Sega Saturn help!!!…ProAction Reply…

[Sparky]

ok so i have a couple Saturn games coming my way in the mail, but the one thing that i wanted that the guy could not get to work was the Saturn ProAction Replay cart, am I correct you can play imports with this? do you need an import game to get this working i would assume?

he also has a Game Shark cart that he could not get to work also.
Anyway he is giving me the 2 non working carts in hopes i can get them working.

Anyone have these? thoughts?
Ya might be best to wait on the carts and see if i can get them to work but i have no clue on this replay cart so i thought i would ask my friends here

[guyjin]

ok so i have a couple Saturn games coming my way in the mail, but the one thing that i wanted he said he could not get to work was the Saturn ProAction Replay cart, am I correct you can play imports with this? do you need an import game to get this working i would assume?

No. A SPAR should interrupt any game you want to play and offer to let you cheat; there's a menu to 'apply cheats' or 'continue without cheats'. the fact he can't get it to do anything suggests that either his Saturn is damaged, or the cart is.

[Michael Helgeson]

Or it needs to be cleaned.

[WoodyXP]

I'm not sure about the Gameshark but I know the board in the PAR is a bit thicker and can widen up the slot if you
pull/insert it alot.. this can cause contact issues with the Saturn.  If your slot is good and the cart is clean/not broken
you should be good to go.

And when you boot with the PAR you'll be taken to a Pro Action Replay menu before your game loads, that'll be be
a good indicator that your PAR is working.  Hope that helps. 

[Sparky]

cool thanks a lot guys, with both carts no working i hope it is his system or it takes a damn good cleaning of the carts to get'm to go.
but this thing will play imports if i get it working right? and if yes i will be on the hunt for some import goodness now

[guyjin]

this thing will play imports if i get it working right? and if yes i will be on the hunt for some import goodness now

Yes. I think all the pro action replays have the 4 meg ram built in, so the only game you can't play with it is some SNK fighter, which had its own rom cart.

[SignOfZeta]

this thing will play imports if i get it working right? and if yes i will be on the hunt for some import goodness now

Yes. I think all the pro action replays have the 4 meg ram built in, so the only game you can't play with it is some SNK fighter, which had its own rom cart.

There are PARs with, and without the 4MB function. The Game Shark is a US branded version of the original PAR. I'm not sure how to tell them apart externally without a sticker. There might even be a 1MB PAR, but I can't remember. I'm pretty sure that all the 4MB equipped ones have that parallel port on the top though, so hopefully you have the good one.

There are also several thousand of the 4-in-1s that were released after Xmen vs SF, but before any other 4MB game, that only work correctly with XMen vs SF until a simple mod is performed. I had one of these. I think all you have to do is run one jumper wire, and maybe cut a trace somewhere. If you don't do the mod you get weird background dropouts in Vampire Saviour. I'm not sure what it does on the newer games because I fixed mine after VS came out.

Once you have it though, yeah, you can play anything except KOF '95, Ultraman, or this one Tamagothi game, the exact name of which escapes me at the moment.

However, you won't want to, and here is why; the Saturn cart slot is the absolute worst cart slot in the history of gaming. This is almost certainly the reason why neither of these carts work for the guy. He simply didn't do the correct magic dance of powering down, removing, re-insterting, and powering up a hundred billion times until the things worked. To deal with this BS less often I just modded my system. It still gives me shit when I change to another cart, but its loads better than a PAR.

Eventually I bought a new switched Japanese Saturn. It didn't take long for its cart slot to start acting up either. Now that the Netlink is pretty much useless I only switch carts when I need to use the save backup cart for strategy games so it's nowhere near as bad as when I was switching the NetLink with the PAR, and the back up cart on an almost daily basis. In the end though I highly recommend getting a mod. For as much as I think PCE converters are a stupid pain in the ass, Saturn converters are even worse. The main problem isn’t the converters themselves, but the cart slot. However, in addition to all that crap I just said, you also can’t save directly to a PAR’s save space in-game, and you can’t use the normal save backup cart when the PAR is in use. This isn’t a problem with stuff like shooters and fighters, but stuff like Sega Rally, NiGHTS, Firepro, and many strategy games will eat up your save space really quick.

[SuperDeadite]

Yes it is probably the Saturn's Cart slot.  This is no surprise because those GameSharks are known to destroy Saturn carts like nothing.  The PCB in them is bigger even then the PAR.  But also the pictured PAR has no label.  Real PAR's all have labels, your's is probably a cheap knock-off version from China.  There's a good chance it really is dead.

[Sparky]

Thanks zeta for your thoughts and you to deadite and ya a mod would be better but i will try these free carts to see if they can give me what i need.

they guy just email me and said it is a "4meg Datel thing" so it looks promising... hopefully... will let ya know when i get it and test it.

[Joe Redifer]

I wish someone would create a durable replacement cart slot for the Saturn like they did with the NES connector so that games power up right away instead of the flashing screen a billion times until you seat the cart just right.

[Michael Helgeson]

There are later 4 meg/1 meg Pro Action Replay models without the parallel port Zeta. They don't require the wire jump fix and use more modern chips.  I think the last one I had like that went to Rover. After the later models without ports hit ebay alot at cheaper prices, NCS insisted that they were counterfeit (and still do on asked questions #7). I can only say they are real, and even EMS themselves, the makers of the product, sell them directly like this now without the port , as seen here, and have been for a while now.  This kinda makes NCS look like selfish asses trying to prevent others possible sales, or stupid know nothings, depending on how you view that situation..... The newer build on them is solid like the rest, and there is still a spot for a parallel port to be soldered on. I imagine if the port is added by someone it would prob work with little to no modification done, but who knows for sure.

[SignOfZeta]

Yes it is probably the Saturn's Cart slot.  This is no surprise because those GameSharks are known to destroy Saturn carts like nothing.  The PCB in them is bigger even then the PAR.  But also the pictured PAR has no label.  Real PAR's all have labels, your's is probably a cheap knock-off version from China.  There's a good chance it really is dead.

My white Saturn has only seen official carts (4MB, 1MB, Netlink, save back up) and its cart slot was dodgy within a year of me purchasing it. The things are just junk. It sad because every other aspect of the Saturn is probably more reliable than any other system.

[SignOfZeta]

There are later 4 meg/1 meg Pro Action Replay models without the parallel port Zeta. They don't require the wire jump fix and use more modern chips.  I think the last one I had like that went to Rover. After the later models without ports hit ebay alot at cheaper prices, NCS insisted that they were counterfeit (and still do on asked questions #7). I can only say they are real, and even EMS themselves, the makers of the product, sell them directly like this now without the port , as seen here, and have been for a while now.  This kinda makes NCS look like selfish asses trying to prevent others possible sales, or stupid know nothings, depending on how you view that situation.....

Well it could be that the counterfeits dropped the parallel port before the official ones did (not a bad idea since pretty much nobody uses it) and this article is just really old. Also, sometimes its really hard to tell a "fake" product from a real one especially when they both often come from the same factory, and neither one is exactly "official" in the first place.

Case in point: when NCS was selling clear colored Playstation shells. They commissioned the things from a factory that, once production had began, sold the things to other venders...possibly before NCS even got theirs. This sucks since NCS paid for the tooling, but on the other hand its pretty much a pirate product in the first place so everyone involved just has to roll with it.

This is why Bollywood movies are budgeted to make all their money back in two weeks. After two weeks pirate DVDs will be %99 of sales and no more money will be going to the production company.

[Michael Helgeson]

There are later 4 meg/1 meg Pro Action Replay models without the parallel port Zeta. They don't require the wire jump fix and use more modern chips.  I think the last one I had like that went to Rover. After the later models without ports hit ebay alot at cheaper prices, NCS insisted that they were counterfeit (and still do on asked questions #7). I can only say they are real, and even EMS themselves, the makers of the product, sell them directly like this now without the port , as seen here, and have been for a while now.  This kinda makes NCS look like selfish asses trying to prevent others possible sales, or stupid know nothings, depending on how you view that situation.....

Well it could be that the counterfeits dropped the parallel port before the official ones did (not a bad idea since pretty much nobody uses it) and this article is just really old. Also, sometimes its really hard to tell a "fake" product from a real one especially when they both often come from the same factory, and neither one is exactly "official" in the first place.

Case in point: when NCS was selling clear colored Playstation shells. They commissioned the things from a factory that, once production had began, sold the things to other venders...possibly before NCS even got theirs. This sucks since NCS paid for the tooling, but on the other hand its pretty much a pirate product in the first place so everyone involved just has to roll with it.

This is why Bollywood movies are budgeted to make all their money back in two weeks. After two weeks pirate DVDs will be %99 of sales and no more money will be going to the production company.

Yes, the page is old, but no, the questionnaire where they insist they were fakes came about when EMS re-released them without the port. That is still their current sale page for the item. This wasn't like a few months ago, its been a few years now. This was a big deal to people who paid attention to these types of things, as it made NCS look bad. EMS cant counterfeit their own product they build and sell, nor was NCS the original designer, creator, ect. EMS themselves fabricated it with their own engineers along with a non 4meg Action Replay, a non AR import cart, a plain jane 4meg cart, ect and built them themselves in their own factory.

The Action Replay code, well that's Datels, so whatever agreement they made with EMS is between them, and not NCS as NCS only acted as a one time distributor of the product for retail sales. The only case to where this would be  a counterfeit product is if Datel themselves did not give the rights to EMS use their code. In that effect it would be a counterfeit of their product as they are the original creators. That still has nothing to do with NCS however, or the comms port versus non-comms port issue, as both released would be implicated. I can only assume Datel was paid since they have never came out in public and accused EMS of doing otherwise.

I don't know whether EMS themselves stopped sending them to NCS, or if NCS simply chose not to order more. NCS still has some stock, as they were never to sell it all off, so they have that extra incentive to try to pretend theirs is the only official product to try to scare others into only ordering theirs. Also I do know though that EMS is only willing to sign short term contracts to allow you to carry their products, and they like to research your store/shop,ect prior to making any deals to make sure you will be able to move product properly. There is a possibility there was a falling out between the two during negotiations to do a new contract. Who knows.

[Sparky]

well this is all goooood info to me, thanks guys. especially those Frequently Asked Questions www.ncsxshop.com/cgi-bin/shop/EMS-ARP.html
i can see why now someone would want to remove the cartridge label sticker  hope to have it by the end of the week!!!