mick_aka
Kickin' it lively!
"Mick is moderately adequate."
Joined: April 2007
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Post by mick_aka on May 30, 2007 16:51:57 GMT
To this day it still strikes me as bizzare that SEGA included a cartridge slot but included no backward compatibility with their cartridge systems.
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Post by segaste on May 30, 2007 17:54:52 GMT
Always confused me too.
I mean they did make a converter to play Master System games on the Mega Drive, so why not something similar on the Saturn.
Surely I couldn't have been that hard.
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mick_aka
Kickin' it lively!
"Mick is moderately adequate."
Joined: April 2007
Posts: 9,817
Location:
XBL: mickloaf
PSN: mickloaf
Nintendo ID: segamick
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Post by mick_aka on May 30, 2007 18:01:05 GMT
Even when the Saturn was in the design stages, the fact they were including a cartridge slot would have surely screamed out for backward compatability?!
Can you imagine if the Saturn had played Mega Drive and Mega CD games, even had native support for 32x carts! Man, I reckon that would have at the very least doubled launch sales!
Of course the problem was that the Saturn was more expensive to manufacture as it was, so perhaps the extra cost was too prohibative?
If I remember correctly from back in the day, the PSX manufacturing cost per console was under $10, where as the Saturn was around $25. It does'nt sound much, but SEGA had to make money, and after packaging etc. it was a very expensive console compared to it's contemporary rivals.
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Post by duddyroar on Jul 11, 2007 15:18:00 GMT
Including MD emulation wouldn't have put too much onto the cost. Considering the increased sales it would have resulted in, I'm also shocked they decided not to include it. Perhaps they were pushed for time, or didn't deem it important back then. As for RAM carts, all of my Saturns have suffered from this problem. The contacts inside the cartridge port are very weak and will bend easily. If you're having problems with any carts the best thing to do is push the cart in, then gently ease it up about 1mm. Because of how the contacts are shaped if you push the cart in as far as it will go (it seems like the natural thing to do) the connectors don't align properly. This can lead to corrupt visuals, or the Saturn refusing to detech the cartridge at all. It's annoying that Sega had to be so cheap with the Saturn, my Megadrive has never suffered from this problem.
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Post by Anthaemia. on Jul 16, 2007 15:51:49 GMT
Actually, the inclusion of MegaDrive backwards compatibility wouldn't have cost anything extra on top of what Sega originally asked consumers to pay for the Saturn as it already contains the same basic chipset! In fact, this very idea was planned when Sega had still planned for the Saturn to be released as a sprite-pushing powerhouse with only minimal 3D support - it was only when they abadoned the idea of "modest" polygonal capabilities that Sega opted for performance beyond Model 1 as opposed to a System 32-esque home system with full support for its existing hardware range. Still, there's more to the Saturn as it turned out than just Sega's original specification with a slave processor bolted on to counter the more competent PlayStation...
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quietfiight
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Post by quietfiight on Jul 16, 2007 21:01:23 GMT
Would the Action Replay work on a mod chipped Jap Saturn or Would I need a jap ram cart?
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Post by termis on Jul 16, 2007 22:24:32 GMT
The ARP cart will work fine on Japanese units.
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quietfiight
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Post by quietfiight on Jul 17, 2007 22:38:12 GMT
Hmm I tried it with my new moddded white Saturn that I bought. I tested regular and burnt games and they work. It doesn't seem to work iwth the action replay plugged in though. The game starts ok if I plug it in after the Saturn logo but If i leave it in from the beginning I just get a very distorted screen of the action replay menu or nothing at all. Would a Jap Ram cart solve this or is this a cartridge slot problem?
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Post by termis on Jul 17, 2007 22:44:44 GMT
Hmm I tried it with my new moddded white Saturn that I bought. I tested regular and burnt games and they work. It doesn't seem to work iwth the action replay plugged in though. The game starts ok if I plug it in after the Saturn logo but If i leave it in from the beginning I just get a very distorted screen of the action replay menu or nothing at all. Would a Jap Ram cart solve this or is this a cartridge slot problem? Sounds like the cart slot or the actual ARP cart has problems if you don't get the regular ARP menu screen. I'd try the cleaning contacts on the cart and/or and just try fiddling around the position of the cart within the saturn -- most cartridge slots, as people have mentioned above, are pretty finicky.
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quietfiight
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Post by quietfiight on Jul 18, 2007 2:26:21 GMT
Thanks ;D. It works now, it just took some violence and cursing.
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