Sega SKC-1000C Saturn Bios and sub board bios dumps Discussion in ' Sega Saturn Programming and Development ' started by CoolMod, Oct 20, 2014. CoolMod Peppy Member.
To be honest, just download it.If you want to dump your own bios though you need at least a. Then it depends on what Saturn you have. If you have one of the very first Japanese Saturns you are in luck since they have a socket DIP chip with the bios on it. You could just pop that out and read it.Later first generation Saturns have the same DIP chip soldered directly to the PCB (since by then the bios was finalized) so you need to desolder that (might as well put a socket in there while you're at it).Now the model 2 version of the Saturn have a with the bios on it. It's surface mounted and quite hard for people to remove and replace at first. You might also need a hot air station as well as a soldering iron for that. Oh and you also need to buy an for the chip so it fits in your prom burner.I have replaced a few Saturn bioses over the years and yes, I've dumped a few just because I could but I just end up with identical files to what you can download.
As long as you have the Saturn you can just download the bios and lie about having dumped it. Also I'd worry more about the legality of the software itself over the bios. Okay, I was just wondering because there seem to be easy ways to flash/dump BIOS on other systems such as PS2, Wii, etc that just require certain hacks that usually don't involve programming.
I'm guess Saturn is a bit more complicated? Isn't there a way to get the bios through action replay or something? The psuedo saturn?
Would it be so wrong to download the correct BIOS online even if I have the system? Thats why I want to know what BIOS my Saturn uses so that I am not using the wrong one. Program, Programmer and programming are different things.In this context a programmer is what I linked in the first post.The PS2 and the Wii are so much more advanced than the Saturn even though there is only 6 years between the Saturn and the PS2.
It is actually easier to read the bios off of the Saturn than the PS2 or Wii. On the Saturn you only needed to put the Saturn bios chip into a programmer to read it, for the Wii (and maybe the PS2) you had to do so much more to get a proper dump of it.As far as I know there are no other ways than to put the Saturn bios chip into a programmer and dump it that way. I might be wrong though but I haven't heard of any other way. The EPROM (erasable programable read only memory) is erasable and programable. For this particular one, removing the tape on it and leaving it out in the sun for 30 min will empty it (don't do it unless you have a programmer).The ROM (read only memory) is not erasable or programmable and was manufactured with it's content already on the die.Now what you can do with the Saturn is burn a new bios for it that is region free. Flipping just two bits in the bios will turn it region free and the Saturn will be able to boot discs from all regions (not pirated games).
The problem with 50/60Hz for PAL/NTSC games still apply though. If you want to get a programmed bios chip you can it from this guy in England. I'm sure there are people in the states that can burn you a new bios as well.
If you have a friend that know what they're doing you can even use the EPROM that is in the Saturn now.e: their!=they're.