Saturn cartridge slot

[Psy]

Why doesn't the Saturn cartridge slot always give good contact with the cart? It seems way too easy for the cartridge to lose contact with the slot (in fact for my Interact memory cart I have to insert the cart only half way in, as every time I push it all the way it doesn't get full contact thus doesn't work)

Did Sega botch the cartridge slot design on the Saturn? I know it has more connectors then the Genesis cart slot but so did the N64 and it doesn't have such problem.

[Melf]

It gets dirty quite easily, and you have to fidget with a cart to get it to register. I've had the problem with both my Game Shark and the official Sega back up cart, and it's annoying. Why didn't Sega release a cart cleaning kit in the U.S.? I'm pretty sure it did elsewhere.

[Joe Redifer]

What is an effective way to clean this cart port? Just the standard "soak the cart board with alcohol and shove the cart in and out really fast" method?

[Genesis Knight]

The problem, Psy, is that many 3rd-party cartridges have double-wide circuit boards that basically wedge the contacts apart, to the point that first-party and even sometimes the 3rd-party carts themselves no longer can make contact. Bottom line is it might be physical damage, not just dirt or something. The reason for this is that the Saturn contacts are made out of a less durable metal than most other slots because it wasn't designed to be swapped out all the time like a normal game system cartridge slot.

Vic Ireland made a big stink about this back in the day, and it's a horrifically common problem. It's why I sprung for an official Sega backup cartridge. What I would recommend is getting the Action Replay 4-in-1 and leaving it in the cartridge slot all the time. That cart gives you import compatibility, 1 and 4 meg RAM expansion, backup saves, and Game Shark cheats.

[Psy]

The problem, Psy, is that many 3rd-party cartridges have double-wide circuit boards that basically wedge the contacts apart, to the point that first-party and even sometimes the 3rd-party carts themselves no longer can make contact. Bottom line is it might be physical damage, not just dirt or something. The reason for this is that the Saturn contacts are made out of a less durable metal than most other slots because it wasn't designed to be swapped out all the time like a normal game system cartridge slot.

Vic Ireland made a big stink about this back in the day, and it's a horrifically common problem. It's why I sprung for an official Sega backup cartridge. What I would recommend is getting the Action Replay 4-in-1 and leaving it in the cartridge slot all the time. That cart gives you import compatibility, 1 and 4 meg RAM expansion, backup saves, and Game Shark cheats.

Meaning poor cartridge slot design, 3rd party memory cards for the PSX have no problem with contacts and they were designed for being pulled in and out frequently since people tend to swap memory cards out (of course Sony went with a serial slot thus fewer connectors that are much thicker then the Saturn's), yes the larger capacity of the Saturn carts make this more rare but it is possible to fill up a Saturn memory carts (fastest way is to have a bunch cities saved in Sim City 2000 as each save takes up up 461 blocks).

Sad the external floppy drive for the Saturn wasn't released in the USA as it would have solved saving issues as you could easily transfer Saturn saves to and from your computer via a floppy disk. It also does not use the cartridge slot but hooks up via the Saturn's serial port in the back.

[Genesis Knight]

It's a combination of poor design from Sega and an inexplicably stupid choice by Interact and the rest to have those double-thick circuit boards. Hold an Interact and a Sega cart side-by-side and you'll see the difference.

[Melf]

Yeah, I remember the GS having a really thick board. It was a real pain to remove from the console.

[Genesis Knight]

Heck yeah! When I got my Saturn from Russman (doesn't come here much), the Interact card was still in there and I decided to take it out because of what I heard.

I had to haul with everything I had to get that sucker out. I was panicking the whole time because I thought I was destroying the console before I'd even plugged it in.