Sega Saturn Region Free BIOS

Socketed bios in VA0 machines is uncommon but normal. Some units even have socketed EPROMs.

 

Thank you bud for shooting me a PM .

From my experience, the bios chip in a VA0 motherboard comes socketed (My personal Saturn), but the 2 other VA0.8 Saturn motherboard's i have come across were not socketed (Now they are).

So over all i'm guessing this

VA0 Saturns = Comes with socketed bios
VA0.8 Saturns = Bios soldered directly on the motherboard

 

Cool. I guess they stopped doing it early in the consoles life to save money as it was pretty pointless. It's going to make it really easy to replace though.

 

Here is some info for anybody interested in looking to get the right bios for their Saturn without opening up your Saturn. For model 1 Saturn's, you can identify which type you need just by looking at the power port (See pic below). For Model 2's they are all SMD.

Early Model 1 Saturns (DIP Bios) Vs. Later Model 1 Saturns (SMD Bios)

 

Yeah, the VA0s all had DIP bios and top-mounted power supplies, which had that taller power connector. This is true for Japanese and pal units too.

I have seen VA0 USA machines that weren't socketed, and also VA0.8 ones which were. Makes little difference ultimately.

 

On the website it offers mmonkey download, bios euro region free, us, and saturn v jap. it works?

www.mmmonkey.co.uk/?wpdmact=process&did=MTcuaG90bGluaw ==

 

They have been posted in this thread, along with others too.

 

it is ok and all works?

 

Do we have a full list of them?

 

Pretty sure I posted an automated patcher that works on all saturn bioses. So the list is any saturn bios thats available.

Here is the link for that again though.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28488139/sega.saturn.region.free.bios.patcher.1.0-patch.exe

 

Okay.

For patching you only change 3 locations, right? And out of those, only the first 2 matter, the third is the (non-functional) security check patch.
Just cause I patched and burned a bios with only the first two locations patched, and it still worked fine.

 

Correct, just like d4s's original patches.

 

thank you

 

Trivial to patch the BIOS yourself with a hex editor if you don't like the idea of an executable doing the work for you.

 

after you apply patch, there needs to swap bytes before the programmed?

 

Yes

 

Hey guys, I am a brand new user and I signed up because I have a question about BIOS modding on the Saturn. I recently picked up a model 2 NTSC-U Saturn, and I was originally just going to use an action replay, but since I am planning to install a mod chip for CD-R backups anyway, I figure I might as well go all the way and make a true region-free Saturn that can also play backups.

My dilemma is this: I really, REALLY don't want to remove the original BIOS chip. My ideal would be to piggyback the region free chip top of the stock one, and have a discretely mounted switch for changing between them, like the Dreamcast BIOS mod. For one, I don't like that screechy Japanese bootup jingle, and want the ability to go back to the more pleasant American one-- secondly, in the event that the flash chip ever goes bad the future, it would be far easier to safely remove if it is NOT soldered directly to the motherboard. I do not want to risk lifting/stripping any pads. I would vastly prefer to able to reverse the mod if ever necessary, and at very least be to easily switch between the US and region free BIOS.

 

If you don't like the Japanese jingle then just install a modded US bios...

 

Funny I find the export Saturn bios EXTREMELY ANNOYING. lol

That's the main reason why I keep a early Gray VA0 saturn as my personal Saturn unit ... lol