Greetings, fellow Saturn aficionados! A quick report on the 2019 edition of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) which took place this October 18-20 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Representing the Shiro team in person were K, Ben, and Peter.
First off, Retro-bit, Castlemania Games, and Limited Run games were all there. This is important as all three are involved in the Saturn controller situation. Retro-bit designs and produces, Castlemania sells, and Limited Run are involved in the limited edition pink controllers, in support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
SEGA Saturn, Shiro! had a small booth this year, and had a few Saturn items for sale. The showpiece of the booth was doubtlessly K’s spectacular, lenticular NiGHTS into Dreams… backlit display sign. This massive construct garnered a ton of attention, including multiple 5-figure offers of purchase, but of course this gem was most certainly NOT for sale.
Also at the Shiro booth was K’s Hitachi HiSaturn Navi unit – a modified Saturn with a GPS attachment, produced by Hitachi. This is one of the rarest models of Saturn hardware in the world. Later on during the show, it joined the Dental Jaguar (!) and the Nintendo PlayStation (!!) in a trio of ultra-rare consoles. Fans were welcome to come play the Nintendo PlayStation. Personally, I (Peter) ended up playing some Mario Kart against Adam Koralik.
Other curiosities at the Shiro booth? How about a genuine copy of Delisoba Deluxe? Delisoba Deluxe is a Japanese exclusive, limited edition Saturn game never available at retail. A good analogy here would be that this is the Japanese equivalent of Daytona USA CCE NetLink Edition. It was given out free to the studio audience of the Japanese game show Tokyo Friend Park, where celebrities would try and deliver soba noodles (hence, deli-soba) to various locations. You can hear Claire talk about it in our S2E6 podcast episode. Also on hand was a genuine, CIB copy of the European game Swagman, which we featured and also discussed on our 2018 Halloween cast.
The Shiro booth received several visitors, including past guests of the podcast The Immortal John Hancock and Steve Wright Jr., with Steve taking part in an intense Street Fighter Zero 3 battle with K. Both John and Steve were on our S3E3 cast about their approaches to collecting for the Saturn.
Retro-bit heads Richard and Ron dropped by with some goodies for us, including the as-yet unreleased Saturn wireless controllers. Several of the Shiro team members now have the new controllers in hand, and we will be reporting on them in the very near future. In the meantime, initial impressions are as follows: the controllers are light and tight, feeling just as the wired versions with only small changes. For one, there is a slight bulge on the backside of the Saturn pad, to accommodate the lithium battery inside. This bulge is indeed VERY small and nothing like the bulk of the original SEGA infrared controllers of the 1990s. Also, the shoulder buttons now click MUCH better! Retro-bit confirmed that they worked with SEGA to bring the shoulder triggers closer in feel to the original pads. Lastly, the 2.4 GHz Saturn pads will be available in ice blue and in slate grey. The Bluetooth Saturn pads will be available in original black.
Also on display were the new pink pads. These are no different from the current batch of Retro-bit wired pads, although the clear pink looks seriously awesome.
Retro-bit were kind enough to provide us with a small number of the wired pads, which we gave out to fans and visitors of our booth. A special mention: whilst wandering the show floor, we noticed a happy gamer leaving a booth having just bought himself a Saturn along with Panzer Dragoon. We interviewed him briefly (look for the forthcoming footage), and surprised him with one of the new controllers to go with his new system. It’s always good to spread the Saturn love!
Also visiting the show was the Saturn Junkyard / Saturn Titancast’s very own Brian Vines, the Virtua Schlub! One of the best things about game conventions is the opportunity to meet people from the Saturn Universe face to face. It must be said that it was super awesome seeing fans wearing Shiro t-shirts at the show! Thank you – we appreciate you all!
Many of the vendors had small selections of Saturn items for sale, with a couple of standouts:
One vendor was selling a Panzer Dragoon Zwei Editor’s Diary – a pre-release promo booklet. Tucked away in the corner of a display case next to some Nintendo DS games (??), it’s quite possible this little gem was overlooked by the majority of show-goers.
Another vendor had a box of recently found new-old stock Virtua Sticks. These were pristine and delicious, and yes, I (Peter) picked one up for myself. Not every day that you have an opportunity to pick up brand new, minty-fresh Saturn hardware. Yet another vendor had the fabled grey Japanese controller in a USA-style box. For years, I (Peter) had a photo from an early 2000s eBay auction of this controller, but was never sure if it was a real thing. At PRGE 2019 we were able to confirm that yes, this oddity is indeed real!
Lastly, one vendor had an absolutely scrumptious collection of Saturn items both domestic and import, including a couple of standout items. First, a Saturn NetLink school system! At some point, SEGA began to put together refurbished Saturn units with NetLinks, keyboards, controllers, mice, and official Saturn S-Video cables (all individually boxed) to send to various schools as edutainment items. Secondly, this vendor had one of the very first USA retail Saturn systems with a sub-1000 serial number. This unit was special because it was marked in felt pen as a demo unit, and came with a black System Disc! Saturn System Discs came in two varieties – first party (red) and third party (black) – and essentially activated various development features of the Saturn BIOS, such as the ability to boot discs without the copy protection, or to open the Saturn lid without resetting the unit. When a boot disc loads, the screen that displays ‘produced by or under license from SEGA Enterprises, Ltd.’ also displays a ‘completed’ message in the upper left corner of the screen. The special BIOS features remain activated until the unit is powered down.
It was very special to be able to see so much Saturna Obscura concentrated in one place!
Ultimately, we all picked up a few trinkets for ourselves. Myself, aside from the Virtua Stick, I picked up a Mission Stick, a couple of complete Bug! demos – both the green and the black label variants – and a complete Bootleg 2 ‘On The Road’ demo. Sadly, no Daytona NetLink was available at the show this year.
PRGE, of course, is about much more than just the SEGA Saturn. A quick round-up of other items of note at the show:
- A Tetris world championship tournament (this was a huge draw)
- A variety of community content creators, such as Metal Jesus, Adam Koralik, etc.
- An arcade and pinball free-play area: play all the classics at no cost!
- Our very own K (A Murder of Crows) managed an Xbox LAN party
- A variety of classic consoles to play in the console area, headlined by a 10-player Saturn Bomberman setup
- A museum area (this year the feature was a 100% complete North American SEGA Genesis collection, courtesy of The Immortal John Hancock).
- A live auction where people were losing their minds bidding on various videogame related items
The Portland Retro Gaming Expo will be on in August in 2020 – see you there!
A Saturn fan since the beginning, Peter plays Saturn almost exclusively. For Peter, Saturn represents a moment in time where 2D games were at their best, 3D was just rising, and fascinating gaming ‘firsts’ were commonplace. There are very few Saturn games that Peter cannot find some enjoyment in!
Be the first to comment