Does anyone own Game Basic for Sega Saturn?

[Steven Pendleton]

I am considering buying Game Basic for Sega Saturn to use some of the music to build a new MD+ game for the MegaSD. I do not know how the audio on the disc is stored, though, so I do not know if I would be able to access it. I also do not have a Saturn, so I don't have any way to access the stuff that you can do using the Saturn itself. I guess Game Basic for Sega Saturn comes with a special cable that connects your Saturn to your mid-90s computer so you can do some stuff with it, but I'm not sure of the details.

 

In the highly unlikely case that someone here has Game Basic for Sega Saturn, I'd really appreciate some help in figuring out how the audio is stored so I don't waste my money buying the damn thing in case I can't extract it. If it's Red Book audio, that's great since I can just put the disc in my computer and pull the audio off with no problems.

[imstarryeyed]

On 4/15/2020 at 7:17 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

.. some help in figuring out how the audio is stored so I don't waste my money buying the damn thing in case I can't extract it. If it's Red Book audio, that's great since I can just put the disc in my computer and pull the audio off with no problems.

Hello Steven, I have GameBasic for Sega Saturn.. its really great but the manuals being in Japanese (even though the language is essentially English).

 

Its been years since I used it, but to try to answer your question.  I remember the music you made was system level and was saved in a file and not redbook.  I think there was an included BASIC program that allowed you to make simple tunes, but if I remember you would play notes or music in a file and it would play.  If I can get my stuff out of storage I can try to dig up my book and look at it again, its been a long time.

 

The program comes with a cable to plug into a 25 pin Serial port on the PC.  It works really good and is fun to work with but if there was a way to get the language manual translated would be great.

 

Looking at the BASIC it is very robust and gives access to your controllers, expansions, chips, etc and is very easy to program for.  You can program on your PC and download the program to the system.  You can create on the PC and save or you can type on your keyboard right on the unit (like a commodore 64) or use the cable to type from your PC keyboard right to the Saturn as well...  very very cool..  I really enjoyed it when I first got it and there was a small US community I was part of that was struggling with it.  

 

The install disc (2 discs are included 1 for the Sega Saturn and the other is the program for Windows 95/97) for the PC is for Japanese Windows 95 / 97 and will install in an US system but the fonts will all be wrong and show up as blanks or lines.. Again I would love to get a modern USB adapter or solution to get it to run in Win 10 or so and the BASIC instruction set to be in English.  If that was the case I think it would have stood a much better chance but this was deemed too niche for the USA.

 

The BASIC used seems to be based on GW-BASIC and is very easy but there are a lot of commands that are specific for the Saturn, e.g. Music, 3D models, controllers, graphics, etc.. they are all there but they are in Japanese.  I see you are in Tokyo so perhaps you read Japanese?  If so then it might be a lot of fun for you.

 

I know you can use 3d Studio Max or other 3d program to make models and export them to .DXF format which the Saturn accepts, but they better be simple models or it just wont have enough memory and take too long trying to import it.

 

I do want to get back to this one day as it is so much fun, if I can commission someone to create a new terminal program that works with the system we all can make programs and games.  It was super easy to program on, I did my best playing with the commands but my Japanese was not good enough to read the manuals.

 

[Steven Pendleton]

On 4/22/2020 at 10:00 AM, imstarryeyed said:

Hello Steven, I have GameBasic for Sega Saturn.. its really great but the manuals being in Japanese (even though the language is essentially English).

 

Its been years since I used it, but to try to answer your question.  I remember the music you made was system level and was saved in a file and not redbook.  I think there was an included BASIC program that allowed you to make simple tunes, but if I remember you would play notes or music in a file and it would play.  If I can get my stuff out of storage I can try to dig up my book and look at it again, its been a long time.

 

The program comes with a cable to plug into a 25 pin Serial port on the PC.  It works really good and is fun to work with but if there was a way to get the language manual translated would be great.

 

Looking at the BASIC it is very robust and gives access to your controllers, expansions, chips, etc and is very easy to program for.  You can program on your PC and download the program to the system.  You can create on the PC and save or you can type on your keyboard right on the unit (like a commodore 64) or use the cable to type from your PC keyboard right to the Saturn as well...  very very cool..  I really enjoyed it when I first got it and there was a small US community I was part of that was struggling with it.  

 

The install disc (2 discs are included 1 for the Sega Saturn and the other is the program for Windows 95/97) for the PC is for Japanese Windows 95 / 97 and will install in an US system but the fonts will all be wrong and show up as blanks or lines.. Again I would love to get a modern USB adapter or solution to get it to run in Win 10 or so and the BASIC instruction set to be in English.  If that was the case I think it would have stood a much better chance but this was deemed too niche for the USA.

 

The BASIC used seems to be based on GW-BASIC and is very easy but there are a lot of commands that are specific for the Saturn, e.g. Music, 3D models, controllers, graphics, etc.. they are all there but they are in Japanese.  I see you are in Tokyo so perhaps you read Japanese?  If so then it might be a lot of fun for you.

 

I know you can use 3d Studio Max or other 3d program to make models and export them to .DXF format which the Saturn accepts, but they better be simple models or it just wont have enough memory and take too long trying to import it.

 

I do want to get back to this one day as it is so much fun, if I can commission someone to create a new terminal program that works with the system we all can make programs and games.  It was super easy to program on, I did my best playing with the commands but my Japanese was not good enough to read the manuals.

 

Sorry, I kind of forgot to get back to you since it got buried in a ton of other stuff...

 

Anyway, yeah, I'm looking for the Alisia Dragoon Saturn OST so I can make MD+ Alisia Dragoon. Alisia Dragoon has its own Saturn OST on Game Basic for Sega Saturn. I think it is on the disc that you put in the Saturn, from what I can tell. Here is the proof:

 

 

I was actually able to locate a low quality rip of pretty much everything that I need several months ago, but I want it in a lossless format, and I believe it does actually need to be a .wav file to work on the MegaSD anyway. No point in converting lossy .mp3 to .wav at all, so I was thinking about getting the actual discs to see what I can do. I've pulled music and audio from game discs before using DVD Decrypter, so maybe it's possible with Game Basic for Sega Saturn.

 

It probably uses the Saturn's soundchip rather than actually being prerecorded audio, so it's probably not possible to get it the normal way. I could buy a Saturn since I want one anyway and plug it into my computer with Audacity and just let the music run. I'd still get what I want in a lossless format, but it would be slightly more involved than just pulling it right from the disc.

 

I can read Japanese to some extent provided I know what I am looking at. If not, I can just do like what Japanese people do, which is to guess the meaning of the kanji based on the radicals and try to figure out what it means.

 

Anyway, yeah, let me know if you find it!

Edited May 3, 2020 by Steven Pendleton
spelling

[imstarryeyed]

I think i remember that music on there.  I am due to move my storage unit soon and I will be happy to pull out the disc and get to the bottom of it for you.

 

I will post here and send you a PM once I can move my storage, waiting until it is safe from COVID at the moment, but I really want to move it.

[Steven Pendleton]

1 hour ago, imstarryeyed said:

I think i remember that music on there.  I am due to move my storage unit soon and I will be happy to pull out the disc and get to the bottom of it for you.

 

I will post here and send you a PM once I can move my storage, waiting until it is safe from COVID at the moment, but I really want to move it.

Alright, great, thanks.

[DragonGrafx-16]

https://archive.org/download/redump.ss/Game Basic for SegaSaturn (Japan).zip

[atari1byte]

hello everyone!

I would like to know how I can use game basic with an emulator that includes the keyboard...
I can't find an emulator that includes the keyboard...
can you help me please?
Thank you very much...
 

[Boschloo]

On 4/21/2020 at 9:00 PM, imstarryeyed said:

Looking at the BASIC it is very robust and gives access to your controllers, expansions, chips, etc and is very easy to program for.  You can program on your PC and download the program to the system.  You can create on the PC and save or you can type on your keyboard right on the unit (like a commodore 64) or use the cable to type from your PC keyboard right to the Saturn as well...  very very cool..  I really enjoyed it when I first got it and there was a small US community I was part of that was struggling with it.  

So this was essentially a regular Saturn disc that you played on a stock Saturn, and it came with Windows 95 install CDs? I see the Saturn disc on the Internet Archive, I wonder if the Win95 install media is available anywhere.

[imstarryeyed]

@Boschloo

 

Yes the system comes with 2 discs one pc disc and one saturn disc.  The pc one is easy to dump if it is not already available as it only has one or two tiny windows programs on it.  If I recall the program required Japanese 95 at the time of the menus would look corrupt but still worked.  I still have my copy in storage with the cable.  The cable was not a simple cable and had a box in the middle of it. 

 

You do need the pc to saturn cable to connect it if you are going to use the pc to download the code into the saturn. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by imstarryeyed