Yet Another Panzer Dragoon Session

We are getting extremely close to the end of finishing this thing, probably in the next session I'll have it done.  Nothing else to really say about it apart from that, so just enjoy the videos!

VIDS!

Panzer Dragoon Session 10

Well, I filmed this about a week ago, so anything that I was going to say about it in this post, I've forgotten, so just kick back and enjoy the game! 

Now That's Some Bullshit #8: Sega Saturn Battery

Due to some problems with my ability to stream it's a bullshit double bill today!  Although this round of bullshit is Saturn related so that it fits in with Saturn Month.

The Sega Saturn had quite a weird set of internals.  For example the thing had dual CPU's, and while this has a load of technical implications that I don't understand because I'm not a developer, what I do understand is it basically made the whole system a gigantic pain in the ass to develop games for.

But the people making the games were not the only ones who had to deal with strange shit going on inside the Saturn.  If you look at the above picture, you can see a little space where a battery goes in.  This was the battery backup system for the Saturn and whenever you saved a game, it would save here. 

Now it's not battery backups that are bullshit, but it's the fact that this thing isn't really mentioned inside the system manual (which most people don't fucking read anyway) and there is no indication for when the power is low and you have to replace it, it's a load of ass.

I mean, I got the Saturn when I was a kid, I didn't know how the fuck it was saving my games and my parents knew jack shit about gaming systems, so they weren't aware of it either.  It wasn't until a couple of years ago when I hooked up my old Saturn and played Panzer Dragoon Saga for about 4 hours that I discovered what to do.  I saved the game, which worked just fine, but when I returned the save had been erased because the battery inside the fucking thing had died.

Plus it was one of those really awkward flat batteries that were quite hard to get hold of in the area where I lived in the UK.  Most shops didn't stock anything outside of AA and AAA batteries.

So, if after Saturn Month you decide to go grab one at a flea market or off E-Bay or something, either get that cartridge saving thing that I could never find, or replace the damn battery! 

You have been warned!

The Sega Saturn!

Today we're going to talk about something I have very fond memories of, the Sega Saturn.  Holy fuck was this console AWESOME!

I don't remember how old I was when I first got my Saturn, but I was still pretty young.  All I remember is that I was going back home in the car with my family from....somewhere, and my dad just decided to randomly stop in an electronics store and pick one of these bad boys up.  I mean I was young and stupid at the time, I didn't have a fucking clue what it was until I got home and popped in Fighting Vipers!

This was probably the first game I ever played that was 3D and it blew my fucking mind.  You may think that this title has been long since forgotten and no one gives a shit but you'd be fucking WRONG!! If you've played Soul Calibur 4 (not sure if it's in 5) then then whole system where you could break off bits of armour, this is the game which did it first.  Hell, the game even had a feature to save your goddamn replays before anyone even gave a fucking about that kind of thing.

Despite all the fond memories of that game though, the Saturn is home to my personal favourite video game EVER! Which is Panzer Dragoon Saga

This game was fucking HUGE, it came on 4 discs and has one of the most interesting game worlds I think I've ever seen.  For anyone who doesn't know, Panzer Dragoon is a series of arcade type shooting games where you fly a dragon, but this game was an RPG spin off.  This game was so fucking good that a couple years later when I played Final Fantasy VII for the first time, I was disappointed with it because I didn't feel it stacked up to PDS.

The rest of it's library was pretty stellar too, things like NiGHTS and Die Hard Arcade just to name a couple kept me occupied for fucking hours although it did have a couple of crap games too, but what console doesn't, right? The Saturn was basically the point for me when gaming became more than just a thing to do to kill time, it became a full blown hobby, or passion, or whatever you want to call it.

It wasn't all wonderful though, the Saturn had some really awkward hardware so emulating it is a real bitch, and the console itself had a battery backup to save games, so if you don't replace that little bastard then your save games will delete themselves when you turn off the machine.

The last thing I want to say is that it had one of the best advertising campaigns I've ever seen in Japan, take a look.

Segata Sanshiro is a fucking bad ass, no wonder it did so well in Japan.  Shame that in the EU, it came out so close to the PS1 launch that no one gave a shit.  Oh well...

So to finish this post I want to announce Sega Saturn September!  Starting from September 1st, I'm going to make some kind of Saturn related post every day, so you may be seeing 2 or 3 posts daily during this month while I blog about other stuff as well.  Also, providing I can get the stream to work, I'll be streaming Saturn games whenever I have free time, I'll provide the link once it's set up.  So I hope you're ready to be educated on one of the best gaming machines EVER!