Saturday 14 July 2007

Meet The Family!



Hello everyone, may I first apologise for the recent drought of posts from yours truly. I do have a reason, if not an excuse, for my poor correspondence. I've become consumed yet again by Resident Evil 4, this time the Wii Edition, which has meant I have found little time for anything else!

However, I have my lovely six week summer holiday starting on the 20th of July, so hopefully my posting output will be back to its best!

For now though, I'm going to share with you, a whole page of Saturn information, from the wonderful Games TM magazine. If you've never read this wonderful publication, I suggest you give it a go! Over recent months, they've produced loads of top quality Saturn related articles, and its great to see our beloved console getting the attention it deserves!

The article in question takes a look at the range of Saturns available and their relative costs!

I take no credit for the words below, and unfortunately I can't credit the author either, as his/her name is not given. So I'll use a different a different font and colour for their words, OK?
Good, lets proceed!

"The world of retro gaming can be very confusing for the uninitiated and some consoles and computers can be more confounding than others, thanks to their many models and varations. With that in mind we will occasionally hijack the magazines Buyer's Guide to bring you a round up of a particular series of a classic games machine. This month we take a look at the weird and wonderfulvariations of the Sega's Saturn hardware.

Black Saturn: Estimated Price £10: Manufacturer Sega. Released in the UK and the US, the standard black console is the one variation that the majority of readers will be familiar with. But did you know that two different black Saturns were released? The differences between them were minor: the first featured oval buttons while the second had round ones. the joypads, however, were quite different: the first console came withlarge pads that weren't too comfortable, while the second featured smaller pads which were modelled on the Japanese ones.


Grey Saturn: Estimated price £25 Manufacturer: Sega The Japanese never received the black Saturn. Instead, in the East they were treated to a much more interesting grey console with blue buttons and a joypad to match. Its unclear why Sega decided to recolour the Saturn for the West - perhaps they thought black was more suitable for a piece of entertainment technology. Games TM happens to prefer the grey model, possibly because we're elitist snobs, who knows?



White Saturn:
Estimated Price: £30 Manufacturer: Sega
Japanese production of the grey Saturn ended soon after its launch, in favour of a much 'jazzier' white model. Featuring a similar hue to the Dreamcast, the white Saturn also came with a matching pad withmulticoloured buttons and is the model you will find in the homes of most importers. Interestingly, Sega also redesigned all its peripherals - memory card, Virtual On sticks, steering wheel and so on - to match.

Derby Stallion Saturn: Esimated Price: £200 Manufacturer: Sega The Derby Stallion Saturn is definitely the most desirable of the regular Saturn variations, this translucent blue console was released in 1999 and came bundled with ASCII's horse racing game, Derby Stallion and some exclusive memory card stickers. Aesthetically the console looks very similar to the earlier 'This Is Cool' branded Saturn but is much harder to come by. Only 20,000 units have been produced to date making it one of the rarest Saturns in existence.

Hi - Saturn: Estimated Price: £80 Manufacturer: Hitachi One of the first Saturn models to be licensed out to an external manufacturer, Hitachi's Hi Saturn was produced to support the burgeoning Asian Video CD industry of the time and came fitted with an M-Peg decoder specifically for the task of playing such CDs. Apart from that, the only differences were the black coloured casing and a new start up screen, featuring a revolving Hitachi logo. With video CDs now more or less defunct, the Hi Saturn is for collectors only.

Samsung Saturn: Estimated Price : £100 Manufacturer: Samsung Essentially, the Samsung Saturn is the same as the Hi Saturn, but the Samsung model was released exclusively in Korea and is relatively unknown among Saturn collectors. As another Video-CD player, the console is of little interest aside form its low buildquality. A space for a power light exists, for example, but there is no actual LED built into the motherboard. The Samsung Saturn is also the only Saturn not to feature a reset button. See, were full of useful information at Games TM.


Hotel Saturn:
Estimated Price: £500 Manufacturer: SunSeibu
Japanese hotels often feature special versions of games consoles for guests to play on. and the Saturn was no exception. This particular model featured a seven CD changer inside in order to offer players a wide choice of games. It was coin operated to allow for the system to be played for a pre-defined number of minutes. That the timing mechanism can be switched off, and that the console is compatible with all the official peripherals, makes it ideal for collectors. Hi Saturn Navi: Estimated Price: £900 Manufacturer: Hitachi

Basically a regular Hi Saturn with a mini screen attached, the Navi was intended as a portable games console to be used in cars. As well as the standardgame and VCD playback, the Navi also includes support for karaoke discs, has audio and video-in so that the monitor can be used with other devices, has input for a TV tuner and supports GBS devices. Rather uselessly however, the Navi connected to its car's handbrake and would shut down most of its features unless the car was stationary."

So there you go peeps! A potted history of the entire Saturn range! And just look at all of those gorgeous Saturns! Jesus! When I win the lottery, all of them will be mine! In my mansion will be a special Saturn room, with each of them connected up to a high-res TV. I'll be there, serving you all cocktails while you enjoy House Of The Dead, Sega Rally, NiGHTS and Virtua Cop.

I hope I'll be a bit more pro-active in giving you all a bit more to read in the upcoming weeks!
Until then, its a Resident Evil obsessed Father Krishna, saying "Goodnight children, wherever you are... " :)

10 comments:

Unknown said...

well you know how to make up for a drought... now whats this about a six week holiday? how in heavens name can you get a six week....(elderly suddenly remembers.....)

some people have all the luck... six weeks!!!!

NebachadnezzaR said...

There are even more Saturns than those in that article, you know? Like the Saturn Sonic (more rare than the Saturn Navi) and the Saturn Skeleton (similar to the derby stallion edition but slightly different).

I once found a site with a list of almost all the console editions there is, but I can't seem to find it right now.

Anyway, great article, post more if you have them :)

fatherkrishna said...

Hi Elderly! Yep! You read it right, six weeks! One of the perks of educating young minds!

Hi Nebacha! Yes I knew about the Sonic Saturn and even meant to put it in this article but forgot! (Perhaps it can form the basis of a mini post some time soon?) And did you notice my video had been taken off the DCJY?
Censorship in this day and age, I ask you?

I thought it was very funny, still, each to his own, and Caleb and the Gagaman(n) seemed pretty outraged, so maybe it's removal was for the best...

NebachadnezzaR said...

I noticed that and was pretty surprised by it. I never understood the outrage. I mean, after all it had a dreamcast on it, how bad could it be?

Anyway, better luck on your next post.

Unknown said...

Wow! Thats a lot of the same, but different...

gnome said...

Excellent post, definitely a read of extreme use for Retro Treasures and one more way to convinve me to really search for Games TM.

Saturn Sonic huh?

And what's this outrageous talk about censorship?

fatherkrishna said...

Oh yeah! There's some idiot called Chad Warden on Youtube that goes on like he's some hip hop 'gangsta' using a lot of gangsta talk. Only instead of talking about his crack empire, or how many 'caps' he's 'popped' in someone's ass, he's bad mouthing the Wii and saying how much more cool the PS3 is. He's a knob of the highest order!

Anyway some equally rediculous dude posted a reply stating how the Dreamcast was the best system around and bad mouthing the first guy! I thought it was hilarious, and as Nebacha says, it was bigging up the Dreamcast!

I'm not sure what Tomleecee's take on the whole thing would have been, but the Gagaman(n) and Caleb didn't like it at all. So it got wiped!

Thank the Lord I have this place and the Wiikly Sermons to say whatever I want!!

Unknown said...

wait... you got censored for showing a youtube video promoting the use of the dreamcast.....? on a blog dedicated to the dreamcast.....
your kiddin me?

(scratches his head)

what am i missing here.... there was pron wasn't there? go on we're all adults here.. you can admit it.... whats the link to the youtube video?

fatherkrishna said...

Elderly, see the video the Dreamcast Junkyard didn't want you to see (along with some other apalling nonsense over at the ever so popular, Father Krishna's Wiikly Sermons! :)

Anonymous said...

you forgot the dev kit saturn that was region free.