Could just _parts_ of the Action Reply PLUS work?

[Jared]

I have a Japanese model 2, an Action Reply Plus, and Groove on Fight.

It does boot to the AR menu, letting me enable cheat codes and whatnot. When booting the game from that menu, it takes me to a screen in Japanese saying something along the lines of: "RAM cart is not plugged in correctly."

Could this just be a faulty AR? Can we assume my card slot is fine, since it boots to the AR menu?

[theclaw]

Maybe. I've heard about some AR's having issues with Vampire Savior.
You should try a 1MB RAM cart. Groove on Fight was released before the 4MB RAM cart.

[Jared]

Maybe. I've heard about some AR's having issues with Vampire Savior.
You should try a 1MB RAM cart. Groove on Fight was released before the 4MB RAM cart.

Hm, all right. I can do that. What concerns me is the wisdom everyones shares: "once you get your cart seeded and working, just leave it alone".

That'll be a lot harder to do if I need to swap out carts, heh.

Before I go that far, I think I'll just try a return/swap of the AR+ and see how it goes.

[JoeAwesome]

Is it an official AR 4(5)-in-1? I have an unofficial AR that does not have the RAM included.

[Jared]

Is it an official AR 4(5)-in-1? I have an unofficial AR that does not have the RAM included.

Well, I believe it is "official": https://www.amazon.com/Action-Replay-4M ... B008FPMBNG

[Segata]

Maybe. I've heard about some AR's having issues with Vampire Savior.
You should try a 1MB RAM cart. Groove on Fight was released before the 4MB RAM cart.

Works on mine. The only game I had an issue with was Panzer Dragoon Azure but there is a simple workaround. You can search Youtube for it.

[Jared]

Works on mine. The only game I had an issue with was Panzer Dragoon Azure but there is a simple workaround. You can search Youtube for it.

So just to verify, you cannot attest to it working on Groove on Fight, right?

I'm still tempted to try another cart, although yesterday I cancelled my return/exchange, heh.

[Jared]

OK just tested it with a Real Bout Special so it appears that one of three things are true:

The AR+ (which does include 1 and 4 MB of expansion RAM) does not work for Japanese games, on a Japanese console.

Or..

The AR+ can work as much as booting to the menu that lets you enable cheats, while the RAM expansion isn't working.

Or less likely..

It does work, but just doesn't happen to work with Groove on Fight and Real Bout Special.

[marurun]

I have a US Saturn with a region switch, and my AR+ has worked with every RAM cart game I have thrown at it, and since all my RAM cart games are Japanese, the region switch is set to Japan.

[theclaw]

OK just tested it with a Real Bout Special so it appears that one of three things are true:

The AR+ (which does include 1 and 4 MB of expansion RAM) does not work for Japanese games, on a Japanese console.

Or..

The AR+ can work as much as booting to the menu that lets you enable cheats, while the RAM expansion isn't working.

Or less likely..

It does work, but just doesn't happen to work with Groove on Fight and Real Bout Special.

Yeah we can't rule out faulty RAM.

AR has versions localized for Japan. I'm not familiar with them.

When using AR to play a game of a different region than the console, the system configuration is not altered. (50hz/60hz, color encoding, etc)
But that's rarely an issue. Most Saturn games are best played in NTSC.