アミのGAME나라
- Thread starter dj898
- Start date
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
(better n clean image found from Google)
When people are thinking about the Saturn modem they are usually thinking of the Saturn X-BAND Modem cartridge sold by Sega. However, although not widely known there was another Saturn Modem cartridge made by Victor. You probably more familiar with the V-Saturn console made by Victor, not the Modem cartridge.
This was the part of Internet starter kit, which included the V-Saturn, a modem, and a browser disk. It was offered when you sign up the internet plan and part of experimentation Victor took before SEGA introduced X-BAND Modem.
The content of the internet service was rather shrouded in mystery and not much was known about the exact contents but from several sources the main feature of this so called online service was centered around the sales of food products sent directly from the producers bypassing the middle men.
Another major difference was unlike the X-BAND modem from Sega that needed a smart media card for the payment, as shown in the picture the Victor Modem did not need one. Instead, a monthly payment was charged directly to the bank account which was nominated at the time of sign up.
Around that time, Windows 95 and the emergence of Internet boom were in full swing, and home multimedia devices were trying to be connected to the Internet. However, the infrastructure of the Internet had not yet fully matured, and telecommunications costs were prohibitively expensive. Thus the merit of the said system was limited to minority users who could afford the member-only content. When compared to the i-mode which came out little later, it could be said that there was no real merit, furthermore the cost was not much different from neighboring grocery store at the end.
As you could guess the take up was disastrous to say the least, and so much so that the X-BAND Modem from SEGA adopted the payment card system instead of directly billed subscription fees. In addition, there was no advertisement about this internet service anywhere in any of media including the game magazine at the time. The very limited cases where people did sign up were mainly due to the salesman of the insurance company inviting the customers to sign up offering the incentives like the free Saturn console.
Unfortunately there really is no information of this Modem cartridge out there. What I wrote here was based on the anecdote from various forum, blogs, and etc. over the years. One thing I’d love to see will be the application form or the disc that were included with the starter kit.
Hopefully someone out there with those will share with uswhen they see people are talking about it...
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
(I didn’t know that Steel Battalion was also released in PAL territories so I will have to hunt them down.)
Given the price and bulk I wasn’t expecting to get one myself till I came across the big green carmo box set at the Mandarake while I was on business trip to Tokyo many years back. And the price was too good to pass on. Now right after we got married the very first birthday present my wife bought was in fact the original Xbox so I’ve been playing and collecting pretty much from the start. (I even somehow managed to have our Hitachi Plasma monitor picked up and reconfigured so it would work with Xbox via the Component. Lucky I knew Hitachi’s Asia Pacific Sales manager and he helped me out on that one.)
After that every time I was in Tokyo or Osaka I paid the visit to Mandarake and Super Potatoes among others. And that’s how I ended up with Tekki:LoC as well as US releases – dunno why they had US release on their shelves. Remember back then the price, especially 2nd hand price, for Xbox was dirty chip in Japan. Well original Xbox was never popular in Japan in the first place.
That pilot disc was sent by Capcom as the beta testing before the release of SB:LoC. From memory you signed up online and they randomly selected and sent out the beta disc to you. Another interesting thing about this disc was as far as I know this was the only Xbox disc pressed for both NTSC/PAL formats.
Yes I know there’s still active SB communities and they do meet up regularly. Sadly due to the lack of time I haven’t been able to takeout the controller and etc. for years. Still I’ve been collecting bit by bit to build my own SB cockpit – 42” flat monitor on the swing arm, bucket seat with directly attached whooper and speakers for 5.1 system, AVR and other bits and bobs to finish off. I have about 2/3 of what’re needed. Just need the space to cobble the whole thing up. And permission from missus.
Given the price and bulk I wasn’t expecting to get one myself till I came across the big green carmo box set at the Mandarake while I was on business trip to Tokyo many years back. And the price was too good to pass on.
Now right after we got married the very first birthday present my wife bought was in fact the original Xbox so I’ve been playing and collecting pretty much from the start. (I even somehow managed to have our Hitachi Plasma monitor picked up and reconfigured so it would work with Xbox via the Component. Lucky I knew Hitachi’s Asia Pacific Sales manager and he helped me out on that one.)After that every time I was in Tokyo or Osaka I paid the visit to Mandarake and Super Potatoes among others. And that’s how I ended up with Tekki:LoC as well as US releases – dunno why they had US release on their shelves. Remember back then the price, especially 2nd hand price, for Xbox was dirty chip in Japan. Well original Xbox was never popular in Japan in the first place.
That pilot disc was sent by Capcom as the beta testing before the release of SB:LoC. From memory you signed up online and they randomly selected and sent out the beta disc to you. Another interesting thing about this disc was as far as I know this was the only Xbox disc pressed for both NTSC/PAL formats.
Yes I know there’s still active SB communities and they do meet up regularly. Sadly due to the lack of time I haven’t been able to takeout the controller and etc. for years. Still I’ve been collecting bit by bit to build my own SB cockpit – 42” flat monitor on the swing arm, bucket seat with directly attached whooper and speakers for 5.1 system, AVR and other bits and bobs to finish off. I have about 2/3 of what’re needed. Just need the space to cobble the whole thing up. And permission from missus.
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
Back in 2005 Sony had released two 15 inch WEGA LCD TV called the "KLV-15SP2" and "KLV-15AP2." Both used 640 x 480 pixel LCD panels, and costed around 67,000 yen.
They had the feature called "Memo" that enabled you to do a sort of "freeze frame" from the live feed, presumably so you could take the memo? But then again, given that the 15" TV could very likely end up in the kitchen, this Memo function could've be nice feature, when cooking programs displaying list of ingredients. ☺
And then there’s another feature that interested PSX console gamers. This model series featured the same Multi AV port found on the PS2 console (and PS console for that matter). This port supported both RGB 240p@15 kHz as well as Component signal. Of coz you would need to use the special cable made by SONY (naturally…
) called VMC-AVM250. It had 12 pins on either ends and could be used on PS/PS2/PS3. Input wise there were also S-Video and Composite. So you can use various other game consoles with this TV.
As the Multi AV port was more or less the Scart RGB port in disguise and with the proper adapter cable the other game consoles with the RGB output can be used as well.
They had the feature called "Memo" that enabled you to do a sort of "freeze frame" from the live feed, presumably so you could take the memo? But then again, given that the 15" TV could very likely end up in the kitchen, this Memo function could've be nice feature, when cooking programs displaying list of ingredients. ☺
And then there’s another feature that interested PSX console gamers. This model series featured the same Multi AV port found on the PS2 console (and PS console for that matter). This port supported both RGB 240p@15 kHz as well as Component signal. Of coz you would need to use the special cable made by SONY (naturally…
) called VMC-AVM250. It had 12 pins on either ends and could be used on PS/PS2/PS3. Input wise there were also S-Video and Composite. So you can use various other game consoles with this TV.As the Multi AV port was more or less the Scart RGB port in disguise and with the proper adapter cable the other game consoles with the RGB output can be used as well.
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
As part of development tool SONY developed the debugging consoles called debugstation. These were generally in either blue or green cases, although there were some special production units (mostly intended for use as show demo units) that were grey, the same as the retail consoles.
The debug units were designed to be as close as possible to retail consoles, so they only had 2MB of ram (the developer boards had 8MB) and had standard retail boot ROMs. The only real difference is that the CD controller was reprogrammed so that it would identify any disc that had a data track as being "licensed", rather than requiring the region code in the lead-in that was present on pressed PlayStation CDs. This was done to allow developers to burn games to CD-R for testing - a side effect of this was that most debug consoles would also boot discs from other regions (one notable exception being the later NTSC-J debugs, which only boot Japanese titles), although this was not officially supported - Sony made specific debug consoles for each region, and the technical required checklist provided by Sony for each region required you to test your title on the correct debug stations.
The two different colour cases were not just for the cosmetic – the original blue debugstation (DTL-H1000x, DTL-H110x) contained “Revision B” silicon, the same as the early retail units (these units had silicon errata that needed software workarounds) ,the green unit (DTL-H120x) had Revision C hardware. As part of the required tests, the developer had to test the title on both units.
Contrary to popular belief, the RAM was the same as the retail units at 2MB. The firmware was nearly identical – the only significant change was that debug printf()s got sent to the serial port if the title didn’t open it for communications – this used a DTL-H3050 serial cable (the same as the one used for the Net Yaroze).
Below are the photos I take while clean up my unit.
The debug units were designed to be as close as possible to retail consoles, so they only had 2MB of ram (the developer boards had 8MB) and had standard retail boot ROMs. The only real difference is that the CD controller was reprogrammed so that it would identify any disc that had a data track as being "licensed", rather than requiring the region code in the lead-in that was present on pressed PlayStation CDs. This was done to allow developers to burn games to CD-R for testing - a side effect of this was that most debug consoles would also boot discs from other regions (one notable exception being the later NTSC-J debugs, which only boot Japanese titles), although this was not officially supported - Sony made specific debug consoles for each region, and the technical required checklist provided by Sony for each region required you to test your title on the correct debug stations.
The two different colour cases were not just for the cosmetic – the original blue debugstation (DTL-H1000x, DTL-H110x) contained “Revision B” silicon, the same as the early retail units (these units had silicon errata that needed software workarounds) ,the green unit (DTL-H120x) had Revision C hardware. As part of the required tests, the developer had to test the title on both units.
Contrary to popular belief, the RAM was the same as the retail units at 2MB. The firmware was nearly identical – the only significant change was that debug printf()s got sent to the serial port if the title didn’t open it for communications – this used a DTL-H3050 serial cable (the same as the one used for the Net Yaroze).
Below are the photos I take while clean up my unit.
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
TGS footage
I'm still looking for the detailed information on this Xbox device. Other than the TGS article there's literarily no info out there. Surely someone must've used it, no?
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
(It seemed there really was no Ver.1 from what I could gather from Yahoo Japan search result.)
The X-Terminator Ver.2 was released in Japan by GameTech (red box) and in Europe/USA by UFO Company (box with XT written in green), but with GameTech manual. The manual is always in Japanese but some the box of the 2nd version is in English and some other languages too. By the way the X-Terminator Ver.2 was just a universal adapter cart +memory backup.
The X-Terminator Ver.3 was like an Action Replay cart but more powerful and you could search your own codes with the included handheld code finder. Multiple revisions were made (apparently 5 or more), each time with codes for different games or new features added.
So in nutshell the X-Terminator Ver.2 and the X-Terminator Ver.3 were completely different hardware/software. Therefore, do not be confused and pay dearly for the Ver.2
The below is the brief explanation on how to use.
1. Plug in X-Terminator cartridge, then power on the Saturn
2. From main menu, select "ノーマルゲーム" (normal game).
3. Select "ダイレクトセーブ無" (disable direct save), then start game.
* When extra RAM is used, other extra features can't be used. Also, extra RAM is limited to 1MB only.
Note: Here are more info that I found from the Yahoo search.
- Ver. 3.01 had the 1 MB RAM capability while Ver. 3.92 had both 1 & 4 MB RAM capabilities.
- when there is no CD in the console you can use the DirectSave feature.
The below are the screen shots I also found.
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
Magic Key III
When I pulled out Sega Wondermega one of the issue I had was how to run PAL cartridge I have, especially OzSoft released Rocket Knight Adventures. While browsing the adapter cartridges it seemed most of them were designed for PAL MegaDrive or US Genesis.
Then I recall picking up an adapter cartridge many years ago and after digging through several boxes managed to find the Magic Key III.
Initially to my dismay it did not work even though I set the DIP switch at the back according to the table. Thus I resumed searching for the suitable adapter cartridge when I came up with an idea. Since there were two PAL setting – one for the Brazil and the rest – I decided to use the Brazil setting for the Australian release PAL cartridge and to my surprise it worked! Guess the maker must’ve printed incorrect matrix.
When I pulled out Sega Wondermega one of the issue I had was how to run PAL cartridge I have, especially OzSoft released Rocket Knight Adventures. While browsing the adapter cartridges it seemed most of them were designed for PAL MegaDrive or US Genesis.
Then I recall picking up an adapter cartridge many years ago and after digging through several boxes managed to find the Magic Key III.
Initially to my dismay it did not work even though I set the DIP switch at the back according to the table. Thus I resumed searching for the suitable adapter cartridge when I came up with an idea. Since there were two PAL setting – one for the Brazil and the rest – I decided to use the Brazil setting for the Australian release PAL cartridge and to my surprise it worked! Guess the maker must’ve printed incorrect matrix.
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
I've been after this title for few years now but the price was always ted too expensive to my liking. So it was bit surprising not many people placed the bid for this one and I ended up won the auction for around 8700yen inc. play guide book. J
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
Back when 64D was still heavily promoted in Japan in stores you would've seen the demo disk of the 64DD called the "Doshin Sample".
This was a demo NFR cart of Doshin The Giant only available in stores to play, this game did not had the function to save or load, it resets when you reset the 64DD.
It did however had a section where you could look at screenshots and other cut scenes.
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
Dreamcast Dreamphone
Dreamcast Junkyard did the article on this one with my photos so do check over there for more details.
Dreamphone
Dreamcast Junkyard did the article on this one with my photos so do check over there for more details.
Dreamphone
Last edited:
dj898
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2019
- Messages
- 109
Sega Enterprises Inc. announced the network type role playing game "Dragon's Dream" developed in collaboration with Fujitsu Limited.
In the game the player would select the character of your choice from among eight kinds of races and five kinds of occupation, to defeat the powerful monster with friends, solve the mystery in the virtual world. In addition to the chat function called telepathy, communication functions such as e-mail and bulletin board are prepared. In nutshell it was to be the one of first MMORPG for the gaming console.
This game was the network type role playing game that participated not only in the preset scenario but also with other players who were accessing at the same time in real time – MMORPG. In addition, the world of "Dragon's Dream", the story settings were changed regularly, so the game content would continue to evolve. Thus participants could continue playing games without getting tired of a semi-permanently evolving story.
To play, you would need the Saturn modem cartridge and the Saturn keyboard besides the Sega Saturn console itself. In addition to 10 yen / minute for usage fee, it would costs 500 yen per month as data management fee, access fee on top of the telephone charge for NIFTY SERVE – i.e. not cheap at all. The service time is from 12pm till 8am, seven days a week. Software could be obtained free of charge if you apply at the "SS Networks" corner on the SEGA homepage or the NIFTY SERVE "Fujitsu Visual Communication Support" section. The Sega also wanted to create the mechanism that allowed users to communicate with each other by using not only the Saturn console but also personal computers although it was just that the plan never went any further.
It's shame this was never went to fruition and instead dropped. Otherwise Saturn would have been one of very first gaming console with online multiplayer RPG - although for Japanese market only.
| 【Service start time】 | December 20 (for Sega Saturn) | ||||
| 【Service time】 | From 12 am to 8 am next morning (all year round) | ||||
| 【usage fee】 |
| ||||
| 【Game software】 |
| ||||
| 【Member goal】 | 50 thousand people in 3 years |
Dragon's Dream
web.archive.org
"Dragon's Dream" can be seen at the following exhibitions.
| ◇ "Come and look and touch, Fujitsu Touch! Fair" Electric Brain World " period: November 22 (Sat) -23 (Sun) Place: Tokyo Dome Front Prism Hall ◇" Digitalmedia World '97 " Period: 11 26th (Wednesday) to 28th (Friday) Place: Makuhari Messe (Japan Convention Center) |
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2018
- Messages
- 77
Wow, gorgeous Steel Battalion collection! Never got it when the Xbox was hot (way too expensive for it+ Halo and Fable ate my soul), but now that I'm much older, can really appreciate how in-depth they went with the immersion. The controls would drive me mad though. 
Thanks for those delicious internal shots of a debugstation. People always kept claiming the debug units had more power. I'm sure it stemmed from some clueless folk trying to sell a "RARE!!!" piece of kit.
Thanks for those delicious internal shots of a debugstation. People always kept claiming the debug units had more power. I'm sure it stemmed from some clueless folk trying to sell a "RARE!!!" piece of kit.