US and JP games on a PAL saturn

[neith]

I'm planning on buying a Saturn and I'm living in England. If I buy a PAL Saturn (which are plentiful and cheap here) will NTSC format US and Japanese games play on it properly using an action replay and mod chip? I'm concerned about whether or not these import games will run at 60hz, perhaps the mod chip will allow this? I'm fairly new to the system in general so I apologize if these questions are obvious.

[mick_aka]

Mod chip will only allow you to play copies, has nothing to do with regions.

You need ideally to do an internal region and 50/60hz mod, best guide is here:

www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/index.htm

[neith]

Well I just bought a pal saturn on ebay for £16. I kind of wish I didn't I would rather have a Japanese system, I get impulsive when I'm on ebay >.<
After browsing the forums a little bit afterwards I've got some new questions.
How can I tell if it is a mark 1 or mark 2 saturn and what are the differences?
Would this be a factor regarding compatibility with a mod chip?
I think it comes with 2 first gen controllers which is a shame..
I should have done more research.

Well thanks for responding this looks like a nice forum I will probably be spending some time here.

[sonicshuffle]

Someone else will answer well, I am sure, but don't worry - £16 is great and the Saturn is a great machine. You can always pickup a Japanese model later if you really like the PAL games

[mick_aka]

Jun 8, 2008 13:40:35 GMT @neith said:

How can I tell if it is a mark 1 or mark 2 saturn and what are the differences?

Mk1 - Oval power and reset buttons, shiney black bezel on the top of the front.

Mk2 - Round power and reset buttons (grey on a UK model), no 'access' light on top.

The differences are negligable to your average day to day PAL gamer, however...

Jun 8, 2008 13:40:35 GMT @neith said:

Would this be a factor regarding compatibility with a mod chip?

The Mk2 is much easier to modify with a region/50-60hz switch and mod-chips are only available for Mk2 consoles now.

[chizzles]

Some MK1s are very, very easy to mod, my one had every Jumper on the motherboard in a row in one location.

My MK2 had them scattered around the motherboard, some of them on opposite sides.

Makes finding them a pain in the ass.

The best way to fit the 60Hz switch is the same on all models (the lifting of, pin 72? I forget which number).

There is one revision of the motherboard that actually has a jumper select for 50/60Hz. Although some people complain that it produces inconsistent results.

[mick_aka]

Jun 8, 2008 18:12:29 GMT @chizzles said:

Some MK1s are very, very easy to mod, my one had every Jumper on the motherboard in a row in one location.

So do the vast majority of Mk2s

[termis]

If your saturn came with the older-type controllers, there's good chance that your saturn is the older mk1 system with oval buttons, which means it's more work to install a modchip. You'll need to modify the modchip itself a bit by cutting some traces and re-wiring some places. Hope you're comfortable with a soldering iron.

As for playing imports, there _IS_ a way to boot them on a PAL model without an action replay cart or a region select switch. You can actually change the region of the game by creating a disc image of the game, and changing the region of the game on the image to your saturn's region using certain programs like Satheader or another program I forgot the name of...

Of course, this means you can ONLY play imports once the the disc image is burned back on to a CDR, which means you'll need a modchip or use the swap trick for your saturn to read the burned disc.

As for playing in 60Hz, the only way you can do that is either physically modding the PAL saturn with a switch (or hardwiring it to be full-time 60Hz), or getting a US or a JP saturn. The switch mod isn't complicated at all (you just need three wires and any on-on switch), but lifting the pin on the video chip ic can be bit of a pain if you haven't done such things before.