Because of the age of the Saturn I did not know where to turn. I just picked up my first one and it is model 1 with the ovel buttons. I have it hooked up to the standard audio and S connector in front of the set, the tv is a non widescreen HDTV. The games are a pixel nightmare, the first game I played was Shining The Holy Ark and the floor texture was allfull and could not make out the face on the Hero. The next game I loaded in was Nights Into Dreams that I seen in reviews and touted as a 3D wonder was all pixel and unplayable. Is this just the nature of the Saturn, my Sega CD does not share this problem and the Saturn was released after the Sega CD or so I thought. Did model 2 Saturn have this texture problem? Thanks Don.
Sounds to me that you have a very broken Saturn. You can see from screen shots that Nights isn't all pixlely or Shining in the Holy Ark. maybe theres some settings on your TV that need changing? I don't own a HD TV but I have seen a Saturn running on a wide screen HD Plasmer and LCD TVs with no problems what so ever. My old gray Saturn works fine on every TV I've tried it on through S-Video or AV cables. Even run it on my TFT monitor sometimes through a NTSC to VGA converter card. Yakumo
Thanks for the quick reply, Im starting to think so as well. Now on the hunt for another one, I do not mod so should I look for the oval button one or the round button one?
Could you post some screenshot? I'm intrigued, the chances of a pixely but working broken console are rare. Probably this is fixable.
That is the problem I can not find someone who repairs them, Sega stopped repair's on them last month. In some games the NPC'S looked great but the active ones looked bad. I had Shining Force III in for maybe 5min and got a (Disc Error check disc and lens) And like I said Nights was just plain unplayable, I just got Shining Force III and last night it would not load at all, and today I put it in and it loaded.
have you tried sega parts? They sell replacement parts and repair every sega system, plus they are the only ones aproved by sega.
It doesn't matter what type of Saturn you buy. The oval or round buttoned Saturns are basically just the same. The round button Saturns are a bit more tidy inside but they lose the ACCESS LED. Personally I like the very first japanese Saturns. these had TWO LEDs for the power and another TWO for the Access. These later changed to just one LED each. Anyway, the only real downer with buying an oval button Saturn is that mod chips are very hard to find and that it may have been used quite a bit. Still, I use a Saturn that was one of the first ones almost 3 or 5 times a week and that still runs liek a dream. Yakumo
Yes, they are not to far from me here in Long Beach, I just talked to them on Friday and they said Saturn repair ended last month. They are out of parts for the system and Sega will not let them repair any of the consoles without Sega blessed parts. She also told me they are gone to update their wed site to reflect this. They have just a few parts left for a couple of the systems like cables and they do have some games left as well, I got my Shining The Holy Ark complete from them and it is new just not srink wraped also Dragon Force but they just have the CD only for this one but it is brand new. They also put a lot of their stuff on ebay like the Dragon force CD and a complete new Dreamcast system and the last time I looked the system was at about 168.00 with 3 or 4 days left to bid.
Thanks Yakumo your the first person to clear up the difference on Model 1 and Model 2 for me. Im looking now at local game stores in hope of finding another system, I do not want to go the ebay way if I can help it, I have not had a lot of luck with ebay as of late and its a real hit or miss on the condition of the units. One last question what is the cause of a disc read error and can a dirty lens cause pixelization?? Thanks Don.
A disc read error is caused by a scratched or dirty CD, or a dirty or defective (or misaligned) lens. Check your CD. Hold it up to the light. If you have any areas where you can see through the CD (I don't mean its transparent, I mean little picks where the silver has gone), then you won't be able to play it.. Saturn is very fussy! I dunno about in the US, but in the UK a later (round) button console is better to go for, as it has the nice style pad, not the big spoon! Oh, and although you're in the US, you may find the following useful. I hear that www.saturn-planet.com is nearly redesigned, and should be reopening sometime in December. A great source for Saturn games, accessories and information, I do believe! :smt083 </shameless plug> Incidentally, eBay is a good way to go. Go for a trusted seller that is known to be fair in their description, or a good seller with good feedback, who gives a description saying the unit works. That way, you can throw it back at them if it doesn't! A local seller is always a good idea - they might even let you see it running before bidding. Oh, if you wanted to take a chance, VGLQ has a loada duff Saturns.
BTW, if you decide to trash the unit, I'll take it off your hands for shipping + a little something for yourself And I suppose you wouldn't be interested in selling STHA?
Sorry don't want to sell STHA just yet, Sega is still pimping them for 40.00 thats how I got mine. As for the unit I returned it to the friend who was gone to sell it to me.
