[jazz music begins] [computer buzzes, beeps]
Greetings folks, and today’s LGR episode orbits all around the Saturn.
In particular the Victor V-Saturn model RG-JX1.
A Japan-exclusive variant of the Sega Saturn sold by Victor Company of Japan,
also known as JVC.
Which is a fascinating thing on its own, however!
In lieu of the usual optical drive, this one... doesn’t have one.
Instead it’s fitted with an optical drive emulator, or ODE.
With this installed there’s no need for original Saturn discs and I can load my collection
of games for the system straight off of a MicroSD card.
Yeah this is something I’ve wanted to mess around with ever since the community began
making them several years back.
Especially for the Saturn, a console where it was hard to break the copy protection for
a very long time.
And I’ve always found the system somewhat mystical.
Mysterious? Magic? Heh.
I dunno, I’m not quite finding the right words, but when I was a kid the system was
always appealing yet constantly out of reach.
I never knew anyone that owned one, friends and family
either got a PlayStation or Nintendo 64 that generation.
I barely even remember seeing any in-store demo units.
I think the local Kay-Bee Toys was the only place that had one.
What I more vividly remember are the big wire bins full of unsold Saturn games on clearance
they had near the front of the store in 1997, early ‘98.
And of course, occasionally being able to buy Sega Saturn PC ports
that I could play on Windows 95.
So really, the most exposure I got to actual Saturn games came from screenshots printed
in various magazines.
Or in stores that sold or rented video games, like the local Phar-Mor.
I specifically remember every single Saturn game they had was cracked, broken, and held
together with gobs of scotch tape, heh.
Those cases sucked.
Impact Racing was a real favorite to admire while my mom was doing her shopping, look
at that wild laser-firing Dodge Viper on the cover.
And hey, JVC was the publisher, whadduyaknow?
That brings us back around to the Victor V-Saturn, which I received thanks to an LGR viewer named
Jon who offered to trade it to me for a PC game that I had.
I rarely do trades, but this was a no-brainer since it wasn’t a game I was attached to,
and for years I’ve wanted both a V-Saturn and an ODE to mess around with.
As for why I wanted a V-Saturn, I mean, I dunno why not?
It’s neat!
It has a lighter gray color scheme than Sega’s Model 1,
actually in two shades of gray, top and bottom.
Coincidentally the name of a bestselling romance novel.
And the controllers were Victor-branded as well, matching the color scheme nicely.
Though all I have are these vanilla Japanese Saturn gamepads for now,
since I didn’t get any with the console.
And yeah, I’ve had a few Saturns over the years!
But they’ve all been later US releases, so the earlier Japanese versions are currently
more appealing to me.
And the V-Saturn doubly so for its slight weirdness.
It was released in Japan on November 22nd, 1994, which: yep!
That’s the same launch day as Sega’s own Saturn, it sold right alongside it at the
same ¥44,800 price tag too, as far as I can tell.
Yeah Sega in Japan was going through some stuff in the early to mid 90s, trying desperately
to nab a larger slice of the game console market and licensing their designs to various
companies as a result.
Such as Victor, who’d produced the Wondermega console in 1992, eventually released as the
JVC X’Eye here in the US.
It was a Sega MegaDrive/Genesis combined with a CD unit in one console, marketed to more
of a tech enthusiast multimedia-oriented consumer.
And they took a similar approach with the Victor V-Saturn, as implied by the “Multi
Amusement Player” text printed on the lid.
Early marketing in particular made a big deal about how great the system was for anyone
into CD-based entertainment: audio CDs, CD+G karaoke CDs, photo CDs, and Video CDs.
Provided, that is, that you purchased the optional VCD/MPEG-1 expansion.
Which oddly enough wasn’t included by Victor, just the usual empty expansion bay housing
nothing but the clock battery.
Yeah for all the multimedia-centered marketing, you’d think there’d be something setting
this apart in terms of hardware, but nope!
It’s a differently-badged Saturn with no Sega logos in sight, and that’s about it.
The hardware is identical: it plays all the same games, uses the same peripherals, supports
the same RAM cartridges.
Which, I can’t find mine right now, but this supports them, I swear.
Really the only thing that’s different in terms of operation is the BIOS, which boots
up to show a V-Saturn logo instead of the usual Saturn stuff.
And unlike the case this does say “Sega,” finally some credit where credit’s due.
Speaking of credit, allow me to shoutout Adam Koralik and his video on the V-Saturn, which
proved quite helpful in learning about this system.
Check it out for much more detail and context regarding Sega, Victor,
and V-Saturn variants, it’s fascinating stuff!
As for my particular console here, it’s a Model 1 V-Saturn, with the usual oval power
and reset buttons, same as the OG Saturn from Sega.
But I gather this is a slightly less common version, in that it’s a Model 1 with the
access LED but also a 21-pin optical drive connector.
Apparently most of these use a 20-pin connector, but not this one, which came with an EXL-P604
drive more typically found on Model 2 consoles.
So I assume this is a later Model 1 V-Saturn then,
considering the parts used and the relatively high serial number.
This seems like useless trivia – and it normally is, but!
In this case it’s necessary, since this whole laser assembly is going by the wayside
in favor of an optical drive emulator.
And those typically come in two versions: 20 and 21-pin, depending on your console.
A vital consideration when choosing an ODE,
and there are plenty to pick from for the Saturn alone.
Like the Phoebe, Rhea, Mode, Satiator, and Fenrir.
With that last one being chosen by Jon when he sent the system to me, apparently due to
ease of use when switching games on the SD card.
I don’t know, this is the only ODE I’ve ever used
so I’m just happy to have one at all.
And with that, let’s set it up with a neat little CRT TV and test out the hardware with
some classic Sega Saturn games!
[jazz music fades]
[system powers on] [Saturn startup sound plays]
V-Saturn, how exciting!
I rather enjoy that customized startup screen.
And from here it goes straight into the Fenrir menu system,
since I’ve already gotten it set up.
Pressing ‘Start’ brings up some options, beginning with one that enables cover art
alongside each game being selected, providing you
source and place the cover images in each folder yourself.
“Return to Menu” enables soft resetting to return to this menu,
which is the standard ABC+Start on the controller.
That combo normally just resets the game itself, but pressing it again here will bring you
back to the ODE menu.
A necessity since the hardware reset button on the console annoyingly doesn’t do that.
You can also backup and restore save files to and from the MicroSD card, very handy.
Oh and I meant to mention, I don’t have a 3D printed insert yet but it can really
use one, since it’s entirely too easy to drop the MicroSD card in there
and have it flopping around inside.
Made that mistake a couple times already.
And I also meant to mention earlier this system is FRAM modded, meaning that even if the clock
battery dies your save data will survive so you can swap the CR2032 without losing anything.
You can also see here some more information about the system, including some future abilities
like WiFi that may become available.
But for the moment, what we’ve got here with firmware 1.5.5
is a pretty standard game selection system.
Much like you may have seen on any number of other SD card or flash cart solutions,
I approve of its simplicity.
And again you can add cover art too if you like.
Now in terms of the games on here, while it supports up to 2499 games overall, this is
just my own personal Saturn collection, all stuff that I own physically.
Yeah, most of the games I own for the system are imports, since there’s such a cool library
of stuff released in Japan that we either never got in the US.
Or if we did those games are more rare and expensive here, compared to the Japanese releases.
At least, that’s how it was when I was buying these seven or eight years ago online, perhaps
it’s changed these days, but typically Japanese games have been more reasonably available.
Anyway, let’s begin with the obvious choice here.
Duke Nukem 3D!
Which loads up at an authentic-feeling and by extension unimpressive rate.
Yeah I think certain load times may be nominally faster with an ODE, but by and large you’re
still restricted to the actual Sega Saturn CD-ROM controller in there, so for the most
part initial load times are still roughly as fast or slow as original hardware.
And while it seems to be optimized for the Saturn Redump project in terms of disc image
formatting, it supports standard ISO, BIN/CUE, Clone CD image files and a handful of others.
Which yeah, I’ve had no issues loading any images in those formats, it just straight
up works with games from any region.
No having to mess around with Action Replays for imports like I did on my other Saturns,
so that’s nice.
You would still need to perform a 50/60Hz mod if you’d like to change the way games
display in PAL regions and such, that’s not something the Fenrir provides.
But yeah, for me with this NTSC-J V-Saturn I’m quite happy with the results so far.
Heh, as happy as I can be with this fascinating Lobotomy port of Duke3D.
And by ‘fascinating’ I mean I don’t like it, never have!
It uses the PowerSlave engine also used in their port of Quake,
and I’ve just never been a fan.
The lighting is cool, but the wibbly wobbly turning makes me feel queasy, and the scale
of everything is off, it’s all too tall and Duke feels like he’s been cut in half.
-“Why am I three feet tall here?”
Alright, so!
Moving onto a fighting game, and while a Virtua Fighter title would be obvious, I asked the
LGR Twitter what games they’d prefer to see.
And Fighters Megamix came up time and time again, so hey, why not?
I’ve actually never played this one despite owning a copy, but I picked it up because
I knew the roster is pretty absurd, combining characters from Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers,
Sonic the Fighters, Virtua Fighter Kids, Virtua Cop, and even Daytona USA.
Yeah, you can play as the car from Daytona [chuckles] providing you unlock it, that is.
Same with the other sillier choices, sadly there’s not much absurdity to choose from
on first boot, but oh well.
And yeah this *is* actually running at 60fps, but you’re only seeing 30 here.
I had to adjust my camera to get around the rolling line problem filming at 60, since
the game’s vertical refresh rates actually tend to run just a bit below,
like 59.85 or something.
But yeah in-person it’s smooth as smooth things.
Right, so next up was another one y’all recommended over and over: Astal, or Ahh-stall
or I’m not sure, I’ve never played this one either.
I actually didn’t realize this was a side-scrolling platformer, it’s just one of those that
I picked up thrifting many years ago since the artwork looked intriguing.
Just beautiful 2D art, I love the copious foreground and background things going by,
parallax as nuts.
Didn’t quite play it long enough to get the gist of what I’m supposed to be doing,
but I’ll absolutely be revisiting this since I love the aesthetic.
Next I attempted to load up the wonderful X-Men vs Street Fighter, forgetting entirely
that it asks for a 4MB RAM expansion to begin.
Which, I absolutely own a couple of them, but they’re boxed up somewhere in storage
since I haven’t unpacked that stuff since moving recently, dang it.
So next up in highly recommended games we’ve got a JRPG,
or at least, that was my incorrect assumption.
This is Dragon Force, which starts up with a lovely FMV sequence.
One that I don’t think would be improved by the VCD/MPEG expansion,
like some games were. Not that I have one, but anyway.
As for the game itself, well, it sure looked like an RPG at first with all the text and
overall presentation, but not really!
Turns out this is sort of a strategy/tactics thing,
with a dash of role playing sauce on the side.
Again, I’m intrigued enough to return to this in the future, but I’ll have to spend
a lot more time with it to really get into the game.
One that I know very well though, and is just an absolute must
anytime you have a Saturn going: Panzer Dragoon.
An absolute classic that I always feel compelled to pick up and play if it happens to be running
on any system nearby.
Though amusingly, I’ve barely played the Saturn version.
This is one that I’ve primarily played on PC under Windows 95, since Sega gave it a
pretty excellent port back in the 90s.
And since I have a Diamond Edge 3D card that lets you play using real Saturn controllers
plugged into your computer, it’s a pretty authentic Saturn-like experience even on PC,
so playing on the real thing here feels just as it should.
Okay, so another one I had to test, although I don’t think anyone recommended it: Over
Drivin’ GT-R, a special Nissan edition of the original
Road and Track Presents: The Need For Speed.
But released only in Japan, featuring a completely different selection of cars, all classic Nissans
and generations of Skylines.
One of those I’ve covered a time or two in my “History of Need For Speed” retrospectives.
In fact I believe this was the first Saturn game I ever imported,
for just one of those videos like, 12 years ago now. Ugh.
What a phenomenal selection of cars here though, ahh, it’s just so cool
seeing a reskinned Need For Speed like this.
Considering how much I played the original on the PC back in the day,
it’s always wild to experience.
There’s also Skyline Memorial on the PlayStation, and that’s worth playing too for the different
car selection and other slight differences compared to GT-R here.
But yeah, either way it’s neat to see, they put some real effort into overhauling Over
Drivin’ as a celebration of Nissan sports car history.
Even if the car models and complete lack of traffic leave a bit to be desired.
So, another one that wasn’t recommended by anyone but I have to play since it had
such an impact on me as a kid: Impact Racing!
The memories of looking at the rental case for this,
all cracked and beat up and taped back together.
It was just the artwork, you know?
Being obsessed with the Dodge Viper and the TV show VIPER at the time, it really grabbed
my attention and imagination.
It was a Viper with laser miniguns coming out of the fog lights, how awesome was that?
It highly inspired my first kit-bash model car actually, where I slapped a whole bunch
of aircraft parts and random toy pieces onto a Viper RT/10 I’d put together.
Again, having never even played Impact Racing,
just looking at the screenshots on that beat up box.
The game must be amazing right?
Ehh, I mean, it has its charms!
In that clunky mid-90s early 3D kinda way.
Shoot other cars, drop mines, try not to run out of time
or get blown up too much, it’s an okay game.
The tracks are just so narrow though and the gameplay is simplistic to the point of repetitive
fatigue setting in pretty soon.
I have a lot of fondness for it anyway, mostly stemming from my own half-memories of looking
at that cracked case at Phar-Mor.
Weird what sticks in your mind after 27 years.
And finally, let’s end on one that was both recommended by y’all and one that I played
a lot myself back then: Sonic Racing, or Sonic R by good ol’ Travelers Tales.
One that I got on PC pretty soon after it came out, I think I got it at Sam’s Club.
Played the crap out of it on Windows 95 with keyboard controls.
And I remember it being frustrating but eh.
Heh, well this is... yeah it’s not good in terms of handling.
Maybe I just need to get used to the controller, but man does this not feel responsive, like
over and understeer at the same time somehow.
Whatever though, I’m still rather fond of this game and have a lot of memories,
both good and bad.
Honestly I loved exploring this game the most, not even racing.
I mean I wanted to unlock stuff so I eventually did beat it, but still.
I was really excited to have an actual 3D Sonic game, not just Sonic 3D Blast.
Which I played the crap out of that too at a friend’s house, but anyway!
Yeah!
I think it’s obvious that even with things being wonkier and clunkier than I might recall,
I’m still having a lot of fun going through my own Saturn library here.
And I'm gonna start extending that now
and playing more stuff I’ve never tried, cuz yeah.
The Saturn has always been one of the systems that I've respected from afar, have messed
around with in bits and pieces over the years
but never got too serious about exploring its library.
So having this ODE going really is a great excuse to do so.
And the V-Saturn in particular, I don't know just I just think it looks cool, with that
two-tone gray going and the classic Victor logos and stuff.
So thanks again to Jon for making the trade happen so we could check this out.
I’m inspired to try some other ODEs for some of my other disc-based systems, especially
the PS1 and the Dreamcast, but yeah.
Hope that you enjoyed this laid-back look at the Saturn,
a delightful console that always deserves some love.
Do stick around for other LGR things that are always in the works, or check out some
of my previous episodes till then.
And as usual thank you for watching!