Sega Saturn Console Prototype finally dug it up and took some photoes. for previous discussion years ago check out this old thread. And for more detailed description by Druid II have a look here. hope you enjoy!
Thanks a lot! Can you take screenshots of the internals too? From the smaller resolution images you posted once, we can see that it has 4-5 chips on it which are different from the ones in the final unit, and the motherboard is of an earlier version too. It would be nice if we could get all those labels written down, and compare the differences to the earliest retail units.
Thanks a lot. Please make sure that the IC labels and serials on the board are readable on the photos... they are important.
Those pictures are absolutely beautiful. Thank you VERY much! Just for reference, the retail machines 171-6874D VA0 CCI boards, and later moved on to 171-6874E VA0.5 (which added a few extra test points but nothing much more than that). So it's a minor revision. The most differences I see between the two, is that a few caps are different between yours and a retail machine. The SCSP and SCU are obviously not retail parts though. The SCSP is an engineering sample, and the SCU is some kind of prototype sample (they went through 4-5 versions of that chip). Based on the LOT numbers, both should be identical in function to the final unit, though. The SH1, I'm not sure why it has that sticker, it says it has the final CDB104 code in it. Maybe they used a stock SH1 and programmed it first (they have OTP EPROMs internally). The boot rom is obviously an UV EPROM, but it has the 1.00 retail bios on it (crc matches).
That PSU looks like the Yamaha PSU with the ceramic hybrid module... Can you make pictures of that PSU too ?
It can be a bit annoying to disassemble that. I have an early Saturn with a very similar power supply though. The solder patterns on the bottom at least, are a near match, but they have some extra stuff in there as well. I need to take pictures of that some time.
Sorry mate I didn't take PSU photo. Thought I have the old one but it seemed gone missing along the way. Not sure when I have it opened again but will take PSU photo as well when I do.
If you do decide to take it apart again, one point of interest would be the underside of the board near the fan connector - just to see if it still has any components populated around the traces going to the connector. Launch saturns have a lot of unused stuff there.
That's definitely a masked ROM part (the character after "HD64" is the memory type 1=Romless/3=Mask/7=EPROM/F=Flash). From the paper label, I assume that it's one of the first batch that was supplied for customer validation of the ROM pattern.
Sorry for the bump. Do you still have the unit? I actually have one of the earliest retail units, the serial is B40000411 and is pretty similar internally to yours OP. I would be interested in buying it.
Since I can't send you PMs, I'll as here: is that ebay auction actually yours or is someone just using your pics again? The ebay username is almost the same as yours...
that auction was mine. asked my sister to list (I don't have one myself) it and sold to a buyer off eBay. hope the new owner can give it the love it deserves coz I just didn't have time anymore...
