Panzer Dragoon Saga Reproductions being sold on eBay for $11

[gamevet]

The Pseudo Saturn is overpriced and underperforming. Get a 25$ modchip, which will have 100% compatibility, won't depend on the whim of the cart slot connector functioning, and it keeps the cart slot free for any other expansions.

Yes, but it is a better option than using tape and doing a hot swap of discs, like you were suggesting earlier.

It's a decent option for someone that doesn't have soldering skills and doesn't want to jack up their Saturn hardware by doing a bad mod job. The Saturn's internal memory will cover most of the stuff like fighters and shooters that don't need a lot of space, and if you feel the need to play a burned RPG, you can make a backup copy to your regular save cart, should you feel the need to play another game that will take up that space.

[WarmSignal]

For the record, there actually is a guy on eBay (a different one) selling PDS instruction manual repros for literally $73 - for just a manual he printed off and stapled together. Sadly, a few of them have sold. That's freaky, considering how much people pay for that damn game now. Imagine getting a repro manual after blowing that much money.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Yes, but it is a better option than using tape and doing a hot swap of discs, like you were suggesting earlier.

It's a decent option for someone that doesn't have soldering skills and doesn't want to jack up their Saturn hardware by doing a bad mod job. The Saturn's internal memory will cover most of the stuff like fighters and shooters that don't need a lot of space, and if you feel the need to play a burned RPG, you can make a backup copy to your regular save cart, should you feel the need to play another game that will take up that space.

You don't even need to solder with the Saturn mod chip if you really don't want to. You can get the wires presoldered on and the board jumper preset. Then just hook it in with the ribbon cables and stick the power cable into the proper connector on the power supply. The pressure of the pins will keep it in place just fine. Yeah soldering would be better overall but it's not necessarily required.

Secondly, I don't see these reproductions being of any concern as until they can reproduce the security ring it's extremely easy to tell the disc is a fake by just flipping it over.

[Blades]

Yeah there's no reason to hot swap and damage the aging Saturn drives. I love my Phantom chip, installation was dead easy and it works great.

[zyrobs]

Yes, but it is a better option than using tape and doing a hot swap of discs, like you were suggesting earlier.

It's a decent option for someone that doesn't have soldering skills and doesn't want to jack up their Saturn hardware by doing a bad mod job. The Saturn's internal memory will cover most of the stuff like fighters and shooters that don't need a lot of space, and if you feel the need to play a burned RPG, you can make a backup copy to your regular save cart, should you feel the need to play another game that will take up that space.

Unscrewing the console and putting a rubber band or a piece of tape on the sensor is not a complicated mod job you can jack up the console with.
And adding a modchip is the most basic, easiest soldering job ever. You only have to solder 2 cable ends.

Yeah there's no reason to hot swap and damage the aging Saturn drives. I love my Phantom chip, installation was dead easy and it works great.

Swapping only damages the drives if you slam the trays so hard that they fall out of position over the years. And using CDRs to begin with will cause more damage to the drive than using originals, regardless of whether you use modchip, swap, or phantom.

You don't even need to solder with the Saturn mod chip if you really don't want to. You can get the wires presoldered on and the board jumper preset. Then just hook it in with the ribbon cables and stick the power cable into the proper connector on the power supply. The pressure of the pins will keep it in place just fine. Yeah soldering would be better overall but it's not necessarily required.

Using the power supplies pin is not recommended though, it doesn't always work. For the best results you should solder to a +5v point on the CD drive.

[gamevet]

Unscrewing the console and putting a rubber band or a piece of tape on the sensor is not a complicated mod job you can jack up the console with.
And adding a modchip is the most basic, easiest soldering job ever. You only have to solder 2 cable ends.

I’m certainly not talking about me. I’ve soldered tons of stuff dating back to when I was going to school for a degree in the applied science of electronics. Some people just aren’t comfortable with it and the cart is a better option for them.

[Gryson]

For the record, there actually is a guy on eBay (a different one) selling PDS instruction manual repros for literally $73 - for just a manual he printed off and stapled together. Sadly, a few of them have sold. That's freaky, considering how much people pay for that damn game now. Imagine getting a repro manual after blowing that much money.

Had to look this up to see if it's true - and it is... Although I think most of the ones sold were sold as Best Offers, so the actual sale price could have been much lower.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that the people buying it are only doing so to turn around and sell a 'CIB' version without saying that it's a repro manual.

[Da_Shocker]

What's the problem with the Action Replay?

You can't save directly to the cart.

[Blades]

Swapping only damages the drives if you slam the trays so hard that they fall out of position over the years. And using CDRs to begin with will cause more damage to the drive than using originals, regardless of whether you use modchip, swap, or phantom.

You are the legendary zyrobs, but the bit about CD-Rs is completely false and a myth. The Saturn is too old to have automatic gain controls, as you know very well. If anything, a properly burned CD-R will be easier to read than a scratched 20-year-old pressed CD. Either the laser gets a reflection from the CD or it doesn't, CD-R or otherwise. The only source of wear is the drive having to re-read certain parts of the CD-R due to low reflectivity, what else is there?

Also, I used the swap trick on an old PSOne console and eventually the spindle fell apart into tiny pieces, so I'm anti-swap-trick.

[zyrobs]

CD-Rs are harder to read, that means the pickup has to do more re-reads to get the right result, which increases wear on them, which results in even more re-reads required, and so on.

PSOne drives are literally made to fail so you can buy another. There are even some games that put more wear on the drive than it is rated for (read those posts about the making of Crash Bandicoot).

[Blades]

CD-Rs are harder to read, that means the pickup has to do more re-reads to get the right result, which increases wear on them, which results in even more re-reads required, and so on.

PSOne drives are literally made to fail so you can buy another. There are even some games that put more wear on the drive than it is rated for (read those posts about the making of Crash Bandicoot).

I’ve found load times lower on good CD-Rs than some original pressed CDs on my Saturn. Of course poorly burned CD-Rs read like garbage but that’s expected. I've experienced the same thing on my Sega CD. Maybe I just have an amazing burner I don't know.

Those Crash articles are fantastic btw. I'd love to see a similar series on Spyro.

[Team Andromeda]

I’ve found load times lower on good CD-Rs than some original pressed CDs on my Saturn. Of course poorly burned CD-Rs read like garbage but that’s expected. I've experienced the same thing on my Sega CD. Maybe I just have an amazing burner I don't know.

Those Crash articles are fantastic btw. I'd love to see a similar series on Spyro.

I think part of the problem is cheap crap CD-R's people use to burn the image on, that can never help matters

[ndiddy]

Yeah, it makes me kind of nervous being in the market for expensive Saturn games, with these things floating around out there. Someone printed off a back cover for a Shinobi Legions that they sold to me for like $90 once as complete. I sent that shit straight back. So far, you can still tell in person if looking closely, but not so much in pictures with the artwork. The repro discs however, look like trash and are obvious. I really wish these people would be responsible enough to print "reproduction" somewhere on it.

All you have to do is put the game in an unmodified Saturn, and if it doesn't work it's a bootleg.

[zyrobs]

I’ve found load times lower on good CD-Rs than some original pressed CDs on my Saturn. Of course poorly burned CD-Rs read like garbage but that’s expected. I've experienced the same thing on my Sega CD. Maybe I just have an amazing burner I don't know.

Those Crash articles are fantastic btw. I'd love to see a similar series on Spyro.

And I have an original disc that went from perfect to unreadable in the span of a half year after being untouched for a decade (I have rip logs showing how it deteriorated in one position over the months), and I also had my original copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga, absolutely mint discs with no scratches on them, scan to thousands of C2 errors. Meanwhile, one of my Saturns can read *broken* discs. There is no absolute rule here.

[redsox2013]

I've bought quite a few reproduction manuals and rear artwork from an Ebay seller named baalzamon88. His work is excellent quality, and he charges only $10 for both. I bought some loose Saturn discs pretty cheap when I used to work at Gamestop, and these reproductions are quality placeholders for me until I come across originals for the right price. Right now I have his repro art & manuals for Burning Rangers & VF Remix longbox. He now marks his works as reproductions, though he doesn't replicate the registration card, so that's probably the easiest way to tell a repro from an original if you're looking at a particular listing that may be questionable. Plus, the rear cover of books that have registration cards aren't as wide as the inner pages. Of course, some later releases didn't have the registration cards, so it's not a foolproof method.