News
Saturn Tomb Raider 2 – Playable Demo Out Now!
The first demo of Saturn Tomb Raider 2 is available now — grab it here! 1996 saw the release of the very first Tomb Raider, hitting the Saturn first, followed…
Spotlight
A weekly game spotlight, showing off Saturn’s vast library of diverse games.
News
Spotlight
Investigating the Alleged Mouse Support in Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators
Here on SHIRO!, our friend Bo Bayles discovers long-lost secrets in Saturn games on a weekly basis in his Under the Microscope series. But this time, it’s my turn to…
Spotlight
The Top Sega Saturn Stories of 2025
Last year, we celebrated the Saturn’s 30th anniversary in the West. Even after three decades, Sega’s fifth-generation console and the fan community that loves it continue to make headlines. Here…
SEGAGuys Spotlight
The Sega Saturn Celebrates 30 Years in Europe
While it celebrated its 30th birthday in Japan last November and the 30th anniversary of its surprise American launch in May, today marks another significant three-decade milestone in the Saturn’s…
Spotlight
Seniriu: The Saturn Adventure Made Alongside a Homebrew Dev Kit
A former Bethesda employee by the name of Michael Matthews once caught the attention of a Sega Saturn Facebook group. He posted pictures of the development Saturn console they used…
Spotlight
The Sega Saturn Celebrates 30 Years of Success in North America
The Sega Saturn is a success story. Thirty years ago today, the Saturn arrived on North American shores on May 11, 1995. Over the next three years, fans enjoyed a…
Spotlight
Celebrating Saturn Homebrew Games
More than 1,100 games were released at retail for the Sega Saturn. But its library is more than that — dozens of fan-made homebrew games have been created in the…
Spotlight
The Top Sega Saturn Stories of 2024
This year began the celebration of the Saturn’s 30th anniversary, starting with its Japanese launch in November 1994 and continuing into 2025 with its release around the world. Even after…
Community
Announcing the SEGA Saturn 30th Anniversary Game Competition
It is time again for the annual SegaXtreme homebrew game competition! This is the sixth annual SEGA Saturn Anniversary Game Competition that I’ve hosted on SegXtreme since restarting the competition…
Spotlight
Sega Lounge a Success at Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024
Another Portland Retro Gaming Expo is in the books, and the SHIRO! crew had a great time providing a huge Sega presence there. They began setting up the Sega Lounge…
Spotlight
SHIRO! Sets Up Sega Lounge at PRGE
Once again, the SHIRO! crew has descended upon the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, but this time, they’re not just representing the Saturn — they’re showing the love for all of…
Spotlight
Dragon Force: The Soul of the Sega Saturn?
When it comes to games that define the Sega Saturn, there’s certainly a number of contenders, not least because in the absence of a mainline Sonic game, the console was…
Spotlight
SaturnDave’s TOP 10 Saturn Driving Racers
I’ve always loved the racing game genre, and when you combine that with my love for Sega Saturn, I’m pretty much in heaven… Saturn is home to so many great…
Spotlight
Crash Bandicoot on Saturn! Exclusive Hands-On with Frogbull’s Latest Demo
During the heat of the console war of the mid-’90s, as gamers turned to Sony’s PlayStation in droves, one of the things us Saturn owners constantly heard when the latest…
Community
Frogbull Teases Near-Complete Shadow Moses Island
After several months of hard work, Saturn community member & developer, Frogbull, shared his latest progress on the Metal Gear Solid project for Sega Saturn. Frogbull claims the second level…
Community
King of the Mountain SHIRO! Challenge
Our SHIRO! Community Challenge for July 2024 is underway, as several members drift their way to prizes and the title of “TOUGE KING” in our latest High Velocity Mountain Racing…
Bo Bayles' Hacks & Cheats
NiGHTS Grounded for 28th Anniversary…
On July 3, 2024, Saturn game hacker & reverse engineer, Bo Bayles, released a special game patch in celebration of the 28th Anniversary of NiGHTS into Dreams… In this reimaged…
Community
How Panzer Dragoon Defined an Era
Genre defining is a superlative that describes many games in Sega’s back catalogue, as you may expect from a videogame titan that defined many genres. The Rail Shooter is one…
Bo Bayles' Hacks & Cheats
Burning Rangers Co-Op Mode Reignited
On June 3, 2024, Saturn game hacker extraordinaire, Bo Bayles, announced the latest in his series of game patches that seek to restore hidden/unused assets & functionality to Saturn games….
News
NEW SAROO Firmware Update Brings BIG Changes
On May 15, 2024, TPUnix released new firmware update V0.5 for the SAROO Sega Saturn Flashcart, bringing some much needed features and improvements. Firm V0.5 Changes Menu screen resolution changed…
Community
NEW Saturn JoEngine Update Includes Voxel Support
Just yesterday, April 28th, JoEngine author, Johannes Fetz, announced a significant update to the Sega Saturn Software Development Kit that now includes support for Voxels. New version of #JoEngine for…
Editorial
I Bought a SAROO…
” And there will be… sorrow SAROO! “-Bad Religion There may be a few folks scratching their heads at this article’s title thinking, ‘What exactly is a… SAROO?’ If this…
Community
SHIRO! Joins SEGAGuys to Talk Saturn Western Library
On this latest episode of the SEGAGuys‘ pod, Dan, James, Dave and Nick discuss the Western SEGA Saturn library. Is it underrated? Why is it perceived so negatively, even today?…
Spotlight
SHIRO! Spreads Saturn Love at Game On Expo in Arizona
The Saturn was represented well at the Game On Expo in Phoenix, Ariz., over the weekend as SHIRO!’s own SaturnDave and TraynoCo hosted a panel, manned a booth and more….
Community
MARCH Challenge: STEEP SLOPE SLIDERS!!!
The March Edition of our monthly SHIRO! Community Challenge is here, and it’s time to wax your boards and carve those slopes in CAVE’s snow-shredding classic, Steep Slope Sliders! This…
Spotlight
The Top Sega Saturn Stories of 2023
It’s been 29 years since Sega unleashed the Saturn upon the world, and despite the company washing its hands of the console after just five short years, news continues to…
Bo Bayles' Hacks & Cheats
Bo Bayles Discovers Playable Dolphin in Burning Rangers
Bo Bayles (aka @memoryfallen), resident Saturn reverse engineer extraordinaire and author of the Rings of Saturn blog, has just recently unearthed yet another amazing hidden feature in Sonic Team’s Burning…
Review
Retro-Bit Saturn Wireless Analog Pro Unboxing & First Looks
SHIRO! recently unboxed Retro-Bit’s NEW 2.4Ghz Wireless Analog Pro Controller for SEGA Saturn, and we’re here to share with you our opinions so far. (Thanks to the folks at Retro-Bit…
Spotlight
SEGA Saturn 29th Anniversary Game Competition
Every year since 2019, around the last third of the year or so, I’ve hosted a game development and hacking competition. This is the fifth annual SEGA Saturn Anniversary Game…
Community
Saturn Memories Brings Comprehensive Directory of Saturn Resources to SHIRO!
For several years, Saturn Memories has run one of (if not the best) Saturn gameplay reference channels on YouTube, and for nearly as long, he’s been collecting and archiving links…
Spotlight
NEW SHIRO! MERCH
We’ve added new merch designs to our TeeSpring shop, and there are several fabric and color options for folks to choose from. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING on the shop is priced with…
Interview
Interview: 7SHADES talks Saturn Development at PRGE 2023
Back in 2021, SHIRO! had the opportunity to interview the then Saturn homebrew community newcomer, 7Shades, regarding his shadow-dropped title, CUBECAT. At that time, the game was still fairly early…
Community
Community Members Help Power SHIRO! Website
What IS SHIRO!, really..?Is it a podcast? A YouTube channel? A magazine? How about a Discord community?One thing is for sure. SHIRO! has endless potential, and it can be as…
Spotlight
A Close Look at SEGA & Parent Company CSK
Alex Smith of They Create Worlds, a podcast focused on documenting the video game industry as a whole, has released a two-part series on SEGA and its parent conglomerate, CSK…
Editorial
Exploring SEGA’s E3 1996 Show Floor
Over the years, the game industry has gotten much better about saving and archiving materials and data for future reference. However, that wasn’t always the case, with many pieces of…