Your favorite Sega Saturn imports?

[Frank_fjs]

The Victor is the dark grey one right? I prefer the white Japanese ones.

[Mathius]

The slot on the Saturn sucks so bad.  The only thing that works in my slot is my official memory cartridge, my Gameshark no longer works, so now I can't play any of my imports.

...which is okay, because all the best games came out in the US anyway. 

Yeah, you probably believe that about the PC Engine too, and for the same reason. You haven't played enough games.

Dedicated research play a big part in that too.

[Mathius]

The Victor is the dark grey one right? I prefer the white Japanese ones.

If memory serves me, yes.

[Joe Redifer]

...which is okay, because all the best games came out in the US anyway. 

I know!  Sega did a great job making sure that US gamers got all of the best and only the best games.  Anything that was left in Japan wasn't very good. In fact it could be successfully argued that the US Saturn is far better than the Japanese Saturn based on the libraries alone.  They also did gamers right by enlarging the boxes when they brought over games because the tiny boxes the Japanese games came in were pathetic.  Sega knew that if games were released in boxes that size, people would probably lose them before they even got home.  With the large US boxes, there is no way to ever lose them because you can see them no matter what direction you are facing from anywhere on the planet.

[Mathius]

...which is okay, because all the best games came out in the US anyway. 

I know!  Sega did a great job making sure that US gamers got all of the best and only the best games.  Anything that was left in Japan wasn't very good. In fact it could be successfully argued that the US Saturn is far better than the Japanese Saturn based on the libraries alone.  They also did gamers right by enlarging the boxes when they brought over games because the tiny boxes the Japanese games came in were pathetic.  Sega knew that if games were released in boxes that size, people would probably lose them before they even got home.  With the large US boxes, there is no way to ever lose them because you can see them no matter what direction you are facing from anywhere on the planet.

The US cases can also be used as child seat boosters.

In fact I strap a case on each shoe so I can look down on the world!

[DragonmasterDan]

I'm going to take the unpopular opinion and state that I actually like the US Saturn and Sega CD cases.

Why?

Well for a few reasons, for one you get larger manuals and packaging, a second reason is as stated before they don't get lost as often as other system cases. When I go game shopping I see lots of complete Saturn games,percentage wise the number of loose PS1 games is at least double or triple.

Third is, they kind of look cool.

Yes they break easily, and they waste space, and are difficulty to pack and ship. But they have some good qualities as well.

[DragonmasterDan]

The slot on the Saturn sucks so bad.  The only thing that works in my slot is my official memory cartridge, my Gameshark no longer works, so now I can't play any of my imports.

...which is okay, because all the best games came out in the US anyway. 

The Saturn cartridge slot is terrible. I own SIX Saturns, not one of them consistently reads carts. I long since gave up relying on carts to play imports and bought a Japanese Saturn (which of course doesn't read carts either).

[SignOfZeta]

Just imagine if of those huge cases were the standard in Japan. If you had a complete collection you'd need an entire room just for Saturn games.

My God I hate those cases. They shatter instantly, they hog, what, 3.5 or 4 x the space, something like that? Sure they have "bigger" manuals, but considering the horrible artwork and cheap-ass black and white manuals US games usually had, I'm not sure how this is any kind of advantage.

The only question is which system had a shittier US presence, the Saturn or the PC Engine? I'm actually not sure.

Both systems are known for shooters and fighters in Japan, but in the US at least 3/4 of the shooters and fighters never came out. This was also true of the RPGs. Both systems had ugly-ass black (because black is "mature") cases for the US. Both had enlarged controllers (although its almost impossible to tell the Turbo Duo pad is bigger, it is). There have to be other parallels...

And now, despite how great these systems are, they are basically viewed as huge failures in America, and are collected primarily by the sorts of people who also hoard loser systems like 3DO, CDi, and Jaguar.

Maybe I should do an evil alternative to my website, The White Line. It could be called The Black Line and cover all the bad things these three systems (PCE, SS, DC) share. Hmm...

[termis]

Man, I do hate those US saturn cases for all the known reasons.  But what I hate even more -- double CD cases for PCE/Saturn releases (especially for single CD game releases).  Those frickin things are way thicker than necessary for a thicker manual and another disc or so.  Publishers eventually got it right with DVD cases.  Big enough for thick manuals + maps, multiple discs, etc, and yet still slim enough, and robust all at the same time.

The white saturn looks decent enough, but personally, I think they totally got it wrong with all the gaudy colors for buttons.  pink, gray, green, yellow, etc... It just screams "cheap toy".

[SignOfZeta]

A double CD case still fits with all your other CDs. I have no problem with them.

[Mathius]

My Action Replay came today and surprisingly it worked the first time I used it. I must have lucked out and got a Saturn that didn't have its cartridge slot wore out, and by "wore out" I mean slightly used.

[DragonmasterDan]

My Action Replay came today and surprisingly it worked the first time I used it. I must have lucked out and got a Saturn that didn't have its cartridge slot wore out, and by "wore out" I mean slightly used.

Leave the action replay in the Saturn. Don't insert and reinsert it repeatedly. The trick with Saturn cartridge slots is finding a "sweet spot" where the system will read the cartridge consistently and leaving it in there. Also, the action replay may boot, but if some of the pins aren't perfect getting a RAM expansion game to work may be a problem.

Added in edit: Just on a side note, one of the reasons the cart slots wear out (besides cheap/bad design) is that third party carts (memory cards, 4 meg carts, action replay, gameshark etc) typically have wider PCBs that also lack the tapered edge that the official carts have. This often leads to the carts pushing the pins on the cart slot out of position. Once you get the cart reading, leave it in.

[SignOfZeta]

Leave the action replay in the Saturn. Don't insert and reinsert it repeatedly. The trick with Saturn cartridge slots is finding a "sweet spot" where the system will read the cartridge consistently and leaving it in there.

I agree with this. If you don't have any other carts, just leave it in there. From my experience, the people who say they don't have a problem with the SS cart slot are people who only have one cart.

Added in edit: Just on a side note, one of the reasons the cart slots wear out (besides cheap/bad design) is that third party carts (memory cards, 4 meg carts, action replay, gameshark etc) typically have wider PCBs that also lack the tapered edge that the official carts have. This often leads to the carts pushing the pins on the cart slot out of position.

I don't agree with this. My current main Saturn, a white one with a switch, has never seen a 3rd party cart in its life and the cart slot is still craparoo.

[Ninja Spirit]

My white Saturn kicked me out of my game back to the CD player once when I was trying to find the sweet spot with my memory cart....

[DragonmasterDan]

I don't agree with this. My current main Saturn, a white one with a switch, has never seen a 3rd party cart in its life and the cart slot is still craparoo.

I wasn't saying it was the SOLE reason, just a reason. Just using a first party memory card and a netlink and yanking one out and putting in another may have screwed up the cart slot on my first Saturn. It's just that third party carts do a better job of ruining it.