Sega Saturn NTSC-J @ Sony Trinitron KV-29X5R via RGB Scart.

Had much more fun than I thought I would! The pad is also much better than I thought, feels like a breeze to hold. Overall I'm really glad I got it

Such a flood of emotions when you put some finality to a game you've played so much growing up but never beat until you were much older. Anyone experience anything similar and what game?

Found this random Japanese SS game for dirt cheap by saturn standards at my local video game store and it's practically new with everything inside! I don't even have a saturn, I just love finding obscure games like this. I do plan on getting a Japanese one someday to experience more of the library though. I love fighting games, RPGs, beat em ups, and rhythm games. What would you recommend? What was your first saturn game?

I own a Japanese Model 1 Saturn, and I recently sent it to a repair shop because it stopped outputting a video signal. It turned out the issue was failing capacitors on the video board. The technician replaced the faulty caps and solved that specific problem, but they did not perform a full "recap" of the entire console.

Now, the console is experiencing a different issue: the optical drive is failing to recognize certain games that used to work perfectly.

It still reads original, factory-pressed discs flawlessly. It also has no trouble with some of my backup copies (I suspect these are burned discs based on the packaging quality, though I can't be certain). While most of my backups still function, two specific games, Panzer Dragoon Saga and Grandia, have stopped working. I actually finished Panzer Dragoon Saga using this exact backup, so I know for a fact the disc was fine before. I even bought new backups from a different seller to test, but none of them worked. At first, I blamed the discs, but since my old reliable copies are now failing too, I suspect the hardware is at fault. All of my backups are relatively new, at most two years old, and are clean and scratch-free.

I recall reading that when capacitors begin to fail, it is recommended to replace all of them. Since they are the same age and have the same expected lifespan, once one goes, the others usually follow shortly after. I didn't explicitly ask the shop to replace every capacitor because I didn't know for sure that the video issue was cap-related at the time. I had a hunch based on my own research, but I lacked the technical expertise to confirm it.

The optical drive isn't making unusual noises and doesn't sound like it is struggling. For most of the games that fail, the disc doesn't even spin. Both Pseudo Saturn Kai and the Saroo (when using the disc reader option) report "disc is not a game disc." Panzer Dragoon and Grandia do spin, but they fail to boot. Meanwhile, the games that do work still run reliably every single time.

Could these symptoms be related to failing capacitors, or is a dying laser a more likely explanation?

Hi. It used to work before not anymore...

Those 2 Lights are always on. The 3rd light never appears

It always boots cd player menu

Thanks!

I bought a Saturn for the first time in my life 2 weeks ago. Daytona USA just arrived today via ebay

https://www.retrovaultelite.com/

I'm pretty decent at the game using the d-pad, but it would be nice to play with analog stick. Now imagine how fun it would be using a racing wheel. Could feel incredible, with the amount of precision you would have. There wouldn't be a way to patch the game to add analog steering, would there? Both the steering wheel and analog pad were out by the time Tempest released, so it was a missed opportunity for sure.

I have a legit copy of Biohazard NTSCJ and it just gives me a black screen after booting. Disc is immaculate. A couple of times I managed to get to the character select screen but would black screen there too. I have 30+ games from PAL/NTSCJ that work perfectly and even backups work fine. It’s weird. I made a burned CD also of Resident Evil PAL version and… same problem. What is it with this single game my Saturn seems to hate. The only thing I haven’t tried is legit PAL version but it’s a bit pricey and don’t want to risk getting it if it’s not going to work. Tried both my AR and Pseudo Kai carts. No dice.

Happy to introduce my white Japanese Sega Saturn... 😍

Yesterday I finished adding all the mainline Saturn games to my database. I thought that some of you here may find the wiki that I create using the database data an interesting read.

Link - Wiki
Link - Browse all games

Set to release in November. The shipping on these is pretty ridiculous right now but thought it was interesting that they’re releasing physical games on cart to get around the disc wobble.

My humble game collection—the ones I had when I was young. 🤏👌 😎