Sega Saturn

If you were ever wondering, "Why did the Saturn fail so miserably?," here's a VERY in-depth write up:

I haven't checked the article, but from my understanding it failed because it was very hard to program for. Much like many of the consoles that haven't done very well over the years, lack of software doesn't really help a game console sell I guess...

Interesting article.

It didn't have the success it should have had, but I like my Saturn.
I didn't like Sega when I was little, but this changed, now that I'm grown up.
When you become older, things become nostalgic...

I've never played the Saturn, but the Genesis was my first 16-Bit machine to have gamed on. I always liked Sega, but they always seemed to lack the fun in their games, compared to Nintendo. The third-party developers never really put any effort into the games they made for them, either. I wonder if Sega put strict time lines on the development of the games?

very likely possibility. I say nothing should be released until it's done. I'd rather deal with a year of delays and have a great product in the end than have it a year earlier and it be crap.

That's true.

At least Nintendo always had (and still has) a very severe quality control on their games. You see it when you look at the Nintendo line-up.
I don't know any crappy game from Nintendo. Do you?

I'm looking for good platformers (except Sonic) and Adventures/RPGs for Saturn.

Does anybody here have any personal recommendations?

...

Thanks for your many recommendations.

Id like to find a Saturn some day, I have access to an N64, so I'm fine there, the PS wasn't fantastic in my opinion (other than FF) but I really like the 8 and 16-bit consoles, of the 8-bits, the NES is king, of the 16-bits, the Genesis/MegaDrive is king.

One of the coolest features of the SEGA Saturn was that you could play all the games like a music CD. It was like every game had its own built-in soundtrack.
Actually, I don't know if it was every game, but it was all the ones I played.

The CD player on the Saturn is awesome! It even has effects you can add to the music like reverb or pitch shift. Very advanced for its time.

I wish I would have experienced the best games on it. Mostly all I played was 'Virtua Cop' and 'World Series Baseball'.

I didn't know that. I can replace the cd while playing?
Need to try that.

I sometimes used my Saturn as a CD player in Japan.

you dont have a saturn there ok but nothing to brag about

That's a cool site. I even own some of the games listed there.

I think Saturn has many games worth playing. I got mine for about 14$ (with POWer memory), so this was a great deal.

I've heard that the Saturn was designed for really fancy 2D effects, does anyone know of any games that took advantage of that capability? honestly I'd rather have crazy 2D effects than the bland and boring 3D we have in everything now.

The Saturn has some good shooters.
Radiant Silvergun or Darius Gaiden.
Or there would be Metal Slug, a port from Neo Geo.
Cotton 2 is also famous for its effects.
I think there were also Megaman games on the Saturn.

Rayman also has brilliant effects. Earthworm Jim 2.

You should grab a Saturn when you have the chance.

Except for "CD Player". The Saturn has the greatest CD plying unit ever created.
Of course, we don't get video game systems just for playing music CDs, but the Saturn had a worthy, albeit small lineup of quality games.

A more in depth look at those qualities are here...

Oh yeah! After looking at the pic i remmeber that CD player. It did rock my friend had it myself never owned a saturn

The CD player screen looks far better that that of Playstation.

yeah i remember playing cds on my playstation. It wasnt easy to mess with and i didnt like it very much

MY freind bought and old SS like 4 yrs ago where you played as these flying dudes. I remember the first boss was this fat thing that you had to push through walls.

Well, I got a Saturn a few days ago, and I'm completely impressed with it. the graphics I've seen are easily the best of that generation. and yes, I love the CD player as well.

the only unfortunate part is, there seems to be nothing from Sega in this area AT ALL, so I'll likely be stuck with "World Series Baseball" for a while. I did borrow NiGHTS, Street Fighter 2010 Alpha, and Sonic 3D Blast from a friend who also has Panzer Dragoon, but we can't find that one

that's NiGHTS into dreams... quite a fun game. it's kinda like flying Sonic.

Double post, but...

I got the swap trick working, and have been experiencing some of the other stuff the Saturn has to offer. I'm even more impressed.

it's like a playstation, only not a pixelated garbage mess. you can actually see what things are supposed to be.

if anyone has any recomedations, let me know.

I think if sega had released more of the japanese only stuff even if in small quantities, the system would have done much better. I felt the same way about NEC's turbo systems also.

Sadly Astal is the only thing I can think of.

the saturn cd player is fair garbage sound quality wise, but for it's time it is very good. i was going to say rayman for a 2d game which runs exceptionally, i got it in a bunch of games i got in one lot off ebay, as soon as i put it in, i was impressed by how damn smoothly it runs. someone already said rayman though:(
anyway, i have three working saturns right now. i have a saturn chip, but never got it working, i might try get a replacement..
on another note, doom runs fairly horribly, and the characters in virtua fighter have the sharpest corners i've ever seen on a humanoid model. having said that, the playstation wasnt a huge step up and was meant to be the 'next generation' console.. so the saturn didnt do too badly in that field.
saturns are a bitch to work with internally though, so many bits everywhere..

Ha ha! Yes, I remember thinking that when I first saw it. Way back in the day, my friend had bought one while he was on holiday in Saudia Arabi or something and he invited me round to see the "amazing" graphics his new Saturn could produce, he showed me Virtua Fighter. Needless to say I nearly wet myself laughing when I saw how sharp the rendering was. And I was about 10 at the time.
But i love the Saturn

The Saturn and Playstation were of the same generation, and the Saturn has MUCH better graphics, everything is more sharp, and smooth, compare Sega Rally Championship, to Gran Turismo.

The downfall of the Saturn was that it was hard to develop for, because only one CPU could access RAM at a time.

Could anybody reccommend some more good games? I've checked MPN's link. It appears that somebody had a list of good games but has since editied their post so it's gone. I hope to get one tommorrow. Thanks.

- Really original and nifty, I always wanted to try it.
- Different, not everyone's cup of tea (especially not mine), but it has a decidedly dedicated following.
- Simply put, kickass arcade action. I absolutely love it.
- A solid, hardrocking forerunner of the fighting genre. Too bad I'm not a big fan of the fighting genre.
- Never played the Saturn version, but I imagine that it would be good.
- Those cool 2D games Luke was looking for? This is one of them. Haven't played it myself, though.
, and I would be willing to give both arms and a leg to play it.

- Never played it, but it's pretty much the only FMV game anyone really remembers fondly.
- Oldschool hackn'slash with some innovative quirks thrown in.
- Well, on this one, it's me against every videogame critic known to man. I liked it a lot, everone else simply despised it. Of course, I played it years and years and years ago, so I can't truly vouch for it. Just check it out, I guess.
- Duh.

Well, that's every single crazily inventive and awesome Saturn game that I know of, though I entirely ignored most fighting games and all of the racing games.

I completely forgot about Magic Carpet, i'll definately check it out. I know about all of the more "popular" games, which are generally speaking fighting or racing. Thanks for your input.

Is that the same Mass Destruction that was on the ... I can't remember, PC or Playstation.

If so, it was fun, but I wouldn't go so far as to consider it .

I never played it on PC... it's the one where you're in a tank, and blow the living crap out of everything? Mainly strafing?

Apparently it was on both the Playstation and PC, so I guess we're thinking about the same game.

Yeah, that's the one. So damn fun...

What's this "swap trick" all about? It sounds interesting. Can you only do it with a certain version of the Saturn?

What's this "swap trick" all about? It sounds interesting. Can you only do it with a certain version of the Saturn?

Luke was telling me about it, But I can't remember it all but just read this:

What's this "swap trick" all about? It sounds interesting. Can you only do it with a certain version of the Saturn?

Basically, the Saturn reads games in a specific way. First it reads some data from the game, then it reads the security strip (the ring on the outside of Saturn discs) then it goes back to reading the game.

So you insert your "backup", wait for specific blinks of the "access" LED, then swap to a legitimate game with the security strip, wait for the LED again, then swap back to your "backup" and enjoy.

There are also videos and other tutorials out there. It's pretty simple to pull off when you know how.

So, you use it to play burned copies of games? It doesn't look too difficult. Thankfully, I have a model one. It looks like it's pretty difficult on a model two. I'll give it a try.

The region code of the "backup" has to match that of your console, but there is software out there to patch disc images for any region. Though they sometimes cause some errors with the game.