Gaming History 101

A fan translation of the Sega Saturn version of Policenauts has been released.  It can be found here.  There you will also find the original Playstation translation as well, but read on to discover why you may want to go with the Saturn.

We love Policenauts here at Gaming History 101.  You can read a review on it, listen to a game club, and even hear a choice song from the soundtrack in one of our music episodes.  This is significant because the Hideo Kojima title was never released outside of Japan and never officially translated to English.  There was a fan translation of the version on the original Playstation in 2009, but it has some compatibility issues that can arise and the shooting sequences don’t support light guns, making them brutal.  On the other hand, the Saturn version is a bit more of a remake than a port with better graphics and even light gun support.  As of yesterday you can now get an English translation patch for the Saturn version and get to play the most definitive version of this great title.

Fred’s Take: This news is huge to me.  First off, it allows me to play (and hopefully finish) the game on an actual console.  I started a video capture of the PS1 version, but struggled greatly with the shooting sequences.  Upon beating the highway scene at the end of Act 2, I was then confronted with a save bug that I never could figure out how to overcome.  I was able to complete the game thanks to emulation, but it never felt right with a keyboard, mouse, and save states.  Hopefully with the help of my chipped Saturn and trusty Virtua Cop light gun I can finally play Policenauts as intended on original hardware.