8 MEG Memory Back-up Cartridge

Description

The 8 MEG Memory Back-Up Cartridge is a pared-down variant of the first-generation Pro Action Replay hardware, built on Datel’s earliest Sega Saturn PCB revision: REF 1110 from late 1995. The board combines discrete logic, an AMD PALCE20V8H programmable array logic chip and a TI 74HC245A octal bus transceiver—with two SST NH29EE010 1-Megabit EEPROMs, yielding 2 Mbit (256 KB) of battery-free non-volatile flash storage. Because Datel standardized this base PCB across its initial Saturn lineup, the top edge still features the 15-pin PC communications interface contacts from the Pro Action Replay, though they remain unused alongside the omitted cheat engine.

Rather than functioning as a direct, memory-mapped backup device during gameplay, the cartridge stores its own boot firmware on the EEPROMs alongside user save data. Upon startup, the console boots directly from the cartridge into Datel’s onboard file-copy interface, allowing saves to be manually transferred between the Saturn’s internal memory and the cart. To achieve its advertised “8 MEG” capacity from only 2 Mbit of physical flash, the utility compresses save files in software as they are written to the EEPROMs. This differs from the official Backup Memory, which did not employ compression. Overall, this provided a cheap solution, trading native in-game saving for higher storage density.