another review

Might be something worth looking into. Only problem is all my Capcom fighting games I always ran off of a 4-in-1 cart, and I don't have any of the official Capcom 4MB carts. So I couldn't be able to play any of those on this.

Well, you could buy one legit game that comes with the 4MB cart or just the loose cart itself.

EDIT: Holy crap, these are $50 loose on eBay now and a copy of MSHvsSF is $200!? They originally sold with the game for an extra 1000yen ($10). They would have made it free if they could have...and who’s paying more for a Saturn port than what the CPS2 version costs?

I really am starting to hate gamers....

Gamers are not the problem, collectors are. There is some crossover, but honestly they are almost different hobbies...

It's the collector/resellers that are the main problem.
Yeah collectors do drive prices but reasonable people will have reasonable prices.
The people that collect and resell loads of stuff 24/7 are the ones that drive prices up all the time.
They use each others prices as an excuse to push even higher, it's pure madness.
It even happens with modern low print run games, people buy a load and then scalp the dupes to fund their "habit".

Yeah I collect random games, but I don't live off selling stuff and I don't sell dupes to fund my purchases. I buy stuff here and there on the cheap. I have quite a few games that need reconditioning, maybe one day I'll get around to getting a machine and cleaning everything up myself or I might just drop off some boxes to a local guy that reco's discs and sells (his prices are sane but it's easy to miss the good stuff as it vanishes quickly).

Somehow collectards think that every game they own has to increase in value every time it’s sold, like real estate or something. They have to add what they paid as shipping to the price.

Of all the things I bought in 1997, I’m pretty sure video games are the only things I could sell for more than I paid.

Like many people with a pile of old games, I used to wonder if I’d ever be tempted to sell...but things have gotten SO nuts that I figure one of two things will happen:

1) the value will rise so high that I’ll be glad to sell, regardless how much I like the stuff and all the memories I have of playing the games with my friends. If Panzer Azel hits $3000...fine, take it!

2) the market will crash and I’ll be able to double the size of my collection for nothing.

I guess I’ll be fine either way. At this moment though...my buying has really slowed down.

I bought my Saturn in Sydney Australia Chinatown..about '96..modchipped JP white version. you would select bootleg games from a catalogue for 10 bucks a piece then dudes would go out to their car and get the discs. I had a bootleg video card too, watched so many JP and HK movies I never woulda seen on cheap VCDs.

I brought that baby back to Canberra and everyone else with import PS1s and later domestic PS1s saw me as an infidel but slowly admitted the power of the Saturn, especially in 2D. And those Sega only franchises...

Dynamite Deka, MSH vs SF, Macross DYRL and Manx TT superbike will always be my faves. Loved that machine. Still have it. The modchip works on downloaded ROMs in the modern era. Burned a few shooters in the 2010s, Radiant Silvergun is insane but I can't beat it..

Yeah collectors are ruining the pricing of retro games.

I mean have you heard the story of super bowling for the n64? It's a completely unremarkable bowling game, that used to go around for normal prices for a game like that 8 years ago. Then bunch of collectors got wind, that the game had a small print run and might have been even a blockbuster exclusive. As such it's now one of the most expensive n64 games out there. With the cart only price now being about 400 dollars on ebay.

And the market seems to not be stopping. With disc based games, they might eventually go down as more and more lasers and such start failing. It might eventually be that for the Saturn the games are cheap but the hardware is not, 20-30 years from now on. But for the n64/saturn/ps1 era the people who have nostalgia for that period are getting more and more disposable income. So the prices will just go up and up.

And people still buy the games for those ridiculous prices. I mean my friend recently bought a CIB copy of Earthbound for 1200 euros. A game that has 140k copies around. Personally I prefer the original but for too expensive ones, I just go repro. Personally I like the have a case and artwork, so I'll probably buy repros of the too expensive saturn games. And with these prices, I can't stand anyone whining about repros that are starting to look like the real thing.

Why would anyone even want a bowling game for N64 at any price? It’s true that completists drive the value of games like that but only completists would ever care because it’s friggn bowling on N64.

I have no use for any case or artwork that isn’t legit. I’m for sure one of those people you can’t stand and vice versa. I have no problem with bootlegs (what you’re calling repro). I own all sorts of bootlegs. Bootlegs are essential to many scenes, but when they pretend to be real a line is crossed. Then it becomes a lie. This goes double for NGF (Chris and Dion) and that scumbag Tobias at PCE Works and anyone like them who try to pretend their thing is better than real instead of totally worthless.

Nail on the head regarding the word "repro." I'm not a puritan about piracy because companies don't care about preserving old games for posterity. If it weren't for piracy, loads of creative works would be lost in the ether. But when you're bootlegging, i.e. selling something that doesn't belong to you, you don't get the benefit of the doubt from me. And if you're a would-be buyer, the only difference between buying a bootleg and burning your own pirated ISO or putting your own pirated ROM on a flashcart is how much money you're spending. You're getting fleeced.

And f*ck anyone who buys something they don't otherwise care about because they think it'll be worth more later.

Personally the case thing goes so far to me, that if I had a selection between a great game that doesn't have a case and artwork vs a good game that has one. I'd probably pick the good game. But that's why I make my own covers.

I know there is a lot of controversy whether "repros", "bootlegs," or "fakes" are the right word to describe these. Personally I call a copy a repro, if it's looks very much like the original but doesn't lie what it is. I call it a bootleg if it isn't as convincing. And I call it a fake if it tries to pass itself as real. I also don't support those who try to pass off a bootleg, repro whatever you call it as the real thing. I'm quite good at spotting a fake. But when I have to spend 30 minutes, to look at the board inside the transparent gba case, to see if the copy of Emerald is real. Yeah. It's a bad thing.

I guess ebay can be somewhat blamed for it as well. As ebay doesn't allow repros on their platform (despite how many of them are there.) So putting repro on your listing basically means, they are going to remove the listing a whole lot faster.

My reply that repros flooding the market was a bad argument. It's an emotional response to collectards who basically say you are the crappiest person in the world if you own a single repro (that you are not even trying to pass off as real). But repros are a good thing for the market. I'm pretty sure the prices would be even more ridiculous if they didn't exist.

I should post up pics but my copies of the DYRL discs have tigers heads printed on em..

my tiny SATURN JP collection, all bought back when they were dirt cheap;

Thunderforce V (or indeed anything by TecnoSoft) is superb. The Macross game is pretty good too and well worth playing.

It’s a better Macross collectible than a shooter. It does a great job of representing the movie but it’s so easy it’s not any fun. It needs a Devil mode or something. I bought it new and have always liked it.

Don't forget the cut scenes that give that mini prequel in glorious detail. Love the Big West canon long time. Kawamori can make whatever save the spacewhales/appeals to young working women/woke crap he likes but I stand by BW '84-'92 and the Macross II/PCE game direction. Still want to see a show with the Million Star in it..

the THUNDER FORCE series goes ALL the way back with me.

my parents bought me what was surely among the first run of the SEGA GENESIS available in the U.S. at TOYS-R-US for X-Mas of 1989.

it came with the ALTERED BEAST pack-in, and they also grabbed THUNDER FORCE II at the same time.

my earliest memories of video gaming at my own home involve eating danish butter cookies for christmas,
whilst crashing my space fighter into airborne girders on the first stage of TF II.

indeed, i am a complete TECNOSOFT nerd, and, one of my main regrets
was not grabbing a JPN copy of TF IV for my working collection back when they were affordable...








indeed, it isn't a great space shooter by any means. however, it does manage to be quite decent for an Anime tie-in game.
oh, how i lusted after a copy, since reading about the game in a 1997 issue of GAME FAN magazine.

owning all of this, back then, would have indeed been a wild, WILD wet dream
that would have totally blown my mind straight the hell to Mars...

Does anyone know where you can get good quality rgb scart cables for the Saturn. One advantage of being an european is that my consumer grade LG CRT is rgb capable. Right now I have my Saturn hooked up using the original Sega RGB scart cable. (I checked up the manual and yes it came with an RGB cable. And my TV confirms that it is indeed RGB)

Still there is some background noise in the quiet sections, due to the cable. So I'd like to know, if you know any better alternatives to the original Sega RGB cable.

On collectors and resellers it's not just video games. It's everything. It's the reason that the recent hardcover reprints of GI Joe RAH and TMNT are perpetually out of print and go for stupid prices and that my local comic book store always has volume 4 or something only. Yet in 1992 you could get always get TMNT graphic novels at Kmart. Out of other things I try to collect it happens to table top games, clothes and CDs as well, as well as of course movies. This massive global connected economy, people trying to make a buck anyway they can as traditional jobs dissapear. When a lot of people are lucky enough to snag something at release (or have the bot to do it) they buy as many as they can to flip on ebay straight away. Or actual fans buy one for themselves then a few more to cover their original cost, hey they get the game for free that way..I'm tempted to become a flipper more and more. but I'd be becoming what I hate

Likewise. In terms of their catalogue of titles, imho they are one of the best video game developers of all-time. There is a bit of a grey area with regards TecnoSoft as an employer. I cannot locate the document at present, but there was a message coded in one of their games that was uncovered a few years back that was basically a tirade against the work environment, conditions and so on. If I manage to dig it up again I'll post it here.

The sketchy stuff aside, for me the jewels in their crown are Hyper Duel and Blast Wind (aka Inazuma Savor). I think SEGA bought all the TecnoSoft IP's not so long ago?

Don't forget the spin-off (for want of a better word) stuff too, like Gleylancer (I bought that years ago from Mandarake, wish I never sold it) and Eliminate Down by Aprinet. Great games.