# Where can I buy a region free bios chip for the Sega Saturn?



## RemixDeluxe (Jun 1, 2015)

I tried asking in LameFAQs and got modded despite console modding being legal. Whatever.

I tried searching on my own and its legitimately hard to find a place that sells it, is it something that isnt made anymore?

Also what are my choices for region free on the Sega Dreamcast?


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 2, 2015)

Am I asking in the right section?


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## Deleted User (Jun 2, 2015)

I believe you are asking in the right section. I'll go and look around for what you're looking for, and tell you if I find anything.


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 2, 2015)

Tomato Hentai said:


> I believe you are asking in the right section. I'll go and look around for what you're looking for, and tell you if I find anything.


I wouldn't ask if I could find myself. Thank you.


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## Deleted User (Jun 2, 2015)

I'd also like to mention that you can play games from another region on the Sega Saturn with an Action Replay.

Edit: This is where I got that information from.


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 2, 2015)

Tomato Hentai said:


> I'd also like to mention that you can play games from another region on the Sega Saturn with an Action Replay.


Thats one of 3 ways to play region free however it presents two problems.

1. Overtime it will kill the cartridge slot due to the cart being too big for the slot.
2. You wont be able to use the cartridge slot for other expansion carts in case its needed for imported games.

So I rather just solder a region free chip and not have to think about disk swapping or putting in the right cart. Just put in any region game disk and play, done.


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## Deleted User (Jun 2, 2015)

RemixDeluxe said:


> Thats one of 3 ways to play region free however it presents two problems.
> 
> 1. Overtime it will kill the cartridge slot due to the cart being too big for the slot.
> 2. You wont be able to use the cartridge slot for other expansion carts in case its needed for imported games.
> ...


Yeah. I found this, too:


 I was just mentioning the action replay in case I couldn't find anything else.


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 2, 2015)

Tomato Hentai said:


> Yeah. I found this, too:
> 
> 
> I was just mentioning the action replay in case I couldn't find anything else.



I just hope I'm not too late in purchasing a chip. If flashcarts for the DS can be made still I dont see why not bios chips for the Sega Saturn. Granted its older than the DS but if I read correctly this chip was just made a couple of years ago.


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## Deleted User (Jun 2, 2015)

RemixDeluxe said:


> I just hope I'm not too late in purchasing a chip. If flashcarts for the DS can be made still I dont see why not bios chips for the Sega Saturn. Granted its older than the DS but if I read correctly this chip was just made a couple of years ago.


I'd think they'd stop making them only if there was a very small demand for them.

I'll look for the Dreamcast one now. I believe there was a thing you could do that didn't involve modding the console itself, but instead using a MIL-CD. (I think it was called) I'll go and look that up as well.


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## Deleted User (Jun 2, 2015)

This site has a few methods for playing Dreamcast games region free.


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## Heran Bago (Jun 2, 2015)

Make an account on assemblergames or segaage forum and ask in their buying/selling section.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Oh yeah, Dreamcast. I'd say same there too. I know you can can buy them in some online shops like here:

http://www.otakus-store.net/en/dreamcast/19-bios-dreamcast-region-free.html


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## Heran Bago (Jun 2, 2015)

If you're worried about the Dreamcast's disc drive wearing out when for swapping a boot disc or gameshark you should look into a USB backup situation.


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 2, 2015)

Heran Bago said:


> If you're worried about the Dreamcast's disc drive wearing out when for swapping a boot disc or gameshark you should look into a USB backup situation.


Doesnt the disk drive only wear out badly if your using burned disks as opposed to retail released game disks?


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## Heran Bago (Jun 2, 2015)

No it always wears out because it's bad. Also it's loud. Games on CD-Rs are certainly worse for it though. When the drive starts to die you can adjust the strength of the laser to prolong it a little bit but it's just delaying the inevitable.

The IDE drive solution is functional but ugly. The SD card solution is too slow to be worthwhile for anything other than homebrew and is almost vaporware. USB all the way.


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## TVL (Jun 2, 2015)

RemixDeluxe said:


> Thats one of 3 ways to play region free however it presents two problems.
> 
> 1. Overtime it will kill the cartridge slot due to the cart being too big for the slot.
> 2. You wont be able to use the cartridge slot for other expansion carts in case its needed for imported games.
> ...



1. What? It's a perfect fit, I don't understand the reasoning, either it would break the slot when trying to jam a too large cartridge in there the first time, or it will never happen. The latter is what's going on. My Saturn still works, had the AR+ for well over a decade. That machine is indestructible.

2. It's never needed, I think some version of KoF (96 I think) had a cart that included sprites on the cart, just don't play that one game and you'll be fine (or switch carts that one time). AR+ is both a 1Mb and 4Mb expansion. Metal Slug, Marvel Vs. etc all work.

As for DC I don't think there's a game out there that hasn't been made region free. Those boot discs run everything too if you want to play a legit copy (I'm pretty sure of that anyway, never tried it).


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## Heran Bago (Jun 2, 2015)

Or you could just buy a whole shitload of Dreamcasts. They come in so many fun colors and boxes. They're really cheap used still.


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## yaketyJack (Jun 2, 2015)

I got one modded by Sega Style a few years ago, good service, and it still works great! There's recent reviews in there, so still seems to be working. You'd also need the Action Replay cart to play imports.

Here you go:
http://www.segastyle.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=74

hope that helps!


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## Smuff (Jun 2, 2015)

Self-booting iso versions of almost if not all Dreamcast games are widely available on the internet, with no need for either modchips or boot discs

The Action Replay cart is fine with the Saturn slot - some cheaper variants were damaging to the slot due to the board being slightly thicker than the slot. The slot itself will wear out with a lot of cart in-ing and out-ing, so just put the thing in there and leave it there 


The Action replay cart can now be reflashed to enable playing CD-Rs of Saturn games without the need for a modchip!


Region free Saturn bios chips were available for sale from a user on Assemblergames last time I checked.


If you can solder, it's really easy to fix the Saturn to play any region games and allow 50/60Hz selection. There are a few ways of doing this, from mods involving the fitting of 2 switches right up to a switchless mod (A PCB that sets the region depending on how long the reset button is held in for). The AR reflash can handle region patching also.


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## Deleted User (Jun 2, 2015)

Heran Bago said:


> Or you could just buy a whole shitload of Dreamcasts. They come in so many fun colors and boxes. They're really cheap used still.
> -snip-


Dammit, now I want to collect Dreamcasts.


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## hippy dave (Jun 2, 2015)

Smuff said:


> The Action replay cart can now be reflashed to enable playing CD-Rs of Saturn games without the need for a modchip!
> The AR reflash can handle region patching also.


Link please?


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## Heran Bago (Jun 2, 2015)

hippy dave said:


> Link please?


http://www.play-asia.com/action-replay-4m-auto-plus/13/701b2

It also serves as the 4M memory expansion. Your Saturn is incomplete without one.


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## hippy dave (Jun 2, 2015)

Thanks, I know about the AR cart, had one for my Saturn - was interested about the new reflashing method tho.


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## yaketyJack (Jun 2, 2015)

hippy dave said:


> Thanks, I know about the AR cart, had one for my Saturn - was interested about the new reflashing method tho.



Found this, seems a bit risky though and you lose save functions:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=47890


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## hippy dave (Jun 3, 2015)

Great, thanks!


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## TeamScriptKiddies (Jun 3, 2015)

yaketyJack said:


> I got one modded by Sega Style a few years ago, good service, and it still works great! There's recent reviews in there, so still seems to be working. You'd also need the Action Replay cart to play imports.
> 
> Here you go:
> http://www.segastyle.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=74
> ...



Brad Graham (owner of Sega Style) is THE MAN! I get all my saturn accessories from him, never had an issue!


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 3, 2015)

yaketyJack said:


> Found this, seems a bit risky though and you lose save functions:
> http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=47890


Can I just pay for the mod chip? I'm more than comfortable removing the original chip and soldering the new one in. Seems like such an inflated price just so someone else can do all the work for me.


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## yaketyJack (Jun 3, 2015)

RemixDeluxe said:


> Can I just pay for the mod chip? I'm more than comfortable removing the original chip and soldering the new one in. Seems like such an inflated price just so someone else can do all the work for me.


Yes.


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## TeamScriptKiddies (Jun 5, 2015)

Just went ahead and ordered myself one of these: http://www.shopncsx.com/stkey.aspx because I want to try the cart flashing method without sacrificing my AR 4 in 1 plus. Tried googling if the ST-Key is compatible with the pseudo-saturn hack, but apparently there are tons of different versions of it made by different companies (hurray for clones lol) so results are varied quite a bit. Some people said it works for them, while others had no success. Needless to say, I will be trying out the one by NCS Inc (linked above) and will post my results here. If this works, people will be able to just buy this $10 region free cart and "upgrade" it to run backups too 

UPDATE 6/9/15: Okay, so my ST-Key came in today, unfortunately I'm unable to flash it. It fails at 99% (during the erasing process) and then when I reboot, the ST-Key firmware (stock) is fully in tact still lol. So that being said, I risked bricking my AR 4 in 1 plus. Prior to starting the process, it gave me the same warning the ST-Key did, unknown chipset, do you want to try and flash with default settings? Or something to that effect... Anyways, I took the plunge and went for it, erasing went well and so did the flashing . Great! Tried some homebrew cd-r's I had lying around and some backups of my retail games and sure enough they all seem to boot fine with this method . Keep in mind that I haven't done extensive testing, just a few discs right now. I will make a video later (tutorial) and also show everything running hunky dorey . You can also also reflash your AR back to stock if you ever want to restore the original functionality.

UPDATE 2 6/19/15: As promised here's the video tutorial  Totally noob proof (tried to cover everything anyways from start to finish ). Hopefully this is helpful to others


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 10, 2015)

Assemblergames is having issues making an account and segaage is currently undergoing site maintenance. Where else can I go to ask for Sega Saturn, Dreamcast mod chips?


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## TeamScriptKiddies (Jun 10, 2015)

www.segastyle.com somebody already mentioned it earlier in this thread. The guy that runs that site is THE MAN . If you don't want to deal with messy soldering, get an Action Replay from him and flash it with the Pseudo-Saturn exploit, it will boot everything, imports, backups, homebrew, backups of imports etc. Most Saturn modchips only boot domestic backups but no imports (with the exception of the preflashed bios chips you mentioned. Honestly if all you care about is booting original imports (no backups), your best bet is just an Action Replay (you don't have to hack it) it boots imports right out of the box. Just put the cartridge in your console and don't remove it to avoid damage to the cartridge slot. Get the 4 in 1 like I have as it serves as an extra 4mb RAM cart too. 

I just don't see the sense in doing all that soldering when there's a much safer solution, that's super easy to use with the same end result. I mean to each their own, but to me the cartridge method works fine. Of course, I'm using the Pseudo-Saturn setup now so I can boot backups and homebrew too without swapping, which can be a pain to set up initially, but the end result is great and the risk of damaging something setting it up is pretty low, whereas trying to replace the bios can be pretty risky....


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 10, 2015)

TeamScriptKiddies said:


> www.segastyle.com somebody already mentioned it earlier in this thread. The guy that runs that site is THE MAN . If you don't want to deal with messy soldering, get an Action Replay from him and flash it with the Pseudo-Saturn exploit, it will boot everything, imports, backups, homebrew, backups of imports etc. Most Saturn modchips only boot domestic backups but no imports (with the exception of the preflashed bios chips you mentioned. Honestly if all you care about is booting original imports (no backups), your best bet is just an Action Replay (you don't have to hack it) it boots imports right out of the box. Just put the cartridge in your console and don't remove it to avoid damage to the cartridge slot. Get the 4 in 1 like I have as it serves as an extra 4mb RAM cart too.
> 
> I just don't see the sense in doing all that soldering when there's a much safer solution, that's super easy to use with the same end result. I mean to each their own, but to me the cartridge method works fine. Of course, I'm using the Pseudo-Saturn setup now so I can boot backups and homebrew too without swapping, which can be a pain to set up initially, but the end result is great and the risk of damaging something setting it up is pretty low, whereas trying to replace the bios can be pretty risky....


I'm not sure what you have against soldering, its scary at first but once you install the bios chip your good to go. You dont need to think about inserting a cart or a disk or anything else. If your that afraid to solder you could pay to have your console serviced.

Also I already stated before I dont want anything occupying the cartridge slot in case there are imported games that would require it. I just want to put in any given game disk and have it run, no issues.


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## TeamScriptKiddies (Jun 11, 2015)

RemixDeluxe said:


> I'm not sure what you have against soldering, its scary at first but once you install the bios chip your good to go. You dont need to think about inserting a cart or a disk or anything else. If your that afraid to solder you could pay to have your console serviced.
> 
> Also I already stated before I dont want anything occupying the cartridge slot in case there are imported games that would require it. I just want to put in any given game disk and have it run, no issues.



You misunderstood me , I have nothing against soldering, I'm an electronics engineering major lol. I just meant, why go the more difficult route when there's an easier solution, but to each their own. I missed the part about you not wanting the cartridge slot used up etc. If you'd much rather go the region free bios route, go for it . You could always flash the chip yourself with a PIC programmer, google is your friend on that one. I'm pretty sure it would violate the rules to post a link to the bios here as it's just a slight modification to the official Sega one. There's a tons of downloads for it all over the internet though . If you're handy with a soldering iron, you could probably make your own custom PIC programmer for this particular use if you don't have one that's compatible with whatever chipset the Saturn bios uses. I honestly don't think many people (if anyone at all) is selling these pre-flashed chips anymore.

Keep us posted on how it goes, if you need any pointers, I'd be more than willing to lend a helping hand.


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## enarky (Jun 11, 2015)

Region switching a Saturn is retardedly easy, no need for a chip at all.


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## RemixDeluxe (Jun 12, 2015)

enarky said:


> Region switching a Saturn is retardedly easy, no need for a chip at all.


But I don't wanna switch the regions. I would like to make it completely free, wouldn't it be nice to just play any game disk and not think about having to flip a switch or put a cart in (unless that game needs a cart.)

It's all about the ease of access and making it region free will achieve that.

P.S. I found a guy who is very talented with console modding who can do any kind of professional modding including region free on almost all retro consoles. I'll post his services once I find out its legit.


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## TeamScriptKiddies (Jun 13, 2015)

RemixDeluxe said:


> But I don't wanna switch the regions. I would like to make it completely free, wouldn't it be nice to just play any game disk and not think about having to flip a switch or put a cart in (unless that game needs a cart.)
> 
> It's all about the ease of access and making it region free will achieve that.
> 
> P.S. I found a guy who is very talented with console modding who can do any kind of professional modding including region free on almost all retro consoles. I'll post his services once I find out its legit.



Good luck!


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