Saturn V

This weekend, I was at AI-Con - Tasmania's prestigious anime convention. As well as engaging in the usual convention trappings such as cosplay, gameshows and talking to other nutters, I did spend some time in the games room - where lo and behold I stumbled across a Sega Saturn.
I've said a lot about the Sega Saturn before - mostly wondering why Sega aren't doing anything with the games that came on it. I've heard no concrete evidence as to why: some say source codes for certain games were lost and others say the Saturn's complex technology is too difficult to emulate.
But I digress: Over the course of the weekend I got to play Nights and Panzer Dragoon for the first time in a long time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Many of the games of the fifth generation may have looked impressive at the time but now they seem to have aged rather horribly. Granted there are one or two exceptions (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night being one such example - and maybe Final Fantasy IX) but many fifth generation games, I find, don't look great at all - to the point one can only wonder what the big deal was originally. And the same can be said of my experience playing the Saturn. I have been interested in Panzer Dragoon series for it's ideas, art direction and Saga's status of being the holy grail of gaming - playing it, the graphics look too pixelated that was often hard to see what was happening. And Nights didn't fare much better: The lack of the 3d controller made it had to get into grips with and the game graphics looked pixalated, again, and nowhere near the intro I feel in love with back in 1996.

Mind you, I've always wondered why Sega doesn't dust off the Saturn titles like they have done with the Megadrive and the Dreamcast but I think I see why: I've seen firsthand that many Saturn titles look like arse now - when compared to the Dreamcast and even some Megadrive titles. It's equally possible that maybe Sega would like to forget about the consoles that didn't work out for them.

Funny how things seem daft the further you get from your teens.....

But here's a thought: The Virtual Console, PSN and XBLA have really gone to an effort of making old games accessible to many people - some of whom may not have played the titles in question, It makes me wonder how many other games have been passed over for release and will thus forever remain unplayed.....