Saturn ROM cart games

[Iron Draggon]

I wanna get one of these games, but I'm not sure how I can play it on my US Saturn system. I don't mean RAM cart games, I mean ROM cart games. They come with their own ROM cart which plugs into the cartridge slot on your Saturn. Which is fine, except that's where your converter goes too. And I don't know of any converters that have a pass-through design so you can plug the ROM cart into the converter and then plug the converter into the cartridge slot. Do they make such a converter? Is there another method for playing these games if they don't make such a converter? Or do I have no choice but to seek out a Japanese Saturn system just so I can play these games? Also, will they still work without the ROM cart, and just not have whatever information is contained on the cart, or is the ROM cart required? I really don't wanna mod my system, just so I can play one of these games!

[max 330 mega]

what the hell is a rom cart game???? i have plenty of the 4mb ram cart games, but never heard of the rom cart ones.

[Iron Draggon]

Well the one that I want to get is Ultraman, I'm not sure if any others were ever made, but it comes with it's own ROM cart instead of it's own RAM cart.

Maybe it's something that was made before they developed the RAM carts? I really don't know anything else about it, that's why I was asking about it.

[dj898]

only two titles were made with its own proprietary ROM cart - KoF95 and Ultraman. Believe the ROM carts were used to reduce the loading time since it's much quicker to load from ROM cart than CD... from memory the ROM carts contains the BG data and main spirits were still loaded from CD...???

Ultraman is pure crap although KoF95 isn't too bad apart from some muddy BGM...

cheers

[Iron Draggon]

But is there a way to play it without modding my system? I hate to own a game that I can't even play, whether it's crap or not. I just feel like if I own Godzilla then I should own Ultraman too, especially since I'm also planning to get Guyferd. I'm thinking about getting Gamera 2000 for the Playstation also.

[UndeadKing]

You have four options.

1)The cart swap. This is risky and could eventually damage your cart slot or the carts themselves. It involves switching out the convertor cart for the ROM cart at just the right time, while the system is running. The timing can be tricky, and I wouldn't recommend it, especially not for Ultraman. Having never done this swap, I can't give you any info on how to perform it. There should be some info on the net.

2)Switch mod your system. With a simple switch mod, you can switch the system between US and Japan with the flick of a switch. There are instuctions for performing this mod yourself on the net. If you aren't comfortable doing it, I *BELIEVE* NCS still does it for around $30. Keep in mind, mod chips will NOT allow you to play imports. To play imports, you want to go for a switch mod, which adds an actual switch on your Saturn.

3)Get a Japanese system. Probably the most expensive option, but worth the investment if you play a lot of imports.

4)Don't play the game. I know you want to, but really, it's not worth the hassel. The Ultraman Encyclopedia discs for Saturn are far more interesting and all they are is some text and a few videos!

Those are your only options. The games require the ROM cart to run.

[Iron Draggon]

Great, looks like there's gonna be a JPN Saturn system in my future then. :/ I have enough Saturn imports now to justify it for sure, and a huge shopping list of imports that I still wanna get, so it wouldn't be totally wasted money. I've been tempted to start saving up for a HI-Saturn anyway, or maybe one of the collectable Saturns. The white one sure would look nice sitting next to my Dreamcast, but then I could also just get another American Saturn for cheap and have it modded or buy a modded system too, so lots of options. In the meantime, I guess I'll just go ahead and buy the game so I'll have it. I like Ultraman, and grew up with him just as much as I grew up with Godzilla, so crap game or not, at least it looks like a nice game, so I'm gonna go for it.

Thanks for all the info!

I'm still very curious why a pass-through converter cart was never made for playing these games though. OK, so Ultraman was crap, and the only other game that used the ROM cart was KoF '95, surely that one is good enough! But then on the other hand, I guess that is an awful lot of expense to go to just to enable 2 games, one of which is obsolete and the other of which is crap. It still sucks though, but I guess I could just have it in my collection.

[dj898]

believe KoF95 was also released in PAL, just not in US...
PAL also saw the release of VCD card and Wireless pad as well...

[Iron Draggon]

So do you know if the PAL version requires a ROM cart too?

[dj898]

same packaging as JPN except it's for PAL Saturn...

[maxlords]

I THINK one of the Action Replay style carts has a 1MB ROM cart option. I'm just not sure which one darn it!

[dj898]

you mean 1Mb RAM
what's the point having blank 1MB ROM since you can't write and there's nothing to read from...

[Iron Draggon]

Maybe I'll get a JPN Saturn when I get a JPN PS2, I need one of those also.