Sega Saturn, a noob, and an action replay

video games sega
1

2020 lead me to explore a lot of games I missed from the 16-32bit eras. I’ve been extremely interested in the Sega libraries as I didn’t have any of their consoles when I was a kid. Based on the Saturn recommendation threads on here, I’ve been playing some Saturn games via emulation and loving it. Now I want an actual Saturn console.

I went to my local retro game store this past week, and was surprised to see some US and Japanese Saturn games in stock, at or below market value. Unfortunately they had no consoles, and told me they maybe got a couple Saturns a year. I checked craigslist and locally, all that's available is a Derby Stallion Skeleton Clear Grey Sega Saturn, for $600. So I'm off to ebay…

I love the look and aesthetics of the gray/blue and the white Japanese Saturns, waaaay more than the American black ones. I understand they’re region locked. Based on some googling, it seems that using an Action Replay gives you a region free console and some extra RAM. Is that correct? I can buy the Japanese console, get the AR cart and play US games?

TLDR: Using an action replay, I can play US games on a JP Saturn?

2

Buy an action replay flashed with Pseudo Saturn and you can play any region games and burned cds!

3

That’s exactly what I was reading about. Thanks for confirming. Just ordered a Japanese Saturn.

4

@fetus8#17272

@Neko#17266 yep. You can flash it yourself or buy them flashed already. Aliexpress has lots.

5

The Action Replay I got a couple years ago had pins that weren't soldered. If you buy one, always open it up and check all the pins are populated with solder. I soldered mine myself.

Also, they are not shielded inside. Which can cause issues.

https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/compat/#diy_shield

6

pardon the bump, but with the saturn scene (US primarily, but even imports have long since jumped up) racing with the TG16/PCE scene for “least affordable stuff that was dirt cheap like 10 years back”, i cannot recommend getting a satiator enough

i love my PSIO & GDEMU but man, this thing really is basically plug & play, and will run just about everything you throw at it this side of...uh, in the hunt but that's its own thing i guess

absolutely fantastic way to play through all 3 scenarios of shining force 3 (and premium disc!) courtesy of the good work from the folks at shining force central
dragon force 2, big improvements to dracula x, so many good fan translations & efforts these days. if you've got the hardware i can't recommend this thing enough