If you only measure success by how many units something sells...then yeah the Saturn wasnt a success in the west... But if you measure success by the games and enjoyment...then its a massive succes... The days spent with the segaholic walking up to partick to gamezone...then charlies to see what we could never afford...the reading of every word in the mags..the epic battles in vf2 and LB, FV, MEGAMIX, COTA, then some awesome rpgs that matched ff7...shining force, shining the holy ark, dark saviour, saga, to epic shooters like the panzer series to classic score attack titles like nights To the racers like rally, sonic r, touring cars. The best 50 quid ive ever spent on a console brand new...never paying more than a fiver from gamezone picking up amazing titles 😊
@@darinherrick9224 Ask the multitude of TH-camrs who for over a decade have focused on Saturn’s commercial failure in their videos. The worst thing to happen to gaming was gamers being given access to sales numbers. As I said in the video, back in the day Sam and I didn’t give a shit how many Saturns had been sold; we were too busy enjoying the games.
Yes, I agree, and even so, the sales figures aren't conclusive, the actual numbers hover between 11 and 17 million, when we talk about the Saturn, it's hard to be conclusive, as it was a convoluted time where many things were lost. Even if we take into account the SMS and GG, we're talking about 30 million+ SMS based hardware sold. With that, I only wan to say that these consoles did sell well, they are far, far away from the likes of the Jaguar, CD-i and the 3DO, we're talking about around 50 million units sold, not counting with the Mega Drive based hardware, that taken unofficial numbers, would go over 50 million alone. As for people who focuses on "failures" and other provocative subjects, I don't have the notion the Saturn suffers too much from this, maybe because I hold it in the highest regards myself. And the 'failure' subjects and clickbait videos aren't what bothers me much, what does that is that even to this day, the majority of less than bright people still believes the Saturn was conceived as a powerful 2D machine, while even the 32X had focus on 3D and SEGA knew better than anyone that 2D games couldn't compete in the next generation, and the SH2 CPU architecture is 3D compatible, so no, the Saturn WASN'T meant to be a 2D machine, it's just that it is really powerful enough that 2D games benefitted a lot from it, even the PS1 is so beyond what the Genesis/SNES could do in 2D that it can't even compare to the previous generation, the only weaker points of both SAT/PSX is that they should have had the double amount of RAM they were designed with.
@@darinherrick9224 Well if you want the console you love to last, get more games and good 3rd party support, you do kinda want to care how well your console of choice is selling. Kind of common sense
Heard your name mentioned numerous times over the years on the podcast mate - you and James must have had a phenomenal childhood - I was the only one who had a Saturn at our school so glad you had each other mate 😄
Video games are one of the few forms of art where sales are often cited to indicate quality. Imagine the arguments if music or movies that didn’t sell millions of units absolutely sucked? No doubt Saturn was a rough time financially for Sega, but it’s ridiculous to call the system and its games bad because of those numbers. Loved the video and the narrative. Great work.
I couldn't agree with this statement more. Imagine if Taylor Swift was automatically recognized as the greatest musical achievement of the entirety of our human species, simply because of her popularity? Unbelievable.
Mel, it means a lot that you enjoyed the finished video and we really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Look forward to catching up with you for a chat soon. Take care, mate. - James.
I agree that the Saturn's sales are not indicative of its quality, but people do this with music all the time. I've been a Billboard chart watcher for a decade now, and people talk about numbers more than they talk about songs or albums. I only know like 8 Drake songs, but I know how well each album of his has sold because his fans bring up numbers all the time.
Thank you for the love you convey for the Saturn, which I've also loved since November 1994. for me, I didn't like the fact that sales weren't good, because that would inevitably lead to fewer games being produced. Publishers would give up and some good games would be exclusive to the PS1. Of course, just because everyone's jumping off a cliff doesn't mean we have to follow them too. What I mean is, just because everyone was buying PS1 games, doesn't mean they were better. In the end, the important thing is to have fun and keep having fun with your systems. I would have liked more games translated into my language (French) or at least into English. The same problem with the Dreamcast. Thank you for sharing your passion for the Saturn. It deserved it and still deserves it today. Translated
I was 31 when I bought my Saturn in January 1996. After seeing Sega Rally on Bad Influence I knew this was the console for me and I already had a Playstation with Ridge Racer and Wipeout. I sold those to pay towards the Saturn and never looked back. Now, I know the PS1 had way more games released but come on, how many games did the average gamer buy for their console in the time they played on it before moving on to the next console? There were enough great games released on the Saturn to satisfy most gamers, but unfortunately some bias towards the Playstation in the media swayed them away from choosing the Sega's machine. The Saturn is my favourite console of that generation and I still play a lot on my original machine today, especially now I have the Saroo nesting snugly in the cartridge slot.
It's so refreshing to finally see a video on here that accurately echos my feelings about the Sega Saturn. I still remember the day I got my original Saturn. I was sat in the front room of my Grandparents house playing my Mega Drive when I spotted my Grandad coming home from work with a big box under his arm. He came in, put the box down next to me and simply said "Here you go, turn that off and let's get this plugged in instead". He'd spoken to a friend who worked as a delivery driver at a department store who managed to keep a Saturn aside for him ahead of the UK launch to surprise me with. He got the model 1 version that came bundled with Virtua Fighter 1 that had Akira and Jacky on the console box. They may look crude now (they did even back then) but I was absolutely blown away seeing 3d characters I could play with in a fighting game for the very first time. I played it so much in the following weeks my Grandad even got sick of the sight of VF so took me into town to (the now defunct) Virgin Megastore where he let me pick Bug as my 2nd Saturn game. I know this is overly wordy but I still have such vivid recollections of that time when I got my Saturn which, despite also loving all consoles, I couldn't quite say about my PS1. The Saturn really did leave a lasting impact on not just me, but my friends who always wanted to come to my house play Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Nights Into Dreams and Guardian Heroes because they couldn't play them on their PS1s at home. The Saturn was truly magical for me as a kid and I still hold the biggest soft spot for it nearly some 30 years later.
I agree with you 100% here. I hate that people measure the success of most things only based on how much money they earned or how well they are perceived to have done commercially. I remember bringing my Sega Saturn to a military deployment. Nobody showed any interest in bringing any kind of console because we were told there wouldn't be any time or any device to connect one to. However, I brought mine because I knew another guy that said he was considering bringing his PS1, and I just wanted to have my preferred console. We managed to find an old PC monitor that happened to have a video converter adapter and between operations we'd all jump on the Saturn. We used our time on that Saturn to bond and to truly unwind from the war right outside the base. That console and those games were our peace during that time and really helped bolstered our relationships. I'll always remember that time as the most fun time I've had on my Saturn, and I still pull it out from time to time to play it with my kids and tell them about those times. I love my Saturn and will always consider it a big win, regardless of its commercial/financial accomplishments.
Just wanna thank you for all that you do. Ive been listening to all of your episodes on spotify. In the spring I bought a genesis and got over 150 carts for it. I absolutely love sega and never had gotten around to playing the Saturn. Listening to you guys has me itching to get a saturn for the holidays. I got 400 saturn roms right now waiting to be burned on discs. I cant wait to explore the entire library.
@@johnwong3615 John, that’s awesome, I love that what we do has inspired you to pick up a Saturn and play more SEGA. Regarding all those Saturn ROMS though, rather than burn discs, why not look into an ODE? There’s several options now, but the easiest by far now is the Saroo cart. We’ve done episodes on ODE’s for SEGA systems, so check those out if you need more info. Thanks again, and see you on the SEGA side! - James.
I loved my Saturn but it was painful at times seeing crap ports or worse, no ports, of the best PS games. When that golden era of Sega Rally, VF2 and Virtua Cop hit, I was convinced the Saturn had made it. Then, of course, Sega did what Sega does and messed it up.
I find a lot of TH-camrs only seem to want tell the Saturn's story from a North American Prospective. Using The idea that it failed here, so it must have failed everywhere, Ignoring how popular it was in Japan (Even in the UK I remember it being somewhat popular). I think a very Similar thing happens with the Master System.
I agree, and the situation is reversed when it comes to Dreamcast, which has this success narrative because of its sensational US launch numbers. In Japan though, the Dreamcast absolutely tanked in comparison to the Saturn. But the Western/US narrative is the one that takes precedence online for both systems.
@@arostwocents We were enjoying the height of 8-bit computers while that was going on. I only learned about “the crash” years later … I grew up on a Spectrum 128k+2, while Dan was a C64 kid. Good times.
@@SEGAGuys Oddly enough computer gaming was still going strong here in the US, it was mostly only consoles that felt it. C64, Atari 8 bit computers, etc were all still going strong with gaming.
I agree 100%. I didn't even care about Playstation because of my Saturn. I had one 97 almost whole year. My dad got it from rent a center and it got reposed about eleven months later. Ended up with an N64 and then I got a job and got another Saturn myself and wound up with several great games. The one from rent a center came with a baseball game and Sega Rally Championship and man what can I say about Sega Rally Championship! Played that game so much . Along with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , Night warriors Dark stalkers revenge , Bug and Bug 2 , Clockwork Knight and Guardian heros. After it got reposed and I got another one I had Guardian heros , Sega rally Championship, Bug 1 and 2 , Shining the Holy Ark , Virtua Fighter Remix and Virtua Fighter 2 , Clockwork Knight 1 , Panzer dragoon 1 and 2 , Nights Into dreams , and Marvel super heros vs Street fighter. I never played Panzer dragoon saga ? I never even seen it or knew it existed till later. I ended up on hard times and sold it all in 2011 and man it blew my mind I got 800$ out of it. I do regret it though. I agree with you 100% the Saturn was absolutely awesome. What really blew my mind is I got almost everyone of those games from around 20$ no joke. I was not aware of the value of Shining the holy ark and Guardian Heros. Those two alone are worth 800$.They were all complete in the case in good shape to. I had a box with sega saturn stuff. Sold it all and your video is making me sad now lol.
I owned all the main consoles back then, but the Saturn was always the ‘special’ one for me. The Capcom and SNK fighting games were superb as were the Sega arcade conversions. I always loved the Saturn version of Mass Destruction the best. The explosions in that game are still unrivalled today to my eye. A video full of love and passion, the hallmark of everyone who played Sega Saturn back then. 🙂
@@GeordiLaForgery Yeah, I avoided the PS version as it was roundly slated inthe magazines of the time. Nice to see the PC version is still available on Steam. 🙂
Saturn was never a failure as far as i'm concerned, it was a success! i'll never regret buying mine in may 1996, from that day to the last game released, it never failed to keep me (and all my friends) entertained, and has continued to entertain me on and off ever since. theres a special feeling every time i slot a disc in, close the lid and press the on button on my Sega Saturn. 🐐
I’m happy for you son but this is sheer copium. The fact that you love it doesn’t hide the fact it’s a massive bust. The Dreamcast as well and I also own both lol
I can think of three things the Saturn did right off the top of my head that made it my favourite console ever. Panzer Dragoon Panzer Dragoon Zwei Panzer Dragoon Azel Plus like Virtua fighters and Capcom things and SEGA Rally and stuff, they were good too, but mainly Panzer Dragoon. The fourth one was quite a bit more expensive, but I suppose it did come with an Xbox though, because that's the only way I could play it. And then more recently I picked a Series X over a PS5 because I could play Orta at 4K 60 with injected HDR now, so like nearly a grand in total (although it was spread over like 20 years, still got my launch day disc and it legitimately was the first game I put in and played on my Series X while Horizon 5 downloaded) but it's worth every penny. If Little Samson costs £3,000 off a scalper, I'd rather have 4K Orta, two grand change and auto-HDR. Also, I potentially like Panzer Dragoon.
@@arostwocents If you get into it it's decent, music ain't winning any prizes though. Deffo the sort of game God made emulators for. If they re-released it on the online store I wouldn't buy it if it was on it's own, but if it was part of a collection it wouldn't put me off the collection but I'd only go through it again now for achievements. But thousands of dollars, JUST because it's rare, same with that Flintstones game that isn't actually as good as that $15 other Flintstones game is, I class Little Sampson as that line that should make anyone buying it think, "do I just have a hobby still, or is it actually some sort of undiagnosed problem on the spectrum at this point." They even sell repros of it for a lot more than other repros, to exploit the damaged people who need a 'full set.' $3,000 gets you a 200" laser short cast projector, and a series S with dev mode to play Little Sampson on (and 1440p Panzer dragoon Orta, on 200 inches with HDR.) And that's if the game hasn't gone up since I last saw the price, might be able to upgrade that S to an X and buy a PS5 as well now for the price.
Great video James. For us who played our Saturns back then, there wasn't a moment where we felt that the system was lacking. From an overall perspective, every system delivered must plays and the Saturn had a welath of must plays, many of them utterly unique and exclusive to the system. th crazy thing is, there's still so much more you can say about the system and what it offered us back then. Sega's best system for me; Always has been and always will be.
I've always been fascinated with the Saturn; but for me the Dreamcast is my favorite Sega console of all time. Such a shame it didn't have a longer life span.
I felt that it lacked in Jrpgs. I went with Playstation precisely due to Squaresoft. After Chrono Trigger & Final Fantasy 6, I would've followed Square anywhere. Saturn has some damn great strategy games rpgs like Dragon Force & Dragon Force 2. Grandia was the most high tech Jrpgs of its era before FF VII came out but Grandia Saturn stayed in Japan & only the PS version reached the West.
Awesome video - thanks! I got a Saturn at its launch date in Europe and loved it. Many happy hours spent playing Sega Rally and VF2… Street Racer was a game that “tickled” some of Saturn’s capabilities also outside of Japan. The producers stated openly that they felt the Saturn was superior to the PS1 if you know what you’re doing. That was 1997 before PS1 reached its height. Honorable mention!
Happy to see so much modern intrigue and interest in the sega saturn. among being a youth in california where playstation was king, I was one of the only kiddos lucky enough to own a saturn, a copy of nights among other games and people were always envious of the arcade 2d games that looked incredible on saturn. And for the longest time, emulation was a big barrier, but has been nearly perfected on the front of how close it is to real hardware. It could never have been done without the immense passion the community has.
I really enjoyed this video. As someone who had never owned a Saturn, and often joked about it, I’ve recently changed my tune and purchased one. I was so brainwashed. I love it! Like you said, it doesn’t re-write history. But now after all these years I can actually allow myself to enjoy what the Saturn offers. I can’t wait to finally get to Dragon Force!
Now is a particularly good time to get into those games. Retroarch can copy the discs and Mister FPGA does a pretty respectable job in terms of playing them. I've got a Saturn, but I mostly play via Mister.
My best memories of the Saturn,is the Panzer Dragoon Saga demo disc. Me and my cousin sat there playing it for hours on end. We actually said "I think they've fucked up and put the whole game on the disc!" Of course i found out many years later it was the entire first disc given away. The other games are Panzer Dragoon Zwei,Fighters Megamix and Street Fighter Alpha 2. Also Christmas Nights!
I got into Saturn in the middle of 1997 thanks to my brother who got one when he graduated sixth grade. Once I tried some of their major games like Daytona and VF2, I was sold on it. I also got more into it when I was exposed to their Japanese library which showed how amazing and unique the console really is.
I remember my dad bought the Saturn first, and then a week later we got the PS, especially after he saw that Final Fantasy 7 was coming to PS lol... We were playing the Saturn more, especially with the fighting games, and we were both hoping to see a Phantasy Star V, which sadly never happened. About a year or so later, most of the games my dad was buying for the Saturn, were from Japan and did not come to the States, this is what happened with the Sega CD as well, a lot of the games we had were from Japan. Sega didn't bring out a lot of titles which was sad, and I noticed in my house the PS was being played more and more, and soon after that, Saturn wasn't really being used anymore, it was all PS and then we later got the Dreamcast, which made the PS take a backseat for a bit, even when PS2 came out. But later on with that, a lot of the titles we were buying for DC, were from Japan and never released in the States. Loved seeing Guardian Heroes in the video, we played the hell out of that game, and it was a huge inspiration for a game my brother and I created in high school, which I am currently redesigning now, it was sci-fi space fantasy, "Armament of Volition" weeeeee lol
Great video guys. There's a reason why I still have my SEGA Mega Drive Tower of Power, Saturn & Dreamcast hooked up to my 4K TV using a Framemeister xrgb-mini. It's the awesome sights and sounds of original SEGA hardware that you just can't get with any other console. 🍺😎👍
I wish sega did a better job providing more of there game engines, sdk and tools to 2nd, 3rd parties developers. Cancelation of saturn titles and its suprise launch killed the console quickly in the west. I'm glad the saturn brought near arcade perfect titles and kept 2D gaming alive during the 3D craze in the 5th gen console era. Happy birthday to my favorite sega console tge dreamcast.
I love the Sega Saturn. It has so many exclusive fighting games, stuck there, like Fighters Megamix. That was the main reason I got mine in Japan. One of my favourite memories from that trip was, before going to bed, playing some Virtua Fighter 2 or Puyo Puyo Sun in the Hotel room. The Saturn has such an aesthetic.
What an amazing video. The Saturn is one of my favourite consoles. I first got mine for Christmas in 1997 and while that was at the end of the Saturn’s life, it formed for me amazing memories. Mine came with Sega Rally, Sonic R, Sonjc Jam, Virtua Fighter 2, Clockwork Knight, FIFA 97, Sega WWS 97 and Athlete Kings. Everybody made fun of me in school because I had a Saturn and everyone else had a PlayStation but I always felt that it was them who missed out, not me. The Saturn is the reason why I’m such a huge fan of video game music as well, and to be fair I’d always been a Sega fanboy so I was never going to have my loyalty tested.
Thank you, Dean! What a bundle that was too! 😃 I love it when I hear stories from Saturn owners that are so similar to our own. I can totally relate to the school playground stuff about Saturn vs PlayStation, after September 95 there was a real change in attitude toward Saturn which had been pretty positive even though people knew about PlayStation coming soon. What you said about Sega and the Saturn making you a fan of video game music … totally the same! Glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks again for taking the time to comment. - James.
@@DeanPuckering Dan and I definitely need to get back there in the near future … that OutRun 2 SP link-up cabinet is calling our names! 😂 Appreciate you subscribing, hope you enjoy taking a look round the channel. 😁
You hit the nail on the head sir. Back in the day, nobody was complaining about transparencies on our CRTs! Also, can someone please do a video about SAT load times. If you do a side by side with PSX, the SAT loaded quicker for most similar/same titles but that never gets a mention.
The Sega Saturn was a brilliant machine and when programmers knew how to make the most of what was inside it we got all time great games! From Sega Rally to Quake, this thing pulled off things that according to the 'know it all' gaming press it wasn't apparently capable of doing. It's full library is vast (including the Japanese games), and we truly had many of the greatest games of all time on it. Yes the PS1 destroyed it sales-wise, but for those who were lucky enough to own both machines I can honestly say that I preferred the quality over quantity of the Saturn over my PS1 and the SS could easily hold its own with anything the PS1 did. I still play my Saturn now, but my PS1 has been sat on the shelf for over a decade now. Commercially it got flattened, but the machine NEVER failed us with its games. You've done the system proud mate! And I totally get your point with all the negativity towards it, it's the reason I actually unsubbed from another certain Sega Guy on YT, I was just sick to death of his whining video after video and about what could have been etc. You've done the system proud!
I remember when my friend James loaned me his Saturn, Action Replay cart, and copy of Radiant Silvergun, Saturn was a real treat of a system to play back in the mid 90s
Sir I wasn’t getting a PlayStation when it came out. I wanted a Sega Product or Nintendo Product. I loved my Saturn and didn’t give a shit about the sheep getting a PlayStation. Great video.
I'm finding that the older I get, the more I realize how daft it is to measure the concepts of success and respect by how much money a given person or thing can generate. While yes, there were people at the helm at Sega running a business and looking for profit, but Sega's willingness to take crazy risks and sometimes put wild creativity and passion above what only made sense for profit is commendable and rare. I was one of those kids who was burned by the 32X in the 90s and pushed into the arms of the PlayStation. I played Saturn games in the 90s and would have given one a home if I had the money, but without seeing my favorite Mega Drive franchises getting continued on Saturn and the West dropping the ball on game selection, I was forced to make a choice. Today, I try to make up for lost time and my own ignorance. The Saturn is my next favorite game system of all time now, only beaten by the Mega Drive. The passion, love, knowledge, and positivity of Sega veterans like you guys has given me a sense of gaming community I haven't felt since the 90s.❤
Saturn was not a failure it succeeded in giving us quality games. The reason for it not selling as well as the PlayStation was the PlayStation being hyped up while the Saturn was played down in the media.
Having just bought a Saturn this summer, i have to say that it's been really fun delving the depths of the Saturn library and pulling out the gems. And there are a lot of gems, across all the markets. Tons of experiences you can only have on Saturn, it's like entering a parallel universe of gaming from what I knew as a kid. Super fun.
Yeah the Dreamcast is my most fondly remembered console.....by a mile. Closely followed by Sega Mega drive,PlayStation (1-original with composite audio outputs :) ) Nintendo Gamecube,then XBOX (Dreamcast 2) then XBOX 360. God i miss those gaming days. We really were spoiled for games back then were'nt we?
Awesome video, I bought my saturn from Japan on release and most of the games, I completed them over and over , no continues back then, how many people do that with current games, not many I don't think, thanks for the great coverage of a beloved system !
Having Saturn + Shining Force 3 at the time was an amazing feeling. Every friend of mine wanted to play it. I kept lending my saturn with sf3, thanks to one game i was able to alot of playstation games 😁.
I remember going to buy a Playstation, and asked the price of the Saturn and they had it screwed up in the system, so instead of $300 brand new, i got it for $30. Was the first place i played Tomb Raider and Resident Evil
I loved my Sega Saturn, I was around 18 years old. VF2, NiGHTS, the list goes on and on... I even had the modem, and the damn disc had not only a browser, but an IRC client! Came in handy while I was couch surfing. Kids today dont even know.
Although the Dreamcast was my favourite console over all, the narrative for that console is a lot more fair. Thank you for redressing the balance regarding the much-maligned Saturn. The console was a fantastic experience, with each magazine-mounted demo disk offering a fresh new experience back when gaming was in a very transitional and trailblazing stage. Games the like of which had never been seen before were common, compared to a lot of today's experiences which are refinement of decade-old genres that were defined on consoles such as the Saturn. I was shocked when you pointed out the year difference between Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament and then I thought back.... You are right, Playstation 3d beat 'em ups did look pretty primitive compared to Virtua Fighter 2, with clumsy animations and boxy characters until quite a bit later. I'd actually forgotten that in the sea of videos claiming the PS1 did everything better. Without the Saturn I never would have got into JRPG titles thanks to Panzer Dragoon Saga, I'd have never enjoyed the Command and Conquer franchise and I'd have never got to play arcade titles like Virtual On. I only saw that once in the arcades in the wild, the next time I visited that arcade it was replaced by some gambling ticket machine. The Saturn is a time portal back to when the arcade was the cutting edge of gaming technology and we got to see many of those home titles first. You did a fantastic job of bringing all of these points to life and more.I'm tempted to fish out my console and see if it still runs after all this time. I will probably need to find some fancy cable to plug it up to my tv though!
Another outstanding video. It makes me want to go back in time and show people.this exact video and show people what this console can do especially the net link and 3D controller. The way you described the two chips is the kind of explanation developers should have been told. This makes me love the console even more 👍😀
Nice video, I enjoyed it :) I bought a Saturn when it was already on the decline and I could get games pretty cheap. I remember going to the local game store and the employee told me to check out Burning Rangers.... Super good. I didn't fact check ALL the games you claimed were Saturn exclusive, however I do know Steep Slope Sliders is also on arcade. Keep up the good work!
I loved the Saturn! It's an understatement to say that the Saturn was a great console, and I still love it .. My tour in the US Navy was when I got my first Saturn 🪐 I say let the haters hate but, if the start trying to condemn us for enjoying our favorite system, DESTROY THEM💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿
The Sega Saturn was a phenomenal system and in 1995. It was very difficult to decide between getting either it or getting the newly released released Sony PlayStation? Likely for me, my father and I went with the Sony PlayStation due in part to the fact that we had spent a week at the beach a few months prior that summer, where we got to play the newly released Tekken & Ridge Racer arcade cabinets for the first time and were blown away!!!!! Fast-forward to the month of October, when the Christmas catalog started showing up in the mailbox ..... and there it was!!!! The Sony PlayStation for $349.99 and your choice of either Tekken or Ridge Racer bundled in?!!! it was such an amazing time! But I spent what felt like hours, standing in front of the Sega Saturn Display at Toys "R" Us trying my best to decide if we should just get the Sega being as we were previous fans of the Genesis and CD? Either way, the years from the super Nintendo going up to the Sega Dreamcast and the PlayStation two have been some of my favorites but my favorite of all time is the PlayStation generation!!!!! But there has been games from each generation that would make that decision difficult to make as I love the games so much? I just believe that the PlayStation and Saturn era special because everything was very premium, and it was the biggest leap in graphics we had ever witnessed- And that's true still to this day!
Thanks James for calling out fake or biased narratives as well as restoring some balance! Some people seem to be still fighting for a console war that ended decades ago, sadly. If I could go back in time, and even knowing that the Saturn would ultimately "fail", I wouldn't change a thing and would still buy a Saturn over a PlayStation.
I remember when saturn came out. I had a monthly gaming magazine that showed up on my doorstep and it was filled with full page ads for working designs RPGs on sega saturn. I really wanted to snag one as soon as I could save up enough money. However, they stopped making them before that happened so I never got one.
I just viewed that reddit post and shook my head. A lot of reductive comments and misinformation. Even some of pro-Saturn people were misinformed and repeating the common misconceptions (The Saturn wasn’t built for 3-D, etc.). It just convinced me more so that videos like this need to be made.
I'm split on this subject. On one hand, the problem with the Saturn (and Dreamcast) is that the console's premature discontinuation, resulted in the loss of a rather massive amount of games that would have otherwise made it to the console. In the Saturn's case for me, that'd be stuff like Lunar: Silver Star Story, Grandia (both of which are at least in English nowadays), Tomb Raider 2, Virtua Fighter 3, Resident Evil 2, Sonic Adventure and Destruction Derby 2. So it is hard to overlook this in my view because of the loss of software. My issue is less so how many consoles the Saturn sold, and more so how quickly it was ditched (in relation to the competition). To put it in other context, if a TV show I liked was fully completed but had less than stellar viewership numbers, that wouldn't be something I'd care about much, if at all. It's a different matter though, if it was incomplete because of it. However, in saying that doesn't mean I don't have a lot of stuff I adore and enjoy on the existing console's library. I've been an owner of the system in the 90s, and I've bought one almost ten years ago and have been loving what I've been playing on it. Prime examples include the Virtua Fighter games, Daytona, SEGA Rally, Sonic Jam, The Need for Speed, Die Hard Arcade, the Panzer Dragoon Games, Doom 1 (yeah I freaking loved it lol), Grandia and Lunar: Silver Star Story. Also at 9:17 haha! I recognize where this is, Akhibara, Gigo Building 3, Floor 7 isn't it? lol Great video though!
This is the video I've been wanting to see my entire life. Thanks so much guys for finally making it! To me, the Saturn is the greatest system ever made. I've been beyond done seeing negativity from clueless, ignorant gamers for 25 years. Some idiots lump the system in with the likes of the Jaguar and the Virtual Boy, both of which had like 50 total games released for them and is an utterly insane comparison. I hope that eventually, screaming into the storm as you put it, we are able to change the narrative about the system at least partially. Great job guys, keep up the good work!!!
I love how i can recognize all the voices in the intro. Often times its not as much about their negative retrospective, as it is the misinformation that tags along with it.
Such a great video. excellent deep dive in to the technicalities of the system too. many things i had never considered, like the comparison between ps1 and saturn games being a bit unfair due to the release dates.
I bought the Sega Saturn from Dixons for £375 included Virtual Fighter. Clockwork knight and international victory goal . I played Sega rally to death on the bootleg sampler An absolute fantastic games machine Great video, thank you
The main gripe I had with SEGA was not bringing over games I actually wanted to play on my Saturn, like Lunar 1 and 2 (as I never got a MCD), Grandia, Suikoden, all 3 Shining Force 3 games, Dragon Force 2, Terra Phantastica and many more. So many great games where left in Japan. Bought a PSX later on just to be able to play Grandia... My top three games for the Saturn that I actually could buy in Europe: Shining the Holy Ark, Guardian Heroes and Dragon Force.
Always a treat to see people celebrating the Saturn. I got one a year ago for the first time and got a Satiator for it and love it. So far I've beaten Sakura Taisen, Policenauts, Lunar SSS, Grandia, Guardian Heroes, and Burning Rangers.
Recently Mister FPGA has gotten a pretty decent Saturn core. And, dumping the discs is quite easy now that Retroarch has support for dumping the discs.
I remember first seeing the Saturn in my parents catalogues and magazines on shop shelves when I was a spud. As far as memory goes, Saturn was the first console I ever purchased with my own money albeit second hand from a local game shop called Budget Computer Games in Lowestoft. I absolutely loved the thing, couldn't believe somebody had sold it, I'd got an absolute bargain. It was also the first console I ever managed to lose... no idea what happened to it. Still have the games though but the console itself vanished. Virtua Cop 1 and 2 were pretty much the games to have for me as I was a huge arcade light gun fan. Fighting Vipers, an absolutely fantastic fighting game. One I'm sad more people don't mention, Gungriffon, easily one of the top Saturn games, especially if you like mechs and mech combat. Saturn is the reason why I picked up and built a MisterFPGA system and I still pick up Saturn themed stuff to this day... latest being the Anbernic RG Arc D in Saturn Japan colours, Retroid Pocket Mini in Saturn Japan colours and Retro-Bit 2.4GHz Saturn and Saturn Pro pads.
Never had one, only remember the hype of panzer dragoon games, and seeing Three Dirty Dwarves advertising in the gamepro magazines. Picked one up at a local shop for $150 in February 2024 and glad I did. Might be my favorite console of all time.
Thank you for making the video, I find it annoying seeing a false narrative be repeated around in the gaming community, like "Coleco purposely sabotaged the Atari port of both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. to make the Colecovision look better." Personally, I'm not too interested in the Saturn (I'm more into the Dreamcast), but even I know the claim of the Saturn single-handedly destroying Sega is false, as I think the 32x did more damage to Sega than the Saturn ever did. I hope this video changes how people see the Saturn and look at it more positively, because it deserves more than being "The console that killed Sega."
For 2D fighting game enthusiast, Sega Saturn was a dream come true. It can bring home 1 to 1 and almost 1 to 1 arcade conversions to your home without breaking the bank (too much) like if you bought a NEO GEO AES
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I think the future is bringing a lot of indie developers to old consoles making amazing games pushing the limits of these consoles. I really hope so.
As a Sega loyalist in the 87’ in America, I was the only kid in my school that had the master system. I continued with the Genesis, then Sega CD, Game Gear and the ill fated 32X. It was a no brainer to get me a Saturn as I wanted to play Virtua Fighter. I enjoyed the games that was released yet a little envious of the games that were planned on the Saturn but was later cancelled and became a PS exclusive. On the final year of publishing. I made sure I got on the pre-order list of each NA released game and started to buy the imported Japanese games. It was crazy that the imported games were always sold out. The market was hungry for Saturn games but they killed it early for almost a year till the Dreamcast was released. I enjoyed the Dreamcast when it was alive but that too died an early death. For me the Saturn was a unique experience as I loved the creative games it had. It was the last generation that a system had games on multiple platforms but look and played differently on that console like how there were different versions of the same games between the Genesis and SNES. Even with all the missteps, bad decisions and poor support. I would still not trade my Saturn experience for the world.
My story was almost the same. However, by the time the 32X came out, SEGA had burned their bridges with retailers, developers, and game enthusiasts. We didn't realize that these terrible decisions were japan, overriding the Kalinske team. Sega of america also saw the writing on the wall and followed their developers and gamers out the door. The huge sega market quickly became the PlayStation market.
In Japan the Saturn wasn’t a failure and as a games console overall, it was a success. It was marketed poorly in the west but the Saturn is a fantastic console and deserves the love and attention it’s getting. I had a great time playing Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally at my friends house back in the day.
At the risk of sounding like a self promoter, I just finished writing a book on SEGA's history, and one of the really interesting things I found in my research was devs at the time saying it wasn't particularly badly designed, it's judt that many either didn't have the smarts or couldn't be bothered to figure out it's intricacies. Totally different narrative than the narrative the TH-cam bros would have you believe
Yeah, that’s it Joe … by the time third parties figured out how VDP1 and 2 could work together, it was too late. Like I said, Tomb Raider running pretty much soley on VDP1, it’s a wonder it runs as well as it does. Sonic R is a great example of what could be done in terms of transparencies and multi texturing with VDP2, but SEGA not supporting developers with the right tools and support, along with rushing the western launches along, was just a perfect shit storm. The thing is, people often say that the lack of SGL didn’t help developers, but look what the Mega Drive’s Virtua Racing Deluxe team did under Mizuguchi’s supervision with Sega Rally, or the team who did Virtual On … both done without SGL. While the team who ported Virtua Cop to Saturn did use the SGL, but were total rookies on their first major project with Suzuki peeking in to check up on them. If you’ve got an early draft of that book we’d love to see it, Joe. Cheers again!
@@SEGAGuys The final draft of the book is done and with the publisher. I'll throw you an email with a bit more info. BTW, I LOVED the video, you can feel the passion dripping off it! Great job!
Sony with their PlayStation undercutting the Saturn price on release was just a big corporation selling their hardware at a loss so they could beat the established competition. That was a scummy move and I hope Sony (and Microsoft) leaves the console market one day.
The whole price difference story isn't even entirely true. The PSX cost $100 less, but that was without any pack-in game or memory card, both of which you pretty much needed and the Saturn had. If you wanted the equivalent of the Saturn package (and an actually usable system) that would put it closer to $375, but that story isn't as juicy.
I loved every minute of this - amazing job James! As someone who was there at the time as well, the video really chimed with how I felt and still feel about the system. I never regretted owning a Saturn back then for a second, was never tempted to jump to Playstation or N64, and consistently played it until I had to sell it to fund the purchase of a Dreamcast (on day one of course!). Even then, my love for the Saturn never waned and I was only without one for a couple of years before I picked up another console, got all my games back, and carried on playing. I've never been too annoyed about all the uninformed clickbait coverage as much as I've pitied the people who clearly don't understand or appreciate what is an amazing system with a brilliant library of games. Hopefully this video will go some way putting those poor souls on the righteous path of the Sega Saturn!
Great video, really enjoyed it. Hopefully, this starts to change the negative perception of the Saturn. I was always really happy with the Saturn and it was my preferred console of the generation, I just wish it had had more support to bridge the gap to Dreamcast, another 12 months would have been enough 😢. Still, I enjoyed picking up cheap '2 for £15' games from Game at the time 😂.
The Saturn has been and always will be my most favourite console. As you said in the video, Sega at their creative peak. Especially Sonic Team, NiGHTS and Burning Rangers are absolute treats and still get regular play time in my house. The masterful use of the system, even with any 'limitations' resulted in some of the most gorgeous 3D art direction of the era, looking at the above mentions and the like of the Panzer Dragoon trilogy. Simply not possible on the PlayStation and arguably may not of had such an impact if it wasn't for the Saturns unique hardware. Now... Im guna go and fire up the Saturn.
Great video with passion and loads of facts. If I may offer one correction: the VDP1 can do half transparencies, although not perfectly. A half transparent vdp1 object will work correctly with objects and backgrounds created by vdp2. However if the objects behind the half-transparent object were created by vdp1, then they would be obscured by the half transparent object which negates the concept of a half-transparency. Programmers needed to think of how the games were designed and objects placed to make vdp1 half-transparency work. low score boy gives a great explanation of this topic on his channel.
Greatest Arcade console ever. It was released 29 years too early. Sega made a decent 3D controller for the Saturn, so how the F did they make an inferior controller for the Dreamcast? I echo the same points about the controllers, but I'll also add that the Dreamcast controller is extremely uncomfortable to hold. Your index fingers are hard pressed against the plastic when they're "resting" on the analog triggers which starts to hurt after a short while. I'll even go as far as to say that the N64 controller was way more comfortable. You could have longer playing sessions at least.
Recuerdo cuando compré mi Saturn el verano del 95, con el Virtua Fighter 2. La experiencia fue increíble!!!! A día de hoy, sigo teniéndola y sigo jugando al primer Daytona USA, a pesar de sus limitaciones gráficas.....y al todopoderoso Sega Rally!!!! Para mí Saturn junto con Megadrive las mejores videoconsolas de SEGA con diferencia (muy por encima de Dreamcast incluso)
A friend of mine, when I shared this video with him, told me that the Saturn didn't fail: we failed the Saturn. I only failed it insofar as I had no idea it was even a thing until it was too late. I didn't even know it was out in the US until maybe 1997 or 1998, by which time its commercial fortunes had waned. I picked mine up in 1999 secondhand, and have had a lot of fun with it over the years.
@@jenesisjp91 I mean it’s hard to separate those two things. The Saturn lacked a good sonic game, had hardware that was super hard to develop for, lacked a killer 1st party app for outside of Japan and it was expensive.
It was a commercial failure, but your comment is perfect in highlighting the point of the video. That word, “failure” is used in an all-encompassing manner, so brutally absolute. The Saturn wasn’t a failure at what it was built to do; play great games. And that’s the point of this video, that failure can’t be a one-stop-shop style explanation or summary of Saturn when it did so many things right. Commercial failure? Absolutely. Failure as a games console? No.
@@nathanhargenrader645 Almost … and yet the omission of a definition of failure makes it a blanket statement that helps push the narrative we’re fighting to change. The term “failure” cannot, and should not, be used on its own. The one thing doing this video has highlighted though, is how angry and triggered people get (not you, for clarity) when others show appreciation or passion for the Saturn and challenge the decades of narrative that has (mis)educated and brainwashed gamers.
If you only measure success by how many units something sells...then yeah the Saturn wasnt a success in the west...
But if you measure success by the games and enjoyment...then its a massive succes...
The days spent with the segaholic walking up to partick to gamezone...then charlies to see what we could never afford...the reading of every word in the mags..the epic battles in vf2 and LB, FV, MEGAMIX, COTA, then some awesome rpgs that matched ff7...shining force, shining the holy ark, dark saviour, saga, to epic shooters like the panzer series to classic score attack titles like nights
To the racers like rally, sonic r, touring cars.
The best 50 quid ive ever spent on a console brand new...never paying more than a fiver from gamezone picking up amazing titles 😊
It baffles me why anyone but stockholders would give a crap about sales numbers. This effects you how exactly?
@@darinherrick9224 Ask the multitude of TH-camrs who for over a decade have focused on Saturn’s commercial failure in their videos. The worst thing to happen to gaming was gamers being given access to sales numbers.
As I said in the video, back in the day Sam and I didn’t give a shit how many Saturns had been sold; we were too busy enjoying the games.
Yes, I agree, and even so, the sales figures aren't conclusive, the actual numbers hover between 11 and 17 million, when we talk about the Saturn, it's hard to be conclusive, as it was a convoluted time where many things were lost.
Even if we take into account the SMS and GG, we're talking about 30 million+ SMS based hardware sold.
With that, I only wan to say that these consoles did sell well, they are far, far away from the likes of the Jaguar, CD-i and the 3DO, we're talking about around 50 million units sold, not counting with the Mega Drive based hardware, that taken unofficial numbers, would go over 50 million alone.
As for people who focuses on "failures" and other provocative subjects, I don't have the notion the Saturn suffers too much from this, maybe because I hold it in the highest regards myself. And the 'failure' subjects and clickbait videos aren't what bothers me much, what does that is that even to this day, the majority of less than bright people still believes the Saturn was conceived as a powerful 2D machine, while even the 32X had focus on 3D and SEGA knew better than anyone that 2D games couldn't compete in the next generation, and the SH2 CPU architecture is 3D compatible, so no, the Saturn WASN'T meant to be a 2D machine, it's just that it is really powerful enough that 2D games benefitted a lot from it, even the PS1 is so beyond what the Genesis/SNES could do in 2D that it can't even compare to the previous generation, the only weaker points of both SAT/PSX is that they should have had the double amount of RAM they were designed with.
@@darinherrick9224 Well if you want the console you love to last, get more games and good 3rd party support, you do kinda want to care how well your console of choice is selling. Kind of common sense
Heard your name mentioned numerous times over the years on the podcast mate - you and James must have had a phenomenal childhood - I was the only one who had a Saturn at our school so glad you had each other mate 😄
The Saturn is in a similar category to the Dreamcast and Wii U. Much better than its sales would suggest.
One out of three has the stupidest name evah though.
@@Gary_Hun I’ll never understand why SEGA thought naming it after a car company was a good idea. 😉
Video games are one of the few forms of art where sales are often cited to indicate quality. Imagine the arguments if music or movies that didn’t sell millions of units absolutely sucked?
No doubt Saturn was a rough time financially for Sega, but it’s ridiculous to call the system and its games bad because of those numbers.
Loved the video and the narrative. Great work.
I couldn't agree with this statement more. Imagine if Taylor Swift was automatically recognized as the greatest musical achievement of the entirety of our human species, simply because of her popularity? Unbelievable.
Mel, it means a lot that you enjoyed the finished video and we really appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Look forward to catching up with you for a chat soon. Take care, mate. - James.
I agree that the Saturn's sales are not indicative of its quality, but people do this with music all the time. I've been a Billboard chart watcher for a decade now, and people talk about numbers more than they talk about songs or albums. I only know like 8 Drake songs, but I know how well each album of his has sold because his fans bring up numbers all the time.
The Sega Saturn has definitely garnered quite the fan base as of the last decade. That makes me very happy
Thank you for the love you convey for the Saturn, which I've also loved since November 1994.
for me, I didn't like the fact that sales weren't good, because that would inevitably lead to fewer games being produced. Publishers would give up and some good games would be exclusive to the PS1.
Of course, just because everyone's jumping off a cliff doesn't mean we have to follow them too. What I mean is, just because everyone was buying PS1 games, doesn't mean they were better.
In the end, the important thing is to have fun and keep having fun with your systems. I would have liked more games translated into my language (French) or at least into English. The same problem with the Dreamcast.
Thank you for sharing your passion for the Saturn. It deserved it and still deserves it today.
Translated
I was 31 when I bought my Saturn in January 1996. After seeing Sega Rally on Bad Influence I knew this was the console for me and I already had a Playstation with Ridge Racer and Wipeout. I sold those to pay towards the Saturn and never looked back. Now, I know the PS1 had way more games released but come on, how many games did the average gamer buy for their console in the time they played on it before moving on to the next console? There were enough great games released on the Saturn to satisfy most gamers, but unfortunately some bias towards the Playstation in the media swayed them away from choosing the Sega's machine. The Saturn is my favourite console of that generation and I still play a lot on my original machine today, especially now I have the Saroo nesting snugly in the cartridge slot.
Love Sega, the Saturn is my favourite console of all time and happy birthday Dreamcast!
It's so refreshing to finally see a video on here that accurately echos my feelings about the Sega Saturn. I still remember the day I got my original Saturn. I was sat in the front room of my Grandparents house playing my Mega Drive when I spotted my Grandad coming home from work with a big box under his arm.
He came in, put the box down next to me and simply said "Here you go, turn that off and let's get this plugged in instead". He'd spoken to a friend who worked as a delivery driver at a department store who managed to keep a Saturn aside for him ahead of the UK launch to surprise me with. He got the model 1 version that came bundled with Virtua Fighter 1 that had Akira and Jacky on the console box. They may look crude now (they did even back then) but I was absolutely blown away seeing 3d characters I could play with in a fighting game for the very first time.
I played it so much in the following weeks my Grandad even got sick of the sight of VF so took me into town to (the now defunct) Virgin Megastore where he let me pick Bug as my 2nd Saturn game.
I know this is overly wordy but I still have such vivid recollections of that time when I got my Saturn which, despite also loving all consoles, I couldn't quite say about my PS1. The Saturn really did leave a lasting impact on not just me, but my friends who always wanted to come to my house play Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Nights Into Dreams and Guardian Heroes because they couldn't play them on their PS1s at home. The Saturn was truly magical for me as a kid and I still hold the biggest soft spot for it nearly some 30 years later.
I agree with you 100% here. I hate that people measure the success of most things only based on how much money they earned or how well they are perceived to have done commercially. I remember bringing my Sega Saturn to a military deployment. Nobody showed any interest in bringing any kind of console because we were told there wouldn't be any time or any device to connect one to. However, I brought mine because I knew another guy that said he was considering bringing his PS1, and I just wanted to have my preferred console. We managed to find an old PC monitor that happened to have a video converter adapter and between operations we'd all jump on the Saturn. We used our time on that Saturn to bond and to truly unwind from the war right outside the base.
That console and those games were our peace during that time and really helped bolstered our relationships. I'll always remember that time as the most fun time I've had on my Saturn, and I still pull it out from time to time to play it with my kids and tell them about those times. I love my Saturn and will always consider it a big win, regardless of its commercial/financial accomplishments.
At school I was the only kid who had a Saturn. I never felt jealous of my PlayStation-owning mates. My favourite console of all-time.
Just wanna thank you for all that you do. Ive been listening to all of your episodes on spotify. In the spring I bought a genesis and got over 150 carts for it. I absolutely love sega and never had gotten around to playing the Saturn. Listening to you guys has me itching to get a saturn for the holidays. I got 400 saturn roms right now waiting to be burned on discs. I cant wait to explore the entire library.
@@johnwong3615 John, that’s awesome, I love that what we do has inspired you to pick up a Saturn and play more SEGA. Regarding all those Saturn ROMS though, rather than burn discs, why not look into an ODE? There’s several options now, but the easiest by far now is the Saroo cart.
We’ve done episodes on ODE’s for SEGA systems, so check those out if you need more info. Thanks again, and see you on the SEGA side! - James.
I loved my Saturn but it was painful at times seeing crap ports or worse, no ports, of the best PS games. When that golden era of Sega Rally, VF2 and Virtua Cop hit, I was convinced the Saturn had made it. Then, of course, Sega did what Sega does and messed it up.
I find a lot of TH-camrs only seem to want tell the Saturn's story from a North American Prospective. Using The idea that it failed here, so it must have failed everywhere, Ignoring how popular it was in Japan (Even in the UK I remember it being somewhat popular). I think a very Similar thing happens with the Master System.
I agree, and the situation is reversed when it comes to Dreamcast, which has this success narrative because of its sensational US launch numbers.
In Japan though, the Dreamcast absolutely tanked in comparison to the Saturn. But the Western/US narrative is the one that takes precedence online for both systems.
I hate it when UK TH-camrs talk about the video game crash as something relevant here.
@@arostwocents We were enjoying the height of 8-bit computers while that was going on. I only learned about “the crash” years later … I grew up on a Spectrum 128k+2, while Dan was a C64 kid.
Good times.
@@SEGAGuys Oddly enough computer gaming was still going strong here in the US, it was mostly only consoles that felt it. C64, Atari 8 bit computers, etc were all still going strong with gaming.
@@SEGAGuys It's Funny how the Saturn outsold the Dreamcast, yet the Saturn is made out to be the bigger failure.
I agree 100%. I didn't even care about Playstation because of my Saturn.
I had one 97 almost whole year. My dad got it from rent a center and it got reposed about eleven months later. Ended up with an N64 and then I got a job and got another Saturn myself and wound up with several great games.
The one from rent a center came with a baseball game and Sega Rally Championship and man what can I say about Sega Rally Championship! Played that game so much . Along with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , Night warriors Dark stalkers revenge , Bug and Bug 2 , Clockwork Knight and Guardian heros.
After it got reposed and I got another one I had Guardian heros , Sega rally Championship, Bug 1 and 2 , Shining the Holy Ark , Virtua Fighter Remix and Virtua Fighter 2 , Clockwork Knight 1 , Panzer dragoon 1 and 2 , Nights Into dreams , and Marvel super heros vs Street fighter.
I never played Panzer dragoon saga ? I never even seen it or knew it existed till later.
I ended up on hard times and sold it all in 2011 and man it blew my mind I got 800$ out of it. I do regret it though.
I agree with you 100% the Saturn was absolutely awesome.
What really blew my mind is I got almost everyone of those games from around 20$ no joke. I was not aware of the value of Shining the holy ark and Guardian Heros. Those two alone are worth 800$.They were all complete in the case in good shape to. I had a box with sega saturn stuff. Sold it all and your video is making me sad now lol.
100% do not understand this mentality from gamers, I'll forget an entire library of phenomenal games because of what, lame brand loyalty😂
I owned all the main consoles back then, but the Saturn was always the ‘special’ one for me. The Capcom and SNK fighting games were superb as were the Sega arcade conversions.
I always loved the Saturn version of Mass Destruction the best. The explosions in that game are still unrivalled today to my eye.
A video full of love and passion, the hallmark of everyone who played Sega Saturn back then. 🙂
The saturn version of mass destruction was the best as it runs at 60fps, the ps1 version only runs at 30fps.
@@GeordiLaForgery Yeah, I avoided the PS version as it was roundly slated inthe magazines of the time.
Nice to see the PC version is still available on Steam. 🙂
@@herdarkshadow834 That's nice. I forgot how cruel the first mission is, destroy the water wells and then 3 villages.
@@GeordiLaForgery It certainly lived up to the title.
Saturn was never a failure as far as i'm concerned, it was a success! i'll never regret buying mine in may 1996, from that day to the last game released, it never failed to keep me (and all my friends) entertained, and has continued to entertain me on and off ever since. theres a special feeling every time i slot a disc in, close the lid and press the on button on my Sega Saturn. 🐐
It had a really nice library of games, and was pretty easy to play import discs as well with the action replay
@@joesaiditstrue Hell it's even easy to get japanese systems. Got my white model 2 for like $50 total.
Agreed 💯%!!
Great video and awesome work, brother. I always felt that way the SEGA Saturn was a success period!
I’m happy for you son but this is sheer copium. The fact that you love it doesn’t hide the fact it’s a massive bust. The Dreamcast as well and I also own both lol
I can think of three things the Saturn did right off the top of my head that made it my favourite console ever.
Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Panzer Dragoon Azel
Plus like Virtua fighters and Capcom things and SEGA Rally and stuff, they were good too, but mainly Panzer Dragoon.
The fourth one was quite a bit more expensive, but I suppose it did come with an Xbox though, because that's the only way I could play it. And then more recently I picked a Series X over a PS5 because I could play Orta at 4K 60 with injected HDR now, so like nearly a grand in total (although it was spread over like 20 years, still got my launch day disc and it legitimately was the first game I put in and played on my Series X while Horizon 5 downloaded) but it's worth every penny.
If Little Samson costs £3,000 off a scalper, I'd rather have 4K Orta, two grand change and auto-HDR.
Also, I potentially like Panzer Dragoon.
Haha I thought Little Samson was terrible. Yours is the first post I've ever seen not acting like it's the best thing ever 😂
@@arostwocents If you get into it it's decent, music ain't winning any prizes though.
Deffo the sort of game God made emulators for. If they re-released it on the online store I wouldn't buy it if it was on it's own, but if it was part of a collection it wouldn't put me off the collection but I'd only go through it again now for achievements.
But thousands of dollars, JUST because it's rare, same with that Flintstones game that isn't actually as good as that $15 other Flintstones game is, I class Little Sampson as that line that should make anyone buying it think, "do I just have a hobby still, or is it actually some sort of undiagnosed problem on the spectrum at this point."
They even sell repros of it for a lot more than other repros, to exploit the damaged people who need a 'full set.'
$3,000 gets you a 200" laser short cast projector, and a series S with dev mode to play Little Sampson on (and 1440p Panzer dragoon Orta, on 200 inches with HDR.) And that's if the game hasn't gone up since I last saw the price, might be able to upgrade that S to an X and buy a PS5 as well now for the price.
Great video James. For us who played our Saturns back then, there wasn't a moment where we felt that the system was lacking. From an overall perspective, every system delivered must plays and the Saturn had a welath of must plays, many of them utterly unique and exclusive to the system. th crazy thing is, there's still so much more you can say about the system and what it offered us back then. Sega's best system for me; Always has been and always will be.
I've always been fascinated with the Saturn; but for me the Dreamcast is my favorite Sega console of all time. Such a shame it didn't have a longer life span.
@@nickparsons337both are great
Yeah I had one during it's life time. It felt to me it was doing well and then abruptly stopped getting games.
As a hard-core SEGA fan, I feel your comment, brother. The SEGA Saturn is as awesome as a console can get, period!!
I felt that it lacked in Jrpgs. I went with Playstation precisely due to Squaresoft. After Chrono Trigger & Final Fantasy 6, I would've followed Square anywhere. Saturn has some damn great strategy games rpgs like Dragon Force & Dragon Force 2. Grandia was the most high tech Jrpgs of its era before FF VII came out but Grandia Saturn stayed in Japan & only the PS version reached the West.
If someone doesn't change their mind after this , then they're the ones missing out! Fantastic work
Awesome video - thanks! I got a Saturn at its launch date in Europe and loved it. Many happy hours spent playing Sega Rally and VF2…
Street Racer was a game that “tickled” some of Saturn’s capabilities also outside of Japan. The producers stated openly that they felt the Saturn was superior to the PS1 if you know what you’re doing. That was 1997 before PS1 reached its height.
Honorable mention!
Happy to see so much modern intrigue and interest in the sega saturn. among being a youth in california where playstation was king, I was one of the only kiddos lucky enough to own a saturn, a copy of nights among other games and people were always envious of the arcade 2d games that looked incredible on saturn. And for the longest time, emulation was a big barrier, but has been nearly perfected on the front of how close it is to real hardware. It could never have been done without the immense passion the community has.
I really enjoyed this video. As someone who had never owned a Saturn, and often joked about it, I’ve recently changed my tune and purchased one. I was so brainwashed. I love it! Like you said, it doesn’t re-write history. But now after all these years I can actually allow myself to enjoy what the Saturn offers. I can’t wait to finally get to Dragon Force!
Now is a particularly good time to get into those games. Retroarch can copy the discs and Mister FPGA does a pretty respectable job in terms of playing them. I've got a Saturn, but I mostly play via Mister.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Why go through all of that when the real hardware is cheap enough?
That controller Sega certainly got right first time on Japanese Saturn.
Yep, perfect 2D controller! The D-pad on the PS1 controller was abysmal and a big reason why I didn't buy one until much later for 3D games!
My best memories of the Saturn,is the Panzer Dragoon Saga demo disc. Me and my cousin sat there playing it for hours on end. We actually said "I think they've fucked up and put the whole game on the disc!" Of course i found out many years later it was the entire first disc given away. The other games are Panzer Dragoon Zwei,Fighters Megamix and Street Fighter Alpha 2. Also Christmas Nights!
I got into Saturn in the middle of 1997 thanks to my brother who got one when he graduated sixth grade. Once I tried some of their major games like Daytona and VF2, I was sold on it. I also got more into it when I was exposed to their Japanese library which showed how amazing and unique the console really is.
I remember my dad bought the Saturn first, and then a week later we got the PS, especially after he saw that Final Fantasy 7 was coming to PS lol... We were playing the Saturn more, especially with the fighting games, and we were both hoping to see a Phantasy Star V, which sadly never happened.
About a year or so later, most of the games my dad was buying for the Saturn, were from Japan and did not come to the States, this is what happened with the Sega CD as well, a lot of the games we had were from Japan. Sega didn't bring out a lot of titles which was sad, and I noticed in my house the PS was being played more and more, and soon after that, Saturn wasn't really being used anymore, it was all PS and then we later got the Dreamcast, which made the PS take a backseat for a bit, even when PS2 came out. But later on with that, a lot of the titles we were buying for DC, were from Japan and never released in the States.
Loved seeing Guardian Heroes in the video, we played the hell out of that game, and it was a huge inspiration for a game my brother and I created in high school, which I am currently redesigning now, it was sci-fi space fantasy, "Armament of Volition" weeeeee lol
Great video guys. There's a reason why I still have my SEGA Mega Drive Tower of Power, Saturn & Dreamcast hooked up to my 4K TV using a Framemeister xrgb-mini. It's the awesome sights and sounds of original SEGA hardware that you just can't get with any other console. 🍺😎👍
I wish sega did a better job providing more of there game engines, sdk and tools to 2nd, 3rd parties developers. Cancelation of saturn titles and its suprise launch killed the console quickly in the west. I'm glad the saturn brought near arcade perfect titles and kept 2D gaming alive during the 3D craze in the 5th gen console era.
Happy birthday to my favorite sega console tge dreamcast.
I love the Sega Saturn. It has so many exclusive fighting games, stuck there, like Fighters Megamix. That was the main reason I got mine in Japan.
One of my favourite memories from that trip was, before going to bed, playing some Virtua Fighter 2 or Puyo Puyo Sun in the Hotel room.
The Saturn has such an aesthetic.
What an amazing video. The Saturn is one of my favourite consoles. I first got mine for Christmas in 1997 and while that was at the end of the Saturn’s life, it formed for me amazing memories. Mine came with Sega Rally, Sonic R, Sonjc Jam, Virtua Fighter 2, Clockwork Knight, FIFA 97, Sega WWS 97 and Athlete Kings.
Everybody made fun of me in school because I had a Saturn and everyone else had a PlayStation but I always felt that it was them who missed out, not me.
The Saturn is the reason why I’m such a huge fan of video game music as well, and to be fair I’d always been a Sega fanboy so I was never going to have my loyalty tested.
Thank you, Dean! What a bundle that was too! 😃 I love it when I hear stories from Saturn owners that are so similar to our own.
I can totally relate to the school playground stuff about Saturn vs PlayStation, after September 95 there was a real change in attitude toward Saturn which had been pretty positive even though people knew about PlayStation coming soon.
What you said about Sega and the Saturn making you a fan of video game music … totally the same!
Glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks again for taking the time to comment. - James.
@@SEGAGuysCheers James! Gained a new subscriber here and hopefully I’ll bump into you at some point in Arcade Club!
@@DeanPuckering Dan and I definitely need to get back there in the near future … that OutRun 2 SP link-up cabinet is calling our names! 😂 Appreciate you subscribing, hope you enjoy taking a look round the channel. 😁
You hit the nail on the head sir. Back in the day, nobody was complaining about transparencies on our CRTs!
Also, can someone please do a video about SAT load times. If you do a side by side with PSX, the SAT loaded quicker for most similar/same titles but that never gets a mention.
The Sega Saturn was a brilliant machine and when programmers knew how to make the most of what was inside it we got all time great games! From Sega Rally to Quake, this thing pulled off things that according to the 'know it all' gaming press it wasn't apparently capable of doing. It's full library is vast (including the Japanese games), and we truly had many of the greatest games of all time on it. Yes the PS1 destroyed it sales-wise, but for those who were lucky enough to own both machines I can honestly say that I preferred the quality over quantity of the Saturn over my PS1 and the SS could easily hold its own with anything the PS1 did. I still play my Saturn now, but my PS1 has been sat on the shelf for over a decade now. Commercially it got flattened, but the machine NEVER failed us with its games. You've done the system proud mate! And I totally get your point with all the negativity towards it, it's the reason I actually unsubbed from another certain Sega Guy on YT, I was just sick to death of his whining video after video and about what could have been etc. You've done the system proud!
I remember when my friend James loaned me his Saturn, Action Replay cart, and copy of Radiant Silvergun, Saturn was a real treat of a system to play back in the mid 90s
Sir I wasn’t getting a PlayStation when it came out. I wanted a Sega Product or Nintendo Product. I loved my Saturn and didn’t give a shit about the sheep getting a PlayStation. Great video.
I really like how different consoles were back in the day. And most games were exclusives. Each one was a unique experience.
I'm finding that the older I get, the more I realize how daft it is to measure the concepts of success and respect by how much money a given person or thing can generate. While yes, there were people at the helm at Sega running a business and looking for profit, but Sega's willingness to take crazy risks and sometimes put wild creativity and passion above what only made sense for profit is commendable and rare.
I was one of those kids who was burned by the 32X in the 90s and pushed into the arms of the PlayStation. I played Saturn games in the 90s and would have given one a home if I had the money, but without seeing my favorite Mega Drive franchises getting continued on Saturn and the West dropping the ball on game selection, I was forced to make a choice.
Today, I try to make up for lost time and my own ignorance. The Saturn is my next favorite game system of all time now, only beaten by the Mega Drive. The passion, love, knowledge, and positivity of Sega veterans like you guys has given me a sense of gaming community I haven't felt since the 90s.❤
Saturn was not a failure it succeeded in giving us quality games. The reason for it not selling as well as the PlayStation was the PlayStation being hyped up while the Saturn was played down in the media.
Having just bought a Saturn this summer, i have to say that it's been really fun delving the depths of the Saturn library and pulling out the gems. And there are a lot of gems, across all the markets. Tons of experiences you can only have on Saturn, it's like entering a parallel universe of gaming from what I knew as a kid. Super fun.
Yeah the Dreamcast is my most fondly remembered console.....by a mile. Closely followed by Sega Mega drive,PlayStation (1-original with composite audio outputs :) ) Nintendo Gamecube,then XBOX (Dreamcast 2) then XBOX 360. God i miss those gaming days. We really were spoiled for games back then were'nt we?
Happy late 25th birthday, Dreamcast!
Really late … Dreamcast turned 25 on November 27th 2023. 😉
Awesome video, I bought my saturn from Japan on release and most of the games, I completed them over and over , no continues back then, how many people do that with current games, not many I don't think, thanks for the great coverage of a beloved system !
Having Saturn + Shining Force 3 at the time was an amazing feeling. Every friend of mine wanted to play it. I kept lending my saturn with sf3, thanks to one game i was able to alot of playstation games 😁.
I remember going to buy a Playstation, and asked the price of the Saturn and they had it screwed up in the system, so instead of $300 brand new, i got it for $30. Was the first place i played Tomb Raider and Resident Evil
Now that's how you sell the Saturn! 🫡
I loved my Sega Saturn, I was around 18 years old. VF2, NiGHTS, the list goes on and on... I even had the modem, and the damn disc had not only a browser, but an IRC client! Came in handy while I was couch surfing. Kids today dont even know.
Although the Dreamcast was my favourite console over all, the narrative for that console is a lot more fair. Thank you for redressing the balance regarding the much-maligned Saturn. The console was a fantastic experience, with each magazine-mounted demo disk offering a fresh new experience back when gaming was in a very transitional and trailblazing stage. Games the like of which had never been seen before were common, compared to a lot of today's experiences which are refinement of decade-old genres that were defined on consoles such as the Saturn. I was shocked when you pointed out the year difference between Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament and then I thought back.... You are right, Playstation 3d beat 'em ups did look pretty primitive compared to Virtua Fighter 2, with clumsy animations and boxy characters until quite a bit later. I'd actually forgotten that in the sea of videos claiming the PS1 did everything better. Without the Saturn I never would have got into JRPG titles thanks to Panzer Dragoon Saga, I'd have never enjoyed the Command and Conquer franchise and I'd have never got to play arcade titles like Virtual On. I only saw that once in the arcades in the wild, the next time I visited that arcade it was replaced by some gambling ticket machine. The Saturn is a time portal back to when the arcade was the cutting edge of gaming technology and we got to see many of those home titles first. You did a fantastic job of bringing all of these points to life and more.I'm tempted to fish out my console and see if it still runs after all this time. I will probably need to find some fancy cable to plug it up to my tv though!
Another outstanding video. It makes me want to go back in time and show people.this exact video and show people what this console can do especially the net link and 3D controller. The way you described the two chips is the kind of explanation developers should have been told. This makes me love the console even more 👍😀
Nice video, I enjoyed it :) I bought a Saturn when it was already on the decline and I could get games pretty cheap. I remember going to the local game store and the employee told me to check out Burning Rangers.... Super good. I didn't fact check ALL the games you claimed were Saturn exclusive, however I do know Steep Slope Sliders is also on arcade. Keep up the good work!
Great video! I didn't and don't own a Saturn, I wish I did! I enjoy all your content!
I loved the Saturn! It's an understatement to say that the Saturn was a great console, and I still love it ..
My tour in the US Navy was when I got my first Saturn 🪐 I say let the haters hate but, if the start trying to condemn us for enjoying our favorite system, DESTROY THEM💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿
They continued to make software in Japan well into the 2000's that is not a failure
The Sega Saturn was a phenomenal system and in 1995. It was very difficult to decide between getting either it or getting the newly released released Sony PlayStation?
Likely for me, my father and I went with the Sony PlayStation due in part to the fact that we had spent a week at the beach a few months prior that summer, where we got to play the newly released Tekken & Ridge Racer arcade cabinets for the first time and were blown away!!!!!
Fast-forward to the month of October, when the Christmas catalog started showing up in the mailbox ..... and there it was!!!!
The Sony PlayStation for $349.99 and your choice of either Tekken or Ridge Racer bundled in?!!! it was such an amazing time!
But I spent what felt like hours, standing in front of the Sega Saturn Display at Toys "R" Us trying my best to decide if we should just get the Sega being as we were previous fans of the Genesis and CD?
Either way, the years from the super Nintendo going up to the Sega Dreamcast and the PlayStation two have been some of my favorites but my favorite of all time is the PlayStation generation!!!!! But there has been games from each generation that would make that decision difficult to make as I love the games so much? I just believe that the PlayStation and Saturn era special because everything was very premium, and it was the biggest leap in graphics we had ever witnessed-
And that's true still to this day!
Thanks James for calling out fake or biased narratives as well as restoring some balance! Some people seem to be still fighting for a console war that ended decades ago, sadly.
If I could go back in time, and even knowing that the Saturn would ultimately "fail", I wouldn't change a thing and would still buy a Saturn over a PlayStation.
I remember when saturn came out. I had a monthly gaming magazine that showed up on my doorstep and it was filled with full page ads for working designs RPGs on sega saturn. I really wanted to snag one as soon as I could save up enough money. However, they stopped making them before that happened so I never got one.
Wow I didn't know that they were planning so many functionalities for the analogue 3D controller 😮
I just viewed that reddit post and shook my head. A lot of reductive comments and misinformation. Even some of pro-Saturn people were misinformed and repeating the common misconceptions (The Saturn wasn’t built for 3-D, etc.).
It just convinced me more so that videos like this need to be made.
You SEGAGuys putting out another great vid!! Awesome watch as usual! Thanks! Thanks for helping keep Sega alive!!❤
I'm split on this subject.
On one hand, the problem with the Saturn (and Dreamcast) is that the console's premature discontinuation, resulted in the loss of a rather massive amount of games that would have otherwise made it to the console. In the Saturn's case for me, that'd be stuff like Lunar: Silver Star Story, Grandia (both of which are at least in English nowadays), Tomb Raider 2, Virtua Fighter 3, Resident Evil 2, Sonic Adventure and Destruction Derby 2. So it is hard to overlook this in my view because of the loss of software. My issue is less so how many consoles the Saturn sold, and more so how quickly it was ditched (in relation to the competition).
To put it in other context, if a TV show I liked was fully completed but had less than stellar viewership numbers, that wouldn't be something I'd care about much, if at all. It's a different matter though, if it was incomplete because of it.
However, in saying that doesn't mean I don't have a lot of stuff I adore and enjoy on the existing console's library. I've been an owner of the system in the 90s, and I've bought one almost ten years ago and have been loving what I've been playing on it. Prime examples include the Virtua Fighter games, Daytona, SEGA Rally, Sonic Jam, The Need for Speed, Die Hard Arcade, the Panzer Dragoon Games, Doom 1 (yeah I freaking loved it lol), Grandia and Lunar: Silver Star Story.
Also at 9:17 haha! I recognize where this is, Akhibara, Gigo Building 3, Floor 7 isn't it? lol
Great video though!
This is the video I've been wanting to see my entire life. Thanks so much guys for finally making it! To me, the Saturn is the greatest system ever made. I've been beyond done seeing negativity from clueless, ignorant gamers for 25 years. Some idiots lump the system in with the likes of the Jaguar and the Virtual Boy, both of which had like 50 total games released for them and is an utterly insane comparison. I hope that eventually, screaming into the storm as you put it, we are able to change the narrative about the system at least partially. Great job guys, keep up the good work!!!
Without a doubt one of the best consoles in history, extremely underrated, my favorite in life, greetings from Veenzuela
The YT algorithm blessed me with this video!
Thank you, this is a video that needed to be made about the Saturn! 💖
I love how i can recognize all the voices in the intro. Often times its not as much about their negative retrospective, as it is the misinformation that tags along with it.
"Every system has good games in it's library".
So true! Even the Nokia N-Gage had a few good games. I just can't think of any.
Let me see if i can help you with that: Pocket Kingdom, Pathway to Glory and Snakes to name a few
Tomb Raider?
Such a great video. excellent deep dive in to the technicalities of the system too. many things i had never considered, like the comparison between ps1 and saturn games being a bit unfair due to the release dates.
I bought the Sega Saturn from Dixons for £375 included Virtual Fighter. Clockwork knight and international victory goal . I played Sega rally to death on the bootleg sampler
An absolute fantastic games machine
Great video, thank you
Oh you did it proud.. 😊 m an md owner in the 90s got the ps1 but was bewildered by the negative reviews of my favourite console the sega.
I saved all summer long working with my dad to get one (95)and I had nor have NO REGRETS. I loved My Saturn.
Seven player Death Tank Zwei with the best theme song on Saturn ❤
Seven player Saturn Bomberman ❤
Still play this console more than any other console I own. I can so relate to everything you are saying in your video.
As much as the PS1/PS2 is my favorite console of all times, the Saturn is most certainly somewhere in my top 5 favorite consoles of all times.
The main gripe I had with SEGA was not bringing over games I actually wanted to play on my Saturn, like Lunar 1 and 2 (as I never got a MCD), Grandia, Suikoden, all 3 Shining Force 3 games, Dragon Force 2, Terra Phantastica and many more. So many great games where left in Japan. Bought a PSX later on just to be able to play Grandia...
My top three games for the Saturn that I actually could buy in Europe: Shining the Holy Ark, Guardian Heroes and Dragon Force.
Always a treat to see people celebrating the Saturn. I got one a year ago for the first time and got a Satiator for it and love it. So far I've beaten Sakura Taisen, Policenauts, Lunar SSS, Grandia, Guardian Heroes, and Burning Rangers.
Recently Mister FPGA has gotten a pretty decent Saturn core. And, dumping the discs is quite easy now that Retroarch has support for dumping the discs.
I remember first seeing the Saturn in my parents catalogues and magazines on shop shelves when I was a spud. As far as memory goes, Saturn was the first console I ever purchased with my own money albeit second hand from a local game shop called Budget Computer Games in Lowestoft. I absolutely loved the thing, couldn't believe somebody had sold it, I'd got an absolute bargain. It was also the first console I ever managed to lose... no idea what happened to it. Still have the games though but the console itself vanished.
Virtua Cop 1 and 2 were pretty much the games to have for me as I was a huge arcade light gun fan. Fighting Vipers, an absolutely fantastic fighting game. One I'm sad more people don't mention, Gungriffon, easily one of the top Saturn games, especially if you like mechs and mech combat.
Saturn is the reason why I picked up and built a MisterFPGA system and I still pick up Saturn themed stuff to this day... latest being the Anbernic RG Arc D in Saturn Japan colours, Retroid Pocket Mini in Saturn Japan colours and Retro-Bit 2.4GHz Saturn and Saturn Pro pads.
Never had one, only remember the hype of panzer dragoon games, and seeing Three Dirty Dwarves advertising in the gamepro magazines. Picked one up at a local shop for $150 in February 2024 and glad I did. Might be my favorite console of all time.
Thank you for making the video, I find it annoying seeing a false narrative be repeated around in the gaming community, like "Coleco purposely sabotaged the Atari port of both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. to make the Colecovision look better."
Personally, I'm not too interested in the Saturn (I'm more into the Dreamcast), but even I know the claim of the Saturn single-handedly destroying Sega is false, as I think the 32x did more damage to Sega than the Saturn ever did. I hope this video changes how people see the Saturn and look at it more positively, because it deserves more than being "The console that killed Sega."
For 2D fighting game enthusiast, Sega Saturn was a dream come true. It can bring home 1 to 1 and almost 1 to 1 arcade conversions to your home without breaking the bank (too much) like if you bought a NEO GEO AES
I think the future is bringing a lot of indie developers to old consoles making amazing games pushing the limits of these consoles. I really hope so.
As a Sega loyalist in the 87’ in America, I was the only kid in my school that had the master system. I continued with the Genesis, then Sega CD, Game Gear and the ill fated 32X. It was a no brainer to get me a Saturn as I wanted to play Virtua Fighter. I enjoyed the games that was released yet a little envious of the games that were planned on the Saturn but was later cancelled and became a PS exclusive. On the final year of publishing. I made sure I got on the pre-order list of each NA released game and started to buy the imported Japanese games. It was crazy that the imported games were always sold out. The market was hungry for Saturn games but they killed it early for almost a year till the Dreamcast was released. I enjoyed the Dreamcast when it was alive but that too died an early death. For me the Saturn was a unique experience as I loved the creative games it had. It was the last generation that a system had games on multiple platforms but look and played differently on that console like how there were different versions of the same games between the Genesis and SNES. Even with all the missteps, bad decisions and poor support. I would still not trade my Saturn experience for the world.
My story was almost the same. However, by the time the 32X came out, SEGA had burned their bridges with retailers, developers, and game enthusiasts. We didn't realize that these terrible decisions were japan, overriding the Kalinske team. Sega of america also saw the writing on the wall and followed their developers and gamers out the door. The huge sega market quickly became the PlayStation market.
Damn, you loved sega beating you up.
@@hpickettz34I was starting to feel sorry about the sega fan, then I saw your comment and laughed a lot... 😂
In Japan the Saturn wasn’t a failure and as a games console overall, it was a success. It was marketed poorly in the west but the Saturn is a fantastic console and deserves the love and attention it’s getting. I had a great time playing Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally at my friends house back in the day.
At the risk of sounding like a self promoter, I just finished writing a book on SEGA's history, and one of the really interesting things I found in my research was devs at the time saying it wasn't particularly badly designed, it's judt that many either didn't have the smarts or couldn't be bothered to figure out it's intricacies. Totally different narrative than the narrative the TH-cam bros would have you believe
Yeah, that’s it Joe … by the time third parties figured out how VDP1 and 2 could work together, it was too late. Like I said, Tomb Raider running pretty much soley on VDP1, it’s a wonder it runs as well as it does.
Sonic R is a great example of what could be done in terms of transparencies and multi texturing with VDP2, but SEGA not supporting developers with the right tools and support, along with rushing the western launches along, was just a perfect shit storm.
The thing is, people often say that the lack of SGL didn’t help developers, but look what the Mega Drive’s Virtua Racing Deluxe team did under Mizuguchi’s supervision with Sega Rally, or the team who did Virtual On … both done without SGL.
While the team who ported Virtua Cop to Saturn did use the SGL, but were total rookies on their first major project with Suzuki peeking in to check up on them.
If you’ve got an early draft of that book we’d love to see it, Joe. Cheers again!
@@SEGAGuys The final draft of the book is done and with the publisher. I'll throw you an email with a bit more info. BTW, I LOVED the video, you can feel the passion dripping off it! Great job!
@SEGAGuys I'm not on either Twitter or Discord. Is there another way of contacting you guys?
@@JoeDouglas Shame you’re not on Discord, Joe … and I don’t want either of us to exchange email addresses publicly. We’ll find a way.
Sony with their PlayStation undercutting the Saturn price on release was just a big corporation selling their hardware at a loss so they could beat the established competition. That was a scummy move and I hope Sony (and Microsoft) leaves the console market one day.
The whole price difference story isn't even entirely true. The PSX cost $100 less, but that was without any pack-in game or memory card, both of which you pretty much needed and the Saturn had.
If you wanted the equivalent of the Saturn package (and an actually usable system) that would put it closer to $375, but that story isn't as juicy.
Great video!!
Mate , you from Wales?
Cheers, glad you enjoyed it! I’m from Glasgow, Scotland.
I’m more impressed with what indies are doing with the Sega Genesis today.
I loved every minute of this - amazing job James! As someone who was there at the time as well, the video really chimed with how I felt and still feel about the system. I never regretted owning a Saturn back then for a second, was never tempted to jump to Playstation or N64, and consistently played it until I had to sell it to fund the purchase of a Dreamcast (on day one of course!). Even then, my love for the Saturn never waned and I was only without one for a couple of years before I picked up another console, got all my games back, and carried on playing. I've never been too annoyed about all the uninformed clickbait coverage as much as I've pitied the people who clearly don't understand or appreciate what is an amazing system with a brilliant library of games. Hopefully this video will go some way putting those poor souls on the righteous path of the Sega Saturn!
It did well in Japan
Saturn has that BIG in Japan vibe.
Great video, really enjoyed it. Hopefully, this starts to change the negative perception of the Saturn. I was always really happy with the Saturn and it was my preferred console of the generation, I just wish it had had more support to bridge the gap to Dreamcast, another 12 months would have been enough 😢. Still, I enjoyed picking up cheap '2 for £15' games from Game at the time 😂.
It’s a great console for someone that did not have one at the time but have pick one up a year ago. Love playing the games on my SAROO.
Lasted thru its 4 year cycle. It didn’t fail. It just never got to reach its full potential
The Saturn has been and always will be my most favourite console. As you said in the video, Sega at their creative peak. Especially Sonic Team, NiGHTS and Burning Rangers are absolute treats and still get regular play time in my house.
The masterful use of the system, even with any 'limitations' resulted in some of the most gorgeous 3D art direction of the era, looking at the above mentions and the like of the Panzer Dragoon trilogy. Simply not possible on the PlayStation and arguably may not of had such an impact if it wasn't for the Saturns unique hardware.
Now... Im guna go and fire up the Saturn.
Say it, Say it... SEGA!!!
Been a long time SEGA fan myself, from the SEGA Gen up all the way up to the Dreamcast, which i still have and works
Love these videos, proper trip down memory lane.
Oh one other thing the CD player on that thing was awesome. Those two deals on the side would stobe with the rhythm!
I liked the spaceship
Great video with passion and loads of facts. If I may offer one correction: the VDP1 can do half transparencies, although not perfectly. A half transparent vdp1 object will work correctly with objects and backgrounds created by vdp2. However if the objects behind the half-transparent object were created by vdp1, then they would be obscured by the half transparent object which negates the concept of a half-transparency. Programmers needed to think of how the games were designed and objects placed to make vdp1 half-transparency work. low score boy gives a great explanation of this topic on his channel.
Greatest Arcade console ever. It was released 29 years too early.
Sega made a decent 3D controller for the Saturn, so how the F did they make an inferior controller for the Dreamcast? I echo the same points about the controllers, but I'll also add that the Dreamcast controller is extremely uncomfortable to hold. Your index fingers are hard pressed against the plastic when they're "resting" on the analog triggers which starts to hurt after a short while. I'll even go as far as to say that the N64 controller was way more comfortable. You could have longer playing sessions at least.
Recuerdo cuando compré mi Saturn el verano del 95, con el Virtua Fighter 2. La experiencia fue increíble!!!! A día de hoy, sigo teniéndola y sigo jugando al primer Daytona USA, a pesar de sus limitaciones gráficas.....y al todopoderoso Sega Rally!!!! Para mí Saturn junto con Megadrive las mejores videoconsolas de SEGA con diferencia (muy por encima de Dreamcast incluso)
This comment means a lot coming from a legend in the community such as yourself. Thank you.
A friend of mine, when I shared this video with him, told me that the Saturn didn't fail: we failed the Saturn. I only failed it insofar as I had no idea it was even a thing until it was too late. I didn't even know it was out in the US until maybe 1997 or 1998, by which time its commercial fortunes had waned. I picked mine up in 1999 secondhand, and have had a lot of fun with it over the years.
Saturn was awesome. It was still a failure but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have awesome games.
I agree, but I don't think it's at any fault of the Saturn. Imo I believe it's Sega incompetence that caused gamers to reject it.
@@jenesisjp91 I mean it’s hard to separate those two things. The Saturn lacked a good sonic game, had hardware that was super hard to develop for, lacked a killer 1st party app for outside of Japan and it was expensive.
It was a commercial failure, but your comment is perfect in highlighting the point of the video. That word, “failure” is used in an all-encompassing manner, so brutally absolute.
The Saturn wasn’t a failure at what it was built to do; play great games. And that’s the point of this video, that failure can’t be a one-stop-shop style explanation or summary of Saturn when it did so many things right.
Commercial failure? Absolutely.
Failure as a games console? No.
@@SEGAGuys it’s almost like that’s what I said?
@@nathanhargenrader645 Almost … and yet the omission of a definition of failure makes it a blanket statement that helps push the narrative we’re fighting to change.
The term “failure” cannot, and should not, be used on its own.
The one thing doing this video has highlighted though, is how angry and triggered people get (not you, for clarity) when others show appreciation or passion for the Saturn and challenge the decades of narrative that has (mis)educated and brainwashed gamers.
I had hours upon hours of fun with my Saturn, the games were destilled fun and thats what is important.
Panzer dragoon saga and sega rally kept me busy for ages, rally’s handling was so good!
Just the thought of twin sticks already makes me wanna game some more virtual on
Absolutely fantastic video. The Saturn will never swindle away.
Cheers, Daz. Appreciate it mate.