The Sega Saturn DRM has been cracked after twenty years

robertman2 · Jul 14, 2016

How much would a Saturn cost? I kinda want one

cearp · Jul 14, 2016

robertman2 said:
How much would a Saturn cost? I kinda want one

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Video-Game-Consoles/139971/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=sega+saturn

Zoel · Jul 14, 2016

I still have my Saturn and Genesis hooked up. I was gonna get Phoebe/Rhea, but a plug and play solution is much more simple for me.

Oh and with wireless controllers too.

kumikochan · Jul 14, 2016

Zoel said:
I still have my Saturn and Genesis hooked up. I was gonna get Phoebe/Rhea, but a plug and play solution is much more simple for me.

Oh and with wireless controllers too.

The phoebe/rhea is actually a plug and play solution. You take the sd card in, you take it out, you take it in, you take it out. '' Plug and play ''

codezer0 · Jul 14, 2016

Always did want a Saturn, even back then; however, even early on, I ended up recognizing the significant barrier to entry, in that I would have needed some extra hardware just to be able to play all the different region games that we never got here in the States. Even with the 5-in-1 cartridge to put in the system, there was still the apparent need for a modchip for those games that came, for example, with their own game-specific ROM cart. Or so that you could use a native Backup Memory cart with an out-of-region game.

The workaround through the VCD slot like they talked about in the video there is absolutely out of left field... and I rather love it for the fact that the man did some clever thinking to get around the CD-ROM manager chip. If he is able to get these things mass produced, I would certainly not mind picking one up and a Saturn for it, so I could finally play those games that I've long been missing out.

Still, with as apparently over-engineered as the Saturn's AP protection was, it's amazing how quickly the Dreamcast was comparatively "defeated"/bypassed.

Foxi4 · Jul 14, 2016

codezer0 said:
Always did want a Saturn, even back then; however, even early on, I ended up recognizing the significant barrier to entry, in that I would have needed some extra hardware just to be able to play all the different region games that we never got here in the States. Even with the 5-in-1 cartridge to put in the system, there was still the apparent need for a modchip for those games that came, for example, with their own game-specific ROM cart. Or so that you could use a native Backup Memory cart with an out-of-region game.

The workaround through the VCD slot like they talked about in the video there is absolutely out of left field... and I rather love it for the fact that the man did some clever thinking to get around the CD-ROM manager chip. If he is able to get these things mass produced, I would certainly not mind picking one up and a Saturn for it, so I could finally play those games that I've long been missing out.

Still, with as apparently over-engineered as the Saturn's AP protection was, it's amazing how quickly the Dreamcast was comparatively "defeated"/bypassed.

A 5-in-1 is all you really need, it has built-in RAM, and even without it out-of-region games can be ripped using any drive since there's no special encryption - at that point all you have to do is change the region and burn the disc. I found the Saturn very collector-friendly - games that require extra RAM are few and far between. Compared to the Genesis which sometimes required the 32X, the Sega CD or both to run certain games the cost of entry is minimal.

codezer0 · Jul 14, 2016

Foxi4 said:
A 5-in-1 is all you really need, it has built-in RAM, and even without it out-of-region games can be ripped using any drive since there's no special encryption - at that point all you have to do is change the region and burn the disc. I found the Saturn very collector-friendly - games that require extra RAM are few and far between.

What about for those that came with a companion ROM cart? I know there weren't many, but I would want to know what I could do in that regard.

Foxi4 · Jul 14, 2016

codezer0 said:
What about for those that came with a companion ROM cart? I know there weren't many, but I would want to know what I could do in that regard.

There are only two games that use them - Ultraman and King of Fighters '95 and its two re-releases, '95+'96 and Best Collection, so four titles altogether. The respective carts come with the original discs and you can change the region of the discs no problem using Saturn Region Changer, a blank CD-R and take advantage of the swap trick. Chances are you'll never play any of those though, so it's a non-issue. Personally I think you're not even missing much without a 5-in-1, but it's convenient for the extra save space.

Hop2089 · Jul 14, 2016

I definitely want that flashcart, it'll save me thousands as there are games I want to play on the Saturn but they are cost prohibitive and then I want
to not worry about the game I do own getting damaged, I especially don't want any of the Cotton games being damaged as they are the same copies I owned near the end of the console's life.

codezer0 · Jul 14, 2016

Foxi4 said:
There are only two games that use them - Ultraman and King of Fighters '95 and its two re-releases, '95+'96 and Best Collection, so four titles altogether. The respective carts come with the original discs and you can change the region of the discs no problem using Saturn Region Changer, a blank CD-R and take advantage of the swap trick. Chances are you'll never play any of those though, so it's a non-issue. Personally I think you're not even missing much without a 5-in-1, but it's convenient for the extra save space.

There was also In the Hunt, but yea. I just wanted to know what to do if I say, came across them for cheap or something.

XiTaU · Jul 14, 2016

codezer0 said:
There was also In the Hunt, but yea. I just wanted to know what to do if I say, came across them for cheap or something.

In the hunt doesnt need a rom cart to play.

KingpinSlim · Jul 15, 2016

The title of this article is highly misleading, as is the source material.

The DRM was circumvented a long, long time ago.
Back before most of GBAtemps current preschool userbase was even born.

Dr.Hacknik · Jul 15, 2016

Lumstar said:
What makes Dreamcast interesting is that only applies to copies. You must modify the console to automatically run a legit imported GD-ROM in the same manner. (no boot disc, swap trick, or anything)

What i really like about the Dreamcast was that it Supported Windows CE based Software, allowing Dev's to make games easily, and even port PC titles. Without modifying too much of the Source code. --Long live the Dreamcast!

ishygdaft · Jul 15, 2016

I have a Saturn, held on to it for exactly this reason

Good work!

shadow1w2 · Jul 16, 2016

Looking forward to seeing this as a product.
I was once going to go with a modchip but never got around to trying to purchase one.
Though now my Saturn CD drive stopped reading games so this may be my solution for playing authentic saturn games again.
More excited to see how this effects emulators though as I'd love to see many of those Saturn games get a few enhancements and be playable in other ways.

SS4 · Jul 16, 2016

lol i'm still using the swap trick and double swap trick on mine lol
Only have one original game and i opened the console to tape the part that detect when the lid is open

smf · Jul 17, 2016

Dr.Hacknik said:
What i really like about the Dreamcast was that it Supported Windows CE based Software, allowing Dev's to make games easily, and even port PC titles. Without modifying too much of the Source code. --Long live the Dreamcast!

It wasn't particularly easier to write games for Windows CE & getting Windows software to run on Windows CE is not particularly easy either. The games written for the dreamcast SDK always seemed to perform better (this is probably the reason that Sega dropped the plan for just having Windows CE).

I saw a Saturn version of the PS1 SDK, which had been used for porting games from one console to the other. It's no real different to that.

The Dreamcast is the only Sega console that I quite like, but Windows CE was not good for the Dreamcast. It also was not good for Sega, because it gave Microsoft a foot in the door. The xbox then pushed Sega out of the hardware market.

robertman2 · Jul 18, 2016

smf said:
It wasn't particularly easier to write games for Windows CE & getting Windows software to run on Windows CE is not particularly easy either. The games written for the dreamcast SDK always seemed to perform better (this is probably the reason that Sega dropped the plan for just having Windows CE).

I saw a Saturn version of the PS1 SDK, which had been used for porting games from one console to the other. It's no real different to that.

The Dreamcast is the only Sega console that I quite like, but Windows CE was not good for the Dreamcast. It also was not good for Sega, because it gave Microsoft a foot in the door. The xbox then pushed Sega out of the hardware market.

No, Sega was pushed out by the PS2, and shooting themselves in the foot with things like the 32X and the horribly botched Saturn US launch

pustal · Jul 20, 2016

iAqua said:
Am I the only one who has never heard of this console?

ih8ih8sn0w said:
This wasn't a console that was well produced/known about/did well with sales afaik. I probably would be asking the same thing if I didn't have one just laying around...

I'm surprised. Here in Portugal and next door in Spain at least sold quite well. Many of my friends had one and I wanted one badly. After nagging my parents for a while, they got my a Playstation for my birthday. I had mixed feelings towards it but ended up being a better purchase on the long run.

I ended up buying one, years later on Ebay, but out of my ignorance made a huge mistake. There are two models of the console, the earlier one, without DRM and model 2, with that took 20 years to crack. Guess witch one I bought...

Among the notable games are Nights Into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon saga (including Saga that they lost the source code -.-'), Sega Rally Championship, Virtua Fighter 2 or Grandia (later ported to the Playstation)

smf · Jul 21, 2016

pustal said:
There are two models of the console, the earlier one, without DRM and model 2, with that took 20 years to crack. Guess witch one I bought...

All Saturns had copy protection. None of them had DRM. All of them can be modded to bypass the copy protection for the last 2 decades http://www.racketboy.com/saturn-modchip/installation.htm

model 2 is the easier to mod.

A mod chip fools the Saturn into thinking it's an original disc, this new method means the Saturn doesn't check that it's an original disc. Essentially it's a solderless mod.

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