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| Sega Saturn Section |
| The Saturn was Sega's first 32-Bit standalone console, unlike the dismall 32-X. It is reportedely more powerful than a Playstation and this is not surprising considering there a 8 seperate processors powering the Saturn. Released in 1995 across Europe, Sega enjoyed a small period of good sales and profit from the Saturn and games. However, it was the lack of support by third party developers and the push from the Playstation, that eventually brought the Saturn to an unfair demise. The N64 finished of what the Playstation started to the Saturn, and sadly, the Saturn barely outlived the Mega Drive! Games for the Saturn include:- Sonic Jam, Sonic R, the Panzer Dragoon Series, the excellent NiGHTS (Into Dreams) and Baku Baku. Sega's 32-Bit machine had a whole host of quality games released throughout it's short lived life. It is also home to what many people believe to be the best Bomberman Game - Saturn Bomberman, which includes a 10-Player widescreen mode, which was only available to the Saturn. If only more people had backed the Saturn, then we may still be seeing games on shelves. If your'e interested in trying to get a Saturn then don't pay more than �25 for a boxed unit, however I picked up a Saturn and two pads, with three games for �12 on eBay - so they are easy to get at a cheap price. Car boot sales are a good place to look for Saturns. The Saturn had the potential to be a Gaming Masterpiece, but Sega's reputation had already been tarnished by the flop of the 32-X and Mega CD, and this put people off. Specifications: CPU(s): x2 Hitachi 28.6Mhz / 50Mips SH-2 32-Bit RISC Processors x1 Hitachi SH1 32-Bit RISC Processor x2 32-Bit VDP's (Video Display Processor) A sixth processor dubbed "Saturn Control Unit" x2 Sound Processors. RAM: 2Mb System Ram 1.54Mb Video RAM 540Kb Audio RAM 540Kb CD-Rom Data Cache 540Kb IPL ROM Video Specs: 200,000 Textured Polygons per Second 500,000 Flat Shaded Polygons per Second 16.7 Million colours displayable of 16.7 Million colour palette. Resolutions: 352x240, 640x240, 704x480 320Kb/sec Data Transfer Rate The Saturn pairs of against the Playstation very well excelling in most instances. It also has a higher textured polygon count than the N64 - however the N64 has bilinear filtering and anti-aliasing, things which the Saturn dreams of. Plenty of good games were released on the Saturn - so I recommend a Saturn to any newbie Retro collector. Personal Top 10 Games: 1: Saturn Bomberman 2: Sonic Jam 3: Nights (Into Dreams) 4: Panzer Dragoon 5: Bust-A-Move 2 6: Bust-A-Move 3 7: Virtua Cop 8: Soinc R 9: Athlete Kings 10: Virtua Racing See Also - Dreamcast Via our sister site: The World Of Gaming (Music Playing: Sonic Jam - Sonic World (The 3D Bit)) |