Ye Olde Blah

I recently found a nice working emulator for the Sega Saturn (Cassini), so i've decided to take my game collection out of the closet (literally). I've discovered i have more games than i thought (they're actually mine and my brothers'). Many of the games i bought here in the US, terribly underpriced, sad really, but some i bought in Europe, which are really the ones that i bought because i thought i might like them, as opposed to their being underpriced.

My European games are:
. Clockwork Knight II (i can't find the cd only the box, a pity, one of my favorites, i'm downloading the ISO).
. Theme Park
. Daytona USA CE
. Christmas Nights
. Nights Sampler
. Virtua Cop 2
. Fifa 98
. NHL 97

The ones i got here in the US:
. Shining the Holy Ark (uh huh)
. Fighters Megamix
. Destruction Derby
. Bust-a-move 2 (nice game)
. NBA Live 98
. Die Hard Trilogy
. NHL All Star Hockey 98
. Enemy Zero, 4 disk game  (not my favorite)
. Fifa 97
. Battle Arena Toshinden
. Sega Flash 2 Sampler
. Pga Tour 97
. NFL Quarterback 97 (not a big NFL fan)
. Ultimate Mortal Kombat
. Sonic R (can't find the CD)

I'm trying to get my hands on SFIII ISO, i've wanted to get that game since day one, i have half of it downloaded.
Out of all the games above, the ones that work with the emulator are:
. Shining the Holy Ark (thankfully, works perfectly)
. Fighters Megamix
. Destruction Derby
. Christmas Nights (plays very nicely too)

That's about it. By the way, i used to have two Saturn consoles one European and another American. The american is all black, and the european has a grey cd cap, or used to, my brother broke it (the whole console that is). I also have a cartridge called ST Key which allows me to play import games.

How do you play Christmas NiGHTS on a PC? Do you have a controller adaptor or something? It'd be painful having to play it with a keyboard or mouse :cry:

I can't believe you don't have a full version of NiGHTS. That's really quite upsetting - get one NOW. Beg, steal or borrow if you have to.

There are some pretty rockin' games on that list, apart from having two consecutive FIFAs, which is unforgivable. The rest looks good, though. I can try and find some PAL games for you - locally there's a surfeit of Tunnel B-1, FIFA '96 and anything else sub-par ;) (my games list to come soon)

Yes, i have a controller which is actually quite similar to the Saturn one. I actually bought FIFA 97 after i already had FIFA 98, it was underpriced :).
There's plenty of games that i've always wanted to buy but they were never anywhere near me or i didn't have the money, like Baku Baku, Guardian Heros, Shining Wisdom, Panzer Dragoon, Story of Thor... etc. I'm a big fan of the mega drive version of the Story of Thor so i've always wanted to see how it came out on the Saturn.

I'll let Newts talk about all his games, but Story of Thor on the Saturn has an awesome soundtrack.

Story of Thor came out on the Saturn? And that while the Mega Drive version was already so cool! :D

For the SF III iso, PM me.

I loved story of thor also : )

It was known as Story of Thor II in Europe, in the US I believe it was called Legend of Oasis. It's pretty hard to track down but is a really, really cool game - just like the original on the Mega Drive, but faster and smoother, with more moves and spirits and better-designed levels and bosses. I haven't played it in years, but I'm going to have to go through it this summer now :D

Baku Baku is really rare over here - I had to buy a version with a beaten-up old box just to make sure I had the game. As for Guardian Heroes, I know a friend who's had five different copies, so they're definitely out there if you know where to look.

Panzer Dragoon should be pretty easy to find, but Shining Wisdom is rare and pricey these days, generally about ?20 over here at least. I'm yet to buy it, to my shame.

There's still no excuse for buying two FIFA games, no matter how cheap they were. I'd only accept it if it came with a cheque for one billion pounds from EA, saying "sorry for all this shit we keep pumping out". Maybe one day...

I'm bored and it's a stupid time, so what better opportunity to write up a list of my Saturn games?

PAL GAMES

Athlete Kings - straightforward arcade athletics game. Decent.
Baku Baku Animal - addictive if twee puzzler. Cuter than three baby mice all dressed in pink.
Bubble Bobble Collection - two Rainbow Islands games and BB. Good stuff.
Burning Rangers - classic Sonic Team adventuring.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos - shit 3D platformer. Controls like you're going down a ski slope on the back of a fat greased-up dog.
Daytona USA - not especially good is an understatement.
Daytona CCE - slightly disappointing is a bigger understatement.
Die Hard Arcade - Streets of Rage in 3D. Too short and little to come back to. Needed Koshiro's awesome music to make it a SoR beater.
Duke Nukem 3D - reasonable FPS, made unbelievably good by the inclusion of ?ber-multiplayer boom 'em up Death Tank.
Exhumed - awesome first-person adventure-shooting-type game.
Fighting Vipers - I only bought it because it was cheap.
Fighters Megamix - much better than FV.
Guardian Heroes - enjoyable but over-rated side-scrolling RPG-beat-'em-up.
Keio Flying Squadron 2 - mad shoot-'em-up platforming weirdness. Features the world's best vomiting spinning top boss.
Last Bronx - a game I really want to like, but just can't. Being unforgivingly difficult detracts from the great graphics, characters and anime scenes.
Manx TT - "Wanx TT more like it". Fnar fnar.
Marvel Super Heroes - with a proper port a la X-Men vs. Street Fighter, this would be the best fighting game EVER. But it isn't.
Mass Destruction - therapeutic fun. Pretty explosions.
NBA Action '98 - great sports game. Lots of fun. Dennis Rodman's hair changes colour = good game.
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge - crazily-designed 2D beat-'em-up which looks very nice, but doesn't play as well as Capcom's other efforts.
NiGHTS into Dreams - best game ever. Stunning.
Panzer Dragoon - the first level is still stunning.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei - the whole game is still stunning.
Panzer Dragoon Saga - I haven't completed it yet, so I'll reserve judgement. Good but not legendary so far.
Pinball Graffiti - time-wasting game with bizarrely addictive qualities. The basketball minigame, unfortunately, is shit.
Quake - awesome conversion which shows what the Saturn can do. Scary as fuck too.
Saturn Bomberman - legendary.
Sega Ages - three games, of which only OutRun is still awesome today. The other two are great though.
Sega Rally - legendary too.
Sega Worldwide Soccer '97 - simplistic but good-looking take on the beautiful game.
Shining Force III - say no more.
Shining the Holy Ark - say no more.
Sonic 3D - slightly less than legendary. Good game all the same though. Credit to the main man the Jacquesmeister for more "aural sensations".
Sonic Jam - genius through and through.
Sonic R - great-looking but ultimately shallow racing. Again, more great music from J to the A C Q U E S.
Steep Slope Sliders - enjoyable, great-sounding snowboard-'em-up.
Story of Thor 2 - great music from Yuzo Koshiro, well-balanced and inventive gameplay too. An under-rated classic.
Theme Park - a nonsensical control scheme and pointless FMV saps the undeniable quality of this Bullfrog masterpiece.

I'll do more when I'm not so sleep-deprived. This seemed like a good idea at the time, and you bastards better enjoy it, or I'll kill you in your sleep.

Actually, the old Fifa's were pretty decent! It's after Fifa '99 that they only started improving things at a snail's pace and things got crap.

Of course nowadays Pro Evolution Soccer >> Fifa :P. I picked up PES 4 during my illness and it really is the best soccer game out there. I mean: it's actually hard to score with a free kick! ;)

LIES!

Fifa '96 was the series' downfall in my eyes. On the Mega Drive they replaced the crisp, hand-drawn graphics with terrible rendered sprites which had little to no resemblance to real people whatsoever :P '96 was the first FIFA game ot have the properly licenced players, and it's my theory they spent too much time procuring that instead of actually updating the gameplay.

The Saturn versions were just poor conversions - juddery, low-res abominations, especially compared to the fluidity of Sega's efforts. I am yet to play Pro Evolution Soccer, as my Gamecube won't allow it :P

U TWO R SUCH ASCLOWNS U R SUCH BIG GEKS1!!!!! WTF S2P BNG GEKS AND B COL LIEK ME 8)

I've also played all Fifas since 95 on the mega drive, saturn N64 and recently Playstation. What can i say, it's the only one i know. :P
I'm playing SFIII right now, thanks to Elvenfyre, very very nice.

FIFA '95 is the only decent FIFA game in the world. FACT. Although the original was fairly decent too I suppose, even though Hannah beat me at it at least twice :(

I still remember the main menu's soundtrack in FIFA96. Pretty catchy. :)

Right now in SFIII i'm in the train battle. Pretty hard trying to save those civilians, and for what? Nothing probably. This game has the best storyline. How far am i from the end? I want to be able to extend this game as much as i can. :)

You're only about a quarter of the way in, if even that far. I haven't played it for a long time so couldn't say. Loads left, and some really rather excellent stuff to come.

You get 10 EXP for each civilian you save, and the satisfaction of doing The Right Thing. You're ages away from the end as well - you're barely even getting started.

I don't normally show off any of my collections, but seeing Newts post his Saturn collection in this thread has inspired me to do so as well:

Magic Knights Rayearth
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Croc
Megaman X4
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
NBA Jam
Die Hard Trilogy
Darius Gaiden
Command and Conquer
Daytona USA
Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition
Duke Nukem 3D
Fighting Vipers
Hexen
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Pandemonium!
Panzer Dragoon
Resident Evil
Robotica
Sega Rally Championship
Shining Force III: Scenario 1
Sonic 3D
Sonic Jam
Sonic R
Street Fighter Alpha II
Virtua Fighter 2
Road Rash
Bootleg Sampler
Madden '97
Bottom of the 9th
Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball
Road Rash
Grandia (Import)
Shining: The Holy Ark (Import)
Slayers Royal (Import)

I would also order them and describe my impressions on each game, but that requires effort that I lack. :P

Good collection there dude - having Grandia just about atones for the sin of owning Road Rash, Jurassic Park and... eugh... Croc.

I need to get Grandia, I think. How about a swap for... say... my Premium Disc? ;)

Didn't Croc get ok reviews? Talking around 70% ish... I thought it was semi-decent. Road Rash was great on the megadrive, never played the saturn version... probably sucks thou.

Grandia is great, and there happens to be an expansion disc too :P But Grandia II is good too!

Ah, but the catch is that these games:

Road Rash
Bootleg Sampler
Madden '97
Bottom of the 9th
Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball

Were given to me for free. :lol:

I doubt you'd even let me touch the SFIII Premium Disc let alone swap it. :wink:

I am still on the lookout for more Saturn games when my budget is available. I even almost had a mint condition copy of Albert Odyssey but I bid on it too late. :cry:

And I back what Newts says about Croc. It's the biggest piece of shit I have ever had the pain of playing. I managed to play until the second level, then I shut it off for the last time.

Edit: I mixed Croc with Frogger. I posted this early in the morning so my brain wasn't functioning correctly. :lol:

What does the Premium Disk contain?

It allows you to form a squad from all three Scenarios for special battles against enemies including Darksol and Dark Dragon.

You can also look at loads of character and town artwork, including some things which didn't get into the full game (at one point, I was going to steal the ideas for SOnline :P)

There's also a sound test and the chance to look at all the 3D animation in the game for all models, including enemies, different promotions, different weapons and so on.

It's really quite a beautiful disc I would never, ever consider parting with.

Oh, and there's a "save creator", so you can answer some questions and it creates a save file for Scenario III based on your answers.

Albert Odyssey has been on my "that looks nice" list for some time, but as it never got a PAL release it's quite hard to track down over here. My favourite UK Saturn shop got bought-out before Christmas and hasn't resurfaced since, and I'm not paying ~?50 for an import copy if I can help it.

Also, what did I say about Frogger? I must've missed that post.

Sorry, I mixed Croc with Frogger. I posted this early in the morning so my brain wasn't functioning correctly. :lol:

Damn it, i missed out on some ruins.

I suppose getting a frog and a crocodile confused is fairly easy :P It's one of those games I often find myself thinking "I'll give it another go - it can't be that bad, surely", but when I play it and use that horrible control scheme, which is completely unresponsive and directionless, I sort of lose the urge to see the good in it.

Job - by my calculations, you should've finished SFIII by now. How did you find it?

hoho I have my Premium Disk right here :D

And better yet, its on my pc so I can't even scratch the thing if I even tried XD

Don't be ridiculous Newts, i fight every battle at least four times :) . I just got Penn and am levelling him up. Also, i keep getting a "CD Read Error" in my stupid emulator which seems unfixable. This happens about every ten minutes and forces me to restart, which, after 44 hours of gameplay equates to 264 unwanted restarts. It also bothers me that everytime i do something meaningful i have to immediatly save it lest the error come up and force me to do everything again.  :x
It's so typical that i finally get to play SFIII which i've waited so long for, and i can't enjoy it for more than ten minutes at a time.  :cry:

What emulator are you running?

Try Cassini - its still available on zophar.net, you have to have a bios though ;)

Or, use Alcohol 120%/Daemon tools to mount the image, instead of playing a burned cd...

(http://www.prosody.co.uk/Saturn%20games.jpg)

(http://www.prosody.co.uk/games.jpg)

I think that's all of them. I've bought loads more stuff since the second picture was taken - an extra gun, a multi-tap, an extra (somewhat unreliable) memory cartridge and other stuff. There are also my Shining games missing from the bottom picture, of course.

Damn Croc is the best one there...