The Official Sega Saturn Thread!

[SlidellMan]

Sega Lord X on the Saturn's arcade ports, part 3.

[eightbit]

I had heard about the CD resurgence during the pandemic as well. I think all of that at home time gave people time to sit back and reflect. It seems people are understanding the importance of owning physical media versus "renting" it. I am not surprised at all to see it returning.

[Lost Monkey]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Yeah so, still doesn't change the fact ODE is a smart choice to take if you want to use the original hardware without the costs or burning slow discs too.  I never said junk the drive, it can be saved, if that's what has you all triggered.  What eightbit said is right no matter what excuse you can come up with to try and distract.  And since when are disc drives not being made?  Most computers don't come with them stock anymore, some have spaces to add them though, others are USB.  This new PC I have, I got a USB blu ray/dvd-cd writer combo drive so I can continue to watch movies, copy CDs to MP3 for my phone/car, and to use my up up to 25+ year old CD games I have a few of still.  Your argument has no validity.

 

Also google it, CDs are now having a comeback too just like vinyl has for at least 5 years now.  The sales are increasing to where retail is starting to carry a number of them again in walk in spaces.

Recently found myself in Walmart and saw that they renovated their "Electronics" section to remove all music and movies.  All they had was a bin with a few dozen $5 selections (DVD and Bluray).

Edited February 27 by Lost Monkey

[Lost Monkey]

3 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

It isn't that there isn't any interest is replacing them, the issue is that quality laser assemblies aren't really available anymore. Sure there are some you can get from AliExpress and ebay, but those aren't of the same quality as the originals. It isn't unheard of to have to buy 3 or 4 laser assemblies to get 1 that ends up working for you. That is a cost expense that I can't justify when trying to provide my services. 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, there are a number of consoles whose laser assembly is just not available "new" at all.  TGCD, XBox are two that I have not been able to find.   The TGCD has been scarce for a really long time, even though there are many usable (and also unavailable) substitutes, but there only appear to be pulled used units available for Xbox.

Edited February 27 by Lost Monkey

[Hydro Thunder]

3 hours ago, NE146 said:

Yeah for the general consumer a car cd player doesn't make sense today when popping in a cheap (and tiny) thumb drive full of MP3s into one of the USB ports is the norm. 

 

But yeah even though I have a non-modded Saturn I almost never use it.  Why bother popping in discs when the one with the MODE has every single game on it, with zero hassle. Just turn it on and there it is.  There is no difference on screen and when playing, which is where it counts 😛

In many ways it's the perfect best of both worlds between emulation and original hardware.  Imagine if someone gave me this as a kid forking over his three part time jobs' paychecks on Saturn Games. 

[eightbit]

The ODE's are just a matter of modern convenience in my opinion. An evolution that we never had imagined (I certainly didn't) that we would see decades later for these old machines.

 

For the Saturn however you can have the best of both worlds if you use the Satiator ODE. No mods are needed and especially no need to gut the original CD unit. While I will admit it has been ages since I actually put a real Saturn disc in the console at least I know the functionality is still there if I want to. If you put in a real game it boots the game as normal. Remove the game and power on the machine and it boots to the disc image select menu (I use Saturn Rings menu which is great).

 

Bored of a game? No sweat, hold ABC and press start and the machine reboots to the menu again in order to select something different. And, with a nice 512GB card in the Satiator I have a very very solid selection to choose from.

 

It is my preferred method of playing this machine nowadays.

 

Everyone experiences their fun with the console in their own way and I am not going to bash you if you like original discs, burned copies with a mod chip, or an ODE. The important thing is that you are able to enjoy this console after all of these years.

[dudeguy]

9 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

It isn't that there isn't any interest is replacing them, the issue is that quality laser assemblies aren't really available anymore. Sure there are some you can get from AliExpress and ebay, but those aren't of the same quality as the originals. It isn't unheard of to have to buy 3 or 4 laser assemblies to get 1 that ends up working for you. That is a cost expense that I can't justify when trying to provide my services. 

 

Also important to remember that manufactures back then NEVER expected us to still be playing these consoles so far into the future. They build the consoles at a price (Often at a loss to get them into the hands of owners more easily), and as such, these consoles weren't expected to be serviced so far after their expected lifespan. As such, the components and how things were constructed back then weren't really made to be serviced beyond assembly replacements. 

 

For me, I have a spare model 2 Saturn with a Phantom chip in it (Used to have one of the older racketboy boards), so I can play my actual games and backups. My main Saturn has a RHEA ODE in it and it is my preferred Saturn to play since I can leave my games alone in their cases and still play them as if I was using them. I have a third model 2 in the box that still stock that at last check (Well over a decade ago...) was working. But I don't plan to use it much if ever because I know it would be on borrowed time the older it gets.

 

Where are you seeing that information? Seems that Vinyl outsold all other mediums for physical music media past few years. Most retailers where I live aren't stocking much less selling CDs anymore. I actually prefer CDs for my music since I do still have an optical drive in my PC, and use my Blu-ray player in the living room to play CDs from. But even cars today aren't coming with CD players in them. Not sure it is even an option? I know it took forever for my mother to find a nice used car that actually had a CD player in it.

And there probably would be if people actually *gasp* played their Saturn games. im the only weirdo that plays their discs and cartridges I guess.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

30 minutes ago, dudeguy said:

And there probably would be if people actually *gasp* played their Saturn games. im the only weirdo that plays their discs and cartridges I guess.

Such things only get developed and made when there is a large enough market for those items to be profitable. It is the same reason that there is now only like one manufacturer that makes tape cassette player mechs. They are crappy, but they are all that is available new so even higher prices current cassette tape players are using the same mech as the cheapest ones found on Amazon. 

 

I personally wouldn't want to risk my collection of CDs on a mech assembly that might not work properly anyway, much less just up and start causing problems again in a few short years where by that time, even fewer options would be available if at all. 

 

I enjoy playing my actual media so I get the appeal I do! But, I also want my collection to still be usable in the future as much as possible so that even if that technology doesn't exist in the future, the media itself might be in a good enough state that it would be able be read and used in some other way. Most of my discs were last taken out of their cases and read when I ripped them myself to make the ISOs I've got loaded up on my RHEA, M.O.D.E. and hard drive setups in most of my optical disc based consoles.

 

 

[eightbit]

45 minutes ago, dudeguy said:

And there probably would be if people actually *gasp* played their Saturn games. im the only weirdo that plays their discs and cartridges I guess.

 

Tell you what. If you advocate to the old CRT manufacturers on my behalf to start up production again I will do the same for you to those laser assembly people!

[dudeguy]

1 hour ago, eightbit said:

 

Tell you what. If you advocate to the old CRT manufacturers on my behalf to start up production again I will do the same for you to those laser assembly people!

Ive literally never come across a dead CRT, except for the PVM I found recently. people act like if technology is more than 10 years old, it's gonna break if you look at it the wrong way

[eightbit]

6 minutes ago, dudeguy said:

Ive literally never come across a dead CRT, except for the PVM I found recently. people act like if technology is more than 10 years old, it's gonna break if you look at it the wrong way

Then you haven't had that many

 

I have a collection of working CRT displays thankfully, but I have also had quite a few go on me over the years in various ways. And, I am probably a whole lot older than you with a lot more experience with vintage hardware. Things were built better in the "old days" certainly, but you have to understand that it is all on borrowed time....even the "good stuff".

 

You are on the other hand acting like all of these decades old hardware and media are just going to last you forever...no worries at all. I appreciate the positive attitude, but I hate to tell you that is not the reality....no matter how much you wish to will it to be.

[dudeguy]

6 hours ago, eightbit said:

Then you haven't had that many

 

I have a collection of working CRT displays thankfully, but I have also had quite a few go on me over the years in various ways. And, I am probably a whole lot older than you with a lot more experience with vintage hardware. Things were built better in the "old days" certainly, but you have to understand that it is all on borrowed time....even the "good stuff".

 

You are on the other hand acting like all of these decades old hardware and media are just going to last you forever...no worries at all. I appreciate the positive attitude, but I hate to tell you that is not the reality....no matter how much you wish to will it to be.

I own 7 or 8 CRTs at the moment, they all work just fine. Over my lifetime, I've owned probably 20. I'm maxed out right now, just don't have the room. And yeah, I'm the type of person who will play a console/TV until it craps out on me, drive a car til its wheels fall off. the premise that I have to tear apart antique consoles in order to be able to play games that no one can afford is laughable to me when theres literally millions of these consoles still out there that are working just fine. when it gets to the point where a stock console don't work as it is with the factory laser drive, it will be cost prohibitive to afford a working console, and at that point, if I couldn't find a working replacement laser lens, I would get an ODE. we are nowhere close to that point. people underestimate the longevity and hardiness of game consoles. all my consoles work (well most of them.) I guess I just take good care of my equipment

[newtmonkey]

I love replacing optical drives with ODEs.  Of course, it takes knowledge, pride in your work... for example, a disconnected optical drive can continue to see for approximately twenty seconds.  So when I have one that's gawking, I always hold it up so that it can see the console it came out of.  It's a little extra I throw in for no added charge.  I must admit it makes me chuckle every time.  Life is fun.

Edited February 28 by newtmonkey

[SlidellMan]

Sega Lord X reviews D-Xhird:

A case of not bad enough to be bad, but not good enough to be good.

[SlidellMan]

Here's another Deep Fear review:

I suggested to Boulder Punch that he review this.

[SlidellMan]

Great news, the original version of Soul Hackers is getting an English Translation:

 

[SiberianSpForces]

I just dusted off my Saturn Since downloading the SotN patch. Cleaned the laser, lubed the laser gears and travel bar, and even flashed my 4'n'1 with PSKai. Unfortunately, none of the discs I burned(4x, 8x, 4x different brand) usually make it past the "Journey to 1792" cut scene. Though one of them did, and made it past the Dracula fight, only to freeze when I paused the game. Right now I'm playing it in RetroArch. 

[+remowilliams]

After doing the same to my CDX, I've opened up the Saturn and ensured I never accidentally lose a save to a dead battery again 😄

 

(FRAM Mod)

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, remowilliams said:

After doing the same to my CDX, I've opened up the Saturn and ensured I never accidentally lose a save to a dead battery again 😄

 

(FRAM Mod)

 

I consider this to be a needed upgrade over calling it a mod. You aren't changing the function of how it all works, just making it 40 years more reliable. 

[SlidellMan]

Rabbit:

[+atari2600land]

I got my Saturn plugged back in. It still works like a champ. It's an American one, so I don't want Japanese games. But it seems like the majority of the games are Japanese. That won't help me very much since I can't read Japanese, so I bought the American one. I just bought two games off eBay: Baku Baku and Grid Runner. I played a bit of Hyper 3D Pinball. It's one of three Saturn pinball games I have. One thing I noticed was instead of loading the game straight away, I get the Saturn menu and I have to pick "start program" of it. Is there some way to make it not do that? It's really irritating. At least I have a memory save cartridge to save high scores onto. Although I don't think if you gave me a million years, I'd never beat my high score in position #5 of the Fun Fair table.

[DragonGrafx-16]

If you stick to action games it doesn't matter if you can't read Japanese.

15 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

I got my Saturn plugged back in. It still works like a champ. It's an American one, so I don't want Japanese games. But it seems like the majority of the games are Japanese. That won't help me very much since I can't read Japanese, so I bought the American one. I just bought two games off eBay: Baku Baku and Grid Runner. I played a bit of Hyper 3D Pinball. It's one of three Saturn pinball games I have. One thing I noticed was instead of loading the game straight away, I get the Saturn menu and I have to pick "start program" of it. Is there some way to make it not do that? It's really irritating. At least I have a memory save cartridge to save high scores onto. Although I don't think if you gave me a million years, I'd never beat my high score in position #5 of the Fun Fair table.

I almost exclusively play imports on mine... shoot 'em ups mostly and all the menus are in English. 

[Zoyous]

5 hours ago, atari2600land said:

I got my Saturn plugged back in. It still works like a champ. It's an American one, so I don't want Japanese games. But it seems like the majority of the games are Japanese. That won't help me very much since I can't read Japanese, so I bought the American one. I just bought two games off eBay: Baku Baku and Grid Runner. I played a bit of Hyper 3D Pinball. It's one of three Saturn pinball games I have. One thing I noticed was instead of loading the game straight away, I get the Saturn menu and I have to pick "start program" of it. Is there some way to make it not do that? It's really irritating. At least I have a memory save cartridge to save high scores onto. Although I don't think if you gave me a million years, I'd never beat my high score in position #5 of the Fun Fair table.

You didn't mention the brand of your memory save cartridge, but if it is similar to my Action Replay cart, you're seeing the cartridge menu and not the Saturn system menu when the game starts. Without the cart, it would boot straight into the game after the Sega Saturn logo animation.

 

Speaking of the Action Replay cartridge, it's an easy way to bypass regions so you can enjoy the vast Japanese library - and like DragonGrafx said, there are tons of Japanese games that you can fully play and understand without needing to read Japanese.

[SlidellMan]

If you decide to save some money, you can use what you saved for a Satiator SD Card reader. In addition, there are quite a few fan translations worth checking out such as Bulk Slash, Stellar Assault SS aka the Saturn version of Shadow Squadron, Magic School Lunar, and Grandia.

Edit: Wachenroder has an English Patch that is still being worked on:

 

Edited March 15 by SlidellMan
Now with Wachenroder English patch demo.

[eightbit]

+1 for the Satiator.

 

This is the best thing I have done for my Saturn. If you just want to play the games on original hardware this will do the trick.