Shining Force 3

Yeah that's normal. You'll end up with a large army though. For the game, usually the best "strategy" is too just pound on one enemy at a time. I much prefer the Langrisser series.

I can't speak for SF3 as I've never played it (only got the jap version and I don't understand it) but in SF2 that is completely normal.

It's totally normal. I don't see how you could have a dodgy copy anyway. You're running a burned copy right? Unless someone hacked the ISO, I don't see how such a glitch would be possible (unless it is part of the original game, but glitches like those usually don't happen 100% of the time).

if its burnt that means it is a dodgy copy :/

LOL. whe ni say dodgy i mean been hacked or modded.

Also unlike some people get saturn games to play not to colelct dust on my shelf and be all smug that i have a complete collection which isnt played XD

meh i backed up all my games i own anyway which is hell of alot and pretty much all the rarest games. I just didnt have SF 3 so I figured what the hell. saves me £50.

Really, did games even have set "release dates" back then? I'd always remember them mentioning a month, or even a quarter, and then you'd just have to keep checking your local gaming stores to see when they'd finally ship in. Looking back through old gaming magazines, pretty much every game that's advertised in the pages never has a street date listed. I guess it was just assumed then that if it was promoted it had to have been out somewhere.

From my own experience, Saturn games had quite strict release dates in Japan, with certain titles launcing on key days in the calendar there. For example, while it's not entirely related, the arcade version of Fighting Vipers debuted on the country's equivalent to Labo(u)r Day.

As for here in the UK, it seems that Sega - and most other companies, for that matter - weren't as concerned with the day of a game's release, choosing instead to focus on the month. However, there are definitely a few examples of Sega mentioning the exact launch date of their software in advertisements...

In fact, the recently uploaded Demonstration series of commercials proves this, as do the full page spots often found on the back of SSM and Mean Machines Sega. Also, I recall the September 5th 1996 street date for NiGHTS being quite a big deal, along with the announcements for each of the so-called "big three" AM conversions that came out around Christmas '95.

In all honesty, the US had it far worse, and to this day I'm still struggling to find something more accurate for most games than just the quarter they were released. Come to think of it, through my own research I've learned that the majority of dates as listed on GameFAQs are simply given as the first day of a month, unless Sega really did put its titles out over there in batches all at the same time!