I have a saturn of course and yeah my games are sooo scratched up. I don't have a modded saturn so I was wondering if I could back up games and still play them on my saturn unmodded. I have read a few things about this "saturn ring" that seems to be a big pain to get by. the copy protection is supposedly on the outside of the cd making it hard to duplicate

You need a modded saturn to play backup games,just install
a modchip.

where does one acquire a saturn mod chip

You can play it on a non-chipped saturn using a swap trick.

www.segaxtreme.com

I prefer a saturn modchip, however.

www.jandaman.com

Sorry to bump an older thread, but here's some links of mine for reference:

Saturn Modchip Installation
Cheap plug for my Saturn Modchips (Cheaper than Jandaman)
Swap Trick Info