It came! What possessed me to spend $225 on... details inside!! (Saturn-related)

Well guys, it arrived a lot quicker than I expected it to. It was supposed to come in 2 to 4 weeks, but all it took was one week. Hey, I'm not complaining. I'll take it.

Yes, it's the Saturn-related items that cost me 225 dollars all told. What could drive me to such insane lengths? And not even no stinkin' games? "What's he thinking?!"

Well, I'm a *huge* fan of video game magazines, in particular, well-written and well produced ones.

Yes, I won an eBay auction for 29 issues of the hard-to-come-by, insanely-sought-after, UK-based SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE. I found out about these babies in 2001 and since then have tried and tried to score a lot of them. Very rarely did a nice lot come up, and when it did, I always lost. This time, I was determined to nab it.

When I got home today and saw the big box sitting on my front step, I did a double take. Then when I opened the box and was floored by its majesty. It was like opening a treasure chest -- glimming with prizes!

So far I've read two issues of SSM, and scanned the covers of the 27 other issues. Let me tell you, it's a highly impressive set for any diehard Saturn fan, particularly if you love magazines.

Each issue is 100 pages long, in full color, and written with enthusiasm and beautifully laid-out pictures. As my friend says, "the passion of a fanzine but the production values of a full-blown magazine."

To me it's well worth the $225 I had to fork over, and marks the "holy grail" of my Saturn collection, easily. I mean, if a robber had his take at any Saturn item of mine and I could only protect one, I'd protect those magazines. Go ahead, take the Saturn. Take Radiant Silvergun. Take Battle Garegga. Hell, you can even take Psychic Assassin Taromaru!

Those items are replacable almost within a wink of an eye.

The SSM issues? Not quite so. I feel very lucky to have won them, and as time passes, I shall share with you guys more about SSM. There are a few articles I plan on typing out...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3044340842&category=3656

There it is. My glory. Definitely sets me back from buying many Saturn games the rest of the year, but it's darn well worth it. Look at the bid history.
Only way to do it...

good god steve, and i thought my post count fell when they updated the forums.

I have the last issue of that mag, with DOA on the cover, lots of DC coverage and speculation, and what I bought it for- A complete walk through of Deep Fear.

Yeah, I got on the boat late, and even now, I read through that issue. Nice find, dude.

and I thought I had issues.

rofl soon Steve will wither out to a negative post count and simply disappear. they i will become king of the bbs.

nice mags.

Ive got a nice selection of those magazines, perhaps around the last 12 issues, i tried to single handedly keep the pal Saturn market alive and the mag really gave me hope. The price is high there steve, but i guess they are better than any usa Saturn mag, i still read mine, the demo disks (free panzer saga disk 1/full xmas nights ) were excellent too.

Congrats Steve, I'm happy that everything worked out for you Paypal wise, and I'm even more happy that you got the magazines you wanted.

Nice magazine,indeed!
I,too,ordered lot's of them when the Saturn marked was drying up-luckily they were also featuring lot's of imports!
Thx to this mag,i got Radiant Silvergun when it was released,and didn't have to bother later on with those E-bay-prices...

Did all of the mags include the Demo-discs??
Some of mine were delivered without them...

Herzog Drei said:

Did all of the mags include the Demo-discs??
Some of mine were delivered without them...

Click to expand...

Nope, there were 7 Sega Flash demo disks, the first came with the console, so i guess only 6 with magazines.........but there was also Panzer Dragoon Saga disk 1, and the full game Xmas Nights they gave away with it.

Herzog Drei said:

Nice magazine,indeed!
I,too,ordered lot's of them when the Saturn marked was drying up-luckily they were also featuring lot's of imports!
Thx to this mag,i got Radiant Silvergun when it was released,and didn't have to bother later on with those E-bay-prices...

Click to expand...

Ah yes. The glorious RS issue. This one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3547640046&category=2243

I mean look at that! The price for that sole issue... 18 US dollars plus shipping... so my 7.75 per issue isn't so bad... plus I claim it pretty much all in one fell swoop.

Well, here's some more details on SSM for those who would like to know more:

-They're incredibly flipping huge! (heh, after reading UK SSM for a while my language is a-changing, chap!) Currently, an EGM issue measured 7 3/4 inches by 10 1/2 inches.
SSM measures at a whopping 9 inches by 11 3/4 inches!
These mags are HUGE. Page-wise, each clocks in at a very satisfying 100 pages.
And yes, they are NOT staple-bound but like EGM.

-You standard news section, Letters (which are great fun to read), a showcase section (6 or so pages devoted to game on cover plus showcases/previews of upcoming games), a sweet Review system (each game gets 2 whole pages devoted! That's passion) and a bloody useful tip section. i.e. they list all the moves for the Darkstalkers in Night Warriors.

-For a review scan peep, scope this:

http://www.shiningforcecentral.com/articles/shf3/uk_ssm_review_01.jpg

http://www.shiningforcecentral.com/articles/shf3/uk_ssm_review_02.jpg

-And lastly, here's some comments pulled from a buddy of mine living overseas in regards to SSM legacy:

---

The "King" so to speak for Saturn reviews and coverage would definitely be Sega Saturn Magazine. Although they sometimes got a bit too carried away, they wrote with passion and enthusiasm and did more than anyone else to keep the Saturn alive in the UK. Their reviews were always written by gamers and for gamers. Their features and interviews etc. were always worth reading and beautifully laid out.

More importantly, you only need to look at the screen-shots to see how much they played the games and also to realize that just about every screen-shot added to the review rather than just being some arbitrary grabs. They also managed to produce a top quality magazine every month despite the worsening Saturn situation in Europe and never resorted to cheap filler articles, etc. One month they even produced a mag without a single PAL review.

SSM was an emotional roller-coaster ride. You felt like someone was fighting the Saturn corner with you. You felt like you knew the writers and that they knew you. It had excellent features as I said. Excellent reviews (although sometimes a little too blinded by anti-PlayStation sentiment but, finally, the other way around for a change!)

The magazine kept the true believers going through some of Sega's darkest days. Few things in my gaming experiences can compare with the feeling (when everyone believed that Issue no. 36 was the last ever issue) of seeing Issue no. 37 sitting proudly on the shelves in WHSmiths and doing a double take in disbelief. It's a great last issue too, a proper farewell issue from the writers.

The last page is a picture of Sega Rally with the caption "Game Over Yeah!" at the top and then the bottom half is Dreamcast with "But the Dream continues."

SSM evoked an emotional response from readers and I even knew people who didn't have Saturns and weren't even particularly Sega fans, who bought SSM just to read for enjoyment. High praise indeed.

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Good stuff

Your making me weep now Steve

What that guy said was true, the emotional thing was their, i bought most pal ngames they reviewd, they new the score.

The heatbreaker was Virgin claiming they had picked up Streetfighter vs Xmen for UK pal release, they even reviewed it, but..................we waited................release dates passed. No go.

XMen vs Streetfighter was shit anyway.

check the issue with spider man on the cover ( i think it's #24)

there's a letter of mine printed in their (mike franks)

no shit.

best magazine ever.i shit my pants when they gave xmas nights for free, it's better than most full priced games.

Wow!! Good find Steve. BTW, Can I request some reviews? If they have reviews of Garrega, Gekridian, and Batsugun would you scan those? When you get it all done I can host them and give you credit. Thanks!

I'm trying to get all of the issues of Sega Visions again. I wish I had never gotten rid of them.

kernow said:

XMen vs Streetfighter was shit anyway.

Click to expand...

I thought it was better than the later vs. games, though I guess that's not saying much.

Ah, so that's why you needed the loan, eh?

If I hadn't just bought my MVS cab, I would have helped you out.

Congrats!

Congratulations Steve!

That's a big purchase.

makes me wonder if selling my saturn was a good idea.....

Steve,

Congratulations on your purchase! It is refreshing to see someone so happy with his/her ebay purchase! I am a huge fan of saturn and I know nothing about these magazines! So whenever you have a chance, post some of these articles (would love to read what they write about Panzer Dragoon Saga, etc). Take your time, this is truly a collector's set!

Congrats again.