A crafty modder has worked their magic to make a Sega Saturn portable in a brand new handheld they are calling the Sega Uranus.
The Saturn is not exactly the most convenient of consoles to smash into a portable form.
Yet, here we are nearly thirty years after the release of the system, someone managed to make the impossible a reality.
We covered the Saturn a bit in our article of All Sega Consoles & Handhelds In Order.
The short summary is that it was a pretty advanced home console at the time of its release.
It was also home to some pretty incredible games, like Nights Into Dreams, The Legend Of Oasis, Sega Rally Championship, and Panzer Dragoon Saga.
Now… all in your pocket. If you happen to still wear JNCO jeans.
Sega Uranus Details
The new Sega Uranus handheld looks a lot like the Sega Game Gear. Big, chunky, and like it could keep a car in place if parked on a steep hill.
And keen Sega fans will notice that the Uranus design has actually taken most of its inspiration from the unreleased Sega Venus (just in a bigger size).
Which just kind of adds to the awesomeness of the whole project, because we get to see what the Venus may have become if it ever came to market.
The prototype that TZMWX showed looks like it’s still in the early stages. So surely there will be a few changes and improvements to be made.
But what we can see is fully functional, and does away with the disc drive of the Saturn to allow for maximum size optimization.
Here are some of the stats of the prototype built:
- Motherboard: Sega Saturn
- ODE: Fenrir
- Cart: 4M memory & 4M EXRAM
- Display: 3.5”640x480ips LCD
- Battery: 3300mA 18650*2 (>3 Hours)
You can even see that TZMWX has built in a display control that allows for saturation and brightness control. Not sure why you’d want to go black and white on a Saturn game, but the option is there.
Sega Saturn Minimized
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time somebody has taken the massive Sega Saturn and turned it into a portable game system.
In fact, even TZMWX has done it in the past in several Sega Saturn projects.
The talent coming out of the handheld scene is wild, and what is now possible is perhaps one of the only reasons that living in 2023 might be better than living in 1994.
Luckily (and sadly), I have lived through both. So I was able to enjoy that magical era of video gaming, as well as the current generation of technology mastery.
I’ve seen the release of the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Saturn all the way up to mind-boggling things like the AYANEO 2, the Analogue Pocket, a Handheld Wii and now the Sega Uranus.
A whole spectrum of gaming – all for the singular purpose of bringing joy to players. It’s the reason we do all of this.
And projects like the Sega Uranus make us proud to be a part of this gaming community.
Anthony has been a video game lover ever since he can remember. He became a fulltime nomad in 2018, living throughout most of Asia. He focused his passion in retro gaming and began creating a game for the Game Boy Color while living in Nara, Japan during the 2020 pandemic. He is now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spends most of his time gaming, going on long walks and meeting as many stray dogs as possible.
