• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Sega Saturn Appreciation and Emulation Thread

G-Fex

Member
unfortunately I checked and don't have the proper A/V cables for the Saturn so I'll have to wait to get them to properly stream resident evil
 

luka

Loves Robotech S1
Alpha Anthology is scaled to 480i and looks blurry over component on my SD Trinitron CRT, even with the blur filter off. Zero 3 on Saturn looks so damn hot in 240p RGB transcoded to component. Much crisper. I prefer the Saturn version 'cuz I'm a graphics whore.

I had no idea it was going for $100. I totally lucked out when I bought mine.

not entirely true. the ps2 collection has 480p support. it's still scaled, but it's a far cry from 480i. the saturn version isnt 1:1 with the CPS2 either since it can't output the same 384x224 resolution, so your only options are to scale the image down or keep the same pixel ratio and cut off some of the viewing area on the far left and right of the stage. There are also certain effects like the blurring pattern in the life bars that doesn't appear even in RGB mode, that are present in the PS2 version.

I love true low res 2D as much as anyone, but the saturn port isn't flawless.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
not entirely true. the ps2 collection has 480p support. it's still scaled, but it's a far cry from 480i. the saturn version isnt 1:1 with the CPS2 either since it can't output the same 384x224 resolution, so your only options are to scale the image down or keep the same pixel ratio and cut off some of the viewing area on the far left and right of the stage. There are also certain effects like the blurring pattern in the life bars that doesn't appear even in RGB mode, that are present in the PS2 version.

I love true low res 2D as much as anyone, but the saturn port isn't flawless.

The Saturn version has the art gallery, so there's that.
 

DasDamen

Member
Man, I should really just get Panzer Dragoon Saga before the price gets anymore ridiculous. I've wanted to play that forever.

Yeah, I just bit the bullet and offered $370 for a copy with all inserts included and apparently there are no disc scratches. I probably overpaid a bit, but I don't really feel like waiting in order to possibly save $50-$70.

Besides, this is my second attempt at trying to obtain the game. I won an auction for a copy at $295 about a month ago, but the game had two duplicate disc #2s (and no disc #4). Suffice it to say, I returned that copy at a $25 shipping expense, no less.

So really, trying to obtain this game has costed me $425. I can only hope there are no problems with the game this time around.
 
I've been circling Psychic Assassin Taromaru and Hyper Duel for years, and I'm definitely going to pay for all that waiting if/when I finally pull the trigger. : /
 
So last year this guy was selling a Derby Saturn and some games locally on Craig's. I exchanged a few emails with him, but it never happened. Schedules wouldn't match up, I didn't have enough cash, or we couldn't work out a bundle.

Anyway, I emailed him back in January when I was selling some things off and ended up sitting on a pile of cash. No reply... until today.

He still has the system, but I'm out of monies. Damnit. I guess I'm going to have to dig into my collection. I want that Saturn so bad.
 

Valkyria

Banned
I have just recieved in the mail, Burning Ranger, Sonic Jam, Dynamite Deka and Layer Section.

The first two seem sealed, but I don't know if the seal is original. I didn't know they were sealed I fell bad now if I open them XDDD. How was the orignal Japanese factory seal for games?
 

Kainazzo

Member
I have just recieved in the mail, Burning Ranger, Sonic Jam, Dynamite Deka and Layer Section.

The first two seem sealed, but I don't know if the seal is original. I didn't know they were sealed I fell bad now if I open them XDDD. How was the orignal Japanese factory seal for games?

If they're Japanese games, the spine card (a small rectangular piece of card stock) should be outside of the case, but beneath the wrapping paper. They're also wrapped quite tightly, at least in my experience. Certainly moreso than any CD I ever bought, though along the same lines in terms of look. It's been so long since I've seen a sealed NA game that I'm not sure how the wrapping looks. They never had spine cards though.

If it makes you feel better, I've opened a sealed Cotton Boomerang. Not the most expensive thing around, but it stung a bit :p
 

Valkyria

Banned
If they're Japanese games, the spine card (a small rectangular piece of card stock) should be outside of the case, but beneath the wrapping paper. They're also wrapped quite tightly, at least in my experience. Certainly moreso than any CD I ever bought, though along the same lines in terms of look. It's been so long since I've seen a sealed NA game that I'm not sure how the wrapping looks. They never had spine cards though.

If it makes you feel better, I've opened a sealed Cotton Boomerang. Not the most expensive thing around, but it stung a bit :p

I looked more carefully and they are not factory seal, they are a protection cover, but pretty good. I could use some of those for more games. I'm really clumsy and if I open and close them too much I will broke them for sure.

Thanks!
 
Usually japanese sellers use a protective plastic sleeve when selling used games (at least for the better ones, that have a spine card). This is opened at the side, with a folded adhesive that can be opened/closed several times (sorry if it sounds strange, English is not my first language and trying to describe this is a little bit difficult). The sleeve is tight but not as much as the real factory seal, which of course can only be opened once.

Those protective sleeves are quite good and bought a bunch from Japan to protect my games.
 

Hightower

Banned
I got even more games in yesterday.. but I have no way to play them right now. I had to send back my Action Replay and exchange it for a new one.

I know my wife isn't liking me rebuiliding my collection... but hey... it's better than spending it all on hookers and blow!


Just bought today:
All imports...

Vampire Savior
Cyberbots
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Macross: Do you Remember Love
Last Bronx

And still waiting to hear back about Dynamite Deka.


If anyone here wants some imports, you REALLY need to hit up "hit-japan" on Ebay. They have some GREAT prices on their Saturn games and they do accept offers.

I got a COMPLETE Vampire Savior for $11. ELEVEN DOLLARS
Cyberbots was $12 complete...

Everything else was a LOT less..

Now granted, I still have to pay shipping, but thats why I'm ordering a few at a time.
 

Valkyria

Banned
Usually japanese sellers use a protective plastic sleeve when selling used games (at least for the better ones, that have a spine card). This is opened at the side, with a folded adhesive that can be opened/closed several times (sorry if it sounds strange, English is not my first language and trying to describe this is a little bit difficult). The sleeve is tight but not as much as the real factory seal, which of course can only be opened once.

Those protective sleeves are quite good and bought a bunch from Japan to protect my games.

Yes, It was exactaly like that. I would love to buy a bunch.

I got even more games in yesterday.. but I have no way to play them right now. I had to send back my Action Replay and exchange it for a new one.

I know my wife isn't liking me rebuiliding my collection... but hey... it's better than spending it all on hookers and blow!


Just bought today:
All imports...

Vampire Savior
Cyberbots
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Macross: Do you Remember Love
Last Bronx

And still waiting to hear back about Dynamite Deka.


If anyone here wants some imports, you REALLY need to hit up "hit-japan" on Ebay. They have some GREAT prices on their Saturn games and they do accept offers.

I got a COMPLETE Vampire Savior for $11. ELEVEN DOLLARS
Cyberbots was $12 complete...

Everything else was a LOT less..

Now granted, I still have to pay shipping, but thats why I'm ordering a few at a time.

That prices are expensive for me XDDDD. I mean I have a looooooooot of patience and just wait to killler deals, but 11,12$ it's quite a good price. I've been trying to buy Azel Panzer Dragoon RPG for a few months, but I'm not paying anything over 15€.
 

DasDamen

Member
I got even more games in yesterday.. but I have no way to play them right now. I had to send back my Action Replay and exchange it for a new one.

I know my wife isn't liking me rebuiliding my collection... but hey... it's better than spending it all on hookers and blow!


Just bought today:
All imports...

Vampire Savior
Cyberbots
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Macross: Do you Remember Love
Last Bronx

And still waiting to hear back about Dynamite Deka.


If anyone here wants some imports, you REALLY need to hit up "hit-japan" on Ebay. They have some GREAT prices on their Saturn games and they do accept offers.

I got a COMPLETE Vampire Savior for $11. ELEVEN DOLLARS
Cyberbots was $12 complete...

Everything else was a LOT less..

Now granted, I still have to pay shipping, but thats why I'm ordering a few at a time.

I regularly buy from hit-japan, but just make sure you buy games with a BBB rating. I bought a couple where the booklets were rated as C and I wasn't too happy with it.

May absolute favourite seller, though, is Japanese_retro_video_games. His games only show up in international results at the end of searches, but his prices and quality are typically far and above the rest. Also, his shipping costs (at least for me in Canada) are very reasonable. I believe it costed me about $35 for 14 Saturn games via EMS, recently. Don't be deterred by the fact that everything is priced in GBP.

Edit: $35 for shipping costs only, obviously.
 

Dave Long

Banned
Yamatoku is another good seller from Japan. I like that they just run everything as an auction. Sometimes you can get super deals but usually you also get games at fair market value too. Everything I've purchased has been packed nicely and arrived pretty quick! Shipping costs accumulate of course, but you can figure that into your bids!
 
Just looked up Psychic Assassin last night looks like a pretty great game but man that price. Crazy

It's about twenty minutes to complete with little reason to replay. I don't think it was quite worth the seventy or so dollars I paid for the import at release, so I doubt it will be worth it to anyone for more than that sixteen years later. Great showpiece for the platform, but ultimately too shallow, IMO.
 
I regularly buy from hit-japan, but just make sure you buy games with a BBB rating. I bought a couple where the booklets were rated as C and I wasn't too happy with it.

May absolute favourite seller, though, is Japanese_retro_video_games. His games only show up in international results at the end of searches, but his prices and quality are typically far and above the rest. Also, his shipping costs (at least for me in Canada) are very reasonable. I believe it costed me about $35 for 14 Saturn games via EMS, recently. Don't be deterred by the fact that everything is priced in GBP.

Edit: $35 for shipping costs only, obviously.

That guy also runs http://japaneseretrovideogames.com. Really agreeable prices, but I don't think he carries any of the rarer/sought after stuff there.

I got even more games in yesterday.. but I have no way to play them right now. I had to send back my Action Replay and exchange it for a new one.

I know my wife isn't liking me rebuiliding my collection... but hey... it's better than spending it all on hookers and blow!


Just bought today:
All imports...

Vampire Savior
Cyberbots
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Macross: Do you Remember Love
Last Bronx

And still waiting to hear back about Dynamite Deka.


If anyone here wants some imports, you REALLY need to hit up "hit-japan" on Ebay. They have some GREAT prices on their Saturn games and they do accept offers.

I got a COMPLETE Vampire Savior for $11. ELEVEN DOLLARS
Cyberbots was $12 complete...

Everything else was a LOT less..

Now granted, I still have to pay shipping, but thats why I'm ordering a few at a time.
Hit-Japan also runs http://gameofjapan.com. Some stuff is priced way too high, but decent prices can be had there too.
 
Yamatoku is another good seller from Japan. I like that they just run everything as an auction. Sometimes you can get super deals but usually you also get games at fair market value too. Everything I've purchased has been packed nicely and arrived pretty quick! Shipping costs accumulate of course, but you can figure that into your bids!

Agreed, Yamatoku has been my go-to guy for years now. He even sent me Parappa the Rapper for free last christmas. He's super fast, reliable and everything is fairly priced. I've won quite a few hard to find Famicom/Saturn/PCE games from him.
 

Hightower

Banned
I can't believe just how deep I've taken this collection build in less than a month. I gotta slow down for a while.

I play it and I remember WHy it's been the one system I keep going back to...

For me, it was the last pure GAMING system (along with the PS1) out there... now.. it's all online, app driven, multi media boxes that do a million things... oh yeah.. they play games too.

It also signals the end of the arcade era for me as well. Damn I miss those days...
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I can't believe just how deep I've taken this collection build in less than a month. I gotta slow down for a while.

I play it and I remember WHy it's been the one system I keep going back to...

For me, it was the last pure GAMING system (along with the PS1) out there... now.. it's all online, app driven, multi media boxes that do a million things... oh yeah.. they play games too.

It also signals the end of the arcade era for me as well. Damn I miss those days...

I can't help but also include Dreamcast in that arcade era, but I do know what you mean.
 

Teknoman

Member
I feel your pain on that. I have 3 sets of them without the RCA breakouts. I have the switchbox, and the SCART to YUV converter.. then I realized I forgot to order a male to male SCART cable, argh!

Yeah i'm gonna wait it out. She's got to come back from vacation some time lol. Would be nice if she updated the "seller gone till ___" date though.
 
If it makes you feel better, I've opened a sealed Cotton Boomerang. Not the most expensive thing around, but it stung a bit :p

I was checking my collection and found out that the copy I have from Tryrush Deepy is still factory sealed and in a really nice condiction. I remember paying like US$ 50 three years ago. Now it is around US$ 200.

Argh, should I open it?
 
I can't believe just how deep I've taken this collection build in less than a month. I gotta slow down for a while.

I play it and I remember WHy it's been the one system I keep going back to...

For me, it was the last pure GAMING system (along with the PS1) out there... now.. it's all online, app driven, multi media boxes that do a million things... oh yeah.. they play games too.

It also signals the end of the arcade era for me as well. Damn I miss those days...

Saturn did the whole CD audio and VCD thing though.

The last pure gaming system was Wii mini

lol


I was checking my collection and found out that the copy I have from Tryrush Deepy is still factory sealed and in a really nice condiction. I remember paying like US$ 50 three years ago. Now it is around US$ 200.

Argh, should I open it?

Sell it and make bank. Or if you really want to play it, sell it, then use some of the funds to buy an opened one at like $70 and pocket the $130.

But I don't really like Tryrush Deppy at all so maybe I'm biased.
 

Kainazzo

Member
I was checking my collection and found out that the copy I have from Tryrush Deepy is still factory sealed and in a really nice condiction. I remember paying like US$ 50 three years ago. Now it is around US$ 200.

Argh, should I open it?

If you can get a nice used copy for 1/3 the price, I say sell and replace it for a profit. The nice thing about Japanese Saturn games is that they use regular CD cases, so you can easily replace it so long as the inserts and disc are fine.

I sold my sealed Perfect Dark for $25 to replace it with a like-new copy for $2, I don't really like breaking seals. Not because I'm passionate about keeping new copies, but because I'm taking away one less copy from better collectors who are. I get guilt trips just buying games :p I only opened Boomerang because I got it for less than the price of a nice used copy, so it wasn't worth the hassle of flipping.
 
Wow, I hadn't realized Tryrush Deppy got so expensive.

It always seems to happen to the titles you don't expect it to... I mean, I thought Resident Evil was a rare release, and yet it's only $20-40 CIB. Should probably spring on that; even though survival horror isn't really my kind of genre, something about RE even being on the Saturn at all seems odd enough to warrant a look.

Here's a thought: I've been considering looking into Willy Wombat. Cheap Japanese import 3D platformer of sorts, with most of the (really bad) acting done in English, so the plot should mostly be followable. Anyone try it out?
 
Here's a thought: I've been considering looking into Willy Wombat. Cheap Japanese import 3D platformer of sorts, with most of the (really bad) acting done in English, so the plot should mostly be followable. Anyone try it out?


This game is on my list of next japanese Saturn games to be bought.

If you can get a nice used copy for 1/3 the price, I say sell and replace it for a profit. The nice thing about Japanese Saturn games is that they use regular CD cases, so you can easily replace it so long as the inserts and disc are fine.

The thing is that it seens used copies are selling a lot close to new sealed copies. Looking right now on ebay I see 4 copies BIN (1 new) in the range of US$ 150-200 plus shipping. The last auction I followed last week ended in the range of US$ 100 (used). So I do not know if it is worth to trouble of trying to swap it for a used copy. But I feel bad opening old sealed games, it is like painting a mustache on Mona Lisa....
 
I'm looking forward to later tomorrow night, my male to male SCART cable is in town and will probably be delivered today.. I know the SCART already looks great, I just want to pair it with the sound and get the full experience :)
 
The thing is that it seens used copies are selling a lot close to new sealed copies. Looking right now on ebay I see 4 copies BIN (1 new) in the range of US$ 150-200 plus shipping. The last auction I followed last week ended in the range of US$ 100 (used). So I do not know if it is worth to trouble of trying to swap it for a used copy. But I feel bad opening old sealed games, it is like painting a mustache on Mona Lisa....

If it helps, Amazon marketplace has some in the $90 range.
 
Yeah, but it is hard to use Amazon Marketplace becuase of the lack of pictures. There is a listing in the $90 range, but also plenty of used ones at US$ 200. What is the difference? I bet the state of the cover/disk and the lack of spine.

I will keep an eye on ebay for new auctions, but I feel it would be difficult to make this kind of swap. I am not in US (I live in Brazil) and that reduces my chances of selling the sealed copy at a good price.
 
Yeah, but it is hard to use Amazon Marketplace becuase of the lack of pictures. There is a listing in the $90 range, but also plenty of used ones at US$ 200. What is the difference? I bet the state of the cover/disk and the lack of spine.

I will keep an eye on ebay for new auctions, but I feel it would be difficult to make this kind of swap. I am not in US (I live in Brazil) and that reduces my chances of selling the sealed copy at a good price.

I wonder if you can contact the seller to offer you pics/details. Come to think of it, it probably won't come with the spine card if you're into those.
Since you want to play the game, and it's already in your possession, It seems like just opening it would be less of a hassle.
BTW, are you positive factory sealed? Sometimes sellers will re-seal games. This could all just be much ado about nothing.
 
Yeah, it is factory sealed. I have other low cost japanese saturn games sealed as well, and the seal is the same.

But, again, I want to play the game. So I really think opening it will be the best approach, even if it sounds as an heresy.
 

Mr Nash

square pies = communism
Wow, games play really well in SSF. I'm just doing it off the disc, and I'm really pleased with it so far. Gokujyo Parodius-Da plays great. =D Think I'll pop in Panzer Dragoon or Macross next.
 

Flock

Member
Whose played Soukyugurentai / Terra Diver?
Just picked it up for a good deal
$T2eC16FHJG!E9nm3pwD0BRR(gu!R9!~~60_3.JPG
 

D.Lo

Member
not entirely true. the ps2 collection has 480p support. it's still scaled, but it's a far cry from 480i. the saturn version isnt 1:1 with the CPS2 either since it can't output the same 384x224 resolution, so your only options are to scale the image down or keep the same pixel ratio and cut off some of the viewing area on the far left and right of the stage. There are also certain effects like the blurring pattern in the life bars that doesn't appear even in RGB mode, that are present in the PS2 version.

I love true low res 2D as much as anyone, but the saturn port isn't flawless.
The viewing area on sides of the stage is available in game, and a widescreen CRT (or an XRGB) can show all the area in 'Arcade' resolution mode (which is an overscan option)

PS2 version looks like complete ass in 480i and 480p, blurry and artifact filled.

That said SFZ2 for life, Zero 3 was a mess that took too much from the vs series.
 
Hi guys,

I'm getting a Jap Sega Saturn soon. I need to get a video cable too, but I'm based in Europe and from what I've read, the AV pinouts are different between Japanese and European Saturn models.

Do you know where I could find an RGB Scart cable that would work on a Japanese Saturn with a European TV?

Thanks!
 
Top Bottom