Retro-game collecting can be an expensive hobby, especially when collecting for the SEGA Saturn, particularly its North American releases. Whereas NTSC Saturn consoles typically sell around $50 used on Amazon—NTSC game releases, such as Burning Rangers, Magic Knight Rayearth or Panzer Dragoon Saga can range anywhere from $400 to $600 used.
Why are these gems so pricey you might ask? This is largely due to the limited supply of Saturn games in North America, especially towards the end of Saturn’s lifecycle—it just wasn’t as popular in Europe or North America as it was in Japan.
Luckily, retro collectors looking to hunt down Saturn gems can relax because there is an easy solution that doesn’t even require purchasing an actual console. Thankfully, emulation performance and compatibility has grown increasingly better over the years.
SSF and Yabause are two of the most popular options for proper Saturn emulation, yet you’re going to get the best performance and compatibility with SSF. Conveniently, neither emulator requires ripping the BIOS from your console as both emulators feature options to turn on emulated BIOS.
Sometimes it’s usually much cheaper to import Saturn games from Japan. For example, Azel: Panzer Dragoon used will cost around $30 on Amazon as opposed to the NTSC release, which will cost $620 and higher used.
For certain games, mainly RPGs such as Azel: Panzer Dragoon, there will obviously be a language barrier if you don’t speak Japanese. Thankfully, in the case for Azel: Panzer Dragoon, there’s a good guide by Jeremy Prusak available on his website, Panzer Dragoon Saga OASIS .
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Alcohol 120% Free Edition
- Retrolink USB SEGA Saturn Classic Controller
- SSF Ver0.11 alpha R5
- And of course, Saturn games!
- OPTIONAL: Drop Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive
First, you’re going to need Alcohol 120% to rip and mount your game. You can download a Free Edition here. Playing your Saturn games with the disc in your CD-Drive is not recommended as it can wear the disc out.
Then you’re going to want to purchase a Retrolink USB SEGA Saturn Classic Controller for $19.95 and redefine the keys in SSF’s controller options as shown below.
Next, you’re going to need the SSF emulator, which can be downloaded here. You’ll probably find that Ver0.11 alpha R5 is the most stable, yet that greatly depends on your hardware. SSF’s system requirements isn’t steep at all and will work fine in Windows 10.
Finally, you’re going to need some games! The joy of importing Saturn games from Japan is that the jewel cases and cover artwork looks far sleeker than Saturn’s NTSC and PAL counterparts. Thus, Saturn games will display very nicely on the shelve!
OPTIONAL: After setting up your cartridge to “Backup RAM Cartridge” in SSF’s Peripheral options, it might be easier to manage save data by creating a shortcut of the “Backup” folder within SSF’s directory. Then place the shortcut in a cloud (Drop Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.). That way save data will automatically backup in case of a PC failure or other worst case scenario.
