I've finally gone to Saturn. (Bought a Saturn!)

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:11 am

Both a PS2 and a Saturn that can play Japanese games seems like a must imo

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:14 am

I used to have Taromaru too...I think I sold it on Ebay a while back for not that much money, and I'm not sure why...I think it's because I didn't think the game was that great in the first place.

Nei First · Post by **Nei First** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:38 am

I'd give anything to play Cotton 2/Boomerang again, that is the best ever looking 2D shmup on saturn. Well, it is if you like gorgeous colourful parralax scrolling visuals, I certainly do.

Post by **system11** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:44 am

dave4shmups wrote:You rock Bloodflowers; thanks!

DANG that game looks like a beautiful and very fun borderliner!!

Crap, now I'm back to my "J-PSTwo, J-PSone, or Saturn" debate.

It's much like Alyssia Dragoon on the Genesis, but better graphics and audio with a much darker atmosphere. You can mind control some of the basic enemies and they'll fight alongside you, like the AD helper monsters. AD played better though, IMHO.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:55 am

Nei First wrote:I'd give anything to play Cotton 2/Boomerang again, that is the best ever looking 2D shmup on saturn. Well, it is if you like gorgeous colourful parralax scrolling visuals, I certainly do.

I really didn't like Cotton 2. Nice graphics, but terrible gameplay. Trying to do fighting game style special moves while playing a shmup is not fun.
Yeah you can assign these to the xyz buttons but then you can't use autofire! Bleh. There's better games out there.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:04 am

twe wrote:
Nei First wrote:I'd give anything to play Cotton 2/Boomerang again, that is the best ever looking 2D shmup on saturn. Well, it is if you like gorgeous colourful parralax scrolling visuals, I certainly do.
I really didn't like Cotton 2. Nice graphics, but terrible gameplay. Trying to do fighting game style special moves while playing a shmup is not fun.
Yeah you can assign these to the xyz buttons but then you can't use autofire! Bleh. There's better games out there.

Cotton Original and Cotton 100% are my personal favorites, and both are available in import form on the PS1 or PS2.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:32 am

I don't like Cotton 2 either. For pretty much all the reasons twe mentioned. I was very disappointed. I will give Boomerang a chance whenever I have the opportunity to try it, but I'm not expecting much.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:24 am

dave4shmups wrote: I don't think Ebay is bad at all for import shmups, although I'd certainly try the Trading Station on this site first.

Ebay is definitely not bad at all unless you're the type of buyer who intends to wait a week or two or even less to find goof deals.

bloodflowers wrote:AD played better though, IMHO.

Yeah, esp. since rapid tapping in Taromaru gets pretty annoying.

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:41 pm

Here are a few more SS games that I'd recommend for hours of enjoyment:

Astal
Sega Ages series: all of them! (Especially OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner II, Power Drift, Fantasy Zone and Galaxy Force II)
Gale Racer (it's a decent conversion of the coin-op Rad Mobile and can be found very cheap)
House of the Dead series
Steamgear Mash (a cute isometric platformer)

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:36 pm

post deleted

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:53 pm

bloodflowers wrote: It's much like Alyssia Dragoon on the Genesis, but better graphics and audio with a much darker atmosphere. You can mind control some of the basic enemies and they'll fight alongside you, like the AD helper monsters. AD played better though, IMHO.

i have it and i think i played it about twice, it was average and definitely not worth the price it goes for on ebay.
from what i remember the graphics were pre-rendered, not much better than shinobi legions sometimes. it looked worse than in screenshots maybe because the render was more obvious.
your link doesn't work to me, but i'll give it another chance anyway.

i recommend langrisser 4, i don't have the PSX version but supposedly it's not as good and the gameplay is changed for the worse. there are many faqs and translations out, you have no excuse not to try it (i doubt there will ever be a better SRPG, and it's cheap and common).

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:39 pm

The graphics in Taromaru aren't prerendered at all. The characters are normal sprites and the backgrounds have 3D elements sorta like Strider 2 at times. I think the game looks fantastic. The music, however, is not to my liking since it's mostly really Japanese sounding stuff with way too much percussion.

As for Langrisser IV, yeah, the PS version looks crappier and uses the battle system from Langrisser V. I'd agree that it's still really the best RPG out there.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:47 pm

Taromaru will be mine when i can afford the asking price. looks beyond sweet.

AntiPasta · Post by **AntiPasta** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:11 pm

ccovell wrote:Here are a few more SS games that I'd recommend for hours of enjoyment:

Astal
Sega Ages series: all of them! (Especially OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner II, Power Drift, Fantasy Zone and Galaxy Force II)
Gale Racer (it's a decent conversion of the coin-op Rad Mobile and can be found very cheap)
House of the Dead series
Steamgear Mash (a cute isometric platformer)

Seriously, you liked Gale Racer? I thought it looked pretty damn cheap (it uses weird sprite scaling instead of 3D environments) and the gameplay is not very variable throughout the game.

Post by **system11** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:30 pm

AntiPasta wrote: Seriously, you liked Gale Racer? I thought it looked pretty damn cheap (it uses weird sprite scaling instead of 3D environments) and the gameplay is not very variable throughout the game.

You've not been doing this 'gaming' thing for very long, have you?

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:33 pm

Looks like my Saturn plans have been delayed.

Simply put, I was driving to the bank to cash a check when all of a sudden, I hear a small snap and all the idiot lights on my Volvo's dash come up and the engine struggles to acclerate. I limp it to the bank and pop the hood to discover that the alternator belt is missing. So I tow it to the repair place (towing was free, I have AAA) and wind up forking over $40 for a new belt and labor. The same $40 that could have been used for buying the Saturn. Money is a little tight right now anyway.

Maybe I'll just import one of the cheaper shmups for now. Gotta have something for the Saturn to play otherwise it'll just look silly sitting there with no game.

I hate my car......

AntiPasta · Post by **AntiPasta** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:01 pm

bloodflowers wrote:
AntiPasta wrote: Seriously, you liked Gale Racer? I thought it looked pretty damn cheap (it uses weird sprite scaling instead of 3D environments) and the gameplay is not very variable throughout the game.
You've not been doing this 'gaming' thing for very long, have you?

Oh come on, lets at least be polite. It may be worded a bit wrong, but what my point was that Gale Racer didn't come across to me as remotely exciting, though it was fun to look at for a few minutes. By no means I am a "newbie", "graphics whore" or whatever label you would like to apply based on my dislike for games that look like a 2-day hackjob.

DC906270 · Post by **DC906270** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:44 pm

saturn is probably my all time favorite shmup console.... either that or the MD. Go for it!!!

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:26 pm

I just got a Saturn today, and it's great. The only dumb thing is when I got the Saturn is the battery is dead. It's not a problem really.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:32 pm

Well, I went and finally took the plunge, I bought myself a Saturn game. Actually, it's Strikers 1945 to be exact. I know it's a little weird buying a game first before buying the console, but I looked at it this way: The games are more rarer than the system. Besides, it'll take a while for the game or system to make the swin anyway, so it'll be a little silly to have a system with no games to play it on. Total cost: $22.00 plus $12 for shipping (yeah, I know he gouged a bit on shipping, but I guess that's how they make money).

Next paycheck I'll be buying the system. How hard is it to replace the battery on a Saturn and what type do I need?

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon May 02, 2005 10:44 pm

I don't remember what kind of battery you need, but it's specified in the manual. I can check my Saturn manual for you, but I guess someone will answer this before I find the manual

Anyway, it's a very common type of battery (I think it's commonly used in watches), and it's a piece of cake to change it. Do not worry about it.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:08 am

CR2032 of course, the common watch battery.

DON'T get them at Radio Shack; it should cost you less than $3 at Wal-Mart.

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:23 am

AntiPasta wrote:
bloodflowers wrote:
AntiPasta wrote: Seriously, you liked Gale Racer? I thought it looked pretty damn cheap (it uses weird sprite scaling instead of 3D environments) and the gameplay is not very variable throughout the game.
You've not been doing this 'gaming' thing for very long, have you?
Oh come on, lets at least be polite. It may be worded a bit wrong, but what my point was that Gale Racer didn't come across to me as remotely exciting, though it was fun to look at for a few minutes. By no means I am a "newbie", "graphics whore" or whatever label you would like to apply based on my dislike for games that look like a 2-day hackjob.

Yes, it isn't the best game... that's why I said it was a decent port of the arcade original, and not a great port. But anyway, even in this day and age, the 2-D Sega "super-scaler" games have a bigger "wow" factor for me than 3-D games. (Though I still remember being stunned by games like Stun Runner and Ridge Racer.) When I played Rad Mobile in the arcades, I was totally engrossed for the 5 minutes or so that I lasted.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Wed May 04, 2005 10:28 am

Saturn:
Very cool system with many shmups.
But I found the equevelant PS-1 shmup ports to be of superior quality.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat May 07, 2005 12:33 am

Well, I finally done! I got myself a Saturn!

Although my credit card had to take a hit for the team, I finally can start my path to true hardcore shmupping!! And as a nice bonus, Daytona USA is bundled with it!

jp · Post by jp » Sat May 07, 2005 12:51 am

FatCobra wrote:Well, I went and finally took the plunge, I bought myself a Saturn game. Actually, it's Strikers 1945 to be exact. I know it's a little weird buying a game first before buying the console, but I looked at it this way: The games are more rarer than the system. Besides, it'll take a while for the game or system to make the swin anyway, so it'll be a little silly to have a system with no games to play it on. Total cost: $22.00 plus $12 for shipping (yeah, I know he gouged a bit on shipping, but I guess that's how they make money).

Next paycheck I'll be buying the system. How hard is it to replace the battery on a Saturn and what type do I need?

Its incredibly easy (open the little door on the back and switch them out) and you will need a CR2032.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:17 am

Shatterhand wrote:I don't remember what kind of battery you need, but it's specified in the manual. I can check my Saturn manual for you, but I guess someone will answer this before I find the manual

Anyway, it's a very common type of battery (I think it's commonly used in watches), and it's a piece of cake to change it. Do not worry about it.

Yep, just changed mine again last week and it went off without a hitch. I just made sure to have the system powered on, swapped the CR2032 out and my scores and everything are fine. Make sure to change the battery as soon as your Saturn starts asking you to adjust the time and date when booting up. That's a warning sign the battery is about to die.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:18 am

So you changed the battery while it was on? Isn't it a little dangerous? I you shock yourself or damage that expensive import system.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:21 am

FatCobra wrote:So you changed the battery while it was on? Isn't it a little dangerous? I you shock yourself or damage that expensive import system.

No, you're supposed to have the system on when you change it, otherwise your scores, TATE settings, ect. won't be saved when you swap it out. That's what I read in the hardware forum once upon a time anyways.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:38 am

Dylan1CC wrote:
FatCobra wrote:So you changed the battery while it was on? Isn't it a little dangerous? I you shock yourself or damage that expensive import system.
No, you're supposed to have the system on when you change it, otherwise your scores, TATE settings, ect. won't be saved when you swap it out. That's what I read in the hardware forum once upon a time anyways.

Ah, ok. I guess I'll need to pick up one of those batteries at Wal-Mart when I am at work tommorrow (I work at Publix, but WalMart is right next door), so my system will have a fresh battery.

On a less serious note, don't you all get warm and fuzzy when you pick up your import from the post office? There's something mystical about picking up a game whose manual is in a language you can't understand.