I was thinking about picking up a Saturn to round out my stable of consoles, but with the large number of them that don't work and the fact that a lot of the good games are really expensive I feel like I should just give in and emulate this one.

I don't want to use a PC since I prefer to play on my TV on the couch with friends, so I'm thinking a console emulator would probably be best.  Some quick googling has lead me to believe that there aren't any great Saturn emulators out there, but I'm hoping that's not the case.  I'd also like to pick a console that can emulate some of the other systems I don't have.

I have a Wii that I could mod, but does that hurt the lifespan of it at all?  I'm also planning on picking up a 360 when I find a cheap reliable one.  I'm pretty sure those are the only real choices for good emulation on a console these days, right?

If it does end up being that the PC is my only option for good Saturn emulation, I can do that but I'd probably have it hooked up to my TV.  So if anyone is able to recommend a smaller, hopefully low cost computer (also hopefully with HDMI out), please do so.  

Aside from Saturn I think the only other consoles I'd really need to emulate are Neo Geo and Turbo Grafx since I have most of the other good home consoles.

Thanks guys.  

Saturn is hard to emulate because of it's crazy infrastructure. I'm not aware of any console that could emulate it, as PC emulation is still spotty. Modding the Wii won't hurt the lifespan, but it certainly doesn't have enough horsepower to emulate Saturn.

I know Turbo is no problem, Neo should be no problem. I had a modded Wii but sold it for a 3DS, so it's been a while since I've dabbled with the homebrew channel.

Yea, the homebrew channel is fun to tool around with but I think your best bet is pc as well.
Plus, when hooked up to the TV you can watch videos, stream music from it, whatever.

Cool, thanks for the help guys. I'm going to try to find a very small PC with HDMI out so that it can just sit with my consoles. I was thinking of using my PS3 controllers but then I realized the Saturn has 6 buttons. Maybe mapping the shoulder buttons would work. I'll post in this thread if I figure out a really good setup.

Look into the Raspberry Pi. Might not be strong enough for Saturn emulation though.

I'll definitely look into Raspberry Pi as well, but this thing looks like it could be a pretty sweet emulation machine - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Prod...

I had no idea I could get something that small with that much power for so cheap.

My brother just got a Raspberry Pi last week, I'll ask him about what emulators he can run on it.

Awesome, thanks man. I'm not worried about emulating the consoles I already have, which consist of: NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, PS1, PS2, PS3, Genesis, Dreamcast and every Nintendo Handheld.

PC is best to emulate anything.
PS2/WII in FULLHD? No fuckin problem.
There are dozens of nearperfect Emulators.
The most known consoles r really playin 90% of Games perfect (PS2,DS,PS1,SNES,NES etc)
Perfect for me means Start -> Credits without gamebreaking Graphic/Audiobugs.

But something less popular like Dreamcast,Segaconsoles etc Emus rnt that good.
Well at least they werent as i tried em in like 2008 lol.
They r may better now dunno.

DreamCast has a great emulator, as does the SMS, Genesis/Mega Drive, CD, 32x, and Gamegear. The Saturn was a difficult platform to develop for, so emulation was just as difficult. I haven't checked out any Saturn emulators in probably the last few years, but I remember when they'd boot the bios and nothing more. Last I checked (probably 2006 - 2007), it would play some games at 2 - 5 FPS, making it unplayable.

Raspberry Pi can run MAME well. As for other emus, I'm not sure. With raspbian, you should be able to run GFCEU on Linux. (Linux is what you use on raspberry pi, better learn quick!) but I doubt it can do much 3D, but I may be wrong.

And don't spend $200 on that Intel Atom computers. You're better off with a raspberry pi for $25 or a dual Core 2 duo XP tower. Atoms are terrible.

For Sega Saturn, the Raspberry Pi won't work. I found an emulator that I'm going to try out later, but it requires some intense processing. Raspberry Pi should be able to run anything from the 16bit generation and below without any issues. It may run PS1 games perfectly as well, but I doubt PS2, and I highly doubt it it will run any Saturn Emulator at all.

Just remember - Saturn was a complex system, and it seems that within the last 3 to 4 years is when emulations for it really broke through. PS2, GameCube, DreamCast, etc were all emulated before the Saturn, so that should say something.

It's also very likely that the PS3 will be the same, since it's using the Cell system.

I messed around with some Saturn emulators a couple of years back and one or two worked ok. SSF worked well enough to play Castlevania SOTN, Daytona USA, and a few others. I wonder if anymore progress has been made?

Just buy a system. They aren't expensive, and I don't think it's any less reliable than any other console from the same time period. Some of the best games are expensive, yes, but there are plenty of great titles that are not. You can always mod the system..

Either buy a Saturn or go full-on PC. The Wii is nowhere near powerful enough to run Saturn games, and I wouldn't bother waiting for someone to break into the WiiU or PS4 and run emulators at the moment if I were you.

Looks like a system is the way to go then. It would drive me nuts trying to play on a glitchy emulator.

The Japanese ones seem to be quite a bit cheaper, is there any downside to grabbing one of those? My main issue with buying one is shipping costs; brings the price to $80-$90 for a console with one controller. I've only ever seen one for sale locally and the seller wants $150 for it with the extra memory carts that let you play imports.

Huh? The Japanese ones are more expensive. You should be able to get a US system for $40 - $50 USD, then factor in shipping. EStarland.com usually has them for a little more than that and they ship worldwide. If you want to play Japanese games (you probably will), invest in an Action Replay cart on top of that. Should cost you $20 - $35 for the cart.

I've had between 6 to 8 Saturns come through my hands and I've never had one that just straight up didn't work. I've had to replace memory batteries on all of them, but that doesn't require any amount of expertise or skill whatsoever, so its nothing to be worried about. Pick up a Saturn console - you won't regret it! Also, you should hold out to find one somewhere local or a good deal on a bundle with games. I was impatient and spent close to $60 on one and then saw one at a flea market for $35 the next week!

SSF does the job well for emulating saturn. It's almost 100 percent accurate on most games, far better than Dreamcast emulation in any case.

EDIT: though i'm not sure why you'd want to emulate the Saturn, unless you are interested in self-torture.

Kinky.

As mentioned earlier get a US system off craigslist for dirt cheap if you can and gett the Action Replay plus. It works as a memory card,Ram Cart,and reigon convertor to play any game its everything you might ever need in one.

Sega Saturn can be emulated on the WII, but very poorly. The Xbox 360 console can NOT do emulation unless you have one of the older models with the JTAG hack, or one of the PCB's that allow the JTAG hack to work on "newer" consoles.

Your best bet is a computer, or a combination of sega saturn (a real one) and a modified xbox (original) or modified PS3 for other emulator needs.

My opinion.

I checked out this emulator called SSF for Sega Saturn, and it works great. The downfall is you need DirectX 9.0c installed, and it's kind of a pain to work, plus you need a pretty hardcore processor.

Also, you can only play games from a CD/DVD/Bluray drive. You can use your physical copies, or you need to use something like daemon tools to mount the ISO/CUE file.

While I admittedly don't have the worlds fastest PC. SSF was running games WAAAY offspeed last time I tried it (about a year ago). Sound is wrong, graphical glitches are heavy. While it CAN play Saturn games, it's a long ways off of using the actual hardware.

The saturn is one of my personal favorite consoles. People want to bash the hell out of it but really, the best games never made it to our shores. If you enjoy classic games (especially shmups and fighters) you really do owe it to yourself to go check out the awesome Japanese library be it through emulation or buying the physical copies. It's well worth your time, the console and an action replay shouldn't run you much more than 75 bucks. While alot of the really good games command a high price, many of them do not, and even with the prices, you don't see the crazy price fluctuations like on other consoles people collect for.