I never knew anything about MKR until years later but I did manage to track down a sun damage copy of MKR off ebay. I thought it was the lighting until I actually got the package in my hands. I've yet to really play it but I know I can a fan translation of it somewhere. Also got the game gear game which I played some but I guess rpgs never really appealed to me (depends on the game I guess)

Considering it was a Sega employee who said it was a 10,000 copy production, my guess is that your assumption of it having two print runs totaling 10,000 copies makes perfect sense.

The only reason we know the total production quantities of those last three North American released Saturn games is because Sega of America officially disclosed those production numbers as being 10,000 copies of each when they were confirming for the old Sega.com message board community that those were in fact the last three games released in the North American market. I have never personally seen nor come across production run numbers coming out of Sega of America directly for any other titles published for any of their other game systems, so it was a truly remarkable and unprecedented moment when that information was posted in a official capacity.

...so there's no information that puts the number "10,000" into perspective? That is, no known print numbers of any other games? I'd say that's completely useless data then. It also seems virtually guaranteed that there are fewer copies of Netlink Daytona CCE since I seriously doubt 10,000+ people sent for that game. Not even I sent for that game and I was pretty hardcore into Saturn at the end there.

as a bit of a casual Sakura Wars fan, i did get around to picking up both of the original two SATURN SW games about a decade back,
near useless as they may be for someone not at all fluent in written Japanese to actually properly play...

The games are super super SUPER easy and a while back a dude translated every line in the first three or four games (the good ones). You can do it.

Was the Netlink Daytona ever advertised? though I never knew about any games since I didn't subscribe to any magazines only Nintendo Power. I suppose there were commercials but I don't remember any. Looking back its a wonder I manage to get into any games. only because of the sales but then it was random. I had Astal and I should have kept Astal I'm mad at myself for letting go any of the Saturn games I have had over the years.

Netlink Daytona CCE came out rather late in the Netlink era. It for sure wouldn’t have been advertised on TV. It may have only been advertised on the Netlink landing page. I don’t know if it came out before or after Bomberman, which was a regular release more or less. I didn’t care because Daytona on Saturn looks like total crap (all versions.)

The first one was finished somewhat recently, though translation guides have been around forever. I burned that recent translation to a disc, it's pretty nice.

The gameplay in the franchise is almost an afterthought. It just exists, it's all about the story.

Scanned my Neon Genesis Evangelion import Saturn titles.

This one isn't a game, but rather a Gainax Illustrations title with interviews. Kind of an obscure release as there weren't very many non-game titles released for the Saturn.

There is one other title related to NGE for the Saturn. Don't know the name of it, nor own a copy, but it's a Mahjong game that features a lot of Gainax Studio's characters.

do you have this as well? I have all the gainax ones

Oh, that one’s actually playable!

Mahjong is probably among the most actually playable on terms of anime licensed games of that era. The Macross shooter on pc engine was pretty fun too.

I recently have gotten really into mahjong. Now that I can play all these games it’s like a world has opened up. To truly understand PC Engine and Saturn you need to learn a little Japanese...but also I think a little mahjong.

Yeah I don't know much but this year I memorized basic mahjong stuff to be able to play.

I only ever had a majong game for the linx, in that game you just had to match and make a pair, isn't it the same????

As for the evangelion stuff, wow I guess I was too busy in those years drinking or going after women and forgot about my anime roots.
Never knew they made games for that. Cool to see pics.

Nope. That’s some dumb matching thing that became popular as Shanghai! on the Amiga. The tiles are the same and that’s it, the mahjong equivalent of making a domino run. Mahjong is more like poker. Riichi mahjong (Japan style) is another order of magnitude more complex but basically the same. The stuff in video games is two player Riichi mahjong which pretty much only exists in video games. Four player is for sure where it’s at and there are “serious” mahjong games like that (Kiwame is the most popular I think) but most have giant robots and stripping and super moves and such.

The Dragon Ball Z game for PC Engine...when that was new the show was still on the air and nobody was sick of DBZ yet. There were no mall otaku and I didn’t have good internet access...and I was unemployed...so the setting was right and I got into it. I figured out how to play it (not obvious) despite having very little knowledge of Japanese (katakana only at the time) I knew the show and I had a VCR (you’d have to know the game...) and I was able to not only beat it but very much enjoy the game. It’s a very unique hybrid of a digital comic and a fighting simulator. The coolest thing I can compare it to is Initial D for GBA (which is also very good for fans of the show who like GBA).

Now...maybe when I’m retired I’ll seriously play that game. Or maybe my kid will get into it some day. It takes a long time to win fights and the load frequency is brutal. I’m also sick to death of DBZ. It’s unlikely I’ll ever really enjoy it again. This may make it seem totally inferior to games like Yoshi’s Island or Samurai Showdown III or whatever else was released that year that is still very very playable but I think it’s not as cut and dry as that. Some things can be great and then eventually expire. It doesn’t mean they weren’t great.

The Nadia game was probably always as boring as it is now, same for Tenchi Muyo. The Yuyu game for PCE is very similar to the DBZ one but I didn’t know Yuyu back then so I didn’t care. Super Robot Wars Alpha and the games after that maintain their playability but the earlier Winky ones usually don’t since the graphics suck and the load times are heinous. Both Macross games for PCE are pretty good, as are all but the first arcade games but the SFC one is my favorite. Conan is maybe my favorite Riot/Telnet/whoever game but it’s still not that great. The Gunbuster games are a good companion to fans of the OVA (part 3 never came out though ). Wataru is...Wataru. Most of the digital comics do their job but not much else (Cobra, Yawara).

Yeah that YYH game on PCE is kinda weird. I've played it a fair bit.

That's the referenced mahjong game I don't have!