19th April 2011, 1:45 AM
Quote:. Incidentally, I see you mentioned Nights in the "small jewel case" up there. I don't think there's a "big jewel case" version of that game, since it came in a box with the "3D controller". That's what I got.No, it was released in a standard Saturn case as well as the bundled version. As I said I have three copies of Nights now (one I bought on its own, two that came with collections of games later on). One of the three is the full-sized case version. That was the first version I got, actually, the other two are the small-jewelcase versions (one of which came with the outer cardboard box, the other (the recent one, from the stuff I got above) did not.). Oh, the manual is the same either way, as the small jewelcase doesn't have a manual in it but it came with a normal-sized manual in the cardboard box.
The game does work without a 3d controller, even if it's way better with one. It makes sense that they also released a standard version (though it might be less common, yeah.)
Quote:Those big jewel cases, as I've mentioned, have too much room inside for disks to fly around. I may request that those games in particular, in the future, have the disks individually wrapped for protection instead of simply being shipped in the case as-is, as well as making sure the package is marked "fragile".
I haven't had any Saturn games break in transit myself, but yeah, I have heard of the problem, and it does make sense -- those cases are large, and particularly if there's not a foam block in the case (as there usually isn't), it's possible for for the disc to get loose inside the case and be damaged...
Quote:That 3D controller is really nice. Honestly the 3D controller on the Saturn is superior to the Dreamcast one in pretty much every way. There's more buttons, the analog triggers (yes, the triggers are actually analog) feel a bit better, the d-pad is much nicer (based as it is on the Genesis d-pad), and the analog stick is simply vastly superior. There's even a slot where the cord detaches which, I imagine, could also double as an accessory port for, say, a VMU screen.Yeah, the Saturn 3D controller really is awesome. It's one of my favorite gamepads (not quite the equal of the N64 controller, but one of the best after it). The DC controller does have two things over it -- rumble and the VMU screen -- but the two additional face buttons and much better d-pad in particular make the Saturn pad the superior one for sure. As for the triggers (and analog stick), they are different but I'm not certain which I prefer. The analog stick is sadly infrequently used (only some, later titles were designed for it, and earlier ones were designed for the Mission Stick or Arcade Racer and are best with those, and as I have both of those...), so it's harder to compare, but it is a pretty good stick, with an interesting and somewhat unique design. The same is true for the triggers, except even fewer games use them... still, nice to have for the few that do, and they do feel and work very well, regardless of whether games are using them in analog. It's just an all-around fantastic controller, it really is too bad that Sega made things worse with their next one. The DC controller is still pretty good... but it definitely doesn't match the Saturn 3D controller. I always use the 3D controller when playing Saturn games on a gamepad, I have some model 2 controllers but I like the 3d controller better, dpad or analog.
Oh, as for the removable cord, yeah it is odd... I think I read something about there being plans for a wireless adapter, or something? It never happened though, there's nothing to plug into it other than the cord. I'm not sure if a rumble unit or VMU-style screen could have gone there, it'd depend on how the controller cord was designed (what it can send to the controller, etc.), I'd think.