One of the ways Sega ensured that the Sega Saturn console only played original games was by making a physical mark on each game. This means that when the game was being read, the system would also then look out for the mark to make sure that the game they were playing was a genuine Saturn game.
This also meant that back in the day, cracking the console was near impossible, but fast forward two decades later, engineer James Laird-Wah has successfully done what was not possible back then. How this was done was by sourcing a mod chip for the Saturn console. He then used the peripheral slot on the back of the console to bypass the game’s disk drive, which ultimately meant that he was able to get the console to read and write files from a USB drive.
That being said before you get too excited, it should be noted that this is a hack that is still in the works. It isn’t 100% up and running yet, but it looks like one of the harder hurdles has been overcome. We’re not sure if Laird-Wah plans on selling his hack, but then again given that the console is 20 years old, apart from collecting it as a piece of history we’re not sure what else one is able to do with it.
However in the meantime if you are curious, you can watch the video above in which Laird-Wah takes us through what he has done so far.