Saturn proof-of-concept bootloader Pseudo Saturn

Here are some better shots. It's not quite as "pro" as I thought, but there's some funky soldering going on all the way through the board and the Saturn was brand new out of the box like that.

The Japanese V15 board wasn't the last for the "regular" Saturns. I have a few V17's as well. I've never seen anything newer than that but I've never opened a JVC model 1 or 2 nor a HiSaturn.





I have a bunch more but apparently there are size limits in place on this website. I've uploaded the rest to a site:

http://i.imgur.com/OVa7Gje.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XmMitx7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7d5JSZr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/S1sVwWs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ixxJh88.jpg

 

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Awesome! You've pretty much nailed it. Unfortunately I cannot take a pic under the special board because it's hard soldered on there. I'm worried about ruining the mobo if I pull it off. I've thought about it but just don't have the courage due to the way they soldered it.

I also have a theory about the Skeleton models that ended up in Brazil. I'm pretty sure those Saturns were destined for the USA but since the Sega Saturn suffered an untimely death in North America, I think they ended up shipping them down here instead where TecToy had their way with them. I've worked on many MANY TecToy Saturns (black 20 and 21 pin models as well as White and Skeleton models) and I've never seen one with that booted a Jap bios. They all boot the NTSC-U bios which is why I found this one so weird.

If you think it would be relatively easy to pull that special board off there I'll try it, but I don't want to screw this model up

 

Tec Toy sold PAL Dreamcasts in Brazil. With blue swirl on the casing and red swirl on the screen. Ain't that funny ?

 

They had a very weird lineup of consoles. You can still buy some very bizarre stuff from them. They are pushing a lot of 50 in 1 consoles loaded with roms now. If you look in the right places you can still find boxed Master Systems and Saturns

 

The one on the 1st page in PseudoSaturn-0.831.zip

 

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You could be right, good analysis. I've got numerous motherboards laying around here from broken Saturns I parted out, some are V17 boards. I'll see what I can do for ya.

 

Thanks for the pictures jrio. ^^

Brazilian Saturns came from anywhere. It may be hard to know wich model they actually are just looking the outside.

For those last models, somewhere around 1997~1998 Tectoy was trying to deal with low profits. Expected 9 million, got 3 million (don't know how to convert to US$ nowadays, but could be around 30m/10m, wich would be nice for such small market).
Then they went through a process more or less like that Chapter 11 in USA.

So in 1998 they had just a few consoles on shleves. Around 1997~1998 some japanese models started to show up, probably because the factory in Japan was the only one making new batches. I don't know about brazilian production.
Between 1998~2000 some magazines stated that Tectoy got the last stocks from Japan in auctions. That's why Brazil is the only country besides JP to have Skeletons.

And around 1999~200? they started to sell "new" games out of nowhere (I don't have any clue from where those came), even after Dreamcast's death. Aparently they sold everything. From Sonic R to Scorcher (wich may be the most sold in Brazil).

 

I was the one documenting which games were sold "new" in Brazil for Madroms over at Satakore.com and I had a pretty good list compiled for him The list below are known TecToy Saturn titles sold brand new in TecToy boxes, some were even ported to Portuguese. I haven't done any checking or updating on that list since late 2008

- Alien Trilogy w/ NiGHTS demo
- Amok
- Andretti Racing
- Area 51
- Astal
- Battle Arena Toshinden Remix
- Blast Chamber
- Bug Too!
- Burning Rangers
- Command & Conquer
- Crimewave
- Croc
- Crusader: No Remorse
- Cyber Speedway
- D
- Darklight Conflict
- Darkstalkers Revenge
- Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition
- Decathlete
- Die Hard Arcade
- Die Hard Trilogy
- DOOM
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Enemy Zero
- FIFA '97
- FIFA Road to the World Cup '98
- Fighters Megamix
- Fighting Vipers
- Grid Runner
- Hang On GP
- Heir of Zendor
- Hexen: Beyond Heretic
- Hyper 3-D Pinball
- Independence Day
- Last Bronx
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Machine Head
- Manx TT SuperBike
- MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
- Mega Man X4
- Mortal Kombat Trilogy
- Myst
- NASCAR '98
- NBA Action '98
- NBA Jam
- NBA Live '97
- Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge
- NiGHTS into dreams...
- Panzer Dragoon 1
- Panzer Dragoon Zwei
- P.T.O. 2 - Pacific Theater of Operations
- Quake
- Rampage World Tour
- Rayman
- Resident Evil
- Riven: The Sequel to Myst * in portuguese
- Road Rash
- Scorcher
- Sega Rally Championship
- Sega Touring Car Championship
- Sega Worldwide Soccer '97
- Sega Worldwide Soccer '98
- Shockwave Assault
- Sim City 2000
- Slam 'n' Jam '96 featuring Kareem and Magic
- Sonic Jam
- Sonic R
- Soviet Strike
- Space Hulk - Vengeance of the Blood Angels
- Steep Slope Sliders
- Street Fighter Alpha 2
- Street Fighter Collection
- Tomb Raider
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
- Virtua Cop
- Virtua Cop 2
- Virtua Fighter
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Virtua Kids
- Virtua Fighter Remix
- Virtual On
- Warcraft II: The Dark Saga
- Wing Arms
- Worms

 

My Tectoy Skeleton Saturn has the US boot sequence.

 

No Derby Stallion Skeleton editions were sold in Brazil from TecToy, only Skeleton models. The Derby editions were Japan only.

 

All it takes is a ROM swap. Tec Toy had done that before:

Early Japanese Dreamcast units (heatpipe model) sold in Brazil were reworked (updated) with the newer BIOS which can have region settings stored on the katana flash. The original launch day BIOS were hardcoded for Japan.

Apparently Tec Toy sold the SEGA maskroms they harvested out from the Japanese Dreamcast units (for conversion into NTSC U units for Brazilian market) on black market. That was being used as "MIL CD enabler modchip". -_-;

 

x

 

All the Brazilian ones I've seen are the Derby Stallion Skeleton versions, transparent blue case without "This Is Cool" on lid or "SEGA" above controller ports.
The "normal" Skeleton version, transparent black case with "This Is Cool" and "SEGA" logo I've never seen a Tectoy release of.

 

You will not find a "Derby Stallion" TecToy box anywhere in Brazil because they didn't make them. The only ones boxed and sold from TecToy were the straight "Skeleton" model in the green box.



I've always wanted one of these models. The Victor Saturn with the round buttons is where it's at

 

that sucks, not even sure what advise I could offer, sounds like the chips has gone loopy and no longer detectable

P.S. you can't copy the firmware that way, anyway so that would not of worked in the first place, even if the carts flash chips are detected correctly

A little shocked that worked, it failed for most, unless he done a sly update but don't think he did

 

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That's not my point, but whatever. You will not find a TecToy edition Derby Stallion box with the game included because they don't exist here. The console, YES, but the special edition sold in Japan with the game was not marketed here by TecToy. It's entirely possible they got a load of Derby models, removed the game and packaging and rewired the consoles for play here, absolutely.

 

Can someone please post the link to the most current pseudo flasher disk to use on an action replay plus 4m auto?
I have been going through this thread and there are many different ones available.
I just want to make it as simple as possible and not accidentally use the incorrect version.
Thanks.