A brief history with the Sega Saturn

I must regretfully begin my first post with a shameful admission... I wasn't always a fan of the Sega Saturn. Back in 1995, when the system was prepped for release in the United States, I was absolutely convinced that the console would be a failure and a waste of money. Hey, don't give me that dirty look! It would be hard to come to any other conclusion after the 32X!

However, I would not hold that opinion for long. Out of morbid curiosity, a friend and I decided to rent the Sega Saturn and some games. One of our choices was NightWarriors: Darkstalker's Revenge, the sequel to one of my arcade favorites. I was utterly floored by the quality of the conversion... the enormous sprites, smooth animation, and vibrant colors that were once the exclusive domain of pool halls and laundromats were now on my television set, with no apparent compromises. It was truly a defining moment for me as a gamer.

After that day, my faith in Sega was restored, and my loyalties had shifted from the Playstation to the Saturn, even in the light of Sony's increasing market domination. So enamored was I with the system that I purchased my first Saturn game (NightWarriors, natch) a month before I could actually afford the console!

When I moved to Arizona and bought a Saturn of my very own, that's when my tiny collection exploded. NightWarriors was quickly joined by Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Marvel Super Heroes. Shortly afterward, I took my collection beyond the borders of versus fighting, purchasing any games I could find. Fortunately, at the tail end of 1997, Saturn games weren't hard to track down, and they were even easier to afford. It was rare for me to purchase a game at full price, thanks to all the clearance sales and the dozens of games available at Bookman's. For those of you who've never stepped foot into the Arid Zone, that's a really cool used entertainment store that's like Barnes & Noble, GameStop, and Sam Goody all rolled into one. But I digress!

By 1998, I had roughly forty games, but that still wasn't enough to satisfy me. Saturn titles were starting to dry up in America, thanks in large part to the short-sighted leadership of Sega's American branch. I had to turn to the far East to get my fix, and in April, I ordered my first import title from National Console Support. That game was Waku Waku 7, a tournament fighter that borrowed all of its heroes from popular Japanese films and television shows. That was quickly followed by King of Fighters '97... I played this in arcades whenever I had the chance, and was impressed with the Saturn conversion, lengthy load times aside.

Then came the coup de grace. While surfing online, I met a collector from Japan who needed to pad out his library of Sega Genesis games. That system was as unpopular in the land of the rising sun as the Saturn was here, making its games extremely rare. So we started trading... I sent him Spiderman: Arcade's Revenge and Snatcher, and received Japanese Saturn releases like Layer Section and Grandia in return. Soon, I had thirty import games to go along with
my collection of US titles. And the difference in quality between Japanese and American releases is nothing short of massive... frankly, I can't blame Americans who don't like the Saturn, because they missed out on the good stuff.

Today, the Sega Saturn has been technologically eclipsed by the Dreamcast and a half dozen other game systems. Despite this, I'm more proud than ever to be a fan of the system, because I know I'm not alone. The Saturn Junkyard is only one of a dozen sites dedicated to the underappreciated console, and with the internet bridging the gap between the United States and Japan, more people than ever recognize the Saturn's full potential. We're experiencing a 21st century renaissance of a system whose genius had went unrecognized, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Sega Saturn History Visual Collection DVD

I recently bought the so called "Sega Saturn History Visual Collection" DVDs volume 1 and 2. The DVDs with the shameless long names are actually part of some kind of Sega Saturn worshipping project by a company named Wave Master and came out with three little siblings in audio CD format; The "Sega Saturn History Part 1 and 2" as well as the "Sega Saturn History Vocal Collection" featuring plenty of tracks from your favourite Sega Saturn games. I'll try to give you more information about these, as soon as I bought them.

"But what's on the DVDs now?" you might ask. Well, I have asked myself that question for years, too (They came out in 2005). Because when browsing the net for some more Information about the DVDs, I actually found nothing. It seemed to me like no single human being on this planet earth has been buying these things, so I knew I had to buy them myself, to see what's the content like. I was hesitating all these years because the price tag for a japanese DVD isn't the cheapest on this earth. For one DVD I had to pay almost 46 USD! But well... there's a cute handdrawn Sega Saturn on the Cover, how could I resist?

Content of DVD 1:
- Intros and outros of your favourite Sega Saturn games.
- Some japanese guy playing Virtua Fighter 1 and 2
- Well... that's it!

So damn, that was quite a dissapointment. I was thinking about "a little bit more" like... TV commercials, making ofs, interviews or at least some additional concept art. But nothing. The DVD only contains Intros of games like Clockwork Knight, Panzer Dragoon or Virtua Fighter, which we know already anyways. The fact that they have the same lame quality, which they had back then, isn't something I'd consider a plus for the DVD. So the volume 1 DVD definitely isn't worth 46 USD.


Content of DVD 2:
- Intros and outros of your favourite Sega Saturn games.
- Some japanese guy playing Sega Rally
- 2 Segata Sanshiro Commercials in great quality.
- Well... that's... wait. Segata Sanshiro TV commercials? On DVD? In decent quality, like I've never seen them before?! Woo yay!!!

Yes, that's one of the best things about volume 2, as well as the saddest one. Why only 2 in god's name? I would love to have all of the awesome Segata Sanshiro commercials on DVD in superb quality. But no, they decided to release only two of them and fill the rest of the DVD - again - with intros and outros of our favourite... aw fuck man. I love the intros as well as the games, but I know them already. They aren't in a better quality on the DVD either. When I want to watch the Deep Fear intro, I'll just put in the game. But when I want to watch Segata Sanshiro, I have to watch either lame Quicktime versions of it or - even worse - browse YouTube. With all commercials on the DVD they would have been worth 46 USD, too!

The Intro of the DVDs is very lovely. You see your usual Sega Saturn menu, where you set the time and after setting it to 1994.11.22 (Its birthday!) it boots to the lovely Sega Hymn from the Segagaga game and some pictures of Saturn pamplets. But besides a lovely menu there's nothing left. Only the intros, which are played one after the other, without any kind of placeholder, so that you know that now the next video starts. That makes me really sad and it's a missed opportunity for Wave Master. Especially when you consider that the "Famicom 20th Anniversary Commemoration DVD" was awesome and quite successful, too.


So, I'll now buy the soundtrack CDs and hope, that they'll be a tad better. But what could they possibly do wrong with those?