Rings of Saturn. Issue #1

Hey all

Delighted to announce that I will now be providing reviews and articles for Gaming Respawn

My first article for the site is below

http://gamingrespawn.com/rings-saturn-issue-1-sega-rally-vs-daytona-usa-car-wars/

Thanks for all your support. I will continue to add posts to the blog as well, and will of course be posting links to GR articles ;)

Mikey

Dominik Diamonds Are Forever: SEGA Worldwide Soccer 97' Review

A brief tangent before the actual game review if I may;

I came pretty late to the PlayStation party. It wasn’t until October 1998 that I finally got my grubby mitts on one and the system only had about 18 months of relevance left at that point. The funny thing was that originally I hadn’t even wanted a PlayStation. The gaming machine that I hand picked to succeed my Super Nintendo was a very different one indeed.

Yes, in the cool winter months of 1997, I had decided that I wanted a SEGA Saturn!

The reason for this was twofold. Firstly, I’d recently played one that summer. One of my mothers friends lived in Middlesbrough and her son had a Saturn with SEGA Rally. I spent most of an afternoon playing that game into the ground and left the house enchanted with the SEGA machine. In addition to this, Virtua Fighting had made it’s way to English Arcades and it’s combination of 3D graphics and (for the time) revolutionary fight physics had blown my tiny little mind. Yup, I wanted a SEGA Saturn, and to the top of my Christmas list it went.

Ah, Christmas 1997, what a depressing one that was. I stupidly had placed all my eggs in the Saturn basket, and low and behold I didn’t get one, thus meaning the gifts I did get were a crushing disappointment. Looking back on it now with adult eyes, it wasn’t the disaster that 10 year old me thought it to be, but I was just an idiot child at the time and reacted as such.

Ultimately, my parents didn’t like the idea of spending a sizeable sum on another gaming machine for me, when they were already of the opinion that I played my SNES too much. They had even gone so far as to deliberately lock my SNES away in the attic one summer as they didn’t want me playing it throughout the summer holidays. In fairness to them, they had made their stance on the matter of gaming quite clear and I should have seen it coming.

The matter was worsened for me on account that the children of the child minder me and my sister went to had wanted a PlayStation for Christmas and had actually got one. Thusly, I was hit with a double whammy of not getting what I wanted but also having to deal with another set of kids of who had on a daily basis. I didn’t react well. In fact, I’d say I reacted appallingly.

As a general rule, I didn’t tend to nag my parents for things as a child. I broke that rule in 1998. I now wanted a PlayStation, mainly because no one else I knew had a Saturn and thus I felt it would be better to go for the system that everyone else had (Because then I could borrow games from them)

So I nagged, and nagged, and nagged and nagged. It was a little toe rag basically. As luck would have it, SONY reduced the price of the PlayStation in late 98, meaning it was now more affordable and my parents eventually relented and bought me one.

And thusly, I forgot all about the SEGA Saturn. It became a victim of childhood hubris. However, it lingered at the back of my mind for the remainder of my childhood and into adulthood. Recently, I saw one online and thought about purchasing it, but eventually chose not to.

However, the thought of buying a Saturn still lingered. Not soon after deciding I wasn’t going to get one, I passed by a shop in Stockport called “Retro, Reload”. It’s a store that sells retro games and consoles, and would you know it, they had a SEGA Saturn for sale with three games for £37.50.

Reasoning that I’d probably never see an offer as good as that, I went away to mull over whether I should get one. I went to YouTube to look at videos relating to the Saturn. I’d recommend to anyone reading this to visit Adam Koralik’s YouTube page. He gives very detailed reviews of retro consoles and I found his Saturn one very helpful.

Eventually, I decided to bite the bullet and picked up the Saturn. I’ve been picking up cheap games on Amazon and eBay since. One such purchase was SEGA Worldwide Soccer 97’

SWS-97 (Shortening stuff is Keewl!) is a difficult game to review. It certainly isn’t a bad game by any means but it isn’t an especially good one either. I can say with absolute certainty that it’s the best Soccer game I’ve played so far on the Saturn, but that isn’t really saying much.

The other Soccer games I’ve already played on the console are FIFA 96’, Euro 96’ and FIFA 97’. All of them are bad and Euro 96’ is by far the worst in that it has terrible graphics, wretched game play, no customizable camera angles and no options to change the difficulty of the A.I.

SWS-97 does at least have a number of camera angles which all come with 3 different levels of zoom. There are also varied levels of difficulty on offer, so you can gradually get used to the game over time and find your own learning curve.

The graphics aren’t amazing but are decent enough for a game that was originally released in the autumn of 1996. The players give off the illusion of being 3D models but on closer inspection look to be 2D models that have been designed to look as if they are in three dimensions. The game overall looks a bit rough around the edges to a modern set of eyes, but I like the visuals on the whole.

The sound effects from the crowd are standard, but sound decent on the main. Gary Bloom provides match commentary and I must say that for a game made in 1996, the quality is very good indeed. Commentary on early football games was generally quite poor, but Bloom’s commentary sounds very smooth and I think it really adds to the match experience. The only time it sounds a bit choppy is when he reads out the team names prior to kick-off, but aside from that it’s good stuff.

SWS-97 is unlicensed, so the players have fake names and its international teams only. This was standard fare for most football games around this time period. I think FIFA had only just started using real teams and player names. The usual heavy hitters of the period such as Brazil, Argentina and Germany are present, while minnows such as Liberia also make it. There’s also an edit mode if you feel like renaming the players.

There are plenty of game modes on offer as well. There is exhibition mode, league mode, straight knock out cup and also The Worldwide Cup, which sees you go through numerous qualifying rounds in order to reach the competition finals. There is also an option for up to 4 players to take part in multiplayer mode with the player adapter.

The game play has both strengths and weaknesses. The players move smoothly enough and the three button set-up of the Saturn controller works well with one button for shoot, one for short pass and one for long pass. Passing does take some getting used to, as the ball will just stop moving after it’s gone a certain distance. This is something you’ll have to take into account when controlling the receiving player. On more than one occasion I played a pass to a player on the wing but the player would actually out run the pass and the ball would just sit there on the pitch for a few seconds before I either had the player run back to collect it or a computer controlled player snatched it for itself.

Crosses into the box are usually quite accurate but you have no real control how far they go and to which player they target. It’s also very hard to direct a resulting header or volley that comes from a long pass. Normally you just have to press the shoot button and hope it goes in.

Shooting itself is problematic in that you can’t really aim your shot in any fashion. It doesn’t matter where you press the d-pad or where your player is facing, most shots seem to always be aimed right at the opposing sides goalkeeper. This is by far my biggest complaint with the game as it makes scoring very difficult. You have to either hope the keeper will rebound the ball back to you for a follow up shot or get as close to the goal as possible without the keeper tackling you and essentially run around him before shooting.

Things got so silly in one play through that I was shooting from a diagonal angle hoping that the ball would bounce off the keeper and into the net. The most annoying thing is that while you can’t direct your shots, you can direct your passes, so at one point I was getting as close to the goal as I could and then passing the ball into the net, as this allowed me to have some decision in where the ball was actually going.

And this is ultimately why the game doesn’t get a higher score than I ended up going with. Again, this game is not actively bad. In fact, the game has a lot of positives going for it and it can be enjoyable game to play. However, certain aspects of the game play are counter intuitive and can make the experience itself frustrating.

As a result, I’ve gone with a final score of 6 out of 10

Below I’ve attached a YouTube video of some game play and also Adam Koralik’s excellent video on the SEGA Saturn

Thanks for reading

Peace Out

Game Footage 

Adam Koralik's SEGA Saturn Review

A Trip Away - Epilogue

It’s been almost a year since Pete, Luc, Adam and your trusted narrator visited the genial hills of The Scottish Highlands. Some things have changed and some things have remained the same.

Pete has recently purchased a small castle in Surrey and is looking at renovating it into an Evil Lair/High end bistro. He has just returned from Malta, where he had wrestled a shark in a corral reef. He’s currently very happy.

Luc has gone back to Cape Verde to work with hyper-intelligent squirrels on a cure for the common cold. He currently hasn’t found one.

As for Adam, he now roams the world motivated by a solitary desire for revenge. He was last spotted in Mexico taking part in a bare knuckle boxing competition with a Hispanic Kangaroo. The result of that fight is not yet known.

As for me? I split my time between being a hair donor for Wayne Rooney and playing Buckaroo professionally. I’m currently undefeated in 27 matches and am due to be the first man to play BUCKER7217, the world’s first super intelligent computer designed for Buckaroo playing purposes. We shall face each other at The Philadelphia Spectrum in the New Year; get your tickets now while you can!

Of course, I may be fibbing slightly in regards to certain parts of the story there. In fact I’m telling some outright whoppers, so I’ll come clean. It’s actually going to be at the Boston Gardens and not the Spectrum!

Ha, Ha, Ha, BOOM BOOM!

In all seriousness though, things haven’t been too bad since we returned from our trip away. For a start, Adam has gone and got engaged! He gets married next year and he’s asked me to the best man, which I am both very honoured and terrified by.

I can’t keep shaking the worry that making me the best man for a wedding could very much end up like the episode of Father Ted where Dougal is allowed to do a funeral. That being said, I couldn’t be more thrilled for the opportunity and will do my utmost to ensure that Adam is chained to a boat to France in his undies on the magical day (That is what a best man is supposed to do right?)

Pete is still living with his girlfriend Beth in London and Luc is still with Leanne in Reddish. Luc, Leanne and Adam are currently part of Happy Monday’s tribute band “The Happy Mondaze” and are currently acquiring critical acclaim for their performances. I would recommend checking them out.

I do wish to thank Pete for his constant badgering of me to continue with the writing of the trip to Scotland. During winter and most of spring, I was seconded in Leek as opposed to working from Stockport, and that made the writing of this diary more arduous than it had been in the past. It was always at the back of my mind and it was just a case of finding the time to finish it, which I have now thankfully done.

Since the beginning of writing this blog, some much deserved success has also found its way to Inverness Caledonian Thistle as they won the 2015 Scottish Cup in May! I have written about it elsewhere on my blog, but it was a nail biting Final with Falkirk and Inverness managed to bring the cup home.

I’d like to think that my pilgrimage to their ground was the good luck charm they needed to win the trophy, but I can’t really claim that with any sincerity. The fact is that Caley have been playing well for the past few years now and had come within an eyelash of winning the Scottish League Cup in 2014. Their trophy win was much deserved and also against the odds when you consider they had to contend with Celtic in the Semi Finals. I’m delighted for them and hopefully they can now have a successful European campaign in the 2015/2016 Season.

But, have we any plans to venture away again some day? At the time of writing this, I can honestly say that we have discussed the matter but nothing concrete has been decided. Ultimately, it’s hard to juggle everyone’s schedules so that we can find the time to travel. I can say with 100% certainty though that I’d definitely be up for another jaunt.

Quite a few destinations have been discussed, including Anglesey and Normandy. One thing is for sure; if we do decide to go away again I’ll be taking a notebook and having a bash at writing a blog about it.

The only thing to decide is what to call it?

“A Trip Away Part II”?

“A Trip Away, The Return of Jaffar”?

“A Trip Away: Revolutions”?

“A Trip Away, The Lost World”?

“A Trip Away, Judgment Day”?

Or

“A Trip Away Episode II: Attack of the Clones”?

Why don’t you share your best sequel title in the comments below? Or alternatively, you can send suggestions on a stamp addressed envelope to an address which I won’t give you (Not letting you nutters know where I live. I may be an idiot, but I’m no fool)

Regardless of whether we go again or not, I really enjoyed writing about it and I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading it. I want to thank Pete, Luc and Adam for their company and I want to thank the fine people of Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC for not only opening up the club shop especially for me, but also for re-tweeting the picture of me outside the ground. They’re a great bunch there and I wish the club continued success.

I also want to thank the people in the Tourist Information Centre in Inverness for their help, Stan Fraser for his ship building prowess, the lovely staff in the restaurant by the river and many, many others who made the trip such a pleasant one.

And most of all, thank you for reading, you sexy bastards you!

A Trip Away - Chapter 14

The weather had been holding for most of our final day, but as we made our way to the mountain roads the heavens decided to open. The rain began to fall and aggressively block our path. Despite this, I decided to keep my speed steadily at 40mph, sadly other people on the road decided not to, which meant a few nervy moments for Pete.

When you’re driving, you tend to see the road differently than the person in the passenger seat. I felt quite comfortably like I had the situation under control, but Pete disagreed and actively implored me to slow down, which I dutifully did. Thankfully, the rain did eventually subside and people started driving to the speed limit once more.

It was around this period that we started to think about stopping for food and also a rest break. Once we were clearly out of the mountains, we decided to stop by in a pub in Perth. The pub itself was, I think, quite near to St Johnstone’s McDiarmid Park stadium. I say this because there were signs for a football ground and St Johnstone are one of the big local sides in Perth. Had we had more time, I would have investigated the matter, but I was sharing the car with three hungry non-football fans, and came to the conclusion that they likely wouldn’t be as interested to follow this up as I would.

I’m afraid I can’t remember the actual name of the pub. It was off a roundabout on the outskirts of town. The pub itself was very nice and was one of those pubs where every table had its own television. We pulled up a chair and ordered some food. Seeing as it was going to be my last meal in Scotland, I decided to order Haggis with Neeps and Tatties. The dish itself came with some biscuits and a very tasty whiskey sauce. I was very satisfied with the meal and it wasn’t as heavy as you’d think.

With our bellies full and our bladders emptied, we hit the road once more. Pete loaded up The Ricky Gervais Show on one of our I-Pods and we began the arduous journey along the motorway back to England. The traffic itself was moving along well enough, but we were still looking at something like 4-5 hours between here and home.

Eventually, the car needed to be refuelled and I also needed to refuel with an energy drink. We stopped at a services and I ventured in. Pete offered to take over the driving duties, but I turned him down, the journey now becoming some perverse challenge to me. This, lads and ladies, was the action of a fool. It’s never smart to drive when you’re tired. Granted, I was hardly close to falling asleep at the wheel, but I was also in dire need of energy to keep my head in the game.

It was at this time that I decided to also eat my Scotch Pie. Despite it now being cold, I enjoyed it quite a lot. The meat was lightly spiced and the pastry had a pleasing texture. Pete took an investigatory bite into his pie and his face was a rich tapestry of emotion. There was a mixture of disgust, confusion, remorse and surprise. I don’t think he even swallowed the piece of offending pie that he placed in his mouth. Pete offered the remaining pie to me, but I was full after mine, so he placed it in the side glove box. I found the remains of the pie a couple of days later. I didn’t eat it.

But yes dear reader, it was foolish of me to continue on driving despite my fatigue. It is not something I would condone for others to try. Ultimately, I felt compelled to keep going and that was the reason I continued to drive rather than delegating the duties elsewhere. As it was, the energy drink perked me up and I managed the remainder of the journey home with little bother.

I can’t remember the exact order in which everyone was dropped off, other than recalling that Adam was the last one. We pulled up outside his house and he gathered his luggage together. It was a sad moment in a lot of ways, the trip was now officially over and we’d have to return to the hustle and bustle of regular life. Adam collected the remainder of his possessions and entered his house.

I sat silently in the car for a few moments before sighing and starting up the engine once more. The streets of Stockport were now deserted, being that it was late at night. We had done much during our short time away, and there was still more that we could have done that we just hadn’t got around to. I felt both fulfilled and also keenly aware that there was still more to offer in Inverness.

In my opinion, the best holiday is one that makes you feel like you made the most of your destination but also makes you think that there were still areas which were left unexplored. Inverness certainly left that impression on me.

But the trip away had been more than just a jolly jaunt to The Highlands. It had been an opportunity to get the four of us together again, if only for a week. Will we ever take such a trip together again? I cannot say. All I can say is that if such a situation to go away again were to present itself, my response would be a hearty “yes”.

Thanks for reading

Peace Out