The video game industry descended upon Cologne, Germany, last weekend for Gamescom 2025, and the Sega Saturn was represented well thanks to fans running the SegAddiction booth.

Those fans, who included SHIRO! community members Mampfus, Xenos, Mickschen and nord_polar, gave convention visitors a chance to play several Saturns they’d set up alongside other Sega consoles. A lineup of TVs and chairs beckoned fans to sit down and experience Sega’s hardware history.

Mampfus told SHIRO! that the booth had a two-part theme: a short history of Sega consoles, which included a timeline on a wall behind the TVs; and then “Saturn today,” showing off games as well as new hardware like optical drive emulators, controllers and HDMI cables.

One Saturn was running Virtua Cop 1 and 2 with light guns while two more consoles were linked together via Taisen cable for head-to-head racing in Daytona Circuit Edition. A fourth and fifth Saturn played a variety of games, including Virtua Fighter 2, Fighters Megamix, Dead or Alive, Nights into Dream and Sega Rally Championship.

Mampfus said one of the Saturns was meant to show off homebrew games and translation patches, “but due to time mismanagement we weren’t prepared, so it was just normal Saturn games.”

Despite that hiccup, the booth drew a lot of interest from convention-goers during all five days of Gamescom, Wednesday through Sunday.

“Some people, many mothers, were remembering Mega Drive. Also, Dreamcast had some feedback; the people that knew Saturn were few. But enough people showed interest and asked if we have a homepage or Discord server so they could join us. Since we have none yet, we wrote their contact [info] down.”
— Mampfus

“Most people were drawn to the Virtua Cop stand,” Xenos said.

One Gamescom visitor tries out Virtua Cop.

The booth got some coverage from a well-known group of gaming streamers, too.

“There were the guys from Rocket Beans , a video game magazine on YouTube and relatively famous in our generation, [who] had with us an interview,” Mampfus said.

Two people sit at a pair of Saturns connected via Taisen Cable for Daytona link battles.

Overall, the organizers said they were happy with the booth’s design and its ability to attract attention.

“With the given black wall, our designers could find a good visual concept that fit the topic and also was used for a timeline and the logos of the console,” Mampfus said. “It showed us how Important visual concepts are.

“Also, the boxes beneath the TVs were a good idea and gave the booth a good look and helped us to feel a bit safe against thefts. Many people, more than before, showed us their interest.”

Saturn appears elsewhere at Gamescom

The Saturn could be found elsewhere at the convention, too. A fan named Silvio set up some glass cases full of Saturn consoles, games and accessories from his collection to celebrate the console’s 30th anniversary.

VID_20250823_152052.mp4

Photos and video courtesy of Mampfus.

And Retrospiel , a Cologne retailer that sells retro games as well as new homebrew games for retro consoles, showed off Saturn homebrew platformer Cubecat , among many titles for other systems.

https://t.co/XTNhVAV3Ts – new games for old consoles booth at retrogaming area floor 10.2 #Gamescom2025 – the calm before the storm. #indiegames pic.twitter.com/U5dX54I8GW

	Danthrax
		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 he's helped as an editor on several other Saturn and Dreamcast fan projects such as Cotton 2, Rainbow Cotton and Sakura Wars Columns 2.