Should I get a Saturn?

[mrandyk]

I wouldnt be able to spend very much money on games, none of the rare expensive games like burning rangers or panzer dragoon. All I would be able to get are the cheap games I find on ebay.

Would it be a justifiable purchase? The saturn is the only sega system I have completely missed having never played it or even hear of it until after the dreamcast went out.

[Veggita2099]

I keep my Saturn for one game and one game only. Nights into Dreams. Well technically I guess two if you count Christmas Nights into Dreams. IMO there are no other exclusive must have titles for Saturn that are affordable.

Nights into Dreams is a fairly cheap game though.

[melancholy]

In a slightly off-topic question, is there an emulator for Saturn yet that is good enough to play most games? I've been wanting to play Earthworm Jim 2 and NiGHTS again, but I don't want to unbox the Saturn and wire it up just to kill an afternoon.

[DaMadFiddler]

In a slightly off-topic question, is there an emulator for Saturn yet that is good enough to play most games? I've been wanting to play Earthworm Jim 2 and NiGHTS again, but I don't want to unbox the Saturn and wire it up just to kill an afternoon.

SSF and Satourne are the best, though they're both system hogs because they don't have any hardware acceleration.

Alternatively: the Earthworm Jim games were ported to GBA, and there is a NiGHTS in development for Wii.

[melancholy]

Alternatively: the Earthworm Jim games were ported to GBA

This is a response from someone that obviously hasn't played the GBA port of either EWJ games.

And at any rate, I wouldn't play it just for those games, although I suppose if I start making a list, I will create a reason for me to break out the Saturn again anyway.

[|darc|]

If you're not willing to take it out every once in a while, why do you own it?

[melancholy]

If you're not willing to take it out every once in a while, why do you own it?

I just really, really wanted to play the Saturn version of Earthworm Jim 2, but I would have it beat in two hours. Not that it matters, though, cause after reading this topic, I went and broke it out anyway. Only problem is I can't find my analog controller. I think it might be at my dad's house, which depresses me because I really want to play some NiGHTS. I instead decided to play Tomb Raider to remind myself of the game before I go and get the anniversary edition today.

[RMD]

The saturn is one step below arcade collecting in my book. You're gonna spend just as much anyways. Its a rich boy's toy with not much worth having that cost under $50. If you're willing to play a lot of your games in Japanese you can pick up some of the rare stuff much cheaper. Like Magic Knight Rayearth goes for about $8 for the import collectors edition yet the us version is like $60. Once you've beatin the game once you don't really care about hearing the story again.

[Dew]

Can a Saturn play CD-Rs like a Dreamcast? I'm assuming not since a lot of older devices can't even read writable media.

[|darc|]

Can a Saturn play CD-Rs like a Dreamcast? I'm assuming not since a lot of older devices can't even read writable media.

Yes, Saturns can play CD-Rs, but cannot boot from CD-Rs without a modchip or swap-trick.

[zero]

The saturn is one step below arcade collecting in my book. You're gonna spend just as much anyways. Its a rich boy's toy with not much worth having that cost under $50. If you're willing to play a lot of your games in Japanese you can pick up some of the rare stuff much cheaper. Like Magic Knight Rayearth goes for about $8 for the import collectors edition yet the us version is like $60. Once you've beatin the game once you don't really care about hearing the story again.

how is the Saturn a "Rich Boy's Toy" becos it has some rare games on it??.

[mrandyk]

I'd assume it would be called a rich boys toy because its best games cost big sums of money and the saturn itself costs at least twice the superior dreamcast from my research.

[Veggita2099]

I don't see why Sega doesn't re-release some of the more popular games on the Saturn. I bet they could easily get $50 if they released Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2 on a collectors CD for the Wii/360/Ps3. With any luck maybe Nights into Dreams will be included with Nights into Dreams 2.


I only played the demo, but Bug looked like it might be a decent game, not sure if its considered rare or not though.

[zero]

I'd assume it would be called a rich boys toy because its best games cost big sums of money and the saturn itself costs at least twice the superior dreamcast from my research.

I never knew that O_o .

[abydos1000]

I wouldnt be able to spend very much money on games, none of the rare expensive games like burning rangers or panzer dragoon. All I would be able to get are the cheap games I find on ebay.

Would it be a justifiable purchase? The saturn is the only sega system I have completely missed having never played it or even hear of it until after the dreamcast went out.

I used to have one with many of games (Dragon Force, Ray Earth, etc) that now cost an arm and a leg. I almost did get another saturn a couple of years ago, but I decided against it. My main reason is that in the long run, most old games do not stand the test of time. There are exceptions (Nights, Zelda, Super Mario World, etc), but those are not the rule.

And so it goes. You get the Saturn with Nights. Ooops, now you need the 3D controller. You get another game that requires a memory cart. Then you decide you really have to track down the composite cables. People tell you that "X" game was really great back in the day, so off you go onto ebay. You get it only to find out that by today's standards, it's "bla". If you are really into the current or even previous generation, you might end up with a pile of stuff you never touch. So what was the point? You have spent a lot of money on old stuff that could have gone into new games.

But if there is stuff that you really want, by all means, go for it. Do not pay more than about $30-$40 for a used saturn, and make sure it comes with what you need (composite cables, 3D controller) so you don't have to track them down later. Before you go do this, I'd suggest reading some reviews on games that don't need you to take out a second mortgage to see if they are worth your time.

[Smiley]

I still have a saturn, and besides the occassional domestic title, I mostly still use it to play imports. Both of the bug games were decent, btw.

[mrandyk]

Perhaps I will wait until the holiday season when people try dumping their old video games for lower prices so that they can scrape enough together to get something bigger (wii 360 ps3...), because right now I do not really have the money to buy a saturn with games. I could buy a saturn, but id only have like one or two games with the little money I have and since there are no stores here that sell saturn games all my shopping would be online and id just try for a huge lot of games with a saturn.

The store I like to go to used to carry saturn games and even saturns for $15, but they have ran out of them and are starting to completely drop dreamcast stuff. Living in the midwest stinks for these kinds of things

[StriderXg2]

Oi I am intrigued by the Sega Saturn. It is one of my favorite consoles that i skipped out on growing up, opting to be Nintendos bitch for a long time, until a few years ago. Id gotten a mod chip, it didnt work because i have a Sanyo Saturn. I want to mod one, but i dont have a good model 2 32 pin saturn, if anyone wants to sell theirs, im open.

Ive found ways to play the Saturn on the PC with the Saturn controller, with a 3 in box, and its pretty nice, but nothing beats the physical hardware and its big ass.

[Vlad Tepes]

If you enjoy shmups and SNK/Capcom fighting games, Saturn is a great system to own. Of course, a lot of the great fighting games that came out on Saturn have been re-released as part of collections on current systems (SF and SNK collections and/or anthologies). Of course there's always NiGHTS and Panzer Dragoon (PD and PD2 are pretty inexpensive). Filtering through the garbage on Saturn is pretty challenging...as some of its best titles are fairly obscure by today's standards.

I wish Sega would release a Panzer Dragoon game for Wii. I'd be happy with a re-release of an older game...or...a collection disk with PD, PD2, and Orta...that would rock so hard
Radiant Silvergun needs a re-release pretty bad...awesome game...but not $100+ awesome...

[Smiley]

I bought and then later re-sold a copy of radiant silvergun from ebay several years back. Treasure games and silvergun both tend to get a little more pubilicity than they deserve.