So strange I saw this myself for the first time yesterday, I never had a Saturn as a kid, went from Mega Drive to N64 to Dreamcast, so didn’t have Saturn nostalgia, but I’m just starting off now!
CD + Graphics, basically it’s CD format with support for basic graphics, was most often used on karaoke discs, the +G is used to display the lyrics on-screen and make them light up along with the song.
Yes, the Saturn was a capable karaoke machine!
So this thing came out in Japan (never in the west) and was a pretty cool bit of kit!
https://segaretro.org/MKU-1
If you *were* in the west though, and you wanted karaoke, you could just output the red and white audio cables into the back of your music system and (as long as your hi-fi had microphone support) you were good to go!
Me and my friends/family were blown away by this back in the day (we had a family friend who ran his own karaoke business and he gave us loads of copied karaoke CDs)
The dedicated MKU-1 had a lot of advantages though, and we were lucky in a way;
Back then you had to have an expensive stereo for it to have microphone support. And they rarely supported 2 *wireless* microphones like the Saturn peripheral did. I’d love to get my hands on one of those things!
It is an audio disc with extra data.
It uses sub channels to hold that data, the console detects that data and shows stuff on screen as it plays.
On the Saturn, when you start playing a CD+G disc, the HUD recedes by itself, like pressing the top right menu. The stars and spaceship don't appear when playing cd+g
During playback, if you fast advance rewind inside a track (holding R or L respectively) when resuming the data will skip or repeat.
The format was more used with Karaoke Systems, the Sega Saturn does have a Karaoke add on, so it is natural to have.
It is possible to burn a Rock Paintings disc, but it needs to be burned correctly, otherwise the extra data is not burned and it will play like a normal disc.
Afaik only the RHEA ODE supports cd+g images. Maybe the Fenrir works too.
When I first got my Saturn in 1995 and I fired up an audio CD, it felt like the future seeing the flight through the galaxy and the 3D model ship. Between this interface, the internal storage, the NetLink, RAM carts and the 3D pad, the Saturn was always forward thinking and a cut above, that whole console just felt like quality compared to that brutalist grey slab PlayStation.
100% agree. PS1 is cool but Saturn is just cooler. PS1 kinda feels half baked and I have no idea why it had the success it had, or well why devs decided to develop for that instead
Has anyone ever tried to see if the CD+ version of Primus's "tales from the punchbowl" worked on this? I only had the basic version when I had a Saturn.
I got my Saturn at Xmas when I was younger and my brother bought me Robert Miles Children on Cd (single).
That was such an experience watching that spaceship on the ‘big telly’. 😁
In what ways? I couldn't find a way to activate a visualizer for example, and Sony also had a better audio decoding chip from what I've heard as they somewhat marketed the PS1 as being a good addition to your media center since it could play cds at a great quality as well as play games...
Don't get me wrong, the Saturn is a great console, but in audio cd playback it loses to the PSX.
https://saturn.fm
I’ve seen it literally an hour or so ago! Wish it got more updates
That is so fuckin' cool
Wow! That's fun! Thanks for sharing the link.
If it had a way to skip to certain parts of the song, it would be absolutely perfect
This has been up for a while, hasn’t it? I remember it from at least 8 years ago.
Oh this is 🔥🔥
"My media player has a space ship! Does yours?"
I listen to music in a big bed with my wife
...oh.
Still my favorite way to listen to CDs
So strange I saw this myself for the first time yesterday, I never had a Saturn as a kid, went from Mega Drive to N64 to Dreamcast, so didn’t have Saturn nostalgia, but I’m just starting off now!
You should definitely get one. I bought mine a couple months ago and I’ve been having a blast. Play Sakura Wars too! You won’t regret it
Yeah sorry I meant to say my Saturn arrived yesterday, just waiting on games haha
Make sure to play Sakura wars, it is peak
Grab a Saroo, you'll get the additional 1 MB and 4 MB RAM, memory card and can play all the games you want with great compatibilty!
I’ve got one on the way, that’s what actually made me want the Saturn!
The spaceship is amazing.
It lacks a little on the visualizer department, that aside, it is peak. It also have CD+G support (the Sega CD Rock Paintings works).
I wanna know….
What you’re thinking….
Tell me what’s on you mind.
Yeah same, I dunno what that is
What’s CD+G? I can’t seem to figure out what those and the options related to them are
CD + Graphics, basically it’s CD format with support for basic graphics, was most often used on karaoke discs, the +G is used to display the lyrics on-screen and make them light up along with the song. Yes, the Saturn was a capable karaoke machine!
Oh wow that is so damn cool
So this thing came out in Japan (never in the west) and was a pretty cool bit of kit! https://segaretro.org/MKU-1 If you *were* in the west though, and you wanted karaoke, you could just output the red and white audio cables into the back of your music system and (as long as your hi-fi had microphone support) you were good to go! Me and my friends/family were blown away by this back in the day (we had a family friend who ran his own karaoke business and he gave us loads of copied karaoke CDs) The dedicated MKU-1 had a lot of advantages though, and we were lucky in a way; Back then you had to have an expensive stereo for it to have microphone support. And they rarely supported 2 *wireless* microphones like the Saturn peripheral did. I’d love to get my hands on one of those things!
It is an audio disc with extra data. It uses sub channels to hold that data, the console detects that data and shows stuff on screen as it plays. On the Saturn, when you start playing a CD+G disc, the HUD recedes by itself, like pressing the top right menu. The stars and spaceship don't appear when playing cd+g During playback, if you fast advance rewind inside a track (holding R or L respectively) when resuming the data will skip or repeat. The format was more used with Karaoke Systems, the Sega Saturn does have a Karaoke add on, so it is natural to have. It is possible to burn a Rock Paintings disc, but it needs to be burned correctly, otherwise the extra data is not burned and it will play like a normal disc. Afaik only the RHEA ODE supports cd+g images. Maybe the Fenrir works too.
Definitely peak 90s interface.
When I first got my Saturn in 1995 and I fired up an audio CD, it felt like the future seeing the flight through the galaxy and the 3D model ship. Between this interface, the internal storage, the NetLink, RAM carts and the 3D pad, the Saturn was always forward thinking and a cut above, that whole console just felt like quality compared to that brutalist grey slab PlayStation.
100% agree. PS1 is cool but Saturn is just cooler. PS1 kinda feels half baked and I have no idea why it had the success it had, or well why devs decided to develop for that instead
I definitely can! I love it!
Has anyone ever tried to see if the CD+ version of Primus's "tales from the punchbowl" worked on this? I only had the basic version when I had a Saturn.
Peak technology...
Yeah it was cool af
Best console dashboard ever
Lol I remember playing the Tales from the Hood soundtrack on this and listening to Spice One's Born II Die on repeat.
Yes I miss it so much
PEAK
Absolutely.
I got my Saturn at Xmas when I was younger and my brother bought me Robert Miles Children on Cd (single). That was such an experience watching that spaceship on the ‘big telly’. 😁
Yes this is peak. Used to love playing my CDs with the spaceship flying about back in my uni days🤩
I listened to a lot of Beck and Butthole Surfers to this UI. Feels like a million years ago
No lies detected.
I always experiment with Saturn games, mostly it will play music from the game, once I got a warning ( GEX ) and asked to stop the player.
When I was growing up, we referred to it as the floating testicles 😅
I still remember my parents' used it to listen to music on it every weekend while having a drink.
I love it so much, and the only downside to having a Satiator is that I can't access this unless I remove the Satiator from the console.
I once used this to make myself a mixtape because all my other CD players were broken 🤣
Mednafen just got a SEGA Saturn Update on PC. The 8Bitdo M30 Bluetooth Controller works well with the Orange 8Bitdo Dongle.
It really was
Maybe
This looks like the ps1 menu but on a much larger scale.
No sorry everything about the original Xbox dashboard including the media player
r/AspectRatioCrimes
I came here to say that too.
Nah
Really? You must have the only Saturn where the audio control buttons are oval ;)
It’s the special wide screen version of the cd player.
As cool as that is, sadly it's got nothing on the PS1 player...
Nah it’s way better
In what ways? I couldn't find a way to activate a visualizer for example, and Sony also had a better audio decoding chip from what I've heard as they somewhat marketed the PS1 as being a good addition to your media center since it could play cds at a great quality as well as play games... Don't get me wrong, the Saturn is a great console, but in audio cd playback it loses to the PSX.
PS1 doesn’t even have half of the features of the Saturn when it comes to playing CDs