Sega Saturn debuted in 1994. This was a 32 bit system that followed the release of the Amiga 32 CD and is truely a great gaming system, especially for the 2d version. It quickly became a RPG players dream since this system is just loaded with quality RPG type games.
The Sega Saturn has dual processors. This made programming for this system complex and did limit it in a sense. It did come to an advantage in other situations. When Virtua Fighter came out, this system utilize one processor for each character, which definitely improved the games performance. It was marketed fairly well and was a very popular console and did really well in general. It had a large amount of gamers in all of the continents. Asia, America, and Europe all fell in love with this system.
This system was CD based and has a nice Mod chip which is easy to install and bypass the region limitations. It also has a huge assortment of games, all which are easily availble on the internet if you know how and where to look. So basically with a modded system you have access again to a plethora of titles. This seems to be a theme with older consoles. This system was compatible with music cd's but you had to buy an adapter to allow it to play photo cds on this system. You could also buy some hardware that allowed you to play MPEG 1. Most games are region restricted so it is imperitive to either mod chip your unit or use the special adapter that removed the region restriction.
LIMITED EDITIONS
| Console Name |  |
Country | LE (units) | Description |
| Saturn Black |  |
All | No | First color |
| Saturn Gray |  |
JP | No | N/A |
| Saturn White |  |
JP | No | Technically very light gray |
| Saturn JVC/Victor V-Saturn RG-JX1 |  |
JP | No | Gray top, black base, V-Saturn logo |
| Saturn JVC/Victor V-Saturn RG-JX2 |  |
JP | No | Gray top, dark gray base, V-Saturn logo, 1.01 BIOS |
| Saturn Hitachi Hi-Saturn |  |
JP | No | Black with pinkish buttons, Hi-Saturn logo |
| Saturn Hitachi Hi-Saturn Navi |  |
JP | No | Dark gray - thinner than other Saturns and is flat instead of curved on top in order to accommodate a folding LCD monitor that clips to the rear. It includes GPS capability, and has a standard port on the rear for use with an included antenna. |
| Saturn SunSeibu |  |
JP | No | 7 CD changer version for hotels, black, large box shape |
| Saturn Samsung |  |
KO | No | Black, Samsung logo, no reset button or LEDs |
| Saturn Skeleton |  |
KO | No | Translucent gray - "this is cool" printed on console & controller |
| Saturn Sonic |  |
JP | Yes | White with Sonic silhouette |
| Saturn Sonic Skeleton | ?? | JP | Yes | Translucent - Image needed |
| Saturn Derby |  |
JP | Yes | Translucent blue, bundled with Derby Stallion |
The Sega Saturn is a underated gaming system. It is sort of complicated by the fact that a lot of the programmers just found it very confusing to develop games for this system. It was technically challenging to program games. It won a lot of acclaim and was noted to be very successful during its shelf life. There are many different versions as noted above.
What most people do not understand is theat the Sega Saturn made it to the United States in 1995 (Spring). It was a rush job to try to beat Sony which was releasing the Playstation game console out. The wrinkles were not ironed out and it looked kind of choppy compared to the Playstation console. It was harder to program as well and this seem to disuade programmers from porting a lot of cool games over to this console. Internet was finally able to be had with this unit and I know of a few people who started out on the net and had their email from this console.
Sega Saturn Net Link (Front)
Sega Saturn Net Link (Back)
