Hello, I am trying to get into the Saturn, which I have zero experience with. I have ordered an action replay cart flashed with pseudo Saturn, a new battery, hd retrovision component cables with the Saturn adapter, (I play on a 32” standard def trinitron) two model 2 controllers, a 3D controller, and I’m on the look out for a North American Saturn. (From what I understand, any will do) I’m hoping to play primarily back up games. I burn sega cd .bin/.cue games perfectly on my old iMac using Toast 8 at 1x speed, so I assume Saturn games will be the same deal. I’m wondering if there’s anything else I need. Will I need a new laser eventually? Do I need another non flashed action replay cart or will the battery hold up for awhile? Do I need any other variant of ram cart for certain games? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Well first thing, you should never burn stuff like that. Burning at low speeds for better burns is a myth. You should always burn at the max speed of the drive. Burning at low speeds isn't needed with good media and will cause more coasters. I'm sure @Bad_Ad84 can tell you all about that (or correct me if I am wrong about something). As for the console itself, just go for the one that looks the nicest to you and has a region-free BIOS installed (or get it installed). Not sure if you need the region switches installed too but I'm sure someone like Bad_Ad can clarify this. I've got a Japanese V-Saturn Model 2 and I love the aesthetics of it. Need to mod it though... You may want to consider an optical drive replacement like the Rhea (which uses SD cards) or the one that plugs into the VCD port and loads games off USB.
Doesn’t the action replay make it region free? I do not like hard mods on old consoles, my preference is to keep original parts as much as possible.
Please elaborate on the burning speed topic, literally every resource I’ve found says lowest speed is optimal.
I use a program called ImgBurn on PC and just let it decide what speed to burn at. For most CD-Rs I've seen it will do between 6-10x depending on the brand. They all work fine on the Saturn. The program verifies the disc after burn and there's never been an issue. Even burning to discs that I think must be >20y old. It handles bin/cue and ISOs. Has hilarious warning messages if you change something or do something stupid too. Action replay will make it region free and play backups but thought you need to do something with the drive door for it to work and that you lose all the Action Replay functions including saving. If you wanted to add a mod chip, the old racketboy one didn't require any permanent modifications, you could just twist two wires around two pins (pretty small and tricky to do but doable with dexterity and patience); no soldering required.
I also sell saturn chips. If you want to find about burning cdrs, best to check my old posts. Too tired of repeating same stuff.
The current action replays on ebay that are flashed with psuedo saturn say that with the cartridge you can: play any region games, play games that require 1mb or 4mb ram cart, and play any region back ups. With psuedo saturn you LOSE: save function, cheat function Says "no swap trick or mod chip required." sounds like a great thing, I am wondering if there are exceptions besides panzer dragoon saga. As far as burning, Toast 8 I think defaults at 16x (max) but lets you choose from a number of speeds. It's an old iMac and says "pioneer DVDRW" something or other. I have always chosen 1x and have never gotten a coaster, but if AssemberGames says to leave it at 16x i will definitely listen to you guys. I read an old post from a google search regarding burn speeds from here and jesus christ was it long and elaborate. Had to do with the history of the CD material that they used and things like that. I use a model 1 sega cd JVC version so whatever is best for the console i will do.
You like keeping original parts as much as possible, while simultaneously using aftermarket component cables, a flashed 3rd party cheat device, and burned CDs instead of legit games? lol, ok. The SD card reader drive replacement isn't a hard mod. It plugs up to the existing cables running to the CD Rom drive. You wrap up the CD drive and put it away in storage, the install can be reversed at anytime. The saturn can be returned to stock in literally minutes without any trace the SD reader was there. The SD card reader can also play games from any region, Panzer Dragoon Saga works without issue. Instead of burning a ton of rips, you'd simply be dragging them over to a SD card. It's way more convenient on time and physical space. This isn't the early 2000's anymore, there's no need to burn CD's if you don't have to. If all you're looking to play is backups, I can't think of any logical reason to leave the CD drive installed if you're able to grab an ODE . You're just making a ton of unnecessary work for yourself. I've got around 375 Saturn disc images on one 200GB SD card that's installed in my Saturn. If I were to go the Pseudo route, I would need one of those huge CD binder things to hold everything.
Is there a specific place to buy these? I see one on eBay for like $1k and that's it *correction it's a DC GDEMU for $1k on eBay. Can't see Saturn Rhea anywhere
First you'll want to figure out if you need a Rhea or Phoebe. The Rhea only covers launch era Saturns. There are significantly more Saturns that would call for the Phoebe unit. Don't feed the scalpers. Official sales are over at gdemu.wordpress.com They're sold in batches, so unfortunately can't just add one to shopping cart and be done. Sales alternate between Rhea, Pheobe, and GDEMU runs. A Rhea order just took place the other week.
Got a model 2 North American Saturn. All good except 1 weird thing, hitting the reset button on the bios screen freezes the system. Resetting during game and splash screen works fine, just the bios. Googling brings up no similar problem. @Atolm Yes I see your point but it makes sense in my head , and I honestly am interested in the SD card reader knowing that it can be reversed any time. I will look into it and check out the website. How much do the sell for? So far I am loving the Saturn. It’s very refreshing having a console that I don’t feel is going to stop working at any moment. (I am about to recap my model 1 sega cd preemptively, what a fucking nightmare of a console)
Sophias use production drives (although early revisions with some kludges on them), so a Rhea would very likely work on it.
