Saturn - for life?

[popularhostage]

I've got a lovely, mint condition white japanese Saturn, thing is.... I was thinking what with all the problems modern gaming hardware seems to suffer, how long should we expect our 10 years old plus hardware to last? Don't get me wrong, mine runs fine, but surely the time will come when it (along with everyone else's) cooks iteself...... To Sega's credit, it has outlasted 2 PS2's, 1 Gamecube and a 360!

[sonicshuffle]

Erm, a fair few years? I hear capacitors are amongst the first things to go.

[sonix]

If MegaCDs, Neo-Geo CDs, Philips CD-is and PC-Engines with CD add-ons still work and they're older than Saturn which is probably even more durable, I think we don't have to worry about it right now and besides Saturns emulation is close to (almost) 100%...

[sonicshuffle]

Emulation is never as nice as the real thing. Unless you can emulate the saturn on a PSP... that would be amazing.

[Snowcat.]

....I think they will last a long time. just look at those original Pong games that work fine!

....The Nes is an unfortunate exception.

[Metal_Sonic]

Most people here would kill lenses first.

[popularhostage]

Fair point about older hardware! As for emulation though....

Give me the original controller and hardware any day.

Honestly though, I still get more of a gaming buzz from my Saturn than any of my current gen machines. I was making my Mii too on my 360 the other day and thinking, this is all very nice but I just want to play the original Sega Rally with is barely recognisable Zebra's!

[grolt]

It's kind of cryptic to even consider that there will be a day when the consoles we grew up with will no longer work. I hope that never happens, but it's something I've never thought about. The Saturn I bought at launch still works flawlessly, and that has had *a lot* of play. In all the lots that I've obtained I've never received a bum Saturn...and we're talking about 20 at this point. I'd say it has a fantastic track record, and the insides are simple enough to not be prone to all the failures that plague the PlayStation 2 or the XBOX. I've got a couple new in box stashed away, so hopefully I'll be covered for at least 50 years. Who knows though...

[mick_aka]

The Atari 2600 my parents got in 1979 is still going strong.

My main concern with consoles like Saturn and Dreamcast is the optical aspect.

The Dreamcast for example certainly benefits from being used, my one heavily used console being the only one that works flawlessly.
MIB or as new Dremcasts I've had that have been in storage for years do not last long at all, I now have 8 that no longer read discs at all.

Saturn however is a strange animal, I've only ever had 1 model 1 Saturn die on me and that was a power board failure.
I have sadly though had more than several model 2 Saturns die on me over the years with dead lasers, power boards, knackered VDPs etc.

I do fear for the future of optical disc based consoles, especially as sourcing new replacement parts is all ready neigh on impossible.

[rossi46]

It's with that in mind that I stock up on my SS hardware whenever I get the chance.

[mick_aka]

You and me both mate

[chizzles]

I look forward to the day where SSF is finally efficient enough to run on smaller devices.

In it's current form, we are still looking at pretty high spec machines even by today's standards to get full frame rate out of it.

[mick_aka]

Even on an 8 core skulltrail rig fast paced racers and beat-em-ups etc. show a bit of slowdown!

Proof if any were needed that the coding for SSF has a long way to go...

[chizzles]

SSF used to run at acceptable speeds on my LG m1 Express laptop, then all of a sudden it started running slowly.

I managed to get Panzer Dragoon Zwei running at about 8fps on an eee PC 1000H, not really playable but *almost* there! an extra 10fps and a Saturn game running on an eee would be real nice.

I guess I may invest in a smaller, more powerful machine one day (there are some out there... but they tend to be pretty damn expensive)

[h0m3rc1d4l]

If Sega were to allow some third party out there could produce the Saturn new just as they have with the NES/SNES systems, we could see playing all of these games our entire lives.