Deceased Sega Saturn donates skin, peripherals to Atom PC

It's mighty trendy around these parts to say how much you lament the day when Sega caved to the PS2 and pulled the plug on the Dreamcast, but which side were you on when the Saturn was getting tag-teamed by the OG PlayStation and N64? That poor thing never come close to the sales of even its failed successor, yet still sits fondly in the hearts of a dedicated few arcade-minded gamers. Perhaps that's why Japanese modders at an Akihabara shop decided to bring one back to life, ripping its 32-bit guts out and replacing them with those required to support a dual-core Atom 330, including 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM and a 160GB HDD. Even the peripherals have been overhauled, the memory cartridge turned into an over-sized USB stick and the four-button Shuttle mouse receiving a laser transplant. If it could still play Virtual On: Cyber Troopers we'd be getting out our passports.

[Via lebloggadget]

[rk @ Oct 17th 2008 9:52AM]

there's actually a PC version of Virtual On.
I used to have a copy. Pretty fun. Networked too =)

[justincase @ Oct 17th 2008 12:58PM]

Any idea where to find that now?

(and don't say google!)

[Josh Ladella @ Oct 17th 2008 9:50AM]

i actually had one of these beasts...far better than its competitor the playstation...

glad to see that this is getting some well-deserved attention again...

[Geir E @ Oct 17th 2008 9:54AM]

by beeing gutted and used as an underpowered computer?

[Blondie @ Oct 17th 2008 11:17AM]

"...far better than its competitor the playstation"

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Yeah, sure it was. And the Dreamcast was better than the PS2!

[Cellien @ Oct 17th 2008 11:26AM]

I had one too, but also had a Playstation. :) I'd say looking back, the PS1 was more memorable but the Saturn was very cool. Panzer Dragoon, Daytona, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Knights... It was a damn fun platform.

As for Dreamcast, I personally liked it more than PS2, at least as far has the hardware was concerned. It actually utilized online play, and had those AWESOME vmu memory cards. In Sonic, you could put the Chao creatures on it in-game and then you could take it with you anywhere and "level him up" while you're at school then put him back in the game by plugging in the VMU and see him in 3d in the Chao garden. You could also transfer data between 2 VMUs by just connecting them together. Awesome console, better than PS2, to me.

[wootman @ Oct 17th 2008 2:22PM]

Underpowered? Compared to what, a server?

[Blondie @ Oct 17th 2008 4:15PM]

Hey jackasses, you do realize that a console is "good or bad" based 100% on the GAMES, right? Unless you're talking current gen with all of the wild media possibilities, GAMES made the systems. So it's really time to throw in the towel on the Dreamcast or Saturn being the best in their respective generations. It just isn't true, no matter how opinionated some might be.

[maty @ Oct 17th 2008 4:52PM]

@Blondie

Did I miss something? The Dreamcast has some amazing games, Ikaruga, Soul Calibur, REZ (which have all been ported on to Xbox Live Arcade), Sonic Adventure 2, not forgetting its easily worked-around copy protection. Some of those games set the standards not only in their time, but for now too. And the Dreamcast has a devout following for a reason. Not forgetting its unparralleled online play for its gneneration. Some of those games never get old,

The SNES and Genesie/Megadrive had some groundbeaking games that have stood the test of time, and so has the Dreamcast.

Same can't be said for the Saturn, a few good games, but really a flop =[. Glad to see its still has its uses!

[sr @ Oct 17th 2008 5:08PM]

Cellien: Thanks for bringing back memories. Those chao were the best! The VMU just plain ruled, most creative and innovative idea ever. Great for sports games!

Maty: Shenmue IMHO sets the standard for all games ever! After playing Dreamcast nothing interests me anymore, and I own the 6 systems that came out after. Nothing had my jaw drop like when I first turned on the Dreamcast. I still have more fun playing those games than anything out today.

[Jason @ Oct 18th 2008 6:08PM]

Saturn was the best! Josh, you said it.. I had saturn and ps1 and the saturn was far more powerful... had onboard memory.. 4X cd-rom that made it load so much faster.. all you had to do was play a game like rez evil 1 or tomb raider 1 on both systems to notice the difference..

As far as good games, at the time when Saturn was out for a year(it was out before ps1) and the ps1 was recently released the Saturn was far better for games as well.. as the ps1 began to outsell the Saturn you saw more key titles go Sony's way and the Saturn getting less ports.. but still has some of my fav games. I still play mine today

Dragon Force!! (best game ever!! and pretty much all working designs rpg's)
Panzer dragoon 1, 2 and saga
Nights Into Dreams (really blew my mind when that one came out.. hadn't seen Mario 64 yet... :D )
virtua fighter 1, 2 fighters mega-mix
street fighter alpha 1, 2 (way better pad for fighting games with 6 face buttons.. )
tons more too....

[Blondie @ Oct 18th 2008 1:57PM]

Wow, you listed a handful of good games for shit systems. Should I list the 20x more good games for the PS and PS2?

[Adam @ Oct 17th 2008 9:57AM]

I was always sad I went from the Genesis to the Dreamcast bypassing the Saturn and Sega CD, so this brings bad nostalgia I don't have. I'd like to see a VMU mod. That would be sick

[broli @ Oct 17th 2008 10:04AM]

Looking at the headline at the right the G1 really shows off its nineties look compared to the saturn.

[JL @ Oct 17th 2008 10:28AM]

At least you'd never mistake a G1 for an iPhone (thank goodness)
(full disclosure, I own an iPod Touch 8gb)

Has something like this (Atom-wise) been done with a Dreamcast?
Am soo sorry I never nabbed one of those (DC)

[Arran @ Oct 17th 2008 10:07AM]

Saturn kicks playstation's ass, it had more soul.

[Anthony Thomas @ Oct 17th 2008 10:19AM]

My God, slowest website in the world.

[dotAaron @ Oct 17th 2008 10:24AM]

Wow, that thing was clearly beaten with fugly stick during development those many years ago xD

[jconli1 @ Oct 17th 2008 10:38AM]

I still have one... hooked up to my HDTV right now. The bit-for-bit port of Outrun was what did it for me, its the only game I have, and it was worth every penny.

[kal326 @ Oct 17th 2008 10:49AM]

They better have modded the post screen to be the old school white screen with the blue Sega logo. +1 if they could get the "SEEEG GA" voice along with it.

[tallgrave @ Oct 17th 2008 11:18AM]

This's nice idea!
It's astonished.
Prophecy is near on the day when Sega becomes PC manufacturer.(・・?

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 12:45PM]

English motherfucker. Do you speak it?!

[wootman @ Oct 17th 2008 2:23PM]

Nope, im pretty sure he doesn't.
Nice try though.

[cliff @ Oct 17th 2008 11:29AM]

He needs to make this his startup screen: http://doseika.hp.infoseek.co.jp/s.swf?e=b&m=RnVjayBTb255&s=1

[sr @ Oct 17th 2008 5:04PM]

Post of the week!!!

[Matt @ Oct 17th 2008 1:53PM]

Man, I loved my Saturn, first console I ever got. Virtua Cop (with lightguns, ofc), Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon... my little bro and I used to play the shit out of that thing. Good times.

[Darkflamer @ Oct 17th 2008 2:12PM]

The Dreamcast was a far better machine then the PS2, given *almost* as good graphics significantly earlier and a bit cheaper.
It was better designed, much better online, 4 players as standard, and had a good line up of games.

However.
Sega fan's were long burnt by the short-lived Saturn, the MegaCD, the 32x and whatever other random machine Sega kept chucking out far too frequently. Sega always kept up with technology, but lost site of the fact their fans cant afford to buy THAT much.

So the dreamcast had lackluster sales, giving the PS2 plenty of time to not only hype itself, but build a better game catalogue.
You see, thats what makes the PS2 a better system, overall, the game's it started getting half way into its life. It was the software, not hardware that did it.

[cwj @ Oct 17th 2008 3:22PM]

So, you're saying it had better software (and a better biz model), not better hardware. That makes it a better system? That could be countered by "Saturn was better since the few games it had we generally very good as opposed to the some good but many weak games for the PS1".

Though Sega seemed to throw some tech in the wrong basket by trying to build a machine that was decent at 2D (side scrolling fighters) and 3D (especially when Sega pretty much kicked off the move to 3D with the Virtua line in arcades), I'd argue that it wasn't the hardware that caused it to lose out. They lost because they were overconfident in the company's ability to attract sales on self-produced content. 3rd party developers complained at the time that it was a difficult system to work on because Sega kept so much of it closed.

When I was in college, somebody asserted to the group that Emmitt Smith was a better running back than Barry Sanders because he had a better offensive line. So, would Sanders have been better with Smith's line?

Any mod involving making a PC out of a gaming console should include the ability to play the console's games using their original media. This I doth decree.

[sr @ Oct 17th 2008 5:01PM]

Are you kidding? The Dreamcast was out 2 full years before the PS2 crap came out and had excellent games. People wouldn't buy it because they were waiting for the second coming and it came with shitty 3rd party ports for a year until GT3 which was the first game to finally outdo the Draemcast graphically. What were people doing for 3 years? They were waiting for crap.

[cwj @ Oct 18th 2008 3:12AM]

Dammit! I was responding in reference to the Saturn actually. Well, I contend the mismanagement of the marketing of the Saturn messed things up for the D'Cast. The Saturn was a nice piece of kit and had good titles. The D'Cast was not just a better machine, but a better execution in every way. That's what makes it a shame. It was successful, but it should've been more so. Again, great games, great, INNOVATIVE system...for naught (shrug).

[Jeff @ Oct 17th 2008 3:08PM]

The Saturn actually significantly outsold the Dreamcast in Japan, and it was on sale for a number of years longer. It hung with the PlayStation right up until around 1998 or so before dropping off, but it continued to do pretty well into the early part of this decade.

When I first visited Japan in 2000 (a year after the Dreamcast's launch, mind you), Saturn games and systems were still about equally plentiful as PlayStation stuff was. In fact, a lot of stores *still* have Saturn sections, albeit small ones these days.

The premise of this post is a bit off - the guy didn't do this to his Saturn because the system was unpopular, he more likely did it because it was popular.

[sr @ Oct 17th 2008 4:57PM]

It's not trendy, it's just plain fact. The Dreamcast had the best lineup at the time and it was far more fun to play than anything I've owned since. I still remember Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Shenmue (I'll say it again), Samba De Amigo, Skies of Arcardia, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Jet Grind Radio, Headhunter (import), Shenmue II (import), Ikaruga, Soul Calibur, Seaman, Grandia II, and just so many more games on that system that just plain ruled. People were just stupid and waited for that stinker of a system called the PS2. If that system survived I can't imagine how many more awesome games we would have gotten. Now Sega makes games that are pure crap. If only they had a system with which to showcase their talent today gaming would be much better than it is now. Right now with a PS3, Xbox 360, and a Wii I still can't find games as creative as were on the Dreamcast. The scene is just filled with pathetic rehashes. Nothing new, nothing innovative.

[David @ Oct 17th 2008 6:20PM]

you can buy a sega saturn from these guys
http://www.playerschoicevideogames.com

[dedyet @ Oct 19th 2008 12:43PM]

You people are a trip! make a virtual arena and beat the crap out of each other! Live Long and Prosper lol