Its now possible to play backups by flashing Saturn Carts!

[stickem]

I've never went back to a game on my 3do that required saving lol. Now you got me wondering about that. The saturn battery runs the internal clock is why that dies. I don't think the 3do uses a clock so maybe it lasts like a cart, 30 plus years in a closet.

[nightrnr]

Yes, the PlayStation had it better all things considered... they saw the bigger picture.
I just like how you had an option to save right out of the box with Saturn (and Sega CD and 3DO). It's a nice feature for casual play.

My 3DO still has a bunch of saves from the last owner, so it must last a while. Seems to be fairly large as well (although mine is pretty full, I need to clear them out sometime. It will be a pain when I finally have to replace the battery; you have to dismantle the system quite a bit. I really should have thrown a new on in when I put my USB drive in my Goldstar.

[Jagosaurus]

Yeah, that's true. At launch, this would've been nice to not have to invest in another device. The PS1 memory cards weren't cheap ($30?). I remember not being able to save in Tomb Raider at a buddy's .

My save battery died in my Sega CD. I had to buy a mem cart. Again, not all games supported saving to it. I had to save to internal batt, press reset (not powering down kept save live), move save to cart. Do reverse when I started system up next time. Not sure how I even came up with that work around but it did the trick . At least they made the SS batt easily accessible & removable!

So nightrnr, you can confirm the 3DO uses a battery versus some capacitor driven or SRAM setup?

I knew I saw this at some point. There was a save memory expansion made for the 3DO.

FZ-EM256 3DO Memory Expansion Unit
The Panasonic FZ-EM256 is a 256 KB Expandable Memory Unit that plugs into the 3DO Expansion bay on the back of the console. Released in 1994 and sold in Japan only, but is compatible with all models. It came with a Storage Manager start-up disc that is required to use the unit.

[stickem]

Yes, the PlayStation had it better all things considered... they saw the bigger picture.
I just like how you had an option to save right out of the box with Saturn (and Sega CD and 3DO). It's a nice feature for casual play.

My 3DO still has a bunch of saves from the last owner, so it must last a while. Seems to be fairly large as well (although mine is pretty full, I need to clear them out sometime. It will be a pain when I finally have to replace the battery; you have to dismantle the system quite a bit. I really should have thrown a new on in when I put my USB drive in my Goldstar.

Refresh my memory, what is the usb dongle mod for? It's been a minute since I did anything with mine or researched anything.

[Jagosaurus]

It's an ODE replacing the disc drive & allows digital loading of games.

[zyrobs]

It's not an ODE, it's something far more complex. Closer to a HD Loader.

[nightrnr]

It's not an ODE, it's something far more complex. Closer to a HD Loader.

I advocate that it is an ODE: the USB 3DO literally takes the place of the disc drive.
HD Loader loads from a different source than the disc drive connection.

Think I need more concrete definitions for these devices though. I welcome the chance to be better informed.

[Jagosaurus]

So... bummer here. Panzer Dragoon Saga is not compatible with Psudeo Saturn. Compatibility chart:
http://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/compat/

Finally found some info on the Gamer's cart:

Saturn Gamer's Cartridge
Codename : "SD MemCart" : this cartridge features a SD card interface and emulates backup memory cartridge behavior on SD card.
Fed up of limited memory size of your official memory cartridge ? Me too
Fed up of not being able to share your favorite Saturn RPG saves via internet to your gaming friends ? Me too

Gamer's Cartridge main features :

- Play import games (*1).
- Play CD-R backup copy of your games. (*2)
- Memory cartridge on SD card. (*2)
- Dump Saturn internal backup memory to SD card.
- Play small homebrew programs from SD card.
(*1) Bypass game region protection, so some games optimized for NTSC may not work well on PAL systems, and vice-versa.
(*2) Direct (in-game) save access, with relatively good game compatibility.
...
Gamer's Cartridge is "just" a XL-sized memory cartridge using SD card which also plays CD-R games. It won't play commercial games from SD card.
And, Gamer's Cartridge doesn't features extra RAM, so the few games requiring it (Metal Slug, and several fighting games. Complete list available on satakore.com) aren't compatible with Gamer's Cartridge.

Cartridges are hand-made : electronic components are hand-soldered, holes for LEDs and SD card socket are drilled and filed by hand, labels are printed, cut and sticked by hand, etc. So please don't order cartridge here if you're expecting to get something made at professional quality.
...
Shipping :

Carts are shipped from Japan, and shipping price is described in EMS homepage in "Up to 500g" row.
EMS currency is JPY (Japanese Yen), and I convert it to USD when contacting your order details.

Examples :
- Shipping to USA is JPY 2000.
- Shipping to Europe is JPY 2200.

Ordering is currently on hold, but they are $68 US. If you go by above, shipping to US is ~$19-$20
http://ppcenter.webou.net/satcart/#gamers

2018/03/07 : Order form currently unavailable : it will be back after processing current orders.

Dev's blog:
http://ppcenter.webou.net/devblog/categ ... aturn.html

Worth noting you can find the Psuedo Saturn AR carts (no save manager) for $47.95 on ebay. Not terrible considering an AR is typically ~$38 new. So a $10 convenience fee as I don't have a spare AR laying around.

Correct me if I am wrong... summary:
Psuedo Saturn on AR allows for 1/4MB RAM but no saving to cart
and vice cersa
Psuedo Saturn on Gamer's Cart allows for saving/transferring to cart but no 1/4MB RAM

I'm leaning towards the Gamer's Cart so I don't have to switch ARs to back up saves from console to cart. I posted these links as reminder to myself later and hopefully to shed some light on the mysterious Gamer's Cart. Doesn't seem to be much info on it out there. I finally had time to do some digging.

[stickem]

You're supposed to use the patch utility on all 4 bib/cue's for that game to work.

[Jagosaurus]

You're supposed to use the patch utility on all 4 bib/cue's for that game to work.

And that is even if burning CDs and using with a chipped Saturn or specific to Psuedo?

That compatibility list just says it doesn't work with Psuedo and it's from a dev's blog. He even using it as his example in saying only a small percentage of select titles don't work.

I was going to get this set up going primarily for the SF3 fan translations but PDS would be a big bonus. Not a huge deal, I can always emulate PDS knowing you can succesfully finish it thanks to some tips from Sarge here.