Saturn Saturn appreciation thread

[PhaseJump]

i wonder if mega man got any saturn games...?

Megaman 8, X3, X4, and a Japanese only Super Adventure Rockman are on Saturn.

 

[DragonMals]

Megaman 8, X3, X4, and a Japanese only Super Adventure Rockman are on Saturn.

Thank you for all of these!!! also Japanese exclusive...?

 

[bcdusk]

Phantasy Star Collection even translated

There is a very good translation of the whole thing but not for Saturn.

As in each individual game got retranslations and the first one even got an improvement mod.

Rockin b threw a port together 20 years ago, but it's not optimized or stable. If there is anything new, I haven't seen it.

With today tech and tools is way easier to do a Gameboy emulator but there is no interest in porting that to the Saturn.

i wonder if mega man got any saturn games...?

As I already mentioned Megaman 8 is bettter in the Saturn that the PlayStation.

Japanese exclusive...?

There is a fan translation but not for the Saturn version I think?

 

[Ikagura]

Is Phantasy Star Collection like Sonic Jam: a recreation of the engine rather than emulation?

 

[PhaseJump]

Is Phantasy Star Collection like Sonic Jam: a recreation of the engine rather than emulation?

It's a native game that has individual executable files and folders for each game, the sound data, and the original game roms.

Emulation would be too much for the Saturn.

 

[Ikagura]

It's a native game that has individual executable files and folders for each game, the sound data, and the original game roms.

Emulation would be too much for the Saturn.

I see, that may explain why there's a slight change in the sound engine.

I'd be tempted to play a translation just because of the ability to run faster in the games.

 

[bcdusk]

I'd be tempted to play a translation

If you have a hacked PS2, there is an English translation patch for the Japan only Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 32: Phantasy Star Complete Collection. There is also English patches for the specific games but not for the Saturn versions sadly. You can also get the patched iso in the Repo.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Everybody?

Herd mentality. I enjoyed Pebble beach golf links much better. Incredible 3d. Plus no stupid blocky
polygon things that someone told you were dragons, you got a realistic Crag Stadler talking about you getting in his hole. And if you cant handle that!!! All joking aside I feel that Shining Force 3 is a much better representation of the Saturns capabilities on so many more levels. (and play the Stadler game if you can the sound bytes are hilarious)

 

[PhaseJump]

Herd mentality.

Overwhelming consensus from Saturn fans on the internet and in the scene for more than 20 years. Shining Force 3 shows off the Saturn's graphical capabilities more than Panzer Dragoon Zwei?

 

[Ikagura]

Herd mentality.

Not necessarily, it's like how Ocarina of Time was groundbreaking.

 

[bcdusk]

I linked a video of the better looking games on the Sega Saturn before so...

Great Visual Effects on the Sega Saturn - The Complete Series By Sega Lord X

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

Sega Saturn project Trip, an add on to enhance the Sega Saturn 3D capabilities.

 

[bcdusk]

While cool most games won't use that and the Saturn already has the extra ram slot.

 

[seaglass]

Anyone here have any experience playing on the Saturn FPGA core?

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I always feel bad for the Saturn... It was THE console to get, but both SEGA themselves had poisoned the well and the competition was brutal for it to thrive.

Great system, though.

 

[bcdusk]

Sega made many mistakes that caused the Saturn downfall outside Japan. Amazing how much Sega of America fuckex things up. I still malntain that without the 32x the Saturn would have done better.

I wish Sega remembered the Saturn exists outside of Nights Into Dreams. And that they went all out in porting their Arcade games.

 

[Swagmata]

I remember like six years ago I got a modded Saturn and a Dreamcast and I expected to get really into the Dreamcast and for the Saturn to be more of a curiosity but instead the Saturn’s seemingly endless library of baller ass arcade ports changed my taste in games completely

 

[Leon]

I always feel bad for the Saturn... It was THE console to get, but both SEGA themselves had poisoned the well and the competition was brutal for it to thrive.

Great system, though.

What really ruined the saturn outside of japan is they released the console literally the same day it was announced....without telling the devs.
I said it before and i'll say it here, sega wasn't beaten by a rival company, sega beat itself since sega of japan and sega of america were constantly at odds which led them to eventually destroy the company as it once was.
That said sega's refusal to lay into the niche titles is what i think really killed them, the saturn had some great rpgs, platformers heck even visual novels that never left japan because sega wanted to push more arcade like experiences in the west while abandoning many of the niche franchises that made the genesis so successful, which sony took full advantage of to crush them.
Phantasy star?
Relegated to a collection, sonic?
Again a collection, the shining series?
Tons of games for the shining series came out in japan, but only half of them left japan and of those that did, shining the holy ark almost didn't, shining wisdom had to be brought over by working designs of all companies and shining force 3 only had the first part release in the west effectively leaving 2/3rds of the story japan only.
Many of the games that third parties were known for, that sega could have published to bolster their numbers also didn't leave, silouette mirage, lunar, grandia, multiple shin megami tensei games, policenauts, darius gaiden silver hawk, heck even sakura taisen could have found it's niche in the west, but sega kept chasing trends to try to catch up to sony, which was fulfilling alot of these holes in sega's place.

Sega made many mistakes that caused the Saturn downfall outside Japan. Amazing how much Sega of America fuckex things up. I still malntain that without the 32x the Saturn would have done better.

I wish Sega remembered the Saturn exists outside of Nights Into Dreams. And that they went all out in porting their Arcade games.

The 32x was garbage and should never have been released, but no i don't think that's what killed the saturn, i think what i said above was the biggest culprit, namely their lack of attempt to actually compete with sony is what i think killed it overall.

I appreciate the rpg's we never got on the system especially myself, saying this as someone who actually bought a saturn back then btw.
To me sega focused too much on arcade experiences, don't misunderstand what i'm saying here, but sega kept trying to focus on specific genre's like racing and fighting while ignoring more nuanced ones like rpg's or survival horror until it was too late, i think this even carried over into the dreamcast which eventually killed it and sega as a publisher, i loved classic sega, but let's not kid ourselves, their failure was a self inflicted wound.

 

[bcdusk]

Almost anyone who got a 32x got disappointed with Sega and then got a Playstation, even if you got one of the few good games, it wasn't really worth it.

It was just one of many things that doomed the Saturn in the USA but it definitely was an important reason the Saturn did so badly there.

 

[PhaseJump]

Saturn had comparably worse game performance than PS1, a worse price tag, and Nintendo was cooking with SNES games and Ultra 64 hype to keep people from adopting anything different.

Sega released expensive CD and 32X hardware with no game library to justify them. Sega wore out it's welcome as a hardware brand and burned their capital still chasing R&D. Arcades justified it, but it was wasteful. Saturn failed to bring over everything from Japan which would have been impossible, but necessary to save their ability to stay even with Nintendo.

Playstation kicked all asses. The hardware was easier to make games on, they switched off to standard jewel cases for better retail management, better storage options for the end consumer. For the first time, USA, Japan, and Europe all unified around one specific leading platform, which created the biggest boom in the industry for 2 console generations. Sony was already huge and successful, and nobody could afford to compete with them.

Genesis fans jumped ship to it, SNES fans jumped ship to it with the big flood of games in '98. Nintendo and Sega both held on to a small piece of the market, while Sony actually grew it.

 

[bcdusk]

Counterpoint the Sega CD got released early on and it had games, the 32X was released just before the Saturn and it had very few games.

For an Add On the Sega CD sales were okay, although most Sega CD games were either better on PC or barely different from the Sega Genesis version.

It should have been a warning of "No more Add Ons like this" but Sega of America leadership was frankly insane in the later years of the Sega Genesis.

 

[seaglass]

What really ruined the saturn outside of japan is they released the console literally the same day it was announced....without telling the devs.
I said it before and i'll say it here, sega wasn't beaten by a rival company, sega beat itself since sega of japan and sega of america were constantly at odds which led them to eventually destroy the company as it once was.
That said sega's refusal to lay into the niche titles is what i think really killed them, the saturn had some great rpgs, platformers heck even visual novels that never left japan because sega wanted to push more arcade like experiences in the west while abandoning many of the niche franchises that made the genesis so successful, which sony took full advantage of to crush them.
Phantasy star?
Relegated to a collection, sonic?
Again a collection, the shining series?
Tons of games for the shining series came out in japan, but only half of them left japan and of those that did, shining the holy ark almost didn't, shining wisdom had to be brought over by working designs of all companies and shining force 3 only had the first part release in the west effectively leaving 2/3rds of the story japan only.
Many of the games that third parties were known for, that sega could have published to bolster their numbers also didn't leave, silouette mirage, lunar, grandia, multiple shin megami tensei games, policenauts, darius gaiden silver hawk, heck even sakura taisen could have found it's niche in the west, but sega kept chasing trends to try to catch up to sony, which was fulfilling alot of these holes in sega's place.

The 32x was garbage and should never have been released, but no i don't think that's what killed the saturn, i think what i said above was the biggest culprit, namely their lack of attempt to actually compete with sony is what i think killed it overall.

I appreciate the rpg's we never got on the system especially myself, saying this as someone who actually bought a saturn back then btw.
To me sega focused too much on arcade experiences, don't misunderstand what i'm saying here, but sega kept trying to focus on specific genre's like racing and fighting while ignoring more nuanced ones like rpg's or survival horror until it was too late, i think this even carried over into the dreamcast which eventually killed it and sega as a publisher, i loved classic sega, but let's not kid ourselves, their failure was a self inflicted wound.

Agree with your last point in particular. Even though there are some banger RPGs on the Saturn, Sega didn't seem to grasp where the industry was going (aka, away from arcadey games and towards more story-driven experiences) until the Dreamcast. And then they overcorrected in trying to address this by putting all their eggs into Shenmue 1/2, which was amazing but ridiculously expensive.

 

[bcdusk]

Shenmue

Nah just the first Shemue, then the Internet Bubble Crash and 9/11 happened that fucked the economy quite badly and that didn't help Sega that was already in debt.

Shemue 2 only happened because Microsoft wanted it for Xbox for some reason, there is a reason SA2 was done as cheap as they could get away with.

In the USA the 32X and releasing the Saturn early were two of the most important reasons the Saturn flopped there, Sega of America mismanagement that literary almost killed people while trying to make a Sonic game for the Saturn didn't help, but Sega Of Japan refusing to lend the Nights Engine to make a Sonic game is also to blame.

Honesty WTF was going with Sega Of Japan that they literally made like 4 new mascots plataformers instead of a new Sonic game? Even the 32x had a new mascot plataformer.

You already had Sonic you idiots!

 

[seaglass]

Nah just the first Shemue, then the Internet Bubble Crash and 9/11 happened that fucked the economy quite badly and that didn't help Sega that was already in debt.

Shemue 2 only happened because Microsoft wanted it for Xbox for some reason, there is a reason SA2 was done as cheap as they could get away with.

In the USA the 32X and releasing the Saturn early were two of the most important reasons the Saturn flopped there, Sega of America mismanagement that literary almost killed people while trying to make a Sonic game for the Saturn didn't help, but Sega Of Japan refusing to lend the Nights Engine to make a Sonic game is also to blame.

Honesty WTF was going with Sega Of Japan that they literally made like 4 new mascots plataformers instead of a new Sonic game? Even the 32x had a new mascot plataformer.

You already had Sonic you idiots!

IIRC at least half of Shenmue 2 is stuff that was originally meant to be in the original Shenmue, it just got so over budget that Sega told Yu Suzuki to release it as a sequel to wrap the development up. I only played Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast because we actually got it in English here, but I also am a little confused as to why Microsoft wanted it ported to Xbox. I guess they were positioning themselves as taking over Sega's brands (like with them buying the license to Jet Set Radio Future) before Sega and Nintendo eventually partnered up.

Yeah I think you nailed it, the failure does go back to the 32X and Saturn mismanagement. In retrospect the lack of a new Sonic game was unbelievable. Imagine if Mario had skipped the N64? It is weird that they went in on developing new mascot platformers. IIRC Sonic wasn't particularly popular in Japan right? In comparison to the West. Maybe they were trying to compensate, idk.

 

[Kovlak]

I like the Saturn. It has, in my point of view, a large number of hidden gems, but at the time and even now lacks a bit of wow factor with its biggest games.

I got lent a Saturn back in the day and among its games I played Virtua Fighter 2 back and felt underwhelmed compared to Tekken.