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Thread: Saturn Import: Mod vs. Cart

  1. #21
    Alex (Level 15) InsaneDavid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Az
    Quote Originally Posted by InsaneDavid
    If you're looking for everything in one cartridge, the Action Replay Plus 4M Auto is the cart to use.
    Here's a really obscure question for you....

    I bought my 4-in-1 back whenever they first came out, when the only game that required the 4mb RAM cart was XvSF. Soon after that Vampire Savior came out, and apparently the original run of carts EMS put out was incompatible with VS. You either had the option of buying an updated cart or modding your existing cart (wish I had saved those instructions!).

    Soon after that several more 4mb games came out and I never heard any retailers mention the incompatibility issue. I'm assuming only the initial run of adapters had this problem, and whatever revision they did to them following Vampire Savior made them compatible will all 4mb games.

    Is this true? Will the 4-in-1 adapters sold new today work on all 4mb games? Did they ever fix the glitch with SNK's 1mb games?
    It's still random, the stock channel is a mix of the two releases. In fact I think very few, if any, cartridges had the problem fixed by EMS. The cartridges for sale that don't have the problem have usually been modded by hand by the vendor. In other words the retailers were modifying the cartridges themselves or their vendor / distributor was doing it for them.

    The 4M RAM expansion feature should work without any problems if your Saturn is hardmodded with a US/JPN switch and is in JPN mode. The problem with the AR cartridges was that the 4M RAM + the JPN mode switching wouldn't work at the same time.

    From my review...

    "With some Action Replay carts there was a problem that prevented the 4M RAM expansion from working in conjunction with the region override for some games, namely Vampire Savior. If you have one of these older cartridges an override repair can be done that involves cutting a trace on the board inside the Action Replay and soldering in a jumper."

    Directions on how to modify one of these cartridges can be found here.

  2. #22
    Insert Coin (Level 0)
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    I know NCSX fixed all of their carts. I had also ordered one from Lik-Sang and theirs were unmodified.

  3. #23
    Alex (Level 15) InsaneDavid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rabid Peanut-Butter
    I know NCSX fixed all of their carts. I had also ordered one from Lik-Sang and theirs were unmodified.
    Quote Originally Posted by InsaneDavid
    The cartridges for sale that don't have the problem have usually been modded by hand by the vendor. In other words the retailers were modifying the cartridges themselves or their vendor / distributor was doing it for them.
    It's nothing to worry about though since it's simple enough to do. Personally I think NCS makes the procedure sound more complex than it is on their page about it in an attempt to gain sales. "It's really hard to do, so buy one from us instead!" But that's just me.

  4. #24
    Kirby (Level 13) cyberfluxor's Avatar
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    4MB cartridge has 8190 slots? That's pretty awesome.

    This the kind that I need? It looks a lot like the backup cart for the SegaCD. There are currently 4 on Ebay going that are "Official" and are over $20 after shipping and have some 8+ bids backing them so there is some kind of demand I'll have to fight over.

    Back to a hardswitch mod, obviously the easiest thing to do is cut away a hole on the side or back and mound the switch. But if you were to decide to do a custom new case is there anything out there that's worth using? Are there any premade shells available for purchase to transfer your systems core to? Kinda currious incaseI decide to go all out on it.
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  5. #25
    Alex (Level 15) InsaneDavid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfluxor
    4MB cartridge has 8190 slots? That's pretty awesome.

    This the kind that I need? It looks a lot like the backup cart for the SegaCD. There are currently 4 on Ebay going that are "Official" and are over $20 after shipping and have some 8+ bids backing them so there is some kind of demand I'll have to fight over.
    Yup, that's a US Saturn Backup cartridge. The advantage is it can be written to directly by games where as the AR 4 in 1 cartridge cannot. That X10 cartridge in the eBay auction I linked earlier, the picture of the TV screen, if you see that it means that data can be directly read to the cartridge rather than some GUI on the cartridge itself. Normal Saturn memory management = direct save / load to the cartridge.

    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfluxor
    Back to a hardswitch mod, obviously the easiest thing to do is cut away a hole on the side or back and mound the switch. But if you were to decide to do a custom new case is there anything out there that's worth using? Are there any premade shells available for purchase to transfer your systems core to? Kinda currious incaseI decide to go all out on it.
    Personally, no. Placement of the switch is up for debate however. On my main Saturn I have a heavy duty rounded toggle on the right side of the system. It's way more switch than is needed (and barely fit where I placed it since there's about a square inch the switch needs inside) but I like it for how I have my Saturn oriented. I've put the switch on the expanson bay door on the back a few times, a mini toggle which I use for everything, and that's alright but I really don't like it all that much. Not that it's a bad place, it's out of the way and looks nice, there's just a chance you may break connection to the switch when replacing the system battery, etc.

    For my next US/JPN mod that won't be contracted (which will also be a paint mod for myself) I've been playing around with different locations for the switch. It's going to be on the back but not on the expansion door, but a mini toggle as usual.

    As for premade colored shells, some of them are nice but nothing great I've seen for the Saturn. The Dreamcast that I use day in / day out is in a translucent green shell that was nothing more than a swap job (thing on my site about that too under Events / Features) but it's something I couldn't have done myself with paint.

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