Happy 15th Birthday Sega Saturn!

[Jei]

Reading threads like this just make me want to bring my saturn back out of retirement.

For me, the Saturn was the last console which quite simply I loved. The dreamcast tried but failed. Oh memories

[Sam The Man]

Was always a Sega boy right until the end of Dreamcasts life. I remember selling my Megadrive along with all the games to help finance a Sega Saturn and will never forget coming home from school mid 1996 and my mum telling me she had got one. I actually remember holding it in my hand just looking at it analysing the machine in all its detail.

I bought Nights with the Analogue pad a few days later but couldnt play it as my Saturn came with a scart cable and my 15inch telly only had RF!!!!!

I ended up taking it round a friend of my mums to play it on his Saturn until i had the ?12 needed to buy an RF Lead and was wowed by it.

Although later on i would buy a Playstation and spend most of my gaming time playing it i had so many great gaming moments on my Saturn including Nights, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop 2, Exhumed, Duke Nukem 3d, Shining Force 3, Last Bronx, Steep Slope Sliders, Resident Evil, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Sonic R and one of my fave games ever Tomb raider.

Happy 15th birthday Saturn and to be this good takes AGES

[nakamura]

The Saturn was a complex beast, too complex for most third parties it seemed. But in the right hands, the Saturn produced some amazing things. Take Virtua Fighter 2 for example, it was a stunning conversion running at the Saturn's highest res and at 60fps too. Fantastic.

I seem to remember the Saturn had a great high res mode and it could to some fine 3d when in the right hands.
Good console on the whole but far better if you have access to some of the quality japanese releases, there was a side scrolling Ninja game i absolutely loved but cannot remember the name.

[speedlolita]

Sengoku Blaede?

And yeah about the JP game access.

In PAL and US territories I think the PlayStation is the far superior console - because of games.

[nakamura]

No its Psychic Killer Taromaru, found on YT.
I agree certainly the PS1 better in the west. I prefer the PS1 overall but the japanese stuff adds a huge dimension to the Saturn.

[CMcK]

The bundled scart cable was another example of Sega being too far ahead of it's time. Much like the network features of the DC.

[sj33]

I remember getting a new 14" TV with a SCART socket for my birthday, with the intent of getting a Saturn for that Christmas. When I got the Saturn, it was one of the later model 2 machines which had an RF cable I did get one eventually though, from a friend with a TV without a SCART socket - good trade!

I was tempted by the Playstation at the time, too. I loved playing Pandemonium! and Resident Evil on my uncle's Playstation. I knew Resident Evil was out for the Saturn, but I'd forgotten that Pandimonium! was also out for the Saturn. Almost made a terrible mistake...

(EDIT - Not a dig at the Playstation, I bought one of those eventually too, more commenting on what I could have missed out on had I not got the Saturn!)

[Shozuki]

kool read fellas and how random I found this thread now... let me explain...

I loved my Megadrive in the old days it was my first machine and the vibrant colour of Sonic absolutely blew my young mind. Ashamed to say now that I was a PSOne adopter since pretty much day one and loved it. I did pick up a saturn in late in 1997, but despite having a modded one I never gave it a chance and it died its death.

Fast forward to 1998 in dreamcasts anticipation I picked up the saturn again and adored nights, sega rally, VF2 and Panzer Dragoon, but that was all I managed to get in before I got my first import console... the Dreamcast...

Last week or so I've really fancied stacking up some Saturn goodness to play over chrimbo. I loved Deep Fear when I played it for the first time in '01 so thats on the play list along with Panzer Saga.

I noticed you've all mention jpn imports can you guys give me some input into your fave saturn games so I can burn a hole into my wallet and catch up on some of the finest gaming moments in history...

PS: Sorry I left the great machine so late...

[saturn-gamer]

As a MD owner, I dreamt of the Saturn. Playstation? No chance in hell! Its what Sega also thought, as they didn't really try to prevent Sony from gaining momentum. I thought the Saturn would wipe the floor with Sony. But then I saw Tekken in action... and I had to admit.. VF didn't come close to that. I was kind of shocked. I was also sad that Sony would get MK3, I dunno, I was young and somehow liked that atrocious franchise. It was a huge selling point in Europe at that time, I think it beat Tekken. The PSX version of MK3 was actually completely ass.

Anyway, I still cared more for VF and Daytona. But what immediately sucked though, was how unfamilliar the system was. Where is Sonic? Is what I asked myself in 1995.

I had a blast with the machine regardless, the PSX simply couldn't offer the sheer fun of Virtua Cop, Dynamite Cop and other games. If I have to compare the Saturn and PSX, I have to do it by judging 1995 - 1997 (and a slight bit of 1998 maybe). In those years I felt that the Saturn was the better machine. Until GT, the best racer overall was Sega Rally. Regarding RPG's, until FFVII the best RPGs were on the Saturn. PSX might've won with 3d fighters over that time, I absolutely adored Soul Blade and Tekken 2. But the Saturn had the better 2d fighters, and VF2 + FMM were still bloody awesome.

I would ultimately dedicate everything to the Saturn, because with the internet and paypal I could finally get access to all those awesome import games. There was even a time when the Saturn was the only console I had (2002-03 or so). I had a blast playing it. Its because the focus was on 2d, and those game age really well. I was still impressed by the likes of Princess Crown, SFZ3, Vampire Hunter/Savior, X-men/Marvel Vs SF, Cyberbots, Dungeons and dragons, Dracula X, RSG, Dodonpachi, Guardian Heroes, (X-Mas) Nights, Nekketsu Oyako, Super Tempo, Magic Knight Rayearth, Astal, Batsugun and more.

Thats also a good shortlist methinks.

[donpepperoni]

The bundled scart cable was another example of Sega being too far ahead of it's time. Much like the network features of the DC.

Too true.

I actually plumped for the PlayStation first when it was released, pretty much solely for Ridge Racer. A few months later though I made the mistake of walking into my local Comet store and trying out a fun looking new rally game on the Saturn... after about 3 minutes I was completely blown away and promptly sold the PS to purchase a Saturn with Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA and of course Sega Rally Good times.

[gadgetboy]

It was 1 May 1996 when I traded my Mega Drive and a dozen or so games, and needed another £120 on top to make the £300 for the Saturn and just Sega Rally. What a game though. I was never *that* good but I remember spending hours shaving hundredths of seconds of my lap times on the Desert course in particular.

My next main memory was getting NiGHTS. I spent hours on the demo that came with the official Sega Saturn mag (nice to see fond memories of that mag in this thread, it has to be the most beautiful looking games mag ever). My favourite Sonic Team game, just snatches of the music give me a huge grin. It's probably about time for some Christmas NiGHTS, thinking about it.

Beyond that, Panzer Dragoon Zwei was stunning, and then Saga was the first RPG that ever got me engrossed. I remember them giving away the first disc of that on SSM too.

I still have my PAL Saturn collection, and added a white Japanese model in 2001, I think. I was never very good at shooters, but I could handle myself on Metal Slug, which I first played on an arcade machine at work so getting a home copy was nice indeed.

Honorable mentions to Saturn Bomberman, Steep Slope Sliders and the conversions of Virtua Cop 1 and 2 and (while I sucked at it) VF2.