The ultra-rare SAMSUNG SATURN

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RetroVidya
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The ultra-rare SAMSUNG SATURN

Post by RetroVidya »

So, I'm sure a few of you know what I'm talking about, and if you don't, I'll sum it up right now: Yes - Samsung made a console, Yes - it was legally authorized by Sega, and Yes - it does come with its own lineup of Samsung brand games and controllers.

So here's the story - it's the early to mid 90's, and in South Korea, Sega stuff was virtually nonexistent for the most part. What happened was that the sale of Japanese goods there was essentially banned. Now there are a couple thoughts on why this happened, but the one I was told (and believe the most) is that they really wanted nothing to do with japan after they committed several atrocities while occupying their country (if you're interested in what kinds of things japan did while occupying other countries, Google a video called "The Rape of Nanking" - it's a black and white film of japan essentially massacring, victimizing, destroying, and demolishing the city of Nanking and the people within it. It's some very chilling stuff.

So now let's get back to the main point of this. The ban made it very hard for Nintendo or Sega to put their goods into South Korea, since both Nintendo and Sega are and were very well known japan-based companies. So what did they do? Well, through the magic of loopholes and Korean manufacturers, they figured out that if they gave some of the rights to a Korean company like Samsung and had the console re-branded and removed of most, if not all Sega markings, it could get sold into South Korea! Sega chose Samsung, and Nintendo chose Hyundai. Now, this actually happened a while before the Saturn, as Nintendo produced NES's, Super Nintendos, and Sega produced Master Systems and Megadrives. However, the main focus is on the Saturn, since this forum is mainly about that system.

So, why are these systems rare, practically nonexistent even in SK, and not much is known about them?
Well - I can give you three reasons.
1) The console was made with lesser quality parts. The inner guts are mixed with both Model 1 and Model 2 parts, the Model 1 motherboard and Model 2 accounting for pretty much everything else. Supposedly another issue was that the Reset buttons and Access lights seemed to fail a lot or were not put in the console. While this may not be completely true for all cases (including mine), you can't be sure due to the lack of information on the system itself. One of the things not many people know is that Samsung made 3-4 variations of the system. SPC-ST, SPC-ST II and SPC-SATURN
2) The console was more expensive then trying to import a Sega Saturn in. Pretty straightforward reason there.
3) People didn't take care of their stuff. Many just threw the thing out as soon as the next new cool thing came.

I'll upload some pictures soon.
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Warp2063
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Re: The ultra-rare SAMSUNG SATURN

Post by Warp2063 »

I was not aware. Interesting stuff!

I'm a bit confused as to why it was less expensive to import a system... I have guesses, but I'd rather it be spelled out.

Welcome to the forums!
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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