I have a Saturn copy of “Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter” that I just got for Christmas.
It is a North American Saturn that I am trying to run it on. I also used a RAM cartridge, which is an Action Replay cartridge, like the one shown here:
When I load the game on AR, I hit “START GAME WITH NO CHEATS ENABLED”, then I started the game, and it gives me this error message in Japanese words, it has “4M” in the message, which seems to mean “4 MB”. When I hit a button on that message, it takes me back to the main menu of the Saturn.
Turning the switch on the cartridge from “1 MB” to “4 MB” doesn’t seem to help.
Is this problem due to the Hz of my Saturn? Do I need to do some sort of a swap?
I’ve also got an XSF disc coming on the way as a late Christmas present. I hope that one will work.
Can someone help me or/and find an easy way to get this to work. Do I need to mod the Saturn? Thanks to anyone who can help me.
You need alcohol, plastic card (like credit card), thin cloth (microfiber).
?ut card along, wrap it with cloth, drop a bit of alcohol on cloth and carefully clean port
Well, the cartridge I have looks kind of like a knock-off. The digit “1” on the “5 in 1” that’s on the cartridge artwork is reversed. And most of the letters are in Japanese. Would a different Action Replay RAM cartridge work better? I think there’s several different ones.
Unless you’re using a 1mb ram cart (SNK games had’em), you’ll probably have the same results if you buy another cart. “Sega Saturn often has problems with cartridge port”.
Not really… Depends on whether you bought the Saturn new yourself or got a used system. I’ve only had issues with the Sega Saturn 1MB memory cart. THAT develops an error over time and will wipe out your saves on the cart. I don’t use that cart anymore. I use the 4M exclusively and have never had issues with it.
The primary problem with the cart slot is that it gets dirty and semi-worn over time like any cartridge slot does. They all develop problems if they don’t have covers to keep out dust or get dirty because of dust infiltration and wear from removing and reinstalling carts. My recommendation is that if you get the 4M plus + 1 cart working, LEAVE IT IN THE Saturn cart slot unless you’re moving. There’s no reason to remove this cart slot at any time. I also wouldn’t smoke around the system. That wreaks havoc on any electronic device – especially those with optical drives. I wonder how many gamers are aware of that little fact???
The only bad thing about this 4M cart is that saves to it aren’t automatic. You have to copy from the system’s battery-supported save (change those CR-2032 AT LEAST every 3-5 years) to the 4M Cart to be sure to keep a save file for posterity otherwise all the system saves will be lost when your battery goes bad. I’ve heard of people keeping power on to save files and changing batteries but I wouldn’t recommend it. Great part about the 4M is that anything you save to it you can reinstall in the system memory. Again, you have to install from the cart to the system memory manually because it doesn’t do automatic saves OR save transfers!
I’ve seen two versions of the 4M cart. One with the cable-to-PC connect interface and another without the cable connection on top of the cart. Thinking about getting a second one without the cable connection for the black American or V-Saturns that I have. Right now, the 4M is in the white Saturn and it’s probably going to stay there!
The 4M carts use Action Pro Replay codes. I’m sure they’re archived somewhere on the Net but you may have to search for some of the more interesting codes for Japanese Saturn games. There is a code, for instance, that lets you use Cammy in Street Fighter Alpha II’ in Arcade mode. She’s playable in the game until you encounter a fatal error and have to reboot the game! :looney:
I personally know all of that. The point I was trying to make is that if his ram cart is an incorrect 1mb SNK cart (or even one where the switch is set to 1mb instead of 4mb) or if the contacts are worn, he’ll get the same “4mb Japanese writing” error.
So, it seems to be a cart problem. Mine might be only compatible with SNK games, which I don’t have. So I’ll see if I have the chance to get another one soon, like the Action Replay Auto Plus. And I kept taking mine out, and I blew on it, and man, that thing is hard to take out of the cartridge slot.
Maybe Paul doesn’t know this information. He might be new to the Saturn. Not everybody’s owned a Saturn since they were released in 1994 and 1995. I really wasn’t talking to you since you’re NotANoob and demonstrated that you know everything…
Paul,
The cart slot size is an issue with Third-Party cartridges. They’re not officially licensed by Sega so they may be built to size a fraction of a millimeter off. That’s why I DON’T remove my 4M once it’s secure and working.
You definitely have problems with that cart if it’s only working with SNK games… None of those ever used the 4MB cart Capcom utilized for its later Saturn ports. SNK was that competitive with Capcom even though Capcom’s cart ‘worked better.’ The Capcom ports with the 4MB were as close to the arcade as you could get for all intents and purposes. The SNK games sometimes slowed down and became choppy because they never had enough RAM even with the 1MB expansion cart!
Those 4M carts works with any Saturn regardless of region and video standard (including PAL). I have switch-modded Saturns (surgeries done prior to getting the 4M 18 months later!) and it doesn’t matter if they’re switched to ‘Japan’ or ‘US’ mode when I use the 4M in them.
You just got a bad cart it seems. If you can return it and get an exchange (which most importers will do within a 30-day period), great. I know in most cases they don’t do refunds unless an item hasn’t been opened.
You can buy the cart from overseas (Play-Asia is your best bet) or try NCSX.com … They used to have more solid import Saturn supplies but they’ve sold hardware excesses on e-Bay. They’re based in New York and definitely easier to do exchanges/returns with if you have a problem with a new 4M cart I see that they still have the Action Replay 3-in-1 which is the same cart that I have minus the PC connector. It’s $10 cheaper than what I bought.
IF I were to get another 4M cart now (inevitable because I have more than 1 Saturn), this is the one I would buy.
Can’t go wrong with NCS. It’s still one of the better importers in the US and they have excellent customer service. I did almost all my imports with them in the past before I found out about Play-Asia.com … NCS also tends to be a bit cheaper than the West coast importers, too.
Yeah, mine might only support SNK/earlier import games, because my cartridge seems to have been made sometime in early 1996, because it only supports cheats for the Saturn games released in 1995/early 1996. I don’t think Capcom made 4MB games until 1997. And yes, I’m new to the Saturn, because I got mine for Christmas. I’ll have to check that NCS page out, and if it seems good, I’ll see if I can get that soon.