Sega Saturn Mod Chips

[Tempest]

Does anyone here have any experience with Sega Saturn mod chips? With the prices of import Saturn games going up like there's no tomorrow (you can actually tell which ones are good because they start at $40+), I was wondering if backups might not be a more viable option. I'm pretty sure my Saturn is one of the modles that is compatible with the chip (a 21 pin saturn), but I was wondering how well it worked. You never really seem to hear much about Saturn mod chips, so I'm wodering if there isn't a reason for that.

 

Tempest

[rorysl]

Hey, can't offer any advice but I'm a Saturn owner who's interested in modding as well!

[SteveW]

Can't you use an ST Key cart? That's how I play imports. I know that Icbrkr had an unmodded Saturn with an ST Key type cartridge set up at OVGE last year, and he was playing backups of Japanese Saturn games. I don't know if he had a specific version of the Saturn that was more compatible with CD-R discs, though.

[Bill Brasky]

Saturn "mod chips" aren't like PSX mod chips which were an actual chip. The Saturn's were a mini pcb board and cost like $50. I don't think they were made in huge quanities and were ever as readily available as psx chips.

[Bruce Tomlin]

You never really seem to hear much about Saturn mod chips, so I'm wodering if there isn't a reason for that.

There is a very good reason. Lots more people want to run imports than want to run "backups". The reason chips for running Playstation "backups" were all over the place is because Sony made the critical mistake of making region coding dependent upon the check for genuine discs.

 

I remember there were mod chips for both the 20-pin and 21-pin drives, and you had to get the right one for your drive. The good part is that they are easy to install. They're solderless and don't require you to dig out the motherboard, because they go inline on the CD drive cable. The need to keep track of two kinds of mod chips probably didn't help much with their availabilty either.

[Jess Ragan]

Well, let's see... I had one chip that worked for a couple of years before it burned out on me. The other one, my latest, was installed a couple of months ago and still works pretty well. The chips were two entirely different models, though.

 

I would definitely recommend looking into a Saturn modchip. It's a lot more fun to just pop in the game you want to play, rather than having to deal with the messy and possibly risky swap method (pop in the copy, quickly replace it with an official disc, then quickly replace THAT with the copy you'd put in the system in the first place).

 

JR

[Artlover]

http://www.jandaman.com/games.mvc?c=SAT

$15.00, it's where I bought mine a few years ago. Good company, lots of nifty things. I'd suggest picking up the Action Reply 4in1 too, seen right below the chip.

 

As I said, I've had my chip for a couple of years, and haven't had any problems. It works, no more, no less. No complaints.

[Tempest]

I can already play imports with my 4-1 cart, I want to play back-ups. I know some Saturn mod chips allowed you to do that, but I'm not sure if all of them did.

 

Tempest

[Bruce Tomlin]

I can already play imports with my 4-1 cart, I want to play back-ups. I know some Saturn mod chips allowed you to do that, but I'm not sure if all of them did.

The only purpose of a Saturn mod chip is backups. They don't let you play imports.

[Flojomojo]

I just got one from Racketboy here. I haven't installed it yet, but the shipping was quick and easy.

 

I plan to install it using our own Jess Ragan's solderless guide here.

[Jess Ragan]

Careful there, hombre! That chip you're buying from Racketboy is different from the one in my guide (model 7.0... I don't even know if they make these anymore!).

 

The installation procedure is similar for both chips, but there are a couple of differences worth pointing out for Little Boy Blue (the mod chip for sale on Racketboy and Jandaman's respective sites).

 

Soldering wasn't required for the model 7.0 chip... there was a metal clip on the end of the wire that supplied power to the chip, so all you needed to do was stick the clip on the 5VA pin inside the Saturn to power it.

 

HOWEVER, you will need to do a little soldering to make Little Boy Blue work. LBB comes with two wires. The first goes onto the Saturn's 5VA pin, but the second one gets soldered to a leg on the Saturn's CD-ROM controller chip.

 

You might be able to take that second wire out of the picture by soldering together two points on LBB. They're clearly marked, and it only takes a little blob of solder to connect them. However, it's not guaranteed to work. I had a previous Saturn that refused to function with LBB... generally, any Saturn with a square (not rectangular) CD-ROM controller chip tends to be really uncooperative with this model of mod chip.

 

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is this... use Racketboy's installation guide for Racketboy's chip. The guide on my site is for an older chip which I don't think is currently being manufactured. Believe me, I've tried my damnedest to get my hands on one, but every Saturn mod chip I've ordered since 2003 has been Little Boy Blue.

 

JR

 

EDIT: Gee, Racketboy's mod sounds suspiciously familiar... it looks like he did a little modding of my own guide, right down to the part where he talks about the metal clip on the wire. That clip doesn't even exist on the chip he sells! Grr.

Edited March 19, 2006 by Jess Ragan

[DeV0]

Racketboys chips are fine for the later version saturns with the round buttons, Alls i did to install mine was bridge A+B, conect the red wire to 5V. Plays all backups fine, But as posted before, you still need to make sure your iso is region specific to your saturn. My setup is an action replay 5-1 and a chip in a white Japanese sega saturn.

 

So the chip plays my burnt games

 

The AR plays my originals, I need this for original PAL and USA/NTSC discs. Also the AR works as the 1 to 4MB Cartridge needed for metal slug, Streetfighter vs Xmen etc

 

Only Unlayable burnt copy is King of fighters 95, as it has game content on the cart it came with, whish i own as well

 

Watch out if your saturn has a Sanyo cd drive, chips arent always happy with this rig.

 

You really should invest in a chip, I got a second St Key if ur desperate

[zombiecraig]

So...can a person play backups using one of those ST Key things? Or is that just for imports? I'm not much of a system modder, though if someone wanted to do it for me...

[Tempest]

So...can a person play backups using one of those ST Key things? Or is that just for imports? I'm not much of a system modder, though if someone wanted to do it for me...

 

I thought the ST Key was for playing games from other regions (Imports). IIRC you put in a game from your country and boot , then the ST-Key would slow down the CD spin rate, and you would open up the Saturn and swap out the game for one from another country. Basically once the Saturn booted it would read the region key from the CD in the drive, then you would quickly swap it out for one from another region, thus tricking the Saturn into booting a game from another region. This method worked, but was very hard on the Saturn drive and they burnt out much quicker.

 

Tempest

[Tempest]

I'm a bit confused on these mod boards. Assuming I'm using a Pro Action Replay 4-1 in conjunction with the Mod Board installed in a US Saturn, can I play everything? By everything I mean:

 

A. US Saturn originals

B. JP Saturn originals

C. US back ups

D. JP back ups

 

 

Tempest

[holygrailvideogames.com]

I have a Saturn with a mod chip. It has a switch on it that I switch from U.S. to Japanese games. I also have I think a 5 in one. I haven't played it in a long time but when I did it would play everything. The thing about Saturn games is you can take an original and burn a copy of the game and the copy will then work great on the modded system.

[Hackmann]

I thought the ST Key was for playing games from other regions (Imports). IIRC you put in a game from your country and boot , then the ST-Key would slow down the CD spin rate, and you would open up the Saturn and swap out the game for one from another country. Basically once the Saturn booted it would read the region key from the CD in the drive, then you would quickly swap it out for one from another region, thus tricking the Saturn into booting a game from another region. This method worked, but was very hard on the Saturn drive and they burnt out much quicker.

You can use the same trick to boot copied games. In fact, you don't even need the ST-Key to do it: you just need to tape shut a switch on the inside of the Saturn that tells it when the CD cover is open. The Saturn will slow down the drive briefly right when you need to do the disc swap. I can't imagine that it was very good for the drive motor, though.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

hehe..my first double post here...

 

My info is in the message below...

Edited March 20, 2006 by -^Cro§Bow^-

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I also must mention that there is a 3rd version Saturn that exists that thus far hasn't been moddable. First Saturn I picked up was like this, and while I have spoken to at least 2 individuals whom claimed to get their model 3 saturns modded..they conviently couldn't remember exactly how they did it when I contacted them personally. The 3rd model Saturns have two additional boards in them that completely hose up the Mod chip boards. These two boards I believe were designed as an anti mod chip design. I say this, because the boards are made by sega and labeld as "Board Anti-Trap" or something along those lines. The first board is mounted on a small bracket right about where the CD interface cable used to go into the main board. On these model 3 saturns there are two CD cables. One from the main board into the first Anti-Trap board, and the second from that board to the CD drive. There is another Anti Trap board that is literally doulbe sided taped to where a 68000 processor used to be on the model 1 and 2 saturns. That chip was then placed externally to this second anti-trap board.

 

My belief is that the two trap boards work in tandem and likely encrypt the CD signal each time the saturn is fired off. If that is the case, then a mod board wouldn't be able to sync and interrupt the boot signal as they are designed to do.

 

I wish I was home and could get that Model 3 saturn for you guys so I could snap some pictures of the boards I'm talking about. I used to have older pics posted on some Saturn forum for a bunch of non-believers...but that was years ago now.

 

BTW...you can check for a model 3 or standard model 2 saturn by simply shining a flashlight into a small hole through the CD area on the front right. If you just see the white cable of the CD Interface your probably good to go as that is likely a Model 2 Saturn. If you see the cable bend down sharply near that hole, then look closer and see if you can see a PCB. If you can...you likely have a Model 3...or a Saturn that was already chipped.

[Jess Ragan]

I'm a bit confused on these mod boards. Assuming I'm using a Pro Action Replay 4-1 in conjunction with the Mod Board installed in a US Saturn, can I play everything? By everything I mean:

 

A. US Saturn originals

B. JP Saturn originals

C. US back ups

D. JP back ups

 

Tempest

 

You will be able to play everything but the following games:

 

KING OF FIGHTERS '95

ULTRAMAN

 

Here's the reason: both of these games use a ROM cartridge to store data and speed up access times. When you've got a Pro Action Replay stuck in the cartridge slot, you won't be able to put in the ROM cartridge, making it impossible to play the games.

 

You should have no trouble playing any other Saturn game on the system, however. I've got 96 burned Saturn games. Every single one of these discs works with the mod chip and Pro Action Replay combination.

 

JR

[Tempest]

I'm a bit confused on these mod boards. Assuming I'm using a Pro Action Replay 4-1 in conjunction with the Mod Board installed in a US Saturn, can I play everything? By everything I mean:

 

A. US Saturn originals

B. JP Saturn originals

C. US back ups

D. JP back ups

 

Tempest

 

You will be able to play everything but the following games:

 

KING OF FIGHTERS '95

ULTRAMAN

 

Here's the reason: both of these games use a ROM cartridge to store data and speed up access times. When you've got a Pro Action Replay stuck in the cartridge slot, you won't be able to put in the ROM cartridge, making it impossible to play the games.

 

You should have no trouble playing any other Saturn game on the system, however. I've got 96 burned Saturn games. Every single one of these discs works with the mod chip and Pro Action Replay combination.

 

JR

 

Cool. There are a ton of Japanese Saturn games I want to pick up, but at $20-$70 a pop, it gets expensive quick. KOF 95 doesn't matter to me since I have the Neo Geo original (it's not bad, but 98 was so much better), and I heard Ultraman blew chunks anyway.

 

Now I need to find some artwork so I can make nice cases for my 'games'.

 

Tempest

[zombiecraig]

I thought the ST Key was for playing games from other regions (Imports). IIRC you put in a game from your country and boot , then the ST-Key would slow down the CD spin rate, and you would open up the Saturn and swap out the game for one from another country. Basically once the Saturn booted it would read the region key from the CD in the drive, then you would quickly swap it out for one from another region, thus tricking the Saturn into booting a game from another region. This method worked, but was very hard on the Saturn drive and they burnt out much quicker.

You can use the same trick to boot copied games. In fact, you don't even need the ST-Key to do it: you just need to tape shut a switch on the inside of the Saturn that tells it when the CD cover is open. The Saturn will slow down the drive briefly right when you need to do the disc swap. I can't imagine that it was very good for the drive motor, though.

 

Well, it doesn't sound that complicated. The hell with the motor. At least I'll be able to play some Saturn games for a while. I very rarely use it now.

 

Anyone know a site with a diagram showing the switch that needs to be altered? Or what the process entails completely?

[Hackmann]

Anyone know a site with a diagram showing the switch that needs to be altered? Or what the process entails completely?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/saturn/game/916393.html

 

Look for the two "Swap Trick" FAQs. I've personally done it one a borrowed Saturn (with permission from the owner!), and the "modification" was very easy to do. But it takes a few tries to get the timing right when you swap the CDs.

[Flojomojo]

Careful there, hombre! That chip you're buying from Racketboy is different from the one in my guide (model 7.0... I don't even know if they make these anymore!). ...

Thanks for the warning. You're too late, since I did the mod this morning, but fortunately, I noticed the difference and kinda ignored both sets of instructions! Yours was excellent for getting my confidence up that this was an EASY installation with no soldering required. Racket's pointed out the exact locations with nice photos.

 

If you have a round-button Saturn and are on the fence about taking it apart, don't be. It's really really really easy. All you need is a nail file, a screwdriver, and some sticky tape. Soldering is strictly optional if you plan on throwing the console around a lot. The hardest part of this procedure was placing the chip board into the socket on the motherboard. It was a tight fit so I filed down some of the board on either side. The power line can be stuck into the power supply without solder. The other data line is not needed and can be looped back to the hole on the chip itself, and taped down.

Gee, Racketboy's mod sounds suspiciously familiar... it looks like he did a little modding of my own guide, right down to the part where he talks about the metal clip on the wire. That clip doesn't even exist on the chip he sells! Grr.

Nah, he took out all the "quirky" funny bits, which are the most unique bits from your guide -- it's not like you invented the chip or anything. Thanks for reinforcing my idea that soldering is not absolutely positively necessary here.

[Tempest]

Ok my mod chip came today. It a small dark blue chip with two wires coming out of it. I looked at the install instructions, but the chip doesn't seem to go all the way into the slot (only about half way down the pins). Is this normal? It seems like a tight fit.

 

Tempest