The Saturn Appreciation Thread

[Major Britten]

13 hours ago, Tomdominer said:

 

 

I just tried Burning Ranger for the first time, as its been on my radar since I saw it round a friends in 1996, and um, it seems like, a bit shit?

 

The tutorial was interminable (but fine, its the 90's) but then the game starts and there are loads of mechanics that aren't explained. There is a meter that seemingly changes from red to green on its own free will, a "limit" percentage which I have no idea what it indicates and I "think" a temperature graph? On top of that, the dodge isn't even explained in the tutorial. it says that you have to press down on the d-pad? But I think you have to actually press any direction and jump quickly (I think). It certainly isn't just "down" to perform more than once dodge.

 

Playing the first level wasn't great. The controls are pretty unresponsive and sluggish and the framerate seems to vary wildly, which really doesn't help the matter. Those trigger explosions seems to get to the point where you are just dodging around like a madman waiting for them to end until you (half the time) die? Are you supposed to be shooting when this is happening? 

 

Also, the lack of mini-map makes navigation nigh on impossible, especially when you reach a section where the lights are cut, so you are running about with about 5 meter radius visibility.

 

Can someone please explain to me what I am missing? 

 

EDIT: It seems that I should be playing it with the analogue controller?

 

Yeah I was pretty let down by it as well when I played it for the first time recently. Could be because of lack of nostalgia and 20 years worth of curiosity to try the game as I missed out first time around. But I simply couldnt get into it, and thats playing the US version with an analogue pad. Will give it another try but the game looks like its really on the short side, should be able to finish the whole thing in a couple of hours

[Zio]

5 minutes ago, Sketch said:

 

Such as? Spoiler tag if needed.

 

Spoiler

There's a young boy called Enkak at the Caravan who becomes sick. In my recent replay, I let too much time pass before helping and he died. 

 

Also means you miss out on a rare weapon I believe.

 

[Sketch]

26 minutes ago, Zio said:

 

  Hide contents

There's a young boy called Enkak at the Caravan who becomes sick. In my recent replay, I let too much time pass before helping and he died. 

 

Also means you miss out on a rare weapon I believe.

 

 

 

I thought maybe it was to do with:

Spoiler

Shooting down that missile.

 

I also rinsed it the last time. Might try it another way next time.

 

[Tomdominer]

11 hours ago, pastry said:

The dodge is literally down on the stick, doing that when you hear a "whoosh" will automatically jump you backwards. It's a simple mechanic and I feel sure it was in the tutorial? Maybe not.

Yeah, my comment actually has a link to the bit in the tutorial on youtube. The thing is, if your character isn't directly facing forwards, then down just simply doesn't perform the dodge. I am not sure if the idea is you have to flick the stick in the opposite direction you are facing, or that it'll only work if facing forwards. I just found it easier to flick a direction and press jump, seemed to achieve the same thing.

 

11 hours ago, pastry said:

But the game itself is full of charm and magic, and the basic premise is just something you don't really ever see – a game where you help people. I have always found that refreshing. It has twee elements but they just add to the charm for me.

I completely agree. I really want to like the game. I have always had a soft spot for Firefighting games, and have played a fair bit of Firemen on the Snes.

 

If I wanted to try analogue control, is the old saturn "Nights into Dreams" analogue stick the way to go? Or shall I try some sort of more modern replacement. I have bought a Saturn Wireless Receiver, which works well with my 8Bitdo sn30-pro, but the analogue doesn't function.

[pastry]

If you’re playing on real hardware then yeah I think the official pad is the only sensible option available today, sad as that is. 
 

If emulating then a DS or XBox pad is pretty good for BR, just map X and Y to L3/R3 if you can’t map them to triggers.
 

Alternatively there’s that HORI pad we disucssed a page or so back, but seems to get slightly mixed reviews. 6 face buttons though!

[Tomdominer]

Man, the prices on ebay are pretty high. I did own an analogue saturn pad, but can't for the life of me find it. I "might" have sold it, which is frustrating as I own about 200 controllers, all told, so don't really understand why I thought I needed to sell this one.

 

EDIT: Created a wanted post about finding one, if anyone has one lying around.

[mash]

I bought Burning Rangers on day 1. The Saturn which is pretty much dead in the UK at time but I was a Saturn die hard and wanted to support it. I played it once or twice, absolutely loathed it. It's just so janky. The graphics even back then were an eye sore. I sold it for a pittance soon after. In retrospect I wish I'd kept it. Who knew Saturn games would be worth a fortune in 2021? 

[merrychan]

55 minutes ago, mash said:

I bought Burning Rangers on day 1. The Saturn which is pretty much dead in the UK at time but I was a Saturn die hard and wanted to support it. I played it once or twice, absolutely loathed it. It's just so janky. The graphics even back then were an eye sore. I sold it for a pittance soon after. In retrospect I wish I'd kept it. Who knew Saturn games would be worth a fortune in 2021? 

Same. I bounced off Burning Rangers hard at launch when I had a PAL machine. After I was done with Fighters Megamix and Virtua Cops I swapped my Saturn for PC Half Life at Chip Shop 2000 in Liverpool as a student in 98.

 

But then got another one in the summer of 99 which I upgraded to a JP grey machine and spent all my summer job money on import games since I couldn't afford the DC

 

It was and still is an absolutely brilliant machine and one of my favourites.

[strider]

I'm, writing a little article about how the Saturn helped me with my depression and I've been looking at the numbers for games. There were around 1040 odd games released in total for the console but only around 241 were released in Pal according to Riven's list. That's a shocking amount of stuff we never got access to.

[pastry]

I would wager there is quite a large percentage of very niche / weird stuff making up that disparity.. but yes - what a shame we didn’t even get the big names like Radiant Silvergun or Grandia!

[Kevvy Metal]

Good thing with ODE's is that we can now play a lot of these Japanese gems with fan translations! ...on real original hardware!

I've always wanted to play through Grandia, since seeing it in the pages of Sega Saturn Magazine back in the 90's... and never have! 

[Nick R]

23 hours ago, Tomdominer said:

If I wanted to try analogue control, is the old saturn "Nights into Dreams" analogue stick the way to go? Or shall I try some sort of more modern replacement. I have bought a Saturn Wireless Receiver, which works well with my 8Bitdo sn30-pro, but the analogue doesn't function.

 

I played Burning Rangers for years with the D-pad before I got an analogue 3D Controller, and don't remember ever feeling like digital controls were holding me back. In fact there's one bit in the last level, involving platforming along narrow walkways, where using the D-pad might be an advantage. (But having said that, I don't think I ever did any direct comparisons on Burning Rangers; after I got the 3D Controller I mainly used it for NiGHTS.)

 

You're right about the dodge feeling inconsistent. I remember often feeling unsure about how many times the game would let me do the directional midair boost. You'd think it would function like a double jump: one jump up or forwards + one boost in any direction. But I remember sometimes I was able to boost back and forth multiple times in opposite directions.

 

On 03/06/2021 at 01:45, pastry said:

Re: navigation, you press X for directions from the rest of the crew. They'll help you find your way. Limit percentage - when you put out spot fires this will go down. When it gets too high explosions will begin to occur. So.. do your job as a firefighter

 

The navigation system is great, until you get to a bit where you get the response "I CANNOT ACCESS THE MAP OF THE AREA YOU ARE IN."

 

Regarding bringing down the percentage... it's been a long time since I've played it, but IIRC using precise individual shots to put out fires affects the percentage differently compared to using the wide-area fully-charged shot. I know that if you use the charged shot, you don't gain any crystals from putting out fires.

[phillv85]

My package from Japan has arrived 

 

[Colonel Panic]

Soukyugurentai! Nicccce!

 

Also, I fucking LOVE Donpachi and Dodonpachi. I need to get that one again. What are the other games with Japanese titles? I don't recognise them!

 

(Also, how are you getting these? I could do with boosting my collection)

[Lupin Central]

17 hours ago, mash said:

I bought Burning Rangers on day 1. The Saturn which is pretty much dead in the UK at time but I was a Saturn die hard and wanted to support it. I played it once or twice, absolutely loathed it. It's just so janky. The graphics even back then were an eye sore. I sold it for a pittance soon after. In retrospect I wish I'd kept it. Who knew Saturn games would be worth a fortune in 2021? 

I got a copy off of eBay around 2004 - 2005 for £15. I sent it on to someone I followed over on YouTube so he could make a video about it - and I have no idea if he still has it. Crazy how much it now fetches. I personally quite liked the game - it's definitely janky and the draw distance is abysmal, but it's a nice little curio and a pretty unique world / concept. It's definitely not worth spending more than £20 on though...

[phillv85]

Top row is fighters: Pretty Fighter X, FIST, Waku Waku 7 and Suiko Enbu

 

The big box is Game Tengoku special version that comes with some VHS I can't watch. Then the 8 middle ones, Left to right, top to bottom we have Soukyugurentai, Layer Section and Capcom Generations 1. Layer Section II, DoDonPachi and Gokujoh Parodius. DonPachi and Dezaemon II.

 

I buy them through Yahoo auctions using Buyee as my proxy. It works out marginally cheaper even with VAT than eBay. Buyee were doing perfect for me for years until the previous package that arrived that was missing a game and they basically told me I'm shit outta luck so I'm going to try From Japan next month.

[SeanR]

Same energy

 

 

I mean, it’s good. Still has saturn texture wobble though

 

 

everything shimmers, but some games are more... solid than others

 

[Sketch]

On 04/06/2021 at 12:33, Lupin Central said:

I got a copy off of eBay around 2004 - 2005 for £15. I sent it on to someone I followed over on YouTube so he could make a video about it - and I have no idea if he still has it. Crazy how much it now fetches. I personally quite liked the game - it's definitely janky and the draw distance is abysmal, but it's a nice little curio and a pretty unique world / concept. It's definitely not worth spending more than £20 on though...

 

Did you buy my copy? I sold mine around then for £15, even though it normally went for... I want to say around £40 at that time? Even back then it was a "high ticket" item. Not Radiant Silvergun, but pretty high compared. Most Saturn games were like £5 back then. The guy actually called me on my eBay telephone number and nervously said: "You are going to send it if I pay, right?"

 

"Why would you ask me that?"

 

"Because it went for so much lower than it normally does. I never imagined it would go for so little!"

 

Naturally I honoured the agreement - a man has to have a code.

 

I deliberately try to avoid looking at the price of retro games today. Some stuff which I sold for £20 in 2005 now sells for x10 that price (£200 and up!). I cleared out my whole collection in 2005 because I had emulation, and the retro prices had stagnated, and I thought: well, prices are only going to go down now that retro compilations are starting to surface, and things like the upcoming Nintendo Revolution console will have older games to download.

 

I made about £3k on stuff that now is closer to £10k or £15k. 😭 Jesus, £300 for SNES titles which were £20 used back in the day. Why are people today paying so much when you have flashcarts and download services? They never paid this much back in 2005 when those things didn't exist. I honestly can't comprehend it. back in 2005 is when you'd spend big on retro, because it was either original games or piracy. Today there's so many legal alternatives, you'd think the originals would be at their least desirable.

 

[Lupin Central]

19 hours ago, Sketch said:

 

Did you buy my copy? I sold mine around then for £15, even though it normally went for... I want to say around £40 at that time?

 

Haha, no, that wasn't me - but that's still a great story. I've never made any phone calls to eBay sellers / buyers!

[Major Britten]

On 06/06/2021 at 22:32, Sketch said:

 

Did you buy my copy? I sold mine around then for £15, even though it normally went for... I want to say around £40 at that time? Even back then it was a "high ticket" item. Not Radiant Silvergun, but pretty high compared. Most Saturn games were like £5 back then. The guy actually called me on my eBay telephone number and nervously said: "You are going to send it if I pay, right?"

 

"Why would you ask me that?"

 

"Because it went for so much lower than it normally does. I never imagined it would go for so little!"

 

Naturally I honoured the agreement - a man has to have a code.

 

I deliberately try to avoid looking at the price of retro games today. Some stuff which I sold for £20 in 2005 now sells for x10 that price (£200 and up!). I cleared out my whole collection in 2005 because I had emulation, and the retro prices had stagnated, and I thought: well, prices are only going to go down now that retro compilations are starting to surface, and things like the upcoming Nintendo Revolution console will have older games to download.

 

I made about £3k on stuff that now is closer to £10k or £15k. 😭 Jesus, £300 for SNES titles which were £20 used back in the day. Why are people today paying so much when you have flashcarts and download services? They never paid this much back in 2005 when those things didn't exist. I honestly can't comprehend it. back in 2005 is when you'd spend big on retro, because it was either original games or piracy. Today there's so many legal alternatives, you'd think the originals would be at their least desirable.

 

Most of the people buying retro games these days are scalpers who see them more as an investment or by collectors/hoarders who will just want them for completions sake and have them sat on a shelf untouched while they’ll play the game on a flashcart/ODE

[MikeBeaver]

On 06/06/2021 at 14:32, Sketch said:

 

Did you buy my copy? I sold mine around then for £15, even though it normally went for... I want to say around £40 at that time? Even back then it was a "high ticket" item. Not Radiant Silvergun, but pretty high compared. Most Saturn games were like £5 back then. The guy actually called me on my eBay telephone number and nervously said: "You are going to send it if I pay, right?"

 

"Why would you ask me that?"

 

"Because it went for so much lower than it normally does. I never imagined it would go for so little!"

 

Naturally I honoured the agreement - a man has to have a code.

 

I deliberately try to avoid looking at the price of retro games today. Some stuff which I sold for £20 in 2005 now sells for x10 that price (£200 and up!). I cleared out my whole collection in 2005 because I had emulation, and the retro prices had stagnated, and I thought: well, prices are only going to go down now that retro compilations are starting to surface, and things like the upcoming Nintendo Revolution console will have older games to download.

 

I made about £3k on stuff that now is closer to £10k or £15k. 😭 Jesus, £300 for SNES titles which were £20 used back in the day. Why are people today paying so much when you have flashcarts and download services? They never paid this much back in 2005 when those things didn't exist. I honestly can't comprehend it. back in 2005 is when you'd spend big on retro, because it was either original games or piracy. Today there's so many legal alternatives, you'd think the originals would be at their least desirable.

 

What ever you do, don't go back through your old FS posts here, I did that the other week... why no one wanted to buy a Gamecube with 2 pads and 7 games, for £25 delivered, I will never know, I'd snap my own arm off to buy that now 😛

[pastry]

On 09/06/2021 at 18:30, MikeBeaver said:

What ever you do, don't go back through your old FS posts here, I did that the other week

 

Thanks for that... blast from the past!

 

 

NOTE:  ALL SOLD LONG AGO

[Colonel Panic]

NEVER sell stuff. I pretty much gave away some GC games here that sell for a fortune now.

[MikeBeaver]

59 minutes ago, pastry said:

Thanks for that...

 

 

Still got the Piano collection?

31 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

NEVER sell stuff. I pretty much gave away some GC games here that sell for a fortune now.

 

We all have,  @Nathan Wind had a nice NTSC/U N64 off me for £30 delivered, times change I guess, I would have used that £30 to buy something else that may or may not have then got sold.

It wasn't me that had those GC titles off you was it?

[Nathan Wind]

Still got it! It’s one of the few things to survive the cull for now.

[Colonel Panic]

23 minutes ago, MikeBeaver said:

It wasn't me that had those GC titles off you was it?

 

I don't think so, I did a search of PMs and trading forum posts and couldn't find the evidence of my madness.

[MikeBeaver]

19 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

 

I don't think so, I did a search of PMs and trading forum posts and couldn't find the evidence of my madness.

Phew, that's one less I can take the blame for 😛

[Lorfarius]

28 minutes ago, Nathan Wind said:

Still got it! It’s one of the few things to survive the cull for now.

 

Would you swap it for a copy of PS5 Godfall?

[pastry]

my PM's are all gone so no idea what went where, but it all went other than a few bits which I gave to a mate. Which he boot sale'd. All he says is left is a Thrustmaster Ferrari wheel for DC which I bought for F355. Probably worth a couple of grand?

[Nathan Wind]

1 hour ago, Lorfarius said:

 

Would you swap it for a copy of PS5 Godfall?

No but I'll trade it for your Playdate a week after launch.