Sega Saturn seems headed to the worthless pile

Decent systems still fetch a reasonable price here in the UK. I keep wanting to pick one up again but I'm gonna wait until I can afford a white JP model.

 

Saturn has some problems going for it, but I can only say this from a US perspective. I'll not mention Ebay or the other nice folks I've met online that are in the community, since we already know how that works out.

1. No one has a Saturn. I've never met anyone who has one or even had one in the past. Same goes for Sega CD. Of course I had a Saturn, I was that "weird kid with the Saturn" said everyone with their N64s and Playstations.
2. The cases get all destroyed. Same for Sega CD. You can't replace them except for finding ones from other Saturn or Sega CD games.
3. You can never find systems in the wild.
4. You can never find games in the wild that aren't sports, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA or horrible US games that no one ONLINE even likes. Its difficult but for years I never realised what games were available for Saturn until I got registered on some forums. Only VF, racing games and well... basically all the games you do find out there. Even places that do have a lot of games end up having a lot of crap games.
5. Most of the games didn't age well if at all, or were just ports.

I had more in the tank on this post but I got distracted by something and my brain became empty. D:

 

I know at least 3 stores "in the wild" here in Houston, Tx that sell Saturn games and systems. Poor pickings where you live, chum.

 

Yeah, there are at least a few stores where I live that have them too.

 

Down here in NC, I've seen a couple used Saturn consoles in thrift/retro-gaming stores go for $79-99.

 

You can find games & systems at retro game stores and flea markets in my area.

 

1: My neighbor had one long before I did
2: They are more fragile but just be careful and you'll be fine
3: Found one with a save cart at a swap meet for $10 5th system in 2 years
4: Find'em at least once a month.
5: Most games don't age well on any system

 

rayearth is actually a very good game if played in Japanese. The US version is awful. Those voices just ruin the game completely.

 

Yup! Same here in SoCal. Various places to purchase both US and JPN Saturn software.

I seriously don't even know under what grounds this topic is coming from. SATURN out here in my area is still as expensive as ever without even a slight indication of decline. As a matter of fact just last month I went to purchase a complete copy of Galactic Attack for my collection for $19. A take it to the counter and the guy behind the register tells me its $30. I tell him the game is labeled with a $19 price tag and of course they honored it. Weeks later I end up at another gamestore outside my city and they have a copy of galatic attack for $30 as well.

And just this past weekend, I go to one of my local gamestores to pick up a copy of Astal, only to find out that its price got bumped up $8 more that what it was selling for just a few days prior

 

There are 100's of stores where I live that sell a vast range of Saturn goodies I don't think where I live counts though.

 

To be honest I think this has to do with Sega hardware in general not being as collectible as Nintendo. It doesn't mean the quality is not there (I prefer genesis/megadrive to snes personally) its just that Nintendo has a higher value in terms of collectibility in general. There are exceptions (the Nomad is pricey and the CD X) but I think in game collecting you gotta factor in the hipsters who drive up the prices on Nintendo anything including accessories.

It will be interesting in a few years to see if the same kind of collecting fever that the NES/Snes and N64 is seeing right now will hit the playstation 1 and Saturn systems. It could go that way...

 

Really tough to collect for because of the shoddy cases, and their ridiculous size. That being said, I don't know where these low prices are? Most everything Saturn is moderately expensive. Also, very few people had one back in the day, and almost everything 3rd party was on PS1 as well. Plus you can burn CD's with games on them, needing only a mod chip or Action Replay I think.

I have been thinking about getting a Saturn, but my issue is, as I said, is the scarceness of affordable games, the damn cases, etc. Sure there is a great Japanese-based library, with normal cases, but you're stuck shopping online for those, and having to ship overseas.

 

I'm not seeing any price drops in my neck of the woods.

Hate you...

 

I still see loose saturns for 1 to 3 bucks a piece ^^

 

go buy me some and a PCE

 

Well in North America they aren't cheap, if they work. Then there's also what like 4 motherboard revisions, so if you want to mod them you need to match them to a specific mod chip I think. I just did an ebay search, and there are Saturn system lots listed for $300 with a few games. The same kind of auction for a Playstation, Dreamcast, SNES, whatever, would be well under $100. If you ask me, the extreme prices being charged, combined with what seems like a lot of poor conditioned items, makes collecting for the Saturn not much fun.

 

Eh, I feel quite the opposite to the contrary. But i'm weird. So /shrug

 

Only one store I know of in my local area. He wants $100 for loose console, 1 control pad, av cable and power cord.

 

One point I really didn't like about the US version apart from the awful voice acting was the street cred style they added to the text. Working Design always seem to do this. Even their US PlayStation Silhouette Mirage was like that too.

 

My main problem with RayEarth is that the actual gameplay portions feel too far and few between, and what little is there is very rote and by the books. Granted, I think the game begins as an absolute snore (like 30 damn minutes of exposition and dialog, and when you finally do take control of the girls, every few steps brings up a dialog box). Some might compare it to Zelda or Secret of Mana, but I think those are just superficial similarities at best (i.e. they're all overhead hack-n-slash action RPGS with swords and magic). None of the areas have the clever level design of, say, LTTP, nor the awesome visual and audio design of Secret of Mana.

When I play MKR, I get the feeling that I'm playing a cheap anime tie-in. I actually had more fun with Shining Wisdom, and I think that game is terrible!