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[cireza]

Is our cartridge a particular brand? Where did you get it from? How much did it cost, roughly? I mean, I'm glad your cartridge works, but... a couple of helpful details wouldn't hurt, dude

Next time avoid being rude and I might be of some help, dude

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Next time avoid being rude and I might be of some help, dude

I'll find out on my own. Thanks (for nothing...)

I wasn't trying to be rude, but I was frustrated that it was the 3rd time or so that I had been trying to get hardware related feedback/help in this thread, and got nothing. (And in general asking hardware related questions in this forum gets you... not very far.) Also, your answer came off as a bit of "works for me... sucks for you" which kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

So I'm gonna accept that this thread just seems to be about casual talk of Saturn games, and treat it as such.

I'll be posting pictures of one of my KoF '95 playthroughs sometime this week. Cheers!

 

[cireza]

I wasn't trying to be rude

You basically entered the thread telling me that I was blatantly lying, while my intention to begin with was simply to share my experience with the cartridge I had just received to the community here.

Also, your answer came off as a bit of "works for me... sucks for you"

Well excuse me dude, but as you entered the thread basically stating that I was lying, I felt the necessity to confirm that it was working correctly. There was no implication such as "sucks for you". This only happened in your head.

So I'm gonna accept that this thread just seems to be about casual talk of Saturn games, and treat it as such.

And you are being rude again, dismissing the quality of the discussion we have here.

I'll find out on my own.

Have a nice search

 

[SpiceRacz]

Sega Saturn 3D Showcase, Part Four

The fourth and final installment of my series at impressive 3D videogames for Sega Saturn is now published and online. Over 120 titles have been highlighted, which is a far greater number than I ever planned to write about. This was one of those topics where I thought I would cite a dozen examples, only to find the whole saga running away from me. The craziest thing is knowing that I could add still more games to the list. I could easily make a fifth episode if properly motivated, but I think four is more than enough.

Anyway, enjoy the final episode.

Never heard of Tennis Arena before, gonna try it out. Virtual Open Tennis was actually my first Saturn game and I played a ton of that. Tennis Arena looks considerably better, but like you mentioned, the bar for tennis games was pretty low (until Virtua Tennis).

 

[InfiniteCombo]

You basically entered the thread telling me that I was blatantly lying, while my intention to begin with was simply to share my experience with the cartridge I had just received to the community here.

Let's see my original statement, shall we?

I actually emailed a prominent dude on eBay that has sold a lot of these and is very knowledgeable; and, at least based on his response, the bolded is not quite true (unless you got a really fancy one, or one that I'm not aware of; that's entirely possible).

As you can see:

1. I never called you a liar
2. The bolded in my post was my acknowledgement that I didn't know which card you got, and that would've been your cue to say any number of things: (You saying to me): "Dude, stop talking to eBay amateurs" (LOL).... "Actually, I got [insert card here] and it seems to work fine".... "Yo InfiniteCombo, you're fake news, and here's why".... I'm being somewhat humorous but you get the point.

And yes, you're correct, I did talk about the quality of the discussion, out of frustration. But it's a measured frustration -- like I mentioned, I had reached out for help before in this very thread, but also:

- PC threads where requests for tips on getting graphics cards get ignored, only for people to come in gloating about "look at me! Got an RTX 3080!"
- Related to above, separate threads where people are bragging about selling their old graphics cards for high markups, when people on GAF itself have been asking around
- Any hardware related thread with somebody posting a problem, you get a lot of "works fine for me" drive by replies that are not altogether very helpful.
- Etc...

In my humble and relatively measured opinion, that seems like a lot of "fuck you, got mine" attitudes in a place that calls itself a community. So I think at some point I just got temporarily tired of those kinds of replies, and yours was the latest one in a string in such replies. (Setting aside if your reply was motivated by you thinking I came in acting like a dick, LOL).

Have a nice search

I certainly will. I'll run into someone who's actually... helpful?

Spoiler: Helpful

That's a joke by the way... I can't help being a smart ass sometimes.

I tell you what, man. Enough with the thread derail. Despite how this exchange has gone, from your posts I've seen on the forum, I do dig your taste in video games and don't want this exchange to harbor any hard feelings. I can assure you there are none from my side, this whole time I haven't meant (and haven't taken) anything personally.

So let's shake (virtual) hands, have that metaphorical beer, and keep talking about awesome Saturn games. This thread is largely a one-man show from DT Media, so instead of getting into beef and dividing, let's work together to lift up this thread even more.

And lastly... I'm a hard headed proud motherfucker, so I'll put my pride aside for a second and say that I apologize if I "came at you." As I explained above, that wasn't my intention.

Cheers, man!

 

[cireza]

I like this attitude.

Here is my experience so far with the Saturn. Not considering myself an expert, but I have 25 years of using this console. I had an Action Replay that I converted myself to Pseudo Saturn while doing a swap trick. Only did it once in my life, because I don't want to destroy my Saturn. I then bought the All in 1 Pseudo cart I am talking about.

From my experience in video-games overall, I would say that I do not know of any spotty carts. They work or they don't, but I don't remember having carts that would work or not based pure on randomness.
I know FOR SURE that the cartridge port of the Saturn is very spotty, and prone to failure. This is a very very common issue.
This problem is GREATLY enhanced by unofficial carts that we use a lot (like Action Replay) that have thicker, sometimes not beveled, PCB, and thus, push the connectors even deeper. After years of using Action Replay, good luck using official Memory or RAM carts : they will never get detected.

Even the Action Replay itself will become spotty. That's when you start playing with it a bit : insert it, boot, it is not detected. Move it a little in the port, boot. Still not detected. Move it again, boot : finally it is detected... but OH NO, all the saves that I had copied have disappeared ! This happens all the time. Probably the result of some pins not well detected and the Action Replay losing all its data for whatever reason.

My personal conclusion : Saturn cartridge port is a port where you should never remove the carts.

The one I have was bought on aliexpress. Search for Sega Saturn Pseudo, it is a black one with a switch on top. There are tons of it, can't tell you which one. It was a bit expensive, maybe 40$. I had to select the model that did everything by clicking on one of the pictures.

For now, it works and I am happy with it.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

The Sega Saturn community received a new notice from CWX, the person who has been undertaking an English translation of Princess Crown, the acclaimed Action-RPG from the same people who would go on to form indie darlings Vanillaware. He reports that personal issues have kept him very busy, but he is still very much interested in completing the project. This was the first word on the subject since December of 2019, and while the project remains on hiatus, it is good to hear from the translator and know he wishes to finish his work.

I was later informed directly by another source that the reasons for the ongoing delays stem from an ongoing legal battle over the estate of his late father, who passed away several years ago.

I bring this up because it is vitally important that we all recognize the enormous contributions provided by these individual programmers and translators who create fan translations of Japanese videogames. The fans who work on these projects do so entirely as a labor of love. Nobody ever gets paid or compensated in any way, and the completed patches are only distributed to a tiny number of people. If any given videogame translation is downloaded more than a couple hundred times, it is seen as a blockbuster smash hit. This is a tiny, tiny community of uber-diehard fans and amateur gaming historians.

The great thing about the homebrew videogame scene is that it's all being created for love, not money, not fame. Indeed, there are quite a few people who've had their knuckles slapped by copyright holders--we're specifically looking at you, Nintendo. Heaven knows there are far less stressful ways to spend your spare time. And so we should always applaud and offer our thanks for all the hard work from these individuals. We really should be paying them for what they do, even if it's just a couple bucks tossed into a Ko-Fi account.

While I do feel disappointed that Princess Crown will remain on hiatus for immediate future, I do remain hopeful that it will see completion. Perhaps other parties or translation teams could help out CWX or offer assistance? We certainly ought to point him in the direction of the SegaXtreme forums in any event, where many in the translation scene hang out.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

A big surprise announcement for Saturn fans: Bulk Slash is being given an English translation. This includes not only translating the Japanese text, but also includes newly-recorded voice tracks for the female copilots. Fantastic!

Here are the two relevant posts provided by the translation team to SegaXtreme, reprinted in their entirety. First, the initial post from March 31:

Announcing an English localization of Sega Saturn cult classic action game Bulk Slash!

Developed by CA Production and published by Hudson in 1997, Bulk Slash is one of the Saturn's best games, combining impressive 3D graphics with fast gameplay that allows the player to switch between a bipedal robot on the ground and a fighter jet in the air at will. But one of its most distinctive features is the ability to find navigators in each mission and bring them aboard your mech. They speak to you throughout each mission — giving directions to the next target, cheering on the player for destroying a swath of enemies, informing the player how many mission-critical objectives remain, even yelling out when the mech takes damage. Each of the seven navigators has different personalities and provide different gameplay benefits when they level up through repeated playthroughs.

But there's one problem for non-Japanese speakers: The navigators speak Japanese, and there are no on-screen subtitles for their lines.

Much of the game's on-screen text is already in English, from the in-mission user interface to the options screen to graphical elements on the stage select and mission briefings. This has allowed English speakers to get through the game without too much trouble, but none of the mission briefings or navigator introductions are in English, and a lot of the game's charm is lost without knowing what the navigators are saying during each mission — choosing one you like and hearing how her lines change as you level up your relationship is a big part of Bulk Slash's unique appeal. Besides, the ability to read each mission briefing in English greatly increases this game's accessibility, allowing English-speaking players to understand the situation — no more referring to an online FAQ to figure out what the hell you're supposed to do!

Greg, Mampfus and I have been working for the last month to make this game as accessible as possible to English speakers. Thanks to Mampfus, we have the ability to swap any in-game Japanese text with English fonts that I created, and we can swap any Japanese voice file for a new one from an English speaker. Thanks to Greg's translations, we've got all seven mission briefings in English, all seven M.I.S.S. navigators' introductions in English, and soon we'll have the controller configuration screen and the end credits changed over to English in game, too. Greg is still working on translating all of the in-game voice lines but he's got nearly half of them finished already.

But there's one thing we can't do on our own, and that's record voiceovers for all the navigators in the game. We need eight female (including the player's childhood friend) and one male (the player) volunteer voice actors to finish this localization project. Each navigator has about 100 lines, although many of them are very short — things like "behind us," "one remaining" and "target set." The player and his childhood friend have just a handful of lines of lines each.

There are also a number of smaller roles for the ending cutscenes, should we go forward with dubbing over those instead of simply adding subtitles to the Cinepak video files — a male narrator, a female child, several male children, etc.

So if you're a voice actor or you know one who would be willing to help, please let us know here on SegaXtreme or by emailing us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you! We also hang out on Sega Saturn Shiro's Discord server, and we can be reached out to on Twitter @lacquerleaks (Greg) and @Danbo_4 (me).

To be clear, this is an unfunded fan project and we're relying entirely on volunteers. But that also means it would be perfect for aspiring voice actors looking for more experience, or for voice actors who would love to help bring this awesome game to a wider audience.

Special thanks to Knight0fdragon for technical assistance to get us started with poking around the code, to Malenko for his suggestions with the on-screen English fonts, and to Ghaleon for providing editing assistance. We really appreciate the help they've given us. And thank you to Sega Saturn Shiro for bringing all of us together in the first place!

Secondly, here is the followup post from April 13:

OK, I suppose we're overdue for an update, so here goes. A lot has happened in the last two weeks!

We've gotten quite a few volunteers to lend their voices to the game and we're really excited about the applicants so far. We've had several men step forward to audition for Cress, the player character, but we're still looking for women to audition for the eight female characters in Bulk Slash. Well, seven — we've chosen an actress named Dark Mysty for Princess Metical and we hope to do a proper recording of all of her lines later this week. A few women have volunteered to audition for the other female parts and we'd love to hear from even more who might be interested.

We're still working on how to make voice clips sound as loud and clear as possible in the game, but Mampfus is finding that it does seem like recording at a frequency of 22050 hz in mono instead of stereo works best. He tried boosting the volume in post on some of Mysty's lines and our own test lines, and most of the lines seem pretty OK in-game. Sometimes they're a bit too quiet amidst all the sound effects, though.

A friend of Mampfus created a tool that makes it super easy replace in-game voice lines with new English ones as long as they're named the same thing and the English voice files aren't longer than the Japanese originals (which makes sense). It's going to really help us implement the voice acting quickly once we get rolling with the actors.

We're actually still working on the translations for the navigators' voice lines. Five of them are pretty much done, but Naira and Kina are still in progress. Our translator, Greg, is only one man! He's been working really hard to get through all the dialogue, though. After he finishes the voiced lines, he'll move on to transcribing and translating the eight ending cutscenes.

As for graphics, we implemented a translation of the controller setup screen. It uses the same set of fonts as the mission briefings during the game, so it was pretty simple for Mampfus to get this screen in shape.

Translating this screen was tougher than actually implementing the translation — there's not enough room in some of these spots for the words we originally wanted to use, like "transform" for the A button, or "turn left" and "turn right" for the D-pad functions (in Type C ... those functions are on the shoulder buttons in the Type A configuration). We thought about using "transf." but Greg wants to avoid abbreviations if at all possible. So we settled for saying "morph" instead of "transform. And we put "rotate" and "strafe" and didn't specify "left" and "right" since that should be pretty obvious anyway.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the C button in robot mode says "jumpjet" instead of simply "jump" because it looked strange to have so much black space on screen for such a short word.

The other project for on-screen localization that we accomplished in the last two weeks was making edits to the Navigator Select screen. It's riddled with misspelled names — "Reone" instead of "Leone," "Meticul" instead of "Metical," "Lupia" instead of "Rupia" and "Coron" instead of "Colon." They're misspelled not only on the nameplates that you select on the left side of the screen but also in the biographical text on the right that appears when you highlight a character's name.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

The Grandia translation has just been updated with its latest patch, version 0.9.4. This corrects a number of typos and subtitle errors in the game. You can read all the specific details on the official download page.

Grandia Translation Patch v.0.9.4

 

[celsowmbr]

Sega Saturn 3D Showcase, Part Four

The fourth and final installment of my series at impressive 3D videogames for Sega Saturn is now published and online. Over 120 titles have been highlighted, which is a far greater number than I ever planned to write about. This was one of those topics where I thought I would cite a dozen examples, only to find the whole saga running away from me. The craziest thing is knowing that I could add still more games to the list. I could easily make a fifth episode if properly motivated, but I think four is more than enough.

Anyway, enjoy the final episode.

final episode ????

noooooo please ! more ! more !

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

If you kids want more articles by me, then it’s time to start paying. Which reminds me, I need to set up a Ko-Fi account.

I would like to write two more Saturn articles similar to the 3D series: one that shows off Sat-PSX games that are equally good, and another where the Saturn version is superior. Both lists are longer than you would think.

Short, Short Version: Saturn’s first year was kind of rough, but everything got better after that. Unfortunately, hardly anybody had bothered to look by that point.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

We're taking a fresh look at Magic Carpet on Sega Saturn, this time the Japanese release, which arrived nine months after the North American release in December 1996. This version makes a number of improvements, which is a very welcome surprise. Most notable is the inclusion of analog controller support. I've played for a while and I can faithfully report that the analog steering is a game changer. Movements are now subtle and graceful and circle strafing is far more effective than it was with purely digital controls. It's worth picking up the import just for this feature.

In addition, the JP edition fixes some of the graphical glitches from the Western release, particularly the polygon warping that occurs whenever you fly too close to any objects. I made sure to play both versions back to back to confirm this. Movement and frame rates appear to be slightly smoother, although this could be perception bias.

Finally, and this is a welcome addition for new players, a mission screen appears before each stage that lays out your objectives. This is very helpful, as Magic Carpet can feel a little strange and alienating for beginners. Unfortunately, all of this text is in Japanese, so if you don't read the language...well, it's the thought that counts. Perhaps we could find a translator somewhere to create an English language patch?

The overall experience is slightly more polished, which happens quite a lot with Saturn games. As a general rule, you'll want to get the later version as that may include bug fixes and tweaks. Examples include the US versions of Daytona USA, Tomb Raider and Steep Slope Sliders, and the JP version of Daytona USA Circuit Edition.

I've always loved Bullfrog's Magic Carpet and highly recommend it to all Saturn and Playstation owners, and especially those who can play the PC original. It strikes a very unique tone in the first-person shooter genre, mashing Doom with elements from Populous. Its pacing and battles feel more strategic and intelligent than simply blasting everything in sight. You have to have an actual battle plan and know your environment to succeed.

Again, if you're going to play this videogame, make it the Japanese Saturn edition. That's the definitive console take on the classic.

 

[thiagosimoes]

They published one game for the Playstation but it was in 2003 and it was some random Deformed Idol game. (I know it's not at the time, but it's pretty interesting to discover they did release something on a Competitors Console)

It's called MiniMoni: Shaker and Tambourine! Dapyon!

Just a random thing you'd like to see.

Yes, I remember playing this. It's like a poor man's Samba de Amigo, but it's still good enough to kill some time and have fun. The PS1 even got another game published by Sega: a reprint of Puyo Puyo Sun released in 2003.

In fact, Sega had involvement in a number of games for other systems, including the Super Famicom and Nintendo 64. It might sound crazy, but that's true. The SF received a port of Columns in 1999, and the N64 had Sega's name on the title screen of Puyo Puyon Party. In the late 90s, Sega also published a number of titles for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

 

[thiagosimoes]

Sega Saturn 3D Showcase, Part Four

The fourth and final installment of my series at impressive 3D videogames for Sega Saturn is now published and online. Over 120 titles have been highlighted, which is a far greater number than I ever planned to write about. This was one of those topics where I thought I would cite a dozen examples, only to find the whole saga running away from me. The craziest thing is knowing that I could add still more games to the list. I could easily make a fifth episode if properly motivated, but I think four is more than enough.

Anyway, enjoy the final episode.

Absolutely fantastic! I love the series! I'd love to see one more installment. You're missing Digital Dance Mix, D-Xhird and Fantastep, three of the best-looking games for the console, in my opinion. There are also other games that could be added, such as Final Fight Revenge, Layer Section II, Big Thanks Super Keirin, Mahoutsukai ni Naru Houhou, Nascar 98, Crime Wave, Elan Doree, F1 Challenge, Ninpen Manmaru, Jung Rhythm, Die Hard Trilogy, and even Hang On GP, Vatlva, DJ Wars and Densha de GO EX, if you're running out of options. I'd say even the bonus stages in Sonic 3D Blast are worth mentioning. Oh, and did you ever mention Radiant Silvergun, Virtual On and Thunder Force V? I really can't remember.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Absolutely fantastic! I love the series! I'd love to see one more installment. You're missing Digital Dance Mix, D-Xhird and Fantastep, three of the best-looking games for the console, in my opinion. There are also other games that could be added, such as Final Fight Revenge, Layer Section II, Big Thanks Super Keirin, Mahoutsukai ni Naru Houhou, Nascar 98, Crime Wave, Elan Doree, F1 Challenge, Ninpen Manmaru, Jung Rhythm, Die Hard Trilogy, and even Hang On GP, Vatlva, DJ Wars and Densha de GO EX, if you're running out of options. I'd say even the bonus stages in Sonic 3D Blast are worth mentioning. Oh, and did you ever mention Radiant Silvergun, Virtual On and Thunder Force V? I really can't remember.

Yes, I could easily put together a fifth installment in the series, but I've made the case well enough. There is one fishing game that I have to edit into one of the articles, but I keep forgetting to do that. There's always more great looking 3D videogames on Saturn. I did have DJ Wars on my list but cut it out at the last minute in order to keep the final order around 120.

Did I forget to mention Radiant Silvergun and Thunder Force 5? Those are predominantly 2D videogames, so that's probably why. I might have to edit in Silvergun just for its own sake, as it's absolutely fantastic, but its visuals are 90 percent 2D. I definitely did mention Virtual On, that's a great one.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

A quick note: I updated my Sega Saturn 3D articles to include three games that I missed the first time around: Radiant Silvergun, Digital Dance Mix and Murakoshi Masami no Bakuchou Nippon Rettou (that's the super rare fishing game released in 1998). As always, I could add another ten or twenty games to the list, but the point is pretty much made. With over 120 examples of quality 3D graphics, I think we have definitively broken this absurd meme that Saturn "can't doo three dee."

Short, Short Version: whenever anyone brings up the topic, don't get locked into any useless debates. Just send them to the articles and be done with it.

 

[Komatsu]

A big surprise announcement for Saturn fans: Bulk Slash is being given an English translation. This includes not only translating the Japanese text, but also includes newly-recorded voice tracks for the female copilots. Fantastic!

Here are the two relevant posts provided by the translation team to SegaXtreme, reprinted in their entirety. First, the initial post from March 31:



Secondly, here is the followup post from April 13:

Fantastic news. Bulk Slash is such a great game.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I like this attitude.

Here is my experience so far with the Saturn. Not considering myself an expert, but I have 25 years of using this console. I had an Action Replay that I converted myself to Pseudo Saturn while doing a swap trick. Only did it once in my life, because I don't want to destroy my Saturn. I then bought the All in 1 Pseudo cart I am talking about.

From my experience in video-games overall, I would say that I do not know of any spotty carts. They work or they don't, but I don't remember having carts that would work or not based pure on randomness.
I know FOR SURE that the cartridge port of the Saturn is very spotty, and prone to failure. This is a very very common issue.
This problem is GREATLY enhanced by unofficial carts that we use a lot (like Action Replay) that have thicker, sometimes not beveled, PCB, and thus, push the connectors even deeper. After years of using Action Replay, good luck using official Memory or RAM carts : they will never get detected.

Even the Action Replay itself will become spotty. That's when you start playing with it a bit : insert it, boot, it is not detected. Move it a little in the port, boot. Still not detected. Move it again, boot : finally it is detected... but OH NO, all the saves that I had copied have disappeared ! This happens all the time. Probably the result of some pins not well detected and the Action Replay losing all its data for whatever reason.

My personal conclusion : Saturn cartridge port is a port where you should never remove the carts.

The one I have was bought on aliexpress. Search for Sega Saturn Pseudo, it is a black one with a switch on top. There are tons of it, can't tell you which one. It was a bit expensive, maybe 40$. I had to select the model that did everything by clicking on one of the pictures.

For now, it works and I am happy with it.

I appreciate all the tips.

Yeah, I know the Saturn cart slot is pretty feeble. And I did a ton of research, and there's not much you can do about a faulty cart slot outside of re-soldering and hoping for the best. I don't understand why it's not like the NES one; the original NES, I can literally walk into my local retro store and buy a 72-pin connector to replace my NES one if it's faulty. After the research I did, I couldn't find a similar possibility with the Saturn.

Anyway, for a LONG time, I just kept my Action Reply permanently in my US Saturn, and only took it out when I took the Saturn in for repairs to my local shop. That's where the issue first started happening, and I bought the replacement/secondary (JP) Saturn.

When I saw your post, I got interested in the backups part, since one time my young nephew seemed a bit too interested in "the game with the ship on the cover." Uhhh, no kid, back away from that, that's a $250 Radiant Silvergun . That's when I thought that I should be making backups of some of the more expensive games that I own.

Anyway, I'll check this AliExpress and look for something that hopefully suits my needs. Again, thanks for the tip

 

[cireza]

I appreciate all the tips.

Yeah, I know the Saturn cart slot is pretty feeble. And I did a ton of research, and there's not much you can do about a faulty cart slot outside of re-soldering and hoping for the best. I don't understand why it's not like the NES one; the original NES, I can literally walk into my local retro store and buy a 72-pin connector to replace my NES one if it's faulty. After the research I did, I couldn't find a similar possibility with the Saturn.

Anyway, for a LONG time, I just kept my Action Reply permanently in my US Saturn, and only took it out when I took the Saturn in for repairs to my local shop. That's where the issue first started happening, and I bought the replacement/secondary (JP) Saturn.

When I saw your post, I got interested in the backups part, since one time my young nephew seemed a bit too interested in "the game with the ship on the cover." Uhhh, no kid, back away from that, that's a $250 Radiant Silvergun . That's when I thought that I should be making backups of some of the more expensive games that I own.

Anyway, I'll check this AliExpress and look for something that hopefully suits my needs. Again, thanks for the tip

I remember changing the connector slot in my NES myself and there was no soldering involved. It was a very easy fix indeed.

Hope you find what you need.

 

[Komatsu]

If you kids want more articles by me, then it’s time to start paying. Which reminds me, I need to set up a Ko-Fi account.

Share it with us once you have it ready - I'd be happy to buy coffee after years of being endlessly entertained by your content.

---

That said, guys, now that summer is approaching and GAF will get its fair share of kids bored out of their minds with the quarantine and all, I was thinking of starting a "Summer of Saturn" thread to bring some much needed focus to our little black/gray wonder.

Just an OT where we talk about the Saturn games we love. I'm planning on posting images, some interviews, etc. Daniel Thomas MacInnes - could I use some of the content here? All due credit given, of course. Now that Saturn emulation allows us to play many classics at full speed, even those who don't have the console would be able to partake.

I've been thinking about this ever since the last Saturn thread in Gaming was full of half-assed generalities that don't actually conform to the reality of what that little beast was capable of.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

As previously promised... The King of Fighters '95.

Without getting into details or being overly corny, this game has a lot of sentimental value to me. In some ways -- if it wasn't for this game impressing me the way it did when I first saw it, I might not be in this forum today.

Anyway, after many years of not owning it, I re-ordered a copy from Japan, which got here a couple of weeks ago. A few screenshots:

One aspect that I love about this game -- its loading screens. Unlike later King of Fighters games on the Saturn, the ones here don't take very long, and they have A LOT of personality. So they use character portraits in the loading screens; the thing is, the character portraits are NOT the ones you already have in this game. They're different. For some characters, the portrait is from KoF 96 (the next entry); see Kyo's below. But for others, the portrait is custom (see King's portrait below). They're amazing, and I love them:

[EDIT]: The weird lines you see in the victory screen below -- they're TV refresh artifacts, and only there because it's a static picture.

 

[Komatsu]

InfiniteCombo - amazing screenshots. Is this a tube TV you're playing it on or are you using a capture card on your PC and applying a shader on top of the Saturn feed?

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Yo, Komatsu !

First, thanks for the compliment, appreciate it! And I agree, the pictures look great -- but that's thanks to the Saturn itself, the console that (in my opinion) has the best looking 2D games. If you like those kinds of screenshots, check out my screenshot set for A Link to the Past in the "backlog" community thread in this forum!

No new games in 2021, unfinished backlog only

18. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (PC) - 30hrs This really is a game that gets better the further you get. I tried it years ago and put it down after a couple of hours. This time I was in a better frame of mind to give it real chance. After about 8hrs I started to appreciate it more and more...

www.neogaf.com

Second, my setup: Sega Saturn -> RGB SCART -> XRGB Mini ("Framemeister") -> HDMI out -> Flat Panel TV.

Surprisingly, it's just a flat LED panel; a middle of the road one, not even all that remarkable (although I'm very happy with the image). It's a Vizio E55i-B2.

The key things, I think:
(1) I've calibrated the Framemeister RGB settings per various online recommendations; (including this YouTube video: )
(2) I've calibrated the TV image based on recommended CNET settings (and I find it to look really, really good)

Then, I take pictures of the games with my cell phone (a Galaxy S9; I haven't calibrated the camera settings at all, I use the stock options).

All I do after that is simply upload the pictures to my computer, crop them (the game image is 4:3, the TV is 16:9, so I remove the "black bars" because they don't add anything).

That's literally all I do. ZERO image post-processing/manipulation of any sort.

If you enjoy those pictures, wait until I start posting pictures of some of the other Saturn games I own -- Vampire Savior and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, in particular, are drool-inducing. They look THAT good.

[EDIT]: Forgot to mention sources.

So the Saturn RGB SCART cable, I got it from an eBay store (it has been too long, but I think they're simply called "Retro Access" or something).

The Framemeister, I also got from eBay back when it was still somewhat commonplace to find it. Unfortunately, I think they've stopped production of it, and if you can even find one on eBay, they're prohibitively expensive. BUT -- an amazing alternative (which I also own) is the OSSC, which is actually even more affordable than the Framemeister ever was. And I think it has tons more options, too. And another advantage that the OSSC has over the Framemeister is that (we're all SEGA fans here, right!? ) is that it takes VGA input, which means that it's the best your Dreamcast image is ever going to look.

On the other hand, the Framemeister has D-input (the Japanese equivalent to component), which is the connection type I have for both the Wii and the PS2; and, most importantly of all, the OSSC has an issue with RGB images from the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom.

Cheers!

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Share it with us once you have it ready - I'd be happy to buy coffee after years of being endlessly entertained by your content.

---

That said, guys, now that summer is approaching and GAF will get its fair share of kids bored out of their minds with the quarantine and all, I was thinking of starting a "Summer of Saturn" thread to bring some much needed focus to our little black/gray wonder.

Just an OT where we talk about the Saturn games we love. I'm planning on posting images, some interviews, etc. Daniel Thomas MacInnes - could I use some of the content here? All due credit given, of course. Now that Saturn emulation allows us to play many classics at full speed, even those who don't have the console would be able to partake.

I've been thinking about this ever since the last Saturn thread in Gaming was full of half-assed generalities that don't actually conform to the reality of what that little beast was capable of.

Aw, shucks, thanks. Feel free to steal whatever you need from this Saturn Community forum.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

My latest Saturn collection arrived in time for my birthday this week: Core's 1996 tank shoot-em-up Shellshock. Once again, can we just sit back and marvel at how cool the Japanese Saturn CD cover designs look? The lame US box art is an embarrassment by comparison, as usual. Note also that Electronic Arts was the JP publisher, and they also published a few other Saturn games like Soukyugurentai.

This action game is straightforward and simple, you drive a number of tanks around urban environments, destroying enemy tanks, blowing up trees and generally smashing everything in sight. You can't destroy the buildings, which is a shame, but that's what Mass Destruction is for. Core uses the Thunderstrike 2 graphics engine and everything runs extremely smooth. Most of the art assets are drawn with VDP2 planes or bitmap sprites, with buildings and bridges rendered in polygons, making this a videogame that plays to Saturn's strengths. Oh, and there are no annoying zig-zags as seen in the Playstation version, but aside from that, the two are identical.

The only notable change to the Japanese Shellshock is the change of voice-overs to Japanese, which means that diehard fans will still want to have a US/PAL disc in their collections, but bear in mind that the JP release is cheaper and easier to find. And let's not forget about that great cover design. I really wish Sega America and Sega Europe had used jewel cases instead of using unsold Sega CD cases.

If you want a good arcade-style game with impressive 3D graphics on your Saturn, Shellshock is right up your alley.

 

[Kazza]

Has anyone here watched the Hi-Score Girl anime? I watched it on Netflix and would highly recommend it. It gives a good perspective on 90s gaming culture in Japan, with much more focus on things like arcades and the PC Engine than you typically get from Western retrospectives on the era. Seeing as the Saturn outsold the Playstation there for the first 1-2 years, it's perhaps not surprising that the main character decides to opt for Team Saturn in 1994. Here's a short clip featuring the Saturn (I prefer the Japanese dub):

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Has anyone here watched the Hi-Score Girl anime? I watched it on Netflix and would highly recommend it. It gives a good perspective on 90s gaming culture in Japan, with much more focus on things like arcades and the PC Engine than you typically get from Western retrospectives on the era. Seeing as the Saturn outsold the Playstation there for the first 1-2 years, it's perhaps not surprising that the main character decides to opt for Team Saturn in 1994. Here's a short clip featuring the Saturn (I prefer the Japanese dub):

It's the ultimate computer nerd fantasy: sullen teenage videogamer has pretty girl in his bedroom, but all he wants to do is play Virtua Fighter and scold her for having a Sony Playstation. He hardly even looks at her, and forget about wrapping his arms around her and kissing her...you know, the sort of things normal teenage boys fantasize about when they imagine cute girls alone with them in their room.

I should add for the record that I am vaguely aware of the Hi Score Girl manga comic and TV anime, although the very idea of girls playing videogames and hanging out at video arcades is soooo alien to anybody who grew up in the 1980s, it isn't even funny. Seriously, ZZ Top and Van Halen videos were more realistic and likely to happen to us.

 

[Kazza]

It's the ultimate computer nerd fantasy: sullen teenage videogamer has pretty girl in his bedroom, but all he wants to do is play Virtua Fighter and scold her for having a Sony Playstation. He hardly even looks at her, and forget about wrapping his arms around her and kissing her...you know, the sort of things normal teenage boys fantasize about when they imagine cute girls alone with them in their room.

I should add for the record that I am vaguely aware of the Hi Score Girl manga comic and TV anime, although the very idea of girls playing videogames and hanging out at video arcades is soooo alien to anybody who grew up in the 1980s, it isn't even funny. Seriously, ZZ Top and Van Halen videos were more realistic and likely to happen to us.

Oh, it's even more unrealistic than you think! It's not just one super cute girl constantly chasing him while he ignores her playing games, there are actually two super cute girls constantly chasing him while he ignores them playing games! Oh, and they battle it out over who has the right to be his girlfriend by, wait for it, playing a series of one on one versus matches at the arcade. Ultimate computer nerd fantasy indeed...

To be fair, the boy's best friend does go on these angry rants about how and why his average looking nerdy friend has the prettiest girls in school chasing after him, so the show's writers themselves are aware of the ridiculousness of the premise. That said, the show itself is fun to watch, with lots of great 90s Japanese gaming trivia, as well as so nice coming of age moments.

One of my favourite parts was when the blonde girl, having first bonded with the boy over two player Final Fight sessions in the arcade, has her father buy her a copy of the game for her SNES so that she has an excuse to invite him over to her place to play it together. You can probably guess the problem with that plan...

I think the show nicely captures the excitement of the move to 8, then 16 then 32/64 bit systems in the 90s. The way they insert so much actual game footage so seamlessly into the animation is also very well done.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

A welcome update on the English translation of Fire Pro Wrestling: 6 Man Scramble for Sega Saturn:

ALL THE MOVES ARE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Files updated on the google link. All that is really left is some polish (NOT Polish!) and tackling the story mode. Slinga is working on a tool to make story mode go faster (he made one for the moves but I did it the hard way because I had to make a lot of tiles and I cheated A LOT on spaces)

If you dont play the victory road mode, this update is the last one you have to worry about.

This is a pretty big milestone for me.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

The latest update on the Bulk Slash translation was posted a week ago on the SegaXtreme forums:

A few updates in the last week or so ... We had our first recording session with a voice actress over the weekend. We chose Dark Mysty to play Metical Flair. It went great, we're very happy with her work, and now Mampfus is mastering the audio to include it in the game. He's already recruited a friend who created a tool that makes replacing the game's existing audio files with the matching English ones super easy.

We've brought Burntends (from the Sakura Wars Columns 2 team) onboard to help coordinate and communicate with voice actors and actresses, and to find more VAs willing to audition. He's already been a big help taking that load off the rest of the team's shoulders.

In other news, Lacquerware finished translating the last of the navigators' in-game dialogue. All that's left is the dialogue in the endings and the translation will be complete. We were planning on simply subtitling the endings because we don't have the source music used in them, but someone in our new Bulk Slash Discord server, Jiggle, volunteered to help rescore the music in the endings by ear! This is super exciting because it means we can mix that and recreated SFX with English dubs that we record with our VAs and add all of that to the original endings' videos! It'll be a completely dubbed English patch.

In graphics news, I'm looking into replacing the credits with Japanese translations. It's going to be a lot of work (the credits are 2,613 tiles long) but we should have no problem fitting English into it because the original credits waste about 1,120 tiles on blank spaces during line breaks. I think we can get away with reducing those line breaks to just one blank space tile each and use the other 1,056 tiles on English letters elsewhere. I'm also fairly sure that it doesn't matter where the lines end as long as the total length of the credits sequence remains the same. Wish me luck.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Good news, everyone! I have joined the staff of Sega Saturn Shiro. I will be submitting updated and revised versions of my "Sega Saturn 3D Showcase" articles and we will take things from there. I am looking forward to seeing the first essay posted on their website, and I've already received many thanks on my Twitter feed.

At this time, I don't think this will impact my publishing schedule here on the NeoGAF Sega Saturn Community, which is a slightly different beast. My DT MEDIA publishing duties are doing that enough on its own, thank you very much.

 

[Komatsu]

It's the end of an era..

 

[Havoc2049]

Has anyone heard any news about an English translation for Dungeon Master Nexus on the Sega Saturn?

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I had owned the previous volumes for some time; with the arrival of Volume 1 yesterday, my set is complete:

This is the Capcom Generation 5-volume set, which was released for both the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation. These are Japan-exclusive, except for Volume 5 which was released as "Street Fighter Collection 2" here in the United States.

I will be posting about the games in these collections as I play them, but the general summary is:

Volume 1 - "Wings of Destiny" (or some such cheesy title like that): The vertical shoot 'em up volume, has 1942, 1943, and 1943 Kai. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a B rank.
Volume 2 - "Makaimura": The Ghosts n' Ghouls/Ghosts n' Goblins series, has Ghosts n' Goblins, Ghouls n' Ghosts, and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts. The latter title is notable for being an enhanced port of the SNES version (plays better and doesn't have any of the slowdowns of the SNES version). Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a A- rank.
Volume 3 - "The Early Years": The pre-CPS, really early arcade collection. Has Vulgus, SonSon, Pirate Ship, and Exed Exes. Quite honestly, probably the least playable of the collection. Some of these really early titles don't hold up very well. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a C- rank.
Volume 4 - "Blazing Guns": What I call the "Contra-like" series, has three run-n-gun games: Commando, Gun.Smoke, and Mercs. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a B+ rank.
Volume 5 - "Street Fighter II": The crown jewel of the collection (in my opinion anyway), has the three CPS-1 Street Fighter games: Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II', and Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Hyper Fighting is hands down the best game in the entire Capcom Generation series. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume an S rank.

On top of the games, each collection has art galleries, tips, ability to listen to soundtracks, etc. (Again, I'll be posting pictures of all this stuff whenever I get to these games in my backlog order).

I love most of the these games and have already played them all to varying degrees. In my opinion, I'd rank the series:

5 > 2 > 4 >= 1 >>>>>>> 3.

You have to be a big Capcom fan to pursue this collection in this day and age. First of all, the collection was released for the PS1 (in Japan) as well, and it can be had for cheaper on that console (Although the games are ever-so-slightly lower quality there). Even more, all of these games (plus more) actually make up the Capcom Classics Collection on PS2; so getting that PS2 game will get you these games at a very small fraction of the cost of this Saturn collection. But for those looking to get into this collection, some tips:

(1) Do not, for any reason, buy an "entire set" from any seller on eBay. I've noticed that these whole-set listings have massively inflated prices, on top of individual games already being expensive.
(2) You can save a reasonable amount of money on each volume if you don't get a "truly complete" version -- note that in my picture, all of my copies have the "OBI strip" (spine cover). That's just something I like in my disc-based (Saturn/PS1) Japanese games, and I got lucky to get the games with OBI strips when they had reasonable prices, but I've noticed that those will cost you more these days.
(3) I think something has happened, maybe Covid-induced; a lot of Japanese-sourced sellers have jacked up their shipping prices (to somewhere around $15-$20 per game). I find these shipping charges somewhat ridiculous, but don't blame the sellers; I think for Covid reasons, they can't by and large use the USPS anymore, and have to use private parcel services (e.g., DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc). But there are still sellers with either free shipping, or sub-$10 shipping. Obviously look out for those.
(4) And finally... be patient! Look for the cheaper versions of these games. When you do, look at the posted pictures carefully; quite often you get what you pay for. If it's a matter of paying an extra $10 for a much better/cleaner/more complete version, obviously go for that.

The Sega Saturn rocks. Happy gaming, everyone!

 

[SpiceRacz]

I had owned the previous volumes for some time; with the arrival of Volume 1 yesterday, my set is complete:

This is the Capcom Generation 5-volume set, which was released for both the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation. These are Japan-exclusive, except for Volume 5 which was released as "Street Fighter Collection 2" here in the United States.

I will be posting about the games in these collections as I play them, but the general summary is:

Volume 1 - "Wings of Destiny" (or some such cheesy title like that): The vertical shoot 'em up volume, has 1942, 1943, and 1943 Kai. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a B rank.
Volume 2 - "Makaimura": The Ghosts n' Ghouls/Ghosts n' Goblins series, has Ghosts n' Goblins, Ghouls n' Ghosts, and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts. The latter title is notable for being an enhanced port of the SNES version (plays better and doesn't have any of the slowdowns of the SNES version). Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a A- rank.
Volume 3 - "The Early Years": The pre-CPS, really early arcade collection. Has Vulgus, SonSon, Pirate Ship, and Exed Exes. Quite honestly, probably the least playable of the collection. Some of these really early titles don't hold up very well. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a C- rank.
Volume 4 - "Blazing Guns": What I call the "Contra-like" series, has three run-n-gun games: Commando, Gun.Smoke, and Mercs. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume a B+ rank.
Volume 5 - "Street Fighter II": The crown jewel of the collection (in my opinion anyway), has the three CPS-1 Street Fighter games: Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II', and Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Hyper Fighting is hands down the best game in the entire Capcom Generation series. Based on the quality of the games, I give this volume an S rank.

On top of the games, each collection has art galleries, tips, ability to listen to soundtracks, etc. (Again, I'll be posting pictures of all this stuff whenever I get to these games in my backlog order).

I love most of the these games and have already played them all to varying degrees. In my opinion, I'd rank the series:

5 > 2 > 4 >= 1 >>>>>>> 3.

You have to be a big Capcom fan to pursue this collection in this day and age. First of all, the collection was released for the PS1 (in Japan) as well, and it can be had for cheaper on that console (Although the games are ever-so-slightly lower quality there). Even more, all of these games (plus more) actually make up the Capcom Classics Collection on PS2; so getting that PS2 game will get you these games at a very small fraction of the cost of this Saturn collection. But for those looking to get into this collection, some tips:

(1) Do not, for any reason, buy an "entire set" from any seller on eBay. I've noticed that these whole-set listings have massively inflated prices, on top of individual games already being expensive.
(2) You can save a reasonable amount of money on each volume if you don't get a "truly complete" version -- note that in my picture, all of my copies have the "OBI strip" (spine cover). That's just something I like in my disc-based (Saturn/PS1) Japanese games, and I got lucky to get the games with OBI strips when they had reasonable prices, but I've noticed that those will cost you more these days.
(3) I think something has happened, maybe Covid-induced; a lot of Japanese-sourced sellers have jacked up their shipping prices (to somewhere around $15-$20 per game). I find these shipping charges somewhat ridiculous, but don't blame the sellers; I think for Covid reasons, they can't by and large use the USPS anymore, and have to use private parcel services (e.g., DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc). But there are still sellers with either free shipping, or sub-$10 shipping. Obviously look out for those.
(4) And finally... be patient! Look for the cheaper versions of these games. When you do, look at the posted pictures carefully; quite often you get what you pay for. If it's a matter of paying an extra $10 for a much better/cleaner/more complete version, obviously go for that.

The Sega Saturn rocks. Happy gaming, everyone!

I love those covers with the silhouettes. I've wanted to play Volume 2 ever since I heard this track.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

It's the end of an era..

Why? I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I love those covers with the silhouettes. I've wanted to play Volume 2 ever since I heard this track.

I forgot to mention, most (all?) of the Volumes in the collection have arranged soundtracks.

Also agree on the silhouette covers, they're amazing. They're a bit difficult to see from my picture though, due to the somewhat poor lighting in my picture. But still, they're fantastic.

(Off-topic: Love your avatar, Taxi Driver is one of my favorite movies of all time).

 

[DGrayson]

Good news, everyone! I have joined the staff of Sega Saturn Shiro. I will be submitting updated and revised versions of my "Sega Saturn 3D Showcase" articles and we will take things from there. I am looking forward to seeing the first essay posted on their website, and I've already received many thanks on my Twitter feed.

At this time, I don't think this will impact my publishing schedule here on the NeoGAF Sega Saturn Community, which is a slightly different beast. My DT MEDIA publishing duties are doing that enough on its own, thank you very much.

Hey congrats! look forward to seeing your work over there! Please post links.

 

[Kazza]

An interesting look at the Saturn from a Portuguese perspective (starts at around the 18 minute mark):




The 32 bit era there seems to have followed a similar trajectory as Japan (Saturn in the ascendant in 1995/96, and the Playstation dominant after that). However, a big difference was the system selling games: not Virtua Fighter and then FFVII as in Japan, but two Dragon Ball Z games!

It'd be interesting to here about other European markets. In the UK at least, the Saturn had a very similar experience as in the US - i.e. it pretty much bombed from the very start.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Okay, the Sega Saturn 3D Showcase, Part One article is now available on Sega Saturn Shiro. This is the latest revision of the essay that I wrote here and on my website, DT MEDIA, so be sure to check it out and share with others. Heck, maybe this will actually be seen and read by more than five people. I know, I'm a dreamer.

 

[Kazza]

Can anyone identify this game:

I spotted it while looking through an old issue of Mean Machines Sega. I think it was probably just cancelled.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

An interesting look at the Saturn from a Portuguese perspective (starts at around the 18 minute mark):




The 32 bit era there seems to have followed a similar trajectory as Japan (Saturn in the ascendant in 1995/96, and the Playstation dominant after that). However, a big difference was the system selling games: not Virtua Fighter and then FFVII as in Japan, but two Dragon Ball Z games!

It'd be interesting to here about other European markets. In the UK at least, the Saturn had a very similar experience as in the US - i.e. it pretty much bombed from the very start.

Interesting to see there!

Although didn't the UK have a niche Fanbase that the Magazine had 200,000 subscriptions at its peak?

I wouldn't be surprised at having so many imports in this country either.

I would like to add to my Saturn collection but happy with the small amount I do have.

 

[Kazza]

Interesting to see there!

Although didn't the UK have a niche Fanbase that the Magazine had 200,000 subscriptions at its peak?

I wouldn't be surprised at having so many imports in this country either.

I would like to add to my Saturn collection but happy with the small amount I do have.

Good to see you back on the forum! Just in time for all the big Sega news

That was probably the Official Sega Saturn Magazine. It was a top quality publication, so I wouldn't be surprised if it had a hardcore, loyal readership like that.

My current Saturn collection is equal to zero (I had over 20 games for it back then, but gave everything to my younger cousins)

 

[Unk Adams]

I remember seeing Sega Saturn games on clearance at stores for basically nothing and a few bucks a piece at flea markets, many of them still factory sealed. I wish I bought up those games years ago considering how ridiculous the prices are now. The cases alone are worth more today than what they were charging for the entire game back then. Plus the oversized jewel cases look great on a shelf.

 

[Kazza]

Looking forward to this!

Regarding those early third party games, at that point it still wasn't clear who was going to win that generation, so I guess they put more effort into their Saturn ports than they did in 97/98 (if they hadn't dropped the system completely by then).

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

My own experience with Saturn third-party software titles is that 1995 was rough, but by 1996 everything was smoothed out, and nearly every multi-platform videogame was more or less equal. There are some instances where the PSX version is better, others where the Saturn version is better, but most of the time they're both pretty much the same.

Of course, by that point, it was far too late to change Saturn's toxic reputation as the "can't doo three dee" machine, and as I've always said, once Nintendo 64 dropped, that was the ballgame. The market at that time just wasn't large enough to support three major gaming consoles.

I'm really looking forward to the Digital Foundry video comparisons. The promise of Atari Jaguar games also being featured is just the icing on the cake. Go Jag!

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I now have a Ko-Fi page! Yay! If you enjoy my work, please support me with a quick donation. Every bit helps, thank you very much!

Here is the first post to keep you entertained, a quick update on my upcoming art & photography ebooks.

Link: https://ko-fi.com/post/Covers-For-Upcoming-Ebooks-X8X04VGDL

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

It's been a while since anybody raved the joy fantastic about Fighters Megamix, and now that Sega has (finally!) brought back Virtua Fighter 5, I thought this would be the perfect time to highlight one of Sega's greatest experiments. Can you believe this videogame is still a Saturn exclusive (no, Game.com doesn't count) and that Sega hasn't expanded it into a Smash Brothers mega-blockbuster franchise? What the heck are they waiting for?

If I'm asked to name Sega's best fighting game for Saturn, I'll always go with Virtua Fighter 2, because I was there at the beginning and remember the immense impact it had. But for the more casual gamers, Megamix is the one to get. Half the player roster consists of "joke" characters, but that's half the charm. Who wouldn't love to play the Daytona USA race car, a bear balloon, a Mexican jumping bean in a mariachi suit, a bomb-throwing duck or a giant slab of meat with cartoon hands and feet? It's all a crazy hoot.

Oh, and don't forget about "hyper mode," which eliminates recovery times for fighters, which pretty much makes this a button masher's paradise. Take that, Eddie Gordo!

Seriously, Sega needs to bring Megamix back, and then make an expanded sequel including all the Sega characters. Why hasn't this happened at least a decade ago? Why isn't Alex Kidd fighting Knuckles? Why isn't the Sega Rally Delta Lancer knocking heads with Flicky? Why isn't Ninja Princess going five rounds against Shinobi? See how awesome this could be? If anything could make Sega cool again, it's this.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Sega Saturn 3D Showcase, Parts Two and Three are now available on Sega Saturn, Shiro. These articles are the latest drafts, meaning that I've updated and rewritten almost everything, so they're better than ever. Be sure to check them out and leave some happy comments.