Switchless Saturn

scrappysphinx

Confused retro man
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So this is how I spent my evening.

I received a Saturn from paradroid today and decided I'd attempt a switchless 60hz and region mod.

Grabbed seb's code and burned to a 16F630 and onto the install.

Like previous Sega machines it requires removal of some jumpers and replacing them with wire

aqupy5em.jpg


There's also a trace to cut and another wire to attach for the 60hz switching.

a3yde4yt.jpg


Finally attach everything to the pic chip and provide it with +5V and GND.

yhana2an.jpg


All back together and working

Pal

u9a8upeq.jpg


US NTSC

ugyjuve8.jpg


Jap NTSC

rytuzu6y.jpg


Now just need to wait for the delivery of a modchip
 
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Nice one Mike, I have used the same chip and code for the Megadrive

TC :)
 
Thanks Bas, I've done a few Sega machines with switchless mods now and also a couple of supercic snes consoles. It's just so much neater than switches
 
Very nice(y) Mine has a switch on the back and tbh I'd rather it didn't. The Saturn really is a machine that needs to be region modded as the better games do seem to be NTSC
 
Agreed. Although saying that, my old Hitachi is very much PAL only and I still play a lot of JAP games at 50Hz. 60Hz is certainly the better option.

That's a point. Dunno if I should start a new thread, but is it out of the question to add NTSC modes to an ancient PAL TV? This one has wood on. Actual wood.
 
Modchip arrived and fitted

9uvypy7e.jpg


Pal game

ume6asu8.jpg


US Game

a4yva9y8.jpg


Jap Game

ehasugup.jpg



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Sweet work again Mike, Batsugun is one of my favorite bullet hell games ever. just brilliant.
 
Awesome mods as always, did you fix the glitching too?
 
Hi Steve, to be honest i've not experienced any glitching at all. All games seem to boot fine in their respective region setting. Turned on from cold this morning and booted straight in.
 
Hi Steve, to be honest i've not experienced any glitching at all. All games seem to boot fine in their respective region setting. Turned on from cold this morning and booted straight in.

Sweet, these old stuffs can have a mind of their own sometimes :LOL:
 
Can I ask where you bought the mod chip from? I've been looking on this site but want to know if anyone else has bought from here successfully? I'm looking to get mine region modded and chipped so I can play anything from any region (some games are just too expensive to buy), wanna find the parts before I ask someone to do the work for me.
 
The chip is one of Robb Webb's from consolegoods.co.uk
He can't advertise them on his site but if you email him he does sell them. However I purchased this one from Sardine on here.

He does also sell the universal chips as you linked to but when I placed my first order with him a while back he told me the universal chips weren't so clever. The other thing I found out is that he doesn't provide any support for his chips. I've seen a few reviews online saying that the chip didn't work upon receipt and he refused to do anything about it.

Apparently you can convert the 21 pin chips to 20 pin (if you have a model 1 oval button Saturn) though and there are guides on google
 
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