I don't have a Saturn in front of me to check out what it uses for internal storage chip wise and I can't seem to find anything anywhere where someone has tackled this idea. Anyone know if it is remotely possible to swap in a compatible IC to replace the onboard storage for save games? I have no idea if the Saturn BIOS will enumerate anything larger than what it came with (assuming it is a hardcoded number).
It's been discussed. You'd need that specific kind of ram or emulate it, program some logic to support copying the chip over usb or to sd / mapping to sd / paging Meanwhile one can get an 4 in 1 or similar with a comms port card and do the same for about $35
The memory is a standard 62256. You could try upgrading it to 1M with a 628128, or 4M with a 628512. Most likely the size is hard coded since memory detecting algorithms aren't super fun. You could always use switches to page the memory, or get a memory card.
You'd do all that work and just wind up with a bigger amount of memory that goes fubar once the battery dies.
Just get an official memory card. Those things have way more than enoght space. They aren't like PlayStation memory cards that fill up after a few games. These things can handle well over 50 game saves. Some needs to work out a good Saturn cartridge port because the standard one is pathetic.
Wonder if it'd be possible to take the PCB out of the cart, cut it down a bit and hide it inside the Saturn itself solder the appropriate wires to the cart connector. Of course there would need to be somehow to disable it so you could pop in the RAM carts. Or maybe just homebrew the damn thing like whoever drew up schematics for the SegaCD ram cart. I can't imagine the thing is too complicated.
I once saw something similar to this where someone got a 4 in1 Ram/Memory cart combo and an official memory card. Sawed the connector off the official memory card and soldered wires from that to the 4 in 1. Stuck the connector in the cart slot and then taped the 4 in 1 cart into the inside of the case. Total hack job but met the memory and ram needs without needing to swap or looking at the big ass cart sticking out of the machine (who at Sega thought that was a good idea?) Wish I still had pictures. It was a mess but it worked a treat.
The DRAM and the save flash don't conflict, in fact the EMS ARs have RAM and save flash. I'd just get one of those...
Yeah, there's plenty of space in a Backup Cartridge. But I've never seen the Backup Cartridge failing in the slot. Only the NetLink. Actually, I like the cartridges. The Backup white one is cute, and is not big. The EMS is not very great to look at, but the official ones are. That's a bit misleading. People should know that the save ram of the EMS cartridge is not like the Backup Cartridge. Some people say that the compression of the EMS is not that trustworthy, but I've never seen corrupted files (or haven't used it that much).
I'd probably warn about these - I remember talk on this very board that many Saturn ARs have thicker PCBs than the official memory and can damage the cart slot.
