So I recently grabbed a saturn and one of these all-in-one carts. Everything seems to work fine, but none of my games recognize the action replay as a memory card. I can copy data to and from it fine, but nothing will let me save to it automagically. Is there something I’m missing or is there a chance the cart is faulty?
No,
That’s the way it works.
Games save automatically to the Saturn’s built-in memory but NOT the Action Replay 4M. You have to juggle which games to have save to Saturn but that’s generally not a big deal unless you like to play RPG’s. Those tend to use the most memory on the Saturn. I’d advise saving to the cart from the Saturn regularly since the most you can expect the back-up battery life on the Saturn to last is 3-5 years. It sounds ridiculous, but that 3-5 years goes by quicker than you think!
Still, it’s the best cart to get for the Saturn since it’s the most versatile. You get region-defeat, code-cheating, and protected Flash-save memory along with 1MB and 4MB game memory all in one.
Darn good deal!
I wish this cart had been available before I had my first two Saturns switch-modded. This is definitely the way to play import games on the Sega system.
Oh, before I forget… I would advise leaving the cart in the Saturn cartridge slot unless you’re packing up and moving. The contacts inside the Saturn memory cart slot tend to get worn down or dirty over time and have more difficulty reading carts after multiple drop-ins and removals. That’s generally the case with ALL cart slots on any system btw – it’s not a fault limited to the Saturn which is otherwise a well-built system and is far more reliable than 3 other CD-ROM systems I could think of off the top of my head (PS1 early production runs, PSP early production run, X-Box 360 until about a year ago, original thick-cased PS2). Since the 4M does everything you could want a cart to do in the Saturn, it’s better to just leave it in the slot as is.
The only memory cart you can save directly from a game is the official sega brand memory card.
I got mine for a fantasticly priced good deal of $50. Think they go for $70-$80 now.
Agreed with GeorgeC with leaving the cart in. I wore out the cartridge slot on my first Saturn when I had Dragon Force using the official Sega Memory Cart and then trying to use a 4MB cart for the VS Fighting Games.
I ended up just getting 2 saturns one dedicated for RPGs using the Memory Card and one for using the 4MB Ram cart with a import switch for everything else.
I’ve been wanting to buy a 4M cart for a while. So, if my Saturn battery is already dead, I’ll have to replace it just to save on the cart? That’s pretty lame.
If you Saturn Battery is dead, then you have already lost your data. I think that if you leave the Saturn Plugged in while swapping the battery you data might be still there, but I have never tested it, the only saturn manual I have is in Japanese.
You are supposed to get a memory cart before your battery goes dead.
If your Saturn Battery is dead your save will still be there for a little while before it gets deleted. Best bet is to back up the saves while you can.
I do that all the time and it works great.
Ok, I thought the games would detect it as a memory card. I can copy data to and from it manually fine though. Thanks for the info!