Installing a Switchless Sega Saturn Multi-Region Mod - Before & After testing!

** This video is kindly sponsored by www.PCBWay.com **
In this video we are further modding the Sega Saturn, that was donated to us by Mike Dailly (the Creator of Lemmings) so that when we use the Fenrir ODE, we can also switch regions, or more importantly video standards.
Our PAL standard Sega Saturn should then run faster and full screen with game images from the USA and JPN regions. The video covers the full install, testing and comparisons, and we also have time to clean up the console a bit along the way. SOAPY!
🤞 PLEASE HELP MARK FIXES STUFF SURVIVE 🏆: Due to "The Event" my livelihood vanished in a puff of magic blue smoke. If you can spare some change to help support the channel it is really appreciated; even the smallest pledge goes a long way in helping make more content and feed my cats (and children). Visit / markfixesstuff for more info about Patreon Benefits!
You can get the Region Mod at www.da-retro.com/
Fenrir install video is here: • A Sega Saturn SD Card ...
Thanks for watching!
#Saturn #Region #Mod

[@markwrightrf]

Should have watched the whole video before coming all over the comments. Ooh, matron! Carry On Fixing, Mark x

[@alexanderclark2121]

40 minutes of retro goodness!

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks Alexander!

[@littlebasher3959]

27:30 i wasn't sure which Carry On film i was watching 🤣

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Carry On With Your Old Equipment

[@chriscrossan8034]

With these 40 minute videos you are spoiling us!

[@bobbus_74]

Great job Mark. 60hz is essential when it comes to the Saturn. I can't go back to 50hz now.

[@grfeld84]

Thank you for the video! With all this work on the hardware modifications, I'm glad I went with the Satiator cartridge card! Just plug and play!

[@frankowalker4662]

Brilliant work, Mark. It looks good as new. (I see Terry and Dave have hit the bottle, again. LOL.)

[@oldskoolpaul77]

This really helped me out! Cheers Mark! 😃

[@petemc4190]

Fantastic work, good to see the switch really makes the difference on so many games (off to do the same for mine). Looking forward to the inevitable PSU replacement video, they're a tad flakey after 20 odd years in these

[@johnd5051]

Mark dont ever change what you do your doing a cracking job not like other you tubers loving your content

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks John!

[@m4rgin4l]

I love that translucent controller

[@MarkFixesStuff]

On amazon. Not expensive at all either!

[@chad0x]

You're very brave Mark. I would never dare to cut tracks like that.

[@StudioBebopUSA]

So happy to see Terry and Dave back on the job :)

[@RobReynolds]

Came for the Saturn mods. Stayed for the double entendres. Carry on

[@davidretrogamesplayedbadly3533]

Personally I never end up in the wrong hole. Another great mod, seriously pimped Saturn mate.

[@robertberesford9579]

Brilliant Mark.

[@ivoidwarrantiesuk]

Loving this video. Oe thing you can do to any black console is use peanut butter to bring back the shine. Don't use the crunchy peanut butter it has to be smooth. take some out with a spoon and rub onto the plastic and then clean off. You will have a lovely jet-black console again. This works in the same way as 'back2black' which is what you would use to restore the black parts on a car..

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Sounds delicious!

[@keiiko]

Awesome as always 👍 I appreciate the screwing tips, using wrong hole with long screw mostly doesn't ends well... Now I'm more careful and step back a bit, but sometimes quick screwing is needed :) 2:48 be careful with loosening sockets especially if you're the first one, you know, you just push a little hard, it crack and you are good to go. With older parts it not most likely but can damage otherwise in some cases. But sometimes it's better to be first as there might be a mess inside from someones attempts. Nice work as always! 👍

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks for the tips Keiiko and thank you for watching!!

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

Another thoroughly enjoyable Install Mark 👍another game i'd recommend (seeing as you like Mech games) is Virtua On.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I'll check it out!

[@hucky29]

Very nice Mark

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks Hucky.

[@sq1rlsqu4d]

"Boiled gorillas mixed with unicorn tears" - this elicited a genuine LOL here :D

[@hollybrereton3140]

Wow Mark, just Wow! I knew you were good but that's a mod is way bigger than anything i would be comfortably taking. You must have some have Big Kahuna’s (wink) x

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I literally don't know where to begin with this minefield of a comment. 10/10!

[@nsp265]

Love an innuendo riddled strip down. Take my thumb 👍

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks Nick. I'll take the whole thing.

[@Roblilley999]

You forgot to mention despair and regret they add to the liquid gorilla and unicorn tears in the glue

[@MarkFixesStuff]

and the Guar Gum!

[@jasonc3a]

@@MarkFixesStuff I think I might be partly responsible for the endangerment of the Guar species, unfortunately.

[@jfizzle525]

Great video Mark! My only concern is the brown stuff down in that crack that triggered the crap out of my OCD when you were reinstalling the reset button right there at the end. It must be some stubborn shmoo but a toothbrush or some long pointy object should fix it. I apologize for feeling compelled to point this out. I love your work. Cheers!

[@MarkFixesStuff]

A lot of the time I miss it in real life only to see it one the footage. It's much more obvious on screen. I'll go and sort it!

[@dant5464]

Two vids in a week?! Desoldering tip via BigClive: put a short piece of silicone tubing over the LED to give you more to grip on to - also handy if it's tightly grouped in with other parts.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Great tips, thanks and thanks for watching.

[@Omega_Mark]

28:31 I would recommend using a washer here under this screw. The washer would overlap the break point and keep the main board piece in place. If the bottom side (where the break point is) has no support, you could add a solid rubber/dense sponge bumper that would minimize flexing at that point. I like to overengineer stuff lol.

[@Omega_Mark]

Btw, greets from another Mark :).

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Hi Mark! I did actually consiider that, but there's no real tension or load on the screw at all. With functional parts I'll often brace a break.

[@Omega_Mark]

@@MarkFixesStuff Ok, cool. I never had a Saturn console, but considered getting one. Have you checked out prices for some old PC games on eBay recently? Something like Doom II or Dune II? I still have Dune II that I bought in 1994 in shrinkwrap (just cut on top). About 16 years ago I saw in a 99c store Doom II Thy Flesh Consumed... for 99 cents. There were something like 15 sealed boxes there. Bought just one, as I didn't want to clunk my place. I wish I knew better back then lol.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

@@Omega_Mark I have seen so many retro sell offs that have since explaoded in price. It's madness!

[@Omega_Mark]

@@MarkFixesStuff Same goes for CCG cards. Not just Magic, but Pokemon, Star Trek and Star Wars. How much does a sealed booster box of MtG Alpha go for these days? Something like 15 years ago it already cost more than $100,000. Why did I go to college and spend all that money on it? All I had to do is just buy some Magic booster boxes:).

[@NigelDraycott]

Can we start a hard push to get Mark to rename his channel to "Carry on Retro"

[@X-Bit-Gits]

This revision of Saturn is possibly my favourite. I've only ever worked on Japanese consoles, this looks equivalent to an HST-3210. I think of these as "Model 1.5"... it looks like a model 1 on the outside, but has the inner construction of a Model 2. The first variants are such a fiddly pain to work on.... There's so many tiny bits that screw into the top half! I've also taken a liking to the surface mount caps. I've regrettably re-capped a few with through-hole that have stopped working. Video signal is a nice black NTSC, but no life beyond that :(.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Oh no! Sad news! Sounds like the CPU isn't starting so I'd start looking from the power direction.

[@X-Bit-Gits]

@@MarkFixesStuff Yeah, power is definitely good, to both CPUs, on all points. I've also confirmed that clock signals are present on the main ASICs in the system. I suspect I've done something like torn a capacitor pad or track that I haven't noticed. Either that, or something key to booting the hardware is missing, like a signal from the SMPC chip.

[@kalensus]

Looks like the graphics overlay for the games was running in 60Hz mode here and the video footage in 50Hz. They got way ahead by the time Bulk Slash showed up. :D

[@hatsushisen706]

for the love of retro consoles make the thumbs up counter go crazy!!! great video Mark!!! \|^^|/

[@smayds]

Fantastic video, Mark! I have a scungy old Saturn that I really need to clean up and get an ODE in. How have you found the Fenrir in general?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Really very good! The only problems I’ve had are related to duff images from the internet. Finding a clean iso has solved that.

[@kentb3175]

Nice.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@grenoblica]

Keep forgetting the channel is called 'Mark fits his stuff'

[@zackpetrovic3029]

I always wondered why inductors were labeled L

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I did as well, so I looked into it. I assumed that they should be labelled H for Henries!

[@CaseTheCorvetteMan]

Can anyone tell me what is the downside to NOT lifting the PLL Pin 1 and tying to GND for a PAL or 5V for NTSC? I have never ever done this and have not ever noticed an issue, but i only use RGB and only have CRT displays here.

[@TheCurlyP]

Oooo, I've still got an AR for the region lock and a dip switch for the Hz. Maybe its time I upgraded

[@haifengsu]

Can I ask you a question, is the 60hz show the full screen and 50hz that shows a big border at the top and bottom area? with this switch, even PAL game can output in 60hz so it will turn to full screen, is that correct? thank you.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Yes, that is correct.

[@KmanSweden]

Instead of cutting that trace by the region checking chip, could the pin have been lifted from the pad instead?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Probably a better idea. I’ll give it a try next time :)

[@give_me_my_nick_back]

I never bothered doing the mod since I could just use pseudo but considering it's not that hard I'll do it now. Though I see no point replacing the LED in any of these mods, you can clearly see the black bars when switching to PAL hahaha

[@graealex]

It would absolutely help to condense the videos a bit more. Lots of scenes where little or nothing is happening. Even if it is meant as a tutorial, it could be a lot shorter.

[@kalensus]

Nooo, I disagree. This was a fantastic evening's viewing. Soap suds, gummie bears, every screw, every solder, I loved it. Indeed, this video persuaded me to become a Patron.

[@JoshWraaButler]

Just a question, between this and the Fenrir, if you have any games that require a RAM cart to run, will the images load if you don't have one? KOF96/97 and Xmen Vs Street Fighter specifically. I love my saturn and it was modded back in the with a physical switch to run either region games.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

The images will load, but when the image boots you'll get the "this game needs a memory expansion 1mb /4mb screen". I have a memory cart on the way from China for further testing.

[@JoshWraaButler]

@@MarkFixesStuff Well, that sadly sounds like those carts will still be needed then. I wonder if someone has got a work around or mod to get those out of the way? My RAM carts are getting a bit persnickety in their old age.

[@davidste60]

@@JoshWraaButler The fenrir sends data through the CD drive connection, so it has the same limitations that those carts are intended to bypass. Any work around would be like putting the data back on the CD I think, which the game devs would have done originally if that were feasible.

[@w00dyblack]

I want to get some of those dremel bits - where did you get those, what am I searching for ?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Amazon! amzn.to/3uLnePY

[@davidparl1313]

Love the video Mark, Do you or anyone know if this is compatible with all Saturn models? I have an old pal system (1995 on the board) and it’s different inside. For instance the power is connected to the top of the console and the power LED is very different. It’s a small rectangular LED on a tiny board, not the controller one.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Pretty sure it’s compatible but you’ll need to check the board number for an install diagram on guides.da-retro.com/satguide.html let me know how you get on please!

[@davidparl1313]

Thanks for the reply! I’ll have a look 👍

[@Spardin]

Will you replace the SRAM for Fram so you don't lose saves if the battery runs out?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Waiting for some FRAM chips and I will!

[@wojiaobill]

I once screwed the wrong hole in college. never heard the end of it!

[@juanc.3372]

I have a usa ntsc sega saturn if i get a fenrir will it play japanese iso or do i need to get this mod

[@MarkFixesStuff]

It will play Japanese iso in 60hz no problem. You don’t need the mod

[@davehud2831]

I want one 👍

[@loganjorgensen]

Well they had their reasons for 50Hz when they made PAL but it just didn't hold up to the test of time across multiple frame rate standards, closest match would be film's 24fps. SCART had it's advantages in resolution and clarity on SDTVs that I still envy retrospectively. But VHS or Video was 30fps, old FMV games used 15fps codecs, early 3D games tried for 30fps as the initial benchmark, and modern standards had an emphasis on 60fps which all lined up better with a 60Hz standard.

[@axi0matic]

The choice of 50 or 60Hz refresh rate just matched the mains frequency used in a given country. In the early days of TV it likely simplified the circuitry. Once broadcast standards were set, they couldn't be changed without obsoleting all the existing TVs. 50Hz is actually worse than 60Hz for matching 24Hz film. Interpolating between frames wasn't practical before digital techniques, and even now can cause artefacts. Therefore all you can do to adjust the frame rate is repeat frames . The problem is that 24fps is too _close_ to 25fps. If you simply repeat one frame each second, you get a stuttering effect caused by the single long frame. So the solution was to just speed up every PAL film by 4% (audio pitch is corrected separately). With 60Hz, you can repeat every frame by 2 or 3 times alternately. Every other frame is therefore 50% longer, but as the effect is continuous it's not so noticeable. VHS is 25fps for PAL and 30fps for NTSC. Though note that due to interlacing, it's really 50 or 60 _fields_ (half frames) per second. Japan and the USA are both NTSC. Arcade games (which being self-contained, didn't need to follow local broadcast standards) have always been 60Hz, everywhere. Japan and USA were the dominant producers of console and arcade games, as well as being huge markets. So 60Hz was always the 'standard', with PAL regions getting adapted versions. In earlier systems, resolution and frame rate were hard-coded into the game, and were tricky to change for PAL regions. Games were usually just slowed down by 17% and empty (black) bars used to pad the picture by 100 lines or so (due to PAL's higher resolution), resulting in a squished picture. There's no advantage to a lower frame rate (for games at least), so it's natural that 60Hz later became the worldwide standard for computer use. It's above the minimum point where movement feels fluid - 50Hz or lower would be too slow for UIs.

[@loganjorgensen]

@@axi0maticIt is a tricky matter in changing any standard, so many of the analog video quirks are quite the pain to deal with in the digital video age. They tended to just make arbitrary screen mode choices in the past because the CRT could just squash and stretch the picture at will to 4:3. For example I'm looking at PS1 games lately and that had a screen mode of 512x480 rather than 512x384. :S I could see how that would be hard with fixed rates like video recordings use, always wondered what PAL-VHS was doing to deal with that. :) Fields and interlacing was definitely at the center of analog video in terms of frame rate and many of the broadcast types that piggybacked in there like Teletext and the like despite not being planned for preemptively. But not without pitfalls which is why 240 Progressive Scan took center stage for gaming in the 90s. NTSC had it's hardware challenge with color, adding that on top of the B&W signal so those old TVs could still be used. Like monochrome Composite is as crisp as color S-Video without the color signal noise. Also I noticed that Composite Artifact Colors weren't part of the PAL scene because the standard was too clean lol. There is a certain crispness to higher PAL resolution when taken advantage of but then it can't apply to NTSC regions. Yeah nobody seems to like the slowed and squashed games but at least that was easier to adjust than prerendered video. Tech aside it seems like people are suddenly very sensitive to frame rates, they didn't seem to notice before lol. ;) In retrospect old games running at 15fps weren't that bad, good if early 3D games managed it , and a lot of early FMV codecs were not 30fps. Personally I just dealt with lag in the past to the point of muscle memory and technique that I laugh when someone freaks out that the game dipped to 24fps briefly. XD

[@axi0matic]

​@@loganjorgensen The horizontal width of the picture in pixels is pretty arbitrary, since it essentially just means how often the pixel values can be changed during each horizontal scanline. More pixels = changing the values more often. The vertical resolution is more tricky, since analogue TV's had a fixed number of scanlines. In NTSC regions, this meant 480 (visible) scanlines tall. You couldn't just feed TV's an arbitrary number like 384 lines. The only way to have 384 pixel tall video on a regular TV would be to have (480-384)/2 = 48 lines of black above and below the picture, or to scale it internally on the console to fill a 480 line output (which the PS1 didn't have the scaling hardware to do). Aside from 480 line interlaced output, the only other option would be 240 line progressive (or something similar e.g. 224 lines with black lines to make up the difference). 240p was used in the 80's since the earliest 8-bit computers and consoles. It's just a timing tweak to 480i such that the lines appear on top of each other each frame (with empty lines in between) rather than in between each other. It not only gave a more stable picture (computer graphics tend to have a lot of horizontal lines that would otherwise flicker as they appear / disappear), but the lower resolution was easier for 80's RAM-starved machines to work with. Composite is always pretty shit, though as I understand it PAL's colour encoding is more consistent than NTSC's. The tendency for hue errors with NTSC is the reason for the Tint control on American TV's, and is why the Simpsons are yellow (it's a reference to how people typically appear on American TV shows). PAL and NTSC have more or less the same scan rate (15.7KHz), they just use it differently. PAL draws 25x 576-line images per second; NTSC draws 30x 480-line images. In both cases, this is 14.4K _visible_ lines per second (the remaining 1.3K lines per second are empty or drawn outside the visible surface of the tube). PAL's (interlaced) resolution at 60Hz would require a scan rate higher than 15.7KHz, so isn't possible on a standard TV. People have always been sensitive to frame rates - in the past it was referred to as 'slowdown', e.g. when there is a lot on screen during shoot 'em ups. This was less of a feature of 2D games, since everything tended to operate together in lockstep. Bear in mind too that controllers were all wired, not Bluetooth, and CRT TVs had zero input lag. Games that require precise jumping (like Mario World on the NES) are difficult to play with lag. It's really the switch to flat panels (which tend to have deinterlacing / scaling lag when used with original consoles), wireless controller lag, and emulation lag (if going that route) that got people noticing lag with 2D games. With 3D, the rendering FPS is separate from the game logic, animation etc. Early 3D consoles like the N64 were underpowered, so games like Goldeneye did run at 15-20fps, it's true. Having said that, some games ran at 60Hz, and many ran at a stable 30.

[@loganjorgensen]

@@axi0matic I thought that might be the issue, the SDTV itself being the limiter. I've been looking for why 480x360 or the half way milestone between 240p and 480p didn't happen much anywhere. With DOS I found the VGA monitor was versatile but the VESA drivers came much later than the SVGA video cards themselves. Suspected the PS1 probably couldn't do that because the screen modes were so hardware defined, technically its been done everywhere the stretching of less than 240p/480p graphics filling SDTV screen height but I guess Sony didn't consider 384 a priority. Not so apparent on an SDTV but was trying Tomb Raider4 in the PS3 compatibility mode which at 512x480 produced a roughly 2:3 pixel aspect ratio. Looked fine but I think some of the PS1's performance was held back with less screen resolution control since the later games are crisper but do dip in frame rate often. Lol yeah I remember my buddy trying to explain to me the 480i aspect of SDTVs in the 90s, I guess I doubted the 480 scanlines because there wasn't any graphics that looked like that. I blame the screens again since in NA I didn't get to use S-Video and Component until it was becoming old hat, totally missed 240p for most of the 90s. 240p was a good screen mode but it took some time to reach it, I think the Neo Geo was the first platform to actually meet that standard while everything else was less Egs. Amiga/DOS:320x200, GEN/MD:320x224, SNES:256x224. I was more impressed with what Composite could do in a computer age that struggled with multimedia with it's primitive video hardware, more so in the future demos for missed potential. Really I heard two other reasons The Simpsons were yellow, that color of cell paint was cheap, or that it was a rare color to see on TV so it stood out. :| Ah so the V-blank aspect isn't that dissimilar between NTSC and PAL. That knowledge is more common now than it was before, bitd me and my buddies knew what slowdown was because it was visible and talked about but we didn't have deep discussions about what was causing it. Always thought slowdown or dropping frames should have been selectable options outside of online games. Oh sure there has been plenty about the lag aspect of old games on new platforms. There are plenty of technical reasons for it like you mentioned but again it kind of varies, in the aftermath some have questioned just how many people actually notice lag because it's seen as some kind of qualifying gamer's vision test. ^_^ I will say that makers of Mini consoles have at least lessened the lag problems with some progress. It was neat to see 60fps performance in some PS1 games with special modes but usually it could only do that with untextured flat polygons. Emulation does have that advantage that once you've met and surpassed original performance it often can be increased which I think can be a barrier to those choosing old game selections. I will say that though, a game that never had a good frame doesn't get better with age and needs patches or source ports.

[@axi0matic]

@@loganjorgensen 240p and 480i are almost the same thing. In both cases, the screen draws 240 visible lines on each pass of the beam down the screen. You should read up on interlaced video to understand what the difference is. Although 480i and 480p have the same resolution, 480i is only showing half of the lines at a time. The resolution has nothing to do with the pixel aspect, unless you are saying the PS3 was stretching a 4:3 game to 16:9 widescreen? You didn't miss 240p if you played any console or arcade game in the 80's or 90's. It has nothing to do with the connection (composite, S-video etc.). The resolutions you mentioned _are_ 240p - just with some extra black lines (Amiga games were often letterboxed). How much lag matters depends on the game type (e.g. less important with driving games), how good / competitive the player is, and how consistent the lag is. You can adapt quite easily / subconsciously if the lag is consistent - essentially just press buttons slightly earlier. If emulation of hardware is accurate, slowdowns will be simulated too. With console games, the game mechanics and animation were often tied to the frame rate, so you can't just run a 30fps game at 60fps under emulation without speeding everything else up (without patching the game).

[@Colin_Ames]

Excellent tutorial Mark, with just the right amount of innuendo! I feel sorry for the Gorilla population though, I wonder if the WWF are aware of what’s going on!

[@seanbeyer6668]

Excellent video! I just ordered 2 of the mods for my US & Japan Saturns. Also, I love that LED/wire Jig you 3D printed. I need to find that online so I can print one out for myself.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Oh, the STL is here -- www.thingiverse.com/thing:2610383 Not my work BTW. I printed it ages ago.

[@LucoLuchi]

can i use a european charger with this mod?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

The power in the console doesn't affect the region or refresh rate of the mod.

[@JohnGotts]

Good result but such a painful mod to perform. The prior mod was much cleaner.

[@terminusaquo1980]

It's always best to wash your dirty parts TBH 😆

[@ConsolesUnleashed]

Those wires that run under the motherboard, controller board and under the plastic shroud for the battery compartment are all gonna get crushed when this gets put back together. The tolerances for the RF shield and PCB are not large enough for wires to run between them. This is why I tell people in my Saturn guides to not use bottom solder points. There's no need as all the points have corresponding top locations. Sadly most guides don't care about the details.

[@alogie]

I really enjoy your videos, but to be honest, I think the "Ooer, missus!" stuff detracts from the content, and may alienate part of your audience. Hope you take this in the manner it's intended i.e. constructive criticism.

[@filevans]

Completely pointless, just bridge the jumpers to make it permanently 60z, 50hz isn't needed, then use the psuedo Kai which you need anyway for the 1mb and 4mb memory

[@Nukle0n]

I think the preferred term these days is "JPN" because otherwise it kinda sounds like a WW2 era slur. But i hope people will see that there's no ill will.

[@DamnDealDone]

Yes, always use JPN. This should be common sense.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I changed it. I had no idea. I just used the first three characters like EURope.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I have now changed the title, description and thumbnail. Apologies. I wasn't aware of this issue.

[@Nukle0n]

@@MarkFixesStuff no worries mate

[@yesmate78]

@@MarkFixesStuffmakes no difference.

[@DamnDealDone]

Don't write JAP. Write JPN.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Ok!

[@yesmate78]

Write what he likes, get over it.

[@DamnDealDone]

@@yesmate78 is that meant to be a real sentence or are you illiterate?