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*VERY* weird Action Replay
AntiPasta - Jun 20, 2003
  AntiPasta Jun 20, 2003
Hi,

someone on a dutch sega forum (www.segaforum.nl...) opened a thread about some odd, unlabeled item he had obtained. It plugged into the Saturn cart port, and when booted showed the AR menu, but it had another type of cart slot on top! Sadly the pics he posted have been taken down, but I recall that it very much looked like a Megadrive cart slot. Someone replied that he had heard of some guy claiming he could play MD games on his Saturn... anyone know more about this?

 IBarracudaI Jun 20, 2003


The AR 4in1 has a parallel interface on the top... (lol)

/me is checking that site..

 AntiPasta Jun 20, 2003
well, the site is in Dutch and the pics he posted have somehow disappeared

The thing very much looked like a MD/Genesis Game genie, it only had a Saturn edge connector on the bottom instead of a MD/Gen one... but still a Megadrive/Gen'ish one on the top mg:

 WiseMan Jun 21, 2003
i very much doubt it allowed the use of megadrive games on the saturn.

if the saturn could play megadrive games like that sega would have made the slot the proper size for megadrive carts in the first place. :huh

as we've seen with the ps2 playing ps1 games, backwards compatibility is certainly not something you get from using an action replay. it is something the console has to be developed for and unfortunatley, the saturn was not.

:flamethrower:

 slinga Jun 21, 2003
Wiseman: You make an interesting point when you say that a console has to be designed for backwards compatibility. I read somewhere that the Genesis CPU is located in the Saturn's sound system. I don't know too much about hardware, but I think it would be possible to have some sort of Genesis\Mega Drive capability on the Saturn. Someone brought up before about Chinese Pirate Saturn's having the ability to play Genesis roms (I don't have any proof of this...).

 ExCyber Jun 21, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			I read somewhere that the Genesis CPU is located in the Saturn's sound system. I don't know too much about hardware, but I think it would be possible to have some sort of Genesis\Mega Drive capability on the Saturn.


It may have been possible with some extra custom logic in the SCSP, but as it stands it doesn't look like the sound 68000 is useful for any kind of cheap emulation.


  
	
	

		
		

			Someone brought up before about Chinese Pirate Saturn's having the ability to play Genesis roms (I don't have any proof of this...).


If it's true, they probably use some type of "Genesis on a chip" hardware.

 Shakey Jake33 Jun 21, 2003
I'm sure if it really played MegaDrive games, we'd know more about this device by now...

 AntiPasta Jun 21, 2003
yeah I suppose so... just another mysterious piece of hardware fading into oblivion...

/me gets all emotional

 Trenton net Jun 21, 2003
Regarding those pirate carts, I don't know, but regarding Pirate Saturns they do exist. Like ExCyber said, they use CPU on a chip technology, and just use the CD-Rom to load games up. They already use those on DVD players and VCD players for NES/Genesis/SNES games like other multi-game clone systems. And right now in HK, those Clone dreamcasts are going around.

But as for the postings way before, It was Cecilia who first brought it up, but now she's banned. She probably knows more than I regarding it, or even owns a few.

 AntiPasta Jun 21, 2003
pirate Saturns? From an engineering point of view, the Saturn seems not very interesting to clone (too many chips), and I suppose there should also be a plethora of PSX clones about by now

 mal Jun 22, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Trenton net@Jun 22, 2003 @ 06:38 AM



 But as for the postings way before, It was Cecilia who first brought it up, but now she's banned. She probably knows more than I regarding it, or even owns a few.


That's just too bad.