I genuinely didn't know that the Saturn even released in Korea, I'd never seen the Samsung Saturn until now. Phenomenal video as always.

Woah, a Saturn video? Outta this world! Cool stuff Adam. Keep em coming!

5:00 Nice to know I have a rare beast. Back in the day, during a holiday in Japan my grandmother purchased a Sega Mega Drive for my sister and I not realizing the different power supplies. We acquired a PAL version shortly afterward. In more recent years, I got the still in the box NTSC-J Mega Drive out after twenty something years in the closet and got it working. With an adapter for our PAL games, it works great.

Hitachi got the rights partly because of the contract surrounding the CPUs used and Victor, or JVC because of the licensing rights of the VCD format. Sega was always going to have their own system. The Hitachi system was pushed for Karaoke, Victor VCD movies, Sega gaming. Nice video, would of loved to see the insides and some more of the high end Hitachi version. Thank you for your hard work making this video.

Grey V-Saturn 2 Will STEAL your Heart with those beatiful colored buttons!

Wow, this is the first traditional rare variants video since the end of the quickshoot series! Good job!

I really like the idea of showing off regional and brand variants. It almost happened with Atari and Nintendo before the NES came out. And it was the entire point of the 3DO.

Yay an episode about the best sega console

This reminds me of the Panasonic 3do. There were variations of that too.

This guy is one of my favourite speech givers ever out of all the youtubers ive seen so far.

Loved that video as a non-american i never knew these actually exists. Thanks for all the research put into this. I consider this video as legit video games doco, and you do it better than high price production doco. This is why i adore your channel and content. Thanks!

JVC's & Hitachi's involvement with the Sega Saturn. "When Sega was creating the Saturn system they enlisted the help of several long-time partners - JVC provided the CD mechanism and Hitachi provided the dual SH-2 CPUs. As part of a co-branding or cross-licensing agreement, both of these companies produced their own variants of the Saturn hardware. Both JVC's V-Saturn and Hitachi's HiSaturn were merely coloured variants of the Sega Saturn, with no additional features or capabilities." nfggames.com/games/hisaturn/

Thanks for all the content over the years. Your videos have really helped with my own dreamcast setup and happily and successfully did my first soldering with my son and installed a replacement battery mod. Waiting on my Akura ($75 score) and my pico type PSU replacement. Good luck on all your endeavors.

The V Saturn looks pretty cool!! I love all videos Saturn related!!!👍👍

I have the EXTREMELY RARE Christmas NiGHTS Merry Christmas V-Saturn console CIB. An extremely limited quantity were manufactured and sold during one holiday season. I have been considering selling it. If anyone is interested, let me know. To be clear, this is the Grey V-Saturn model, not the normal white Saturn version. Again, super rare.

Up until this video, I was aware of the various Sega Saturn models that were released: V-Saturn, Hi-Saturn, and the Sega Pluto. What I didn't know about any of those units was the background history of why they were made, along with finding out that the "Samsung Saturn" actually exists. Learn something new everyday.

Great video man. This is one of my favorite series from you tbh cuz video game consoles got weird

I read an interview with Sato-san about the Saturn in which he said he met with Ken Kutaragi often, and Kutaragi wanted Sony to make the hardware and Sega would make the games for it. Of course that didn't end up happening, but this Victor Saturn makes me think that maybe JVC were under the impression that that's the kind of deal they'd have with Sega. It was, after all, the same deal Hudson Soft had with NEC when they made the PC Engine. The impression I got from that interview was that Sony wanted Sega to sign to the same deal they had with Nintendo, where Sony would get the licensing for CD games and Sega would only get it for cartridges. Of course, that was unacceptable so Sega rejected that proposal. Personally, I wish Sega would have partnered with JVC/Victor for the original Mega Drive and connected all the proper pins from the CPU and VDP to the expansion bus and maybe even the cartridge slot. Sure, cartridges would've had to have more pins on their PCBs, but it would have allowed a cartridge to connect an external color palette chip to the VDP, expanding the Mega Drive from 512 colors to 4,096, 32,768, etc. depending on the game. They could even have doubled the VRAM; the Mega Drive had 128 kB VRAM at some point, but it wasn't enough of a performance upgrade to justify the cost, so Sega cut it in half. They still left the connections inside the console. A VRAM upgrade could have doubled the colors displayed, the sprites drawn, and the background layers. As far as the CPU pins go, the Mega Drive would not have needed a second CPU to control a CD drive; it could have used its 68000 to control the drive, + a RAM upgrade, like the PC Engine. The Sega CD then would have been much more affordable. Then with JVC/Victor as the hardware maker, when the time came to build an all-in-one Mega Drive/CD unit, they could have built a much more affordable one than the WonderMega, without the karaoke functionality, extra CPU, bridge RAM, and other extraneous chips. By the time the PlayStation came out, if the Saturn had to be $400, they could have undercut the PlayStation with a $200 Mega Drive/CD all-in-one. With the simpler Sega Mega Drive/CD design and with expandability in mind from the start, it could have been more likely that the Saturn would have been backward compatible, too. That would have justified the higher price than the PlayStation.

I had no idea they ever did that with the Saturn, I’ve never seen anyone discuss it online through forum or video, very interesting. Good video Adam!

Mr. Koralik is ALWAYS...... and I mean ALWAYS..... obsessed with SEGA’s products!!!👾👾👾👾👾👾

Interesting how the mass media angle taken with the V-Saturn seems to be the same approach Sega later took with the Dreamcast in Japan. Specifically I mean the "more than just a games console" thing they had going--for example, the Dreamcast was a number of people's first Internet-connected device in general, according to Sega's early fiscal reports: "Since its introduction in Japan in November, more than 30% of users have accessed the network. These are astounding figures for Japan and are attracting attention from all industries. Furthermore, of our network users more than 50% had never accessed the Internet before." (Quote is from the FY1999 report, which is hosted on SegaRetro at segaretro.org/Annual_reports, but 2000 and later SegaSammy has archives for: www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir/library/printing_archive/).

As always great video! I love your Dreamcast intro it brings back so many good memories :)

There is so much butthurt in the Saturn groups regarding this video by people who clearly haven't even seen this video... just wow... I love your videos and hearing your take on things so keep them coming!!

Haven't watched a video from you for awhile. Time to correct that. Great job!

Isn't this like taking your knocker out and slamming it on the table and saying: "..here!...." Or maybe it's just me, because the Saturn is easily my favorite console ever Mighty impressive!

Ah, and my favorite History teacher strikes again!

Great video as always, back in 2008 I saw a 5disc auto changer sega saturn, up for sale on eBay for about $2100.00. I never saw anymore after that, as time went on I thought I dreamt it all up, 2 years ago I saw a video by retrocore regarding a sega Saturn karaoke machine. What I am trying to say is, there are many other SEGA Saturns out there that were part of entertainment centres. Pretty cool to see so many versions of the sega Saturn.

Hey Adam, I don't know if you recall I had commented about my college struggles awhile back. I'm glad to say that as of today, I now have a Bachelor's in Chemistry. Thanks for the great content throughout my years at school.

I love these variants, and I would like to see more. Does not even have to be rare variants, as long as there's a story to go with it.

My dream is that Sega create a portable mini saturn with 200 japanes games. I would pay 600$

Always glad to see a rare variants video

That Victor and Hitachi stuff- mind blown. Very cool, man.

Another awesome video my dude. Keep up the great work!

Got the Victor version specifically for Radiant Silvergun back in the day

just occurred to me that the vcd card and watching movies on your console was a precursor for the ps2's dvd movie drive

I had no idea there were that many Saturn variants. Very cool! I have the US model 1 my dad got me at Toys R Us when it originally came out. Great video!

This Is Cool Saturn,Hitachi Saturn is so gorgeus. I have Victor in my collection. Saturn is awesome forever.

nice collection !!

Great video Adam! Nice to see all the Saturn's laid out like that and compared! Compared to the PAL's boring Black, I love all of the Japanese variants! My main use Saturn is a White Model 2, and I have a Victor Model 2 too, the colourful buttons really stand out :)

I was close to get a V-Saturn and Hi-Saturn but it wasnt taking any Backups on my PSK Cartridge (broken CD Lens) so i had to drop the deal and get an american Saturn that worked fine.

I recently spent over $315 on a mint skeleton grey 'this is cool' edition from japan this month. Shipping it to me is another $160, and it almost definitely will be another $150 on import duties 😪 I wish those proxy shipment services would let me decide the value on the package. I have spent at least a thousand last year in import duties alone mainly because the duty is calculated on the sale price (which was from yahoo auction). It should reflect the item price instead imho

7:54 I don't plan on getting a V-Saturn anytime soon, but I don't mind looking at a young *Miho Kanno* modeling for their catalogs and advertisements

I love the Saturn! My model 2 European Saturn is still strong. Games like Tomb Raider, resident evil, panzer Dragoon Saga, die hard arcade, Virtua cop, D, crusader no Remorse, Virtua fighter 2 are great on the Saturn.

good video Adam. I always wondered why the hell so many companies were making Saturn versions for Japan, while Sega more or less handled the USA release. Also, the model 2 V-Saturn is sure cool looking.

Imagine how weird for a Japanese consumer going to the store and seeing a Sega Saturn and a V-Saturn. Which one to buy? It would be like Sheldon trying to decide between the Xbox 1 or the Playstation 4

Thats great, history.

That is an oddball variant of the Saturn, personally I like seeing the Sega branding on my Saturn but it's cool those things even exist

I thought the RG-JX1-2 was a grunt suit from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.

Good shit, just recently got into the Saturn thanks to your videos, went for a Japanese Model 2 haha

I’ve got the Saturn victor v, love it!

Wondermega rare variant episode!

I wish more consoles had that color palette with the dark gray-ish purple

I have the V-Saturn with the round buttons, a clear Sega Saturn, Hi-Saturn with the round buttons, and the North American Saturn.

Been waiting for a new one of these for a while.

Dude you should do voice acting or story telling because i can listen to you for hours plus you know your information.

i love the look of my Victor Model 2

Interesting look at Saturn variants! I suppose to expand upon something you brought up in the video, it could have been possible that the Victor and Hitachi machines possibly being marketed at different audiences might have also been intended to be sold at different retail outlets that wouldn't normally sell a game system (or perhaps retailers that wanted nothing to do with SEGA for some reason.) Of course without any research I can only guess. On a side note this faintly reminds me of Sears selling its own branded Game Systems like Atari's PONG and of course the VCS, though Sears wasn't a technology company and we know why they did it.

I have a Vsaturn. Also have a Hisaturn with the included vcd card. All are fully complete and boxed of course.

Great video as always Adam. This got me thinking though: So I have the Action Replay for my North American Saturn so I can play Japanese games. Does it also work on a Japanese Saturn so I can play North American games?

Hmm, I wonder if the JVC X-Eye would make a good video, even though they don’t seem too rare, and even I have one.

My brain hang up at the point you mentioned there was a GPS Saturn 👀

Man, the intro will never get old.

Awesome my man love this stuff

maybe the V saturn had better built laser units or less lag on some games we do not know or a better sound quality audio theres not much info on it at all..beacuase it was only realease in japan . the V SATURN was a little more expensive than a regular saturn... i remenber the ps1 launch model 1001 had better audio output than the 7501, 9001, 101 models.

Good stuff, thank you for the video.

cool video tech talk adam

It's amazing to me how Sega was doing really well in Europe with all our competing systems, had managed to do really well against Nintendo in North America, and was doing OK in Japan on the arcade front, and STILL managed to balls things up to such an extent that they're now a pale shadow of their former selves. Why the hell did the HiSaturn have a GPS in it? What were they expecting people to do with it?

Ooh, a video about Saturns, specifically the one RG-JX1 I own myself. Man I need to replace the power supply board inside, replace the drive with an Optima 6 laser, AAAND get a Toslink mod because I can't sodder. Now if anyone can open up a Sega Saturn mod service on eBay just like the Dreamcast's DCHDMI or Wii's WiiDUAL services. 2021 update, well would ya look at that. Pink Skeleton Gaming's real busy with multiple console services, even down to recapping the 32x. Awesome! Though Toslink mod and Optima 6 CD replacement aren't listed options yet he said he'll do those 2 mods for $120, BUT HOW DO YOU PAY HIM FOR UNLISTED MODS ON EBAY? Do you just buy the regular services, send the console along with the materials for the 2 unlisted mods and he'll send a bill so you can pay through USbank or PayPal? What do I do here?

I managed to score the VCD card for less than $20, it's the VC2 or VC3, and it definitely works with the Model 2 JP Saturn.

There is also a car GPS Saturn. Also only released in Japan

Because jvc victor made the mpeg cards for vcd so they struck a deal like Sega did with Samsung majesco tec toy tonka awai etc

If you ever find more rare variations, let us see!

Back in January I bought a switchless region free model 1 V Saturn and matching Victor model 1 controller (second system variation shown on the table) on eBay, nice looking variation of the system. Not a fan of the design of the model 2 Saturn’s, always thought it looked cheap next to model 1’s.

I had a JVC Xeye back in the mid 90's... I wish I still had it :(

There is something about the grey and indigo saturn that excites me

I suppose one could think of all the different companies releasing variants of the Saturn as its various rings.

We always want rare variants!

What would you need a GPS in a video game console for? Are you going to hook up a screen to it and power it with your car's cigarette lighter?

I think the Panasonic Q would of been a better example than the Orange Spice Gamecube. Just saying...but I loved the Saturn. I had one at release and during its relevancy playing Nights, Clockwork Knights and Daytona USA. I just recently found out the original Wipeout was released on the Saturn never knew!

Victor worked with Sega on the Sega CD in the same capacity as Philips and Sony had intended with Nintendo. Further down the road, Victor and Hitachi were involved with Saturn development. The..ahem...*genesis*...of the Victor and Hitachi systems begins there. I can't tell you why they wanted to have their own branded systems. I could only really see it benefitting Sega by getting the system into altertative distribution channels.

This is just a guess but maybe different branding would enable Sega to sell the Saturn in retail shops that would not normally sell game consoles.

Why the hell hasn't KZfaq reccomended your videos to me in over 3 years!?

I still have two Tectoy Model 2 Saturns, complete in the box. One is skeleton and the other white. I might sell one someday. I also still have the Holy Grail Hi Saturn Navi, complete in box. You just can’t find any of those. Even on EBay.

I’m trying to find one as well as get all the j Saturn titles.

HiSaturn and Vsaturn are my favorites :)

I had a model 2 Victor Saturn...... happy days

12:25 You forget this is Sega we are talking about. Mid 1990s Sega.

Here's a crazy tidbit: the Saturn actually outsold the N64 in Japan by about 200,000 units

I think it was Sega hitting the market hard to get the console onto as many houses as possible. Once people owned it , it was easier to sell games or introduce games. I think that played out to the wide success of the Saturn. I mean, Sega Saturn's were even used as Karaoke machines (Super Prologue 21). They looked nothing like a Saturn. They came in 3 pieces which included had a 50 disc changer and an amp. PS. I found a Loopy Adam. Let me know if you want me to bring it over and we can game together. 😆

Oddball...Play Ball -Round One!!

I'd love a Samsung Saturn, apparently it's the only one that runs on both 100v 110v and 230v so wouldn't need a power supply mod or step-down in Europe, also its just cool, I have a hi saturn model 1 (came bundled with the VCD card,) and the white Japanese model 2,

Way to drive up the price on my favorite Saturn's good thing i already bought mine

Hitachi one had netlink modem on back ?

Can you do a review of the Chimeric Systems original Xbox HDMI? I know they are only offered on their website and hard to get but I’m curious how they compare to previous cables. Thanks.

The vsaturn bootscreen literally says copyright Sega enterprises

Hitachi marketed it big time as a karaoke machine also with an addon for plugging in a mic 😂

Interesting!

Imagine how mind blown you would be if when you where a kid you had the victor Saturn and had never heard of Sega and then finding out years later that it was actually a Sega console I mean that's crazy I can only imagine, I remember how mind blown I was when I found out funco land eb games and babages was now GameStop it makes my head hurt

Legendary 😉 👍

Something I found out a little while ago is there could have been an actual updated sega saturn called sega saturn 2 that was going to have better specs if sega went along with the plan. www.tweaktown.com/news/69323/shenmue-dev-confirms-sega-saturn-2-black-belt-console-existed/index.html Also saw there might have been another another unreleased model called the Champagne Saturn. do a google search for that and you'll see a few results for it.