Its now possible to play backups by flashing Saturn Carts!

[omikay]

one of the features of the atlas disc is that it unlocks the region

Nope, the cards hardware makes them built in region free. Most carts that do many features allow the booting of imports from any region. The Gameshark does this, the Action Replay does this and the Memory Card Plus from interact does as well as many other brands.

Atlas disc has nothing to do with region free. If it is a feature of the cart before flashing it will still have that feature due to the hardware on the cart.

i thought that when the atlas disc flashes the cart it mods the cart to read cdr and from any region. when the cart is flashed it loses all of whatever it did before. I have one with a switch on it, when i flashed it and it failed, the switch no longer worked. My thinking is that the region is software based, and you don't lose that feature when you flash the cart with the atlas disc. What i do know is that i have a flashed cart and I am able to play "E, U, and J" region games no problem. I am very happy with this mod considering i did nothing for it and its free. even with loosing the save function of the cart is well worth it.

[Anthony817]

That could very well be the case then. I just assumed that region free and things like extra ram which were hardware on the carts would continue working after the flash. I don't know if region free is hardware on the carts I just assumed so I could very well be wrong in my thinking.

[Ziggy]

I'm pretty sure the card does some kind of software patching or bypassing to circumvent the region check. Apparently, the region check is coded in the Saturn BIOS (hence the region free BIOS hack).

The extra 1MB/4MB RAM would make sense to me, but on the other hand, maybe not necessarily. Perhaps the Saturn has to communicate with the cart, and the firmware of the cart tells the console "the extra RAM is here." So if that part of the firmware doesn't exists, then the extra RAM function will not work.

Again, all guesses.

[terrin707]

Does this new method of flashing the carts preclude the necessity or desirability of a Saturn mod-chip? Is there any reason to want to install a mod-chip now? If there still is a reason to want a mod-chip, does anyone know of a source these days for purchasing one (including those on the forum)?

[JoeAwesome]

Does this new method of flashing the carts preclude the necessity or desirability of a Saturn mod-chip? Is there any reason to want to install a mod-chip now? If there still is a reason to want a mod-chip, does anyone know of a source these days for purchasing one (including those on the forum)?

I see the use of the memory card slot being used for, well, memory cards being the biggest reason to go with a mod-chip. Other than for memory hogs (Dragon Force?), Dezaemon 2 requires a dedicated memory card, which would be great to load up some of the homebrew shmups that have come out using the game.

[d123456]

i used the atlas disc to flash my interact memory card plus. works like a champ. i didn't think it would work because i couldn't get that card to show up in memory manager in years. i guess it was corrupted. it has a use now though.

I had a AR a long time ago that got bricked. I should've saved it. Maybe I could've revived it.
So if anyone knows of anyone that have a dead AR or other compatible cart inform them of this flashing method, maybe they can bring life to their dead carts.
I ordered a Japenese Saturn. When it gets in I'll get one of thos AR's from ebay and try the flash. Exciting!

[d123456]

I have to say that on all the forums, things are explained really vague.
I burned the 0.831 iso and I just also tried the 0.832 iso.
After selecting the 'flash AR from disc' option I just get a black screen.
Same behaviour with or without AR inserted
What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do more? What is all this cmake talk and what is this Atlus thing people keep mentioning? What is the bin for?
Feeling frustrated as you could probably tell.

[d123456]

Seems I'm not alone with getting the flasher to work properly....
Okay, forget about reading all of the threads here, assembler, epforums, etc..
Forget about the downloads they offer you, especially the pseudosaturn 0.831 & 0.832.
These images do NOT work at all.
Instead do this:
Download this image:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4lqiu ... er_ARP.zip

I got this image from this youtuber description:


steps:
burn the iso with nero
insert the AR and the flasher arp disc.
Do have a regular controller inserted, not the 3D one (I actually had, hahaha)
do the swap trick.
follow the instructions.
When done, really done (it is a 2 step process), just power off your saturn
While your Saturn is still open, gently vaccuum out all of the dust and remove the tape you stuck on the lid sensor.
Enjoy!!!

Thanks to the creators of this. Although the boot process takes longer than with a chip and you losse alot of AR functionality, it sure beats swapping, region patching!

Can someone make a version where you do not have to click any button to boot?

[Anthony817]

Vacuums and electronics do not go hand in hand. Sure fire way to get electrical static discharge to wreck the machine.

Instead use an industrial strength air compressor, and make sure you spray it a few times before using it on the machine to spray out any condensation first.

[Ziggy]

Vacuums and electronics do not go hand in hand. Sure fire way to get electrical static discharge to wreck the machine.

Instead use an industrial strength air compressor, and make sure you spray it a few times before using it on the machine to spray out any condensation first.

I was talking about this with (IIRC) Fast not too long ago. I regularly use an air compressor to blow out computer towers and such. We were talking about the amount of water that might be in it. I bleed my tank regularly, but I was thinking about adding a water trap. As for the PSI, you wanna make sure it isn't so high that it could blow off any fragile parts. This didn't even occur to me until someone mentioned it, I guess it's possible. Most home compressors are only something like 90 or 120 PSI. I know that commercial shops will have higher ones, but you should throttle it anyway. Dust is really light.

Personally, I wouldn't even bother with that for something like a Saturn. If there IS any dust build up, just use lung power.