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The Saturn Appreciation Thread

strider

By strider
in Retro & Arcade Gaming

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Haribokart

Haribokart

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, Popo said:


I read your post last night Pastry, having never heard of OpenEmu, and was inspired to give it a try. Wow, you’re not wrong! I’ve only tried Sega Rally, but it was flawless to mein eye. No glitches, smooth frame rate - the emulator ‘just works’, once you add the BIOS’, and it even works with the 8bitdo M30, which is a Bluetooth controller, but I couldn’t detect any input latency. 
 

Having tried the Windows version of Mednafen in the past and come away suitably impressed - this is much, much better. And no command like to mess around with! I think OpenEmu’s lack of faff is what impresses most. 

 

Cant wait to try something else tonight after work. 

 

Daaaammmnnn! I have had OpenEmu installed for ages on my M1 MBP and only used it for MS/MD games but never even thought of trying 3D consoles, after reading this I got hold of Sega Rally which used to be my absolute favourite game as a kid and gave it a go. Perfect graphics, sound and controls with the DualSense!! I just spent months in hospital and if I'd known about this then, time would have passed a lot quicker :lol:

 

The emulation on Sega Rally is absolutely perfect, some of my old techniques (for example the hairpin right in Forest) still work although having not played for over twenty years some of the others I used to use such as bouncing off the other cars for a boost on the corners will need a little bit more practise to get up to where I was. My first try I didn't come first, but got a fairly respectable time considering how long it's been. Need to try in my main car (the Delta) MT and unlock Lakeside + the Stratos now!

 

278697645_Screenshot2021-07-14at23_30_32.png

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pastry

pastry

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Awesome! Glad you guys are picking this up, I keep recommending OpenEmu everywhere in the Saturn world.. lots of people just say "I don't do Mac's" – their loss!

 

If you unlock Lakeside it is by far the best track to practice to pick up your SR skills, it'll make you quicker on every other track. And yes – Delta with MT FTW, at least until you unlock the Stratos. Then see how quick you can lap Desert. I've got it down to 51.90 but can't get any closer to the records as yet.. 49.84 to beat!

image.png.a26b04b281a50746d5cf78f4aee6845e.png

 

What a game it is to this day, and the graphics are more than acceptable – only thing I would change is the "net" windows on the cars, which I reckon would've looked so much better solid with sky reflections. Amazing conversion.

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Kevvy Metal

Kevvy Metal

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On 14/07/2021 at 09:38, strider said:

After getting a GameCube loader I'm finding the Satiator rather disappointing. All the images etc for the GC loader makes it feel like a library of games rather than a list of ISOs. It's a shame the front end isn't a little nicer.

 

Sell some stuff and get a Terraonion MODE. 

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Kevvy Metal

Kevvy Metal

Posted
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9 minutes ago, strider said:

The Saturn is the one console I'd never sell. If I got that I'd have to lose the discdrive so no more games.

 

Buy another Saturn! I have three of them, for example. 

@Jei on this very forum sold me a barebones JP one without a drive specifically for ODE fun. 

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Colonel Panic

Colonel Panic

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I've got two JPN Saturns now, one with a drive and another with a Fenrir. Still cheaper than a Satiator! For Fenrir, Ced recently added box art support but I haven't turned it on yet.

 

The only downside is the memory card shuffle if I want to continue a game in my shed on a CRT. 

 

I love the original grey Saturns. It was easy enough to get two without discolouration from eBay. One is a boxed VA0, literally the first model released so made in 1994 and the CD ROM still works! 

 

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strider

strider

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44 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

Buy another Saturn! I have three of them, for example. 

@Jei on this very forum sold me a barebones JP one without a drive specifically for ODE fun. 

I have enough consoles already. I'm going to sort out rings on my satiator like Iain suggested and that should probably been fine.

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ianinthefuture

ianinthefuture

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I'm worried I'm becoming a bit fanboyish here, but the Satiator is still the absolute best ODE I've ever used and nothing else comes close, nor could it. It slots into the console's VCD port and that's it, done. It's exactly the same as an FXPAK or Everdrive, and I can't stop being impressed at that with a disc-based console.

 

Also I'm just never bothering with Terraonion in general - they might have improved over time, but there's still a very sour taste in the mouth from their general online interactions, aggression, releasing customer details publicly, and so on and so forth. Great products I'm sure, but not a company for me.

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Camel

Camel

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, ianinthefuture said:

It's exactly the same as an FXPAK or Everdrive, and I can't stop being impressed at that with a disc-based console.

 

I don't have one but yes I'm amazed by this black magic too.

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Popo

Popo

Posted
Posted

While the Street Fighters have been ported a million times since, I'm really enjoying playing the older Marvel Capcom fighters again - X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (the latter of which I really wanted back in the day but it was just too expensive).  I think X-Men vs Street Fighter is still the best one of these - zany enough to differentiate it from Capcom's other fighters, but before it all went to far (Marvel vs Capcom).

 

Darkstalkers 3/Vampire Saviour next!

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phillv85

phillv85

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Popo said:

While the Street Fighters have been ported a million times since, I'm really enjoying playing the older Marvel Capcom fighters again - X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (the latter of which I really wanted back in the day but it was just too expensive).  I think X-Men vs Street Fighter is still the best one of these - zany enough to differentiate it from Capcom's other fighters, but before it all went to far (Marvel vs Capcom).

 

Darkstalkers 3/Vampire Saviour next!

 

I've played through those fighters again recently. I don't really like X-Men: COTA, but the other three are great. X-Men vs. Street Fighter is also my personal favourite on the Saturn and Arcade. They ported them really well.

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ianinthefuture

ianinthefuture

Posted
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52 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

I'd find it hard to justify a Satiator myself. It's the price of a Saturn and a Fenrir BEFORE shipping and import charges!

 

 

 

It's not as cheap as the other stuff, no, but once you have it (and your files on an SD card), you're done. Plug it in, good to go. It's incredibly well-engineered and I'm happy to pay for that sort of thing.

 

There's also the fact the person who made it, Professor Abraisive, is the guy who reverse engineered the Saturn's CD copy protection to begin with. He's the reason all these ODEs exist at all - so again, I'm happy to throw my money in his direction.

 

None of this is to say people shouldn't spend their money (or not spend it) however they want - I'm just laying out why I'm more than happy to spend not actually that much more than a MODE on a project that's far more elegant, and made by someone I have far more respect for.

 

(quick edit as I forgot Fenrir, which seems very cool)

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strider

strider

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4 hours ago, Colonel Panic said:

If anyone is wondering what the box art feature is like in Fenrir’s menu…

 

81808F31-C14B-4FC4-A0B8-9AADCDCA906D.thumb.jpeg.73eac213274d306bb41d7e2b00c68dc6.jpeg

I'd never get rid of my Saturn, but these things are far nicer when they don't just look like a list of ROMS.
Need to install that thing Iain mentioned.

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Colonel Panic

Colonel Panic

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1 hour ago, strider said:

I'd never get rid of my Saturn, but these things are far nicer when they don't just look like a list of ROMS.
Need to install that thing Iain mentioned.

 

Yeah, something like the Swiss UI would be nice. Chunky rows with some game metadata and an icon. It's easier for GC games as some of the data is embedded in the image, and it depends on what graphics stuff the microcontroller that runs the ODE can handle as well as the developer's skills.

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ianinthefuture

ianinthefuture

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I didn't even realise Rings had added per-game saves. That's.. err.. really good. I might be misunderstanding but it means no more need for save carts, as everything is transferred to/from the Saturn's save RAM/the SD card and vice versa each time you load a game. As it says in the Github, like a Memory Card Pro does on the PS1.

 

Living in the future is ace for old consoles.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Ketchup

Ketchup

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, strider said:

My list of Saturn games is now up on Games Radar. Fill your boots.

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/best-saturn-games-all-time/

Great stuff off to read now. I have to ask, do you think Saturn is the easiest console to have a top ten/25 that is unique from other peoples or do you think any console can be like this? I ask because when it normally comes to PlayStation or n64 too tens it’s always the same games that generally get featured.

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