Just got a model 2, step down transformer etc...

[metalslugger]

I just took a punt on a white model 2 Saturn on Ebay which I got for £40 inc P&P (offer made) and so far it seems to be working great. I also have a Pseudo Saturn 1/4MB RAM all-in-one cart which lets me play any region discs and backups successfully.

I got a £5 "Hellfire Trading" RGB cable from Ebay which has so far worked fine. The cable has resistors in the scart plug so appears to be made to some Saturn-compatible specification and so far I have no complaints about the image quality. I know cheap cables can be very hit or miss but so far this one has been hit.

At first I was using a cheap sub-£10 "Mercury" 45W step down transformer but I found that after a few minutes use it would get very hot and start to make an intolerably loud buzzing sound. So I returned it and got a Goldsource 110V 100W which is a bit larger but only £6 more expensive and so far that has been perfect.

The Saturn was made in Japan by "Asahi Electron" model HST-3220 S/N A63018955. I intentionally bought a model "made in Japan" as I have read that generally Japanese factories have better quality control, but I don't actually know if that's pertinent to Saturns.

So far my experiences have been great and as a first-time Saturn owner I'm really happy with the quality of the games and arcade ports, especially all the 2D games which is what I really love, and getting to play Shinobi Legions at last is awesome as it's one of my fave franchises.

Is there anything I need to know regarding the model or my equipment I have that will be useful knowledge in the future? I don't see any reason to hard-mod the Saturn now I have the Pseudo Saturn cart. Is there any advantage in doing so?


In case this is useful to anyone, here's some links

Ebay seller for Saturn: www.ebay.co.uk/usr/iamjapanese

Ebay seller for Psudo Saturn cart: www.ebay.co.uk/usr/choijustin

RGB Cable: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hellfire-Trading-RGB-Cable-Lead-Scart-for-Sega-Saturn/131632259894

Mercury Step-Down transformer (which I did not like and returned): www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143359820975

Goldsource ST-100 Step Down transformer (which works great): www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332533477467

[zyrobs]

"hard mod" is compatible with all games unlike Pseudo, games boot directly without a loader, and you are not at the mercy of the cart port working or not.

[privateye]

There have been reports of the red all-in-one cart (with Pseudo Saturn Kai v6.314 installed) being incompatible with the following games:

• Die Hard Trilogy
• Dragon Force
• Dragon Force II
• Magic Knight Rayearth
• Policenauts discs 2 & 3
• Torico
• X-Men Children of the Atom

This is strange because all of these games work fine on a standard Action Replay with PSK installed. I can't confirm that these reports are true because I don't own an all-in-one cart any more (I used to until the backup memory kept crapping out on me), but it is something you should be aware of. Here are the reports of incompatibilities with the red cart:

segaxtreme.net/threads/pseudo-saturn-kai-official-thread.24037/page-17#post-176477

segaxtreme.net/threads/pseudo-saturn-kai-official-thread.24037/page-17#post-176480

segaxtreme.net/threads/pseudo-saturn-kai-official-thread.24037/page-18#post-176482

segaxtreme.net/threads/pseudo-saturn-kai-official-thread.24037/page-18#post-176514

Also, some games need patching with the Pseudo Saturn patcher utility to make them playable with PSK. To find out which games need patching, look in the Pseudo Saturn Kai readme and scroll down to the 'Games Requiring Patching' section.

[metalslugger]

Thanks both. None of those incompatible games are too much of a loss to me currently (all the shmups and action games I want are working so far) and I haven't had enough time to learn how to deal with all the Saturn's save functionality but will definitely keep these concerns in mind, cheers.