Buying a Sega Saturn in 2023

[Music] thank you it's been almost 30 years since I imported my first Saturn and I've played or owned nearly every piece of software and hardware for the platform as you can probably imagine that means I get a lot of questions thrown my way questions about what games to buy which version of the hardware is best and of course where's the best place to get the best deals there isn't a day that goes by that I don't have a message in my email or DMS asking about sega's 32-bit Powerhouse it usually comes from folks with very little to no experience with it just looking for some direction and a place to start that got me to thinking why not combine some of the most popular questions into one episode and get it out there for everyone to see I've chosen 10 subjects that I typically see when someone inquires about owning a Saturn today if you have ever considered collecting or owning a small library for the device I think this episode could be of great help to you if you already own a sad would like to add your own views and experiences feel free to do so down in the comments this should be a fun one so let's get right into it buying a Sega Saturn in 2023 [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] our first area to consider before buying a Saturn is the all-important exclusivity that remains with the platform as the years have gone by many of the games that were once Saturn only have dwindled so you need to look at what remains and decide if those titles interest you this is going to be a different answer for each and every one of you to give you a few quick examples let's go over some of the stuff you cannot play anywhere else but a Saturn console even now if you are a strategy and RPG fan the Saturn has some home runs that make it extremely attractive Shining Force 3 was a series of turn-based strategy games that had a sprawling story across three different episodes it has a great soundtrack and a good hundred hours plus of blissful gameplay Panzer Dragoon Saga is another one that can't be played anywhere else and remains a favorite among Saturn fans this one is turn based as well but it has an active battle system where your placement will either give you an advantage to attack or a disadvantage to a vicious hit it looks pretty nice as well if you want something that allows you to beat something up Fighters Megamix is one of the bright shining gems of the genre this was a mixture of the gameplay seen in Virtual Fighter and fighting vipers it has a wide cast of characters that go beyond what you'd expect and it even incorporates some of the gameplay seen in Virtual Fighter 3. if you want a great adventure game look no further than Legend of Oasis this one hits a number of similar notes as the Zelda series it's a top-down Quest where you search destroy and collect the things you need to progress the story it has great animation and if you love exploration and Discovery this is the one to get maybe you want to jump in a flying transforming Mech and launch missiles at bad guys that's gonna be bulk slash a third person action game where you run jump and fly across cities enemy bases and even outer space as you cut down other ships robots and enemy Machinery this one makes unique use the Saturn's architecture and plays absolutely fantastic there are of course many other Saturn games to look at and I recommend you research them all and decide if there's something you are going to want to play collect or both nothing matters more to a console than its library of software it's not just about what's good but also what makes the console unique among its peers and if there's one thing you can say about the Saturn it was certainly unique [Music] if you have been reading about or watching videos of Saturn games you certainly know the disparity between Japanese and international software releases in Japan the Saturn had over a thousand games released for it by far its most successful region in terms of sales and popularity for that reason owning and collecting Force Saturn today requires you to extend your interest to import software should you want to get the most from the machine this comes with having to deal with things like language barriers name and content changes and of course the added work of searching places outside your local mom and pop shops many of you may have never imported a video game before or fear that they are just too hard to play given the language this certainly can be true for genres like RPGs where there is a ton of text or spoken dialogue but you'd be surprised just how many of the Saturn's Japanese library is fully accessible to us westerners many games have options screen in English others will have English voice acting intact and some even come with the option to actually play the English version entirely no doubt there are many concessions to consider you'll run into roadblocks and headaches you simply don't have with a fully localized library but I urge you not to let that scare you away the Japanese Saturn has a mountain of stuff to discover and it's a big reason why the library endures so successfully today keep an open mind do not be afraid to try things out and always remember that nothing ever comes easy that is truly worth having thank you [Music] foreign our next topic involves the mini mini arcade ports that the Saturn saw you will hear a lot of folks claim that it's the reason the Saturn lacked appeal at the time of its retail presence and ultimately a huge contributing factor to why it failed commercially what I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the Saturn's arcade Centric library is one of the main reasons I love the console so much others will talk about shallow games with little content I'm here to tell you that these games remain some of the most accessible and playable titles you will find from that generation whether it's the mini ports done by Sega themselves the massive lineup of greats from the likes of Capcom and SNK or one of the dozens of other top-notch experiences the sheer number of choice and quality on this one platform is staggering damn near overwhelming you'll find run and guns shoot em ups fighting racing and just about every other type of genre born to eat your quarters whoop your ass and wow you with an audio visual showcase that keeps you coming back for more most of the polygon based ports would come from Sega they ported a number of their model 2 arcade games to the Saturn with surprising accuracy games like Virtual Fighter 2 are also among the best graphics you'll see for the device Capcom had a prolific showing on the Saturn as well porting many of their cps2 games if you want the best 2D fighters of that era Saturn is where you're gonna get them explore these games understand what you have access to if you let them they will give you countless options to consider thank you foreign if you are new to the Saturn you have likely heard about the system's legendary two-dimensional power at the time of its release there had never been a Home console as capable and many developers took advantage of that so our next section is the simple reality that many of the best games for the Saturn are in fact two-dimensional in nature many of those are part of the arcade ports we just went over but there are quite a few console only 2D games as well if you are the type that doesn't relish these types of games well the Saturn may not be for you this is actually something of a contentious topic among Saturn fans with new three-dimensional video games being the Hot Topic in the mid 90s the Saturn's large two-dimensional Library didn't seem to appeal to that many potential buyers I'd argue this was something Sega should have doubled down on and pulled a Nintendo I think marching to their own beat and offering a completely different experience from the likes of Sony may have actually helped the Saturn sell better in the long run a large collection of Epic two-dimensional releases was not gonna win that generation but it might have been enough to move a few Hardware units I've rambled on long enough here just know that before you jump into the Saturn two-dimensional games are a huge part of its experience [Music] thank you as many of you may have heard by now the Saturn was one complicated gaming device Sega loaded the thing down with so many chips most developers didn't know what to do with the thing this did not affect two-dimensional games nearly as much as it did 3D polygon based software that means that there are some pitfalls and minefields to Traverse as a new Saturn owner you aren't gonna get the massive library of 3D games a machine like the PlayStation got nor are many of the multi-platform titles going to be better on the Saturn it doesn't mean the Saturn version is always garbage but it also doesn't mean the Saturn is necessarily the best way to play them wipe out on the Saturn Place fine for example but there's no denying it takes a hit on smoothness and texture quality this is also the case with something like Castlevania Symphony of the Night again the Saturn plays this just fine a good majority of the time but it has a bunch of small irritations they really bother some folks there's Areas with heavy slowdown many of the transparencies are gone the resolution changes have a funky look and some visual effects are missing entirely some games aren't really worse per se but they look different due to the way the Saturn renders things Resident Evil has characters that are a bit chunkier than their PlayStation counterparts and the texture work itself gives everything a muddier look and feel you would be wise to investigate these differences and check the games you have interest in be sure to look at content changes and additions as well sometimes a Saturn game will have new modes because it came out later and this can make a difference if you have never experienced it before the bottom line here is simple the Saturn's Library can be an exciting thing to explore but you need to understand what you're getting into before you start [Music] thank you owning and supporting an old console today is made so much easier thanks to Modern devices that make it more accessible the Saturn's rise in popularity over the last decade has seen a number of companies and individuals come forward with some pretty Innovative peripherals and upgrades that make life so much easier if you need a way to connect your Saturn to a modern television take a look at the rad 2x an HDMI line doubler that outputs a nice lag free 480p to your television this looks so much better than simply jamming the RCA plugs into the back of your thousand dollar OLED the cost isn't bad for what you get either if playing the Saturn takes precedent over collecting games you're also going to want to take a look at devices like the satiator Terra onion mode and fin rear these allow you to drop Saturn games on the memory cards giving you access to hundreds of choices without the worry of modern collector pricing the satiator works by connecting to the Saturn's expansion slot in the back while the Terra onion mode and fin rear are a full optical disc emulator that replaces the old CD drive there are also some Modern controllers available to help you ditch the cables and Go full Wireless retro bit has a line that does just that and if you want to use your modern controllers look into the brook adapter that works for both the Dreamcast and Saturn I use a Nintendo switch Pro controller with my Dreamcast thanks to this device a massive upgrade over the awful standard pad you can also get quite creative with your Saturn these days thanks to custom console shells colored buttons and 3D printed memory card trays there's quite a bit out there and I'll throw some links in the description if you'd like to take a closer look [Music] okay one thing that you can't predict with old technology is when something is going to decide to give up the ghost fortunately the old Saturn is a pretty robust and well-made console that stands the test of time you can fortify this strength by adding a modern power supply dropping in one of the previously discussed optical drive emulators to replace an aging CD drive or take the unit apart and cleaning it thoroughly with high grade alcohol the one thing on the Saturn that tends to age poorly is the cartridge slot years of jamming in poorly made third-party devices have caused a ton of wear and tear so a solid refurbishment and cleaning here can be really important if you can check your connections for rust and discoloring as this indicates a slot in need of serious TLC I've seen some so bad they don't work at all and needed a low grit sandpaper to be brought back to life outside of that the Saturn holds up well for a console that is 30 years old next year nothing is Bulletproof but the odds favor a great experience [Music] like most retro gaming systems the Saturn has seen a boom in interest and collecting in recent years what was once a hobby of affordable Classics is now a reseller's paradise of inflated pricing only the wealthy can afford and it's as bad on the Saturn as it can possibly get due to the retail failure of the Saturn in the US and Europe most of its games were printed in very low numbers that means that there are not many of them in the modern gray Market or places like eBay that translates into a scarcity that drives up prices to a level that most of us do not want to pay this is a reality you cannot skirt you cannot outsmart you cannot outplay the vast majority of people in 2023 know that old video games are worth something and the days of running across a granny selling our grandkids old stash of video games for ten dollars are long gone if you're gonna go the ode route you have nothing to worry about here but if you want to Saturn collection prepare for some wallet crushing payouts not even the Japanese library is immune there are shoot em ups that cost hundreds of dollars arcade ports in the same ballpark and prepare for Pure Insanity for the stuff that is truly rare there's no way to soften the blow on this topic Saturn games are expensive and if you want the real things prepare to pay handsomely for it [Music] thank you over the years I have lost count the number of times I've had a message begin with I was a fan of the Master System or Genesis or Dreamcast and now I want to experience the Saturn the one thing that really differentiated Sega from companies like Nintendo is that every generation of their Hardware almost felt like it came from a completely different company Sega was schizophrenic when it came to developing their IP generation to generation which means that just because you loved a certain game for One console doesn't mean sega's next machine had anything similar that leads us to the simple truth that you absolutely must understand the Saturn was not connected to sega's other machines in any meaningful way as far as IP Evolution there was no Streets of Rage on the Saturn no exclusive outrun no Eternal Champions no greatest heavyweights no Vector man no comic Zone what was on the Saturn was often completely different than what you'd expect golden ax was a one-on-one fighter Sonic was a freaking on foot racing game and the Sega sports lineup was a shadow of its former glory Sega did start a bunch of new series on the Saturn that were exceptional but if you are here expecting the Genesis 2.0 you're definitely in for one hell of a disappointment [Music] thank you our final section is one that I want to add myself and one of the greatest reasons to own a Saturn today it's Community you have dedicated Sega fans making new games for the Saturn you have fans translating once exclusive Japanese software into other languages finding previously unreleased software and getting it playable there are groups dedicated to collecting and trading games on the various social media sites podcasts that cover all the news and topics you could ever want investigative reporters that get you the full story on how your favorite games came to be I'll put some links in the description for the places you need to check out and are invaluable resources when you jump into Saturn ownership take a little time to get to know these groups and individuals and they will teach you and help you understand everything you need to know about this console and the games for it I can help you with some opinions to get you started but these folks are the real Heroes of the Sega Saturn and owning one today wouldn't be the same without them [Music] thank you I hope this episode helps those of you new to the Saturn and are considering your next step from a personal Viewpoint the Saturn is such a special gaming system and the software available for it was quite a bit different from what was seen from its Rivals Sega really went full force there for a few years porting a bunch of their model 2 arcade games some of which are the very best looking and playing on the platform Saturn games also had a rather specific look about them that really stood out the super clean high resolution of Virtual Fighter 2 was really something to see running out of clarity that the other consoles of the day weren't even capable of don't believe for a second that it wasn't a powerful bit of Kit capable of some very impressive things just because it wasn't a PlayStation doesn't mean it didn't have its own identity and its own experiences I dare any gamer to fire up Dragon Force and really give it a try and come away with any notion other than the Saturn was an absolute Beast with some of the best playing titles that generation there are also some cool expansion possibilities with the Saturn pop in that four megabyte Ram expansion and you can play the incredible X-Men vs Street Fighter like no console at the time could I could go on and on but the point is this while sales history and Retail performance will never be kind to the Saturn there is a unique console there with many games that were very much worth playing give it a chance and you might just find that out for yourselves I'm sigalord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 79,360

Keywords: retro gaming, sega saturn, saturn

Id: bgGkNs-AvjU

Length: 21min 1sec (1261 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 25 2023