SAD JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN

SAD JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN

In the last couple of months, I found a new skill I want to try my skills in - restoring old consoles. There's something fascinating about bringing the obsolete hardware back to life, along with a fresh coat of paint and maybe an improvement or two. And to try my luck...

I imported a Japanese Sega Saturn. It's in a pretty rough shape - and that's what I intend on working on.

Why Saturn?

Sega's fifth generation console was, in most parts of the world, merely a footnote. Back in 1994, when the gaming world was ready to move on from older hardware, Sega released Saturn in Japan, where it was fairly successful. Its library, full of RPG titles and games known from arcade machines, caused it to be the company's best selling console in its homeland.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the rest of the world. When PlayStation - Sony's debut console - was announced for release, Sega's US spokesperson announced their machine will be available... right now. Four months before its predicted release date. This, combined with the ridiculous MSRP (around 399 USD), was just one of the reasons it was a commercial failure.

However, the cult following is still there. Saturn has many fans to this day, and the library is full of hidden gems and titles that are just fun to play. Nowadays, PAL consoles cost around 100 euros; however, I got my Saturn from Japan for around fourty EUR, including all the cables and a few games - even including shipping, it was cheaper than getting European version, plus the games themselves are also much more affordable.

Besides... Black Saturns are pretty, sure, but there's just something that I particularly enjoy about Japanese white variant. It's... sleeker, I'd say. Maybe my console doesn't show it, though xD

First impressions

I'm not gonna beat around the bush here. Visually, my Saturn is in a poor state. It's yellowed and smells like... I can't even put it into words. My friend described the smell as "a sad Japanese businessman" (hence the title). Thankfully it seems to have all the pieces intact, and the CD door opens and closes with no issue.

The controller and memory cartridge aren't much better with the yellowing. In addition, I'm not sure if that's just my controller or an universal issue, but the ABC buttons feel... loose. Like there's some membrane missing or something. I dunno... we'll see soon enough.

The cables are all here - AV output, which should work with my screens. SCART would be better, of course, but for now it's not an issue. Japanese plug is a nuisance, but a step-down converter will do the job for now - in the end, I want to replace the power supply anyway.

But does it boot tho??????/

TL;DR: Yes.

Thankfully, the console starts with no issues. The main menu lets me play music from CDs, which is awesome - though it's merely a nice addition.

It's the games that I wanted to check. Starting with Virtua Fighter 2 - the only game I own that I can understand pretty well - it plays good, about just what I could've expect. The only other game I checked was Evangelion Digital Card Library - which seemed to run alright, despite me not understanding a thing.

Mayyyybe I should've learned Japanese first.

Oh well!

Now, for the future plans!

Firstly, and most obviously - I need to work on the shell. It's awfully yellow, with some darker spots. The controller and memory cartridge aren't much better. I've never done any Retrobrite before - and this specific chemical isn't really available in Poland - but some hydrogen peroxide shouldn't hurt.

As mentioned above, I will replace the power supply. There's one on Aliexpress that takes in any 12V 3A power supply, which will eliminate the need for the OG Japanese cable - and, by extention, the step-down converter. If it works, it'll be easier to get replacement cables.

The display is a whole other beast. My current setup involves the original RCA cables, with a converter to HDMI - good enough for now. Right now, I'm eyeing a RAD2X - it not only lets me use HDMI with Saturn, but also upscales the image quality! Sadly, 55 pounds (without shipping!) is currently a bit much for me to rationalize. Maybe once I'm more comfortable with the system...

These are the most important things for me right now. Sure, I might look into a Saroo (cartridge that lets me run games off of an SD card), or get more peripherals such as an arcade stick - but that's not really my priority.

Frankly, the only other thing I need to do is learn Japanese... it'd be easier to actually understand what I'm reading! Now, if you excuse me - I'll get back to Virtua Fighter...

Meanwhile, what are your thoughts about Saturn? Maybe you played it, or even own one yourself? Feel free to shoot me an e-mail!