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I've been kind of interested in some of the other Sega systems, I only have the Genesis and Dreamcast, but there is alot more. I'll look into the CD and 32X at the appropreate forum, but i'd like to know your opinons on:
The Saturn
The Master System (One before Genesis)
Is it worth hunting either down?
Saturn- there seems to be a love hate relationship with this system. I personally love it but finding good domestic games can be frustrating leaving me with a hopeless feeling at times. Many of the best titles are highly sought after and expensive. There are some that slipped through the cracks though ( Darius Gaiden, Galactic Attack). It is really more about the import scene seeing as it was successful in Japan. One plus is that they tend to be cheap. The Japanese style controller is awesome. One of my favorite features though I have only used it a few times is being able to play 10 player Bomber Man. For this reason alone to own the system.
Master System. There are many good games but like the Saturn it didn't exactly fair well in North America once again making good games hard to find. It amazing how many cool titles there are for this system that never saw the light of day over here. You can play them on a Genesis 1 with a power base converter and on the Game Gear with the converter. I never have been to found of the controller but I found that the Genny controllers work fine. I hate the pause bottom on the system.
I wouldn't pay to much either. I love them both but be wary of 2nd hand shops selling them for exorbitant prices. Both show up at Thrift Stores enough that no one should shell out alot for either one.
Mr Smith's rough guide to consoles:
Saturn = tosh
Master System = decent little machine
Mega Drive = better than both
Saturn - Great system for imports, domestic stuff is really hit and miss.
Master System - I've yet to find a game on this that I really truly love.
The saturn is a great machine, it does however become frustrating when most of the really excellent titles for it are pricey (burning rangers, panzer dragoon saga, deep fear, radient silvergun etc.)
Many awesome games can be had for peanuts though (Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona CCE, Last Bronx, Virtua Cop 2, Panzer Dragoon 2 etc.)
It's all good fun, EUR/US hardware seems reasionably priced and allot of stores sell saturn stuff for next to nothing.
A word of warning however, if you have any aspirations of building up a serious Saturn collection, it can be one of the most frustrating and mentally exhausting experiences you will ever go through and damn hard on your bank account *sigh*
I agree - you quickly realize that the Saturn is both expensive and frustrating to collect for. You can build up a library of about fifty US domestic games for a decent price, but after that it's just hair-tearing and guilt-trips all the way to the bankruptcy forms. This will of course earn me a ton of flak because there's a bunch of Saturn die-hards here. I understand that there's tons of great imports for Saturn, but again - they're expensive. Everything about the Saturn is expensive. Still, what I would recommend is that if you get a Saturn, just play it slow and get the fifty-ish sanely priced domestic games. (Sega Rally, Virtual On, Last Bronx, Virtua Fighter 2, Nights, Panzer Dragoon 2, Quake, etcetera.) David J knows a ton about this stuff. I agree with Mick in that I don't think you can have a 'serious' Saturn collection without laying down a ton of money.
Master System I've never played (real hardware, at least), so I have no valid opinion. I just got a Master System emu for DC with all the ROMs. Same thing - perfect speed and all that crap.
But yeah, DC and Genesis are the best Sega systems.
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Price is one of the main reasons I never got into serious collecting for the Saturn.
I guess owning a Saturn from back in the day and having bought most of the worthwhile games back in the day seems to have paid off. I think it's an entirely underrated system. There are a lot of mediocre games for it, but that can be said about ANY system.
The 32X and Sega CD are interesting pieces in their own right, if not for all out gaming experiences at least for gaming history reasons. I have quite a few Sega CD games that I still find fun and fascinating. 32X has very few good games, very few games overall, but the good news is that the hardware is cheap and most of the games, even the good ones, can be had cheap too. If you have a first generation Genesis, make sure to get all the proper 32X cables if you buy a 32X. There is a "conversion cable" which is required to adapt the Genesis video out to the 32X video connections and this cable is not readily available in the aftermarket. If you have a generation 2 Genesis, make sure to get the 32X system adapter which helps the 32X fit into the Genesis console more securely. Also, make sure to get a 32X which includes the little metal grounding straps which go into the cart slot of the Genesis or the 32X may not work properly.
I never owned a Master System but I recently bought a Power Base Converter for my version 1 Genesis and have collected about a dozen pretty decent SMS games. The PBC also works with all the SMS peripherals like the 3D glasses and the light gun so it can make for a whole new area of interesting games and peripherals (I enjoy peripherals). I have one SMS game that uses both the 3D glasses and the light gun and it is a lot of fun. Some of the older, simpler games are just easier to pick up and play. With very little learning curve on most of them you can dive right in stronger than in many modern games.
I have so many damn consoles I dont mind waiting for good deals to come by. I don't exspect any sought after games on any console to come easy. The good games I have for it took a long time for me to get because I'm a cheapskate. Im persistant though. I comb ebay all the time for empty boxes. They are out there
:) The Saturn is a great system. People are right about it being very expensive to collect for nowadays, but it's worth it. I had it since it came out and am very lucky that I'm not paying the ridiculous prices they ask for games like Radiant Silver Gun and Shining Force III. It makes no sense getting a 32X, since Knuckles Chaotix and Kolibri are the only best games to get (IMO). The Saturn has a rich library of titles for both U.S. and Import and plus the controller is the 2nd best (the Genesis 6 button controller is 1st).
The Sega-CD is also a good system to collect games for. There are a lot of FMV games made for the system that suck, but there are some that are quite enjoyable such as Cobra Command, Road Avenger and Night Trap. Besides FMV games, there were also some great RPG's, shooting, adventure and fighting games made for this cool system.
The Master System is also worth getting. Even though it's library was limited to mostly Sega doing all the games, they are actually quite fun to play and enjoy if you can get past the primitive sound and graphics. My favorites are R-Type and Shinobi.
That is a myth. The debate has been held many times before: no-one with a Genesis and 32X without the "electromagnetic" metal shields have never had any problems due to missing them. They were just included to pass FCC regulations or something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooter
My 32X will not boot a game in any of my Mega Drive I consoles (I have 18) without the metal grounding plates.
It does however work perfectly in all my Mega Drive II's without them.
I have at least one of every system Sega released in the US (SMS, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, DC, Game Gear, and Nomad). Of them, I only play the Genesis with any sort of frequency. Had the DC not been free, I wouldn't have it. The Saturn was pretty cool at first for being able to play the ports like Power Drift and Outrun but once the novelty wore off, it got put on the shelf and hasn't been played since.
As for the SMS, it was my first console so it has a special place in my heart, but there isn't really anything on it that I care about playing any more. The games I really liked, I played to death and am now tired of (Outrun, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, After Burner, and a few others) and I have a few others mostly as tech demos (Power Strike 2, Xenon 2). IMO, if you have another console that will emulate it well, don't bother with the actual hardware (or just use a Power Base Converter or equivalent).
Yes, all U.S systems have Rf shilding inside and I believe they had to include those. Same reason Sega had tell everyone it wouldnt work on the Cdx.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zebbe
Japanese stuff has no shieldings at all... and I've taken shields out of my stuff since they just get in the way.