Sega Saturn Action Replay Cart Trouble!

[philrob37]

Hi i have recently brought an action replay cart off ebay so that i can play jap/us/uk games on my sega saturn. When i plugged it in to play X-Men vs Street Fighter first off it didn't work and reset the console back to the main menu screen. I finally got it to work but on X-Men vs Street Fighter the sound crackles in some places and i was told that all games will run perfectly on it. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what i can do to prevent the sound crackling? Cheers.

[Jim Miles]

Is sound crackling the only problem? I was under the impression Saturns needed the 60Hz mod to run import games, even with a funky cart.

[X_2_0]

I got my replay cart to play Xmen Vs street fighter and its the only game ive ever had problems running !

The title sequence cuts off after a couple of seconds, and then the voice over goes

X-X-Men V-Vs Stre-Street fighter !

there are also occasional speech glitches in game play too.

but no crackling though.

[roberthazelby]

Hi i have recently brought an action replay cart off ebay so that i can play jap/us/uk games on my sega saturn. When i plugged it in to play X-Men vs Street Fighter first off it didn't work and reset the console back to the main menu screen. I finally got it to work but on X-Men vs Street Fighter the sound crackles in some places and i was told that all games will run perfectly on it. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what i can do to prevent the sound crackling? Cheers.

I use an Action Replay cart to run all my Jap and US games.

I've suffered with glitchy sound on X-Men Vs Street Fighter since I had it. I wasn't sure if it was my copy being crappy or due to the convertor. With you stating the same problem it looks like it's the convertor.

The only other game I've had problems running with the cart is the US version of Dragon Force. That locks up with a blank screen at random intervals.

All my other games work fine with it.

Personally, I prefer Street Fighter Alpha 2 over X-Men Vs Streetfighter. If you've not got that, I recommend you add that to your collection as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Rob

[philrob37]

Cheers guys. I thought my Saturn might have broken.

[Droo]

here's a thought:

Open up your saturn, tape off the "cd open" switch.

copy your game to ISO

change the region with saturn country code converter which i've hosted esp for you here.

change the country code to PAL

burn the game to CDR

Run the game using the swap disk method found here

easy! (ish)

But you shouldnt get a sound problem!

D

[Jim Miles]

Wow, that disc swapping is cool (I didn't know you could do it with Saturns) but I'm not sure it's worth it just to play copied games. Is there some way to mod a Saturn to play copied games?

I agree roberthazelby, SFA2 is excellent. SFA2 on the Saturn or arcade is actually my favourite 2D beat 'em up ever.

[DJ Sack]

Yes get a mod chip, although saturns are very fussy to mod.

[Droo]

yeah mod chip is the only way, and saturns are notoriously hard to mod (coming from yoda's mouth - as i know nothing about this).

The swap disk method might sound longwinded, but its the only way (for me) to play the lieks of Radient Silvergun and PD saga without forking out 100 quid.

It should also let you play your jap game problem free...

I suggest trying it.

d

[Altabani]

Is it the '4M Auto Action Replay Plus' you have or just the standard AR as my XvsSF runs fine. The only one i had probs with is Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter,which does the glitchy sound thing you mention.

Weird!

[cowtipper]

Yes get a mod chip, although saturns are very fussy to mod.

er I dont think so....A snes is tricky to mod. Saturn is a piece of p*ss.

Just make sure you have a mk2 (round buttons, no cd access led) and NOT a mk1 (Oval buttons). Open it up, remove the laser ribbon, insert the chip, insert the laser ribbon, and solder 2 points. One on a pin the size of my finger, the other onto a chip on the laser assembly - sounds harder than it is.

Christie Brown could do it.

[spinpug666]

It's not fitting the chip to the Saturn thats the hard bit.! it's just they seem to be very fussy when running cdrs'.

I've noticed on mine that if you playing a cdr which is working fine, then turn off the Saturn, then back on it sometimes it won't even play the game/cdr that i had been playing before.

I've seen a few now what all do the same thing

I tried swapping the cd drive for another, but even though both are mk2 Saturns the cd drives etc are different so there must be several revisions of the mk2 Saturn.

[patters]

er I dont think so....A snes is tricky to mod. Saturn is a piece of p*ss.

Just make sure you have a mk2 (round buttons, no cd access led) and NOT a mk1 (Oval buttons). Open it up, remove the laser ribbon, insert the chip, insert the laser ribbon, and solder 2 points. One on a pin the size of my finger, the other onto a chip on the laser assembly - sounds harder than it is.

Christie Brown could do it.

Not so fast. Within the Mk2 category there are two different types of Saturn. Get the wrong one and the mod won't work. It's happened to me. The CDROM controller chip can either have 32pins (good) or 64pins (bad). Apparently the earlier modchips worked with both but all the ones that are currently being produced seem to have problems with the 64pin Mk2 models. It's a right pain in the arse because the only way you can tell if a Saturn is genuinely moddable is by opening it. I've got one I can't use...

[DLNY]

Is it the '4M Auto Action Replay Plus' you have or just the standard AR as my XvsSF runs fine. The only one i had probs with is Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter,which does the glitchy sound thing you mention.

Weird!

I've got the 4M Auto Action Replay Plus' and thought I was alone in suffering a glitchy as hell MSH Vs SF.

My other Jap games have worked fine with it, so I was/am at a loss. Reluctant to go and get X-Men Vs SF in case the same happens - same goes for RSG which is a little costlier if it doesn't work!

[ucci]

Out of interest my chipped Sega Saturn will play cdr fine but I put in an original game (Die Hard Arcade PAL) and the console says Game Disc not compatible, can I turn the modchip off so I can play original games???? Thanks in advance.

[Ketchup]

It's probably cheaper and easier to buy a nice jap white saturn. Looks lovely too!

[trickytree]

Chips only allow 'backups' to be played, they don't defeat region protection. (Even CDR images have to be patched to the hardware's region - as Droo said 4 years ago )

A region switch or an Action Replay is required.

[ucci]

The console I have is switched to the japanese region, in order to play a PAL game I need to make an ISO of the original then patch it to the Japanese code. Thanks for your help Sack Man and Tricky Tree.

[Corporal Flashback]

A nice piece of sellotape and that nifty ISO region changing software do the job wonderfully for me.

[Soulstar]

Nice one, i think im gonna have to resurrectmy Saturn just to try this.

[Guest mononokehime316]

Is it the '4M Auto Action Replay Plus' you have or just the standard AR as my XvsSF runs fine. The only one i had probs with is Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter,which does the glitchy sound thing you mention.

Weird!

Hello

When you play import games on a PAL Saturn with a 4M Action Replay etc the saturn still outputs in 50hz as thats all pal saturns can output in. Now since Japanese games like Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter were designed to run at 60hz when output in 50hz they run into problems. The problems include the sound going funny stages not working etc. Some Japanese/USA games run ok in 50hz with no problems other than the boarders and the slower gameplay.

To fix this problem you can do one of two things.

1 Buy a Japanese Saturn which will of course run the games in there native 60hz with no problems. You can also play pal games that were not optimised for pal tvs in 60hz with the 4m cart. However if you play games that were fixed for pal like VF2, Sega Rally they wont play properly they will run either too fast or the screen will be cut off.

2 Fit the saturn with a 50/60hz switch. This allows you to play the optimised games in 50hz so they work and the 60hz games in 60hz as well as forcing into 60hz games like sonic r that had boarders slower gameplay.

[Butane Bob]

Pal Guardian Heroes doesn't like to be run @ 60hz also.

[Guest techfi25]

I got my replay cart to play Xmen Vs street fighter and its the only game ive ever had problems running !

The title sequence cuts off after a couple of seconds, and then the voice over goes

X-X-Men V-Vs Stre-Street fighter !

there are also occasional speech glitches in game play too.

but no crackling though.

How did you get X-men vs Street Fighter to run on your sega saturn with Action Replay 4M Plus.

Can the way did you it work on a US sega saturn?

Please me. I appreciate it thanks.

contact me back as soon as possible.

[Lorfarius]

It should just run automatically like any other game with the cart inserted.

[sweetdaddyg]

can we have the country code changer reposted?

[X_2_0]

How did you get X-men vs Street Fighter to run on your sega saturn with Action Replay 4M Plus.

Can the way did you it work on a US sega saturn?

Please me. I appreciate it thanks.

contact me back as soon as possible.

You just plug it in and start the game up,

according to play-asia it is "compatible with all Saturn versions "

but ive only ever used it on a pal saturn.

Play-asia also says it works with King of fighters but mine doesnt.

[Butane Bob]

Mine worked with KOF97, it won't work with KOF95 though as that requires a ROM cart.

[CurryKitten]

I'll just jump onto this thread for a kind of general Saturn Mod question. After reading this thread and wondering about the swapping trick, I actually had a go at chipping my Saturn and it works brilliantly. I was happily surprised at this as everything to do with modding talks about the round button model 2 Saturns, and I've got a oval buttons Saturn with a seperate PCB for the joystick ports.

So runs well, but I'd quite like to do the 50/60hz mod as well, but I'm not sure which mod instructions are for me. I've seen everything from a very simple 2 solder points and a switch (yay, easy), to cutting the leg on the graphics chip (arrrgghh, scary). Can anyone offer advice into which mod I should be looking at ?