Supposed modchip that will play ORIGINAL imports...

Well, I found this listing on eBay here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230446005106&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

It is for a chipped (white japanese) Saturn without any region modification that supposedly plays imports. Considering all of the region mod tutorials (not to mention sebs creation) I figured this guy must not know what he is talking about. So I emailed him and he insists that it will play original imports from any region (without copying and patching). Has anyone here ever heard of such a chip?

Edit:

Oh, and here are the emails sent between us that led me to this point:

Sent Date: Mar-08-10 19:01:13 PST

Does this have some sort of modification allowing it to play all regions or does it just come with one of those region-free carts? Thanks!

- jmjohnson85

Sent Date: Mar-08-10 21:10:23 PST

I added a chip to the console and you can play all regions and EVEN copies too. I have customers download saturn games and play with this console. Think about how much $$$ you can save? thanks henry

- japan-bid

Sent Date: Mar-09-10 02:26:20 PST

Well I only care about being able to play my original imports without having to make copies of them first.. So, will this console do this? Thanks!

- jmjohnson85

Sent Date: Mar-09-10 02:57:29 PST

Of course, it does play import saturn games. Thanks.

- japan-bid

Sent Date: Mar-09-10 11:20:36 PST

Have you personally verified this?

My brother has a chipped Saturn and he says that it will only play imports if you first make an ISO image and then patch it with a program that changes the region -> then of course burn it to CD-R... I definitely do not want to go through all of that hassle.

I have seen Saturn consoles here on eBay that have switches installed in the case that allow you to change the region of the system, I think that is probably what I am after (unless of course you can verify that it does for sure play imports without copying them). Thanks!

- jmjohnson85

Sent Date: Mar-10-10 09:37:21 PST

I thanks for your information and your stories of playing import games. This system you saw does not need to copy anything...it plays US Saturn CD games, Japanese Saturn CD games and even copies Saturn CD games directly. Thanks Henry

- japan-bid
 
Never heard of such a thing. It's technically possible to do, though (by at least a couple different methods).
 
ExCyber said:
Never heard of such a thing. It's technically possible to do, though (by at least a couple different methods).

If you have a chance, specifically what methods do you mean? I would much rather have a modchip that plays all regions rather than having to region mod a console with switches or even the more complicated switchless mod by seb.
 
One method would be to patch/glitch the part of the BIOS that does the region check.

Another would be to modify the header as it's read from the CD (sort of like a realtime embedded version of SRP/satconv).
 
ExCyber said:
One method would be to patch/glitch the part of the BIOS that does the region check.

Another would be to modify the header as it's read from the CD (sort of like a realtime embedded version of SRP/satconv).

Neither of those methods is really feasible with only a modchip though.

In any case, the cartridge in the pictures looks like an off-brand Action Replay clone. It would not be surprising if that's the "chip" the seller is referring to.
 
ExCyber said:
One method would be to patch/glitch the part of the BIOS that does the region check.

Another would be to modify the header as it's read from the CD (sort of like a realtime embedded version of SRP/satconv).

Sounds like this would be significantly more work than just region modding the system (and it must be considering online stores like consolepassion.co.uk/chaoticjellygames.co.uk would be doing it as opposed to the switchless mods they sell).

antime said:
Neither of those methods is really feasible with only a modchip though.

In any case, the cartridge in the pictures looks like an off-brand Action Replay clone. It would not be surprising if that's the "chip" the seller is referring to.

Well I guess that pretty much solves it. The listing just calls it a 'memory card' but I'm sure your right. This guy is obviously full of crap since when I asked him if it just came with a region-free cart he never confirmed that and just continued to claim that the modchip allows imports. Thanks guys, I appreciate the fast replies.
 
antime said:
Neither of those methods is really feasible with only a modchip though.
I don't see why not. PS2 mods work in part by patching the BIOS on-the-fly, as did the Dreamcast modchips. The usual Saturn CD-R mods work by selectively substituting their own data stream for the one coming from the CD reader. It might not be feasible to patch a header to universal on-the-fly, but it seems like it should be possible to overwrite the first region signature with a selectable one (e.g. via a jumper) on the vast majority of games.
 
ExCyber said:
I don't see why not. PS2 mods work in part by patching the BIOS on-the-fly, as did the Dreamcast modchips. The usual Saturn CD-R mods work by selectively substituting their own data stream for the one coming from the CD reader.

Sure, but having to simultaneously patch two different subsystems makes it a lot more complex.

It might not be feasible to patch a header to universal on-the-fly, but it seems like it should be possible to overwrite the first region signature with a selectable one (e.g. via a jumper) on the vast majority of games.

Thinking about it more I guess it wouldn't be that difficult after all to make a multi-region game single-region as I don't think the BIOS will choke on extra area codes, only if they are missing (the documentation also says they have to appear in the right order). Then you'd just have to patch the area symbols to contain only the symbol corresponding to the hardware's region and patch the first area code to match the area symbol.

If the BIOS has problems with extra area codes being present you could always replace the others with NOP instructions.
 
Back
Top