[jazz music begins]
[computer buzzes, beeps] Greetings folks, and today’s LGR episode
orbits all around the Saturn. In particular the Victor V-Saturn model RG-JX1. A Japan-exclusive variant of the Sega Saturn
sold by Victor Company of Japan, also known as JVC. Which is a fascinating thing on its own, however! In lieu of the usual optical drive, this one...
doesn’t have one. Instead it’s fitted with an optical drive
emulator, or ODE. With this installed there’s no need for
original Saturn discs and I can load my collection of games for the system straight off of a
MicroSD card. Yeah this is something I’ve wanted to mess
around with ever since the community began making them several years back. Especially for the Saturn, a console where
it was hard to break the copy protection for a very long time. And I’ve always found the system somewhat
mystical. Mysterious? Magic? Heh. I dunno, I’m not quite finding the right
words, but when I was a kid the system was always appealing yet constantly out of reach. I never knew anyone that owned one, friends
and family either got a PlayStation or Nintendo 64 that generation. I barely even remember seeing any in-store
demo units. I think the local Kay-Bee Toys was the only
place that had one. What I more vividly remember are the big wire
bins full of unsold Saturn games on clearance they had near the front of the store in 1997,
early ‘98. And of course, occasionally being able to
buy Sega Saturn PC ports that I could play on Windows 95. So really, the most exposure I got to actual
Saturn games came from screenshots printed in various magazines. Or in stores that sold or rented video games,
like the local Phar-Mor. I specifically remember every single Saturn
game they had was cracked, broken, and held together with gobs of scotch tape, heh. Those cases sucked. Impact Racing was a real favorite to admire
while my mom was doing her shopping, look at that wild laser-firing Dodge Viper on the
cover. And hey, JVC was the publisher, whadduyaknow? That brings us back around to the Victor V-Saturn,
which I received thanks to an LGR viewer named Jon who offered to trade it to me for a PC
game that I had. I rarely do trades, but this was a no-brainer
since it wasn’t a game I was attached to, and for years I’ve wanted both a V-Saturn
and an ODE to mess around with. As for why I wanted a V-Saturn, I mean, I
dunno why not? It’s neat! It has a lighter gray color scheme than Sega’s
Model 1, actually in two shades of gray, top and bottom. Coincidentally the name of a bestselling romance
novel. And the controllers were Victor-branded as
well, matching the color scheme nicely. Though all I have are these vanilla Japanese
Saturn gamepads for now, since I didn’t get any with the console. And yeah, I’ve had a few Saturns over the
years! But they’ve all been later US releases,
so the earlier Japanese versions are currently more appealing to me. And the V-Saturn doubly so for its slight
weirdness. It was released in Japan on November 22nd,
1994, which: yep! That’s the same launch day as Sega’s own
Saturn, it sold right alongside it at the same ¥44,800 price tag too, as far as I can
tell. Yeah Sega in Japan was going through some
stuff in the early to mid 90s, trying desperately to nab a larger slice of the game console
market and licensing their designs to various companies as a result. Such as Victor, who’d produced the Wondermega
console in 1992, eventually released as the JVC X’Eye here in the US. It was a Sega MegaDrive/Genesis combined with
a CD unit in one console, marketed to more of a tech enthusiast multimedia-oriented consumer. And they took a similar approach with the
Victor V-Saturn, as implied by the “Multi Amusement Player” text printed on the lid. Early marketing in particular made a big deal
about how great the system was for anyone into CD-based entertainment: audio CDs, CD+G
karaoke CDs, photo CDs, and Video CDs. Provided, that is, that you purchased the
optional VCD/MPEG-1 expansion. Which oddly enough wasn’t included by Victor,
just the usual empty expansion bay housing nothing but the clock battery. Yeah for all the multimedia-centered marketing,
you’d think there’d be something setting this apart in terms of hardware, but nope! It’s a differently-badged Saturn with no
Sega logos in sight, and that’s about it. The hardware is identical: it plays all the
same games, uses the same peripherals, supports the same RAM cartridges. Which, I can’t find mine right now, but
this supports them, I swear. Really the only thing that’s different in
terms of operation is the BIOS, which boots up to show a V-Saturn logo instead of the
usual Saturn stuff. And unlike the case this does say “Sega,”
finally some credit where credit’s due. Speaking of credit, allow me to shoutout Adam
Koralik and his video on the V-Saturn, which proved quite helpful in learning about this
system. Check it out for much more detail and context
regarding Sega, Victor, and V-Saturn variants, it’s fascinating stuff! As for my particular console here, it’s
a Model 1 V-Saturn, with the usual oval power and reset buttons, same as the OG Saturn from
Sega. But I gather this is a slightly less common
version, in that it’s a Model 1 with the access LED but also a 21-pin optical drive
connector. Apparently most of these use a 20-pin connector,
but not this one, which came with an EXL-P604 drive more typically found on Model 2 consoles. So I assume this is a later Model 1 V-Saturn
then, considering the parts used and the relatively high serial number. This seems like useless trivia – and it
normally is, but! In this case it’s necessary, since this
whole laser assembly is going by the wayside in favor of an optical drive emulator. And those typically come in two versions:
20 and 21-pin, depending on your console. A vital consideration when choosing an ODE, and there are plenty to pick from for the Saturn alone. Like the Phoebe, Rhea, Mode, Satiator, and
Fenrir. With that last one being chosen by Jon when
he sent the system to me, apparently due to ease of use when switching games on the SD
card. I don’t know, this is the only ODE I’ve
ever used so I’m just happy to have one at all. And with that, let’s set it up with a neat
little CRT TV and test out the hardware with some classic Sega Saturn games! [jazz music fades] [system powers on]
[Saturn startup sound plays] V-Saturn, how exciting! I rather enjoy that customized startup screen. And from here it goes straight into the Fenrir
menu system, since I’ve already gotten it set up. Pressing ‘Start’ brings up some options,
beginning with one that enables cover art alongside each game being selected, providing
you source and place the cover images in each folder yourself. “Return to Menu” enables soft resetting
to return to this menu, which is the standard ABC+Start on the controller. That combo normally just resets the game itself,
but pressing it again here will bring you back to the ODE menu. A necessity since the hardware reset button
on the console annoyingly doesn’t do that. You can also backup and restore save files
to and from the MicroSD card, very handy. Oh and I meant to mention, I don’t have
a 3D printed insert yet but it can really use one, since it’s entirely too easy to
drop the MicroSD card in there and have it flopping around inside. Made that mistake a couple times already. And I also meant to mention earlier this system
is FRAM modded, meaning that even if the clock battery dies your save data will survive so
you can swap the CR2032 without losing anything. You can also see here some more information
about the system, including some future abilities like WiFi that may become available. But for the moment, what we’ve got here
with firmware 1.5.5 is a pretty standard game selection system. Much like you may have seen on any number
of other SD card or flash cart solutions, I approve of its simplicity. And again you can add cover art too if you
like. Now in terms of the games on here, while it
supports up to 2499 games overall, this is just my own personal Saturn collection, all
stuff that I own physically. Yeah, most of the games I own for the system
are imports, since there’s such a cool library of stuff released in Japan that we either
never got in the US. Or if we did those games are more rare and
expensive here, compared to the Japanese releases. At least, that’s how it was when I was buying
these seven or eight years ago online, perhaps it’s changed these days, but typically Japanese
games have been more reasonably available. Anyway, let’s begin with the obvious choice
here. Duke Nukem 3D! Which loads up at an authentic-feeling and
by extension unimpressive rate. Yeah I think certain load times may be nominally
faster with an ODE, but by and large you’re still restricted to the actual Sega Saturn
CD-ROM controller in there, so for the most part initial load times are still roughly
as fast or slow as original hardware. And while it seems to be optimized for the
Saturn Redump project in terms of disc image formatting, it supports standard ISO, BIN/CUE,
Clone CD image files and a handful of others. Which yeah, I’ve had no issues loading any
images in those formats, it just straight up works with games from any region. No having to mess around with Action Replays
for imports like I did on my other Saturns, so that’s nice. You would still need to perform a 50/60Hz
mod if you’d like to change the way games display in PAL regions and such, that’s
not something the Fenrir provides. But yeah, for me with this NTSC-J V-Saturn
I’m quite happy with the results so far. Heh, as happy as I can be with this fascinating
Lobotomy port of Duke3D. And by ‘fascinating’ I mean I don’t
like it, never have! It uses the PowerSlave engine also used in
their port of Quake, and I’ve just never been a fan. The lighting is cool, but the wibbly wobbly
turning makes me feel queasy, and the scale of everything is off, it’s all too tall
and Duke feels like he’s been cut in half. -“Why am I three feet tall here?” Alright, so! Moving onto a fighting game, and while a Virtua
Fighter title would be obvious, I asked the LGR Twitter what games they’d prefer to
see. And Fighters Megamix came up time and time
again, so hey, why not? I’ve actually never played this one despite
owning a copy, but I picked it up because I knew the roster is pretty absurd, combining
characters from Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, Sonic the Fighters, Virtua Fighter Kids, Virtua
Cop, and even Daytona USA. Yeah, you can play as the car from Daytona
[chuckles] providing you unlock it, that is. Same with the other sillier choices, sadly
there’s not much absurdity to choose from on first boot, but oh well. And yeah this *is* actually running at 60fps,
but you’re only seeing 30 here. I had to adjust my camera to get around the
rolling line problem filming at 60, since the game’s vertical refresh rates actually
tend to run just a bit below, like 59.85 or something. But yeah in-person it’s smooth as smooth
things. Right, so next up was another one y’all
recommended over and over: Astal, or Ahh-stall or I’m not sure, I’ve never played this
one either. I actually didn’t realize this was a side-scrolling
platformer, it’s just one of those that I picked up thrifting many years ago since
the artwork looked intriguing. Just beautiful 2D art, I love the copious
foreground and background things going by, parallax as nuts. Didn’t quite play it long enough to get
the gist of what I’m supposed to be doing, but I’ll absolutely be revisiting this since
I love the aesthetic. Next I attempted to load up the wonderful
X-Men vs Street Fighter, forgetting entirely that it asks for a 4MB RAM expansion to begin. Which, I absolutely own a couple of them,
but they’re boxed up somewhere in storage since I haven’t unpacked that stuff since
moving recently, dang it. So next up in highly recommended games we’ve
got a JRPG, or at least, that was my incorrect assumption. This is Dragon Force, which starts up with
a lovely FMV sequence. One that I don’t think would be improved
by the VCD/MPEG expansion, like some games were.
Not that I have one, but anyway. As for the game itself, well, it sure looked
like an RPG at first with all the text and overall presentation, but not really! Turns out this is sort of a strategy/tactics
thing, with a dash of role playing sauce on the side. Again, I’m intrigued enough to return to
this in the future, but I’ll have to spend a lot more time with it to really get into
the game. One that I know very well though, and is just
an absolute must anytime you have a Saturn going: Panzer Dragoon. An absolute classic that I always feel compelled
to pick up and play if it happens to be running on any system nearby. Though amusingly, I’ve barely played the
Saturn version. This is one that I’ve primarily played on
PC under Windows 95, since Sega gave it a pretty excellent port back in the 90s. And since I have a Diamond Edge 3D card that
lets you play using real Saturn controllers plugged into your computer, it’s a pretty
authentic Saturn-like experience even on PC, so playing on the real thing here feels just
as it should. Okay, so another one I had to test, although
I don’t think anyone recommended it: Over Drivin’ GT-R, a special Nissan edition of
the original Road and Track Presents: The Need For Speed. But released only in Japan, featuring a completely
different selection of cars, all classic Nissans and generations of Skylines. One of those I’ve covered a time or two
in my “History of Need For Speed” retrospectives. In fact I believe this was the first Saturn
game I ever imported, for just one of those videos like, 12 years ago now. Ugh. What a phenomenal selection of cars here though,
ahh, it’s just so cool seeing a reskinned Need For Speed like this. Considering how much I played the original
on the PC back in the day, it’s always wild to experience. There’s also Skyline Memorial on the PlayStation,
and that’s worth playing too for the different car selection and other slight differences
compared to GT-R here. But yeah, either way it’s neat to see, they
put some real effort into overhauling Over Drivin’ as a celebration of Nissan sports
car history. Even if the car models and complete lack of
traffic leave a bit to be desired. So, another one that wasn’t recommended
by anyone but I have to play since it had such an impact on me as a kid: Impact Racing! The memories of looking at the rental case
for this, all cracked and beat up and taped back together. It was just the artwork, you know? Being obsessed with the Dodge Viper and the
TV show VIPER at the time, it really grabbed my attention and imagination. It was a Viper with laser miniguns coming
out of the fog lights, how awesome was that? It highly inspired my first kit-bash model
car actually, where I slapped a whole bunch of aircraft parts and random toy pieces onto
a Viper RT/10 I’d put together. Again, having never even played Impact Racing, just looking at the screenshots on that beat up box. The game must be amazing right? Ehh, I mean, it has its charms! In that clunky mid-90s early 3D kinda way. Shoot other cars, drop mines,
try not to run out of time or get blown up too much, it’s an okay game. The tracks are just so narrow though and the
gameplay is simplistic to the point of repetitive fatigue setting in pretty soon. I have a lot of fondness for it anyway, mostly
stemming from my own half-memories of looking at that cracked case at Phar-Mor. Weird what sticks in your mind after 27 years. And finally, let’s end on one that was both
recommended by y’all and one that I played a lot myself back then: Sonic Racing, or Sonic
R by good ol’ Travelers Tales. One that I got on PC pretty soon after it
came out, I think I got it at Sam’s Club. Played the crap out of it on Windows 95 with
keyboard controls. And I remember it being frustrating but eh. Heh, well this is... yeah it’s not good
in terms of handling. Maybe I just need to get used to the controller,
but man does this not feel responsive, like over and understeer at the same time somehow. Whatever though, I’m still rather fond of
this game and have a lot of memories, both good and bad. Honestly I loved exploring this game the most,
not even racing. I mean I wanted to unlock stuff so I eventually
did beat it, but still. I was really excited to have an actual 3D
Sonic game, not just Sonic 3D Blast. Which I played the crap out of that too at
a friend’s house, but anyway! Yeah! I think it’s obvious that even with things
being wonkier and clunkier than I might recall, I’m still having a lot of fun going through
my own Saturn library here. And I'm gonna start extending that now and
playing more stuff I’ve never tried, cuz yeah. The Saturn has always been one of the systems
that I've respected from afar, have messed around with in bits and pieces over the years but never got too serious about exploring its library. So having this ODE going really is a great
excuse to do so. And the V-Saturn in particular, I don't know
just I just think it looks cool, with that two-tone gray going and the classic Victor
logos and stuff. So thanks again to Jon for making the trade
happen so we could check this out. I’m inspired to try some other ODEs for
some of my other disc-based systems, especially the PS1 and the Dreamcast, but yeah. Hope that you enjoyed this laid-back look
at the Saturn, a delightful console that always deserves some love. Do stick around for other LGR things that
are always in the works, or check out some of my previous episodes till then. And as usual thank you for watching!
