Questions about Sega CD / Saturn memory carts

[Cinder6]

I have just a couple questions about the Sega CD and (official) Saturn memory carts.

Do they work the same? (As in, does the SCD one support direct saving?) Does the SCD one work with all games? Do they use battery backup?

EDIT: Note for people coming into the thread. This topic is almost a year old, and my questions have been answered. There's a new discussion going on at the end, though.

[SnowKitty]

i can confirm that the official saturn memory cart uses flash memory.

[InsaneDavid]

Official Sega CD Backup RAM Cartridge: uses a battery inside, supports direct saving.

Sega Saturn backup cartridges vary, the official Sega one supports direct saving. Some of the third party ones do, some do not. The Pro Action Replay 4M does not support direct saving.

I know I've typed all this out before, I'm sure there are at least a few threads that can / have already explained this better.

[Cinder6]

Alright, thanks, I'll do some searching. My main concern is whether all SCD games support direct saving.

[Dreamc@sting]

David is right, 3rd party carts are the only ones that are really hit or miss

[The 1 2 P]

The Pro Action Replay 4M does not support direct saving.

How do saves for this version work?

[Vlcice]

The Action Reply menu has a memory manager, which allows you to copy saves between the internal memory and the cartridge's memory. The Action Replay's memory isn't visible to the Saturn menu or Saturn games in any way.

[The 1 2 P]

Then I should probably get a better memory card for when I start to actually play my Saturn games because right now the Action Replay 4 in 1 cart is all I have.

[logsofhod]

i can confirm that the official saturn memory cart uses flash memory.

until recently i believed the same thing, but after almost 10 years, my official memory cart started stuffing up, opening it up revealed a battery!!

did sega produce 2 variants of the cart? 1 being flash and 1 being battery?

[logsofhod]

update, some snappies

[SkiDragon]

update, some snappies

I have an identical looking cart. I was not able to take it apart completely, but I was able to get a peek at the board. My cart does NOT have a battery, and seems to have fewer chips as well.

[logsofhod]

interesting! so we may have a case of revised design... maybe the earlier ones had batteries or something

[Icarus Moonsight]

I just took a look at my two US Saturn Backup Carts. Both had no coin battery and seemed to be flash based.

Maybe the Japanese launch backup carts were produced with a battery save due to cost constraints at the time. That's just a stab in the dark by me though.

I've always wanted a Sega CD Ram cart... Never could find one though. Back then even. Oh well. Limited system ram just means you have to stay focused on one or a few games at a time or get nowhere with any of them.

[The 1 2 P]

I just got a new Action Replay 4 in 1 to replace the other one I had which didn't save games. This one works perfectly but I hope it stays that way. I still need to get a backup cart for my X-Eye because I don't think theres much room in the system for very many saves.

[alec006]

Since its a CR2450,do yourself a favor and find one with a larger mAh hour rate since it seems CR2450's range from 500mAh to 600mAh,least the ones I have do. The battery will last abit longer depending on usage.