Cheapest way to play Saturn Imports?

[Urzu402]

I'm thinking about importhing that Castlevania game for the Saturn again and I would like to know.

[todesengel]

Just get an Action Replay cart, you really can't get any cheaper than that.

[Urzu402]

I don't have enough for an Action Replay though. I would love to get one but I simply don't have the money for it. unless you know where I can get one for like 20 or under shipped.

[Baloo]

There's actually a wire switch you could do that I've heard about that will allow you to play Japanese games on a US Saturn. The only downside is that you have to go to the spaceship boot screen before playing US games.

Forum member wataru330 knows more about it than I do.

[buzz_n64]

Cheapest you ask? Burned copy and swap disc method, but not recommended.

[todesengel]

I don't have enough for an Action Replay though. I would love to get one but I simply don't have the money for it. unless you know where I can get one for like 20 or under shipped.
You can find loose Action Replay carts for $20 or less all over ebay most of the time and the region switch method that was mentioned above will cost you about $20 if you do it yourself.

[Urzu402]

Dammit nevermind I lost the auction :( for the game.

[todesengel]

You should at least look into getting something to play imports on your Saturn for whenever you run across a game you want. Honestly it wouldn't have been worth it to only play Nocturne in the Moonlight, the Saturn port is a neat little thing to see but it's really only worth having if your a huge Castlevania fan and need every game. The flaws of the Saturn port aren't worth putting up with just to play as Maria or to see the extra content. Use the money you where gonna blow on buying Nocturne and invest in at least an Action Replay, it'll be way cheaper than that game would have been.

[walrusmonger]

I think the novelty of playing the game on a system other than the PS1 (or ps2... or ps3... or psp) is worth the price :)

[mobiusclimber]

Here's the problem: the cheapest way isn't really the best way. What you really want to do is buy a Japanese Saturn and an Action Replay or ST Key. Then just sell your US Saturn and use the boot cart to play US games on the Japanese Saturn. Why is this the best way? Because a handful or two of good Japanese titles require the extra 4MB Ram cart, which means they are unplayable with a boot cart (since you can't have two carts in at once).

Obviously if you get a boot cart now, you can always get a Japanese Saturn later. This is just something to think about. Bare in mind you should pay no more than $45 shipped for a Japanese Saturn (if you can handle waiting a couple months for it to arrive via Seamail).

[Breetai]

Bare in mind you should pay no more than $45 shipped for a Japanese Saturn (if you can handle waiting a couple months for it to arrive via Seamail).
Yeah, if you want a bare bones Saturn with no (or few, if you're lucky) games. Two months is a long time to wait. I'm just saying...

[Icarus Moonsight]

You can swap a ram cart in after an ST-Key does it's job. We use to have to do this to play the ram cart games (X-Men v SF, Vampire Savior etc) until the 4-in-1. The timing to swap is a bitch to get down though.

[todesengel]

The problem with that cart swap trick though is you can completely break the console by doing that.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Out of curiosity... How? It's a cart. I'm missing something or am extremely lucky.

[josekortez]

The Action Replay 4-in-1 is the gift that keeps on giving.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Out of curiosity... How? It's a cart. I'm missing something or am extremely lucky.

Cartridge connection port pins contain small amounts of power, if you swap out while power is on there is always a chance you can cause damage, you have never seen a console instructions suggesting not to remove or insert a cartridge while power is on? There is a reason for that, so yeah, you been lucky so far...............

[mobiusclimber]

Yeah, if you want a bare bones Saturn with no (or few, if you're lucky) games. Two months is a long time to wait. I'm just saying...

Bare bones? Yeah, probably no games unless you luck out on an auction. I've gotten CIB JP Saturns for that price tho.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I got my Japanese Saturn + 50 games for $90 off eBay from Japan. Shipping, on the other hand, was ridiculous... it's all about finding decent auctions and willing to put up with high shipping costs and high turnaround time.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Cartridge connection port pins contain small amounts of power, if you swap out while power is on there is always a chance you can cause damage, you have never seen a console instructions suggesting not to remove or insert a cartridge while power is on? There is a reason for that, so yeah, you been lucky so far...............

Well, that certainly makes sense... I would figure that the risk is somewhat minuscule, considering the hundreds of times that I've done that to a single system with no issues (other than messing up the timing and the game went no boot/error out). My main concern was physically messing up the cart port with the hurried yanking and jamming. And that didn't happen either. I got an AR now, so it's no longer a concern really.

Thanks

[The 1 2 P]

The Action Replay 4-in-1 is the gift that keeps on giving.

Yup, as long as it's working 100%. Mine has no problem playing imports but it still won't let me save data to it, even after several cleanings:(

[Kyle15]

I can also vouch for the ST-Key. NCSX has them for $10 the last time I looked.
It won't boot RAM games of course, but it does get the basic import job done.

[Ed Oscuro]

I almost said this earlier, but the emulator SSF is pretty decent if your PC can run it.

[Baloo]

Don't use the ST Key. It'll fuck up your cart slot because the pins on the cart are too thick for the slot.

[Kyle15]

Don't use the ST Key. It'll fuck up your cart slot because the pins on the cart are too thick for the slot.

Really? Mine slides right in. The Gameshark on the other hand, takes much force to get in.
I've kinda stopped trying with that one. :/