Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Post by **Centrale** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 12:22 am

Hi everyone, I've got an Action Replay Plus (2.02) and a Model 2 NTSC Sega Saturn, and a few Japanese games I'm hoping to play. But it's not working. The ARP seems to boot up fine and I see its menus at the outset. But when I try to start any Japanese game, selecting the option to start without using any cheat codes, they all seem to come to a screen that is unique to each game, mostly in Japanese, and seems to be saying something about the RAM cart. RAM is the only thing I can read, anyhow. I've tried unplugging and plugging the ARP cart back in several times but it doesn't seem to be helping. Do you think something might be wrong with the cart? Or is there some step I don't know about to get it to play a Japanese disc? By the way, the discs are all originals, not copies.

Oh, one other detail.. in the case of Out Run, it displays that message and then bumps me back to the CD player screen when I press a button. After a moment, a message pops up saying "cartridge is not suitable for this system."

Post by **theclaw** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:32 am

Maybe your console's internal save ram is corrupt? Try replacing the system battery.

ARP has some restrictions.
1. May not save or load files in-game. That menu is storage only.
2. It doesn't actually change the console region. Like an NTSC Sega Saturn not modded would play PAL games in NTSC video mode. (fine for most titles, a few have issues).

Website · Post by **Hobie-wan** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:08 am

There are a few games that require their own ram cart which actually contains part of the game. Vampire Savior also doesn't work with older AR carts unless you mod them a bit. Other than Out Run, what are the other games you're playing?

Post by **theclaw** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:16 am

I also heard some games detect AR or something to that effect. Haven't tried my Azel Panzer Dragoon yet.

Post by **Breetai** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:44 am

Hobie-wan wrote:There are a few games that require their own ram cart which actually contains part of the game. Vampire Savior also doesn't work with older AR carts unless you mod them a bit. Other than Out Run, what are the other games you're playing?

Other than King of Fighters '95, what other games require their own RAM cart?

OP, I suspect your PAR might just be corrupt. Sorry to say.

Post by **SnowKitty** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:44 am

Breetai wrote:
Hobie-wan wrote:There are a few games that require their own ram cart which actually contains part of the game. Vampire Savior also doesn't work with older AR carts unless you mod them a bit. Other than Out Run, what are the other games you're playing?
Other than King of Fighters '95, what other games require their own RAM cart?

OP, I suspect your PAR might just be corrupt. Sorry to say.

there is a utility disk to re-flash the bios to it, iirc. i don't remember what it's called though.

Post by **Centrale** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:50 am

So far the games I've tried are Out Run, Power Drift, and an interesting-looking Japanese basketball game called From TV Animation Slam Dunk.

I did change the Saturn battery recently, and it seems to be working because it's no longer asking me for the language, date and time when I power it on.

Funny enough, I haven't tried playing any U.S. releases since I plugged in the ARP -- maybe I'll try that and see if it comes up with a message I can read.

I'll be bummed if the ARP is corrupt somehow -- it appeared to be brand new when I got it. There are a few things in its memory slot but I figured those are just where the codes are stored.

Website · Post by **Hobie-wan** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 2:39 pm

Breetai wrote:Other than King of Fighters '95, what other games require their own RAM cart?

Hmm, thought there was more than one. I don't really play fighting games, so guess I'm confused there.

SnowKitty wrote: there is a utility disk to re-flash the bios to it, iirc. i don't remember what it's called though.

Flashing it in the Saturn? Or are you talking about via the serial port with a PC? Later AR carts don't have the serial port anymore.

Post by **Centrale** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 3:08 pm

Yeah, there's no port on this one.

Well, I tried playing a US release with the ARP in and it started up with no problems. Then I popped open the disc tray and put in a Japanese release, and it came up with the message "cartridge is not suitable for this system." Bummer! I guess the cartridge is defective. Since everything else about it seems to function as it should, I don't think it's an issue with the Saturn's touchy cartridge port. But I'll keep trying I guess...

Post by **Centrale** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 3:31 pm

So, I've been trying a few other Japanese games... I've got about 10 here. Sega Touring Car gave a similar message. But then Fighters Megamix and Virtua Fighter 2 both worked after giving me a similar message. When I popped in the Japanese copy of Daytona USA, it gave me the message in English... basically saying that it didn't have enough memory to save the game, and to press the reset button and the L or R button to access the memory manager. Well, I cleared everything out of there and tried the other games again, but they still won't start up. Seems to be giving me the same message, because I can see an L and an R among the Japanese text.

Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- error message

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports

Re: Saturn Action Replay Plus -- won't play Japanese imports