it is cheap". There must have been 30 copies all on one shelf.

Good god man! I snapped one up quick-smart, it was obviously released at the end of the Saturn's life cycle and games were already disappearing from shelves (in fact I think major retailers like EB at the time had already stopped selling completely). Naturally my copy is still locked away safe and sound with my Saturn collection back home.

The Jap Saturn is dead weird! For a start it's all in moon speak! I think most people will probably be aware that the Saturn logo was different in Japan, but the tune that plays when the Saturn logo flies in at start-up is also different (FWIW I think the PAL one is better!).

Isn't Ultraman one of the two games (the other being KoF '95) that uses a custom cart (rather than a standard RAM pack) to hold some of the data? I find them intriguing - they're essentially CD/cartridge hybrids, making them fairly unique in console-land.

Yes it does have a cart, which is just as dodgy as I remember my own memory cart and 4MB RAM cart were at the time in terms of detection. God knows why it needs it, there's virtually nothing on screen really and the sprites are really low res.

[Rev]

Good god man! I snapped one up quick-smart, it was obviously released at the end of the Saturn's life cycle and games were already disappearing from shelves (in fact I think major retailers like EB at the time had already stopped selling completely). Naturally my copy is still locked away safe and sound with my Saturn collection back home.

Well the logic was "this shop has lots of copies. There must be lots of copies, therefore it won't sell out and cheap copies will be available" which is a reasonable logic. Even if it is fucking stupid in retrospect, especially when I'd already completed the first disc by then and really enjoyed it. And enjoyed, although not loved, Zwei.

They were still in EB, but they were down to two shelves in my local. They actually kept those two shelves really well stocked for quite a long time though, always new stuff (presumably they had boxes of crap in the back). This was in an indie though.

[strider]

Noooooooooo!!!!

Just be up in the loft and it appears that the wife has thrown out the boxes to a load of my pal games!!!

All my Japanese cases (i keep my games in cd wallets) are there and so are my pal boxes for shining force 3, burning rangers and Dragon Force, but everything else I can't find anywhere

We had a big clear out not so long ago and I said to the miss, through these things away but not these one. Guess what box I found up in the loft

[spaceyjase]

I paid a full £10 for PDS. I picked up a Saturn in Gamestation the once with a few copies of games I liked (Sega Rally, Daytona and Zwei IIRC) and the bloke behind the counter just blurted out, "Want to buy Panzer Dragoon Saga off me?". I said, "Yeah, how much?". "Tenner". Fucking brilliant game.

Other than Silvergun and Garrega, that's all I have on my Saturn these days (oh, and 10-player Bomberman)!

[Popo]

Does Silvergun still sell for silly prices on the internet?

[patters2.0]

I've recently got into a Saturn I was given that I've had kicking around unused for a couple of years. It's got so many real gems of games. If you have a modded machine I advise you to seek out a rip of Death Tank Zwei that boots up without having to do all that Exhumed save game stuff. It really is as good as it's cracked up to be!

[mash]

Does Silvergun still sell for silly prices on the internet?

I'd like to know the answer to this too.

As I've still got my copy knocking about somewhere.....

[Rev]

Not exactly silly any more, just in the expensive region now. About sixty quid.

[Popo]

I've been practising my Daytona USA CCE drifting like a mad yin and since discovering that you can drift more effectively by using MT I have, probably for the first time in my gaming life, wholeheartedly embraced manual transmission. It DOES make it a lot easier to drift too.

Any other tips for this game?

[spaceyjase]

There's a whole different way to tackle MT in Daytona so experiment. You might brake, drop into 3rd, accelerate and back up to 4th when a quick 4-1-4 may do the trick (without braking). Just experiment with it

Can you change tyres in CCE? I don't remember. When I used to play it competitively, a buddy of mine used to swear on another car and tyres, use them religiously. I never got the hang of other cars, to be honest. I just used to stick with the stock config, MT.

[Popo]

Yea, I'm ruining the gearbox of this Hornet with all the transmission trickery!

Christ, Seaside Street Galaxy is HARD. It fucks me totally.

God, games just used to be better, didn't they? Or rather Sega games used to be better - that's for DAMN sure. Outrun 2006 was TOTALLY MINT CONDITION, but since the Dreamcast died - and it arguably saw the best output Sega ever put out, even compared to the Saturn - they just haven't been able to deliver the goods.

[Popo]

Woohoo, just got a 45.9 second record lap on Dinosaur Canyon!

Unfortunately though I'm running into a problem that must surely plague every Saturn 15 or so years later, which is dodgy internal memory. It keeps erasing by itself sadly, so I don't think I'll be able to play anything for extended stretches unless I can get a backup cart. However, as previously noted those carts are dodgy enough themselves.

[Oracle]

just replace the battery, it powers the memory

[Popo]

Smashing!

[spaceyjase]

God, games just used to be better, didn't they? Or rather Sega games used to be better - that's for DAMN sure. Outrun 2006 was TOTALLY MINT CONDITION, but since the Dreamcast died - and it arguably saw the best output Sega ever put out, even compared to the Saturn - they just haven't been able to deliver the goods.

I didn't really feel Outrun 2006 to be honest but otherwise HIGH FIVE. Daytona, in my opinion, has yet to be surpassed. It neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds to be re-released in arcade form something, e.g. Live or a PS2 bonus disc thingy (like Sega Rally).

[Vin]

Yea, I'm ruining the gearbox of this Hornet with all the transmission trickery!

Christ, Seaside Street Galaxy is HARD. It fucks me totally.

God, games just used to be better, didn't they? Or rather Sega games used to be better - that's for DAMN sure. Outrun 2006 was TOTALLY MINT CONDITION, but since the Dreamcast died - and it arguably saw the best output Sega ever put out, even compared to the Saturn - they just haven't been able to deliver the goods.

I threw on Nights and Burning Rangers due to this thread over the weekend, and you're bang on the mark.

Sonic Team were throwing out some quality shit - BR deserves a second wind, especially. Some of their stuff would be awesome on XBLA.