Sega Saturn - opinions and buying advice, please!

[Roger]

So, I'm not content with my present collection of consoles (PS One, Megadrive, Dreamcast, SNES), and have been on the lookout for a cheap Nintendo 64 for some time now. I've already got a copy of Wipeoout 64 waiting for the proper hardware.

While browsing the largest Finnish auction site, I spotted a Sega Saturn up for grabs. The asking price is 39 euros and there are no bids on it. I might be able to grab it for 40 euros (+ shipping). That is sans controller, though - the owner is selling the them separately 10 euros apiece (smart of him/her, but no fun :x ). It's the first time I've seen a Saturn for sale, so should I go for it now? The chance mightn't come around again for a long time.

Is the price right? Are there a lot of good games for the Saturn? Shooters? Platform games? Adventures? Please help me make my mind up. I had to get my car repaired for over 600 euros this week, so I'm not inclined to spend a lot of money unless it is on something really worthwhile :-?

Oh yes: the auction closes on Sunday, 4 PM GMT...

[Lance]

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i would love to have a Saturn, and NiGHTS: into Dreams. there are probably a few hundred games for Saturns [yes, that surprised me], so there are bound to be at least a few that would appeal to you

i say go for it; it's a cool system. and both WipEout and WO2097 are available for it.
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[science]

the best games for the saturn are the import games, but you have to have a special "key" card to unlock the region restrictions. also, for some games you may need a ram card as well since the japanese saturns had more internal ram than what the rest of the world got. both of these cards are potentially cheap, but they can be elusive. Ive had a saturn (which i ended up paying $0 for) and a copy of samurai shodown 3 and 4 (which cost me nearly $100) a region key ($10) and no ram card for well over a year now. without the ram card its $110 dollars worth of crap sitting under my bed collecting dust.
there's also a card that combines the region and the ram card into one (otherwise you have to do a swap every time you power up an import game that requires the extra ram) but i do not remember who made it. if anybody else knows what im talking about, drop me a line in this thread...

[Lance]

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there were several makers of 4-in-one cards. i think one of the makers was um.. Action Play or Action Replay. i would look it up for you in the pages i saved on my HD, but i'm not on my own comp and also don't have the urls of the sites with the data. most of the cards for the american version have either 1 or 4 megs, but i think there are some that have 64megabITS. so an 8 megabyte card is as much as can be had. there are a bunch of saturn sites, but only a very few that i've seen give a list of the memory cards that were made
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[Roger]

Yes, Lance: there's an Action Replay 4-in-1 card (Found it at Play-Asia.com (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-1-RK-4-1-2-15.html)).

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I finally decided not to buy the Saturn, since I really couldn't afford it. On the other hand, nobody else did, either, so it might be put on sale again, at a lower price :-?

The weekend didn't pass without cash being spent: I picked up a NES for five euros, and a handful of games to boot. Nostalgia!

[Roger]

(returning to an old topic...)

I finally got hold of a Saturn! Paid 30 euros for the console, a regular controller, a wireless controller and a copy of Tomb Raider. A bargain, IMO :)

I've also bought a copy of "Sega Ages", a collection of three games: Space Harrier, Afterburner II, and... Out Run! It's a perfect rendition of the arcade version - sweet!

[Lance]

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congrats! the Saturn is a cool console.

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Outrun leaves me feeling kinda flat. ;)
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you can groan now. :D