tomtmnt
Saturn Player
Joined: December 2012
Posts: 60
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Post by tomtmnt on Apr 9, 2021 8:32:33 GMT
Hi all. I am finally deciding to take the plunge and get some Japanese Saturn games. I have a pal Sega Saturn and on EBay there is a guy with good feedback who will mod my Saturn for £30 plus postage costs. The alternative is to buy an action replay which on EBay at the moment is about £40. With the postage for the above cost is about the same. Recommendations about what is best to do would be much appreciated.
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bring
Novice
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 37
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Post by bring on Apr 9, 2021 8:50:33 GMT
The Action Replay Cartridge Definitely won't mod a Pal console for 60hz (Something that is more than highly recommended when playing import ntsc games,
Will the Ebay guy mod for both Region free and 60hz?
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tomtmnt
Saturn Player
Joined: December 2012
Posts: 60
Location:
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Post by tomtmnt on Apr 9, 2021 10:51:37 GMT
Yes. In the description it says it will also mean my pal games play at 60hz as well.
Would you go for the mod under those circumstances?
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bring
Novice
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 37
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Post by bring on Apr 9, 2021 11:03:39 GMT
So long as both directions of postage costs are kept reasonable playing NTSC games at 60hz is where it is at and Some Imports are virtually unplayable at 50hz.
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Post by davyk on Apr 9, 2021 11:08:14 GMT
You could just get a JP Saturn with no cables for £30-£40 too. You would need to buy a step down transformer though. Worth considering. But if you get your PAL machine modded for both region and 50/60Hz then it will play anything you throw at it. Many PAL games will play properly at 60Hz too - most of the 3rd party games are like that. Of course even then getting an AR is a good idea as it can be used to backup game saves and will let you play 4MB games.
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Post by zyrobs on Apr 9, 2021 11:32:15 GMT
You could just get a JP Saturn with no cables for £30-£40 too. This hasn't been true for a long time, not on Ebay at least.
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tomtmnt
Saturn Player
Joined: December 2012
Posts: 60
Location:
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Post by tomtmnt on Apr 9, 2021 12:19:12 GMT
Thank you all for your input I will get it modded and let you know how I got on should anyone else be considering this. I will consider gett8ng the action replay as well as suggested. How many games roughly require the extra memory?
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Post by buckoa51 on Apr 9, 2021 12:31:08 GMT
Keep in mind that modded 50hz Saturns output quite an off spec refresh rate at 60hz, if you're using a good upscaler or line doubler (RetroTINK, OSSC, Framemeister, GBS etc) you may have issues with more picky televisions.
If you're keeping it on a CRT there will be no problems at all.
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Post by davyk on Apr 9, 2021 13:25:48 GMT
You could just get a JP Saturn with no cables for £30-£40 too. This hasn't been true for a long time, not on Ebay at least. Trying to remember when I bought my grey mk1 on eBay.... it was very cheap. Maybe that was 18months-2 years ago now I suppose. Got it for £35 + postage.
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Post by davyk on Apr 9, 2021 13:32:07 GMT
Thank you all for your input I will get it modded and let you know how I got on should anyone else be considering this. I will consider gett8ng the action replay as well as suggested. How many games roughly require the extra memory? Not many. The Capcom fighters such as Xmen vs Streetfighter, Marvel Super Heroes v Streetfighter and Vampire Saviour use it. They are truly excellent games though. Of course you could just buy an official 4MB RAM pack to play those too.
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Post by davyk on Apr 9, 2021 19:04:52 GMT
Keep in mind that modded 50hz Saturns output quite an off spec refresh rate at 60hz, if you're using a good upscaler or line doubler (RetroTINK, OSSC, Framemeister, GBS etc) you may have issues with more picky televisions. If you're keeping it on a CRT there will be no problems at all. Top tip there. Didn't know that. The only 50/60 switch modded consoles I have are my SNES and Megadrive. Will they cause me issues with an OSSC too? I use them with my CRT at present.
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Post by zyrobs on Apr 9, 2021 19:47:53 GMT
Keep in mind that modded 50hz Saturns output quite an off spec refresh rate at 60hz, if you're using a good upscaler or line doubler (RetroTINK, OSSC, Framemeister, GBS etc) you may have issues with more picky televisions. If you're keeping it on a CRT there will be no problems at all. Top tip there. Didn't know that. The only 50/60 switch modded consoles I have are my SNES and Megadrive. Will they cause me issues with an OSSC too? I use them with my CRT at present. It should work fine, especially with a CRT. On digital panels you may experience frame jumps (ie. scrolling won't be that smooth and will "jump" once every second or so) but that's due to the TV not handling non-standard refresh rates on the HDMI input.
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Post by Team Andromeda on Apr 10, 2021 6:56:53 GMT
This hasn't been true for a long time, not on Ebay at least. Trying to remember when I bought my grey mk1 on eBay.... it was very cheap. Maybe that was 18months-2 years ago now I suppose. Got it for £35 + postage. The early Grey models were a pain to get a 50 Hz switch fitted too.
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Post by buckoa51 on Apr 10, 2021 9:09:04 GMT
Yes, OSSC passes through the refresh rate exactly as-is, so it can't do anything about this.
Personally I think the region free BIOS and a switchless 50/60hz mod are the most elegant ways of modding the Saturn which require no case cutting.
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Post by zyrobs on Apr 10, 2021 14:31:41 GMT
You can easily fit 50/60hz switch in all PAL models without case cutting. The model 1s have a premade point on the PCB for installing a small switch, and the model 2s have a small little point in the mpeg card tray that can hold a switch comfortably. Neither will block the MPEG cards with the right switch.
This probably doesn't work on JP models, but why on earth would you want to mod those anyway. You should be glad they aren't 50Hz.
And a switch is always more reliable than the switchless mod.
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