SEGA Saturn

SEGA of America 1997 internal documents posted online, showing e-mails and revealing profit margins

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Have you ever wanted to know what SEGA of America talked about privately about SEGA as a brand going into 1997? You know, the time period when SEGA was going against the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 in America? When they lost most of the market share they gained with the SEGA Genesis? You can now thanks to a 272-page leaked internal document posted over at SEGA Retro.

In this document you can see SEGA of America discussing stuff like manufacturing costs, how badly the Saturn was selling, retail profit margins, and a lot more. For example, retailers only made a measly 6% per SEGA Saturn sold, that means they made $15 dollars per console. Why would they push it? Another surprising piece of information is that in 1996 it only cost SEGA $232 to manufacture a Saturn console which is a lot lower than we all thought.

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New Phøde ODE, supporting Dreamcast, Saturn, Sega CD, and more, launches pre-orders

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Phøde ODE

If you’re looking for a device to play your digitized disc backups of your favorite Sega console classic games, then look no further than the Phøde, a brand new Optical Drive Emulator created by engineer Fixel. This single device supports almost every CD-Rom based game console from the 90’s, not just including the Sega CD (Models 1 and 2, Genesis CDX, and JVC X’Eye), Saturn (Both the 20 and 21-pin models), and the GD-Rom based Dreamcast (Models VA0, VA1, and VA2), but also various models of the Sony PlayStation and even the Philips CD-I, with more to be announced later. Fixel has just launched pre-orders for the Phøde in batches from their website. Batch 1 is still available, as of this writing, at $249.99 USD.

Check in after the break for extra info.

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SEGA Talk #119: Shining Force III (1997)

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SEGA Talk takes a journey into the last Shining Force game by the original developers, Shining Force III! Not just the first game, but also scenario 1, 2 and 3. We also discuss the fan translations, development and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, have your memories read on the show, select the games we talk about!

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Red Moon Lost Days is an indie RPG/visual novel for the SEGA Saturn

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In the days of old, the long long ago times of 2009, professionally pressed indie games for SEGA consoles were both a rarity and a luxury. There were, at most, two or three games a year for consoles like Master System, Genesis and even the Dreamcast. Nowadays it seems that a new indie game is releasing every few weeks with all the bells and whistles of an official release, including color manuals, pressed CDs and cartridge labels. But, through all that time, rarely (if ever) was the SEGA Saturn given attention. That is why the game Red Moon Lost Days caught my attention.

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Sakura Wars 2 Receives Fan Translation for SEGA Saturn; Demo Available for Download

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Translated by the same team behind the original Sakura Wars game for the SEGA Saturn, the sequel, Sakura Wars 2: Thous Shalt Not Die, will be receiving a fan translation for the SEGA Saturn. The project was worked on last summer for a year in a half. Not only that the game will be translated, the team has released the special edition demo of the game for everyone to try out.

Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die, is the sequel to the original game developed by Red Company and SEGA for the Sega Saturn and was released in Japan in April 1998 and ported to other systems, including the Dreamcast in September 2000. The game takes place one year after the first game following Ichiro Ogami and the all-female Flower Division of the Imperial Combat Revue as they fight against new supernatural entities in Tokyo as well as hostile political forces led by Keigo Kyogoku.

Not only Sakura Wars 2 is getting a fan translation, the third game in the series is also receiving one as well. It’s only a matter of time that all four main Sakura Wars games will be available to play.

Here is the link to the demo and screenshots to check out to below.

 

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Lost Sega FMV game “The Sacred Pools” discovered; now available to download and try

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An unreleased Segasoft game named “The Sacred Pools” has finally been found and dumped online for all to try. According to The Gaming Alexandria, who made and released this discovery, The Sacred Pools was developed as an “Erotic Thriller” sci-fi FMV (Full-Motion Video) game for Sega Saturn, PC, and PlayStation (I did not stutter, thank you). It was actually shown at E3 in 1996, where it was slammed by press, causing Segasoft to quietly shelve the game despite all the work that was already done on it. Now, in late 2022, the game was released online with help from former Sega of America employees Joe Cain (Game tester) and David Grey (Associate producer on The Sacred Pools). The latter had held onto several CD-Roms, each containing alpha builds of the game for Saturn, PlayStation, and PC, which were all thankfully preserved online with no trouble and now playable on some emulators and on real hardware.

See more of the brief history on this game after the break.

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SEGA Talk #104: Sonic R (1997)

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Can you feel the sunshine? Strap yourself in to your… uh… I mean grab the controller as you race as Sonic and his friends (and foes) in the SEGA Saturn and PC classic Sonic R! We talk about the history, the game, the tracks and of course the awesome soundtrack.

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA Talk Podcast #97: Policenauts (1994)

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We put on our space suits and ready our weapons as we dive into the Hideo Kojima cult classic Policenauts! We look at the influences that shaped the game, look at why the SEGA Saturn is the definitive version and… why do the lead characters look like the stars of Lethal Weapon?

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA Saturn classic Bulk Slash gets impressive English fan localization patch

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[Trailer edited by Bofner]

The SEGA fan translation community has been on fire recently with fan translations and they seem to be getting bigger. For example the recently fan localized Sakura Wars GB: Go Forth, Young Cadet! even restored cut content that didn’t make it in the Japanese release. 

Now some of the people that brought you that are back to release their most ambitious localization to date: Bulk Slash, a title praised for its presentation, soundtrack, gameplay, replayability, and its graphics. The localization team not only translated all the text, but also had voice actors come in and dub the game. For a fan localization project, this is pretty major.

Download Bulk Slash English Translation Patch Here

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Mario, found hiding inside SEGA Saturn game, is detained without fight

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The console wars have ended. After years of searching, Mario has been found and detained.

Via Twitter user Yoshino comes the bizarre discovery of an image of Mario hidden within the files of the SEGA Saturn game Astal. Yoshino writes: “It is discovered that an image that seems to be Mario was hidden in 0xFE90 of APT.BIN on the disk.” This isn’t the first time weird images have been hidden within old SEGA games, in fact the Sonic Twitter account recently referenced a hidden image from Sonic CD, referred to as “Spooky Sonic”, in a piece of Halloween art.

Check out the full image after the break!

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Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute on Nintendo Switch features fully working SEGA Saturn emulator

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City Connection just recently released Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute that compiled Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang and Guardian Force on a single cartridge. The game was, well, not well received due to the emulation being used having input lag, making the games hard to play.

The story would have ended there but, GBATemp user Iisreal2301 figured out a way to load his own SEGA Saturn images onto the game file, basically allowing you to boot up any SEGA Saturn game by tricking the system into thinking its loading a Cotton game!

Sadly the emulation is far from perfect, but it seems to be a working project by users from GBATemp. I guarantee you that Nintendo will crack down on this game’s fun, but for now here is a list of games tested by GBATemp user Levine 19:

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SEGA Talk Podcast #75: Panzer Dragoon Saga (1998)

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This time on SEGA Talk, we dive deep into the development history, characters and explore the world if the SEGA Saturn classic Panzer Dragoon Saga. Or as its known today, one of the most expensive games on the SEGA Saturn!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA Talk Podcast #63: D (1995) Kenji Eno Retrospective

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We are dedicating February to Kenji Eno, the game creator and founder of Warp. Eno passed away 8 years ago and left a brief but impactful legacy on the game industry. On this SEGA Talk, Barry and George discuss 1995’s D. Learn how Eno got his start developing games, what led to the founding of Warp, and the crazy stories behind how his FMV adventure game came to be.

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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Wingman SD Review: Use Modern Controllers & Arcade Sticks on SEGA Dreamcast & Saturn

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There has been quite a surge in retro gaming devices that offering ways to modernize your SEGA consoles, one of these new interesting devices we have seen online is the Wingman SD Converter for the SEGA Dreamcast and Saturn, which I found out about online because it allows you to use modern USB fight sticks on both retro consoles. Let’s take a deep dive into what the Wingman SD Converter offers and if it fulfills all the promises it makes. According to the site the device offers the ability to use modern game pads and fightsticks along with rumble support and a full memory card for the Dreamcast. Let’s get into the review.

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Sega Saturn Japanese exclusive SRPG “Valhollian” getting fan made English translation

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The fan translation team known as Meduza Team (recently they translated Linkle Liver Story and provided widescreen hacks for Shining Force III, Powerslave and Dead or Alive) have announced they are working on a English translation for Valhollian or better known as “Zanma Chouougi Valhollian” . This Sega Saturn exclusive SRPG came out in 1998 and was developed by Datt Japan which only worked on two previous Sega Saturn games, Virtual Casino (1996) and Monster Slider (1997).

Quite frankly surprised this title never got a proper translation and release in the West since the game did sport some really cool looking polygon graphics and seems to have a pretty interesting cast of characters. Check out the video above on the work they’ve done on the game so far. Pretty interesting project and worth keeping an eye on if you are looking for more Sega Saturn goodness.

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