Looking at possibly emulating the Sega Saturn

[jce3000gt]

It has been about 5 years since I bothered to look in to Saturn emulation and it was pretty terrible. Have things improved? I really want to play mostly RPGs so I dunno if that helps.

[SignGuy81]

Back when I was into emulators I used emulator-zone website a lot, they have ratings of the emulators they list to help give an idea of what is good or bad here is page for saturn http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/saturn/

[Flojomojo]

There's a lot of green on the compatibility list. http://wiki.yabause.org/index.php5?title=Compatibility_list

 

That said, I will break with my usual advice here and side with the "real hardware" people. If you have a way to play burned discs or load SD cards, I think that would be a better way to play Saturn games. In this case, emulation isn't nearly good enough.

[jce3000gt]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I've heard yabause isn't very good with audio. And I care more about audio than video. I would love real to use hardware as that would always be my preference however my 3 HDTVs do NOT like any pre-PS2 console. Nothing older than a PS2 will work and I am not buying a Framemeister so I'm pretty screwed if an SCART to Component converter doesn't work with my Saturn on these TVs. I already tried a DVD Recorder and while it worked with my 3DO (no input lag too!) the video was pretty crappy even using S-Video so I know the Saturn will be the same. I'm pissed that modern TVs don't accept older S-Video. Absolutely pissed.

Edited May 22, 2017 by jce3000gt

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Get ouYabause .... it's stunning! Not perfect but I'm a believer

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_cZXB-zPvU

[Jagosaurus]

Best bet is to find a LCD from 2008 or so... you can get a 27 inch for around $100. 1/3 less than a Framemeister & not as bulky as a CRT. My 2007 Vizio & 2008 Sony Bravia both accept all the retro signals via composite, s video, and VGA (Vizio 640x480 RGB VGA). They do not however accept 240i over component. I'm assuming yours has the inputs that double as composite & component which is no bueno for the older signals.

 

I'm not video expert, but a stock SCART to component box won't fix your issue. You need a scaler or line doubler to make the TV think it is accepting supported resolution (which it is after being processed by the Framemeister or OSSC).

[SignGuy81]

Hisense so far is one brand, at least for my 55" 1080p smart TV that does accept 240 over component. It is the only LCD TV I've tried that will allow me to play PS1 games on my PS2 with the component cables. Every other, just as the person described above, required me to switch back to composite cables to play PS1 games on the PS2. Also this TV gives you a lot of inputs, 4 HDMI inputs.

Edited May 23, 2017 by SignGuy81

[NE146]

I had good luck with SSF.. it played Radiant Silvergun pretty much full speed. I think I snagged the ISO of it and mounted it as a disk in order to use.

 

 

[Jagosaurus]

Yes, get ready for disc mounting unless recent revisions have changed this. DL Dameon Tools.

[jce3000gt]

Thanks all. I'll try out these options out mentioned above. Hopefully I'll get a good solution. I'm dying to play these RPGs and other discs I've got.

[Eltigro]

I've had a bit of luck lately using Mednafen, but it may have been the ISOs I was getting. Still having issues downloading good ones. Not sure if the source is bad or if something gets corrupted in the dow load. But got Albert Odyssey, In The Hunt, Radiant Silvergun, Clockwork Knight, and Layer Section to work over the last couple of days. I still have SSF and Yabause downloaded, so I may try the new downloads with them again to see if it was the emulator or the ISO.

 

Has anyone here had any experience with the different emulators and multidisc games? Like if I wanted to play Panzer Dragoon Saga (a game which is probably forever out of my reach financially), what happens at the end of disc 1?

 

I'm really looking forward to the day when that Saturn back door USB card thing or whatever is released. Was reminded of it on a Saturnology Youtube Livestream Monday. It will be so very nice to be able to play something on real hardware at least.

[Lordmonkus]

Mednafen is the best choice for Saturn emulation right now. The stand alone version and the Retroarch version are both equally good in its emulation but the stand alone does have analog controller support while for some unknown reason the Retroarch version does not.

Both are also picky about disk images compared to Yabause or SSF.

 

As for swapping disks I use Retroarch which allows you to swap them out using the RA menu. I think the stand alone has a way to swap disks but I cannot say this for a fact since I do not use it on a regular basis.