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Our next console special podcast recording (6.2.22): SEGA Saturn (Patreon)

Published:
2022-01-17 13:23:45
Edited:
2022-01-17 13:26:42
Imported:
2022-01

Content

Post your memories, experiences and opinions of SEGA's Saturn right here, for potential inclusion in the upcoming single format podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

Comments

Ned Mulka

My neck of the woods was 100% N64 saturation. Even though I had a Game Gear, the Saturn was nowhere near my radar, but also I was so dead center at the time in Nintendo's targeted age demographic that I don't even remember seeing a PS1 until 1999. In the years since I've always been so curious with its exclusive offerings that I finally picked one up in 2021. The library is such a fun balance of beautiful sprite art and polygons holding on for dear life, and for my somewhat new love of Shoot'em Ups, the Saturn might still be undefeated. I think it's a very excited time to be a Saturn owner. The niche community still supporting it seems to be getting stronger. The recently fan localization project for Bulk Slash was a great gaming story of 2021.

Robin Enrico

Sega Saturn was the system that hit me at time in my life where I could be a console warriors. But how could you not root for the underdog? Especially when it felt like it was where the most interesting things where happening. The last hold out for 2D sprite work, the only place for Sega arcade ports, a system I could browse the dial up internet with. You combine this with me importing the British Sega Saturn magazine to the US, writing terrible teenage game reviews for fan websites (there are still out there somehow), as well as branching out into importing Japanese games for the first time, and you have a system that I couldn’t help but want to evangelize. It felt like being part of a special club, but one you wanted everyone to join. Last year I finally sold my Saturn collection from high school, though I kept my 4 systems with ODEs. A lot of the library doesn’t exactly hold up all these decades later. Games like Magic Knight Rayearth that meant the world to me in 1998 feel dusty and quaint now. Even Panzer Dragoon Saga or Burning Rangers are more interesting for what they were trying to do than what they actually are. But having systems that I can lend out with out having to lend out priceless heirlooms means that I can share this little pocket of Sega’s ambition with others who appreciate the medium. I can only imagine what it might be like to discover these games in a modern context. I will always be happy to welcome people to the Sega Saturn club.

Steven Cookson

Sorry if this is a double post, but my original one seems to have vanished. Not the first time that's happened on here. When I was deciding which console to upgrade to after the 16-bit era I remember looking through a catalogue and being more impressed with the Saturn line-up over the PlayStation one. I preferred the colourful platform games and arcade racers Sega were offering over what appeared to be a bunch of edgy adult games. I think the machine looked better as well. I've always found the original grey PlayStation to be quite ugly in comparison. My mum picked one up for me the next Christmas. It was a second hand machine that came with about 15 games, so I'm guessing this would have been about two years after the launch. I immediately adored it. Sega Rally was an instant favourite, Virtua Cop opened the door for light gun shooters and the arena-smashing Fighting Vipers scratched that fighting itch. Later came the still-excellent Saturn Bomberman, the world changing Tomb Raider, the almost perfect range of Capcom fighters and, of course, Nights into Dreams. Nights still has place in my top 5. It's a fantastic and fun game, but its legacy for me is because I remember how it made me feel playing it over and over all those years ago. It's a shame Sega (of Japan) made a complete hash of the launch and rushed it out to a market that wasn't ready. Of course, Sony's price stunt blew everyone away, but Sega should have stuck to their guns and not let it phase them. Failing to release a proper Sonic game was hugely damaging, especially when they needed all the help they could get to stand out. Then again, looking at the games that were planned maybe we dodged a bullet there. The Saturn is easily the most underrated games console ever. I definitely had more fun with this than I ever did with the N64 or PlayStation. Every time I look at a list of the best Saturn games it baffles me how a line-up with this quality didn't have success. It was still hitting it out of the park in its dying days with Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3 and Burning Rangers all trying their best to keep the wheels turning. And the controller ranks as my favourite of all time. I even bought a replica one for my PC as the d-pad is still perfect for fighters and 2D sprite games. I still have my original machine, and while it's beaten and barely works, I don't think I'll ever get rid of it. Also a shout out to t he official Saturn Magazine, a collection of which I still have and it was ahead of its time with its focus on hardcore gaming and game speed. Because of this I used to use the phrase "crappy PAL conversion" before I even knew what it meant. Three word review: we weren't worthy.

Andrew Golightly

The Sega Saturn was to me, as a child, unobtainium. I got my first console when I was 7, in 1994 - it was a Sega Master System (almost certainly obtained for cheap in the Woolworths sales whilst the SNES and Mega Drive flew off the shelves). Blissfully unaware at how virtually obsolete it was, I spent hundreds of hours making futile attempts at completing Sonic the Hedgehog and Wonder Boy III. I bonded with a ragtag group of similarly last-gen kids, and we traded an array of terrible 8-bit games over the course of a few years. There was only one kid in the school with a Sega Saturn, and I suppose living life in the fast lane, he had no time for us (or ironically, had just been bought a very expensive ticket to isolation from the PlayStation zeitgeist). It wasn't until I met my best friend in high school in 2000, and I had a blisteringly fast next-gen Dreamcast, that I finally got my hands on the legendary Saturn, which he rooted out from under his wardrobe. Given its relatively scarcity in the UK, I felt like I was playing on a rare and lost antique from the past. A couple of hours of exposure to the saccharin J-pop of Burning Rangers and the cryptic fictional language from Panzer Dragoon Saga thoroughly piqued my curiosity, and I couldn't stop thinking that I'd missed out on these lost gems from the past. He also had a Dreamcast, and after a couple of years had passed, and we'd finally exhausted each others' games collections, he made me the irresistible offer of 'borrowing' his Saturn. I went one step further than simply borrowing it; I upgraded from the dodgy ROM watch-battery memory to a chunky memory cartridge. I bought a couple of oddball games like Fighters Megamix. I still 'borrow' the console to this day! Good job we're still friends. It sits there in its place in my console collection, but in a cruel twist, I know that eventually, like an illicitly retained Blockbuster VHS tape, he may remember how much he misses it and the day will come when I have to say goodbye to it again (hopefully without any late return fee). Until that day comes, I can at least pretend that this mint copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga is mine!