Well where I live it's 22nd November.... that marks the 10th anniversary of the Sega Saturn! How time flies eh?
I remember 10 years ago when the Saturn first came out in Japan... back then my 2 main reads were Sega Magazine and Sega Pro...
I saw all the huge showcases of Virtual Fighter and Clockwork Knight... it all just seemed so surreal. I was a 9 year old kid who was sitting there hoping to get a copy of Sonic & Knuckles for his birthday, and I saw all these 3D extravaganza's (or extravaganza... specifically Virtua Fighter)... back then I cared not if a game was 'texture mapped' or not, and I had no concept of screen resolution or frames per second... I just knew this was worlds above what my MegaDrive could do...
It felt like a machine I would never own in a million years, some kind of mythical beast I shall only ever see pictures of...
And indeed for the next few years, I could not have one. I was too young to have any income of my own, and the console was still extorionately priced, hell I could bearly manage to get 2 MegaDrive games a year (for my birthday and Christmas), and they usually went to getting the latest Sonic game... but I saw the games come out... I played my mates consoles, so I didn't miss out... I saw the PlayStation come out, at a cheaper price than the Saturn... but it never even occured to me to get a PlayStation instead... not once. The steady stream of quality titles meant I didn't even think it... Virtua Cop... Nights... Exhumed... Fighting Vipers... Fighters Megamix... Shining the Holy Ark... they kept coming.
But in Christmas 1997, I finally got my Saturn. A package deal for 99 GBP with Sega Rally, Sonic R and Sonic Jam. I admit I actually nearly bought a PlayStation instead by that point, I was totally hooked on Pandemonium! But I got the Saturn instead. And I've never regretted doing so. While they were playing Crash Bandicoot, I was playing Nights... while they were playing Ridge Racer, I was playing Sega Rally... While they were attempting to play their port of Street Fighter Alpha, I was playing Marvel Super Heroes...
Since then I've become a lot more open format and less of a fanboy, I explored the PlayStations huge catalogue of games, in particular the vast amount of quality RPG's on the format, and have had a great time...
But when I look back on all the times I had playing Nights, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III, kicking butt on XMen Vs. Street Fighter, Vampire Savior, Virtua Fighter 2 et al... I know I made the right decision.
To this day, the Saturn is sitll my favourite console... I've bought many consoles since... the Dreamcast, the PlayStation2, my modded XBox, GameCube, GBA, even preordered a DS... but it just never felt the same as the Saturn... I'm sure many of you remember the UK Sega Saturn Magazine... it was THE read for UK Saturn owners... and because of this, it had such a community feel to it... such a feel does not exist for a new console release anymore, the gaming scene has changed so much.
I've drivelled on enough, anyone else care to share their experiences with Sega's console?
I remember 10 years ago when the Saturn first came out in Japan... back then my 2 main reads were Sega Magazine and Sega Pro...
I saw all the huge showcases of Virtual Fighter and Clockwork Knight... it all just seemed so surreal. I was a 9 year old kid who was sitting there hoping to get a copy of Sonic & Knuckles for his birthday, and I saw all these 3D extravaganza's (or extravaganza... specifically Virtua Fighter)... back then I cared not if a game was 'texture mapped' or not, and I had no concept of screen resolution or frames per second... I just knew this was worlds above what my MegaDrive could do...
It felt like a machine I would never own in a million years, some kind of mythical beast I shall only ever see pictures of...
And indeed for the next few years, I could not have one. I was too young to have any income of my own, and the console was still extorionately priced, hell I could bearly manage to get 2 MegaDrive games a year (for my birthday and Christmas), and they usually went to getting the latest Sonic game... but I saw the games come out... I played my mates consoles, so I didn't miss out... I saw the PlayStation come out, at a cheaper price than the Saturn... but it never even occured to me to get a PlayStation instead... not once. The steady stream of quality titles meant I didn't even think it... Virtua Cop... Nights... Exhumed... Fighting Vipers... Fighters Megamix... Shining the Holy Ark... they kept coming.
But in Christmas 1997, I finally got my Saturn. A package deal for 99 GBP with Sega Rally, Sonic R and Sonic Jam. I admit I actually nearly bought a PlayStation instead by that point, I was totally hooked on Pandemonium! But I got the Saturn instead. And I've never regretted doing so. While they were playing Crash Bandicoot, I was playing Nights... while they were playing Ridge Racer, I was playing Sega Rally... While they were attempting to play their port of Street Fighter Alpha, I was playing Marvel Super Heroes...
Since then I've become a lot more open format and less of a fanboy, I explored the PlayStations huge catalogue of games, in particular the vast amount of quality RPG's on the format, and have had a great time...
But when I look back on all the times I had playing Nights, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III, kicking butt on XMen Vs. Street Fighter, Vampire Savior, Virtua Fighter 2 et al... I know I made the right decision.
To this day, the Saturn is sitll my favourite console... I've bought many consoles since... the Dreamcast, the PlayStation2, my modded XBox, GameCube, GBA, even preordered a DS... but it just never felt the same as the Saturn... I'm sure many of you remember the UK Sega Saturn Magazine... it was THE read for UK Saturn owners... and because of this, it had such a community feel to it... such a feel does not exist for a new console release anymore, the gaming scene has changed so much.
I've drivelled on enough, anyone else care to share their experiences with Sega's console?