Just in time for the Star Trek Movie: The "Fazor" Lightgun For The Sega Saturn

So I was looking around the garage sales in my area with very little luck. It turns out the the garage salers around here are serious. People get up at like 5AM and video game stuff goes the quickest. On 4 separate occasions I have been told that there was a ton of video games there but someone had come and boughten it all up before 7 AM. (There is an almost gleeful tone to this statment that tends to imply that I am not a serious garage saler since I wasn't here at 6:45 AM. Those Wankers!) In this cuthroat world of North Eastern NY state I fear even my well respected skills might be hard pressed to get results...

...However, I am (according to Gagaman(n)) a "Jammy Git" (Did I get that right?) or one Lucky Son of a Gun. (Or Sly Bastard Good-for-nothing according to the urban dictionary site. Which honestly does descibe certain aspects of my personality as well.)

I did manage to grab a decent model 2 Saturn console from a seller for $7 (To be used in the retro video game events I hold at the library by people who want to play some Guardian Heroes.)

And I found the following item for .50 cents in the back of a garage.

Still in box!

The "Fazor" lightgun by Madcatz.


It's an amazing light cut down lightgun that can be used in both the Playstation and the Saturn.


The light design is nice but I am used to the extremely heavy but accurate Sega Stunner and the even heavier Noby lightguns (Including the Virtual Gun which is quite nice). However, I would assume this gun would be great for people whose wrists get tired from heavier models. It has a very nice "clicky" trigger. Of course that might be because the gun I got was still in box and still somewhat new.

Here is a review. It's just about the same conclusion I reached. The gun is very light and nice but the aiming takes some getting used to.

Certainly this gun might be a big draw for fans of Star Trek. But it might not be for you.

But hell, for .50 cents I was more than willing to add this to my collection.

The Saturn is the only logical Choice.

Some New Acquisitions

Sorry for the crappy video quality.......

Just thought that I would show off some of the new acquisitions I've made recently. First off is Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for DC.....yes, yes....I know this is Saturn Junkyard, but we're all DC fans right.....? Still not as cool as X-Men vs. Street Fighter or Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, but it completes my collection of the original 4 cross-over games as you can see.....all NTSC-J of course.

Next are some more DC fighting games. I've had the burned versions of these for years, but felt compelled to purchase the real deal. Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, Capcom vs. SNK 1&2, and Vampire Savior (special Jizz-free edition.....see post from a few weeks ago) which is one of the better fighters on the Saturn.

I'm a huge Capcom fighting fan....what can I say!

And last, but definitely not least.....the pinacle of Sega Saturn RPG, and basically Sega Saturn in General....Panzer Dragoon Saga. Yes, I broke down and bought a copy. I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, and have wanted a legit copy of this game for a long time.

I'll try to post a review of PDS and Vampire Savior....and a few other games over the next few weeks, but I probably won't post a review for PDS until I've completed it.

That's it for now.....over and out.

Neon World Sega Saturn review

Just a fan-made, two part video about the Saturn and its games. Nothing we haven't seen already, but the passionate way this guy talks about the Saturn really got to me. It really shows how many Saturn fans there are out there, who still love the console as much nowadays as they did back in the day.

Modding goodness

I got my Saturn modded! Amazing how, with a bit of luck, you can still find someone today who will mod your favourite retro system. I was that lucky, something I never thought possible in this videogame god-forsaken land. The timing was funny, since just a week or so before I attempted to do the 50/60 Hz mod thingy, based on a guide where you just had to solder two wires into two big pads on the Saturn's board. Only to find out that my board was a different model and that I needed to solder a wire either directly into a tracer in the board or into the tiny leg of a chip. Fuck.

Still, in a cosmic coincidente, I browsed miau (that's Portugal's eBay) for the first time in months, aimlessly, just for a kick, when I found a sale for the complete service of a mod chip and switch. 60 euros and two weeks later, I got my Saturn back, and it works like a charm! Bye-bye fucking swap-trick (that was annoying as hell when I just wanted to play for 5 minutes to relax) and black borders in my picture. Now it's just putting the disc in and it will play straight away, in full screen and at full speed. Yay!


Not my video, my cellphone camera is not that good

Now the only thing lacking is a region switch, but nothing an Action Replay 4M+ cart won't solve.

Radiant Silvergun - The Actual Review

OK, well if you guys had actually read all the way to the bottom of my last post you would have seen that my comments about Radiant Silvergun weren't exactly true. And for those of you that actually believed that I found it at a local garage sale....well, keep dreaming. I did pay basically an arm and a leg for it, but to own one of the rarest Saturn Games ever..........priceless. On to the review:

Graphics: (8.5/10)
This game was released very late in the Saturn's life cyle, so there is no wonder why it looks really nice. Treasure did a nice mix of polygons and sprites, and for the most part the 3D models are very clean, and the amount of content that is usually on the screen looks great. There is a nice mix of colors, and most of the weapons look really nice. My only gripe is that some of the explosions look a bit cheese, and the level backgrounds are a bit to simple. I also think that Treasure should have used polygons to render the ships. Side note: the cover art is rad. It seriously looks better than any other saturn game, and pretty much any game these days.

Gameplay: (8.5/10)
Treasure always has a cool twist on the way their games play, and Radiant Silvergun is no different. I suppose the key to mastering this game is remembering the patterns of the enemies, and knowing when to use certain weapons. I've played the game a fair amount, since I did have a burned copy for quite some time, but I still die about 50 times playing through the arcade mode....no joke I'm certainly not a pro when it comes to schmups, but this game seems to be the most difficult schmup I've ever played. It is so awesome though when you sucessfully navigate through a screen completely filled with enemy fire. The whole Radiant Sword is an awesome idea too. Even though the game is extremely hard, I keep coming back for more punishment, so obviously it's hella fun! The control is super tight just like all of treasure's other games, and the level design stays pretty fresh thgouhout the whole game. You're always shooting enemies, but the bosses are all very unique, and the overall feel of each level is different as well.

Music and sound effects: (8/10)
Really good..I don't need to say much more than that. Again, Treasure has put together a rad sound track. How do I know? Becasue I hum the theme song in the shower. The sounds effects are not ground breaking, but certainly do the trick. Each weapon has it's own sound, and when a boss apears you get a cool warning sound.

Overall: (9/10)
The reasons I really like this game: 1) it's addictive gameplay; 2) can pick it up and play it for 30 mins every day, and it doesn' t get boring; 3) very original take on the shooter type of gameplay; 4) cool music; 5) great graphics for the SS; and 6) just overall a very fresh, fun game!

So is the game itself worth what I payed for it? I would have to say no. But obviously there is a reason I bought the real game when I already have a burned copy. Like I said above, owning a peice of Saturn history such as Radiant Silvergun is really cool. Basically my philisophy on Saturn and Dreamcast games these days are: if I download the game and really like it I will buy the original version, and this is how I felt about Radiant Silvergun. Obviously my feelings about this game go a little beyond that....but whatever...all I can say is that I'm pretty damn psyched that I actually own a copy of the game.....now if I can only find a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga!

Some New Games

Here's a few of the new titles that I recently picked up. All were very reasonably priced. I've been so damn busy lately, that I haven't really had time to do any 'real' gaming or write any reviews, but as soon as I have some time, I'll be filling up the posts. But just some general thoughts about each of these games:



Vampire Savior: awesome fighting game. I actually have all 3 titles in the Vampire/Darkstalkers series now. Any game that let's you be Red Riding Hood with a machine gun.....rules. I can definitely see where the 4Meg RAM cartridge went to work here. Nice animations, sounds etc. I'm a big Capcom fighting game fan, so this one fits in my library very nice.

Real Bout Fatal Fury Best Collection: I never really played much of the SNK fighiting games back in the day, and it hasn't been until more recently why I see that they have had so much support over the years. I think these games are geared towards a slightly more adult audience that the Street Fighter series. I haven't really played this one too much, so I can't really say much at this point.

Street Fighter Zero: I actually owned the original US verson for SS back in the day, and have another copy of it as part of the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2. This was very cheap on Ebay so I just had to pick it up. The Zero/Alpha series is my favorite of all the SF games. Zero doesn't really hold a candle to Zero 2 or Zero 3, but it is the game that introduced what would be the framework for the Alpha/Zero series....so I have to give it credit for that. It just feels clunky compared to the latter titles in the series.

Marvel Superheroes: Cool game...not my favorite of the Capcom fighting games though. Basically just an extension to X-Men: Children of the Atom. Again, mostly picked this one up as a collectors item...so I haven't played it too much. I think the overall fighting system is quite a bit different than the regular Street Fighter games, so I'm just trying to figure out moves and combos right now. Solid graphics, and has some cool game elements (high jumps and dashes) which made their way to the X-Men vs. Street Fighter et, al series.......which I totally love by the way.

Radiant Silvergun: This game totally fucking sucks.....a waste of money in my opinion. I'm glad I found this at a local garage sale for $2.00. I don't know why every one raves about this game.

Princess Crown: Really cool! I have Odin Sphere, but I never knew this game existed until not that long ago. Beautiful hand drawn graphics, with characthers that compltely fill up the screen. Great music, and as for the story.....I don't read Japanese...so It's kind of wasted on me. I just picked this one up a few nights ago, but so far I'm really impressed. I need to pick up a walkthrough so I can figure out what's going on. This is a pretty collectible game, and I got it at a very good price whcih I'm proud of!

For those of you who have made it this far in the post....thanks for reading, and I have a treat for you. I bought a stand alone copy of Vampire Savior from Ebay not that long ago, and I'm not gonna lie, it looks like some one jizzed inside of the manual. I'm not surprised if that actually happened, because it is a pretty awesome game. Anyways, I was a bit sad that I had bought a copy that really isn't in very good condition, so I spent some time on Ebay and eventually found the (box set) copy that is shown in the picture above. Anyways, the jizz copy (which I will refer to it from now on) is up for grabs. I mean, if you want it, just let me know and I will mail it to you. The game plays fine, and the front cover of the manual is decent looking, so it looks OK when it's in a case. There is no back cover because it is the version that came with the box set..so for those of you who own any Capcom fighting game box sets you will know what I am talking about. Also, the game is NTSC-J so you will need a SS that can play Japanese games, and it also requires a 4Meg RAM cartridge to play. The other condition is that upon receiving the jizz copy, you must make a video about how awesome it is that I sent it to you and post it here. By the way, if you actually believed my comments about Radiant Silvergun, then I'm not sending the game to you.