Together Again After 25 years – Reunited with my original Saturn

By James (@TheSegaHolic)

The 90’s, well 1995 to be exact, was an important year in my gaming life. At age 16, after years of playing on home computers and narrowly missing out on a Mega Drive due to my parents and their insistence on me having an educational computer (an Atari ST), I would finally get my hands on the controller of a SEGA Saturn.

However, to fully appreciate the impact of this story, we must look back before we can move forward. 

As I’ve mentioned on the podcast, I had limited home experience with SEGA consoles other than fleeting shots on Aladdin and Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition on a friends Mega Drive II. It was in the arcade where the SEGA “bug” would bite, with Virtua Fighter being the main protagonist. 

Sure, SEGA Rally and Virtua Cop (among others) would go on to have their say, but Virtua Fighter will forever be the catalyst.

I had no idea of the Saturn’s existence, the console market was alien to me, having since been “upgraded” to an Amiga A500 from the aforementioned Atari ST. 

Of course, I did play games on the Amiga, with a plethora of titles at my fingertips thanks to the wonders of X-Copy, a handful of Amiga owning school mates, and weekend trips to what is best described as a local Glaswegian market.

Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Turrican 2, Zool, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Lemmings, Shadow of the Beast, Speedball 2, Another World; all brilliant games in their own right, but … paled in comparison to the grace and fluidity of Virtua Fighter in the arcade. 

Even the very best beat-em-up the Amiga could offer, Body Blows, couldn’t stand up to the technological marvel presented to me every weekend in Booth’s arcade in Glasgow City Centre.

You see, my Uncle is a “techie”, one of those cool Uncles who always seemed to have the latest stuff or new toy back in the day.

And, without trying to sound like Ryo Hazuki, “on that day” in July 1995, an ordinary visit turned into the extraordinary as I was blocked off at the door to my Uncle’s home cinema room. 

He was holding something behind his back. I stood bemused, while he smirked, as all I could hear was the crescendo of intro music, start button jingle, and character select music before … silence. 

And then, a voice boomed from behind the door; FIGHT ONE. READY? GO.

Holy. Shit. Virtua Fighter.

He stepped aside, opened the door, at which I was greeted by Akira having his arse handed to him by Jacky on a giant rear projection screen (ahhh, the 90’s). 

He handed me the controller. I remember standing there, just staring at it for a few moments. It was probably seconds but it felt like minutes as my eyes flickered across the surface, taking in every contour and detail, trying to comprehend my “new normal” having been used to the Zip Stick as my gaming weapon of choice.

A SEGA, not mine per-say, but the closest I’d ever had to one, to a proper games console; to the arcade in the home. 

I pressed the reset button on the console and was greeted by the now familiar Saturn boot screen, and the moments and hours that followed that afternoon still fill me with nostalgic glee to this day. 

I would go on to own a Saturn of my own in Christmas 1996, and my collection at home would expand. Imports from Japan would become part of my gaming life, and while I moved on from system to system, the Saturn that took my SEGA virginity would be left behind, finding its way into the attic, gathering dust for decades to come.

As life moved on, so too did my collection of consoles. The HD era arrived in 2005, and my Dreamcast’s, Saturn’s and their amassed collections would be sold on in 2008, remaining in my mind as beautiful nostalgic memories. 

As years passed and new experiences, both in gaming and life, came my way, the Saturn was always “in there”; the SEGA love of my life.

Every game I adored on this system had an iconic song. An iconic moment. An iconic character. 

And so, it was with a mixture of delight and surprise, that I received the following message last month from my Uncle, still that techie at heart: “James, I was up in the loft, look what I found”.

There she was. 

23 long years had passed since I last laid eyes on her, and time had taken its toll. Dusty, coated in a white spray of some kind, but it was her nonetheless; not just a Saturn, but THE Saturn.

A message followed. “You can have it.”

Absolute elation.

Under normal circumstances I’d have been up at the door quicker than The Flash, but alas due to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, I had to wait a little longer.

3 weeks passed between that initial message and the day that she returned to me, the Saturn from my youth.

Our reunion was nowhere as dramatic as our first meeting. There was no suspense, no build up, no music and no grand unveiling. 

It was just me, alone in my kitchen, with the Saturn dragged from a wrinkled, old Morrison‘s carrier bag with no controller, no A/V lead, and no games. A stark contrast indeed.

It’s only accessory was a power cord, neatly organised with a cable tie, ironically looking far greater in splendour than the machine it was designed to power.

I set about procuring the necessary cables via a combination of Amazon for the A/V and my Saturn owning best mate from back in the day for controllers and a loan of some games.

(Edit: I have since modded the Saturn with a Fenrir ODE).

However, it was time to restore this beauty to her former glory, and after some moderate elbow grease and a lot of TLC, the dust and spray coating was gone, and the customary black sheen of the SEGA Saturn finally shon through once more. 

I sat back, a broad smile reached across my face. “That’s how I remembered her”.

And here I was, now 41 years old, grinning like that same wide eyed 16 year old boy did back on “that day” in July 1995.

As I brushed my hand across the top of the disc tray, wiping away the last residual specs of dust, I muttered a line from the song, The Sound of Silence; “Hello darkness my old friend”.

And as I sat down to write this piece, that song and moment stuck in my mind. I think it says a lot about a system that it can stay in your heart even when it’s gone. That it can mean so much even when you’ve not seen or used one in so long. That it can breed such feelings of warmth and contentment. 

No console, by any other manufacturer, has managed to attain such a deep rooted and emotional attachment.

The song goes on, “And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within the sound of silence”.

Powerful, resonating lyrics yet so true and so poignant at this moment in my long and storied gaming life.

I haven’t just got a Saturn again. I’ve got my first Saturn, my first SEGA, whose memories we created together 25 years ago, yet still mean so much today.

“Hello Darkness Saturn my old friend, I’ve come to play with you again.”