The Sega Saturn is a 32-bit home video game console released in 1994. However, it is one of the most difficult consoles to emulate today due to its exotic hardware. This made the console a commercial failure as developers have to rewrite their games in order to run them on the console.
Nowadays, there are great emulators that can run the Sega Saturn, so to relive playing some of your favourite Saturn games, read on for a list of the top emulators.
1. Mednafen
Mednafen is a multi-system emulator which also has cores like Retroarch (number 4 on this list). This emulator emulates many, many systems including those which are notoriously hard to emulate like, obviously, the Sega Saturn and the Neo Geo Multi Video System. Nothing really runs the Sega Saturn as well as Mednafen, especially, as a standalone emulator.
As mentioned earlier, Mednafen functions like Retroarch in the sense that it uses some form of other emulators to emulate a number of video game systems. However, unlike Retroarch, Mednafen has “original” cores, which include the Sega Saturn. Other original emulator cores are Apple II, the PlayStation 1, and the Nintendo Virtual Boy. These original cores are incredibly accurate and highly compatible with original games.
While Mednafen offers Netplay, the Sega Saturn component is still experimental. Other features include save states, in-game chat, joystick/gamepad support, multiple graphics filters, and scaling modes, rewinding, gameplay recording, and loading games from several compressed formats.
Pros
- Accurate
- High compatibility
Cons
- Not beginner friendly at all
- Needs Bios
- Command line only
- Anemic feature set
Download from the Official Website
2. Kronos
Kronos is a Sega Saturn emulator that is based on uoYabause. Kronos is aimed at Linux and Windows users. Good thing that this emulator has a core on Retroarch. Out of 2115 games tested, 1884 are playable on Kronos, 209 cannot run and, 199 are almost unplayable. One of the unplayable games is the Japanese port of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen. Playable games include Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, the Panzer Dragoon games, Shining Force III, and The House of the Dead.
Be warned though, gamers who use this emulator report wildly different experiences, from being perfect to emulating Saturn games too fast or too slow.
Pros
- Accurate
- In active development
- Has Retroarch core
Cons
- Windows and Linux only
Download from the Official Website
3. Yaba Sanshiro 2
Yaba Sanshiro is a Sega Saturn Emulator which is available on multiple platforms, being, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the Nintendo Switch. Obviously, installing this emulator on iOS and especially the Nintendo Switch is not a straightforward affair. Nevertheless, having them available on these platforms where they are usually ignored is commendable on the part of the developers.
Basic features include higher resolution polygons using OpenGL ES 3.0, extended backup memory, and save states. The Yaba Sanshiro 2 on iOS has keyboard and Razer Kishi controller support.
Retroarch is still the preferred “emulator” for Sega Saturn, with lots of players preferring the Beetle core. Kronos and Mednafen may be better cores as Beetle has long been updated.
Yaba Sanshiro 2’s lead developer wants to further develop this emulator in 2023 citing RPCS3, the PlayStation 3 emulator, as an inspiration in making this emulator as accurate as possible. The RPCS3 boots all PS3 games, and it is safe to state that Yaba Sanshiro’s developer wants that particular feat too. As of today, features of this emulator include, save states, Action Replay code sharing, and even a frontend program for handheld PCs like the AyaNeo Next.
Pros
- In active development
Cons
- Android has a pro version that runs better than the free one
Download from the Official Website (All Platforms)
4. Retroarch
Retroarch is not an emulator in the traditional sense. It serves as a front-end program for running emulators. It emulates games on ports of these standalone programs. The advantage of using frontend apps over standalone emulators like Kronos and Yaba Sanshiro 2 is the ease with which you may switch between platforms. This comes at the cost of being more difficult to set up than standalone emulators.
Most players recommended Beetle as the core for emulating the Sega Saturn through Retroarch. However, Mednafen is objectively better, and this Beetle preference might be a product of gamers being comfortable with it for a long time. It is hard to imagine Beetle being more accurate and compatible compared to Mednafen when the latter is in active development while the former is effectively dead.
Retroarch’s options and configurations shine. Whether you play on a small screen like a smartphone or a large screen like a TV, the UI may be customized to fit the size of the screen. It may be exhausting to search for those settings, but they exist.
Retroarch’s remarkable feature is how it decreases input lag. This is especially vital in Sega Saturn games which are truthfully not that accurate even to this day. Sega Saturn games like fighters have timely button inputs being critical hence, the need to compensate for this lag, without resorting to plugins and hacks, is very much appreciated, Depending on the game, you can fiddle with the VSync, Hard GPU sync, and Runahead options. To acquire what you want, you must read about it on message boards and play with these settings. Setting things up requires some effort, but the granular setup is available for the willing.
Pros
- Highly configurable
- Miraculous input lag reduction
- Available in a surprisingly broad range of gaming hardware including the PSP and the 3DS
Cons
- Not beginner friendly
- Menu digging
Download from the Official Website (All Platforms)
5. SSF
SSF only appears in this list out of nostalgia, yet it is not even that long ago. Before 2016, nothing in the emulator scene is better than SSF in emulating Sega Saturn. It is initially for Windows only but last year, the year 2021, an Android version of this emulator was released. This emulator has compatibility problems depending on the game you want to run. Sometimes, the older version of the same emulator runs better
Pros
- Great when it works
- Recommended for really ancient hardware
Cons
- Terrible when it does not work
- May contain viruses even in the official build
