Looking for some light reading material about your favorite 32-bit console? A new fan-made coffee table book has you covered.
“The Unofficial Sega Saturn Collection” is a 290-page paperback that released on Amazon earlier this month. It features large color screenshots of some of the games in the Saturn’s library along with writeups about each one composed by David Cameron, manager of One Up Gaming, a U.K. video game review website.
It’s available from Amazon U.S. for a list price of US$44 — although it’s 21 percent off at $34.76 right now — and from Amazon U.K. for £34.99. It’s also available digitally via Amazon’s Kindle format for US$9.99 or £9.99.
The Amazon listing describes the book thusly:
“The Unofficial Sega Saturn Collection” is more than just a coffee table book; it’s a celebration of an era-defining console and the unforgettable experiences it brought to millions of players around the world. Whether you’re a seasoned Saturn aficionado or a newcomer to its world, this book offers a comprehensive tribute to Sega’s iconic gaming masterpiece. So sit back, flip through the pages, and rediscover the magic of the Sega Saturn.”
Cameron said on the SHIRO! Discord server last weekend that this is his first book. He chose to write about the Saturn because it’s his favorite console — of course — so he figured he’d make that the subject of his first self-published effort.
He said it took him a couple months of pure editing and around six to eight months to put it all together. He recently got a sample copy to hold in his hands, and after all that work, he said it’s “strange to see it as an actual book and not just PNGs on the computer screen.”
“I think it’s just because I’ve never had anything published before and looks amazing to hold and see the work involved,” he said.
Cameron said he hopes to make a hardbound version of the book if it sells well enough. In the meantime, Saturn fans can enjoy the paperback for the fun trip it provides through the console’s library.
Danthrax is a contributor to the Shiro Media Group, writing stories for the website when Saturn news breaks. While he was a Sega Genesis kid in the ’90s, he didn’t get a Saturn until 2018. It didn’t take him long to fall in love with the console’s library as well as the fan translation and homebrew scene. He contributed heavily to the Bulk Slash and Stellar Assault SS fan localizations, and has helped as an editor on several other Saturn and Dreamcast fan projects such as Cotton 2, Rainbow Cotton and Sakura Wars Columns 2.
It’s so gosh darn ugly and has wrong info even in the sample pages claiming some Model 2 Saturn systems didn’t need a battery for saves or whatever, lol.
I have to agree with Alex on this. The screenshots are very poor and varying quality, the grammer and spelling is wrong in spots, and some of the information is head scratching in other spots. The book claims Mega Man X4 has the ability to play as “Maverick Hunter Frost Walrus”. This is completely absurd and an utter fabrication. There’s plenty more where that came from, too. Don’t get me wrong I picked it up immediately because I’m happy to get any book in English about the Saturn, but this one really could have used some more time in the oven.