Difference in White import Saturns please

I'm in need of a Saturn lesson. I know these are the white JPN Sega Saturns but I don't recognize what the differences mean yet. This is basic right but I'll need to ask before I make up my mind.

This Saturn is in a colored box and the controller has no shoulder buttons. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62054&item=8132521668&rd=1

This one is in a one colored box and has shoulder buttons on the controllers.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62054&item=8132622874&rd=1

 

The first one does have shoulder buttons, its just the angle the photo was taken at!

 

Aha! :smt043 Anyway, what do the different box arts represent? Anything at all?

hmm... So I take it this controller only looks that way also. :smt067 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3654&item=8131786308&rd=1

 

Im afraid I can't help on that one. I don't think its anything special, most likely just different revisions of the box at different release dates.

 

My White Saturn came in the fugly brown box... I've seen far more of those in Japan, the glossy box is perhaps for some boxset or for the launch of the white version? Also, the manual that came with it looks very cheap, ie just made of plain stapled paper. Quite unlike the one that came with my boxed PAL Model 1 Saturn, it looks more like a magazine

 

There is no difference at all between the two. The crappy looking red only box was the original box for the white saturn. It was later replaced by the better printed box. Both sets have pads with sholder buttons.

Yakumo

 

Do PAL Saturns have RGB output. Is it limited to PAL RGB (scart?) moniters or TV? I was wondering if a PAL Saturn has a step-up power add-on that will run on NA NTSC? Then again it might be better to just make my own RGB cable for one of those sony RGB tv's here.

Your'e great! Thanks Yakumo that answers everything else. :drinkers:

 

Why bother with a PAL Saturn when PAL games run at 50 HZ?

 

There is also a third box, the Christmas Saturn which is a glossy box with printed red ribbon on the corners.

Yes, Saturn outputs RGB. Its not limited to PAL countries either so you don't have to buy a PAL Saturn. (why would you want to???) RGB is RGB, it comes in only 1 variable flavor. If you buy a JP/NA Saturn, it will natively output 60hz sync. Thus, you get RGB with 60hz (NTSC) sync. (There is no such thing as NTSC/PAL RGB only 50/60hz) If you live in a PAL country, it will output 50hz. You live in America right? Sony RGB TVs? Do you mean professional Sony PVM monitors? We don't use "RGB" RGB, only component and VGA. Saturns cannot output component or VGA. Also if you're talking about Sony's proprietary WEGA connector, that doesn't take RGB either. If you would like to use RGB on a (newer) American TV, you'd have to transcode RGB to component or encode it into S-video/composite (which is stupid because Saturn already outputs those.)

 

There is also the HK/Asia Saturn VCD model, whic somes ina red/white/yellow glossy box.

 

There is a 43 inch sony PVM moniter on ebay. I heard it's possiblt to make a wire that can do RGB but don' know if it's been done for Saturn. I wouldn't get a PAL Saturn I was just wondering if it had the same outputs as Ntsc. I just saw a Cristmas Saturn somewhere a day ago. :smt023

 

I once wanted a PVM, then the price discouraged me. Yeah, all the auctions say you can find the pinout to the PVM's DB-25 online but I've looked and haven't had one drop of success...

 

DO white saturns go yellow like as frequent as SNES'es do? :smt071

So whats everybodies alternative? What type Saturn output do you like best?

 

Yeah they do, go yellow that is, but this really only happens if you are a smoker.I have yet to have a machine go yellow if I was not smoking around it.Any plastic will be discoloured ny Nicotine,so just smoke in a different room if you are concerned with it yellowing, that is if you smoke at all.If not don't worry about it,it won't happen, well chip fat fumes are another cause but very unlikely.

 

I don't smoke but thanks, if any company tries to light up they'll have to take it somewhere else.

 

Thats not exactly true because some plastic just yellows with age. Smoking is surely a dirtyness factor (I notice lots of stuff coming from Japan/China is dirty as shit from nicotine stains) Also certain climates seem to catalyze the process. Additionally, I believe indirect sunlight battles the ageing process because I put my computer in a box in my basement for like 5 years and it came out yellowed nothing else of mine has yellowed though (and no one smokes in my house) I think if you pack something, pack it in plastic and keep it out of the sun. If you have something out in the open, don't let it sit in the sun and don't smoke.

 

I had a white saturn in the loft packed away in it's original box for 6 years. I opened it a few months back to sell it and that had not yellowed at all but, my Super Famicom Super Street Fighter II cartridge had which was also in styorage in the same place. I think the saturn will not turn yellow as long as it's looked after unlike Nintendo Super Famicom carts :smt022

Yakumo

 

Why buy a PAL Saturn? Because they are much cheaper and easier to find, and you can mod them for 60Hz with about 5 minutes work.

 

So hypothetically. someone gets a pal Saturn, how do you plug it into a ntsc wall, buy a power adapter to place in between the pal ac adapter and the wall?

 

He lives in the US, thats why he shouldn't buy one. I can buy a US Saturn here easily for $10(probably a mint/complete one for under $40), I don't know about him though. One that ouputs NTSC and 60hz RGB. If he were to buy a PAL one, he'd have no choice but to use RGB because the composite/YC will be unusable PAL60. Also, if for some reason he did want to play a PAL game, he could preform that same 5 minute mod to get 50hz.

You just replace the AC coord with one from your PSX or buy one off eBay for $2. Or purchase a socket adapter. (You shouldn't need a stepup converter, I think Saturn PSUs are auto-switching.) But theres no point! PAL consoles are acceptable (I wouldn't own one) for PAL countries, but a pain for everyone else. The only instance I can possibly see where someone would want to own a PAL console is when a good game was released only in Europe. There are so few examples of this that its probably better to just manually convert the game to NTSC.