Let's Reminisce: Sega Saturn

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

In all fairness, Saturn SotN was a quick and dirty port that utilized very little of the Saturn's horsepower.
The Saturn had no hardware for 3D transparencies, and developers would often use meshes and shit to fake it.
Yes, a great programming team could and did get 3D transparencies out of the system. But it required hardcore coding, where as the PSX required nothing because it was built into the hardware.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Stolen from someone who knows more than me or you.

The Saturn has two types of hardware transparencies: sprite-sprite and sprite-background. These two modes suffer from a number of restrictions, which is probably why they were not used so often.
- Sprite-sprite blending is always 0.5*a+0.5*b, which is why most places where it's used you get dull, smudgy graphics
- Due to the frankly idiotic way sprites are drawn you get artifacts where the same pixel is blended several times
- Sprite-sprite blending does not work properly only on VDP2-palettized sprites (this is also true for most VDP1 effects)
- Sprite-sprite blending is fairly slow (which is why the mesh option exists) and can not be used in high-resolution modes
- Sprite-background blending can blend in ratios of 1:32 to 31:1, but again, no increase in brightness.
- There are only eight different background blending settings available, shared by all sprites and in particular all RGB mode sprites share the same setting
- Not all types of sprites allow background blending

Since sprite-background blending is "free" many games use only that mode, and with a bit of effort it can be hard to tell you're only blending with the background. None of the restrictions are absolute showstoppers, but I'd say the increased rendering cost and limited blending options were the main reasons sprite blending wasn't used too often. Especially after Playstation designers started to use its more advanced blending options, using the Saturn's half-transparency would just have meant more unfavourable comparisons.

Now I'm done with this dumb argument.

[Shin Johnpv]

I'd list the Saturn as my favorite Sega system. Mostly for 3rd party 2D awesomeness, and I will give you that the majority of it had to be imported. As someone who grew up addicted to 2D fighters, the Saturn was my holy grail for that. It took a long time before better home versions of a lot of those games were released. I don't think I could even count how much time I put into the Saturn versions of Street Fighter Alpha 2, and X-men Vs Street Fighter.

I can get why some people would say the Dreamcast was Sega's best system. I just think so much of the Dreamcast's best can be found on other systems, that it's value is made much smaller. I mean hell even with in the generation that the Dreamcast was released we were seeing ports of it's best exclusives. Where as it seems more of the Saturn's best have remained Saturn exclusives.

[Diff-chan]

Genesis was obviously Sega's best system.

[Andrew]

Genesis was obviously Sega's best system.

A strong case can be made, but I have to give the "best" title to the Dreamcast. So much excellence packed into such a short period of time. And it was the machine that gave us Shenmue.

After the N64 let me down, I sort of grew apathetic about video games. I even dabbled in PC gaming for a bit, but I never got into it too seriously (my first time playing Final Fantasy VII was the PC port). The PS1 brought be back, but I was late to the party (early 1999, if memory serves) and spent the next year or so playing catch-up. The Dreamcast was the first console in a long time that had my interest at launch. Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, NFL 2K... I was back into gaming again. But it was Shenmue that grabbed hold of me and caused me to rethink what a video game could be. It was a living, breathing, fully interactive world, realized in a way that no RPG--hell, no game period--had managed to do. My foundation was rocked.

As for the Saturn? I vaguely remember some games for it in a corner of Electronics Boutique that nobody bothered with, and some promotional posters of a bald woman or something. It just wasn't on my radar in any sort of meaningful way.

[Brisco Bold]

My decision was between the Playstation and N64 during that generation. The Saturn wasn't even a consideration. I knew what was happening on the platform, but I just had a baaaaad feeling about its long-term viability. The residue of bizarre Nintendo fanboyism also something to do with it. (I call it bizarre because my pro-Nintendo stance was heavily influenced by the Super NES's sound chip and Street Fighter 2. Years later I realized I liked the Genesis much more than the SNES.)

Anyway, I sort of look back on that generation with regret. I really wish I'd picked up the Saturn on the cheap or at least at a decent price.

[gamevet]

The Saturn is my all-time favorite console. It was my Neo Geo, with it's large library of not only Sega arcade titles, but those of Capcom and SNK as well.

After months of reading through Gamefan about the upcoming games for the Playstation and Saturn, I was on the fence about which console to get, but I wanted to play Daytona and Virtua Fighter. I had seen both import consoles at Die Hard Gameclub, so I got to see a little bit of what both systems had to offer. It was in May of 1995, that I discovered the Saturn was available at Toys R' US. I was kind of shocked to see the system, but it was an instant purchase that day. Glitchy as it was, I had a great time with Virtua Fighter; I was still amazed that I had that arcade game in my home. I'd later pick up Daytona, Pebble Beach Golf and Panzer Dragoon, as they were pretty much all the domestic titles that were available back then.

Diehard Gameclub was my first experience with playing import games. I had bought an ST-Key from there and would rent Japanese titles like Gran Chaser and Sexy Parodious. They had Wing Arms for $79, so I brought in my Sega CD and games for trade (goodbye Snatcher). Wing Arms was a pretty cool game and it's still one of my favorites for the system. I'd later get the North American version (ugh the acting), but I still like playing the Japanese version because of the passion (the captain gurgling as his ship sinks is classic) of the voice actors over their North American crew.


I have just over 70 titles for the Saturn, with just 4 being imports. I still look around for bargain games for the system and plan to buy at least a couple of more imports for it. Still, the North American software list isn't as bad as it's made out to be. Mega Man X4 is superior to the Playstation version, Soviet Strike looks just as good on the Saturn, Gun Griffon is one of the best mech games around, Galactic Attack is still one of my favorite shooters, and I play Sega Rally at least twice a year.

I was fortunate enough to be able to buy all the final games that were released on the Saturn. I actually got Magic Knight Rayearth at a EB in South Carolina, while I was working out of town. House of the Dead was only $20 at Toys R' Us, so that wasn't such a huge hit on the wallet. I regret not picking up another copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga when TRU had it priced at $20 as well.


Love the Saturn!

[Yoshi]

Genesis was obviously Sega's best system.

Yes. The Dreamcast is hugely overrated, and I am not sure why. Maybe it's that people who had the SNES and/or the PS1 finally figured out Sega existed in 1999?

Having had the Master System in 1989, the Genesis in 1991 with a Sega CD in 1992, the Saturn in 1995, and the Dreamcast in 1998, there really isn't any doubt in my mind that the DC and SMS were substantially behind the Genesis and Saturn. I didn't have Mega Drive imports until later, but I imported from pretty early on on the Saturn and from pre-day one in US terms on the DC, so maybe that's another factor.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I still remember when word went out that toys r us had marked PDS, Shining Force III, and HotD down to $20. I was only able to find a copy of SF3, but i already had all three and just wanted to add sealed copies to the collection. If only i could have found a PDS or two...

[GohanX]

I always saw PDS at EB in the case for $50. I was only making like $6 an hour then, and there were tons of used Saturn games available for less than $20. I figure nobody will buy it, I'll pick it up later. I kept going in, looking at it, and said "Next time." Naturally when I did go in for it the game was gone, never to be seen again.

For most systems, I seemed to have a knack for picking titles up cheap that would later become expensive, like Earthbound, Snatcher, all those RPGs that are stupidly priced now, but I utterly failed at doing this with the Saturn.