PTE62: Saturn Twenty

[Nu-Eclipse]

They also did Sega Saturn Magazine. Well, mainly Rich. I think Gary Harrod moved to Japan by then.

Rich Leadbetter of course now does Digital Foundry at Eurogamer.

Gary moved to the US, actually. He helped found Gamers Republic magazine.

And he co-founded Digital Foundry with Rich.

[sj33]

In fairness, the Official Nintendo Magazine today bears no relation to the one at EMAP. I think the current one is produced at Future?

[Yakumo]

The Official Nintendo magazine was a steaming heap of crap. It was filled with so much miss information, childish layouts and pure BS reviews. Super Play was the best SFC/SNES mag ever IMO.

[sj33]

Official magazines usually are rather poor aside from the demo discs, usually not in a position to give a major game a poor review (check out the 9/10 awarded to the Phantom Menace game by the Official PlayStation Magazine, or the glowing review it gave to Sonic 2006). That's where Sega Saturn Magazine bucked the trend, they weren't afraid to slate major first party titles (Sega Touring Car, for instance).

The Official Nintendo Magazine (the EMAP one from the 90s, not the one now at Future) emerged from the split of Mean Machines - Mean Machines Sega and Nintendo Magazine System (the official Nintendo Magazine). Both magazines were unable to maintain the high levels of quality established by the original Mean Machines, but Mean Machines Sega still remained arguably the best Sega magazine until the official Sega Magazine (later Sega Saturn Magazine) appeared in 1994.

This talk is almost depressing - I can't think of a single gaming magazine on the shelves that I would actually buy. I used to occasionally buy one to read on the train or something - now, I'd much rather grab a coffee.

[Yakumo]

For me the game mags I would buy over the years were as follows

CV&G (Still have the Power Drift hologram sticker! and some music tape)
Mean Machines (plus all Complete Guide to Consoles)
Mean Machines Sega
Sega Power (some times)
Megatech
Maximum
Super Play
Official Sega Saturn Magazine (As you said, they would slag a game if it was bad be it 1st or 3rd party).
Import mags I bought were EGM (sometimes) and Game Fan from the US and Famitsu and Saturn Super from Japan.

Anyway, back on topic.

Sega Saturn is fantastic as long as you are playing Japanese versions.

Actually, I bet many people didn't know that the PAL Saturn has worse FMV on many games such as the original Panzer Dragoon, Clockwork Knight and even Enemy Zero which looks fantastic in its Japanese form. saying that, PAL Bug Too! (**** game) has Truemotion video while the Japanese version uses the far inferior cinipac.

[Neon Ignition]

It'll be Google Images failing me, I'm assuming these are the Saturn shots for Sonic, I recall the area from a trailer back in the day:

[Asura]

Not at all. Maximum was a fantastic mag and it's a shame that it was EDGE (never liked that mag) became the people’s choice. Maximum was a real gamers mag. They weren't stuck up their own arse like EDGE, they showed stuff that really interested and best of all the layout was fantastic. I really can't understand why the mag failed in the end. Was it too expensive or something? I really don't remember.

Yes, at least, I think so. I loved it, but it was ?5 back when the only mags that carried that charge had coverdisks. Mags like CVG, Games Master and Sega Saturn Magazine at the time were significantly cheaper, like ?2.50.

[sj33]

Maximum was also quite unique, covering a very small number of key games in great depth (rather than being a general games magazine). It wouldn't have been suitable as a magazine to keep up on the latest gaming news, but for real in depth coverage of important games with professional photography, it was great.

It's actually exactly the kind of gaming magazine we need right now. In today's internet-driven world, gaming magazines are no longer suitable for catching up on the latest gaming news, or even the latest review scores. The industry moves too quickly. Instead, a greater focus on articles, interviews, indepth analysis etc. and 'archive-quality' coverage is where magazines can find their niche. Maximum was 15 years ahead of its time.

As for Sonic Xtreme, there were two or three different builds. On built on the Nights engine, which has been leaked onto the internet and didn't get very far due to Yuji Naka refusing to let Sega of America use the ending, and the fish-eye lense version as seen in the above pictures. There were both Saturn and PC builds of this version. There's plenty of PC builds on YouTube, identifiable by the Windows bar at the top!

[Team Andromeda]

For me the game mags I would buy over the years were as follows

CV&G (Still have the Power Drift hologram sticker! and some music tape)
Mean Machines (plus all Complete Guide to Consoles)
Mean Machines Sega
Sega Power (some times)
Megatech
Maximum
Super Play
Official Sega Saturn Magazine (As you said, they would slag a game if it was bad be it 1st or 3rd party).
Import mags I bought were EGM (sometimes) and Game Fan from the US and Famitsu and Saturn Super from Japan.

Sega Power was not good imo , I really used to love SEGA Pro and Advanced Gaming SEGA Mag and while I agree with you on Maximum I have to say that GameFan was almost as good as SEGA Saturn mag and the old Mean Machines imo.

On built on the Nights engine, which has been leaked onto the internet and didn't get very far due to Yuji Naka refusing to let Sega of America use the ending, and the fish-eye lense version as seen in the above pictures. There were both Saturn and PC builds of this version. There's plenty of PC builds on YouTube, identifiable by the Windows bar at the top!

There's some mistruths about and the early Sonic X screen shots run on their own engine and not the NiGHTS engine . Tbh the whole project was a mess from the get go where you have 1 game trying to run on 3 system and using 2 In-House engines , then after all that and some 1 to 2 years of coding you still need to use yet another engine and then you expect SOJ to share its own engine (when none of the SOJ IN-House teams share code between themself's, never mind with a Western team ) was a asking for trouble , the producers at SOA needed as good kicking imo .

PAL Bug Too! (**** game) has Truemotion video while the Japanese version uses the far inferior cinipac.

I disagree with you on Bug Too. I really enjoyed the game it was funny and had lovely and clever moments and touches - Just runined with piss poor check points and lack of mid level saves - Making the game too hard for most

[rockliam84]

Some awesome games on there. Never had one back in the day but really glad that I do now. Athlete Kings will be purchased this week, had my eye on it for a while. Just needed a little nudge.

[randombs]

The Saturn was home to my fondest gaming memories. The period was a bit naff in some ways because none of my friends owned one(everyone had a PS, a few had an N64) so I didn't get to talk about it much but that was also the time I got into 60Hz and import gaming and it was the first console I modded.

I was at CeX playing SFA2 and wanted to buy it. After I'd paid for it I asked the guy, "it won't look like that when I play it at home, will it?". He said no. That was my motivation. I started researching what to do as soon as I got home.

Booting up SF Alpha 2 and then pressing down on a jumper with a bit of tinfoil, creating a short circuit which shut off the console... ahhh, good times!

Checked everything and had another go. Seeing the SFA2 intro suddenly go full screen and speed up was a spiritual experience and I've never looked back.

As for the games: Sega Rally, VF2, Daytona, NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon, Guardian Heroes, Virtua Cop... So many beautiful experiences that have stayed with me. Whenever I get to play a Wii-U game it usually brings back those feelings.

Blue Skies Forever.

[Yakumo]

Sega Power was not good imo ,

agreed. I remember when all the screen shots started to look like blocky crap too.

I disagree with you on Bug Too. I really enjoyed the game it was funny and had lovely and clever moments and touches - Just runined with piss poor check points and lack of mid level saves - Making the game too hard for most

I hate all of those American 90's platformers. The way they played, the drab colours, ****ty humor but most of all the obnoxious attitude the characters had to have. I mean all the following were annoying and just happen to be from the US - BUG, Bubsy, GEX, Aero the Acrobat and so on. Stuff like that just doesn't appeal to me I'm afraid.

[sj33]

Screenshots are a curious thing. Back in those days, gaming mazagines didn't have access to the same kind of screenshot capture equipment, or officially distributed screenshots, like they do today. The mighty Mean Machines actually relied on a Polaroid camera, which is why their screenshots show all the scanlines etc. They looked quite cool in their own way - more authentic, but taking screenshots much have been a pain for all magazines back then!

I still have your Saturn, Billy.

[dataDave]

I miss that about screenshots from those days.

I remember taking some snaps of my AES running through RGB on a 14" Trinitron, and like you say; with the scanlines being picked up along with whatever process blends the resolution vertically, it really captured the AA effect. You also get much richer and authentic colour than you would from say a direct grab from an emulator.

[nakamura]

Scanlines look amazing in old screenshots.