SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! Podcast

I'm afraid we (at the SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! Podcast) have been playing our Saturns perhaps a little TOO hard, as we've gotten dreadfully behind in sharing updates on the Junkyard... Many apologies!

However, if you've already listened to the excellent TitanCast more than a few times and are now twiddling your thumbs at what to do with yourself until those boys drop their next bomb-track.., we've got you covered with a few episodes to fill the time... ;)  Cheers! -Patrick, Dave & Ke

(Thanks again to Father Krishna for the warm welcome and invitation to share with the Junkyard!)

Episode 1: Introductions
We share our Saturn "origin stories", and talk game recommendations.

Episode 2: Neo Geo on SEGA Saturn
We discuss Neo Geo ports on the Saturn and talk RGB & video quality.

Episode 3: Let's Get Technical
We talk media, backups, swap tricks, carts, drive replacements.
Public release of Armed (Aftermath), a previously unreleased game.

Episode 4: Spooky Saturn Halloween!
We discuss several great games for a spooky Halloween play-through!

Episode 5: Getting Saturn Online...
We talk SEGA's online history and interview SEGA RPG FAN &
ItsStillThinking1999 regarding the NetLink over VoIP exploit!

Episode 6: LOVE or HATE
We discuss several polarizing Saturn games that often stir up debate.

TitanCast Episode Two

In this episode of TitanCast, me and Brian discuss getting started with the SEGA Saturn. From some basic background info on the system's hardware, to video inputs, and even peripherals.


You can also download this episode of TitanCast from our Google Drive at the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lzUZkEFzqZ_qD7M1F6LRwZduF-gLBXw7/view?usp=sharing

If you want to look at both full articles mentioned in the cast, you can find them in the links below.

https://thesaturnjunkyard.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/sega-saturn-informal-beginners-guide.html

https://thesaturnjunkyard.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/sega-saturn-informal-beginners-guide_13.html

Contributors:

The Southern Sega Gentleman: Samuel
The Vitua Schlub: Brian

Saturn controllers for your Personal Computing needs

So, you want to play on your PC using a Saturn controller. Maybe you’re trying out a Saturn emulator (a topic which I’ll cover in depth in a future article) and want to keep the experience as true to the original as possible, or you just want to play native PC games with one of the best gamepads ever made (FACT), perfect for titles like Street Fighter which were made with six face buttons in mind.

You basically have two options: you can either buy an adapter for your original gamepad, or buy a whole new controller with a native USB connection, of which there are many.

I myself faced this dilemma sometime ago and tried to do as much research as I could, because for me spending hours reading stuff on the internet is half of the fun of buying a new product (I'm only half joking). Unfortunately I couldn't just try every solution out for myself and in the end had to buy only one product, so my hands-on experience is limited. Fortunately our friends from the Facebook SJY group are a resourceful bunch and, armed with their feedback, I feel confident in my assessment.

So, without further ado:

The Saturn/USB adapter

It basically does what it says on the package. It's a little box with a port for your controller on one end (with most featuring other inputs besides the Saturn, like Playstation) and a USB cable on the other end that you connect to your PC. There are various brands and models, one of the most popular being made by Mayflash, a company with a good reputation for gaming accessories.

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SWWS 98: The Greatest Football Game Of All Time?

First of all, we'll acknowledge the elephant in the room... the very mention of the word "football" is going to be contentious from the start. The official title is "Sega World Wide Soccer", although the commentator, the venerable Gary Bloom, welcomes us to what he hopes... "will be an exciting game of football." So that's the word I'm going to use predominantly in this article... "football". The word used to describe the game in Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Asia and South America...
Apologies to our US cousins, for whom 'football' is an excuse to dress up in crash helmet, a fancy spandex suit and enough padding to protect a kindergarten full of kids, from an oncoming freight train... in order to play a jolly good game of rugby! 😉

''Sega World Wide Soccer '98" is the follow up to the most excellent "Sega World Wide Soccer '97"... A re-skin of the "J-League" inspired football game "International Victory Goal".  The game is widely celebrated for it's instant playability and free-flowing game play. There is little to distinguish between the '98 and '97 editions in terms of game mechanics, physics or engine. The major difference between the original and it's updated counterpart, being in the ability to play as the English Premiere League teams of the time*, as well as a good variety of international squads, more of which later. The only other major difference is the addition to the 'commentary team' of ex-Ireland manager and England player, Jack Charlton, more of that later too!
* The game also allows you to play as teams from the French and Spanish top tier too.

Read more...

TitanCast Episode One

For the first time in the history of the Junkyard, mountains have been moved! By that, we mean that three of us got together and recorded a podcast.

In this first, we discuss what brought us to our beloved Saturn, how it fell from favor, and eventually how the beast has returned. What impact has the Saturn had on the three of us, and what scale of an impact will this renewed interest in her bring to the Saturn retro community?

If you'd like to hear more from the TitanCast, drop us a comment and keep coming back for more.

You can also download the cast from our google drive at the link below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CHlSmW21LDcjezXG7PMoGaNLNeb1NfIe

Contributors:

Fatherkrishna: Simon
The Southern Sega Gentleman: Samuel
The Vitua Schlub: Brian

Sega Saturn Saucepot Of The Month: November 2017!

A new month, so we couldn't let the opportunity for more Sega Saturn related sauciness pass us by. Our Halloween look at some of the Saturn 'cos-play' offerings  plastered unashamedly across the internet, got us fired up and in the mood for some more gaming-themed eye candy.

If we had to nominate one computer generated video-game character who has been sexualised more than any other, who has occupied the hormonally raging minds of many an adolescent boy (and even some grown men...) in short someone who has who has made desire synonymous with gaming, then that person would have to be Segata Sanshiro  Lara Croft.

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Father Krishna's Saturn Collection (part 2) N-Z

So here it is... part 2 of my Sega Saturn collection. It's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to complete, which I suppose is a good thing... it means that my collection is bigger than I first gave it credit for. It's also immediately out of date, as two of the titles are now on their way to someone else in our community, and there has been an addition into the library in the shape of "Biohazard", the easier Japanese version of Resident Evil... As already previously stated, the copies are listed separately. Although they are providing the vast majority of my Saturn gaming experiences at the moment, I don't consider them part of my official Saturn collection. I've decided to amend and update this article as when I feel like, putting little captions or paragraphs under some of the games I've particularly enjoyed or hated! Until then, don't forget there is link on each of the titles which will take you to another site related to the game... there's a lot of video or other information about each game, so take your time going through the article and click away at those links! 

Take a little peak at N-Z!

Opening Up Your Saturn Library

Hey Saturn Fans! No sooner do we get the wise words and slightly dodgy anime of the Virtua Schlub over here at the Saturn Junkyard, but now we are blessed with the most wonderful epistle from another one of our Trans-Atlantic correspondents, this time in the shape of The Southern Sega Gentleman. Very soon, he'll be here at the 'Yard and able to pen his articles right here from Blog Central, but until then, I'm going to post it for him. So although my name appears at the bottom, this is not my work. To ensure no one thinks I'm trying to pass it off as my own, I'll use the 'guest font and colour'... So without any further ado, I'll leave you in the care of the southern Sega Gentleman...

So now that you’ve gotten your first Saturn, or maybe you’ve busted it out of the jail that is your closet, what’s next? Well, you could throw down a few bucks for a cheap title or two, maybe even splurge and drop $50 on a disc only copy of Resident Evil. More than likely though, you’ll come to find out, quite soon in fact, that the Saturn is not the friendliest console when it comes to the wife or the wallet. Don’t go giving up hope or trying to sell that baby yet though! In this article we aim to show you that there are many avenues to consider when you don the hat of SEGA Saturn owner.

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Father Krishna's Saturn Game Collection (Part 1 A-M)

Whilst the Saturn Junkyard is a growing concern, and by no means a solo effort,  I thought I would make a very personal post in this new month of November, listing the Saturn software collection I have here in my house as catalogued at the tail end of 2017.  As well as the games that I own, I'm going to share the 'gaming experiences' that I have access to, thanks to the Pseudo-Saturn Mod, facilitated for me very recently by a high profile member of the Saturn Junkyard Facebook Group 😉 . I'm going to list my unofficial copies separately, at the end of part 2 of the article however, as I don't want anyone thinking I have the unlimited financial resources necessary to obtain the official copies of these games, which change hands at outrageous and ridiculously inflated prices!

In order to make this more than a simple list, I'm going to put a reference picture of the box cover for the version I own, whether PAL European, NSTC Japanese or NSTC US. I'm also going to attach a link to each of the game titles, which will take you to a random piece of information about the game. It could be a Wikipedia page, a game related video, a review of the game, concept art or a different website, which will hopefully expand your awareness of any games that take your interest!

I'm very happy to say that my Saturn collection is much larger than I had previously realised, but as a consequence, it's taken me ages to write this post! So for now I'm just going to share my A-M titles... The rest will be along very soon!

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Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Saturn Junkyard!

Saturn Junkyard Cosplay Awards 2017

Here at the Saturn Junkyard, we heartily approve of grown men and women making ridiculous video-game themed costumes, and then wearing them shamelessly around a comic-con or gaming expo, whilst bemused onlookers try desperately in vain to work out who they are supposed to be.

Whether you are a  beautifully healthy sun-tanned Bay Watch body-double, or have got to squeeze your cellulite riddled, pock-marked, flab into an ill fitting lycra leotard and leggings, using a shoehorn and a tub of lard, matters not!

It's entering into the spirit of the thing that's important! So to help you decide on your own Saturn themed costume for this year, we'll show you some of the efforts people have gone to in the past, for better or for worse... They all get the world famous Father Krishna seal of approval for having a go!

What I hadn't reckoned on, was the strange psychological associations and feelings, brought on by perusing these cos-play pictures. Why do subjects as diverse as creeping terror, Cilla Black, the Joker, the Russian Mafia, evil clowns and Frank Sidebottom come to mind when looking at a bunch of gaming characters? (If you have no idea who my Anglo-centric comparisons refer to, click on the links!)

Choose your favourite and identify it in the comment section, or save them to your device and throw them up on the Facebook page for anyone who has missed them!

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Imagine Dragoons: That Time Panzer Dragoon Was an Anime

I’m a big fan of Panzer Dragoon (the game), particularly its sequels. So when I recently came across a VHS copy of Panzer Dragoon (the movie) at a retro gaming convention, buying it wasn’t even a choice. I had no idea such a thing even existed – and yet it does – so obviously I needed it.

I’ve long ceased to own the requisite apparatus for playing back the newest (and probably only) VHS tape in my collection. But a cursory glance at the box and cassette revealed it to be an anime-style film, in color, dubbed in English, with an approximate run time of 35 minutes (though it’s more like 26). A further look at Amazon’s customer reviews for Panzer Dragoon (the anime) suggested it wasn't likely to be a very good film to begin with.

One customer, Sam, deemed Panzer Dragoon (the anime) “the worst fantasy anime ever,” or at least “the worst to be based on a videogame,” citing its animation as having “one of the most contemptible mixes of hand drawn animation and computer graphics EVER.” Dark Ren added, ”between the boring dialogue, and disappointing action scenes, I was wondering how this could get much worse,” while another unnamed customer obliged, “[the Panzer Dragoon anime] has the worst dubbing I've ever heard!!! My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing!!”

Undeterred, I still had to see it for myself. At the very least, Panzer Dragoon (the anime) had to be so bad that it's good, right? Well, that was the hope. Read more...

Fighting Your Way Through Halloween: Darkstalkers 3 - The Characters... (Part 2)

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So, it's time for part two of our introduction to the weird and wonderful 'Halloween-friendly' characters of Capcom's insanely good 2D fighter, Dark Stalkers 3. We've already met our seasonal archetypes-- a mummy, a werewolf, a vampire, a Frankenstein-type monster, a machine gun toting fairy tale character, two confusingly saucy 'succubus' demons and a... *cough* ...haunted suit of Samurai armour...

Now it's time to meet the rest of the roster of  'Vampire Savior: The Lord Of Vampire' for the Sega Saturn!

Sasquatch: is of course the mysterious ape-man of the North American continent. Also known as Big Foot (the same name as his tribe). Sasquatch is an original creature to have in a horror-based fighting game, but unfortunately his race are depicted as something of  a bunch of stupid behemoths, daft enough to be lured to their doom by the offer of lots of bananas! A shame, as I can't think of him showing up in many other video games, and as everyone knows, Sasquatch are intelligent, even noble creatures, which is why they've never been caught by the razor sharp minds and keen cryptozoological instincts of the Finding Bigfoot team on Animal Planet.

Sasquatch's most notable ability is being able to turn water to ice by passing it through his body! Having huge feet (all the better to stomp you with) can also be quite beneficial when facing other creatures of the night...

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Fighting Your Way Through Halloween: Darkstalkers 3 - The Characters... (Part1)

As anyone who has read my last few posts can tell, I'm a huge fan of Halloween, and a recent convert to the genre of 2D fighting games, played of course, on the Sega Saturn. So when I realised there was a game that combined two of my passions, I thought it would be rude not to give it a feature post here at the Saturn Junkyard!
One of the best 2D fighters I've played, 'Darkstalkers 3' (or 'Vampire Savior: The Lord Of Vampire' as it was known in Japan) arrived through my door, some time in the first decade of this millennium, courtesy of one of the previous collaborators here on the 'Yard. It was sent with love, as a beautiful gift, with a burned copy of Radiant Silvergun tucked away inside. I'm ashamed to say I can't remember who was kind enough to send it to me. What I do know however, is that it remained unplayed in my Saturn collection for many years, due to the fact that my import playing Action Replay, did not facilitate the 4MB of RAM necessary for the game to work properly!

Fast forward to 2017; a new Action Replay arrives from Play Asia and all of a sudden, the game that had remained out of my reach for so long, suddenly arrived within it! I was hugely impressed from the moment I fired up the game.... I've already explained in a previous post, why I'm so enamoured with 2D fighters at the moment, so rather than explain all that again, I'll cut straight to the chase. As well as the quirky game play, and fantastic special moves, it's the combatants within this particular game that imbue it with it's eccentric charm and Halloween relevance.

What makes Darkstalkers 3 so fantastic, is it's insane roster of characters, inspired by classic horror archetypes as featured in the popular Japanese anime. As well as those monsters and 'creatures of the night' one might expect to find in your average Hammer Horror film, the game boasts some surprises. They're such a fabulous collection of Halloween-style freaks, creeps and misfits, that I've decided to shine the spotlight on each and every one of them during this article. I want to share their images and backstories, with those of you waiting to add this game to your collection, in order to whet your appetite. So lets jump straight in with the the first one! I've used capcom.wikia.com as my primary source, so props to them!

Anakaris: is a huge mummy, a twelfth dynasty pharaoh who bears more than a passing resemblance to Tutankhamen. A slow and lumbering character, (the slowest in the game, in terms of mobility), Anakaris does have some compensatory abilities. Those abilities include the fact that he can float and hover temporarily in the air, teleport (like Dahlsim in Streetfighter) and drop a huge casket on top of his foes, amongst other things!

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Halloween Video Treats: Five Creepy Clips To Help Celebrate The Season!