On Game Collectors And My Sega Saturn 'Collection'
[Off-Topic] A look at my Sega Saturn library and why I reject the collector label.
A long time ago now, I wrote in some depth about the Sega Saturn: its failure in the West, the steep decline of Sega as a console manufacturer and why, ultimately, I felt the Saturn was a console with a few decent games I liked but ultimately wasn’t one I hold in high regard.
Feel free to go back and read this for context if you’d like but that article no longer reflects my views on the Saturn; in this past year and couple of months I’ve really come to enjoy this console and have amassed quite a few games for it. Today, I want to walk you through my Saturn hardware and software library and casually share my thoughts on it all and this early 3D-era as a whole.
I hope you enjoy.
About That Label…
I go to great lengths never to call myself a video game/console collector but inevitably, when I refer to my stock of games as a ‘collection’ people put 2 and 2 together and I’m referred to as such; I don’t take offense to that, how were you supposed to know? But it’s a label I don’t want to be associated with.
What are video games and video game consoles for? They’re for playing: they’re not for sticking in display cases so you can take pictures, they’re not for sitting on and waiting for the value to climb like a commodity and they’re not for taking the disc drive out, replacing it with an SD card reader and fitting a bunch of tacky LED lights; consoles are for playing. I buy consoles to use them, I buy video games to play them and I buy CRT’s to display those games as they were intended, not blocky and hideous on an LCD or OLED panel.
Most collectors don’t seem to share my sentiment.
Retro gaming has never been more expensive and a big reason for that is these collectors. They buy every colour of the same console just to say they have them, they buy rare and valuable games for bragging rights and with the hopes of selling them on later when almost none still exist in the wild… this pisses me off. When I look at a photo like the one above I don’t see a cool console collection, I see 1 console and 3 spares: spares that will never be opened by an ecstatic kid on Christmas Day, consoles that will never be played until the laser gives out, consoles that will never be enjoyed by 2 young siblings sat on the floor with a controller plugged into port 1 and 2. The last models of most retro consoles rolled off the production line decades ago and all of this stuff is of finite availability; there isn’t enough in the world for everyone who wants one of these old consoles to own one but if you’re not selfish, if you share and are willing to open up your hoard to others, just enough exist that more people can experience the joy this hobby brings.
You are not a bigger fan of X console because you bought every colour, you don’t need 4 GameCubes or every version of the Wii. Stop being selfish.
Now For The Good Bit
Here is my Sega Saturn: and in damn fine shape too. It’s a Model 1 which you can tell by the ovular buttons and some differences internally.
Cosmetically, save for a bit of dust it’s accumulated since I bought it in late-2023, I’d describe my Saturn as mint condition. Internally? I suspect I might run into some problems in the future.
I’m grateful that -unlike my very temperamental Dreamcast- my Saturn still reads games quick and smooth; the fact that one side of the casing feels a bit loose and creaky suggests to me that there might be a missing screw which indicates it was refurbished at some point, I’ve not had a reason to ever open my Saturn up and check for myself though. Unfortunately, I have a constant, low buzzing audio issue when I play my Saturn. I swapped from the standard Saturn SCART cable to a third-party S-Video connector recently to see if that fixed the issue and while it was a massive improvement, I do still hear that buzzing, albeit faintly. This is a concern because the proximity of the Saturn’s AV port to the power cable one means this is probably a worn out capacitor in that area; at some point in the future, I expect it to fail and for Lawrence to need to open up his Saturn and solder on a new one.
A key contributor behind my newfound love of the Sega Saturn was getting this: the Model 2/Japanese controller.
This is one of the greatest controllers ever made, to the extent where every third-party controller maker sells a version of the Saturn pad today and many fighting game players swear by this peripheral as the best way to play the genre. Even if they’re not a direct rip-off of the Saturn pad, most modern controllers made for playing them will use this same 6-button layout, aside from how perfect that layout is for 2D and fighting games, the D-pad on this thing is a masterpiece, it’s so wonderfully smooth on your thumb and it clicks in each direction like a joystick. This has never been topped.
I used to own the Model 1/Western Saturn controller, I put off buying this one for ages and was convinced the Model 1 was fine and wasn’t harming my enjoyment of the Saturn… I was very wrong.
Nights Into Dreams
I’m going to work across my shelf from right to left, that makes Nights Into Dreams first.
This here is the jewel case version of Nights Into Dreams, you can get it in a standard Saturn tall case but it’s significantly more expensive that way and the early PAL Saturn cases are awful anyway, I prefer the jewel. Nights comes in these 2 versions because the jewel case variant was bundled in with the 3D controller, which I unfortunately do not own.
I’m actually cooking up an article about this game for the weekend so I won’t go into too much depth here. Nights Into Dreams is completely unlike any other game ever made: it’s a bright, uplifting buffet of platformer, skateboarding game and racing elements that’s easy to learn but hard to master. Nights Into Dreams is a very love it or hate it sort of game and there have certainly been sessions I’ve cut short because of the awful boss fights but regardless of all that, this is a must-own for the console.
If I want to play some Saturn but don’t know what to put on, Nights is my default pick, it is the Sega Saturn on a disc, no other title represents what this console is about better.
Gungriffon
If Armoured Core and MechAssault on the Xbox are the Call Of Duty and Halo of mech games then the mainline MechWarrior games and Gungriffon are the Operation Flashpoint and Arma 3.
Gungriffon is a mech simulator set in 2015 (or 2075 in PAL, for some reason, I’m going to ignore that) where WW3 has broken out between 4 military factions, pitting the nations of the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia against each other. Gungriffon has an 8 mission campaign that sees you fighting from Ukraine and across Russia to Mongolia and eventually China. On top of that you have the mandatory Sega scoreboard.
The controls in Gungriffon are almost too complex for their own good but once you master piloting your AWGS: your Armoured Walking Gun System, which includes the ability to fly, a whole arsenal of weapons and a high speed booster mode, pulling off stylish kills is incredibly satisfying. You come to appreciate the weightiness of the AWGS’ depiction, as opposed to the mechs in something like Armoured Core which almost drive like people in suits, these are giant hulking beasts of metal: your guns boom and blast viciously, enemies erupt in smoke and fire and raining down missiles on enemy tanks from above is the best feeling ever. Considering the Saturn’s dubious reputation for 3D graphics, the models in this game look impressive too. About the only complaint I have is that there is a seriously nasty difficulty spike once you reach China.
Gungriffon’s sequel unfortunately never escaped Japan, so I’ll have to import that someday or get a translated copy off Etsy. I consider this game to be a bit of an underrated gem, Gungriffon is rarely spoken about with reverence by the cult of Saturn but it comes with a seal of approval from me, especially as this game is only £25-35 complete-in-box in PAL territories: peanuts by Saturn standards.
Panzer Dragoon
Besides Nights, I’d wager that Panzer Dragoon is probably the Saturn’s most iconic IP and easily the one that’s most well-known out of the franchises that began on this console.
Where do I start with this one? What an experience. This is a game I’ve not owned for very long and I’m annoyed I was talked out of getting it earlier. Everything I read online said it’s pretty but unremarkable, that you’ll finish it in 1h 30m etc. but boy do I not care, Panzer Dragoon is magical.
Panzer Dragoon is set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where mankind lives in the ruins of a once great civilisation, waging war on each other with air ships and atop armoured dragons in an ecosystem populated by the bio-engineered monsters this civilisation once unleashed in their final war. The game begins with an unknown rider of a Blue Dragon bestowing his mount upon the player in his final moments where it leads you into battle against an evil empire and their attempts to harness ancient technology for no good reason. The art direction is remarkable, the 3D graphics are stunning for the Saturn and the soundtrack? Absolute bliss.
A small taste, the entire list of music deserves your time.
In terms of gameplay, Panzer Dragoon is a little bit like a cross between Space Harrier and Afterburner II: it takes the varied stages and boss fights from the former and the missile targeting mechanic and general movement-feel from the latter. The innovative part is that this game is fully 3D and you have lots of camera control with the ability to aim behind and to your sides as well as the option to zoom in and out, plus there is some narrative depth with impressive FMV cutscenes.
Panzer Dragoon gets criticised for its length but you probably won’t beat this on your first attempt, especially not unless you can hit over 90% of the targets in each stage for more continues and besides, this is 1.5-2 hours of absolute joy; being overly concerned with game length and longevity as opposed to quality and artistic vision is how we ended up with the likes of modern Far Cry and Crimson Desert. I love this game and I can’t wait to grab the sequel in the near future. Financially I had to make a choice between getting this game and the ‘new’ Star Fox. I feel I chose right.
Sega Ages Volume 1
No Sega console is complete without some top-notch ports of their arcade hits and thanks to the then-cutting edge power of the Saturn, we got Sega Ages Volume 1: Afterburner II, Space Harrier II and Out Run in arcade-perfect glory; in fact, Out Run is even better here than in arcades because it includes a 60FPS mode.
This is a bit of a funny one because there were no further Sega Ages Volumes: this is it, the one and only, I think that’s a damn shame because Sonic Jam and Sega Ages prove that the Saturn had the capacity to not only provide arcade-perfect action but added bonuses too. I believe there are more of these re-releases in Japan but as of writing I lack the Action Replay 4M cartridge along with the recommended 60Hz switch hardware mod recommended to play imports.
Of the 3 games in this compilation, Out Run has always been the star of the show for me. For quite a long time, this, Wipeout and Virtua Fighter 2 were the only Saturn games I owned so I got really addicted to it, though I’ve never made it to the end. I detest this word but Out Run is just such a vibe: the music, the gorgeous red Ferrari Testarossa and of course the timeless gameplay make this a game I’m willing to stick on any time.
I quite like Afterburner II but it feels primitive when stood alongside Panzer Dragoon and to be honest? I’m not a fan of Space Harrier II, even when I played it as a kid on Mega Drive compilations it didn’t do much for me.
I wouldn’t call this one a must-own, especially as these games are playable in many other places individually but I enjoy sliding Sega Ages out from my shelf from time to time for another crack at finishing a run in Out Run or if I want to give Afterburner II a spin.
Sega Rally Championship
I’ve made my love for Sega Rally Championship clear on a few occasions in the past so I won’t spend a huge amount of time on this… plus I think everyone knows how good this game is anyway.
Sega Rally Championship sees you competing across a handful of courses: Desert, Forest, Mountain and the hidden Lakeside track in either the Lancia Delta HF Integrale or the Toyota Celica GT-Four to get the best lap times. You can do Time Trials, practice runs, choose between a Manual or a baby-I mean Automatic and you can even play in split-screen if you so desire. This is another title that spits in the face of those who say the Saturn couldn’t do 3D properly and the car handling is unbelievably good for a game of this age. A near-arcade perfect port.
This is probably my favourite game on the Saturn and while it’s not full of content, the simple joy of driving, taking in the soundtrack and trying to beat yourself and the programmed-in times on the leaderboard is more than enough to keep me happy.
Sega Rally is one of the best games for the Saturn as well as one of the cheapest; if you own the console, this game is essential.
Resident Evil
Believe it or not, Resident Evil’s Saturn port is my favourite way to play the game; aside from some technical improvements, there is actually a bit of extra content in here too.
What can I say about Resident Evil that hasn’t already been said? What an absolute classic.
I’m sure you know what this game is about by now but if you’re unfamiliar with the original Resident Evil then the premise is that you play as Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, two members of S.T.A.R.S Alpha Team: a kind of Japanified expert force above the local SWAT and are sent to investigate the disappearance of the missing Bravo Team in the fictional Arklay Mountains on the outskirts of the -also fictional- Raccoon City. It turns out that a recent string of grizzly murders in rural Arklay and the disappearance of Bravo Team are the result of a deadly virus that turns people into zombies, the epicentre of which is a mysterious mansion in the woods. Alpha’s mission is to rescue Bravo Team and uncover the truth.
Resident Evil was a pioneer: it birthed the survival-horror genre from the primordial soup of Alone In The Dark and Sweet Home, Resident Evil masterfully side-stepped the limitations of the hardware with its pre-rendered backgrounds and its puzzle box formula became the blueprint for every survival-horror title since. Today this game is mostly used as the butt of jokes by people who have never even played it but if you can get past the GCSE Drama-level voice acting and not be a baby and learn to use tank controls, what you’ll find within is a game that is just as liminal, isolating and unsettling as it was 3 decades ago.
The Saturn version includes a golden Tyrant fight for Chris, the franchise’s first ever Battle Mode and numerous minor graphical improvements, all that combined with the much superior Saturn controller make this the better version in my opinion. This D-pad doesn’t look and feel like pressing in kernels of sweetcorn like Sony’s do.
Exhumed
Exhumed, also known by its much lamer North American name: Power Slave, is a fascinating game because it came out on the PlayStation, PC and Saturn but all 3 versions are completely different; this one is generally considered the best, outside of Night Dive’s remaster of course.
The Sega Saturn isn’t really known for its FPS games, in fact, the Saturn version of Doom is notoriously dreadful and the Nintendo 64 steals the show for this generation in the FPS department but that isn’t to say there aren’t good ones here. Exhumed, along with the fantastic Saturn version of Duke Nukem 3D, is one of the premier FPS experiences on this console.
The plot of this game is batshit insane. Essentially, alien invaders are trying to resurrect King Ramses in order to harness his power and conquer Earth. You are a lone spec ops commando who has crashed in the ruins of the ancient city of Karnak and must defeat the invaders and recover the body of Ramses guided by the spirit of the Pharaoh himself…. you’d think this game is ripping off The Mummy but it actually predates that film by 3 years. A coincidence? Or Ra’s intervention? I’ll let you be the judge.
There’s a lot more going on with Exhumed than your average shooter because this game is a Metroidvania.
There are no episodes, linear levels or missions to select, you roam around Karnak which is complete with its own hub world, traversal abilities and backtracking sections defeating bosses, acquiring upgrades and if you want the good ending, you’ll look for the radio transmitter pieces too.
Exhumed is a bit awkward to control, the platforming is annoying and the shooting feels a bit limp but I admire it for its unique ancient Egyptian theme, metroidvania structure and the fact that it’s one of like, 3 decent FPS games on this console.
Wipeout
Wipeout is one of those games that means a little something extra to us in the UK.
This title was made in Liverpool by Psygnosis and was a launch title for the PlayStation before making its way to the Saturn later on. This game was playable in night clubs to promote Sony’s console and it along with its sequel: Wipeout 2097 helped expose the rest of the world to the 1990’s UK’s vibrant underground and electronic music scenes. This pair probably did a lot for Jungle and early Drum ‘N’ Bass.
The premise of Wipeout isn’t particularly deep or revolutionary but it is tantalising and poses the question every man watching another boring year at the Monaco GP has asked himself: what if Formula 1 but missiles? Better yet, the cars in Wipeout fly and along with the usual cornering you can tilt the nose up and down to get better lift and to enable a smoother landing after long jumps. Wipeout is F-Zero’s darker, more British-er cousin.
To be entirely honest, the Saturn version of Wipeout is inferior in almost every way to the one on PlayStation: the difficulty in creating transparency effects means the energy shields look like your car is caught in a fishing net, the framerate is inconsistent, the draw distance isn’t great and the pop-in is quite bad… but it’s still Wipeout. The awesome tracks, banging, dark electronica soundtrack and the grungy atmosphere are all here, even if you’ll be regretting buying the more expensive, inferior Saturn version. I’ll still hold getting to play using this controller as an advantage over the PlayStation port… but I can’t think of any others besides that.
Wipeout doesn’t hold a candle to Sega Rally Championship in my opinion but I prefer this game when I want a more relaxed, less demanding driving experience.
Virtua Fighter 2
Virtua Fighter 2 is to the 3D fighting genre what Super Street Fighter 2 is to 2D fighting games: this is the granddad, the blueprint, the game Tekken, Soul Calibur and all the others aspired to be. It spurred strong early sales for the Saturn and turned heads with its stunning, vibrant 3D graphics.
Virtua Fighter 2 has no narrative to speak of: this is a simple, highly-polished and perfectly executed port of the arcade original.
VF2 on Saturn runs at a silky smooth 60FPS at all times and features all the characters, stages and modes you expect it in a fighter of this era; to ensure the framerates stay butter, the backgrounds are in 2D rather than 3D but… who cares? The game looks stunning anyway.
Tekken and Soul Calibur have always been my fighting games of choice so I can’t say I have much attachment to this one and I don’t play it much because playing against the CPU in fighting games is a bit of a miserable experience but every now and then the urge arises and I jump back into that classic VF2 goodness. This is an exceptionally well-playing game even today and has aged much better than Tekken 1, which was admittedly created to be a sort of Konami, off-brand Virtua Fighter until Tekken 3 surpassed it. This is a Sega game so of course, that soundtrack worms its way into your head and you can’t stop listening to it on YouTube for a week after you play.
One day I really need to get myself -or find a PDF of- the VF2 manual and see if I can learn a character and take them through the Arcade mode, I’ve never reached Dural before, the CPU get tough as nails a few fights in.
My Collection Philosophy + Future Pick-Ups
Here’s the part where I start to get all pretentious and verbose.
I’ve owned the Saturn for the better part of 3 years but I only have 9 games, why is that? Some of this is the price of Saturn games: this is a notoriously expensive library but that’s overstated in my opinion: the core exclusives are very affordable and of course, it took me a few years to appreciate the Saturn but that isn’t the full reason either. The truth is, I have no desire to own every game for each system (with 2 exceptions, which I’ll get to someday) neither do I care about owning copies of NBA Jam, FIFA games from 1998, crappy 3D platformers and so on. Trying as best I can not to sound like a total wanker, I’d rather be a video game sommelier than a collector.
Anyone can buy piles of crappy games off Ebay but it takes a lot of research and commitment to build a truly interesting and unique collection of titles; that’s what I’d rather have: a selection of titles made up of stone-cold classics, weird but fascinating ports and hidden gems you might not have heard of but will be glad you discovered. Games everybody has heard of, games nobody has heard of and games you didn’t know could be played here, that’s the library I try to build with each console. I hear people in other mediums refer to something as “Me in a song.” Or “Me on a plate.” Well, I think your games shelf should be a spectrum of experiences that reflect your taste in games: you on a shelf.
With all of that out of the way, here are some games that interest me on the Saturn that I plan to pick up in future, if you’ve played any of these or have some suggestions then let me know!
Dark Savior
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Virtua Cop 2… With The Gun
![Virtua Cop 2 [Gun Bundle] Prices PAL Sega Saturn | Compare Loose, CIB & New Prices](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Q_5p!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd4a04078-1ccf-45c7-a32e-ac0508693936_700x589.jpeg "Virtua Cop 2 [Gun Bundle] Prices PAL Sega Saturn | Compare Loose, CIB & New Prices")
Guardian Heroes
Deep Fear
Dragon Force
A Distant Third
The Sega Saturn was utterly crushed by its rivals in the console war of the mid-late 1990’s; this console didn’t even sell one third of the Nintendo 64’s numbers which itself only sold about 33% of what the PlayStation did. To say the Saturn was a distant third is underselling it, this thing wasn’t even in the race. Despite all that, the Saturn isn’t mocked alongside consoles like the Atari Jaguar or the Virtual Boy, in fact, the Saturn has a fiercely loyal and enthusiastic following but why is that?
Let me take you back to something Reggie Fils-Aime said in 2017.
The crucible of the early 3D era was not fair to the Saturn but time has been kind to Sega’s awkward black box.
Where the PS1 and the N64 are desperate to impress you with their new-fangled cutscenes and 3D graphics, usually at the expense of the framerate, the Saturn is unconcerned with such trivialities and delivers smooth, instant, challenging arcade gameplay. The games are fun, the games are a battle: a battle not against bad performance and horrible controls but against high scores and quick times. Better yet, the deeper you go with the Saturn the more you realise that it had the library to compete with the other two but its hands were tied by a bitter feud between Sega’s American and Japanese branches. For every great Saturn game that came West, 5 more of a similar quality never left Japan. If you happen to have native-level fluency in Japanese or are open to importing games and fan-translations then you will go on quite the journey with this platform.
Enjoying the Saturn is an exercise in constant friction: its arcadey games aren’t for everyone, most of the ports of familiar PlayStation games were shoddy jobs and the prices sting but for those who crave the purity of old gaming and a library where even its greatest games are obscure then this is a platform you can fall in love with. The fact that I can open up someone’s top 10 Saturn games and only know what 4-5 of the entries are delights me.
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I agree with your sentiment for sure. It seems to shock people when I talk about and actually capture footage from playing the games I own.
As for the Saturn, I have a newfound love for mine as well. Guardian Heroes is excellent and I also highly recommend Fighters Megamix. It's an absolute fever dream of a game with an insanely hilarious and fun roster.
Before I even saw your proposals, I was going to say that Virtua Cop 1-2 were, in practice, among my most beloved Saturn games back in the day (owned by a close friend), alongside Panzer Dragoon 1-2, Virtua Fighter 1-2, and of course, Guardian Heroes. Though as you say: Virtua Fighter was fun because I had friends to play against. The same could be said of Guardian Heroes. It supported 4-player action, and my friend later got a 4-player hookup. We had just as much fun with the competitive fighting mode (4 player free-for-alls! A predecessor to Smash Bros!) as the main cooperative story mode.
Others had great experiences with Time Crisis on PS1, but I didn't play that until 1999-2000 or so. For me, Virtua Cop was the first home light gun game I played and felt I could legitimately say was really, really good. Of course, my friend only had one gun so the other had to play with a gamepad, but we still had a blast.
I would say the Virtua Cop games have aged pretty well. I play them now on Batocera with my Sinden light gun, and for that I still use the Saturn versions. I'll play them 2-player with my son, and he enjoys them as well. The only thing I notice is that a 6-shooter feels a little too limited for this kind of game, to my tastes. IIRC Time Crisis 1 also gave you a 6-shooter, but starting at Time Crisis 2 you got 9 rounds, and to me that 50% increase makes a world of difference for QoL. Then at some point most light gun games dispensed with limited magazines entirely.
Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga are games that others swear by, and they both SEEM like something I would really enjoy: a unique mix of various things that I already enjoy. Yet I've only played them in emulation and neither of them grabbed my interest initially. Still, they're both games I mean to return to when I have more time.