Odd item I happened upon...

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:45 pm

I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what type of doohickey this is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 00445&rd=1

They say it's a "development unit," so I guess that means it was somehow used to program games? It seems to have controller ports and such though: could you actually play games on this thing like you could on a "regular" Saturn? I'm not going to buy it, but I am curious as to what it actually is, and if anyone's ever seen one before, because this is the first time I can remember spotting one.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 6:02 pm

Wow, that looks badass. Possibility it could be a debug unit released to the press.

Either way, $10..wow. I'd snatch that up in a hurry.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:40 pm

That's one of the Saturn software development kits.

And a damned good price too.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:44 pm

cool stuff. i wonder what jp has to say about it?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:00 pm

Kiken wrote:That's one of the Saturn software development kits.

Hmm...do you happen to know the answer to my "sub-question," namely as to whether you can play Saturn games on it "normally?" That would probably make it quite the collector's item in the Saturn field, as there are already several models of varying rarity floating around...

One additional thing I've noticed about it, though, is that shipping is pretty pricey...to my zip code (within the US, on the east coast) via UPS it's about 30 bucks, and via Priority Mail it's around 45. To have my own Saturn shipped to me back when I bought it, along with a bunch of games and other things, was around 10-15.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:02 pm

the thing does look quite heavy. they claim shipping weight at 25 lbs!!!

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:26 pm

Wow, that a pretty neat piece of kit for the price. I suspect that it likely will play regular Saturn games and is almost certainly region free. That is, if it's a real dev kit, and not just some early proto model, but it would seem to have enough official markings that I'm willing to believe it's the real deal. How cool would it be to have that thing hooked up? I may have to bid myself...

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:46 am

eight&ahalf wrote:I suspect that it likely will play regular Saturn games and is almost certainly region free.

Hm, you think so? Anything region-free (and non-portable) is a novelty these days, that in itself would make it a nice purchase...one other thing I note, though, is that I don't offhand see a cartridge slot anywhere...wonder if the thing has a set amount of built-in memory, like the "regular" Saturn?

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:15 am

Has jp already bid on it?

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 11:05 am

there is a cover on the left side of the case, maybe the cartridge slot is underneath. The thing is probably region-free, as that´s what devkits usually are. Once I saw a page of some Japanese collector who had gathered nothing but devkits of nearly every console over the years. The good part is these things are kept instead of just been thrown away, the bad part is they aren´t used for what they were produced anymore.