nerdydesi
Newbie
Sega Saturn forever!
Joined: September 2013
Posts: 25
Location:
PSN: nerdydesi
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Post by nerdydesi on Jun 1, 2015 20:33:17 GMT
I've just bought what appears to be one of the first Sega Saturn's ever made, its serial is B40000411. Below is an Ebay photo of the unit and I have to wait a bit for it to ship from Japan until I can take my own pictures. I keep hoping to get an earlier and earlier unit. imgur.com/a37RZm4I wonder who has B40000001.
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 1, 2015 23:47:44 GMT
Very impressive. The lowest I managed to buy was 004930.
When it arrives, would you consider doing a disassembly + detailed photo session for the machine? Or if not, then perhaps selling it (or trading it for my 004930)?
B400000001 may not have been released, but held inside for quality assurance tests. I have a low serial hst-3210 which has "Quality Assurance Test Department unit 12/15" stickers on it (in Japanese of course).
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 4, 2015 21:16:04 GMT
List updated, 3093 entries now online.
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nerdydesi
Newbie
Sega Saturn forever!
Joined: September 2013
Posts: 25
Location:
PSN: nerdydesi
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Post by nerdydesi on Jun 18, 2015 19:33:36 GMT
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 18, 2015 20:56:11 GMT
Thank you very much. In case you haven't reassembled it, is there any chance you can take photos of the motherboard? To see if there are any early run ICs in there.
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nerdydesi
Newbie
Sega Saturn forever!
Joined: September 2013
Posts: 25
Location:
PSN: nerdydesi
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Post by nerdydesi on Jun 30, 2015 19:42:15 GMT
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 30, 2015 20:54:56 GMT
Very nice, thanks a lot!
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nerdydesi
Newbie
Sega Saturn forever!
Joined: September 2013
Posts: 25
Location:
PSN: nerdydesi
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Post by nerdydesi on Jul 6, 2015 19:34:29 GMT
Glad to see I have such a rare, early model run Sega Saturn! I was lucky to have found it on eBay!
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 12, 2015 18:03:29 GMT
List updated, 3405 entries now online.
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segasteve
Novice
Joined: July 2011
Posts: 42
Location:
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Post by segasteve on Jul 24, 2015 23:42:30 GMT
I've been away from the scene for a little while but i'm finally getting back into it. Just today I picked up a boxed saturn locally for cheap mostly because the serial number/date on it was pretty baffling... i dont have any pictures of it now but hopefully I'll get them for you soon.
It is a later release US system with the round buttons, model # MK-80000 (not 80000A like i'd expect for a round button console), Date is April 1995, SY, Made in Japan. Serial number AB 5900760 (there's quite a gap like with my B5 console before the actual number). I was originally thinking it was maybe pieced together with the bottom case of an older system and upper of a later one but the s/n was bugging me for some reason... I have torn it down and it has a VA7 board in it, molding dates on the case contradict the sticker date (even the bottom case the sticker is on) with 06/96 lower and 12/96 upper case dates. Upper case is coded as JPN instead of USA, lower case and cd door are USA.
I was looking at your console list and nothing comes close to this one at all... No AB manufacturer, no mk-80000 round button consoles I am aware of, no consoles even close to a VA7 in 1995 (s/n includes 1995 date and 9th rev. internals... im seeing latest is 3rd rev. for 1995)
Any idea whats going on here? I'll try to get pictures as soon as i can
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 25, 2015 1:33:50 GMT
It's a refurbished unit, hence the contradictions. 9 after the year means it was refurbished, unless the unit is a VA9, but in those cases they use Z instead of 9. AB is the manufacturer code for whoever was fixing units in North America - I've seen a Sega CD II with that code before (and that was a unit that was confirmed to have been sold as refurbished stock). Likewise, "AC" is the same but for Japan, and so is "S".
I wouldn't mind buying that unit from you, though if it is fully boxed then I may not be able to afford it (shipping price tends to cost more than the unit).
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segasteve
Novice
Joined: July 2011
Posts: 42
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Post by segasteve on Jul 25, 2015 1:40:47 GMT
huh, i guess that would explain some of it. I'm still wondering why the sticker date is early enough to be for a launch console but the case was molded in late 96... I don't see where the 95 date is coming from if everything about the console is from 96
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 25, 2015 2:56:09 GMT
I think they just reused whatever stickers they had at hand, possibly because they did not have ones with their own codes on them. It would also explain the lack of VA #s in the serial, since the early SY (Seiyo Denshi) USA models did not include them either, for some odd reason.
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segasteve
Novice
Joined: July 2011
Posts: 42
Location:
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Post by segasteve on Jul 25, 2015 6:44:05 GMT
That's pretty much what I was thinking, they just used whatever stickers they had on hand. Makes me wonder if they printed out a bunch of stickers for refurbished units early on and ended up using few enough they spanned until the end of the consoles lifespan over here...
The console is in one of the smaller boxes that isn't much bigger than the unit itself, but shipping would be insane to ship it to you
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 25, 2015 17:16:20 GMT
Yeah, I gathered.
If you want to know exactly who and when made the unit originally, there should be a LOT number on the motherboard, by the way.
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