The Saturn Appreciation Thread

[Hanzo the Razor]

8 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

You can still get -or at least I was able to get a few years ago- brand new and sealed Japanese versions of popular Saturn games for cheap. 

There appears to be a lot of dead stock of the big Sega published hits and you can get them for as cheap as £10!   

 

Where?

[Kevvy Metal]

4 minutes ago, Hanzo the Razor said:

 

Where?

 

Places like ebay. There's a few sellers there. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313469560029?epid=1540577438&hash=item48fc3de4dd:g:wnwAAOSwaB5XwbHY&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwGZ0%2F%2B6tjlIOiuhfyC79FSd4W%2FuWwRxThGLyZLs4GspnGACif1XxcoiDcNnrZJai39QAjhhG9g0YEnHxS0gwu9kOZyneGWg8uKGbDsIWNlAoqs4GGAPJN80sz9UVh9rbK5W16o6Dy%2FNxORQKa%2Bwnk6EGtePq785oZNnqMNK0L6ZBUWirhA2sjLATMpeCU3Xc0OUgpwCk%2BPSsWU5gLypuiSzUA%2F9eRaTf1yaYPlH3WKkrkFBJbQ9rNLnHYkXQZq7adg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5znw7PZYQ

That's £30 for Virtua Cop 2. You were able to get them cheap, not long ago! The Pandemic has put a bit of a time-warp on everything, so maybe it's not the case anymore. 

[Ninja Doctor]

Plus videogameimports is on the high end of pricing I think. 

[Ninja Doctor]

6 hours ago, Hanzo the Razor said:

Wow! They look minted! It's time to party like it's 1996!

Most of them still have the inserts and spine cards. 

[Ninja Doctor]

had a lively afternoon shooting zombies in the face. Love a bit of HOTD. I do need a bigger crt I think. Fourteen inches just isn’t enough (ooh matron!)
 

So my freebie sega saturn turns out has a type C PSU so just needs a 5v line to run so I’m going to remove the psu and wire a dc jack directly. Rather than solder to the psu pins does anyone know what part the connector is that goes on the pins?

 

edit: I think it’s a molex 3.96mm pitch kk connector. So I've got a plan. I'm going to run my Saturn off my meanwell 5V supply I use for my mister. That can kick out 20W and my saturn (VA15) claims it only needs 12W. Happy days. 

[Shimmyhill]

After a bit of a wait a new cable arrived from Retro Gaming Cables and it works fine, no purple hue - thus far the Saturn has also been behaving and just working with no getting stuck on a blank screen but that early days with only a few power on / offs to test but fingers crossed!

 

I would be having a play around with it but it seems the Retrobit pads drain the battery when not in use so having to charge it back up  

 

 

[Ninja Doctor]

Update on the Japanese psu removal: a pack of molex kk 3.96mm gubbins came today and they fit a treat. The power switch connector is the same but a 3 pin so I’ve modified a connector. Once my dc jack and mount arrive I’ll knock up a wiring loom and it’ll be a fully reversible dc power mod. 

[Shimmyhill]

So my Saturn has powered on and launched Sega rally everytime, no black screen or getting stuck since the new scart lead - ive read that the unit can be very sensitive to the cable so maybe it was causing the issue, madness but its working and has not been as reliably as this before!

 

However, there is always a however isnt there!? The pad will not start the actual game of Sega Rally….. I get the press start and attract demo plays fine it just doesn’t register me pressing start  I thought the pad was dead so charged it and no different, I have re-synch’d the pad multiple times and crucially the start button works in the dash menu bit.

 

Any ideas?

[Ninja Doctor]

If it was a wired controller I would suggest a fuckton of ipa in the ports to give them a good cleaning. 

[Shimmyhill]

9 hours ago, Ninja Doctor said:

If it was a wired controller I would suggest a fuckton of ipa in the ports to give them a good cleaning. 

 

I dug out the wired pad and same, works fine in the ‘dash’ but can’t press start in games… due to this I fiddled with the region mod settings and bizarrely if I switch to 50hz and then back to 60hz the pads work - this is on Sega Rally and Daytona

 

Clearly something weird going on and the Saturn wants to fight me all the way - given how odd it is I can’t imagine anyone will know the solution - must be mod chip related I guess!

 

[Ninja Doctor]

Must be mod chip related. Does the chip have hooks for changing things with button presses or in game reset?

[Shimmyhill]

3 hours ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Must be mod chip related. Does the chip have hooks for changing things with button presses or in game reset?

 

Its all on the reset button - short holds for 50/60hz and long holds for Pal / JP / US.

 

I think the machine is haunted, ive had issues with it going to black screens as out of range, faulty scart cables and now this - it doesn’t seem to want to behave perfectly 😂

[Jazz Glands]

Looking for a Japanese Saturn, pref boxed if anyone is selling?  

[Klatrymadon]

Ordered a Satiator. Absurd expense, but potentially the last video game related thing I buy...

[Ninja Doctor]

Narrator: it wasn’t. 

[Oh Danny Boy]

 

Some pinball bangers. Shame it’s a dead genre these days and pinball FX doesn’t do it for me. These two are classics that should be part of any Saturn collection and are cheap as. 

[Klatrymadon]

Has anyone here ever had SD card issues with a Satiator? I've set up a 128gb SanDisk Extreme Pro exactly as directed here, using the same organising system for bin/cue files as shown, and it's giving me the red and green blinking lights. The only suggestion the site gives for this is to "check your SD card and file system", which isn't very helpful in this case. I've used SD Card Formatter to reformat the card and plonk my files onto it again, but still no joy. Is there anything else I can try?

 

The Satiator itself was brand new and sealed, and is definitely seated properly, so I hope there isn't an issue with that. I notice the SD card, though it does click into place, is very easy to remove with a gentle tug. Is it possible the contacts inside the Satiator are the problem?

 

Edit: Ah, hang on, I've fixed it. I popped the menu and firmware files on a FAT32 card and the Satiator updated itself (showing blinking red lights, intuitively). The card I wanted to use works now. So yeah, if anyone happens to buy a sealed one of these, be sure to set it up with a FAT32-formatted card before you use your SDXC ones!

[Jazz Glands]

Have a Saturn with a Fenrir installed connected to an OSSC on the Oled in the lounge, but was missing one in my retro games room, so decided to pick up my second favourite variant (after the This Is Cool Saturn) - the mk 2 Victor Saturn. I just love those buttons 😍

 

 

[Grey Fox]

On 08/04/2023 at 19:18, Oh Danny Boy said:

 

Some pinball bangers. Shame it’s a dead genre these days and pinball FX doesn’t do it for me. These two are classics that should be part of any Saturn collection and are cheap as. 

Necronomicon is so good. Looks so sharp on a good CRT too

[Shimmyhill]

My Saturn woes carry on

 

Firstly, sorry to anyone that views the video - its pretty boring (there is a bonus cat momentarily) but shows the issue far better than I can explain it…

 

 

 

As you can see, when you fire up the machine it displays fine but as soon as the game starts the signal loses sync - its the same in 50hz or 50hz (JP game) 

 

When I plug it into the OSSC it has an odd output but I do get an image on the LCD, oddly while the game is running the pad doesn’t work in game - if I switch between 60 > 50 > 60 the pad works 🤷🏼‍♂️ The last bit just shows the odd signal rates when switching between 50hz and 60hz.

 

The machine is a PAL modded unit, it works fine for @MikeBeaver as he modded it and ive watched the video of him doing that and playing games - I do wonder if it was on composite then? Only reason I say that is I found a post from 2011 where a machine was fine on composite leads but sun issues on RGB so that does fit.

 

If anyone has any ideas how to fix this im all ears - im desperate to get it up and running on the CRT so i can buy some light gun games!!!!

[MikeBeaver]

Sorry you’re having troubles 😥

it was indeed only running composite, not flash enough to have an RGB CRT 😭

[phillv85]

I noticed only yesterday when trying to record a play through of X-Men vs. Street Fighter that it does resolution changes through RGB that it doesn’t via composite when the game starts. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Crows: The Battle Action were both fine. 
 

I’ll see if I can replicate the video issues you’re having with an unmodded Saturn. What is your setup exactly when using the CRT?

 

PAL Saturn running a Japanese Sega Rally in 50hz via Scart?

[Ninja Doctor]

Which rgb scart cable are you using? I recall there’s a differently wired pin between ntsc and pal. 

[Shimmyhill]

2 hours ago, MikeBeaver said:

Sorry you’re having troubles 😥

it was indeed only running composite, not flash enough to have an RGB CRT 😭

 

Not your fault mate, when it runs it plays flawless and its an ancient piece of tech so some issues come with the territory!

 

I dont suppose you have a glut of Saturn composite leads knocking about do you? I think I need to get one to see how it behaves.

 

1 hour ago, phillv85 said:

I noticed only yesterday when trying to record a play through of X-Men vs. Street Fighter that it does resolution changes through RGB that it doesn’t via composite when the game starts. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Crows: The Battle Action were both fine. 
 

I’ll see if I can replicate the video issues you’re having with an unmodded Saturn. What is your setup exactly when using the CRT?

 

PAL Saturn running a Japanese Sega Rally in 50hz via Scart?

 

PAL modded Saturn running JP Sega Rally in 50hz or 60hz via RGB scart 

 

54 minutes ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Which rgb scart cable are you using? I recall there’s a differently wired pin between ntsc and pal. 

 

Its this one - https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/sega/saturn/SEGA-SATURN-RGB-SCART-PACKAPUNCH-PRO-CABLE

 

Claims to be PAL and NTCC - I dont have any PAL games to try, good point tho, I shall pick up something cheap to test!

[Ninja Doctor]

Ah. That’s a good scart cable. I can only assume then that’s it’s something to do with the type of mod installed. @MikeBeaver which mod was it?

[Shimmyhill]

I wonder if it has the bits they say on this site - https://www.retrorgb.com/saturn.html

 

Quote

Properly built Sega Saturn cables must have a 470 ohm resistor and 220uF capacitor on the csync line of each cable!

 

They do link to the place I got my cable from and say it must sync on Luna for Pal and my cable supposedly does!

[Shimmyhill]

So to continue this sorry Sega saga… I got an Amazon next day composite cable and its the same  Fires up fine, Sega logo then loses sync and rolling pic with sound. If I open the CD drive it pops back into the menu and the pic comes back on the telly.

 

I was sure the composite cable would work as it worked fine on @MikeBeaver telly - I assume something on the board isnt doing its job so has likely failed or something but this is well out of my league now,.

[Klatrymadon]

Does this happen with every game you've tried, Shimmy? I'm wondering if it's the same issue I have with my CRT and certain arcade games on Mister. If a game runs at 50hz or 60hz my TV has no issue with it, but it will desync when presented with certain of the less common refresh rates, such as the 57.5hz of older Cave games. (In fact, sometimes it will desync if I switch from a game's native refresh rate to 60hz, despite its full support for 60hz. Maybe they just don't like sudden changes? I'm not at all clued up on this stuff...)

[Shimmyhill]

1 hour ago, Klatrymadon said:

Does this happen with every game you've tried, Shimmy? I'm wondering if it's the same issue I have with my CRT and certain arcade games on Mister. If a game runs at 50hz or 60hz my TV has no issue with it, but it will desync when presented with certain of the less common refresh rates, such as the 57.5hz of older Cave games. (In fact, sometimes it will desync if I switch from a game's native refresh rate to 60hz, despite its full support for 60hz. Maybe they just don't like sudden changes? I'm not at all clued up on this stuff...)

 

I have 3 JP games and they all do the same - Daytona, Sega Rally and I forget the other one! I do have a PAL game in the post just to try but I dont expect thats going to work tbh. It seems like the OSSC is saying that instead of outputting 50hz or 60 hz its outputting 62.23hz or 74.07hz and while the 4k telly can sync that the CRT obv can’t.

 

Its whats causing that to happen that I have no idea about!

[Ninja Doctor]

Not wanting to throw shade on Mike’s work but it does sound like something is amiss with the mod but I don’t know how they work. Back when I region modded a pal Saturn it was old school with physical switches bolted through the plastic.