AliExpress Saturn Mini: Waste of Money, and Harmful to the Saturn Scene

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of SHIRO! Media Group as a whole. WARNING: This article includes a quote from an outside source that may be offensive to those who live with developmental disabilities, or have a loved one who lives with developmental disabilities.

In our post-SAROO world, we are seeing the Saturn scene branch off into new and unique paths. The flash cartridge works in ways slightly different from a typical optical drive emulator, leaning more towards emulating the console than simply emulating the disc drive. Its remarkably low price tag is introducing more newcomers to the Saturn library despite its shortcomings when compared to the alternatives. Regardless of whether we want it, or even if its own developer was ready for the release — it is here.

But something else sparked from the flint stones of SAROO’s printed circuit board. For whatever reason, this is the device which inspired mass amounts of modders to create their own take on the fabled “Saturn Mini,” or other similar console mods. The most prominent of which is the line of translucent flat-top custom Saturns being sold on AliExpress. In short, they cut up a Saturn motherboard to size and put it in a smaller, custom plastic shell. It leaves only what is necessary to run the SAROO. It has no disc drive, no VCD opening and no ability to use other cartridge peripherals. Its only purpose is to run the SAROO. The whereabouts of whatever parts were removed from the console are likely akin to a landfill.

This article is not a hit piece on the SAROO. It is also not a hit piece on console mods. Anyone who buys their own hardware should be allowed to do whatever they want with it. If you want to create a Death Saturn, then go hog wild. It is your right. Adjacent mods like the GC Nano and the various GBA consolizers encourage the end user to sort of “do it yourself.” Mod kits for such things are sold without the console itself. In many cases, these mods retain the core functionality of the original consoles and use hardware that is abundant in supply. Speaking of DIY kits, one modder is working on one for the Sega Saturn, making it look like a Genesis/Mega Drive.

The AliExpress Saturn does all the modding for you. A variety of them are sold on the Chinese retail website, ranging around US$150 to $200. It does not include a SAROO cartridge. Some use round power buttons, while others are oval shaped. A handful of sellers have taken it upon themselves to include a LCD screen, similar to the PSone. There appear to be no consistent sellers or manufacturers. So in the interest of permanence, here are some screenshots of the listings I found.

Including the Sakura Taisen console might put me at risk of pulling a Barbara Streisand. I would also like to ask why they created a Metal Gear Solid shell. For those unaware, Metal Gear Solid never came out for any Sega platform, unless we are counting bleemcast! and FrogBull’s recent Saturn homebrew project.

This article intends to explore these chopped down machines in detail. They could have long-term negative effects on the Saturn scene. The people who buy them are spending more than the cost to simply buy a stock Saturn and SAROO cartridge. The people who are defending these use weak arguments that often make no logical sense. In what is rare for me, I will be calling out specific people by name, substantiating my retorts with facts and clear observational evidence.

The bottom line: You really should not buy these AliExpress Sega Saturns.

I mean, do what you want with your own money. You worked hard for it. But you could use less money to get more out of enjoying your Saturn. Not only that, but you could help keep these units from becoming more scarce and help end the destruction of rare Saturn console variants.

It’s not cost effective

Let us state the obvious. You do not need one of these custom consoles to use a SAROO cartridge. If you dig around on eBay and the like, you can find a working Sega Saturn for well under $100. While writing this, I did a quick search and easily found an allegedly functional Japanese console that includes two controllers, the cables and three games for just $85. Free shipping! Look, I even included a screenshot!

The SAROO is being sold by a variety of online sellers with varying degrees of quality control, but you can buy a functional one for around $70. Doing the math, this example listing and a SAROO will run you about $155. Assuming you are buying an AliExpress Saturn for the regular listed price of around $190 ($260 with a SAROO), you are getting ripped off. For less money, you can get what is functionally the same console with no features taken away, two controllers, a video cable, the CD drive, three games for your shelf and be left with enough money for a SAROO. I did not have to do any deal hunting to find this, it was one of the first listings to appear. Even if you got the AliExpress Saturn on sale, you are still going to pay more money in total to also buy a SAROO.

As many in the retro scene know, CD drives are failing en masse. While people can repair and replace Saturn drives on the cheap, the whole point of an optical drive emulator (ODE) is to eliminate the need for a functional CD drive. SAROO is a cheap option that does not require the removal of the drive. Satiator, which goes in the VCD slot, also lets you keep the drive. Fenrir can replace or coexist with the drive while the Rhea/Phoebe and MODE replace it. The aforementioned ODE alternatives will not work on the AliExpress Saturn without some post-mod modding. For example, if you tried putting a Fenrir in this, you would need to disassemble the case every time you wanted to access the SD card, or maybe carve out a hole in the case. VCD cards and the Netlink Adapter will not work on AliExpress Saturns either.

To top this off, SAROO has the worst compatibility of any Saturn ODE. Things have improved rapidly since its release, but it is still trailing behind the pack. Many of the games that do work have minor to severe issues with graphics and sound. While the fast load times and cheap price tag are welcome, many will find that access to 99.9% of the Saturn library is a more worthy trade off. Since the AliExpress Saturn console is designed to only work with the SAROO, its users are essentially locked away from the other devices and locked away from discs.

AliExpress Saturn buyers are simply paying more for less.

It’s destructive

So what exactly happens to the Saturn motherboard when sellers convert it to one of these modded consoles? For starters, the CD drive is eliminated. Many ODE devices also do away with the drive, so we generally accept this as a forgivable crime. The power supply board is gone, replacing it with a different power board specialized for the shell. Power is instead fed to the other side of the rear end of the board, using a DC cable instead of the “figure eight” cable. Housing for the VCD slot is removed and blocked off, only leaving enough room to replace the save battery. The video port does not appear to be changed. It is unclear if the board is recapped. The capacitors look clean based on pictures we have seen of these consoles, but mileage may vary. Of course, the original plastic shell for the console is very much done away with.

I consulted with Sega Saturn homebrewer TrekkiesUnite118. “They’re taking the motherboards and shoving them into those shells,” he said. “VA1 and up would fit without needing to cut the board, but in many cases some ports and connections need to be moved/modified.”

SegaRetro has a detailed list of the Saturn motherboard revisions.

One thing TrekkiesUnite118 notes off the bat is what happens to the power feed. He told me the pins that the new power cable connects with are “either badly bent over (which in and of itself could put strain on the board and damage traces and the PCB) or cut off entirely with wires soldered onto what remains to redirect to the new power supply.”

“The AC adapter port is routed directly to where the (Video CD) slot is, so you can’t put a Video CD card in if you wanted, and it also blocks the Satiator from being used. Which considering this is SAROO guys making and pushing these I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a deliberate decision,” he added, noting many of the stores with these AliExpress Saturns are also known SAROO sellers.

As for the stock power supplies, CD drives, original shells and other components that were removed — it is not clear what is happening to those parts. Are they being sold separately in bulk? Are they being scrapped? We simply do not know.

Once a Saturn console is Frankensteined into one of these things, that is how the motherboard will live out the rest of its days. It is seemingly irreversible, unless you were to take parts from another Saturn and try to piece it together into something whole again… But this would of course ruin whatever Saturn you sourced for parts.

So where they are getting these consoles from? It appears that roughly a dozen different stores on the AliExpress website sell them. It is not clear who is making what modded console. So I sent all of them messages.

To their credit, all of them responded. With a language barrier in play here, some told me they did not understand what I was asking about. Two of the stores, Treasure Game Accessory Store and Shop1103745025 Store told me they make these consoles themselves. Neither explained exactly how they obtain the original Saturn motherboards — just that they are in fact real Saturn motherboards. None told me what happens to the scrapped parts and shells. Though Treasure Game Accessory Store said they do put new capacitors into their modded consoles. Based on their response and their storefront, they are the ones making the white consoles seen in the second screenshot of this article. They may be distributing these to other AliExpress stores to sell.

It’s increasing rarity

It stands to reason they are likely buying bulk lots of untested Saturn consoles from other sellers in Asia. Many in the Saturn scene worry this could seriously impact the amount of original surviving Saturn consoles. But supporters of these AliExpress Saturns often retort by saying there are millions of Saturns, so the scarcity issue is moot. After all, by SEGA’s calculations, they sold about 8.8 million Sega Saturn consoles worldwide. But compare this to the more than 101 million Nintendo Wii consoles sold, or the 81 million Game Boy Advance handhelds. How many of those 8.8 million Saturns still exist in the wild? How many were trashed or scrapped by 90’s era customers who were less willing to repair them? Even when we consider scenarios like these, there are still probably a lot of Saturns remaining. We do not know how many consoles these modders are transforming.

But we do know they are chopping up rare console variants.

YouTuber Wicked Gamer & Collector (185K subs) promoted one of these AliExpress Sautrns in a September 29 video titled, “Saroo Ultimate Saturn Sega Game Console For 2024 !” He speaks positively about the modded console. In the video, he points out that it is using a VA15 motherboard.

“VA15 was the last revision made of the Saturn,” TrekkiesUnite118 pointed out. “It can easily be spotted because it’s the revision that has the 2 SH-2s merged into 1 chip. That revision came out in mid to late 1997 as far as I’m aware, and most Saturn boards were finished being made in 1997 and the remaining systems were assembled using those boards in late 1997 and early 1998.”

On top of this being a significantly less common motherboard, the numbers show there is at least a 50/50 chance that any given VA15 board came from one of the rare transparent “This is Cool” or “Derby” Saturn console variants. Nowadays, these fetch at least $300 USD when sold on eBay.

I suppose, in a cosmic sense, that would make the AliExpress Saturn more cost effective… just at the expense of trashing a rare shell.

Commenters on the Wicked Gamer & Collector video were quick to praise the modded console. In the video, the YouTuber does not clarify what VA15 means. A handful of other commenters worry about what this does to original hardware, while someone else brushed off those concerns as “sniffiness (sic) and snobbery from the online community.” Many speculate on if the consoles used are broken or functional.

In a subsequent video, Wicked Gamer & Collector referred to GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 as a “hidden gem.”

Another YouTuber, Madlittlepixel (169K subs), recently posted a video praising the AliExpress Saturn that comes with a screen attachment. Likewise, many commenters chimed in to voice their support, but more commenters in this video criticized the sellers. Madlittlepixel took it upon himself to defend the mod.

In response to a Saturn homebrewer in the comments, Madlittlepixel wrote, “You are officially retarded and have no clue the line of conversation going on here, zero to do with how popular anything was.”

I decided to write a comment criticizing the mod. (For the record, I also wrote a comment pointing out his choice of language, but that appears to have been removed, either by Madlittlepixel or YouTube.) Many of the points I brought up to Madlittlepixel are already in this article. He gave me this response:

“I wouldnt (sic) consider this killing a functional console, Saturns won’t last forever. Ive (sic) had and still have a couple Saturns that had dead disc drives.. these types of things give them a second life. There were well over 10 million Saturns manufactured. These Chinese sellers sourcing even a few thousand junk Saturns on the cheap isnt (sic) killing anything. Ive (sic) my doubts they are taking fully functioning Saturns and tossing the drives and shells, they are getting crap noone (sic) wanted and making them into something kinda unique and profiting,” he wrote.

Let us start with, “Saturns won’t last forever.” These mods are using real Saturns. How will the AliExpress Saturn last longer than a recapped stock Saturn? Arguably, these are actually doing some damage based on what is happening to the power supply pins. Saying this as an argument in favor of AliExpress Saturns makes no logical sense.

“Ive (sic) had and still have a couple Saturns that had dead disc drives:” People can use a SAROO on consoles with dead disc drives. They can also use other ODE devices and accessories that these AliExpress Saturns cannot. One does not need to tear out a motherboard and cram it into a smaller case to give the Saturn a “second life.” If anything, this does the opposite.

“There were well over 10 million Saturns manufactured:” By SEGA’s own numbers, 8.8 million Saturns sold worldwide. Perhaps more were manufactured, but 10 million still pales in comparison to other popular consoles.

“These Chinese sellers sourcing even a few thousand junk Saturns on the cheap isnt (sic) killing anything:” We do not know how many they are sourcing or how they are sourcing them. The sellers are not revealing this information.

“Ive my doubts they are taking fully functioning Saturns and tossing the drives and shells, they are getting crap noone (sic) wanted and making them into something kinda unique and profiting:” Again, we do not know this. But we do know that they are not afraid to use VA15 boards. Assuming these are indeed broken Saturns being flipped, this means those Saturns were repairable — common and rare variants alike.

Many supporters in the comments also praise these as an “affordable” alternative to a real Saturn, but as I have clearly pointed out to the readers of this article, they are actually more expensive.

Most untested or broken Saturns can be easily repaired with cheap capacitor kits and some soldering. It is a useful skill and can be relatively easy to learn. Even still, people buying a Saturn today will be able to find a functioning console at a price far lower than the cost of an AliExpress Saturn.

Bottom line

I am not trying to be some kind of hardware purist. Use FPGA, use emulators, blast through Panzer Dragoon on a smartphone with touchscreen controls if you have to. Segata Sanshiro said “You must play Sega Saturn.” He did not specify how. A silver lining takeaway is perhaps these AliExpress Saturns are introducing more people to the console. It just sucks that their experience will be limited.

I am also not railing against console mods. I would even argue that selling large handheld Saturns in a weird Game Gear looking shell would be valid, since that at least offers up a unique experience. There are many current and upcoming Saturn mods that allow users to do so much more with the stock machine. This particular mod instead takes away features and raises the price.

Simply put, if you buy this, you are being ripped off. It is a more expensive Saturn that can do less. If you really really want one, it is your money. Do with it as you please. But know that for a lower price, you can just get a regular Saturn without locking away any of its abilities — and it just so happens that buying a regular Saturn does not support the mass destruction of consoles in the wild.