Japanese Saturn collecting is fairly sane as long as you're not collecting shooters, you missed the boat on that one if that's your goal.
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Sega Saturn |OT| Appreciation and Emulation Thread
- Thread starter Deleted member 3010
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Yeah I've been noticing prices rising on a lot of stuff, dreamcast games are also going crazy right now. A damn shame for the people that just want to actually play the games, although I suppose buying a expensive game and playing it untill I'm done with it, and selling it again I ought to get back what I paid for it generally heh.
Also Battle Garegga is out on PSN?! I haven't seen it on the European store yet, I'd be all over that!
There's still some relatively affordable shmups like the aforementioned Layer Section and Darius Gaiden (two of the better shooters on the system actually) or Gradius Deluxe. The Parodius games aren't that expensive either, like €50,- right now I think and the Twinbee Deluxe pack is also pretty cheap (€20 ish). Soukyugurentai is also somewhat affordable ($50-60 I think).
So not cheap by any means, but there's still some affordable games there.
Yeah I'm probably going to pick up Layer Section and Twinbee Deluxe along with a JAP Saturn. Might aswell throw NiGHTS into Dreams in the mix too, since it's supposedly still the best version of the game (I played the HD remaster), I've always felt like it was underappreciated for what it was by a lot of people: a hardcore 2.5D race/score attack game that captures everything SEGA means to me in a single game: fastpaced arcade style gaming with a focus on high scores :)
Might as well grab Christmas nights if you can get it cheap. The 3D engine used here is much better than the original game.
If you want a list of "not terribly expensive JP stuff", here's some personal favorites
- Nights
- Virtual On
- NBA Jam TE
- Fighters Megamix
- Darius Gaiden
- Layer Section
- Panzer Dragoon
- Panzer Dragoon II
- Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
- Street Fighter Zero 2
- Thunder Force V
- Soukyugurentai
- Sega Rally Championship
- X-Men vs Street Fighter
around 2013-2014, saturn stuff just started really blowing up...like, even then it wasnt as cheap as it'd been in the early to mid aughts, but i got in around then and literally watched things like Burning Rangers, Mega Man 8 etc go from $50 or so to hundreds.
it was often said that many US games got low print runs (< 10k) so the scene was ripe for this to happen, sadly. also see: US turbografx, when people likewise discovered how great that small library as too
it was often said that many US games got low print runs (< 10k) so the scene was ripe for this to happen, sadly. also see: US turbografx, when people likewise discovered how great that small library as too
I paid $20 on eBay for "The Misadventures of Flink" on Sega CD back in '08, just sold it for $90. Insane. Decided I'd rather use that money to get games I actually enjoyed.
you absolutely made the right call. it's the perfect time to unload any games you don't love from such libraries, and grab up ones that you do when feasible.
So as it turns out it was easier to find Castlevania/Akumajou on the Saturn in decent quality on ebay, than it was from within Japan, even from multiple vendors ...
... I wonder if there's a trend of titles in a higher quality condition being sold on ebay to international buyers, foregoing the Japanese market.
That being said, some things do seem cheaper in Japan, and I have been able to buy a number of titles brand new from within Japan at very reasonable prices (40 USD, etc).
Edit: I also picked up Langrisser III ... again. And found myself conflicted and questioning why I bought a game with the female character designs it has ... again.
... I wonder if there's a trend of titles in a higher quality condition being sold on ebay to international buyers, foregoing the Japanese market.
That being said, some things do seem cheaper in Japan, and I have been able to buy a number of titles brand new from within Japan at very reasonable prices (40 USD, etc).
Edit: I also picked up Langrisser III ... again. And found myself conflicted and questioning why I bought a game with the female character designs it has ... again.
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What does your case insert look like? I just got a copy and the insert has no perforations for where the sides fold on the spine (only game I have that looks that way). I assumed it was a repro, but then saw that the case insert scan at sega retro doesn't seem to have the perforations either. Was wondering what anyone else's looks like. Seemed like an odd game to repro an insert for, given how little it goes for, but it isn't very common. Thanks in advance for your time.
Might be tough to see in the pictures, but you're right; there doesn't appear to be a perforation along the fold. That's weird! I had no idea it was like this.
Thanks for checking, I really appreciate it! I'll chalk it up as another Acclaim oddity, like the non standard disk tray in some games like Mortal Kombat 2.
Edit:
Found another Acclaim game that doesn't seem to have the perforated insert. The Crow City of Angels.
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Alright so... dunno if this is the right place to ask about this stuff but: I got my first Saturn recently (Japanese Model 2) and installed the Pseudo Kai Lite hack to an Action Replay 4-in-1 cart -- no problems there. I can't seem to get burned games to work though? Some don't even seem to boot up (Legend of Oasis, PDS with the Pseudo Kai patch) and while I could get into the main menu on Symphony of the Night and Powerslave, actually trying to start a new game has me stuck on the loading screen. It seems like the Disc just refuses to spin whenever there's any kind of loading involved. My retail games (PDZ, Shining the Holy Ark, Tomb Raiders) all play fine, so I suspect I did something wrong in the burning process. I have a stack of 900mb CD-Rs that I bought for use with my Dreamcast and I just burned my Saturn files onto those -- maybe that's the issue, that the Saturn can't handle discs of that capacity? Can anyone here give me some tips and pointers as to what the issue could be?
Sounds like either the CD-Rs are bad (possibly because of the size, possibly just general quality), or the disc drive's not doing great. I'd try to get more standard sized discs first; personally, I've had great luck with Verbatim's Data Life Plus.
I'll try that! Thank you. I was sorta worried about the drive as well, but my other games play fine and the console seems to be in great condition so I hope it's still alright.
anyone getting these?
https://kotaku.com/the-limited-edition-sega-saturn-themed-music-player-1829903067
https://kotaku.com/the-limited-edition-sega-saturn-themed-music-player-1829903067
No but that's pretty sweet (also steep). If it was cheaper I would think about replacing my old iPod, but then I'd be deathly afraid of actually using it in fear of scratches.
i really do mean to finish the game - it's got shining in the title, regardless of how loose its connections feel - but i picked it up for $40 years back, don't know that i'd spend much more on it (but god knows i love WD shit)
It's really too bad playing Grandia on the framemeister mini cuts off the fmv that play in the game. If only they hadn't phased out vga input on JP TVs a few years ago...
It looks like i might have to go with the Playstation version from now on (vita).
Edit: Man, this one of the first Saturn games I really played and loved, and although the PS1 version seems to be "fine" (the battle backdrops are slightly more blurry, and whatever scaling algorithm (?) that was used for the view above Parm was better on the original), but more than anything I wish I had a more feasible way to play the Saturn version for the nostalgia.
I wonder how ill advised it is to pick up an hst-001...
It looks like i might have to go with the Playstation version from now on (vita).
Edit: Man, this one of the first Saturn games I really played and loved, and although the PS1 version seems to be "fine" (the battle backdrops are slightly more blurry, and whatever scaling algorithm (?) that was used for the view above Parm was better on the original), but more than anything I wish I had a more feasible way to play the Saturn version for the nostalgia.
I wonder how ill advised it is to pick up an hst-001...
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damn! i love that bomberman (it's got tons of content, even without the extra levels) and i bet that space invaders port is dope too. don't know that i've played the last one!
I wasn't expecting the PCE version of Ys I to be considerably easier than the standard difficulty mode on the Saturn (there are two general modes, and two difficulties).
hope everyone is having a good holiday season.
got some saturn games in the mail!
Nice!
I tried playing Nights for the first time yesterday. It was Christmas Nights. I had no idea what I was doing and the game gives no direction so I found it very frustrating.
NiGHTS is an arcade game. Your goal is to get as many orbs as possible early on so you can break the container. Once you do that, you go into bonus time. After that, you need to go through the courses quickly while building up as large of a chain as possible. The more things you link together the higher your score. Try to enter the gate with as little time left as possible to maximize your score. Then beat the boss and hope for a good multiplier. You'll get A rank in no time if you follow this strategy.
I have to try it!
playing Metal Black for the first time tonight. it looks interesting.
Thanks for the reply. I did notice that I had to fill up the sphere under the Christmas tree and when I did it went into bonus time, although I didn't know what that meant. Sometimes I'd go past the gate and nothing would happen. One time it sent me to a boss, which I got down to a sliver of health and then it wouldn't die despite me hitting it a bunch more times. I don't know what I was doing wrong there.
I feel bad for being so negative in this thread, so I'll say that the games I love the most so far on the Saturn (I've had mine for about four months) are Fighting Vipers, Vampire Savior (aka Darkstalkers 3) and Virtua Cop 2. I've really been on a Fighting Vipers kick for the last few days since I got a Japanese copy for Christmas (I've had a U.S. one for a few months). Pepsiman is great, I like the portrait mode and the whole game just has a visceral feel that's so much fun.
To kill the boss in Christmas Nights, you either grab onto it's head and then boost or if you want to be risky make a loop near it's head. Each time it will get smaller until it runs out of tail.
So New Year's Eve, my all-in-one Pseudo Saturn cartridge's backup save function corrupted. The Saturn kept acting like I had to reformat it, so I eventually did after Googling and finding no alternatives. Really gutted that I lost some of those saves, and now I don't feel like I can trust the thing. It may as well not have a save function. =\
Now I mostly just have saves from my fighting games that require the 4 MB RAM expansion, since those obviously have to save to internal memory. It's wild that the internal memory feels more reliable than the cartridge now.
(How intuitive, LoL.) Thanks for helping. Is there a grab button, or does he just automatically grab onto the head if I get close enough to it?
Now I mostly just have saves from my fighting games that require the 4 MB RAM expansion, since those obviously have to save to internal memory. It's wild that the internal memory feels more reliable than the cartridge now.
(How intuitive, LoL.) Thanks for helping. Is there a grab button, or does he just automatically grab onto the head if I get close enough to it?