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Post by MIK on Nov 7, 2012 12:49:03 GMT
Maybe this was why the official UK cart was not available until Sega Rally & Virtua Fighter released in Jan 96. There wasn't enough games at that time to make use of one even tho it was shown on the box. Of course Sega Rally uses it well. Maybe why we have what looks to be a later updated version with less chips on them as seen here again: i.imgur.com/UiR9S.jpgIt's amazing Sega made all these different revisions of the Saturn memory cart!
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Post by zyrobs on Nov 7, 2012 13:07:11 GMT
That same design (though with a slightly different pcb) has been in use since 1994 (pcb id 171-6879C-01). So, they used the flash memory design since the beginning. The alternate versions may have been to use up spare stock they had of other components.
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Post by ajmetz on Nov 8, 2012 20:29:57 GMT
So hang on...did any official Sega Memory Cards ever use batteries?
I got a backup cart after my internal system memory went, =P, but I found it unreliable, and lost a tonne of saves AGAIN, =(. Finally solved things using an Action Replay with a datalink socket on the top, and would backup internal saves to the cart, and then the cart to my PC hard drive, although it's still not ideal.
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Post by MIK on Nov 9, 2012 7:45:54 GMT
The official carts are prone to messing up. I've lost data about 6-7 times since 1996. I've had Alien Trilogy mess the cart up twice because I saved a game to it, second time I totally forgot many years later and did it again. Goes to save to the cart and says it's done but what it did was corrupt the cart and save the data to the internal memory.
Had to format the cart so I could use it again.
I also think some Japanese games are not 100% compatible with it either as the file system it may use does not really like kanji on our PAL systems as I've seen some strange other files before now linked to game save... Not 100% what they are as I can't read it but not the sort of thing that happens with PAL games.
They work and do the job well when they do, but there is always that chance your have to format the things once in a while.
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Post by zyrobs on Nov 9, 2012 19:38:00 GMT
So hang on...did any official Sega Memory Cards ever use batteries? Apparently, a few did. The official carts are prone to messing up. I've lost data about 6-7 times since 1996. I've had Alien Trilogy mess the cart up twice because I saved a game to it, second time I totally forgot many years later and did it again. Goes to save to the cart and says it's done but what it did was corrupt the cart and save the data to the internal memory. Had to format the cart so I could use it again. I also think some Japanese games are not 100% compatible with it either as the file system it may use does not really like kanji on our PAL systems as I've seen some strange other files before now linked to game save... Not 100% what they are as I can't read it but not the sort of thing that happens with PAL games. They work and do the job well when they do, but there is always that chance your have to format the things once in a while. I think the cart slot is to blame, not the cart itself. I had cases where I was suddenly unable to save mid-game, and I had practically a heart attack thinking the cart died, but it turned out that everything was fine after moving the cart a little, it just lost connection. Also had one case where the Action Replay did the same in a 1meg game, and got glitched graphics. That one was fun. Also, on the last memory cart I bought, there is this: And this shot was taken on a hst-3200 saturn, with a memory cart bought from Ishikawa, Japan, so the glitches are definitely not regional related.
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Post by MIK on Nov 10, 2012 4:12:38 GMT
zyrobsI've seen that messed up 1 block with the YYYYYYY on the end before now. Totally different on the front half graphics I have seen but the repeating Y's were there... I'm sure this is linked to some form of Japanese game being saved. I've only ever seen this on my switched MK2 Saturn tho. When it was there I left it hoping what ever Japanese game I loaded makes use of it. Doesn't look right tho. I'm sure Galaxy Force II gave me that, but randomly it showed up as I never noticed it before... I always turn my Satrun off properly, wait for the main menu of any game to load back up and then open the lid to then turn it off. Still can't be helped if it's going to corrupt the cart or not. Indeed the cart port is not as well made as a MegaDrive and taking the cart out you have to check from the front end to make sure it's working... Why I bought a second to save me doing this on my switched Saturn. Once they are home they seam to be a-ok, but maybe it's this that really causes the corrupt issues on the sly as you say.
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