So I was reading the Samsung Saturn page, and noticed the whole part about how it is a really bloody weird hybrid system:
QuoteSeveral fixes were employed to mate these two odd components. The power switch, reset switch, and both power and activity LEDs had to have adjustments made so they'd work with the old shell. Both LEDs use acrylic risers to make the light visible from the PCB (on the bottom) through the shell (on the top). While one riser was used on the newer model Japanese Saturns from Sega, none of these new-model PCBs had activity lights (though some had a place where one could go). The power switch is mounted on tall plastic legs, where on the Japanese old models they were mounted to the top half of the system, and in the Japanese new models it was mounted on a metal riser platform. The reset button, which was mounted to the top of other oval-button units, is connected to the base by a plastic stalk, like the newer round-button models.
The thing is, according to this description, this is not a "weird hybrid" system. It's a standard VA SG/SD model. From my research:
VA0 = initial model, single motherboard, separate CD Block board, 20pin drive connector
VA SG (aka va1)= Separate motherboard and controller board, uses the same 20pin drive as the VA0 model. VA SG is printed on the motherboard, VA1 on the controller board.
VA SD (aka va 2 to 5) = Same as VA SG but uses a new CD drive with a 21 pin connection. va(number) is never printed on the board, only VA SD, but you can get the revision number from the serial on the back of the console.
VA6 to 15 = Consolidated single motherboard design.
Oval button Saturns were VA0 to 3, round buttons were VA4 to 15. The oval button Samsung Saturn is just a mid-to-late model 1 saturn, but other than the custom bios with the japanese language hacked out, it doesn't seem to be weird at all.
Yeah, that page needs an update. The biggest issue with this unit was the missing internal components - no way to reset the device, and no stalk to bring the LED light to the top of the console. It's quite possible that someone removed them, but I have 3 of these things and they're all like that.