What to buy?

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Alucard1191
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Joined: November 16th, 2016, 12:55 pm

What to buy?

Postby Alucard1191 » June 11th, 2019, 6:06 pm

I'm planning on finally treating myself to a little something. Been working really hard and I need to reward myself. I haven't bought something for myself for a looooong time, so I'm really thinking about it here.

Now, I have several options I'm looking at, and would like some feedback!

1) An HD component cable of some kind. (Did a thread on this recently) I finally have an old school TV all set up with RGB capability. Getting something like a Saturn component cable would be awesome, but that's pricey, and other than make the Saturn look better, it wouldn't really be anything new.

2) A replacement Dreamcast. They are pretty reasonable, especially without cables. (Again, had a thread about mine, it works, just is running rough.)

3) Something like a SNES mini or the upcoming Genesis mini. These honestly seem like pretty good value if they actually play well. And the SNES mini has Earthbound on it, which on its own is really expensive... and the games list for the 42 game upcoming Genesis mini looks genuinely pretty good.

4) The Sega Saturn Unlocker cartridge. Has anybody bought this? I know you can mod it yourself for free + materials, but I honestly rather just put in a cartridge that handles it all. I really want to be able to play Panzer Dragoon Saga, and translated games like Shining Force III and Dragon Force II. This is what I'm most leaning towards if it works as advertised. Many Etsy sellers make the games in nice cases with professional looking labels as well, so this would unlock a whole world of games for one of my most beloved, but not nearly played enough, systems.

5) A game of some type. Instant gratification, could be for the Switch, X Box One, 360, or an older system. (I've been really wanting to replace Virtua Cop II... it didn't make it in my big move many years ago. Seemed to have left a whole box of games when that happened.)

I'm only going to be buying one thing from this list, what should I be spending some hard earned money on?

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ActRaiser
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Re: What to buy?

Postby ActRaiser » June 11th, 2019, 7:08 pm

Alucard1191 wrote:
3) Something like a SNES mini or the upcoming Genesis mini. These honestly seem like pretty good value if they actually play well. And the SNES mini has Earthbound on it, which on its own is really expensive... and the games list for the 42 game upcoming Genesis mini looks genuinely pretty good.

4) The Sega Saturn Unlocker cartridge. Has anybody bought this? I know you can mod it yourself for free + materials, but I honestly rather just put in a cartridge that handles it all. I really want to be able to play Panzer Dragoon Saga, and translated games like Shining Force III and Dragon Force II. This is what I'm most leaning towards if it works as advertised. Many Etsy sellers make the games in nice cases with professional looking labels as well, so this would unlock a whole world of games for one of my most beloved, but not nearly played enough, systems.


Go with option 3 or 4. With 3 it's super easy to hack and add other games including Terranigma. That one took a bit longer to figure out but well worth the effort to play it.

Sorry, yes. I have one of these devices. It was the only way I was going to try out PDS as I'm too cheap to spend that much money on a single game. 4 gives you a cheap way to try PDS and an English version of Policenauts. I ordered both online so I didn't have to monkey around with downloading and burning the ISOs. If you want to cheaply expand your Saturn library that's really the only easy way to go, at least in my humble opinion.

You won't regret either decision.
<edited>

Voor
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Re: What to buy?

Postby Voor » June 11th, 2019, 8:42 pm

Oh man, I’m in the same boat. Have been working extra lately, with all the extra cash going towards responsible-adult things and stuff and for the family. I rarely buy anything at all for myself.

I generally play after 9pm, and would rather have a portable device, so it’s easier to just play on the couch than in front of a TV (with low volume as to not disturb everyone sleeping).

Thinking of:
—Nintendo 2DS: had one before early last year and liked it, though I used it 90% for Mario Kart. I thought it felt really comfortable, was really cheap ($80), and dig the design more. Downside is the small screen.
—2DSXL—double the price, not as comfortable, but much bigger screen. Nice library of games for cheap. Can play snes games.
—Switch—obviously most expensive, and it seems big for a portable gaming device. But could become the “family” console should the kids get more into gaming...but it would be nice to have my own thing.
—Switch Mini—supposed to come out later this year for around $200. Better size.

—movies—I made a list of my 40 favorite movies, and the local game store has tons of movies for $3-4. I thought about just going there and loading up.

* Itll probably be another 2DS or XL. Waiting for next payday!

**sorry, for you, I’d go with the SNES or genesis mini. The snes was really well done, and game list is great. I’ve never really played RPGs, but I played Earthbound for a couple of hours and it was really interesting.

Alucard1191
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Re: What to buy?

Postby Alucard1191 » June 12th, 2019, 12:10 pm

The genesis mini is a ways off, which would put the SNES mini as option 3. The thing with that is I own the majority of the games on there. Not that it would be a bad thing to play them in HD on a device that won't sometime lose save files, but the saturn unlocker is probably where I'm leaning. I've been wanting to play Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga since I was a kid, and that would make that a possibility.

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ActRaiser
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Re: What to buy?

Postby ActRaiser » June 12th, 2019, 1:39 pm

In that case go with the Saturn unlocker. It's a great choice.

Alucard1191
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Re: What to buy?

Postby Alucard1191 » June 13th, 2019, 1:38 pm

Yeah, I think it will be the Saturn unlocker, and I'm honestly rather tempted to buy Shining Force III translated trilogy as well. Would be right around 100 dollars altogether, and that seems like a good price to finish a game series that I've wanted to finish since I was a child. It will also allow me to buy japanese games, which are so much cheaper than the US versions, and in most cases the language barrier doesn't matter much. (On things like shooters and fighters anyway)

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Retro STrife
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Re: What to buy?

Postby Retro STrife » June 13th, 2019, 2:19 pm

The Saturn unlocker is a niche item so I'd usually point to something else on that list.. but after hearing all the reasons you've said, it seems like the way for you to go for sure. Panzer Dragoon Saga is my all-time favorite JRPG - and I've played my fair share - so I think that's a very good reason to go that route. If you do get one, let us know how well it works. And I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on PDS - I haven't played it in about 15 years, so I wonder how it holds up today.

matmico399
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Re: What to buy?

Postby matmico399 » June 13th, 2019, 4:07 pm

I have to agree with the rest of the guys. The Saturn unlocker seems like a no-lose situation. Good luck choosing.

Voor
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Re: What to buy?

Postby Voor » June 13th, 2019, 7:26 pm

Is there a new Panzer Dragoon coming out (or remake)?

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ActRaiser
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Re: What to buy?

Postby ActRaiser » June 14th, 2019, 5:48 pm

Voor wrote:Is there a new Panzer Dragoon coming out (or remake)?


I believe there's a remake/port of the first game coming out for the Switch. As you know it's not the same as the RPG Panzer Dragoon Saga game.


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