Saturn

SEGA Talk #151: SEGA Controllers (1983-1998)

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On this SEGA TALK we go hands on with SEGA’s many controllers! We take a look at the base controller for each major console, pointing out the weirdest and most essential controllers and share our personal preference. Stick around until the end, because we will crown best SEGA controller of all time! On SEGA TALK!

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Review: Parking Garage Rally Circuit (Walaber)

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If you yearn to revisit the glorious need for speed that Sega provided you with stellar 90’s arcade racers like Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship, or Manx TT Superbike, you’re not the only one. A few developers have begun taking a crack at recapturing that spirit with some brand new games. Today, we’re putting a spotlight on one of the newest games of that bunch: Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Developed by Walaber, whom we’ve had the pleasure of speaking to about this game before, PGRC aims to be the Sega Saturn racing hit that never was. A frantic time trial racer that aims to emulate the look of 90’s 3D console racers to an extreme degree, a lot of passion for that unforgettable time in gaming history is as clear as the blue, blue skies the game graces you with, but does that passion equal a game that’s as worthy of your time as most any racer Sega had developed during that decade? Find a cozy parking spot to sit back, relax, and read through our review of Parking Garage Rally Circuit after the break.

(A Steam copy of the game was provided by Walaber for the purpose of this review. They have not influenced the review in any other way and have not read it before it went online.)

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SEGA Talk #148: The Best SEGA Saturn 3D Games (1994-1998)

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Prepare to be amazed as we unearth the hidden gems of the SEGA Saturn’s 3D library. From classic favorites to underrated masterpieces, we’re covering it all. Tune in to SEGA Talk for a wild ride through time.

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Secret Debug Menu discovered in Golden Axe: The Duel on Saturn

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Bo Bayles strikes again!

This Saturn fan will stop at nothing to uncover all the hidden secrets of old Saturn games, and now they’re back with a secret debug menu in Golden Axe: The Duel (1996). While not one of the more fondly remembered Saturn classics, but not one of the worst either, depending on who you ask, it had quite a lot hidden under its hood these past 28 years. By going deep into the game’s code, Bo found a normally inaccessible debug menu left behind that, after being unlocked, can change all sorts of things at any point during gameplay.

Normally, menus like these are only used during development to test certain parts of the game, hence why it’s called a “debug” menu. Occasionally, cheat codes are set up to allow players to access the menu and mess around with it at their leisure, but no such code was programmed into Golden Axe: The Duel. Thus, Bo Bayles has created a patch for the game to make the menu easily accessible. More info about the menu and the download link to the patch can be found right below the break.

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Special interview with Tim of Walaber Entertainment, creator of Parking Garage Rally Circuit

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You may remember us reporting on Parking Garage Rally Circuit, an upcoming indie racing game coming soon to Steam, which is styled after a Sega Saturn game and could actually become a Saturn game if it gets enough sales on Steam. After that article, I have reached out to Tim of Walaber Entertainment, the studio developing Parking Garage Rally Circuit, for an interview with the man behind the game. He has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the game for all our readers.

Join us after the break to hear about Tim’s history with Sega Saturn, his inspirations for Parking Garage Rally Circuit, and a bit more of what we can expect to see in this game when it launches on Steam sometime this year.

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Saturn inspired racer Parking Garage Rally Circuit coming soon to Steam; actual Saturn version teased

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This is for the Sega Saturn racing fans out there. Solo indie developer Walaber (Creator of the Jelly Car series and credited on Where’s My Water?) is paying tribute to the mighty Saturn with his brand new retro styled time trial racer Parking Garage Rally Circuit. This game is designed to look like an authentic Sega Saturn game from 1998 and is currently listed on Steam, where it is planned to release for Windows, Linux, and Steam Deck sometime within 2024.

More exciting than that is that Walaber wants to bring this game to Nintendo Switch and the very console he’s paying homage to, the Sega Saturn. He will bring the game to Switch if it can sell 50,000 downloads on Steam, and then make a special Saturn version of the game after achieving 100,000 downloads on Steam. If you wanna see this game in your collection for either console, then you can start by wishlisting the game on Steam right now and then buying it after it’s released. Let your money do the talking.

But if you need more convincing than that, we have extra info for you beyond the break. We bet you’ll be heading on down with this kind of ferocity.

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All-In-One Sega FPGA console “SuperSega” in development; shows world’s first Dreamcast FPGA footage

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There’s been talk lately of an all-in-one Sega FPGA console in the works called the SuperSega. Lots of people are excited by the reveal of this indie project, while others are skeptical about its chances of fulfilling its promises or even coming out at all. We’ve waited a bit for more concrete info about the SuperSega before reporting, so now we’re ready to talk about it at last.

The SuperSega is an FPGA console currently in development that can play games from every single console Sega has ever released (Except the Game Gear, for some reason, at least for now). We’re talking about SG-1000, Mark III, Master System, Genesis/Mega-Drive, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, and Dreamcast games. Currently, the only Sega FPGA console ever released commercially was Analogue’s now decommissioned Mega SG, which was designed to play Genesis games, as well as SG-1000, Mark III, Master System, and Game Gear games via separately available cartridge adaptors. The SuperSega, on the other hand, only needs an original 32X unit for 32X cartridges. It has built-in cartridge slots and a disc drive for everything else. 

It sounds impressive so far, but as of this writing, no hardware prototype has yet been produced. Work has been done on the software, and a hardware prototype is planned to be produced this September. The SuperSega team has put together test videos, including one of Dreamcast games running on their targeted hardware. At least this way, we know it’s unlikely to be fake. Stop in past the break to see these videos and to learn more.

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Free Sonic Jam Legacy Skin for Sonic X Shadow Generations being offered via email newsletter

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Sega’s back to raid your email with news once again for free cosmetic DLC. If you’re a fan of how Sonic was presented in the Sega Saturn days, you’ll wanna sign up for the Sonic X Shadow Generations email newsletter for this free Sonic Jam Legacy Skin for our favorite boy in blue. As the name suggests, this is directly based on how Sonic appeared in the 3D Sonic World hub from Sonic Jam (1997), only in much sharper detail than a Saturn could present. Sign up by November 1st and you’ll receive the above skin to use when playing as Sonic absolutely free. So check your email storage capacity, change your password if you haven’t for a long time, and come on in past the break for the link to sign up.

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Homebrew Games Summer Showcase 2024 showcases 120 new homebrew games, including many for Sega consoles

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Yesterday, on June 6th, 2024, NES Homebrew developer extraordinaire Matt Hughson aired the second ever Homebrew Games Summer Showcase video presentation. The 34 minute long presentation showcased a whooping 120 games across many retro game systems, most notably including many Genesis/Mega-Drive, Master System, and Game Gear games, as well as even one Saturn game and two Dreamcast games. You can also expect many games for NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and SNES, as well as two Turbografx-16 games and even a Virtual Boy game. This is one video you can’t miss if you’re really interested in seeing what talented developers are doing with long retired game hardware today.

You can watch the whole video above, but join me past the break for a quick list of all the games shown that are coming to Sega platforms, as well as links to follow their developers and/or download the games.

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Burning Rangers gets lost 2P Co-Op mode restored with downloadable patch

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Did you know that Burning Rangers (1998) was planned to have a two-player co-op mode during development? This was shown in early previews and was found in some prototype builds of the game, but no such mode exists in the final retail release. Turns out that the code for the co-op mode was left within the game’s data, so dedicated Sega Saturn reverse engineer Bo Bayles has restored that co-op mode with a special patch. You can download the patch and try it out with your own image file of Burning Rangers. (Which I trust you obtained legally from a copy you own, which you may or may not have paid hundreds of dollars for, but that’s not my place to judge.)

Now then, to the next phase and to the next stage. Come with me past the break for the patch download and more info.

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SEGA Talk #141: Virtua Cop (1994)

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On this episode of SEGA Talk we get lock and loaded into the criminal underworld of Virtua City and break the case of SEGA’s 1994 revolutionary light gun shooter Viruta Cop, we look at its history, ports and legacy it left behind. ALL THIS AND MORE ON … SEGA TALK!

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Homebrew Saturn port of X-Men arcade gets updated demo, adding 3-player co-op and playable Storm

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Remember the homebrew port of the 1992 X-Men arcade game for Sega Saturn being worked on by hotrodx? They just came out with an all-new version of their demo adding Storm to the playable roster, as well as 3-player co-op and a new 2nd stage.

Might as well cut to the chase. Check in past the break for info on the update as well as a download link.

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Japanese Saturn classic Kingdom Grand Prix discovered to have a hidden English translation setting, now unlocked with patch

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Image curtesy of Sega Shiro

The long lost discoveries in Sega Saturn classics just keep on coming. Usually fans have to translate Japan-exclusive games in English themselves with fan translations, but it seems the cult arcade shooter Kingdom Grandprix, or Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen (1996), already had one prepared and hidden away in the game all along. Thanks to Saturn homebrew enthusiast and fan translator Malenko, who also discovered hidden characters in the Saturn version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition just last year, as well as Bo Bayles, who it turns out is another familiar name behind some recent crazy Saturn discoveries, a previously undiscovered English language script was found deep within this game’s code. Just like with his NBA Jam discovery, Malenko just happened upon this while poking around in the game’s code. He intended on making his own fan translation of Kingdom Grandprix, and he still ended up doing so as the ready made English script was… rough, to say the least, but it was still enough to aid him as a base for his new script.

Race straight on through the break to learn more and to download the English patch to try for yourself.

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240p Test Suite now available for Sega Saturn

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This is for retro gamers who love to get very technical with their TVs and monitors. The well known 240p Test Suite, created as an open source software by Artemio Urbina, is available on all sorts of retro consoles, but until now, the Sega Saturn was not among them. A version of the Test Suite has now been ported to Saturn by SegaXtreme forum member hitomi2500 for this year’s Sega Saturn Homebrew Competition. However, the Saturn version is currently work-in-progress, so it may still have some issues that need to be worked out, but for now the port is available for you to mess around with on your Saturn.

Check in after the break to learn more about what 240p Test Suite is and to download it.

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New secret level select codes discovered in the Saturn game Bug! after 28 years

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Bet you didn’t know that the 1995 Sega Saturn game Bug! (1995) had level select codes in it. Well, actually people did know, but nobody knew there were actually two very different ones until now. On January 11th, 2024, 11 days ago, @memory_fallen revealed on Twitter (X) that they had discovered cheat codes in both the North American and Japanese versions of Bug! that had never been revealed before. There’s a bit of an interesting caveat to the new code in the North American version in particular as well. You can check in after the break to see what these new codes are.

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