Coming Soon: Sega Saturn (セガサターン)

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The Clueless Engineer

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Published on September 18, 2023 5:18:15 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3Z6FZMNU8

Duration: 10:45

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17

Got inspired by @MrLurchsThings recent video about Nintendo's "Family BASIC":
https://youtu.be/f1hPLmRiDNo?si=SLvTY8CFoOp2CjAP

The Saturn was my first console ... bought & paid ... so has a very special place in my memories ... very early 20s ... a particular girlfriend (and her accompanying dramas), hanging out with friends, clubbing until 5am with few ill effects, no money but also no mortgage, a full head of hair ...

I remembered that there was some sort of BASIC released in Japan for it so started investigating.

I already had the modem (of no practical use), keyboard (HSS-0129, new in box!) and mouse (HSS-0139) ... a good start for a home brew development system. I also discovered that there was a floppy drive released for the Saturn as well.

Getting a copy of Game BASIC is not so hard - worst case, just download the ISO and use a modded Saturn. And the prices for the floppy drive were way too much (over AU$700). But, by luck, I found a seller on Yahoo Auctions Japan that was selling both ... with a very low starting price.

So, I managed to get a copy of Game BASIC and the floppy drive pretty cheaply (compared to ebay prices). Along with the keyboard that should be enough to do development on the Saturn itself.

Costs (using Buyee.jp) were:
[1] Saturn floppy drive (HSS-0128): ¥15499 + ¥800 fees = AU$183.86 total
[2] Saturn Game BASIC: ¥14600 + ¥800 fees = AU$173.72 total
[3] No domestic Japan shipping fee (paid by seller - bonus!)
[4a] Shipping from Japan to Australia: ¥7306
[4b] "Gerry Harvey" tax (10% GST): ¥3899
[4c] Total shipping & tax: ¥11205 = AU$125.95
[5] Date shipped from Japan: 15-Sept-2023
[6] Date delivered in Australia: 19-Sept-2023

Let's see.

Of course, I want to pull everything apart as well and document it on my Github page:
https://github.com/0ddjob/SEGA

https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2022/07/25/sega-saturn-game-basic-programming/

http://content.segaxtreme.net/satdev/SaturnBasicDocumentation.html