Art-of-Zen Digital
6 april 2025
This is really being used for one thing, and one thing only, my beloved Sega Saturn. I could technically play it on my PC, since my entire original game library was transferred to my PC, but the actual look and feel of the Sega Saturn games made it my favorite system of the 32 bit era. I also had a PlayStation One, but it was used a lot less due to the 4MB Ram import cart that enabled my Saturn to have a far longer life than it did in the US. Essentially, the Saturn was released in the US in the summer of 1995, and it saw its last US release, Magic Night Rayearth in November of 1998. Technically, only 7 games came out that year, and most of them came out in May 1998. If you happened to have an import cart, then the Saturn came out in 1994, and saw its last release, Shining Force III: The Final Chapter, in April, 2000. It only had 246 games come out in the US, but it had 775 unique Japanese only game releases, with over 1,100 total globally released games. So long after the Saturn died in the US, great games were still being released.Some of these games included the superior version of Dead or Alive, as well as the exclusive open flight and mech combat game, Bulk Slash, both of which demonstrated the Saturn’s strengths well. There were many other great games such as the Virtua Fighter 2 style mech fighting game, Zero Divide, as well as a nearly arcade perfect port of Street Fighter Zero 3, and the stunning RPG Grandia, that saw heavy rotation in my Saturn.This particular RCA to HDMI adapter allows me to play these games properly on my original Saturn, due to the 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio switch it offers. Surprisingly, there were a few widescreen Saturn games, such as Nights into Dreams, Christmas Nights into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Saturn Bomberman, and the street racing game Touge King: the Spirits 2, which is also known as High Velocity 2. There are a lot more, but the best way to play a lot of classic Saturn games in widescreen was the Pro Action Replay. Using game specific codes allowed you to play Dead or Alive, Die Hard Trilogy, and the best 32 bit port of Duke Nukem 3D in widescreen. Last Bronx, the first Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Saga, the FPS game, Exhumed, which was also better on the Saturn, Quake, Sega Rally Championship, and a few other games also have Pro Action Replay widescreen codes. All in all, the 4:3, and 16:9 video modes make this is a great adapter for old school gaming. While the video output isn't as crisp, or colorful looking as my RGB S-Video Saturn to HDMI adapter, it's easier to use quickly, producing some solid visual results. Another unique thing about this RCA to HDMI adapter is how its slightly blurry output makes the mesh effects that were used in some of the Saturn games to simulate transparencies, look like actual transparencies, even on a 4K TV. High resolution Saturn games that used its maximum non progressive scan output of 704x480i don't have any interlacing issues with this adapter either. With my RGB S-Video to HDMI adapter however, the drastic clarity increase results in mesh effects which look like actual meshes. The S-Video adapter also causes interlacing artifacts in some of the 60 frames per second, high resolution Saturn games such as Virtua Fighter 2, and Dead or Alive.
David Candice Long
30 december 2024
Perfect! Worked right outa the box. You don't have to change the TV to 4x3, just hit the button on the unit. Laserdisc, VHS, Xbox, PS1, PS2 etc', using 4x3 wont cut off top and bottom or stretch horizontally.