Support NeoGAF

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Sega President and COO Yukio Sugino has said that the Sega Saturn is proving difficult to adapt into a miniature console.

Speaking to Famitsu (translated by VGC), the Sega boss said: “The Sega Saturn is surprisingly high performance, so the difficulty of miniaturisation is also high.

“I don’t think it’s a case of saying ‘let’s make another one because it sells well’, it looks like it’s going to be a little longer.

“I’d like to think about it when we’re in a situation where we can openly develop it together with people who have always loved the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast.”

Performance-wise, while not a perfect comparison, the Sega Saturn was released in the same console generation as the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

While Sony has released a classic PlayStation console, Nintendo has yet to continue the trend it popularised of releasing miniature consoles. If it was to do so, the Nintendo 64 would presumably be next.

In June of last year, Sega’s classic hardware producer Yosuke Okunari said that he had considered producing mini versions of the classic consoles, but claimed that the cost of producing parts for either a Dreamcast or Saturn would be prohibitively expensive.

Announcing the company’s Mega Drive Mini 2 console, Okunari said: “Some of you may say ‘This isn’t a Sega Saturn Mini’ or ‘I wanted a Dreamcast mini’, it’s not that we didn’t think about that direction.”

More details in the VGC article below:

Sega Saturn is difficult to turn into a mini console, says Sega boss | VGC

Sega President and CEO Yukio Sugino has said that the Sega Saturn is proving difficult to adapt into a miniature console.

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Chiggs]

The Sega Saturn...fucking Sega then, and fucking Sega now.

 

[diffusionx]

I thought this was obvious. And let’s be honest the PS Classic was a total hunk of shit.

 

[acm2000]

no, difficult to do cheap enough is what he really means.

 

[Mr Hyde]

You could at least remaster a couple of Saturn classics in a nice collection and release it on current gen hardware. But no, let's release another fucking Mega Drive collection vol.48 instead. I swear, this fucking company drives me nuts sometimes.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Hey SEGA… you could I dunno, start your own virtual console service on XSX|S / PS5… just saying (they are quite fast)… but no, please keep trying not to maximise profits. It is in line with how you managed the console after all .

 

[Krathoon]

Emulating a Sega Saturn seems to be a real pain in the ass. It seems doable on an Android device.

Really it would be better to just release a Sega Saturn collection on Steam and license the Mednafen emulator.

 

[West Texas CEO]

I don't need excuses, Sega, just get it done!

 

[Kilau]

Then do a Master System mini, stop ignoring my baby!

 

[worldwithpyramids]

Hopefully they can make both a reality in time.

 

[Krathoon]

The developer for Yaba Sanshiro 2 has been working on his emulator for ages and it is still buggy.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Ive been emulating saturn on my macbook.
Surely Sega can emulate there own system. Ill buy day 1

 

[poodaddy]

While a mini console would be great, to be honest I'm running out of space in the guest room for all the damn mini consoles, so I don't see this as a big loss. I kind of wish Sega would just release the "Sega Saturn Catalogue" and a Dreamcast equivalent or whatever they'd wanna call it on Steam and all modern platforms as some kinda bundle or something just to get the games out there, don't know that we really need any more mini consoles, though they are cute as shit and I love the ones I own as collector's items.....even if I never really touch em.

Off topic, did they ever hack that second Genesis Mini they released around a year ago? I got one as I was kinda pumped for it, but I remember wanting to hack it like I did the SNES, but the hacking scene seemed to be moving a bit slow on crackin that bad boy open, has anyone made any progress there?

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I don't own any of these type of things so I don't know - but aren't they just little emulators in a box?

 

[Krathoon]

The best way to emulate a Saturn on PC is to just use Retroarch and the Beetle Saturn emulator. It is all plug and play.

The core is a port of Mednafen.

Unfortunately, the emulator does not let you bump up the resolution, but it is not buggy.

 

[aygomyownroad]

Then do a Master System mini, stop ignoring my baby!

Sega Saturn is my dream, and it should be easy to do, I’d pay big money.

But the disrespect shown to the Master System is terrible. I want a mini too

 

[Dexero]

Ive been emulating saturn on my macbook.
Surely Sega can emulate there own system. Ill buy day 1

Is your macbook $80 and rests in the palm of a hand? All the while beeing profitable?

Because that’s the expected result.

 

[Puscifer]

I thought this was obvious. And let’s be honest the PS Classic was a total hunk of shit.

It was Sony not tweaking the software, the fact it instantly became a better console when you installed RetroArch was hilarious, even moreso when a hacked SNES Classic played PS1 roms better lol

 

[Kokoloko85]

Is your macbook $80 and rests in the palm of a hand? All the while beeing profitable?

Because that’s the expected result.

Yes it is lol.
Pretty sure I saw a retropie like play some saturn games. Surely they could do better.

 

[Doczu]

Ok, a Saturn one might be difficult due to the hardware used, but a RPi 4(00) equivalent hardware can emulate Dreamcast flawlessly on almost all titles.
Don't serve us bullshit Sega

 

[Krathoon]

For some weird reason, you need some beefy hardware to emulate a Saturn properly. The same with an N64. It is weird.

They have had a bitch of a time emulating those two consoles.

 

[Spaceman292]

Because it's got no games lmao

 

[Killer8]

The Sega Saturn is surprisingly high performance

SEGA still trying to save face with that piece of shit console.

Do what Sony did with the PS Classic - slap an off the shelf chipset in a tiny plastic shell and run an emulator with some roms on it. Done.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Too much power to miniaturize

 

[DGrayson]

The only mini systems I would care about would be the Saturn and the N64.

 

[Tarin02543]

No problem mr. CEO, I've just played Virtua Fighter on the latest Saturn core for my mister system.

Layer Section also runs great but stil missing sound

 

[Krathoon]

Then, you had that one guy commit suicide that emulated the N64 the best.

 

[Ar¢tos]

What good games did the Saturn have?
I hardly remember that period.

 

[Unknown?]

I thought this was obvious. And let’s be honest the PS Classic was a total hunk of shit.

Not hacked.

 

[cireza]

Good potential for something around Master System and Game Gear in the meantime, especially with M2 being experts about these consoles. No, the Game Gear Micro doesn't count. Aleste Collection is proof that MS/GG games can come on our TVs is great condition.

Saturn was always going to be difficult. Good on them not to be satisfied with an half-assed effort like Sony did with the PS1 Classic.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Ok, a Saturn one might be difficult due to the hardware used, but a RPi 4(00) equivalent hardware can emulate Dreamcast flawlessly on almost all titles.
Don't serve us bullshit Sega

Dreamcast was a much more straightforward architecture than Saturn, that is why it is easier to emulate.

 

[Krathoon]

There is some kind of voodoo going on with the Saturn architecture that makes it hard for people to wrap their minds around. Seems like only the Mednafen guy figured it out.

 

[Krathoon]

There are also the SSF and Bizhawk emulators.

Bizhawk kind of annoyed me that last time I tried to use it. Not that user friendly.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Courtesy of our very own VGEsoterica MiSTer is a great place to enjoy some Saturn ports and its continually getting better support as the core(s) mature.

YouTube MiSTer Saturn info

 

[Krathoon]

Yeah. They are figuring it out on the Mister.

 

[old-parts]

Sega President and COO Yukio Sugino has said that the Sega Saturn is proving difficult to adapt into a miniature console.

Speaking to Famitsu (translated by VGC), the Sega boss said: “The Sega Saturn is surprisingly high performance, so the difficulty of miniaturisation is also high.

Translation, the cheapest bottom of the barrel Allwinner Arm system on chips we used in past Sega mini consoles don't run the emulator well. We'd rather wait for prices to come down than spend a little extra on a chip that would be able to emulate Saturn games like something from Rockchip.

There is no magic or mystery around the Saturn emulation its just cost of doing it, they want it to be as cheap as possible.

 

[lostinblue]

Just make more Mega Drive mini, the 2 batches they did on different years sold out instantly...

After they're done with it they can do Saturn.

There is some kind of voodoo going on with the Saturn architecture that makes it hard for people to wrap their minds around. Seems like only the Mednafen guy figured it out.

Understandably.

Saturn is like the ending of a Power Rangers episode. They had a lot of parts neither was that competitive on their own against Nintendo and Sony so they combine everything for maximum damage and end up with a behemoth of transplanted bolted on stuff, bus between CPU's was an issue, memory pools were separate and had different speeds. The thing had dual main processors and dual GPU (asymmetrical though) in 1994 for gods sake. It also had shit documentation (which was an issue for programmers and later on for emulator devs) and crappy dev tools.

Ken Kutaragi probably loved it as PS2 and PS3 felt like Saturn successors and fared better at that.

 

[TheDreadLord]

a generic AliExpress Android handheld emulates a Saturn pretty well nowadays.

 

[Hudo]

Ok but what about Dreamcast Mini with online-playable PSO in it? If you can get that working then I don't need a Saturn Mini.

 

[Xenon]

no, difficult to do cheap enough is what he really means.

Yosuke Okunari said that he had considered producing mini versions of the classic consoles, but claimed that the cost of producing parts for either a Dreamcast or Saturn would be prohibitively expensive

That's what the man said.


I didn't think it was ever going to happen on the hardware the other minis were delivered on.

 

[Krathoon]

It seems like the chip in a Kindle Fire would run a Saturn emulator fine.

 

[ReBurn]

Don't worry Sega, someone is working on this for you.

What’s the Raspberry Pi CM4 Sega Saturn? What to Expect

The Raspberry Pi CM4 Sega Saturn is a great way to enjoy retro gaming nostalgia, Sega style.

www.makeuseof.com

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Just wait for Sega to figure out how to produce this for $15. Then you’ll get the $80 Saturn Mini with 10 games (maybe 15 in Japan), and then 10 months later, the $90 Saturn Mini 2 with 10 more games.

 

[nkarafo]

It's not as easy to emulate accurately as the PS1, that's for sure. It's going to need a bit of grunt to do so and those cheap ass socs they use don't cut it.

Don't worry Sega, someone is working on this for you.

What’s the Raspberry Pi CM4 Sega Saturn? What to Expect

The Raspberry Pi CM4 Sega Saturn is a great way to enjoy retro gaming nostalgia, Sega style.

www.makeuseof.com

That's trash. Any Pi based emulation box is trash. What will it even use for Saturn emulation? Kronos or Yabause? Both are pretty bad and Mednafen Saturn (the only good Saturn emulator) is too demanding for the Pi.

Ok, a Saturn one might be difficult due to the hardware used, but a RPi 4(00) equivalent hardware can emulate Dreamcast flawlessly on almost all titles.
Don't serve us bullshit Sega

Mednafen/Beetle Saturn is more demanding than Flycast. It requires a 4th gen i5 CPU to run every game at full speed. That's beyond the capabilities of any Pi device.

 

[West Texas CEO]

Just wait for Sega to figure out how to produce this for $15. Then you’ll get the $80 Saturn Mini with 10 games (maybe 15 in Japan), and then 10 months later, the $90 Saturn Mini 2 with 10 more games.

I'll give my left ovary for this to happen.

 

[nkarafo]

a generic AliExpress Android handheld emulates a Saturn pretty well nowadays.

No.

 

[Calverz]

At least we know they are trying. I’d love one as I never owned one but always wanted to when I was a kid.

 

[RoboFu]

My experience is you need something like an i3 / i5 with decent uhd graphics with mednafen

 

[Area61]

Meanwhile Android phones running most Saturn games surprisingly well.

 

[Sojiro]

Still would love to see it happen no matter how hard it is for you to do Sega!