Playing Jap Games On A UK Saturn

[Yeton]

Don't ask me why, but last night I found myself dreaming of Alien Soldier and Radiant Silvergun. Seeing as I have a bit of money on me now, I've spent the day thinking about buying myself a copy of Radiant Silvergun. Now, I'm just wondering, is it possible to play RSG on a UK Saturn using one of those converter cartridges advertised on Liksang, or would I be better off forking out for a Jap (possibly flash) Saturn?

Oh, one last query: all Gameboy Advance games are universal, aren't they? I'm also tempted to pick up a Nintendo DS, and first on my shopping list is Puyo Pop! ;D

[Kazuya_UK]

flan_man would probably be the best placed to answer this as he owns a Saturn and Japanese games, although I'm not sure if his Saturn is a Japanese one or a modded Euro one (or similar).

I used to own a Saturn and had it modded, although it was pretty crummy for NTSC games because it played them all in 50hz (I didn't have a 60hz switch). Other than that I don't have much experience with Saturn stuff, I only bought mine to play a few games I was dying for (funnily enough those included Radiant Silvergun , and then I sold the console on to a friend.

As for the GBA thing, there's no reginal restrictions on any games, so every game should work on any region console

Kaz

[flan_man]

Radiant Silvergun runs just fine on a pal Saturn with the Action Replay Plus 4M cartridge. If you're going for a cartridge that enables you to play import games on your Saturn, I'd pick this one as it also holds the 4MB of extra ram memory that you will need to play games like X-Men vs Street Fighter. And it has flash memory for your savegames.

There still are a couple of import games that are more or less unplayable with the converter cartridges. Marvel Superheroes vs Street Fighter has garbled backgrounds. And if you're a shoot 'm up lover, Soukyugurentai (second best shooter on the Saturn after RS) also gives a couple of background problems with the cartridge. Something about the ntsc signal in the games still interfering.

That's why I bought a Japanese Saturn too. They come very cheap if you look around for them on auction sites, and a stepdown converter can be picked up cheap too. RS doesn't need extra memory, but if you want to play games that need it, know that the Action Replay Plus 4M cartridge works on any kind of Saturn.

[Yeton]

Thanks, guys. Not sure yet if I', gonna get the action replay or a Jap Saturn yet, but I have one more little question: control pads for the Saturn weren't region specific, were they?

[flan_man]

yeton said:

control pads for the Saturn weren't region specific, were they?

No, I can use my Jap pads on my pal Saturn, and vice versa.

[Yeton]

Cool stuff, I've been Ebaying for the past few days like a loon and gotten myself a modded Saturn and just won Dodonpachi! Sadly I missed out on a copy of RSG, cos my slow dialup connection refused to refresh in time for me to place my bid in time (which would have WON!!! I missed out on a copy of Silhouette Mirage a few days ago for the same reason ). Sigh, well anyway any other interesting Jap games anybody would like to recommend? Not sure about Soukyugurentai, and skipped past Batsugun, Dogyuun and Sexy Parodius, and I'm refusing to buy the full Shining Force 3 series (too lazy to decipher through all the dialogue using those translations floating around the net)?

[flan_man]

Congrats on Dodonpachi. Although I was slightly disappointed with the Saturn conversion (unless you're willing to use the tate mode and place your tv vertically, which I am now unable of doing with my new tv), it's still an awesome blaster.

Other recommended imports. Hmm, apart from the Capcom and SNK fighters on the system (out of which I'd get Pocket Fighter first as it's great fun and and also endearing to watch Ryu and the gang in chibi mode ;D ), there also is the Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 and Thunder Force 5. Don't forget Battle Garegga either, as that one really shows you what a sprite monster the Saturn really is with all of the bullets and shrapnel flying around. I'd still get Souki first though.

If you're into shooters, just take a look at the shmups Saturn xenocide files.

Platforming action: apart from Silhouette Mirage, Keio Flying Squadron 2 might also interest you.

Recommended puzzle action comes with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Baku Baku.

[Yeton]

LOL. I've been meaning to spring clean my existing Saturn collection for over a year now, and one of the titls I keep umming and aahing whether to sell is Super Puzzle Fighter. I think time will tell in the next few weeks as I get reaquianted with the machine.

Dodonpachi doesn't need to use Tate, does it? You can still play it with a shrunk down vertical display, black borders and all? If not I am a little disappionted, but on the other hand I've also been pondering buying a 2nd hand TV to get the most out of Ikaruga for some time as well, so not an entire loss! ;D

[flan_man]

yeton said:

Dodonpachi doesn't need to use Tate, does it? You can still play it with a shrunk down vertical display, black borders and all? If not I am a little disappionted, but on the other hand I've also been pondering buying a 2nd hand TV to get the most out of Ikaruga for some time as well, so not an entire loss! ;D

Yes, you can play Dodonpachi with said shrunk down vertical display, black borders and all, and that's the mode I'm a bit disappointed with. I think it should have been implemented better. The graphics seem to have been simply scaled down without much afterthought, and you only have one vertical setting, as opposed to Ikaruga's wealth of choice for example. I have been spoiled too much. ;D

[Klarkus]

I want a saturn aswell only for one game though

Alpha 3

I have been trying to find the original A3 but its so rare :/

[Yeton]

Out of curiousity, how much does Alpha 3 fetch on Ebay?

[flan_man]

I was rather lucky for being able to lay my hands on a brand new (still shrinkwrapped) copy of Zero 3 for the lump sum of £ 25, which would be something like 40-45 USD. It was a special action on the Videogame Imports.com site. Sadly they don't carry it around in their inventory anymore, but I can't see it getting much more expensive on eBay than that, unless prices for this game drastically went up the past couple of years.

On second thought, having just checked the prices of this game on eBay, forget what I just said about the 45 USD mark. It seems like the Japanese sellers found a new pricetag to boost.

[Klarkus]

Ive had trouble finding A3 on ebay...

[gray117]

Its not called aplha 3 on saturn ... it only came out in japan i think and hence (like all alpha series in Jap) was zero 3 ...

Theres 2 available from hong kong on ebay right now ... Imho best port version was the dc one but the saturn one is good ... and so are those saturn pads ($40 - $80 it seems on zero3)

There is/was a saturn chip u might be able to pick up thats quite easy to fix in mk2 saturns (in the uk these were the ones with round buttons) ... great if you actually shell out for garrega and rs and dont want to scratch your disks and/or don't want to tire out your import jap saturn; this guy does them in the uk. I've used his v2 ones before. (but you will still want the action replay for region hack memcard and 4m memory).

www.robwebb.clara.co.uk/shop/saturn/saturn.htm

As for my 2 cents ... saturn is ALL about the jap games

And although i feel sometimes people do over exagerate the shumping virtues of the saturn there is no denying that it is certainly very very good ... Soukyugurentai (aka terra diver - btw this game was made to be played on a horizontal scene so its a great port) and Leynos 2 are two that I feel are sometimes over looked ... have yet to get my hands on Batsugun and the cotton(-esque) games .... anyone got a verdict on those?

Anyway saturn is pretty great inmho. Not sure if some games are worth the full asking prices that some people want ... but you all know the deal - if it makes you happy its all good (hell this a neo geo forum after all )

[danny]

Oh if you are looking for that Action Replay 4m cart you can purchase one for a reasonable price here! I can also vouch for this cart since I use it to play imports and I've not run into any problems, hell I've been using it to get my SNK fighter fix for many a year now.

p.s: Buy Groove on Fight!