i purchased what i thought was a model 1 saturn model 1 MK-80200-50 with the oval buttons for use with my rhea as i thought these versions were the compatible 20 pin consoles. turns out not all model 1 consoles are 20 pin and the cheap model 1 saturn with broken laser i purchased is a 21 pin model anyway no use crying over spilt milk so my problem is how do i know without buying multiple saturns if i'm getting a 20 pin version which is what i need? randomly buying consoles from ebay is a lottery and the sellers never mention if the console is 20 or 21 pin model either. the serial on my 21 pin version which i gather is a slightly later MK-80200-50 model starts with AD6 so i'm wondering if anyone knows what 20 pin versions serials start with? i have seen some pal saturns for sale on ebay with serials starting with AD5 maybe serials Starting with AD5 are the older models which i'm looking for?
Pretty much all grey JP saturns are 20pin (If not all?) I picked one up off ebay for this exact reason.
thanks for the reply but i was looking for a pal version. main reason so the bottom of the screen display will not be cut off when playing pal exclusive games.
If you are going to be using it with a Rhea, then it really doesn't matter - there is a line on the Rhea board you can wire to the 50/60Hz select pin on the VDP. If you connect this, then 60Hz titles will run in 60Hz even on a Japanese or US machine. The surest way of getting a 20 pin Saturn is to get a HST-3200 Japanese model.
i know about the 50/60hz connection point but i cant solder unfortunately i used to have a mate that performed mods on my consoles for me but we lost touch after a messy band break up. so i was going to just settle for a pal saturn for now. i found out one thing about the model 1 saturns, the number after the AD in the serial number represents the year it was made. AD5 for example is 1995 and should be 20 pin version. AD6 is 1996 and made in 1996 and therefore a chance that it is a later model 1 with 21 pin board. apparently model 1's with 21 pin boards are not so common but it seems that the cheap one i purchased with the broken laser had to be a 21 pin model 1 what i'm going to do now is find another cheap unit with serial number AD5
