Greetings, Saturn fans! As you know, the 2018 Portland Retro Gaming Exposition (PRGE) has just come to a close. Shiros Ke and Ben were on hand at the show as were Retro-bit, and of course our Shiros had an opportunity to test-drive the forthcoming Retro-bit Saturn products. Let’s dive right in to the info you all want to know.
How do they feel? Ben had an opportunity to play using the Skeleton Green traditional controller (name not official), and his impressions were that the D-pad and buttons were spot-on. The click of the L and R triggers, however, didn’t quite feel right yet.
Retro-bit confirmed that they are continuing to work on adjusting the triggers to get them as close in feel to the originals as possible, and that what was on display at PRGE was not the final product.
Ben also confirms that the build is extremely solid – not the ‘coming apart at the seams’ that are sometimes associated with poor third-party efforts.
Cross-platform compatibility? The mock-up boxes from Retro-bit confirm that the Bluetooth Genesis and Saturn controllers would work on either platform – the USB receivers would happily handle either controller.
Will both Traditional and Analog controllers be Bluetooth compatible? Lately all pics seem to imply Analog only… Great question. We can confirm through both Shiro and Saturn Junkyard (thanks, Brian Vines!) report that Retro-bit will have wireless versions of both the new Analog designs as well as the traditional pads available for purchase.
Release date? Price? No release date or price details are set yet. Retro-bit informed us that they are keenly interested in getting these controllers right as opposed to rushing them to market and possibly not living up to what these controllers could be. SEGA Saturn, Shiro! applauds this approach.
Other tidbits: On display at PRGE were the European-style boxes. As you can see, they very closely match what SEGA was using in Europe at the time. When the controllers were first unveiled earlier this year in the USA, the box art used for all systems matched what was used in the market at the time. Expect that to be the case when they launch.
Want us to try and dig up info on any other aspect of these upcoming products? Drop us your questions at contact@SEGASaturnShiro.com !
Ben Wallace, Ke Kona, Peter Malek and Brian Vines (Saturn Junkyard) contributed to this report.
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