The Sega Saturn is a very nice piece of kit, Mate!

[Anthony1]

You know, it's funny cause back in the day, I thought the Saturn was a big dud. Yeah, I know, "What a dumbass!". I bought the Saturn the day it came out, and at first I was in love. Panzer Dragoon and Clockwork Knight were big time addictions for me. As glitchy as Viruta Fighter and Daytona were, I liked them.

Then I got a chance to play Astal, and I was really in love. But then the Playstation came out. And things changed for me. I was still playing the Saturn, but not as much as I was playing the Playstation, or even the Jaguar and 3DO! Yeah, I know, I was dumb.

Then when the Nintendo 64 was about to come out, it appeared that the Saturn was a dying patient. So I sold my Saturn and all my Saturn stuff. I got a N64, and played the N64 and the Playstation, and that was about it. As for the Saturn......I never looked back. But in 2003, I got one again. 7 years later, I picked up a Saturn.


Now I'm freaking addicted to this puppy! It appears that the Saturn was the last "REAL" 2D system to come down the pipes. I will admit that all the crappy PS1 ports are a drag. And the vast majority of 3D games on the Saturn aren't too good, but damn, the Saturn has some 2D love!

Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that I love the damn Saturn now! I love you baby!!!!!!!

[Garry Silljo]

I love it too man. A lot of people made fun of me for buying it and said the playstation was the only way to go, and granted the playstation has WAY more games, but the crap to good game ratio is WAY lower on the Saturn. It has some duds too, but overall, there are way more QUALITY games on the Saturn. That's my 2 cents anyway.

[AB Positive]

I'm highly enjoying the selection of games available on my JP Saturn, much more than the selection of US games... if you can, get a Pro Action Replay 4-in-1 cart to allow you to play JP games, opens up a whole new world of fun!

-AG

[SegaTecToy]

The Saturn is a great system for collectors today. Wonderful games to play and most of them aren't very expensive. The machine isn't very 3d friendly but even with glitches most games are still good.

It is a great system for homebrew developers too.

[dreamcaster]

I personally loved the Saturn from the moment I first saw it. And I would've got one back in the day if it weren't for the high price tag. :o

And everyone dumps on it's 3D graphics, and yet - when you compare them to PlayStation game from the same era, there's little difference. Makes you wonder how far the Saturn's 3D graphics could've gone if it was around for as long as the PlayStation.

Besides, no where else can I play the original Daytona, Sega Rally or Virtual On - some of my favourite games of all time.

Plus I've just entered the world of Saturn import gaming which is something that I am eager to invest in.

When it comes to Sega consoles, whilst I rank the Dreamcast first, the Saturn comes a close second.

[Arcturius]

Seeing as I'm nearing the end of the needs list for my Dreamcast collection I'm now moving on to Saturn stuff too as I never had one when they first came out I'm making the most of it now just gotten myself a few more games today too.

[Atari7800]

I would have loved to have seen what the Saturn could have done 3-D wise had it had a longer lifespan... the thing was just such a complicated, segmented, and just totally monsterous bastard when it came to hardware design. Have you seen a Saturn chipset compared to a PSone chipset? How much silicon is in this puppy?!? Sega really dropped the ball with the design of the Saturn... the PSone is much more streamlined and EASY TO PROGRAM. However, just because a machine is complex and possibly poorly designed does NOT make it a weak or inferior gaming platform.

I'll bet the Saturn has A LOT more 3-D power than we ever saw... it's just very few people could program the Saturn in such a way that took advantage of all it had to offer. Some Saturn games show some very advanced 3-D power... Dead or Alive, Panzer Saga, Quake, Bulk Slash (except for the pop-up), Last Bronx (why do people hate this game so much?), Nights, Burning Rangers, Grandia, Shining Force III, Powerslave, and especially SONIC R and SONIC JAM (the small 3-D world that you can navigate in Sonic Jam is right up there with the best of the PSone 3-D platformers in terms of graphics... it's a shame it's so tiny in scope.) The Saturn CAN do great 3-D in the hands of a really (REALLY) talented team of programmers.

Anyone see the Shenmue demo for the Saturn? Seems Shenmue was originally slated to be a Saturn game. It looks amazing except for the typical Saturn texturing. I understand they used the Saturn's SOUND CHIP to help out with the graphics... the chip was very powerful for the time and is still pretty darn good even though it dozed through most of the Saturn's life.

I read an article on on the developer Shiny (Earthworm Jim) and their game Wild 9 for the PSone. It seems that Wild 9 originally began as a Saturn title. Shiny thought that the Saturn was the FASTER 3-D machine, even though the graphics were not as pretty as those of the PSone. The Saturn game ran faster and could throw around more polygons and effects than the PSone game.

Check out the two Sonic games (not 3-D Blast) to see what the Saturn can do with 3-D, or look for that Shenmue demo. It's on the web somewhere.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm gonna guess that Panzer Dragoon Saga was about as far as the Saturn could go...still, texture mapped polygons and a frame rate higher or the same as Zelda 64's...nice :)

Folks who don't like Saturn 3D...eh, you've got to be a fan of what one of the Panzer Dragoon devs called hardware meshing well with the art style. On the PlayStation, Metal Gear did it well, I thought Tenchu did pretty well in that regard, too, in creating a surrealistic atmosphere where inaccurate texture mapping didn't seem out of place.

[Anthony1]

I didn't mean to convey that I thought the 3-D of the Saturn totally sucked. That wasn't the case. But one of the major problems with the Saturn's U.S. offerings, is the fact that 3D games that were originally developed with the PSX in mind, and then later ported over to the Saturn were usually total pieces of crap.

The developers that ported the 3D Playstation games over to the Saturn, were just trying to port the games over quickly, to get some extra sales from Saturn owners that were envious of Playstation owners. Even though they got shitted on in terms of quality.

3D games that started out on the Playstation and then made their way to Saturn were 9 times out of 10 total garbage!


But that doesn't mean that the Saturn sucked at 3D. I still don't think it was anywhere near as good as the PS in terms of pushing polygons, but it didn't suck. Sega Rally is a damn fine game in my opinion. I love that game.

[blissfulnoise]

Powerslave is the perfect example of the Saturn's 3D prowess. It's lightyears ahead of the PS version.

But the Saturn's true strength is in 2D games, specifically, the shooter genre based on the available RAM in the Saturn. The Sat is the Shmup fan's plat of choice. It's also VERY import friendly.

Might I recommend:

Soukyugurentai Otokuyo
DoDonPachi
Kingdom Grand Prix
Battle Garegga
The Game Paradise
Salamander Collection
Parodius: Forever With Me
Parodius DA!
Thunderforce Gold Pack (1 or 2, both are good)

Souky is my personal favorite shooter of all time being out RS, Download 2, and DoDonPachi by a narrow margin. If you're even remotely interested in Shmups give it a spin. You can get it for about 30 - 40 off of the Bay. Very much worth it.

[Atari7800]

I didn't mean to convey that I thought the 3-D of the Saturn totally sucked. That wasn't the case. But one of the major problems with the Saturn's U.S. offerings, is the fact that 3D games that were originally developed with the PSX in mind, and then later ported over to the Saturn were usually total pieces of crap.

The developers that ported the 3D Playstation games over to the Saturn, were just trying to port the games over quickly, to get some extra sales from Saturn owners that were envious of Playstation owners. Even though they got shitted on in terms of quality.

3D games that started out on the Playstation and then made their way to Saturn were 9 times out of 10 total garbage!


But that doesn't mean that the Saturn sucked at 3D. I still don't think it was anywhere near as good as the PS in terms of pushing polygons, but it didn't suck. Sega Rally is a damn fine game in my opinion. I love that game.

Oh I totally agree that a lot of the available 3-D games for the Saturn are crap, especially the PSX to Saturn ports. In my earlier post, I gave props to some great Saturn 3-D games (can't believe I forgot Sega Rally and Manx TT.) Now here is a list of crappy 3-D Saturn games...

Alien Trilogy (I've heard only one of the two CPU's is used for this one)
both Battle Arena Toshindin games (why did they bother?)
Congo (Awful! Just awful!)
Cyber Speedway (watch the track get built as you race)
House of the Dead (needed more development time!!!)
Independence Day (looks awful on the PS1, too)
Mysteria (looks awful blocky)
Robotica (this early FPS is pretty bad and boring)
Star Fighter (The 3DO original looked much better!)
Incredible Hulk (The Saturn emulates a 32x)
Need For Speed (Again, another 3DO hand-me-down)
Daytona USA (good game, bad graphics)
Tunnel B-1 (looked great on PS1, looks like shite here)
Virtual Hydlide (the fattest hero in RPG history)
Anarchy in the Nippon (designed by VF experts? Maybe the moves but not the looks)
Death Crimson (worst looking 3-d game on the Saturn?)
Death Throttle (called Quarantine on the 3DO, looks just like it. Awful!)
Final Fight Revenge (the LAST Saturn game, and with VF1-looking fighters?)
FIST (FART is more like it)
Gale Racer (terrible-looking racer)
GT 24 (ditto)
Nissan Over Drivin' (Need For Speed engine with Nissans)
Planet Joker (worst shooter on the Saturn)
Terra Cresta 3-D (not far behind)
Time Commando (worst character moels EVER)


Pandemonium! and Croc were ported surprisingly well from the PSX, though. I do believe that Croc was started first, though... maybe that makes it a Saturn to PSX port.

The Saturn was the king of 2-D. The Dreamcast could do it better IMO, but it didn't have the support.