The Official Sega Saturn Thread!

[Austin]

This has probably been posted here already, but for anyone curious as to what games need and/or use the RAM cart, see below [from Racketboy]. Note that not a single shmup requires it:

 

4MB RAM:
Dungeons & Dragons Collection
Final Fight Revenge
Friends: Seishun no Kagayaki
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter
Noёl 3
Noёl 3 Limited Editon
Pocket Fighter (OPTIONAL)
Street Fighter Zero 3
Super Real Mahjong P7
Vampire Savior
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Some Various Emulators

 

1MB RAM:
Astra Superstars
Cotton 2 (OPTIONAL)
Cyberbots (OPTIONAL)
Fatal Fury 3
Fighter’s History Dynamite
Friends: Seishun no Kagayaki
Groove On Fight
King of Fighters ’96
King of Fighters ’97
King of Fighters, The: Best Collection
KOF Double Pack: King of Fighters ’95 & ’96
Metal Slug
Noёl 3 Limited Editon
Noёl 3
Ragnagard
Real Bout Fatal Fury
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
Real Bout Garou Densetsu Best Collection
Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special
Samurai Showdown IV
Samurai Showdown III
Samurai Spirits Best Collection
Samurai Spirits: Amakusa Kourin
Samurai Spirits: Zankurou Musouken
Super Real Mahjong P7
Super Real Mahjong P7 P’s Club Limited Edition
Waku Waku 7

Edited April 20, 2023 by Austin

[DragonGrafx-16]

Maybe it was a warning screen for a save function for scores IDK I just remember it reacting differently to how I had my Pseudo Saturn cart switch set.

[Steven Pendleton]

I don't use a RAM cart at all on Soukyuugurentai and it works fine. The only game that I have that actually uses the RAM cart is Cotton 2, which I don't play often, so the save cartridge basically lives in my Saturn.

[Steven Pendleton]

One more shooting game that is an absolute must-play on the Saturn: After Burner II. Get the Mission Stick and play After Burner II.

 

As far as I can remember it's arcade perfect or really damn close to it, and I am pretty sure it lets you choose which version of the soundtrack you want. I have seen the arcade PCB at the local arcade game store for 220,000 yen and you don't even get the full experience unless you have the moving cabinet (lol good luck getting that), so the Saturn version with the Mission Stick is the next best thing and considerably cheaper.

 

Space Harrier is probably also really good on Saturn, but I have the original printing of the game, which doesn't work on later Saturns.

[digdugnate]

The Sega Ages games are really good.  I do in particular like After Burner, Outrun, Space Harrier, and Galaxy Force 2.

[82-T/A]

Is there a complete list of Sega Saturn games (with images) that anyone knows of? I want to buy a couple of Sega Saturn games... but don't want to just buy something based on a name. I have some pretty decent games already (thinking of offloading a couple, like VR Tennis), but want to pick up a few more. Hard to say what I like... I like some of the racing games, but I feel like there are so many good games that I just don't even know about...

 

 

Thanks!

[CapitanClassic]

Don’t know if it is complete (1279 games), which contradicts the Wikipedia Japanese (1125)/English (1046) lists, but I like the formatting of VGM. 
 

You can either browse by Letter, or Filter by Genre, and either a single screenshot or a Listing will be displayed. You can click on it and bring you to the games database entry which usually includes 3-5 more screenshots,  year released, developer, etc.

 

SegaRetro has fewer screenshots, but it does boast more information like Magazine scans, game cover, disc cover, etc, as well as Average score from magazine reviews. Also has better filtering by Region, Year, etc.

Edited April 26, 2023 by CapitanClassic

[82-T/A]

19 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

Don’t know if it is complete (1279 games), which contradicts the Wikipedia Japanese (1125)/English (1046) lists, but I like the formatting of VGM. 
 

You can either browse by Letter, or Filter by Genre, and either a single screenshot or a Listing will be displayed. You can click on it and bring you to the games database entry which usually includes 3-5 more screenshots,  year released, developer, etc.

 

SegaRetro has fewer screenshots, but it does boast more information like Magazine scans, game cover, disc cover, etc, as well as Average score from magazine reviews. Also has better filtering by Region, Year, etc.

 

Awesome! Thanks man!

[Steven Pendleton]

As far as I know, Satakore is the best

 

https://www.satakore.com/

[Yakumo1975]

On 4/20/2023 at 12:58 PM, DragonGrafx-16 said:

I remember a warning screen without using it.

That may have been telling you about a lack of space to save data.  

[Hydro Thunder]

Notable Birthday missed (just like the actual original date ba dum bum!), 5/11/95 was the US Sur prize launch of the Saturn.  I got mine that day because I was not aware of the comeuppance of credit card debt
Got the VF pack in launch model of course, and Panzer Dragoon.  Just loved it, still do.

Going to Saturn it up a bit this weekend in celebration of one of the less well heralded great consoles.  Thinking...Die Hard Arcade, NightWarriors, Virtua Cop (though my 13" tv doesn't do it justice, at least it's CRT!), Guardian Heroes.

[Reaperman]

So not every day we get an english patch with voice dubbing, but Stellar Assault is now in english.

 

I'm trying to burn one now. narrowed it down to my burner or the discs, trying a different brand.

(fmv stutter issues, but also happens when I burn unpatched)

 

It took forever to find my 3d pad...

Also looks letterboxed, so maybe the framemeister can help me crop in on that for some 16:9 goodness.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

What a blast!  No idea why I was burning coasters, it's possible my cd drive (either pc or saturn) just needed a little loosening up. I'm just using the pre-patched image at archive.org--the instructions for patching it myself seemed maybe a little much.

 

Here's a link to the patch, release announcement, etc.

I'm also going to have to check out their older bulk slash localization.

 

I still can't figure out saving. it's grayed out for me and the other stream/playthroughs I've seen, but that's probably an RTFM thing for me.  Internal mem is clear, with a fresh battery, so maybe it doesn't like the action replay, or maybe it needs a real save cart. I also need to RTFM on the c-button shield function--I thought (on 32x) it let me carve up big enemies by flying through, but that's not how that worked out. 🤦‍♂️

 

It moves very well. Like it's 32x predecessor, but the focus on story, and audio briefings makes it feel a bit more like a streamlined colony wars.  Starts off nice and easy on default/normal difficulty. Probably one of my favorites on saturn already.  I may have to find a higher quality repro of this one.

 

official trailer:

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Reaperman

[SlidellMan]

Dungeon Chill reviews:

Xygor Gaming on Dragon Force:

 

[SlidellMan]

Sega Lord X has a new batch of fan translations:

 

[Zap1982]

Sooo just a random post for Saturn fans and particularly fans of NiGHTS into Dreams.. (and because nobody in my house is interested and I am super excited to tell someone 😂😂) I finally after 20 years of on and off looking got a Japanese 'Special Sampler' disc which aside from a minor alteration to the title screen (removal of the e3 logo) has the same content apparently as the e3 disc.

 

It's been fun spotting the plethora of differences to the final; character select screen, level layouts, many sfx and musical differences and little bits of geometry! 

 

Also an image if the three "demos" together. For anyone interested, in a nutshell the "playable" element of these discs are as follows:

 

North American:

Contains the first two levels from the final game and the first two bosses. Has a different title screen with "sample" in the top left corner.

 

PAL:

This "demo disc" is actually the full final retail game as released and not a demo at all. Likely these were in kiosks or magazine review copies sent out by Sega.

 

Japan:

Contains the first two levels and bosses of the e3 build, many differences both in game and also slightly different cinematic opening, character select screen etc as seen in e3 version!

 

Anyone know of any other cool demos for Saturn that have very different content to their respective "final" counterparts?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 5/13/2023 at 10:15 PM, Reaperman said:

I still can't figure out saving. it's grayed out for me and the other stream/playthroughs I've seen, but that's probably an RTFM thing for me.  Internal mem is clear, with a fresh battery, so maybe it doesn't like the action replay, or maybe it needs a real save cart. I also need to RTFM on the c-button shield function--I thought (on 32x) it let me carve up big enemies by flying through, but that's not how that worked out.

I put an actual Saturn save cartridge into my system last night to test this out and was getting the save option after each mission. HOWEVER, it seems to only save the game replay in whole of the mission itself. It isn't actually saving any game progress. I tested this by resetting back to the menu and going into the Traces option where it then shows my saves. It allows you to specify the different saves in a particular order you want to view them back in and then just goes through replays of those saved missions. It doesn't seem to actually allow you to load up from those saves to continue where you left off. 

 

I'm going to look at the translated manual that comes with the patch file to see if explains this but at this point, the save feature is strictly to save replays of the missions and allow you to play them back in any order you want jukebox style. Not sure why that would be handy but that appears to be how it works for now.

 

*Update* I played the game again last night and read the manual. So, the trace saves is what I was stating above, but the manual makes it appear as though you can pick up where you left off by choosing the option for 'Record New Trace'. At that point it will have you choose the ship you want to use and then allows you to select a mission up to the one you have last made it to with that ship. The game's save files keep track of the missions completed using each ship separate. From there you can replace the mission you specified. However...

 

It doesn't give you the option for Next Mission when you have completed it. So, no... it doesn't appear there is actually a way to continue where you left off and you will have to essentially play the game in one sitting through all 15 total missions... 

 

Now, it does appear that the game can save to either a separate backup cart as I've been doing, or to the internal system memory. However, each save requires 256 blocks which is on the high side for the internal storage. So if you don't have that much available, then it likely knows this and isn't giving you the option to save. The odd thing is that my internal storage doesn't have enough space, so the game seems to save to my cart automatically. It never presents a menu to select. But, in the Trace options you can save and load from cartridge memory back to internal and vice versa. So it does have the ability to use the internal storage. 

 

 

[SlidellMan]

Magical Drop for the Sega Saturn:

This particular version of Magical Drop was also ported to the Playstation. Despite having different characters and aesthetics, this game still plays as good as the original. Considering that Magical Drop 6 was recently released, I thought I would mention this version.

[SlidellMan]

Sega Lord X on Top 10 Saturn Developers:

 

[SlidellMan]

I don't know if anyone here has the Saturn Version of RayForce AKA Galactic Attack, but I noticed its music sounds different from the arcade original. Still worth playing regardless.

 

[Yakumo1975]

On 6/14/2023 at 4:21 AM, SlidellMan said:

I don't know if anyone here has the Saturn Version of RayForce AKA Galactic Attack, but I noticed its music sounds different from the arcade original. Still worth playing regardless.

 

The music on the Saturn n version is better than the Arcade.  It's been cleaned up and produced with higher quality sampling.  All tunes are the same mind you but now sound much better on the Saturn.  In comparison the Arcade version sounds weak. 

[SlidellMan]

@Yakumo1975 True, and fun fact: Sega Lord X actually prefers Rayforce over Radiant Silvergun.

[Yakumo1975]

On 6/18/2023 at 1:19 AM, SlidellMan said:

@Yakumo1975 True, and fun fact: Sega Lord X actually prefers Rayforce over Radiant Silvergun.

So do I.  I think Radiant Silver gun is overrated like most of Treasure's games.  It's too fiddly for my liking. 

As someone who came to the Saturn on day of release in Japan, I have been there since day one so the views of others never had a chance to colour my opinion on games. 

I do clearly remember thinking Darius Gaiden was a crappy looking and playing game after spending 60 pounds on an import copy back in 1996.  Funny thing though, I grew in to that game and now think it's great.  RSG on the other hand has never done anything for me besides look very nice. 

[NE146]

I bought Radiant Silvergun at launch retail back in the day, but then it totally didn't grow on me at all and I barely played it. I think if I understood the details of the gameplay like the color chaining or what powers you up etc.. (which I had no clue about then) I might have played it more. 

[SlidellMan]

Raystorm on the Saturn: