Buying A Japanese Sega Saturn

[daclassicgamingmaster]

I'm looking into buying a skeleton sega saturn. It's a japanese model, as are all the skeleton models.


With that said, what's a good device (I assume I need one) to play US games on a japanese system? I've asked ebay sellers, but for some reason they all seems like they dont know a thing about their own console


Thanks all.

 

[grahf]

If you can solder, its super easy to region mod a saturn. If you dont mind putting a switch on your case of course.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

hmmm. I guess it depends what it entails. I soldered my FLU after painting it, and soldered my gp2x's headphone jack. Anything much more than that I dont think I'd be able to do.


Is there a retard-proof guide out there?

 

[grahf]

This is pretty much all the information you need. If you have a decent soldering iron its not too much trouble. A few years ago I region modded my US saturn so i could use the Sega Movie Card (vcd card) to watch VCDs.

http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=imports:sega_saturn

 

[loz_the_guru]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sega-SATURN-SKELETON-C...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

This is pretty much all the information you need. If you have a decent soldering iron its not too much trouble. A few years ago I region modded my US saturn so i could use the Sega Movie Card (vcd card) to watch VCDs.

http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=imports:sega_saturn

I'll have a look at that, but in the worse case senario, I'll send it into old school gamer and have them mod it for me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sega-SATURN-SKELETON-C...1QQcmdZViewItem

yeah that's pretty awesome and I was gonna get it, except Im not spending 250 USD + shipping to get a saturn that plays in black and white. Im getting the smoke colored one.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Its quite possible that I will go with old school gamer and have them mod it for me. It's more money, yes, but it'll be done professionally and I wont break it :/

 

[epitaph]

Most Japanese Saturns have an earlier revision of the motherboard (these consoles are known as model 1 Saturns or 64-pin Saturns). All Saturns are fairly easy to region-mod as long as you know how to solder. Modifying the 64-pin Saturns to play backups however is another story as it'll require you to resolder traces of the modchip (there's only one available AFAIK) on the motherboard.

The newer Saturns (32-pin Saturns or model 2 Saturns) are extremely easy to install modchips in. I'm not going to explain it in great detail as there are plenty of guides out there doing a much better job at it than what I'd be able to.

 

[god_at_hell]

you don't want to mod a skeleton saturn ... Use the ST Key (a module) to get a regionfree Saturn.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

you don't want to mod a skeleton saturn ... Use the ST Key (a module) to get a regionfree Saturn.

but then I cant use cartidges or ram carts

Is there any reason why I shouldnt mod a skeleton saturn?

 

[epitaph]

you don't want to mod a skeleton saturn ... Use the ST Key (a module) to get a regionfree Saturn.

but then I cant use cartidges or ram carts

Is there any reason why I shouldnt mod a skeleton saturn?

There are Action Reply cartridges which extend the RAM and allow you to play imports. They're known as 4-in-1 carts -- purchaseable at http://www.jandaman.com for instance.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

maybe it's a good idea to do that, as A: it's cheaper, B: I dont have to send my system off, and C: I dont have to mod it internally.


thanks epitaph, I'll do that instead.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Was checking ebay for an action replay for the saturn, and while in a bidding war I realized play-asia had the item cheaper :lol:


play-asia ftw