Worth it to buy a Saturn?

[runback22]

My biggest gaming regret is never owning a Saturn. I'm building my game room and want to get serious into collecting. How durable are these?
Dont really want to spend $60 and have it break down in a month. Also, what games would you recommend?

[Genesis Knight]

Geez man, not to be a downer but this thread is all over the place, here and on other forums. Racketboy has some amazing articles to get you started. Search around these forums and Racketboy's and you'll find dozens of recent threads just like this one. Good luck! Saturn is possibly my favorite system; it's always worth it to get into the scene! Just make sure you have some money; it's always been more expensive than Genesis and it's just getting worse as time goes on.

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sega/saturn

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I dropped my Saturn down the stairs when I was younger. It's still sitting in my TV stand playing games just fine. So I'd say they are pretty durable.

I'd recommend the following as a good start up library that shouldn't cost you too much:

1) Virtua Fighter 2
2) Sega Rally Championship
3) Virtua Cop & Virtua Cop 2
4) Galactic Attack
5) Street Fighter Alpha 2
6) Sonic R
7) Panzer Dragoon
8) Sonic 3D Blast
9) Daytona USA/Daytona USA CCE
10) Virtual On

None of those should cost you more than $20. Most can be had for under $10. If you want these are a bit more pricey but great gems to have:

NiGHTS into Dreams
Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei
Fighters Megamix
Street Fighter Collection
Burning Rangers
Shining Force III
Guardian Heroes
Saturn Bomberman
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Sega Ages Volume 1
Albert Odyssey
DragonForce
Magic Knight Rayearth
Megaman 8
Megaman X4

And if you want to import:
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Lunar 2 Eternal Blue
Grandia
Sakura Wars
Street Fighter Alpha 3
King of Fighters 95
King of Fighters 96
King of Fighters 97
Metal Slug
Gradius Deluxe Pack
Salamander Deluxe Pack
Parodius Deluxe Pack
Chatting Parodius
Sexy Parodius
Thunder Force V
Thunder Force Gold Pack 1
Thunder Force Gold Pack 2
Bulk Slash

[WarmSignal]

In short, yes. They are solid machines, but the software is scarce as hell. You'll end up going on eBay and paying between $20 and $60 each for the better games, which aren't as many, but are still there if you really look into the library.

[sheath]

My 1995 Saturn came from the factory with spray glue holding it together, I only noticed after dust got stuck to the glue on the seems. I've never had a problem with it. Durability is the Saturn's strength unless you mod it for CDRs, then expect it to go the way of the Playstations eventually.

As for whether it is worth collecting for, I have to give an emphatic YES! I thought of posting a video of Meg Ryan screaming it, but dang that is still too uncomfortable for my tastes. If you haven't played the Saturn's great exclusives you haven't really gamed in the 90s.

[QuickSciFi]

Yeah, this question has been asked before. Oh well, here's another chance to embed my vid, I suppose:

[EclecticGroove]

Hardware wise it's pretty durable. It's not going to double as a step ladder or a hammer, but it's going to be pretty rugged. But it's also a disk based system, the laser will eventually start to go, and even if not, the drive will eventually start to have issues. They can be replaced, but like anything, it's just a matter of when.

As to the matter of "worth it". If you're a collector and like to have the original versions of things, and don't want many of the various remakes for some of the great games that were once exclusive to it... then yes, it's worth it. Some of the best games are pricey as hell, and some of the better games were also import only. But there are a lot of great games on it that can be had fairly cheap provided you aren't looking for CIB or NIB.

If you just want the games and would be happy to play them elsewhere, there's only a handful that have remained on the Saturn that are both sought after and not ported/remade elsewhere. So being worth your while or not would depend on how many of those games you really want to play.

All that aside, I love my Saturn quite a bit, and still pick up a few games for it now and again as I think about them or find out about them. I've had it since launch and never regretted the purchase.

[opwuaioc]

Top quality hardware, and if you mod it, you can play as many games as you want while you wait to find a good deal on games. I've yet to be disappointed with my Saturn.

[VGTM]

I always thought the PS1 was an attention whore back in the day (not that I'm hating on it). The Saturn was more powerful than the PS1 when it came to sprites (and polygons IMO). I used to have a Saturn that my uncle gave to me with Daytona USA, both Virtua Cops, Virtua Fighter Remix, and some sort of demo disk. I always loved it as a kid,I loved it more than my Xbox 360, which always breaks down for no reason. I don't know what happened to it when I moved, and now all I have is the AV cable. It's like some part of me was missing... *looks to the sky* .... Point being, a Saturn would be worth buying, just be sure to get a RAM cart with it.

[doomguy]

Definitely worth buying i never owned one as a kid but now i play it more than my PS1, for me i home version of the original House of The Dead alone made the console worth a purchase but as it turns out there are many great games for the system in lots of genres.

[Baloo]

Saturn is the greatest system of all-time hands-down in my eyes. NES is a very close second.

Hell yeah it's worth a purchase! World Series Baseball '98, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Sonic R, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Astal, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III...

[Murphy245]

saturn is one of my favourite systems,i highly recommend you look into the japanese exclusives though because when you start digging the saturn has a library of gold.

Like eclecticgroove says all laser based systems will eventually die but i think the saturn has a good few years left in it before you start having problems finding a working one.

[Hidden_Darkness]

the saturn is definately worth buying and is a sturdy piece of hardware, my model 2 saturn that I bought new back in 1998 still works great. also, don't hesitate to look into importing games for the saturn since there are a ton of good jp exclusive games that were never released in the us. it's very easy to play imports since all you need is a action replay 4 in 1 cart.

[16-bit]

Download an emulator, play some games. And then decide. That's what I always do.

[Da_Shocker]

Can a mod please sticky a Saturn buyers thread. I swear these posts pop up like once a month. It get's annoying as hell seeing this shit pop up all the time.