I came home one day from school to find my dad had the day off work, and he was playing Sega Rally on our TV. I had seen this game in the local video game arcade many a time and was intrigued. With curiosity, I asked my dad "What is that ?!?!?! ". And he smiled the way he does when he buys a new toy, almost smug, but he did share his toys. He said it was a "Sega". Little did I know how much enjoyment this little black box would bring to me.
At first it was Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2. We had the standard controller and dad had purchased the steering wheel, because he was a fan of car racing. This glorious beast was set up on the Panasonic 68cm, CRT television. It was state of the art stuff back then. They even both matched in colour, both black. After my dad had his fix, he showed us and taught us how to use it. Always having to turn the TV onto AV3, turning the console on and away you went.
I used to play many games of Sega Rally. I used the Celica over the Delta. I loved the Castrol sponsorship, and one of my favourite uncles had owned a Toyota Celica. I ripped up the first stage quite easily, the forest stage proved to be slightly more taxing, with quite a few 90 degree corners thrown in, but still quite passable. The grand finale is the mountain stage, it mixed it up a bit with some hill climbing, tight and easy corners. If you were good enough to finish in 1st ? you would get to the "secret hidden" lakeside course, the computer was super fast here. Not enough games these days have secrets and specials that truly feel rewarding that you had to work for to get. Apart from the arcade mode, there was some time trial and also some car tuning. You could change blow off valve noise, steering ratio, suspension stiffness, gear ratio etc. Quite the customization for an old game!...
Daytona USA was also a favourite. Even to this day if you walk into a Timezone or Itencity or other arcade, hell even bowling alleys, and other leisure activities such as go-karting or laser skirmish often have these old machines sitting prominently in the premises. Most machines are set up in twins or in 4's or in 8's ! for eight player racing!. The Sega Saturn version was good in that you didn't have to feed it $1 and $2 coins to play. Apart from this money saving aspect, two courses and car selection also graced the Saturn version. I played this many times and a highlight was played hard mode and endurance mode on a Saturday morning one day. Normally the parents would sleep in to about 9 / 10am on a Saturday. I woke up nice and early at 6:30 or so, I got some warm clothes on and skipped off downstairs. I played Sea-Side Street Galaxy circuit ( the hardest one) , on hard difficult and maximum amount of laps. (approx 70laps) . I cleaned up and came first, it just took a while seeing as a lap took about 1min 40 to complete. Also was secret unlockable car from the arcade version. And two horses, Uma One and Uma Two.
Virtua Fighter 2 was a 3D fighting game to grace the Sega Saturn. It featured a very mixed bunch of fighters each with their own style and moves, but they could be categorised into different types. There was the girls, Pai and Sarah in particular, that were very fast, especially with a BBB C move , which is punch, punch, punch, "sonic" kick. then throw in a Up + B to hurt a downed opponent. There was the big guys. Wolf and Jeffrey come to mind. Slow but had many grapple and throw abilities that could demolish someone's health bar very, very quickly. Then there was the complicated and tricky characters. Kage, Lion, Akira and Shun-Di come to mind. Kage was a ninja who could jump higher than any other character. Lion used many kicks and tripping moves which was unique and can catch the opponent unawares. Akira the Karate(?) kid could do some brilliant punch's and whole arm thrusts and reversals and counter moves. Truly epic to see, but so hard to figure out all the tricks. Shun-Di was hilarious.... and stands out, a drunk old Asian man who tends to drink alot in battle and has many trick moves. There was even a move that could be performed according to the manual after " 8 drinks". I don't think I ever got to see this, most other characters would be dead before Shun could sip "8 Drinks". I will find this and bring it up in a later post.
Other games I played included, Panzer Dragon Zwei, Baku Baku, The Need for Speed, , Sega Touring Car, Manx TT Superbike, the demo disc. And last year 2010! my brother purchased Golden Axe the Duel, after we avidly played it on the demo disc for eons.
Panzer Dragon is very unique. You are a human on a dragon armed with a gun, this experience is on rails similar to Virtua Cop and Time Crises, however there is some split paths one can take on certain missions. A fascinating aspect of the game is how the game progresses based on well you have performed your dragon 'evolves' and has more health, berserk, and your laser lock-ones increase. My favourite area was mission III, the forest stage. The last boss being a large white alien scorpion monkey with massive claws that would shoot its boomerang tail at your and cut you to pieces, as well as shoot at you and 'swing' from the trees. Truly epic. Something you remember and can cheer about when the boss dies! I played this game thru many time thru and remains a very fond memory.
Baku Baku is tetris with animals. The dog eats the bones, the monkey eats the bananas, the rabbit eats the carrot and finally the panda eats the bamboo. BUT there is a 5th one. A mouse that eats cheese if you do so choose to add him in the options. This game was like tetris with a twist. You would be playing alongside an opponent whether real or CPU. If you eat some food some random blocks are dropped onto the opponent's screen. If you can really chain up combo's and do large amounts of food eaten. Or 2/3 animals eating the one type etc. you can amass large chains. The game ends when your screen is filled up in which a GAME OVER appears and lion eats your side of the screen. Simple, addictive, and quite deep for being tetris. Many difficulty modes and settings so it has a lot of replay value.
The Need for Speed was the TRUE need for speed, unlike the bullshit it has turned into today. Sorry Electronic Arts, truth hurts doesn't it ? Police, exotic cars (LOL Hyundai Tiburon JK), high speeds, risk, reward, many tracks, epic scenery, brilliant sound both music and effects, little extras like car bios and reviews, bonus tracks + car. etc. A lot of effort was put into the Sega Saturn version and it shows. For such an old game it's packed with content. Dodge Vipers, Acura NIX, Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Diablo, Porsche Carrera, Toyota Supra, Corvette. Whilst the Lamborghini and Ferrari where the fastest the other cars still tended to keep up with them their handling and control was often much easier, but alas if the course was a bit straight and long, the Ferrari and Lamborghini would be pulling 300kmh + a cut above everyone else. 2 Player mode also featured in where you could race a friend plus the AI cars!. Unheard of back then except for, not even Daytona USA, unless it was an arcade machine.
Sega Touring Car is VERY love / hate. Back in the day I was able to rip it up and win most if not all races just like Daytona USA. I think I used to use the controller over the wheel because it was faster to get full lock. I recently played the game and out of all the Saturn Games it is an exciting game, nice music and cars and tracks but the people in charge for car physics, grip, control and dynamics got it horribly wrong. Sega Rally and Daytona offer more control. Hell even the Ferrari in Need for Speed holds and grips to a line better. In Sega Touring Car, the car drifts wide every. single. time. To compound the issue... the CPU is able to take ANY corner 30 - 50 kmh quicker than you. You're not going to win buddy. Also... whatever you qualify with, they will beat it not by hundredths or tenths. but by a couple of seconds, so suck it up and grin and bear it. If your just going thru puberty though or pre-pubescent, or just retarded, you might be good at this game, it takes special type of control and patience for this bizarre game. Enough of my time onto better things.
" Manx TT SUPERBIKE ! " The phrase screams as the " Press Start " screen. Another nostalgic thing I miss about consoles, no games these days have a " Press Start.", it just shoves ugly logos and companies you have never heard about, followed by a poorly designed, heartless main menu. There is so much to this game. Simple yet very deep, similar to Virtua Fighter 2 in that aspect. This game I am biased towards however, at the time of playing this I used to watch Mick Doohan rip up the Moto GP on his 500cc Honda 2-Strole Factory Repsol Beast. A golden era with Mick finishing first all the time, with a fat number #1 on the front of his bike. He was the king. Another bias is I had a BMX bike, so I preferred and still do to this day prefer two wheels to four. All the bike nuts understand. I used to lean my orange and yellow BMW bike so far over I one day fell off in front of my grandparents. I pretty much landed on my face knee and elbow all at once. I had that thing leaned over a good 40 / 50 degrees and I lost the front. I was crying, and had blood, and scratches everywhere, funnily enough my grandparents were just arriving so the first thing they saw was their grandson eating tarmac. The look on their face was priceless.
NOW the game, enough reminiscing. It had an ARCADE mode which was just like the Arcade version of 2 tracks and one bike in either Manual or Automatic transmission. Saturn mode featured Challenge mode, Superbikes, etc and had bikes to chose from. 3 Categories which consisted of Acceleration (didn't matter much simply slipstream), Handling (More important than acceleration.) If the bike is able to screech the tyres it can make any corner. Only one or two bikes had such low handling you could literally not 'screech' them around a corner. Top Speed. ( Equally important as handling). The Castrol Superbike could get 200mph +. nothing came close. every other bike with a high top speed could get 180- 190. However you will need a slipstream. The racing itself is very close, however it is a bit linear, and thus predictable. In certain sections of the track you will be strong, your bike will be faster than theirs. In other places you will need to slipstream and this effect is strong. If you have a bike in your sights, stay behind him as much you can and it feels like a big hand or a Greek god is pushing your bike along hurtling your bike to victory. The tracks Laxey and TT course are very good circuits in themselves. Laxey is open and wide roads everywhere, a very nice learning track. TT is where it's at. Tight corners, chicanes, death defying racing next to houses and thru gaps and jumps. It takes SKILL to get it done. The game is very tough but not punishing like Sega Touring Car. You are still in control you are NOT fighting controls, just yourself and the very fast opponents. It's very gratifying to fight skilled opponents, this is the trade mark of a good game. 2 player is very good and doesn't skip a beat. You can use the steering wheel for this game. It's strange and works well for the Laxey course, do not try it on the TT course however, you will be grinding against the wall and crashing all the time. The manual of the game provides insight into the history of the TT. It talks about how the Norse Vikings? would when they captured or found a king would cut out the rib cage and rip out the heart of their enemies whilst it's still beating as an offering to the God Thor?. Crazy stuff.... And also a real SEGA sponsored team did compete in the TT on the Isle of Mann.
This game is just like Sega Rally, and Daytona USA in the arcade. I am self-proclaimed king of the Arcade version of Manx TT. So long as the gears work and the machine is in good condition, and my pockets are full, the word MAT should be written on the NO# 1 spot on the machines. I even wear my real helmet just to go that bit quicker, it does work, gets a lot of attention too, but I have never been kicked out.
ABOVE: These two pics are the Suzuki SEGA entries in the 1996 Manx TT.
If it wasn't for Sega ?? What would I do ? I perhaps would of had a Playstation 1. Or a Nintendo 64. The PS1 had MILLIONS of games, many good games, many brilliant, some bad ones. Nintendo 64 I had a soft spot for, I for the most part hate most Mario games, but super smash bro's. Mario kart were very good. Perfect Dark I never really got to play. Goldeneye was the bomb!. Turok Dinosaur Hunter was scary and ahead of its time. Zelda! . So many good ones.
If I didn't get a console at all my whole life would be changed. I probably would have something to do with computer games or consoles, I would find it or it would find me, one way or another, it's in my blood. Reading a book, watching TV or a movie, all well and good, but I would take the video game over any of them. I wish these games had proper sequels that were just as big. Sega Rally 2 is not as good as the original. Need for Speed still thrives to this day, but it has changed so many times, which is not necessarily bad BUT they need to really play and look at the originals. NFS High Stakes, Hot Pursuit, Porsche Unleashed and Underground 1 (not 2) were breakthroughs, the rest, Carbon, Pro Street, Most Wanted or whatever garbage they are up to now, are still ok but feel very soul-less and reek of consumerism. They are the Crazy Clarks $2 bargain crap store of the Need for Speed series that no one wants or respects, they just tolerate it.
Thanks for reading. I can and could get into every tiny detail of each game but that's for you to find out when you play these wonderful games. A Sega Saturn might be very hard to come across nowadays as they are somewhat a novelty / rarity packed up in the top shelf of cupboards, or neglected. Grab a Sega Saturn emulator and some ROMs, if you still want to experience the time when gaming really was in full swing and in such a prime.
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