Killing Pixels Parte Três: Aspect Raidou

Aspect ratio is a contentious subject among retro gamers. With widescreen televisions being the norm nowadays, many gamers simply plug and play their old consoles and don’t pay any attention to whether the picture is in the original format or stretched to fill the screen. Some even go as far as stretching it on purpose because to them, having a black bar on either side of the picture is more annoying than round objects becoming oval. Our own Father K would be an example of someone who just wants to play and doesn’t care about such pesky things.

On the other side of the barricade you have people who don’t tolerate a stretched picture, it’s 4:3 with black bars or nothing. To them, preserving the proper aspect ratio is absolutely integral to the experience and changing that is nothing short of heresy. I would be an example of this type. Heck, one of the best moments of my gaming life was when I found a way to force my monitor to show old PC games in proper 4:3.

Die Hard Arcade VS. Dynamite Cop: A Sega Brawler Grudge Match!

Now playing on the Saturn Junkyard YouTube channel:

Join Virtua Schlub in this hard-hitting Grudge Match episode starring Sega's OTHER iconic beat 'em up games, Die Hard Arcade and Dynamite Cop (a.k.a. Dynamite Deka 1 & 2 in Japan). In this episode, these classic 3D brawlers face off in an action-packed showdown with all of the sumo pirates, killer robots, and frozen tuna beat-downs you can handle!

Junkyard Let's Play - Panzer Dragoon II Zwei

If you missed the livestream on FB yesterday, join The Southern Sega Gentleman and The Virtua Schlub as they fight through the Empire's Hordes, in the Saturn Masterpiece, Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Special guest Dave and Pat from the Sega Saturn, Shiro! Podcast join in on the action. 

Sunday Let's Play's are streamed ever Sunday at 3pm Central US time / 9pm UK time. Like and follow the official Saturn Junkyard FB page to keep up to date.  

Import Friendly? - Burning Rangers

In this inaugural episode we kick of our new series, Import Friendly?, with the Japanese release of Burning Rangers. The SSG takes a look at just how pick up and playable the Japanese release is for Western speakers, and whether the cost savings are worth it.

Killing Pixels Part Deux: Saturn Games in HD

I was about to title this post “Saturn games in 4K”, which would’ve sounded much more impressive, but alas, I don’t own any 2160p monitor to record footage from and didn’t want to sound like a liar, so let’s settle for HD then.

Mind you, 1080p is still a much bigger number than 240p – the Saturn’s original resolution (yeah, some games run in 480i, let’s not go there for the sake of simplicity), and because resolutions are areas and not lines having a number that’s more than 4 times higher means an actual increase in the order of 16x.

SJY on YouTube: Zap! Snowboarding Trix '98 Review

Join us for this in-depth video review as we hit the virtual slopes to see whether Zap! Snowboarding Trix! '98 can shred with the best for Sega Saturn snowboard superiority!

This is a follow up to our previous Grudge Match video, which pitted Steep Slope Sliders against the original Zap! in a battle for king of the Saturn's snowboard mountain!

Killing Pixels - How to make your emulated games look old-school

Remember when I said I’d write a full, in-depth article about emulating Saturn games? This is not it.

Sorry.

Instead, I’m just going to whet your appetite for one of the many wonders of emulation or, in case you’ve already dipped your toes in this huge pool, I’ll walk you through the process of enhancing your experience.

You too can watch this miracle transformation on all the games you love and cherish.

[open the picture for full effect]

Read More...

SJY on YouTube: Grudge Match for Sega Saturn Snowboard Supremacy!

For this video, we thought it'd be fun to see what happens when we pit two Saturn snowboarding titles against each other in a one-on-one battle for snowboard superiority. Which will reign as the king of the Saturn slopes? Let's shred the virtual gnar and find out!

Note: I'm very new at this whole video-making thing (I've never made one before this) so forgive the slow, awkward pacing and tangential meandering. I'll be tightening that stuff up in future videos but in the meantime, I also welcome any other feedback you may have.

Cheers!

Saturn Junkyard's TOP 5 - Nuno Edition

Time for something a lil' bit different. Everyone has watched countless top 5's and 10's (or 100's if you're feeling brave) of games for any specific system, citing the same old classics that we all know and love. Lord knows I like Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally as much as the next guy, but sometimes you're craving something a little different. There are many great games on the Saturn, and they don't have to be flawless or all-time classics to leave an impression on us. Sometimes the games that are simply "good" or even "average" for other gamers, are deeply cherished titles for us.

Maybe they were the first games of that genre that we've tried, and showed us a whole new world of possibilities. Or they were a gift from a very special person. Or we were simply stuck with them, and only them, for long periods of time and were left with some kind of gaming Stockholm's Syndrome, our brains furiously trying to convince us they were actually good and not some big pile of trash.

No matter the reason, some games are special to us, even if they're mostly unknown to everybody else, or even considered bad games. Like a baby, we love them no matter what.

Here are mine:

Lost Games - Armed

We’ve all heard of games being cancelled. It usually happens midway through development when the publisher cuts the funds or forces the developers to work on another project. At the end of the Saturn’s lifecycle it also became alarmingly common to pull the plug on games that were all but finished, usually multiplatform games where the Playstation version went out as usual while the Saturn one got dropped in the bin. Frustrating as that was, at least you could still play the game, albeit on another platform, so all was not lost.

And then there were games that simply died on the final stretch and never saw the light of day, period. Armed (alternatively known as Aftermath) was one of those games. Until now.

Read More...

Sega Saturn Saucepot Of The Month... October 2017

As I said last month when I started this feature, this is not some sort of "boys only", misogynistic, perv-fest, but is in fact, an equal opportunities, gender inclusive, true appreciation of the pretend physical perfection, of non-existent characters, made up of sprites, polygons and magic.

So, to keep things balanced, and in a perfect Yin/Yang style harmony, it's time to select a male 'Saturn saucepot'.  I was thinking of using a real life human sex object, in the shape of one of the Saturn Junkyard's Facebook Page Admins, but as I only have myself, Jon Lee and Daniel Turner to choose from, I had to scrap that idea.

Phwooooaaarrrr!!!

Come and get me girls!

Wanna see my stunner?

So, with so many Saturn themed cyber-hunks to choose from, where do I start? I think it would be prudent to select from Saturn exclusives, but obviously it can't be Virtua Cop as that was the source of last month's saucepot... One of the Burning Rangers boys or perhaps one of the guys from the Last Bronx posse? One of the male crew from the Deep Fear submarine? NiGHTs? Is she even a guy or is he actually a girl?
Read more...