Sega Saturn

[xstonekinghtx]

Well, this my little story/experience with the sega saturn. Now  I can tell that I really love Sega stuff. My first experience with sega was with the dreamcast that I played a lot like shenmue (one of my favorite games), sky of arcadia, sonic and many others. But I never played any other sega system. Well, like two weeks ago, I saw a saturn console complete in a thrift store (for like $15 dollars). I bought and bring it home, when I played a shitty sport games (nba), I really get surprised  how well the game looks, of course comparing with the ps1. I was ok, I can give it chance and well I bought D. I know is not the best game on the console but I loved to play it in it, I beat the game like in 1 hour and really enjoy the puzzle and graphics on it. When I start looking for other games I get really impress, panzer dragon, shining force, and many others blown my mind to get that stuff. The reason, maybe, I get love with the system is because the ps1 was my first own (that I bougth because I also had n64) console that converts me in a gamer (thanks to ff7) and now that I know there was another competitor bring me to that era again. That is the reason that I decided to get all the games possible for that system and the reason I'm able to trade most of my stuff that I really dont want to collect to get more games and play them on the console .

So tell me guys, why you love or hate sega

[90snostalga]

Congrats on the nice thrift find for the Saturn 

I would say Sega always holds a place in my heart for many reasons.   One, the coloring and graphics.  When I went back and first played the Sega Master System, I was amazed at the graphics and nice bright colors compared to the NES.  Per the Genesis, I grew up playing a Genesis and it always is in my heart for that reason, and for the extensive library of fantastic games!  Nice sounds as well.  Example, if you play Beavis and Butthead on the Genesis, it actually has the theme song music.  On the Super Nintendo, it doesn't.  It had better sound, sharper graphics, colors and great games.  Now, the Dreamcast.  Aww man does this have a hold on me.  I love the Dreamcast!  ShenMue is one of the best games of all time!  I could go on, but overall, I miss Sega and hope that one day, they answer my dreams and bring back a console

What I hate about Sega, how they handled business which helped bring their console decline.  Not me or any one I knew, ever heard of the Master System in the late 80s.  We only heard and thought there was only Nintendo.  Poor marketing by Sega.  Genesis is the exception of course.  Per the Saturn, If I recall correctly, Sega changed the release dates or something for the Saturn per competition with Sony's PlayStation, and a lot of games were rushed and did not look like they had potential to look and be.  Not just the rush, but the Saturn was too expensive and too risky at the time.  Again, marketing helped the Saturn get a short life.  Dreamcast.  I remember everyone had and talked about the Dreamcast or wanted one!  It was amazing!  And then one day out of no where, I go to the store, and no more Dreamcast!!!   Sega was gone!!!   I have no idea what happened!!!   It sucked. 

I am anxious to see Sin2Beta's response to this post.  Sin2Beta sleeps, eats, and drinks Sega lol

[90snostalga]

Oh, I forgot to mention.  If you would like more of a background on Sega, and information on their first home console.  Check out the video below.  There are new episodes each week.  If you like Sega, you will enjoy:

[sin2beta]

... It had better sound...

Most people will refute this. But honestly, this is what I loved about Sega. They were way ahead of the game... to the point of not helping themselves. It connected to the internet in 1990. This is well before xband. http://segaretro.org/Sega_Mega_Modem And I would argue that the sound chip is far better than the SNES at its limits. However, your stock SNES game will sound better due to Nintendo making a sound library for their system. But they crippled it by making all of the sound samples be stored in RAM. This severely limits it. The Genesis is limited by programming/cart size. Check out this video demonstrating the power. It is made by Joe Redifer of Gamesack:

And then for just a quick demo. Here is the Genesis playing music from the Saturn game Super Tempo. All through the Genesis PCM audio:

This type of digital music is not possible on the Super Nintendo, as far as I know.

[burningdoom]

No way Genesis had better sound. Most of the games had this tingy, metallic sound to it that was unnatural sounding. There are exceptions of course, Sega made fantastic music on the Sonic the Hedgehog games, for example. But most companies just didn't use the potential that the Genesis had in it.

On the other hand, look at the SNES. Donkey Kong Country and Final Fantasy III are HUGE examples of the complex music the SNES could produce, and F-Zero is an example of great fast-paced music. And even average soundtracks like Super Mario World or Final Fight had some damn memorable music.

[soera]

Im on both sides of the fence on Sega. SMS vs NES - SMS all the way. The library is a lot smaller but most of the titles are better than the NES. Phantasy star honestly should have been the premiere RPG franchise. Golden axe warrior is actually better than Legend of Zelda (Its true). SNES vs Genesis - SNES all day long. Not even a contest. Genesis games felt cheap and blah. SNES games pushed the envelope on every aspect.

I like the Saturn (Magic knight Rayearth was one of the best gaming experiences I ever had) but I hate the Dreamcast. I like the Sega CD but I cant stand the 32X. No comment on Gamegear as Ive never actually played the system.

[kingrat101]

For me Im really into early to mid 90's arcade games and Sega really tried to bring that experience home, a lot of my favorite arcade ports are on the Saturn and dreamcast. I grew up as a Nintendo fanboy and didn't really realize how many great games are exclusive to sega consoles. I love retro Nintendo for basically taking games and popularizing story telling in games, Zelda, Metroid even Kirby, I love Sega for bringing home the arcade, any... well Capcom port, obviously Sega ports. Don't get me wrong Sega has some fantastic RPG's but the arcade games is where it's at for me.