What is the best (most compatible) mem card for

[qaotik]

There seems to be atleast 5 cards on the market but what is the best one? I would guess that a cheat card would be the most handiest but does it have enough memory for all games?

And could someone please make a list of the different models like this:

Model 1:

XX pins, common/no mod possible/hard to get modchip

XX pins ...

Model 2:

XX pins ..

XX pins ..

How common are they/ are they modchip compatible/ is it hard to find a modchip for it. Since im little hazy on that part, there seems to be quite alot differences so which model should i buy?

Thanks for anyone helping me!

 

[ExCyber]

If you mean save cartridges, the best cartridge is the official Sega one. Most of the others either don't allow direct saves (you have to save to internal memory and then copy it in an internal memory manager) or have known compatibility/reliability problems. As for RAM cartridges, any 4MB cart that is not defective should be fine, except for older EMS Action Replay 4M Plus carts which identify themselves as 1MB carts (this can be fixed by cutting one trace and soldering one jumper wire).

 

[Kaneda]

looking for info on the cart slot, i read an unofficial Saturn

FAQ last night who list all the avaible carts...

from what i read, using unofficial carts MAY damage your cart slot..because the connector is thinner on the orginal one...

Kaneda

 

[Curtis]

Wouldn't it be because the connector is thicker than the original?

 

[Kaneda]

oh my.......my english is so bad .......

yes...you're right

Kaneda

 

[Curtis]

Heh...your English is way better than my French.

 

[Kaneda]

teach me english, i'll teach you french

 

[qaotik]

Thanks for the replies! So could someone post how many pins are commonly found on those models and where can i buy saturn modchips these days and for which model are they?

 

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

model 1 is generally 20 pins, model 2 is generally 21, no guarantees. So get a model 2.

 

[emazur]

I never hear anyone mention this, but personally I think the Interact memory card is best. Got it at Toys R US a few years back for like $4. Not only does it allow direct saves, but it also has the undocumented feature of letting you play import games. This is particularly good if you are continuing to play the import versions of Shining Force 3 Scen 2 & 3 after beating the US Scen 1 (b/c you import the previous save into the new game, and it's easy to run out of space if you have no mem card)

 

[ExCyber]

If I'm not mistaken, the Interact memory card's flash is only half the size of the Sega one and makes up for it by patching the BIOS save manager jump table to insert compression routines. If you have a game that compresses its saves to begin with (ISTR that Dragon Force was reported to have problems), such an exercise would fail miserably and you'd end up with a save taking up a nice large chunk of the cart. Corruption has been reported but I don't think it's fair to blame that on the compression, more likely that's due to bad insertion and defective units.

edit: okay, I was mistaken, they're the same size.