Topic: The Saturn Thread

A thread dedicated to an oft ignored mid-90s 2D powerhouse, Sega's very own Saturn!

What are you playing right now? What translations are you eagerly waiting for? Where did you last see someone say Saturn couldn't do transparencies?

I'll take this moment to start off by noting that the Saturn community has released updates to both Symphony of the Night and Doom for Saturn.

SotN

Doom
https://segaxtreme.net/resources/doom-fix-patch.287/updates

first console thread and it's the Saturn....
freaking perfect dude 🤘

@baddamn And the first post features a mod that's very on brand with the Saturn owner's experience: wishing you had a PSX instead.

@baddamn I had to bang this out before I could get to the real meat of this forum: a PiPP!N thread.

Huge Saturn fan here, I've got my CiB copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga, I speedran Tryrush Deppy at a Summer Games Done Quick years ago and I try to play whatever shows up for fan translations. I need to get around to Sakura Wars 2, Princess Crown and Arcana Strikes at some point. The scene's really been popping off the last couple of years.

I have never played a game on a Sega Saturn, despite being very much of that era and playing on just about everything since. Currently dipping my toes into putting that right and I’m very excited about it. Started assembling my first games.. just need a console now!

I tried this SOTN 1.1 PS1 script patch on my MiSTer FPGA and it had an absolute ton of slowdown. More slowdown than the unpatched game has.

I was a PC gamer when the Saturn came out, so I totally missed it. I did play a lot of Mega Drive, so I've always liked Sega. A couple of years ago I finally got a Saturn and fitted it with Saroo. Now I can finally get into the console easily.

What games do you recommend for a Saturn newbie? Top 5 or top 10? I play all kinds of games, I love RPG's and shooters, but don't shy away from platformers or even racing games. I already started some Policenauts, as I played Snatcher last year and it felt like a fitting place to continue.

I owned a Saturn back in the day and still remember the frustration of seeing so many great games ignored by the general public and the press. SSM was my bible back then and how I was introduced me to Richard Leadbetter. Legendary magazine.

The most frustrating aspect of owning a Saturn was seeing all those amazing games remain in Japan. Seeing articles about games like Grandia, Dead or Alive and all those Capcom 2D fighting games and then getting the news that they wouldn't get a western release was absolutely soul crushing.

My most played games were Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Saga, Sega Rally, Nights, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Fighters Megamix.

I recently played the Shining Force 3 trilogy thanks to the translation patch and that was easily one of my favorite Saturn experiences of all time.

My only real exposure to the Saturn back in the day was reading (usually import) reviews in UK multiformat magazines. Seeing the screenshots of games like Marvel Super Heroes with the massive Juggernaut and Blackheart sprites and detailed backgrounds was very memorable, I'd spend ages looking at those - but it just felt like this distant thing that I wouldn't realistically be able to afford back then given I'd already bought an N64.

It was only about 3 years ago I started playing Saturn games properly, starting with Saturn Bomberman which was a great introduction to the platform with its colourful and detailed sprites. I also played quite a few of those Capcom titles since.

Next I'd like to get into titles like Astal, Dark Saviour and Legend of Oasis since they look like atmospheric 2D titles with great artwork that have a good bit of depth to their gameplay too.