Fierce critic who crashed Sega Saturn beyond the time of more than 20 years appeared

It was released from SEGA ENTERPRISES in 1994 "Sega Saturn"Is a household game machine that built one era in the 1990 game industry as well as PlayStation and Nintendo 64 released in the same period. About 20 years since the release of the Sega Saturn was released a hero who cracked in 2016 appeared.

Sega Saturn CD - Cracked after 20 years - YouTube


It was engineer James Laird-Wah who succeeded in hacking Sega Saturn. James is a creator acting under the name of Dr Abrasive and in the past flash cartridges that can rewrite Game Boy ROM and RAM "Drag'n'Derp"We have released.


James was interested in Sega Saturn because the sound chip supports multi-channel. In order to obtain this sound chip James went to Japan in 2012 and got Sega Saturn.


Sega Saturn that James purchased in Japan.


James who got the wish Sega Saturn became more interested in developing software for Sega Saturn rather than getting a sound chip and investigated how to do it. What I found was to have the MOD chip mounted on the main body, but James sought another way by thinking "There must be a better way than this."


However, development of software for Sega Saturn is more difficult than James thinks. The reason is that the CD-ROM for Sega Saturn has a special data area called "Saturn Ring" on the outer circumference to counter pirated copies, the Saturn ring part can not be copied and the CD that copied the game data It is because it became specification which can not be played even if it was put.


James tried to reverse-engineer the body of Sega Saturn and obtain a hint to solve the problem of striking. Even though I disassembled the installed CPU and investigated it using a microscope, I could not find the method and it seemed to be pretty difficult but when I looked up the expansion slot on the back of Sega Saturn, I came across the clues It was.


The expansion slot on the back of Sega Saturn is a port that plugs in a movie card that can play a video CD standard CD with Sega Saturn. James surveyed the investigation and succeeded in sucking the ROM of the CD controller by connecting the flash cartridge to the expansion slot on the back.


James discovered that if you connect an adapter with an ARM microcontroller or CPLD to the expansion slot on the back, you can send CD data to Sega Saturn main body. With this method, you can load CDs without going through the main CD drive.


James repeatedly developed a long trial and error, it is the adapter board shown below.


For example, if you connect this adapter board to the back of the main unit and connect a USB memory stick containing game data of Sega Saturn, you can play that game.


Actually connect the USB memory stick to the adapter.


Then, a menu will be displayed on the monitor connected with Sega Saturn. When "Daytona USA" is selected ......


The game started.


James is seeking to commercialize an adapter board and it is scheduled to be released as soon as it is completed.