Sega Saturn seems headed to the worthless pile

Saturn games are WAYYYYYYY to expensive for my taste, I love the system but I couldn't afford the games.

 

As with all systems, the good games remain valuable and the generic and average stuff slowly loses its remaining attraction (if it ever had any).

You examples on hardware are poorly chosen though. Twin Sticks had always been shovelware and $50 is high price if you ask me, always had been. They are sold in Japanese retail stores for 5-10 bucks each, boxed.

Arcade sticks still go for good money ($50+). You are probably looking at the crappy ones that came out in the US and Europe, of course nobody wants those pieces of shit because they are horrible. Nobody ever wanted them in the first place, hence the higher prices on Japanese Virtua Sticks and HORI Fighting Sticks.

Games are very expensive if you're ignoring the trash. Especially US games tended to have increase quite a bit in value in recent years, just look at how much they pay for the Working Designs games nowadays. Even standard games like PD1+2 go for $20-30 now.

 

Agreed. Maybe there is a lull atm I haven't been keeping track recently, but when I priced saturns and saturn games for months last spring, it was hard to buy one in good condition for under $30, let alone $40. Maybe there are much fewer VOOT fans than there were - nevertheless, many desirable games like Battle Garegga or DnD have seen there inflated triple digit prices inflate even more in recent history. Want to have a sizeable saturn shmups collection? You could spend in excess of $500 on a handful of games very very quickly. I was hoping buying Saturn stuff would be like the Dreamcast - cheap consoles and controllers and cheap to find games in good condition: While there are many things that could be considered cheap (namely, Japanese versions of widely released saturn games), neither the hardware or bulk of the software is as cheap as the DC, or the playstation 2, or the psx or n64 for that matter.

I would think that a major factor that could (or did) suddenly drop saturn prices or made them seem lower, would be the plethora of Japanese saturn consoles and games offered by Japanese sellers for low costs on ebay. While it looks awesome to buy a white Japanese saturn for $40 - the international shipping for the consoles makes this a painful transaction for the buyer - pushing importing a $40 console towards an $80 or $90 transaction when things are said and done. I would eagerly buy a white saturn for $40 if $40 or $50 where the total cost for the transaction.

 

I still love my Saturn, and i think low prices are a good thing. Saturn prices at least on ebay(where most people will be looking) seem relatively stable if not increasing. and a lot of the good games are stupid expensive.

 

that is about only true for some of the "few" 2D games on the system ("few" in relation to the much bigger 3D library it had). most of the 3D stuff can be had for almost next to nothing.

 

agreed. the twin sticks have always been cheap. Now a good virtual stick is still going to be cheap in Japan but they always have been. Same with the quality Hori stick. Selling them in the west though should fetch a good price even now.

The Saturn community is still strong and prices for the stuff everyone wants are still high. Sure, buying great games that are more common such as layer section and so on is cheap but most of the shooters and harder to find games such as Street Fighter Zero 3, Silhouette Mirage, Arcade Gears series, Rockman games and the likes of still command high to really high prices or at least in Japan.

 

x

 

if you don't like your Saturn, send it to me, I'll give her a good home...

 

Where are the prices? In Japan?

On Ebay here in the US, prices are still a bit expensive and stuff even seems to be going up. (especially for Japanese stuff. A lot of sellers want more for shipping than what they ask for the system. Or nearly as much it feels like)

IF I could get good condition sticks, twin sticks, and a system or two (Complete in good condition?) for those prices i'd be creaming my pants right now.

 

Because the 3D stuff for the Saturn (and even worse, PS1) aged terribly. A lot of the 2D games for the system aged great because that's about as good as sprite 2D games get, while the Saturn couldn't handle more than a few dozen polygons per object, which, naturally, makes things look TERRRRRRIBLE, and therefore the games don't age well and nobody wants them.

Luckily the Saturn is a relatively easy system to import for.

 

They're mostly arcade-style games and those age much better than most.

Yeah, if you're a graphics whore they might look bad, but games like Sega Rally, Die Hard Arcade, Panzer Dragoon I & II, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighters Megamix and Nights are still great and have aged much more gracefully than at least 99% or the PS1 library.

 

Are not most Saturn 3D titles lack transparencies and texture filtering and therefore look horrible?

 

I don't know what you're talking about. Saturn games and consoles are more expensive now than ever (since they were new). You used to be able to find lots of Japanese Saturn games for $5-10. Now you can't buy anything for less than $20, and that's at the low end of things. Consoles are much more expensive, too. There are quite a few Saturn games that I'd like to own, but the high prices are making me reluctant to buy them.

As far as Saturn games not aging well, I say bullshit. The Saturn has some amazing games that still play really well. True, its 3D capabilities couldn't compare with the likes of N64, but it could still be pushed to do some pretty impressive things. Yes, it did lack texture filtering, but it was capable of transparencies with some programming tricks. Anyway, 2D is where the Saturn really shines. The Saturn has lots of ports of 2D arcade games, and for the most part they're arcade perfect. The Saturn is one of the best consoles for arcade-style games, IMO.

 

I wish that was the case so I won't be outbid at the last second anymore on a few games I have my eyes on.

I started just recently collecting for Saturn and the more popular japanese games can be had for dirty cheap.
The rarer ones however are much pricier but that's true for every system.

Thinking that VF2 for Saturn was released in 1995 and it is 708x480 at 60fps always blows my mind.

 

No. It doesn't.

 

Sega Saturn became worthless? Not on my book isn't. I still played it today. I really do enjoy it.

 

Priceless, worthless, same thing mainly, right?

 

Yeah look at Magic Knight Rayearth, just a few years ago the price was only about $40 new. it had been a relatively consistent $50-60 before the WD fire sale. now it is biting on the heels of Panzer Dragoon Saga if the sticker sheet is present. Unlike PDS, Rayearth isn't even a good game, it plays like some of the later Ys games but has controls that are like running on ice, the voice acting is also the worst in video game history. It's high price is probably due to Rayearth still being a popular anime, the WD aspect, and the fact that it was the last game on the system. Second worst RPG on the system and yet it is the 3rd most expensive North American release.

 

good for the players, sucks for resellers. Anyway, it's a good thing overall