The Sega Saturn has been cracked… And it only took 20 years

The Sega Saturn has finally been cracked. It took a while.

[darthv72]

Saturn is an awesome and underappreciated platform. Damn expensive to collect for now but it sure has some really nice arcade ports, especially fighters and shmups.

[sirultimos]

I keep meaning to get an Action Replay so I can import some games and hopefully mitigate at least some of that cost. North American copies are just too expensive.

[choujij]

This is great news. I installed a modchip in my Model I Saturn, but may grab one of these one day. Only thing that's unfortunate is that it takes up the VCD port, so I'd have to unplug mine when in use. Not a big deal and still totally worth it IMO. I even imported the UK Sega wireless controllers cause of how much I love this system. And of course, grabbed an Action Replay and Sega Saturn Memory Cart. :D

[Trekster_Gamer]

Yeah if it hadn't had taken twice the time to develop the same game compared to the PS1 it might have done so much better.

[-Foxtrot]

Really need to buy the console again. Mine broke years ago

[goathouse774]

The Saturn had a great style. I still think the graphics in the Panzer Dragoon series hold up better than most of the PS1 library.

[Psygnosis333]

Compare it to Ace Combat 3

[NotEvenMyFinalForm]

Saturn wasn't designed for 3D. Your nostalgia is blinding you. Compare games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider which were launched for both systems to realize that the Saturn was weaker. Saturn was designed primarily to run 2D games at the same level as the arcades at the time but it couldn't push as many polys as a PS1 for 3D.

[goathouse774]

@NotEvenMyFinalForm

Not sure what kind of crusade you're on, but there's no question that Saturn had some fine-looking 3D games, not to mention the 2D and mixed stuff.

Panzer Dragoon Saga (and its precursors) has a tremendous visual style that still looks singular and great, to this day.

Yes, PS1 was geared for 3D, but nobody is arguing that. Saturn had its own style (possibly stemming from developers needing to work around the tricky hardware) and produced visual delights for those willing to appreciate them.

[Dangerous]

WOW and i though that nobody can cracked Sega Saturn , I took two decade to make it true.

[solideagle]

I dont understand, whats the point cracking/hacking a 20 year old console?

[goathouse774]

What's the point of archiving music? Why not just destroy all record of music before Nickelback? Like to relive classic movies from previous eras? Tough crap, it's old. Like your older relatives? You shouldn't -- they're old!

[hduce]

@goat house That was a perfect response to solid eagle. I love my Sega Saturn and I still play it til this day. I was fortunate enough to get a US unit as well as a Japanese one.

[donwel]

"Nickleback"
Ew....

[NotEvenMyFinalForm]

But you could already play games on a soft modded Saturn or an emulator, so your response make no sense.

[goathouse774]

@NotEvenMyFinalForm

If you'd watched the video, you'd know that this crack and its attendant hardware mod would vastly improve the accessibility to this library, for many more people.

It gives you the option to rip your entire library to a usb drive, the benefits of which I don't need to list here. Not to mention how that helps people with a failing disc drive.

[Majister-Ludi]

Nickelback gtfo

[SO71D]

For the reasons stated in the article which you clearly did not read.

[rainslacker]

Playing new software that has been made for emulators...and likely playing pirated games since the games are pretty expensive to buy.

One could get the system itself for around $80-100 though. Imagine that might go up now that it's been cracked.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Pirated Saturn games lol.

[Fullmetalevolust]

I still have mine and I fire it once in a while because the games are unlike any other.
While most people grew up with a ps1, I was the very proud owner of a Saturn and man did I make the right choice, for me at least.
Countless hours of excellent games, burning rangers, guardian heroes, dragon force, virtua fighter virtua cop, sega rally, Shining force 3, Panzer dragoon on rail and Saga, albert odyssey, etc...
I am still skeptical about it's been cracked lol but I keep my hopes up.

Edit: What he has done is incredible, Now I want to purchase it :) Take my money

[Loktai]

I loved my Saturn. .. I bought it as soon as it came down in price a bit. Shining force 3 was great, it broke my heart when they didn't localize the last two scenarios. Fighters megamix and solar eclipse sucked away an entire summer for me.. and yeah panzer dragoon was amazing but I never owned saga. I was a Sega fan since the master system, I still have it but the plastic casing is cracked and I don't have the heart to hook it up to test it.. in case its broken. Between 1995 and 2001, I hated Sony for killing my beloved systems... then I got a Ps2 and when I saw the RPG library expanding lIke it did. . Well I changed my opinion after some quality time with games like Shadow hearts.

[Fullmetalevolust]

I had to burn the fan translations into CDs so I could play the 2nd and 3rd scenario and I had to mod my Saturn. The drive becomes unstable after a few years and it doesn't like unofficial CDs lol so it bugs out sometimes but I am glad I've been able to play scenario 2 in its entirety.

[LordMaim]

Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Saga. I don't have many Saturn games left, but they're still among my favorites.

[rainslacker]

I was lucky enough to have a PS1 and a Saturn. And a TG-CD which lasted through several generations really(little known fact just how supported it was just not in the US) .:) Mostly because I got my first job when I was 13 and made pretty good money for working just the weekend mornings.

Was an awesome time for me. RayEarth, Guardian Heroes, and Shining Force rank among some of my favorites.

It was a really underrated system for it's time, and unfortunately fell victim to Sega's mishandling of it. That thing could do a lot that the other systems couldn't, but sadly, lacked some of the means to provide what the PS1 could in terms of 3D experiences.

[Der_Kommandant]

I used all my saved money to buy a Saturn when it came out, all my friends wanted to go to my house and play Daytona, Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter.

I love Playstation but Saturn will always have a special place in my heart.

[sk8ofmnd]

I too had a saturn before going playstation and never looked back. I think if sega would have stayed in the console race things could have been much different now. Esp if they partnered with someone like nintendo. I was primarily a Nintendo fanboy as i started on the nes. But something about the saturn caught my attention. I loved the controller still to this day better than the ones of today. The 6 button face was the best for faster paced games like fighters. I played all the games you mentioned plus it had a port of the original single player for quake. While even then in like 1996 i thought the graphics were choppy and dated.. The gameplay were amazing. Now, my biggest gripe with the saturn going to the playstation 1 wasnt what most ppl gripe about. The sound effects of the saturn werent so bad till you fired up a ps for the first time. I remember prefering to listen to my then sony walkman cd player than the sounds comming from the saturn 😂. Was it because the saturn was lacking up to date audio hardware? I remember how much better the music player on the ps1 worked.

[Petebloodyonion]

Segataaaa Sanshirooooooooo!

Still have mine and still own Panzer dragon Saga :)

[Fullmetalevolust]

I, too, own PD Saga, isn't it an amazing game??? I'll never part with it :)

[LastcenuryRob]

Same here! I got it the day it was released. Amazing game! I didn't have school that day so I went to the local TRU right when it opened and was able to buy one of the two allocated to them. I've heard that 5000 to 10,000 US editions were released in the entire United States. I have never found the exact print run, but no matter what, it was tiny. I will never part with it either!

[noksucow73]

Love my Saturn and it still gets player constantly. Panzer Dragoon, Xmen Children of the Atom, Shinobi Legions, Tomb Raider, Daytona USA, MR Bones, and Resident Evil are amongst the favorite that I own.

[Psychotica]

Now if someone can make that web page work on an iphone..

[candystop]

Didn't "Nights" debut on the Sega Saturn? I still remember purchasing the console and my friend dropping it on the wood floor. Plugged it in and thankfully it worked like a charm.

[donwel]

Jesus, 20 years. That does make me feel old.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

Aww man so many memories...Back before the Saturn was released in America I bought a Japanese Saturn. Their was a paper called The Recycler out in L.A. and in this paper people would post all kinds of things for sale. I had this Asian guy I use to buy import games from and I saw he had a Saturn for sale. Paid $1000.00 cash for it and was never happier. Great memories with my Saturn..

[rynodigital]

Finally, I can play Clockwork Knight again!

[bf000777966]

has Dreamcast been cracked yet?

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

DC has been cracked a long time ago if u mean playing backed up games.

[LastcenuryRob]

Oh boy it was! Right off the bat! Probably the reason it went under before its time. Very easy to crack and very easy to pirate games.

[NohansenBoy]

Eh, it did better than the Wii U and the Wii U has a very limited backup loader that's still rather hard to setup and use. Blaming piracy might not be the best way to get a company to get their stuff together.

[rynodigital]

OT, but where can one buy a super small box that i can load up with Mame / NeoGeo emulators and hook up to my HDTV? One that's basically not just a small PC

[LastcenuryRob]

buy an OUYA.

[rye74]

I don't get it my Saturn plays CD-Rs and I dont have a MOD CHIP. I have that Action Replay Plus cartridge, doesn't that allow CD-Rs to be played on the Saturn?

[Fullmetalevolust]

You can do soft MOD with the action replay cartridge and I think the memory cartridge as well.

[Master of Unlocking]

Cool I suppose, but what are those games that are so great on the Saturn that we run the risk of losing forever? Beside guardian heroes I mean?

[LastcenuryRob]

All the Panzer Dragoon games, especially Saga. Daytona was an amazing racer, Radiant Silvergun, Nights into Dreams, Dragon Force, Virtua Fighter 2, Shining Force 3 to name just a handful! The console was Amazing!!!

[Munnkyman]

One of my fav consoles

[FallenAngel1984]

Sega is doomed!

[LastcenuryRob]

Genesis is better than SNES

[Angeljuice]

"Megadrive" I think you'll find it was called. Pfft 'Genesis'!

[LastcenuryRob]

The Saturn was my system of choice when it first came out! I got the others but the Saturn was the one I always gravitated to the most! Still have every game I bought for it including Panzer Dragoon Saga the day it came out! Amazing system but gotta say I think Panzer Dragoon 2 and Guardian Heroes are still my favorites of them all!

[Drithe]

I still dont understand Sega's thinking in NOT bringing out all the old Saturn rpgs on to the psn. Would die to have those Shining Forces games on the psn.

[Rhythmattic]

Wow... A muso, coder, electronics engineer....
Level- GENIUS

[goathouse774]

I could see this guy becoming a minor internet celebrity.

[andrewsquall]

I guess somebody gave 2 shits eventually to do this.

[Fishermenofwar]

somehow find a Dreamcast and play it...that is all...Best system I got for 25$ at a garage sale

[SaiyanFury]

Last I checked, and I verified this myself, a working emulator does exist, but only plays the physical discs. I believe it was SSF that actually does work, and I played Shining the Holy Ark with it. Mind you, it requires a relatively beefy PC in order to play due to the Saturn's insane architecture.

[jonivtec]

Personally my best console ever was the dreamcast....but saturn was a great piece of hardware at is time.

[Gwiz]

Wasn't Panzer Dragoon a Sega Saturn title?

[sk8ofmnd]

Gwiz: Yes panzer dragoon was on the Saturn.

I think if sega would have stayed in the console race things could have been much different now. Esp if they partnered with someone like nintendo. I was primarily a Nintendo fanboy as i started on the nes. But something about the saturn caught my attention. I loved the controller still to this day better than the ones of today. The 6 button face was the best for faster paced games like fighters. I played all the games mentioned plus it had a port of the original single player for quake. While even then in like 1996 i thought the graphics of quake were choppy and dated.. The gameplay was amazing. Now, my biggest gripe with the saturn going to the playstation 1 wasnt what most ppl gripe about. The sound effects of the saturn werent so bad till you fired up a ps for the first time. I remember prefering to listen to my then sony walkman cd player than the sounds comming from the saturn 😂. Was it because the saturn was lacking up to date audio hardware? I remember how much better the music player on the ps1 worked

[XanderZane]

King of game consoles? I got a chuckle out of that. It did have some very nice exclusives like Panzer Dragon Saga (Zwie), Dragon Force, SEGA Rally, Guardian Heroes, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2 (Kids), Shining Force 3 and a bunch of other titles. Even with those titles the system just didn't sell as well as it's competition even though it launched first. It had actually launched in some retailers before they even made the announcement at the E3. Apparently a few retailers broke the street date. The system was still decent. The controller wasn't great (like the Dreamcast) and there were a lot of bad 3rd party games on it. This article says it took 20 years to crack, but this guy didn't try cracking it himself until 2013. So it took him 3 years. I don't think a lot of people cared about cracking the Saturn that much because once the Dreamcast was released, most SEGA fans forgot about the Saturn.