The Saturn Import Thread

Some may remember a thread I made a while back in which I waffled on the edge of selling my Saturn. I got flamed pretty bad, but in the end I kept the thing and now I'm glad. What turned me was looking at eBay realistically and seeing how cheap most Saturn imports are. (All three Blue Destiny Gundam games for under $30 shipped from Japan, Christmas Nights for $5 shipped from Japan, etcetera.) So I've sold my Official Backup cart for a sweet $45 and I'm going to buy an Action Replay. One question, though. Do I get this or this?

I remember reading something about knockoffs that didn't have a parallel port; just want to make sure I buy the right one.

The first one has LPT connector, second one doesn't seem to have it.

I don't think the one without the parallel port is a knock-off. Is there any real use for connecting it to your pc anyway?

I dunno. Thanks. Another thing - how does PAL fit into this? I assume PAL Saturn games will boot with one of these suckers, but will it display right here in the US?

If you ran a PAL optimized game on an NTSC saturn, the screen would be too large, and things would run too fast, including music. If you run an unoptimized game which will have borders in PAL, it'll run just like a US original game. For example with Story of Thor 2 the screen will not fit on an US tv with the PAL version because it was optimized for the higher PAL resolution.

Are there many (or any) PAL exclusive saturn games?

Once I'll do some Saturn game, there will be PAL optimized game.

I'm not exactly sure, but I believe that Sexy Parodius and Deep Fear were one of the only PAL exclusive games that didn't make it to the U.S.

I was under the impression that certain PAL versions were cheaper than the NTSC ones.

I have the cart with the parallel printer port, although I've never used it. If I recall correctly, it allows you to download more cheat codes to the cart, and possibly transfer saves to the PC.

I didn't know the official backup carts sold for so much, I need to dig mine out and sell it. I never had a reason to use it after I got the Pro Action Replay, that thing stores a TON of saves.

I bought mine for about $30 when I was foolishly resolved against importing on Saturn. Little did I know you can get the vastly superior Action Replay for the same price, with that 'little' side-effect of unlocking a freakishly cheap import library.

There's some freakishly expensive imports like Radiant Silver Gun, Psychic Killer Taomaru, Hyper Duel and Stellar Assault: SS... just to name a few. Deep Fear PAL goes for a lot too I think.

I think there's more freakishly cheap ones than freakishly expensive, thought. And none of those games you listed crank my engine, so I guess that makes my wallet lucky.

I can understand that. Most of those I listed are shooting games (except for Psychic Killer and Deep Fear).

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Originally Posted by Genesis Knight

I bought mine for about $30 when I was foolishly resolved against importing on Saturn. Little did I know you can get the vastly superior Action Replay for the same price, with that 'little' side-effect of unlocking a freakishly cheap import library.

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Yes, I had the official Sega backup memory, and I also had a "Sega Satellite" which let you play imports. I nearly murdered my Saturn's cart slot swapping between that Satellite cartridge and the 4 meg ram cart for Xmen vs Street Fighter. Not too long later I went into an import shop and they told me of the Pro Action Replay. I walked out with the PAR and a bunch of Neo Geo ports, I was a happy camper.

I still kick myself that the same store had lots of Radiant Silverguns for 40 bucks for the longest time. I always wanted it, but usually ended up with another Neo Geo port instead.

The action replay cart I got from play-asia doesn't have one, and I really don't see the point of it. The only real reason to get this thing for the import option and the RAM expansion, everything else is basically filler as far as I'm concerned. Make sure you import Soukyugurentai as its one shmup that I can't say enough good things about.