Hydra's-World

Saturn Backups

Using copied games on a Saturn

Booting a copied game on Saturn is easy once you get the hang of it but tricky for the first few goes. It only took me a few attempts to figure it out.

This is tested on a JAPANESE Saturn (Old Grey type) with a model number of HST3200, serial number B40038444. I heard a rumour that it’s not possible to do this on some Saturns.

Open the CD lid. Make sure your Saturn is turned OFF.

To the right of the open button you’ll see a rectangular hole where the CD lid catch is. If you look closely into this hole you’ll see a small black micro-switch on the left hand side of it. You need to keep this switch pressed down somehow. I used a small fuse and some selatape. You can fit a switch to let you override the Saturns own door lid sensor switch, see below.

Put your copied CD into the drive.

Power on the Saturn.

The CD will spin up. the usual Saturn logo will appear.

Just before the CD Player screen appears the take out the CD (it’s still spinning at this point) and put an original Saturn CD in the drive, the CD must also be of the same country your Saturn is from (i.e. JAP game for JAP Saturn)

The CD Player screen will appear and the little “S” button will appear as normal. The CD will stop spinning.

Press “A” on your joypad when the “S” is selected to start booting as normal.

Now. this is the bit that timing is critical on..

After you press “A” you’ll hear the CD head move to the outside of the CD. it’ll then scan the original for the copy protection information. When it has scanned the copy protection info from the disc it moves the head back to the middle of the CD. It is at this point, while the head is moving back to the middle that you have to take the original out and put the copy back in. The screen should still be displaying the CD Player. Once you have put the copy in the CD will go black and then the SEGA logo will appear. After that the game will just boot up!

It’s tricky for the first few times but is easy once you’ve done it a couple of times.

And, best of all unlike the PSX swap trick it still plays all the music correctly!

EXTRA EXTRA!!

Some Saturn games Auto-boot when you put them in. for these games do this:

Power off Saturn.

Insert copied game

Turn on Saturn with lid open but door switch activated so that the CD spins.

When you hear the CD head move towards the outside of the disc take the copy out and insert an original

The Saturn then scans the copy protection info from the original. you’ll then hear the head move back towards the middle of the CD. when it’s doing this take the CD out and put the copy back in and the game will boot up.

Games that are known to do this include: Terra Cresta 3D. If I find any more I’ll let you guys know.

Credits go to ALEX for supplying me with details which I have made into a better document for you all to enjoy.

How to add a switch to your Saturn

Right, added the switch in my Saturn, turns out it was very easy to do, here’s the details:

Turn the Saturn upside-down and take the 6 screws out. one from each corner, one next to the power socket and one half way down the left hand side when the Saturn is upside down and the power socket facing away from you.

Separate the two halves of the Saturn taking care not to pull or stretch any of the wires connecting the two halves.

You’ll see a two wire leads coming from the CD section of the Saturn that goes to the hole near the CD lid catch. there is a switch at the end of the lead. It’s easier to take the old switch off so you can solder wires to it easier. To do this just undo the small screw on the side of the switch.

You need to get another “push to make push to break” switch for this.

Solder two new wires to the existing switch on the Saturn, leaving the old wires still connected, then solder the other end of these two wires to your new switch so that you’re adding the new switch in parallel to the existing one, so that you can over-ride the existing one.

Make a hole somewhere on the case of the bottom half of the Saturn (I suggest near the power socket) to hold your new switch.

Put your switch in the new hole, connect the Saturn switch back to the door catch and put all the screws back in the case and that’s it.

To use the switch just press it before you power the Saturn on and it will override the normal switch on the door catch allowing you to open and close the lid when you like.

I mount the switch at the back so that my Saturn still looks nice.