Sega Saturn Boot-Disk & Open/Close Switch

Sega Saturn Boot-Disk & Open/Close Switch

Hey people,

I saw a of people talking about the Boot-Disk for the Sega Saturn, and everybody seems to think it's useless as a copied cd-r... I tend to NOT agree!

It was at these messageboards I learned about it and I was very interested (What if.. could it work...and so on..)

I roamed the Net for a copy and burned it.

You were all right about it not eliminating the swapping, BUT you were also NOT.

Of course you'll have to swap to let the Boot-Disk boot, but after that I can play most of my back-ups (Cd-r's) WITHOUT swapping! You just lay a copy in the Saturn and it reads it correct...and when you want to play another game you change the disc and press reset (That does work too, it doesn't "forget" the bootdisc)

If a game comes up that doesn't work with the Boot-Disk (Sega games mostly in my case) you do the traditional "swappin'" and even after that the Saturn still remembers the Boot-disk for the games that do work with it.

-If people ARE gonna do this don't forget to use satconv.exe like you use to do with games and change it to your area.

-You were succesful booting the boot-disk if you see the Sega trademark logo with the word "Completed" Left-Top.

There were two Boot-Disks (1 for Third-party & 1 for Sega games) so if any one could tell me if the other one's out too, I'd be very grateful...

I also want to recommend opening your saturn to find the switch that is turned on/off by the door mechanism and cut the wires to it, near the switch.

In my case (Type 1, oval buttons, "Acces" light) the wires are long enough to hang them out of the Saturn and thin enough to be able to close the saturn again without the need to drill holes and thus not molesting my dear old machine..

At this point you have two wires that (if you turn your Saturn on) can be held together (at the "naked" copper of course) to let the Cd-door be "closed" or if you seperate them let the cd-door be "open" Don't be afraid to touch the wires (Of the doorswitch, that is), there is next to no voltage on them.

At this point it gets incredibly easy...

You go to your nearest electricity store, by yourself the nicest switch you can find, Mine is a REALLY big one that came off of a vacuum-cleaner and I have to operate it with my foot (LOL!), screw the screws loose, put the wires in, and screw the screws tight again, (not too tight because the original wires are fairly thin)

And now you have your open/close switch!

This makes things easier because if you had taped the switch inside, the door would have always been "closed" and you would have had to push the power-button or the reset button to play another game, because you couldn't "officially" open the door and that doesn't work quite well for 2-cd games ;o)

CONCLUSION: If you don't have the money for a mod or, like me, have no-one to implement it for you, in my opinion the boot-cd is a very good alternative and it keeps you from having to swap for EVERY game.

If you are going to use the swapping technique I HIGHLY recommend building a switch. It's much to easy to ignore.

Cheers,

ToKo.

P.S. I have a model 1 Saturn (the easiest one for swapping and changing the wires within) so I can not tell that what I'm stating here will work for all types. (although I don't see why not?)

P.P.S. Before you give me sarcastic reply's, about how you all know already about the switch (and perhaps the Boot-Disk?), it was intended for people like me, who were wandering how to proceed with such a switch, because although it is mentioned often enough, I never found any clear instructions on how to do it and had to experiment on my own. If what I explained about the switch above still isn't clear, and you have a Model 1 Saturn, I'll be happy to assist you, if I can...

P.P.P.S. I originally posted this message at the Saturn message board as a reply, but I felt this should also belong here, for whoever is interested... So don't suspect me of "flooding"
 
Sega Saturn Boot-Disk & Open/Close Switch

Hi!

About that boot disc, I know it almost since, a guy came with a post somewhere in this forum, I really don't think it is that useful... maybe for those guys who just haven't learned how to swap perfectly and only get a good swap 1 out of 5, this way as soon as they can swap the boot disc they wouldn't have to do it anymore... or for those guys who take a day to play saturn, and keep changing games...

About the games with 2 or more cds, I've never had any prob, for instance, I recall playing PDS on cdr's, and when it said to exchange cd's I just powered off the console and booted the 2nd cd, I think this should work with "all" games, as opening the saturn lid, is almost the same as powering off, the only difference is that the RAM isn't cleared when u open the lid, but I don't think games make their saves on system RAM.

Well all this talking, is to reach one conclusion... I think the Open/Close Switch is pretty useless.

Again about the Boot disc, maybe it would be useful if we could de-assemble it and try to figure out how can we instruct the saturn to bypass the security check, but I'd guess that would be "unreal".
 
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