Saturn Switching

[jamesedgeuk2000]

Hi all, ill get right to the point

Ive seen a lot of sites online offering a service to add a region switch and/or a 50/60hz switch to the saturn and im wondering which of these alters the pal/ntsc output?

does the region one swap between ntsc-us/pal-i/ntsc-j and the consoles region locks and the hz one just between 50/60 or does the hz one swap between pal50/ntsc60 and the region one between the consoles region lock

The reason im asking is because the cd drive in my jap white saturn has died, it stopped spinning during a game of sonic jam, the laser still moves but no spinning

so instead of buying a new one im using my old uk saturn i bought in 1997 with my pro AR cartridge and RGB cable from my white saturn to play my jap/us games. However the black borders are really annoying me

I dont really need to alter the region lockout as I have the par cart but I would like to change the output to ntsc (pref 50hz ntsc but I know this is very unlikely to be possible)

I really dont understand the definition of straight to the point do I? ok what I need to know is which switch controls the pal/ntsc selection? thx

[termis]

Sept 10, 2009 12:41:17 GMT @jamesedgeuk2000 said:

Hi all, ill get right to the point

Ive seen a lot of sites online offering a service to add a region switch and/or a 50/60hz switch to the saturn and im wondering which of these alters the pal/ntsc output?

does the region one swap between ntsc-us/pal-i/ntsc-j and the consoles region locks and the hz one just between 50/60 or does the hz one swap between pal50/ntsc60 and the region one between the consoles region lock

The reason im asking is because the cd drive in my jap white saturn has died, it stopped spinning during a game of sonic jam, the laser still moves but no spinning

so instead of buying a new one im using my old uk saturn i bought in 1997 with my pro AR cartridge and RGB cable from my white saturn to play my jap/us games. However the black borders are really annoying me

I dont really need to alter the region lockout as I have the par cart but I would like to change the output to ntsc (pref 50hz ntsc but I know this is very unlikely to be possible)

I really dont understand the definition of straight to the point do I? ok what I need to know is which switch controls the pal/ntsc selection? thx

If I understood you correctly, you seem to have the right idea. Basically the 50/60Hz output switch is independent to what region game you put in your saturn. That is, once I have that switch on there, The saturn will forcefully display ANY game (US/JP/EU) to 50 or 60Hz refresh rate. By default, a PAL saturn will force all games to only display at 50Hz, whereas US or JP machines will force any region game to only display at 60hz. Consiering that most games were originally meant for 60Hz display, with a shorter resolution than the PAL standard, hence you get the black borders.

The region check is different. To even boot a different region game, you have to either use a PAR cart (your case), or a region switch. So for example, if you only put a region switch on your UK saturn, you'll be able to boot Japanese games without PAR cart, but it'll still display all JP games with the black border, along with the slightly slower gameplay.

On another note, if you want a quick way to get your 60Hz gaming back, and if your UK saturn is also the round grey button model, there's a 90%+ chance that you can take your UK laser assembly and transplant it back to your JP white saturn.

[jamesedgeuk2000]

Sept 10, 2009 13:30:22 GMT termis said:

On another note, if you want a quick way to get your 60Hz gaming back, and if your UK saturn is also the round grey button model, there's a 90%+ chance that you can take your UK laser assembly and transplant it back to your JP white saturn.

Ok this is weird, I tried this, and opened up both saturns, my UK one has a sanyo drive with daughterboard, and my JAP one has a...... green! drive with a modchip board, ok i bypassed the modchip and that sorted things so I ripped it out, now everything works, except:

I turned it on with my USA copy of dark saviour and it booted up fine... are JAP consoles supposed to play USA games? ive always used my PAR to load my USA ones so I don't know if its always done this, could it be they left the region data off the disc? im confused lol

[termis]

There are a handfull of games that can boot in more than one region (EU/JP, JP/US, EU/US. EU/JP/US) -- there's a list somewhere out on the web (and on the posts here somewhere as well. I'd imagine that Dark Savior is one of those.