Just bought a Sega Saturn, what next???
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Chuplayer
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Awesome find.
Now go find a backup RAM cartridge. It's essentially a memory card. That internal memory's going to fill up fast.
After that, a 3D controller, Nights, Virtua Fighter 2, Guardian Heroes, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Daytona USA CCE, SEGA Rally, and Worldwide Soccer. Others will have other great suggestions.
Also look into getting it modded with a region switch so you can play Japanese games. That opens up a whole world of import games.
Now go find a backup RAM cartridge. It's essentially a memory card. That internal memory's going to fill up fast.
After that, a 3D controller, Nights, Virtua Fighter 2, Guardian Heroes, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Daytona USA CCE, SEGA Rally, and Worldwide Soccer. Others will have other great suggestions.
Also look into getting it modded with a region switch so you can play Japanese games. That opens up a whole world of import games.
If you dig light gun games, you need to get Virtua Cop. You can also pick up a less than stellar The House of the Dead port.
I've heard great things about the Saturn version of "Virtual On" as well.
Just a heads up; definitely pick up Daytona USA, but like Chuplayer said, get the CCE edition. It is superior is almost every way.
Like everyone else has said already, pick up Nights as well with a 3D controller. Playing that game with the standard controller will kill your fingers, but the game makes the controller worth investing in.
I've heard great things about the Saturn version of "Virtual On" as well.
Just a heads up; definitely pick up Daytona USA, but like Chuplayer said, get the CCE edition. It is superior is almost every way.
Like everyone else has said already, pick up Nights as well with a 3D controller. Playing that game with the standard controller will kill your fingers, but the game makes the controller worth investing in.
pimpinc333
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Shining Force 3
Best Saturn Game Ever!
Best Saturn Game Ever!
letsgetacid
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Panzer Dragoon series. Panzer Dragoon Saga might be out of your price range, but Zwei was especially impressive for a shooter at the time.
Like many have mentioned, I strongly suggest finding a way to get your system to play imports. Keep in mind that it's generally cheaper to buy imports of games that also came out in the states. This works great for fighting games that are import friendly. For example I got games like Fighters Megamix, Galaxy Fight, Virtua Fighter Kids, Night Warriors, etc. much cheaper than their U.S. counterparts.
Affordable Games:
Astal
Fighters Megamix
Three Dirty Dwarves
Legend of Oasis
NiGHTS
Clockwork Knight 1 & 2
Galaxy Fight
Expensive Games:
Guardian Heroes
Saturn Bomberman
Magic Knight Rayearth
Albert Odyssey
Golden Axe: The Duel
Import Games:
Cyberbots
Groove on Fight
Dracula X
Dungeons & Dragons Collection (rare & expensive as hell)
Affordable Games:
Astal
Fighters Megamix
Three Dirty Dwarves
Legend of Oasis
NiGHTS
Clockwork Knight 1 & 2
Galaxy Fight
Expensive Games:
Guardian Heroes
Saturn Bomberman
Magic Knight Rayearth
Albert Odyssey
Golden Axe: The Duel
Import Games:
Cyberbots
Groove on Fight
Dracula X
Dungeons & Dragons Collection (rare & expensive as hell)
[quote name='letsgetacid']Panzer Dragoon series. Panzer Dragoon Saga might be out of your price range, but Zwei was especially impressive for a shooter at the time.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. The Panzer Dragoon shooter games were impressive for their time. Saga is a RPG and happens to be one of my favorite RPGs as well (and I think it is absolutely criminal that Sega has not re-released this for other systems).
The gems of my gaming collection are my complete copies of Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and an english copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga.
Agreed. The Panzer Dragoon shooter games were impressive for their time. Saga is a RPG and happens to be one of my favorite RPGs as well (and I think it is absolutely criminal that Sega has not re-released this for other systems).
The gems of my gaming collection are my complete copies of Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and an english copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga.
I checked Ebay and saw most backup carts were selling for the $25 to $30 price range. This seems kind of high for a system that only cost $23. In comparison, a Sony memory card for the Playstation is only a few dollars. Is this to be expected? Do I have any internal memory that can be used for a few saves?
How much should I expect to pay for a 3D controller to play Nights?
I really like 2D games. I picked up Darius Gaiden and really enjoy it. Are there any other good, CHEAP, 2D games? I'm not so much a fan of 2D fighters as I already have about a dozen for Dreamcast (great system for 2D games, by the way).
Are there any games available for both Saturn and Playstation that are actully better on Saturn? I remember dreaming about this system as a teenager and thought I would never have one because of the $400 price tag. I saw it a 'rich man's system' (I'm aware of the $700 3DO).
How much should I expect to pay for a 3D controller to play Nights?
I really like 2D games. I picked up Darius Gaiden and really enjoy it. Are there any other good, CHEAP, 2D games? I'm not so much a fan of 2D fighters as I already have about a dozen for Dreamcast (great system for 2D games, by the way).
Are there any games available for both Saturn and Playstation that are actully better on Saturn? I remember dreaming about this system as a teenager and thought I would never have one because of the $400 price tag. I saw it a 'rich man's system' (I'm aware of the $700 3DO).
My 2 cents on "memory cards." There's actually 2 things that people could be talking about. Both are optional.
First, is a "memory card" which holds your save game data. It's not really necessary since the Saturn has some onboard memory for your save data. I don't recall the exact numbers, but Saturn saves maybe took up a few "blocks." Onboard memory had a few hundred blocks, and the memory card had maybe a few thousand blocks. I don't remember it being a big deal not having one of these. That's probably why the prices on these is a bit inflated. 1 caveat about the onboard memory... It's RAM+battery based, kind of like the NES games of old. You need to have a watch battery (CR2032?) in there to actually save your games. If the battery dies, your saves are gone. You can replace the battery while the system is on and not lose your saves.
The 2nd "memory card" is a 4MB RAM expansion pack. Capcom used this a lot for its import-only games (Xmen/Marvel vs Street Fighter, DnD Collection, Darkstalkers, Pocket Fighter, etc). It used this RAM pack to load all the sprites into memory, allowing for arcade perfect ports. A lot of these games are superior on the Saturn compared to the PS1's versions.
First, is a "memory card" which holds your save game data. It's not really necessary since the Saturn has some onboard memory for your save data. I don't recall the exact numbers, but Saturn saves maybe took up a few "blocks." Onboard memory had a few hundred blocks, and the memory card had maybe a few thousand blocks. I don't remember it being a big deal not having one of these. That's probably why the prices on these is a bit inflated. 1 caveat about the onboard memory... It's RAM+battery based, kind of like the NES games of old. You need to have a watch battery (CR2032?) in there to actually save your games. If the battery dies, your saves are gone. You can replace the battery while the system is on and not lose your saves.
The 2nd "memory card" is a 4MB RAM expansion pack. Capcom used this a lot for its import-only games (Xmen/Marvel vs Street Fighter, DnD Collection, Darkstalkers, Pocket Fighter, etc). It used this RAM pack to load all the sprites into memory, allowing for arcade perfect ports. A lot of these games are superior on the Saturn compared to the PS1's versions.
Chuplayer
CAGiversary!
[quote name='yayece']My 2 cents on "memory cards." There's actually 2 things that people could be talking about. Both are optional.
First, is a "memory card" which holds your save game data. It's not really necessary since the Saturn has some onboard memory for your save data. I don't recall the exact numbers, but Saturn saves maybe took up a few "blocks." Onboard memory had a few hundred blocks, and the memory card had maybe a few thousand blocks. I don't remember it being a big deal not having one of these. That's probably why the prices on these is a bit inflated. 1 caveat about the onboard memory... It's RAM+battery based, kind of like the NES games of old. You need to have a watch battery (CR2032?) in there to actually save your games. If the battery dies, your saves are gone. You can replace the battery while the system is on and not lose your saves.
The 2nd "memory card" is a 4MB RAM expansion pack. Capcom used this a lot for its import-only games (Xmen/Marvel vs Street Fighter, DnD Collection, Darkstalkers, Pocket Fighter, etc). It used this RAM pack to load all the sprites into memory, allowing for arcade perfect ports. A lot of these games are superior on the Saturn compared to the PS1's versions.[/QUOTE]
Eh, the "backup RAM" cartridge is probably expensive because it's practically necessary. There's no way I'm able to contain all the saves of all the games I've got on my Saturn's onboard memory.
The 4MB RAM is good for particular import games, of course. There was also a 1MB RAM cartridge that was mostly used for Neo Geo ports.
One thing to consider is that you should really go with the official carts only. Unofficial carts tend to have thicker circuit boards that bend the extremely fragile pins of the Saturn's cartridge port too wide. It's also been said that the cartridge port is simply unreliable in general if you do too much cart swapping. The good news is that my cartridge hasn't been removed from my Saturn in years, so my console's still rock solid.
Personally, I'd totally skip the 4MB and 1MB RAM carts and the imports associated with them. Better ports of most of the games exist nowadays, and the ones that don't usually work fine when you're emulating their originals. Really, what would you rather play? Saturn Street Fighter Alpha 3 or the PS2 SFA collection? And even though I've got two backup RAM carts, I've never even really needed the second one. I got it just in case. The carts have an extremely large amount of space available.
EDIT: One more thing about memory cards and carts from the 32/64-bit era. Third party cards generally sucked. Hard. Their failure rates were through the roof. Spend the extra money and go for the real thing. In addition, I read some technical details about 3rd party Saturn carts back in the day that explained why they failed so much, and many of them operated at a different speed due to compression. That threw the timing off in certain games, and saves got corrupted.
I've had zero problems with my Dreamcast Innovation 4x card, though. If you can find an Innovation or Nexus 4x or 16x card, especially with a PC link cable to backup your saves even further, I'd jump on it. Unfortunately, I don't know if the software support is there for it anymore. That, and it uses a serial port which is outdated these days.
First, is a "memory card" which holds your save game data. It's not really necessary since the Saturn has some onboard memory for your save data. I don't recall the exact numbers, but Saturn saves maybe took up a few "blocks." Onboard memory had a few hundred blocks, and the memory card had maybe a few thousand blocks. I don't remember it being a big deal not having one of these. That's probably why the prices on these is a bit inflated. 1 caveat about the onboard memory... It's RAM+battery based, kind of like the NES games of old. You need to have a watch battery (CR2032?) in there to actually save your games. If the battery dies, your saves are gone. You can replace the battery while the system is on and not lose your saves.
The 2nd "memory card" is a 4MB RAM expansion pack. Capcom used this a lot for its import-only games (Xmen/Marvel vs Street Fighter, DnD Collection, Darkstalkers, Pocket Fighter, etc). It used this RAM pack to load all the sprites into memory, allowing for arcade perfect ports. A lot of these games are superior on the Saturn compared to the PS1's versions.[/QUOTE]
Eh, the "backup RAM" cartridge is probably expensive because it's practically necessary. There's no way I'm able to contain all the saves of all the games I've got on my Saturn's onboard memory.
The 4MB RAM is good for particular import games, of course. There was also a 1MB RAM cartridge that was mostly used for Neo Geo ports.
One thing to consider is that you should really go with the official carts only. Unofficial carts tend to have thicker circuit boards that bend the extremely fragile pins of the Saturn's cartridge port too wide. It's also been said that the cartridge port is simply unreliable in general if you do too much cart swapping. The good news is that my cartridge hasn't been removed from my Saturn in years, so my console's still rock solid.
Personally, I'd totally skip the 4MB and 1MB RAM carts and the imports associated with them. Better ports of most of the games exist nowadays, and the ones that don't usually work fine when you're emulating their originals. Really, what would you rather play? Saturn Street Fighter Alpha 3 or the PS2 SFA collection? And even though I've got two backup RAM carts, I've never even really needed the second one. I got it just in case. The carts have an extremely large amount of space available.
EDIT: One more thing about memory cards and carts from the 32/64-bit era. Third party cards generally sucked. Hard. Their failure rates were through the roof. Spend the extra money and go for the real thing. In addition, I read some technical details about 3rd party Saturn carts back in the day that explained why they failed so much, and many of them operated at a different speed due to compression. That threw the timing off in certain games, and saves got corrupted.
I've had zero problems with my Dreamcast Innovation 4x card, though. If you can find an Innovation or Nexus 4x or 16x card, especially with a PC link cable to backup your saves even further, I'd jump on it. Unfortunately, I don't know if the software support is there for it anymore. That, and it uses a serial port which is outdated these days.
Paco
CAGiversary!
[quote name='Chuplayer']Eh, the "backup RAM" cartridge is probably expensive because it's practically necessary. There's no way I'm able to contain all the saves of all the games I've got on my Saturn's onboard memory.
The 4MB RAM is good for particular import games, of course. There was also a 1MB RAM cartridge that was mostly used for Neo Geo ports.
One thing to consider is that you should really go with the official carts only. Unofficial carts tend to have thicker circuit boards that bend the extremely fragile pins of the Saturn's cartridge port too wide. It's also been said that the cartridge port is simply unreliable in general if you do too much cart swapping. The good news is that my cartridge hasn't been removed from my Saturn in years, so my console's still rock solid.
Personally, I'd totally skip the 4MB and 1MB RAM carts and the imports associated with them. Better ports of most of the games exist nowadays, and the ones that don't usually work fine when you're emulating their originals. Really, what would you rather play? Saturn Street Fighter Alpha 3 or the PS2 SFA collection? And even though I've got two backup RAM carts, I've never even really needed the second one. I got it just in case. The carts have an extremely large amount of space available.
EDIT: One more thing about memory cards and carts from the 32/64-bit era. Third party cards generally sucked. Hard. Their failure rates were through the roof. Spend the extra money and go for the real thing. In addition, I read some technical details about 3rd party Saturn carts back in the day that explained why they failed so much, and many of them operated at a different speed due to compression. That threw the timing off in certain games, and saves got corrupted.
I've had zero problems with my Dreamcast Innovation 4x card, though. If you can find an Innovation or Nexus 4x or 16x card, especially with a PC link cable to backup your saves even further, I'd jump on it. Unfortunately, I don't know if the software support is there for it anymore. That, and it uses a serial port which is outdated these days.[/QUOTE]
Saturn Alpha 3 was the closest to arcade perfection while the PS2 ports and Dreamcast ports were streched out a bit. Or so I'm told.
The 4MB RAM is good for particular import games, of course. There was also a 1MB RAM cartridge that was mostly used for Neo Geo ports.
One thing to consider is that you should really go with the official carts only. Unofficial carts tend to have thicker circuit boards that bend the extremely fragile pins of the Saturn's cartridge port too wide. It's also been said that the cartridge port is simply unreliable in general if you do too much cart swapping. The good news is that my cartridge hasn't been removed from my Saturn in years, so my console's still rock solid.
Personally, I'd totally skip the 4MB and 1MB RAM carts and the imports associated with them. Better ports of most of the games exist nowadays, and the ones that don't usually work fine when you're emulating their originals. Really, what would you rather play? Saturn Street Fighter Alpha 3 or the PS2 SFA collection? And even though I've got two backup RAM carts, I've never even really needed the second one. I got it just in case. The carts have an extremely large amount of space available.
EDIT: One more thing about memory cards and carts from the 32/64-bit era. Third party cards generally sucked. Hard. Their failure rates were through the roof. Spend the extra money and go for the real thing. In addition, I read some technical details about 3rd party Saturn carts back in the day that explained why they failed so much, and many of them operated at a different speed due to compression. That threw the timing off in certain games, and saves got corrupted.
I've had zero problems with my Dreamcast Innovation 4x card, though. If you can find an Innovation or Nexus 4x or 16x card, especially with a PC link cable to backup your saves even further, I'd jump on it. Unfortunately, I don't know if the software support is there for it anymore. That, and it uses a serial port which is outdated these days.[/QUOTE]
Saturn Alpha 3 was the closest to arcade perfection while the PS2 ports and Dreamcast ports were streched out a bit. Or so I'm told.
[quote name='steve_k']
Are there any games available for both Saturn and Playstation that are actully better on Saturn? I remember dreaming about this system as a teenager and thought I would never have one because of the $400 price tag. I saw it a 'rich man's system' (I'm aware of the $700 3DO).[/QUOTE]
Resident Evil had more content, so I guess it could be considered "better".
Other than that, I remember 2D games typically being better on the Saturn, while 3D games performed better on the PS1.
Are there any games available for both Saturn and Playstation that are actully better on Saturn? I remember dreaming about this system as a teenager and thought I would never have one because of the $400 price tag. I saw it a 'rich man's system' (I'm aware of the $700 3DO).[/QUOTE]
Resident Evil had more content, so I guess it could be considered "better".
Other than that, I remember 2D games typically being better on the Saturn, while 3D games performed better on the PS1.
Chuplayer
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[quote name='Paco']Saturn Alpha 3 was the closest to arcade perfection while the PS2 ports and Dreamcast ports were streched out a bit. Or so I'm told.[/QUOTE]
The only problem I heard about the DC port is that V-ism damage calculations are a bit off. I'm not really a Street Fighter authority, so I don't know for sure. I didn't hear that about the PS2 port, though.
Then again, emulate the CPS2 original. Seriously. Buy it on PS2 or DC if you must to clear your conscience, but if you absolutely must have perfection, go to the source.
The only problem I heard about the DC port is that V-ism damage calculations are a bit off. I'm not really a Street Fighter authority, so I don't know for sure. I didn't hear that about the PS2 port, though.
Then again, emulate the CPS2 original. Seriously. Buy it on PS2 or DC if you must to clear your conscience, but if you absolutely must have perfection, go to the source.
[quote name='steve_k']I checked Ebay and saw most backup carts were selling for the $25 to $30 price range. This seems kind of high for a system that only cost $23. In comparison, a Sony memory card for the Playstation is only a few dollars. Is this to be expected?[/QUOTE]
Yep. Remember $23 is only what YOU paid... it's not uncommon for Saturns to sell for twice that. You got a good deal, and it's going to make the accessories look expensive by comparison. Plus, sometimes certain accessories just end up costing as much as the system itself. The used market sucks like that.
Yep. Remember $23 is only what YOU paid... it's not uncommon for Saturns to sell for twice that. You got a good deal, and it's going to make the accessories look expensive by comparison. Plus, sometimes certain accessories just end up costing as much as the system itself. The used market sucks like that.
[quote name='DrMunkee']Other than that, I remember 2D games typically being better on the Saturn, while 3D games performed better on the PS1.[/QUOTE]
I always thought of the Saturn as a 2D system that can do 3D, while the PSX is a 3D system that can do 2D.
I always thought of the Saturn as a 2D system that can do 3D, while the PSX is a 3D system that can do 2D.
Segasonic01
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