As was common with consoles in the 90’s, the Saturn comes with a region locked bios. This is a problem if you live outside of Japan & want to play imports, as a large number of Saturn games were never localized due to the consoles short lifespan. There are workarounds, however they tend to require messing around with archaic software or unreliable cheat device cartridges.
The ideal solution is to make the console region free by replacing the BIOS chip with a pre-flashed alternative. This will allow your Saturn to boot games from any region.
Depending on your console and motherboard revision this be very easy or quite difficult. The tutorial below is for an original VA0 board with a through hole BIOS chip.
Its ideal to add fresh solder in order to prep this large through hole chip for removal. A simple drag solder technique is a quick way to add more solder/flux to each pin quickly.
Note: a desoldering gun is strongly recommended for this type of BIOS swap
Holding the board sideways and lightly applying the weight of the gun should be enough to let each pin go molten. Avoid putting to much pressure on the gun or leaving the tip on the board for too long, otherwise you run the risk of damaging traces/pads.
If you’ve done everything correctly the old chip should slide out easily on its own. Do note that some model Saturns have epoxy under the bios chip – in which case you will have to hit it with hot air in order to finish the job.
Just as before – drag soldering across all of the pins should be enough to finish the installation. I recommend you use flux when soldering in the new chip.
Cleaning up the board makes for a nice finish.
A video of the above install.