Saturn Just got a Sega Saturn! First time ownership thread.

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

A quest begins…

One of the most hyped Saturn game series for me has been Panzer Dragoon. Today, I found a copy at a local used game store for under EBAY price, complete in box. It was about the original MSRP, so I feel I paid a decent price for it. I’ve been meaning to own the Panzer Dragoon rail shooters for a while. I lost my shot at Zwei a while back and I’ve spoken on wanting to get all the U.S. launch games before, so this was an easy choice to make.

I’m away from my home, so I can’t play the game right away. Right now, I’m listening to the soundtrack from disc, directly from a Dreamcast (thank you guys for all the info you gave me on my thread about Saturn game music last night!)
It’ll be about Monday at the latest that I can get home and play this game, but rest assured, this copy is in good hands. The case was dirty when I got it, but I took several cleaning fluids to it to get it restored as much as possible.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

It’s been a good long while. I still am loving my Saturn. This system is so special to me, and I’m honestly shocked by how much I love it. It’s beyond words how much it’s been great to own.

Seriously: pick up a Saturn if you have the cash to splash on it. If you’re smart, you can find several great games and have a long lasting piece of hardware for the price of a modern system. I know that Switch 2 is contentious: for $450 you can easily get a Saturn, most of the AM2 games, perhaps an RPG repro, perhaps a Saroo, and still have money. You can find Japanese Saturn Bomberman for around $35 to $50 and that’ll justify the system if you have people to play with. You can pick up several great racing games for $30 and under. You can get Japanese Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2 for around the same price you’d pay for ONE Switch 2 game.

The prices of Saturn are high, yes, but you just need to shop smart. Or emulate. If you can get that to work, that’ll be amazing.

 

[SaturnWolf64]

This has been in the works for months here, but I finally got a Sega Saturn! After getting into the Dreamcast late last year, I fell more and more into two key rabbit holes: Importing cheaper JP stock and Sega Saturn. While I feel very bad now that I know how much importing has done damage to the retro game scene over in Japan, I still concede to it being a way of life for many a western gamer, thanks to the lower prices on JP stock over US resells, thanks to the US's policy of "destroy the old stock that won't have a market". Not to mention, while the Saturn is INFAMOUSLY expensive, I could actually find and name a number of titles I wanted to play that went for very cheap on the system, and the hardware sounded much more reliable than the Dreamcast which had given me so many struggles over the couple months of owning it. While still collecting and pouring love into my Dreamcast, I bit the bullet on a model 2 Japanese Sega Saturn that I found on JDirectItems Flea Market. The system had been restored to nice white (some aging couldn't be fixed, but it looks better than most consoles out there), had been FRAM modded, and was supposedly blown down with air and dusted off. I also snatched up some cheap, iconic titles that I knew I wanted to play. Yesterday, the console arrived at my apartment, and while I didn't have much time to play that night, I was able to finally fulfill my dreams of Saturn.

View attachment 29913

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2025

View attachment 29921

Not sure what Video cable you using for it but Standard Composite AV was a little blurry for me but playable , I upgraded to a S-Video Cable going through Retrotink 2X Pro to HDMI I do the same with my N64 looks amazing but you will notice a checkerboard pattern on some areas in games , Composite Hided this but I don't mind ( Note the Retrotink isn't for everyone it is kind of pricey about hundred something dollars when I got mine )

But if you're playing on a CRT TV Composite is great
RGB Scart is the highest Video Sega Saturn supports but we don't have that where I'm from United States , S-Video works great for me

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Not sure what Video cable you using for it but Standard Composite AV was a little blurry for me but playable , I upgraded to a S-Video Cable going through Retrotink 2X Pro to HDMI I do the same with my N64 looks amazing but you will notice a checkerboard pattern on some areas in games , Composite Hided this but I don't mind ( Note the Retrotink isn't for everyone it is kind of pricey about hundred something dollars when I got mine )

But if you're playing on a CRT TV Composite is great
RGB Scart is the highest Video Sega Saturn supports but we don't have that where I'm from United States , S-Video works great for me

I’ve actually been okay with Composite for now! It’s not an urgent upgrade, but someday I’ll go up to either S-Video or (ideally) component. My Genesis is my focus to upgrade right now, and then is the Dreamcast (having Dreamcast through composite is a sin), but Saturn will have its time in the sun eventually (especially since it’s possibly my favorite console ever now).

 

[SaturnWolf64]

I’ve actually been okay with Composite for now! It’s not an urgent upgrade, but someday I’ll go up to either S-Video or (ideally) component. My Genesis is my focus to upgrade right now, and then is the Dreamcast (having Dreamcast through composite is a sin), but Saturn will have its time in the sun eventually (especially since it’s possibly my favorite console ever now).

Alright sounds good , I own a Genesis model 2 I was looking to upgrade it somehow just like my Saturn , those HD Retrovision Genesis Component cables got my sights on , I have one for my Nintendo Wii works great...but they are also expensive I don't play my Genesis very often mostly because I only have 2 games for it at the moment , I do have Genesis classics on my Xbox/Switch and the Genesis Mini though

( Over the years I've been just focusing on other game consoles like my Saturn , GameCube, and Wii as three examples )

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I just now suffered my first Saturn crash. Try to act shocked: it was in a Sonic game. Sonic Jam to be precise. I was getting my fill of “Easy Mode” Sonic 3 and I’ve been totally bewildered by the changes they decided to make for the game to be “easier”.

My guess is that I killed the boss to Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1 TOO FAST (I killed it before the screen had scrolled all the way) and then hit the sign on the way down, so the game was overloaded with too many signals and killed itself.

Fun!

 

[SaturnWolf64]

I just now suffered my first Saturn crash. Try to act shocked: it was in a Sonic game. Sonic Jam to be precise. I was getting my fill of “Easy Mode” Sonic 3 and I’ve been totally bewildered by the changes they decided to make for the game to be “easier”.

My guess is that I killed the boss to Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1 TOO FAST (I killed it before the screen had scrolled all the way) and then hit the sign on the way down, so the game was overloaded with too many signals and killed itself.

Fun!

That's not good sorry to hear that happened never experienced that before tho usually it's the more modern consoles like Xbox One and Switch that I experience crashes on

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

That's not good sorry to hear that happened never experienced that before tho usually it's the more modern consoles like Xbox One and Switch that I experience crashes on

Hey, it’s all good! I gave the Saturn a rest and it had a great time playing Daytona USA! I’ve slowly but surely been getting better at the “Advanced” track, but I’ve still never finished a race on it. I’m not sure on how best to handle that first big turn after the tunnel on the track, and that’s where I lose a lot of speed or even crash. I’ve found that the final big turn on the downhill of the track is best handled by taking off the accelerator and going into third gear, before ratcheting back up to fourth for the long straightaway where the starting line is.


If anybody knows how to handle the turn after the tunnel, please tell me! I’d love to get better at turns like that, so that way I can practice the Advanced track and be able to work my way up to the Expert course!

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

A bit aged. Sun damage to the obi. But it’s here. And it’s all packed up. Well taken care of.

A reminder that a game in Japanese is just that game in Japanese. The language barrier can we worked around. Before fan translations, that’s what people did.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Today was an insane day at one of my local used game stores. The place was positively popping with tons of exciting stock.

However, of major interest to this thread and to me, some local collector had dumped their stash.

I would end up going through the horde, though this was also the first time I had seen many of these games in the flesh.

I was very tempted by Waku Waku 7, but I chose to refrain. Here’s what I got instead:

A very modest haul by comparison, although all titles I’ve wanted for a while. X-Men VS Street Fighter is the star of the show, and feels like a right of passage for me as a Saturn owner. If any game is to be the one that tests my 4MB card inside the Action Replay Plus, this is the one.

 

[nobitakun]

I don't understand why people buy reproductions for CD consoles, they are burned CD's. Repros from Dreamcast aren't even GD-ROM format. At least, the cart reproductions work like an original one if you insert it in the console.

EDIT: That Pokemon Box is sure expensive in the US. In Spain we don't have that version, we got it included with Pokemon Colosseum, and it is also quite expensive. I feel lucky a friend gave me a copy of it for my birthday long time ago.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I don't understand why people buy reproductions for CD consoles, they are burned CD's. Repros from Dreamcast aren't even GD-ROM format. At least, the cart reproductions work like an original one if you insert it in the console.

EDIT: That Pokemon Box is sure expensive in the US. In Spain we don't have that version, we got it included with Pokemon Colosseum, and it is also quite expensive. I feel lucky a friend gave me a copy of it for my birthday long time ago.

Second most expensive game I’ve seen at that store is Pkmn Box. The most expensive was a COMPLETE and mint copy of Earthbound. It’s still there. As for that store, I trust it to be around 10% less than online pricing and also it’s a local business that I’ve been going to for a decade. It’s the store that got me into retro games more than any other lol

Anyway, yeah, I fell into the trap of Dreamcast repros and I absolutely hated them. They made the system scream, they weren’t the same as the official games, and I realized that I’d just paid a premium for cruddy bootlegs. I was able to pawn them off some time ago and I feel my Dreamcast set is far better without them there. I will say, I won’t turn down a repro of the US release of Magic Knight Rayearth on Saturn, but it would need to be as one to one with the original as possible, including the holographic and embossed cover art and all extras inside. I hope you understand why I’d want that particular game in that particular sense, as the U.S. release is BEAUTIFUL but it’s also genuinely rare and EXPENSIVE.

 

[nobitakun]

I will say, I won’t turn down a repro of the US release of Magic Knight Rayearth on Saturn, but it would need to be as one to one with the original as possible, including the holographic and embossed cover art and all extras inside. I hope you understand why I’d want that particular game in that particular sense, as the U.S. release is BEAUTIFUL but it’s also genuinely rare and EXPENSIVE.

View attachment 89201

I like this game very much, and as a collector I understand it. The problem for me is that I can't pay more for a game that its cost when it was released new. If I payed a grand for the game, just to have it in my shelf I would feel it easy and boring. Every single game I have has a story, but what makes me happy to have them is to know they costed a fair price. Even if I were rich, I would spend the money for something else, like a house or traveling and living abroad. It's hard for me to be a collector lol.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I like this game very much, and as a collector I understand it. The problem for me is that I can't pay more for a game that its cost when it was released new. If I payed a grand for the game, just to have it in my shelf I would feel it easy and boring. Every single game I have has a story, but what makes me happy to have them is to know they costed a fair price. Even if I were rich, I would spend the money for something else, like a house or traveling and living abroad. It's hard for me to be a collector lol.

And hence why repros have a place: saving money. If it can get you that game in your physical collection while still being substantially less money than the genuine article, than they’ll sell. And we can think whatever type of way we want to about that, but what I will say is that I’ve seen conventions and stores and all other kinds of public events use reproductions to run games. While I’m off and on with their private use, I 100% think they have a place for public use so that we aren’t using an actual copy of a rare game that may get worn down or destroyed because it’s a public event.

 

[nobitakun]

And hence why repros have a place: saving money. If it can get you that game in your physical collection while still being substantially less money than the genuine article, than they’ll sell. And we can think whatever type of way we want to about that, but what I will say is that I’ve seen conventions and stores and all other kinds of public events use reproductions to run games. While I’m off and on with their private use, I 100% think they have a place for public use so that we aren’t using an actual copy of a rare game that may get worn down or destroyed because it’s a public event.

Well, actually reproductions are just burned discs. They could burn the game at home in a Verbatim disc for 20 cents, then bring it to the convention for playing. It has the same legal validity as a repro, if any.

As I said, it's hard for me to be a collector as I have OCD's, and I could never have a reproduction and feel I have fill a void for a game I really wanted. I would always think that game is not legit and I would end hating having it among the other games. It even happens when I buy a new game that is for a current gen console. If I want to buy it new, I can't buy it if it is not sealed, or the seal is damaged, I start to feel paranoid and it makes me crazy. I tried hard, but I end not being able to sleep at night, so I have to return the game to the store to get my money back.

But I totally agree about that, I never use my legit copies for playing, I download the ISO, then burn the disc if needed. Keeping media as new as possible is a duty I feel I have.