What Do you need to make a saturn sophia useable? complete?

Anonymous · 05-31-2004

Hey,
Yes I am new to this forum and yes I don't have a clue what I am doing (just wnated to get that out of the way). But thats why I am here.
I am interested in piecing together a Saturn Sophia development system. However I am not sure what all is necessary to make it work.
Does anyone have a link that would show me everything that is necessary to get it up and running?
Whenever I find something for sale it is usually one piece and not the whole set (I'm hoping some of it is unnecessary).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
THANKS!

**dj898** · 05-31-2004

you might want to ask retro as I believe he has Sophia. I'm sure he can fill you in with details. top of my head with Sophia I thought you need also graphic box, sound box as well as host of docs and disc? Not sure whether you need Mirage unit as well though...

For me I have two official CartDevRev.B system minus Mirage unit - one is missing DevCart though. And couple of Psy-Q DevSaturn minus DevCart.

Welcome to Saturn Dev world mate.
I'm sure you will enjoy spending and collecting... :p

cheers

Anonymous · 05-31-2004

Anybody know if this was worth buying? What would the vlaue of this be?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

thanks

**dj898** · 06-01-2004

mate
You need all the required hardware and software in order to build working DevSaturn system. With Sophia I believe it's not that easy as you will have to track down and purchase every single items piece by piece.

That eBay auction is for the Sophia system only and with no software it's pretty useless - maybe good for decoration purpose if you are inclined that way. :) There's post not so long ago where a member of this forum said he doesn't mind to pay what it takes to get the complete system... the thing is nowadays it's next to impossible to get the complete system unless you happen to walk by development house doing garage sale... :p

I went similar route with Psy-Q system but all the leads to the BlueCart dried up I went and got me CartDevRev.B from Japan.

good luck!
cheers

**retro** · 06-01-2004

You need a working Sophia, with 2 processors, the custom Japanese-only SCSI cable and all the software disks and manuals. I'm afraid to tell you that unless your machine comes with the disks, you WILL NOT find them.

Wish I'd seen that auction yesterday - I could've done with that! :(

**LeGIt** · 06-01-2004

My sophia works fine for booting ganmes I don't have the software for dev depends what u want to do with it - you want to boot games or make games?

**dj898** · 06-01-2004

same with my CartDevRev.B system. It runs retail games just fine...
wonder if I get Mirage and put the iso copy of retail game in there will it run from it?

cheers

**LeGIt** · 06-01-2004

They don't boot iso, it's a custom image format.The tools for creating the image are on antime's site, however I have not tried them as the required SCSI-2 HPCN50F -> HPCN50F to use virtual cd on my sophia is almost impossible to buy, the only places that do sell it charge $100usd for a pathetically small cable. Also i'mnot entirely sure you will be able to make an image of a retail disc, and even if you did get a mirage their hdd is seriously small - with my virtual cd emulator for the sophia (also cartdev compatable) you can use the whole hard drive of your pc (250gb hdd w00t) to store a whole lot more images!!!

AntiPasta · 06-01-2004

The controller in that auction looks a helluva lot like the new 6-button Genesis pads they sell at lik-sang for $4 :smt043

(by the way, isnt that Sophia missing one of the CPU boards? or is that merely an ICE board?)

Anonymous · 06-01-2004

Yes I wasn't sure about the graphic box, I've seen it for sale but I've also heard from somewhere that it is not necessary. I was under the impression I needed the Sophia, documents and discs Oops. I have yet to see the discs for sale, but I didn't think they would be too hard to track down with a little time effort and money to spare (could somebody with the discs not copy them?). And I was hoping that the documents would be available somewhere online.

Retro- Are the disks really that hard to track down? What do you need another Sophia for? I'm actually the winner of that auction and the seller won't ship it to me because I live in Canada. If you are from the US I can maybe hook you up.

So for working dev system the following is necessary
Sophia
Grphics box
Sound Box
SCSI cable
documents
disks

And the hardest part would be finding the docs and disks right?

**Calpis** · 06-01-2004

I'm in the US, what do you think shipping would be?

**retro** · 06-01-2004

I need it for two things:

a) the second processor... mine doesn't have it as it was used with the E7000.

b) the pad... mine didn't come with one :( and its cool!

Unfortunately, I'm in the UK :(

I guess we need someone in the US!

Yeah, the disks are damn rare, you virtually never see one with them. Even rarer, however is the SCSI cable as legit found out!!!

**Calpis** · 06-01-2004

I could receive it and forward it to one of you, if you're willing to pay that much. I'm awfully busy finishing school and preparing to move though. There'll be mad shipping fees no matter how you look at it.

**retro** · 06-01-2004

Well we'll have to find out what shipping is.. I believe mine cost me about $100-150 to get over here... possibly a bit more.

namessully, could you e-mail the guy and say you have a friend in the US whose address it could be shipped to, and ask for the cost to Kyuusaku? Let us know that... and of course what you want to do. If you still want it, fair enough... otherwise let me know and I'll see what I can do :)

**Calpis** · 06-01-2004

My zipcode is 94501.

**retro** · 06-06-2004

any news namesully? you getting this?

Anonymous · 06-09-2004

Actually I just heard back from him today. He now wants $50 + shipping and he will send it ANYWHERE I want. Anybody want to make me an offer? I've kinda lost interest in it.

**retro** · 06-09-2004

I could still be interested, sure. However, if you're still doing the transaction, he CANNOT change the price... you have a legal contract!

PC-FX Maniac · 06-09-2004

I am kind of interested. How much did you say it was?

**Divine Evolution** · 06-09-2004

I know that Kevin has one or two extra set of discs, he offered a set to me a while back while conferring with him when I first got my Sophia... I think he said he couldn't let them go for less than $200... that was to me though and a while ago at that... he may or may not take less now.
~Krelian