The Official Sega Saturn Thread!

[Yakumo1975]

I use a Hitachi Hi-Saturn which the laser is starting to fail in now after 30 odd years of use.  But the Saitator still allows me to use the system without worry. 

I just bought Legend of Oasis (is that the English name?) for it.  Ripped the disc to an ISO and Cue file, plonked it on to my SATURN SD Card and off I go playing on original hardware👍

[SlidellMan]

Grandia - All Spells and Moves:

Sonic Council:

 

[+atari2600land]

I don't know what the brand of my cartridge is. All it says is "Memory Card Plus".

 

When I bought it, I had the choice of an American Saturn or a Japanese Saturn. One of the reasons I went with the US one was because it was cheaper. And because I was in America. But I don't know whether I'd like the Japanese games. I'm a pretty odd gamer: I like puzzles, racing, and platformers on occassion.

[SlidellMan]

Good news on Sega Saturn hacking:

Romhacking.net - Hacks - Sega Jingle + Easter Egg Restoration

[phoenixdownita]

On 3/15/2024 at 8:11 PM, atari2600land said:

I don't know what the brand of my cartridge is. All it says is "Memory Card Plus".

The MCP is a region free device as well so original JP games will work, as well as original EU (bar the few that were PAL optimized and may show some issues on NTSC machines).

I have 2 of them, one reflashed with PSKai … not that I need it because my 2 Saturn have modchips and region free bios … still PSKai would allow MCP play backups in case (but it looses the memcard feature) … for PSKai an AR is a better donor at least it keeps the extra RAM functionality on that one.

 

https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/

 

Edited March 17 by phoenixdownita

[+atari2600land]

Whoever made Baku Baku 1-player to always face a computer needs a slow and painful death and then burn in the lakes of fire of Hell for all eternity. I just want to play it without having to WIN anything. I don't want to try to defeat computer players. That is just STUPID.

[SlidellMan]

I don't know if you guys are still keeping tabs on Saturn Homebrews, but there's a new one called Cold Case in development.

https://segaxtreme.net/threads/sega-saturn-29th-anniversary-game-competition.25411/post-184675

Oh, and Shadows of the Tusk is also getting an English Translation.

[SlidellMan]

Zero Divide The Final Conflict:

Zoom's only Sega Saturn game.

[SlidellMan]

Also known as Gran Chaser, and the Japanese version has a much more fitting soundtrack.

[SlidellMan]

Ninpen Manmaru:

Enix and Tam Tam's 3D Platform game.

[tripletopper]

I probably used to live in a school district where a lot of people had Saturn but none of the stores did.  We had to go out of town to pick up Saturday and it was well worth it. 

 

Our main core group of three friends even got split over the whole 32x/Saturn fiasco.

 

I got the 32x on day 1.  One of my friends was saving it for the Saturn.  And the other one of my friends was such a big say good night that he both bought the 32x and tried to get the Saturn on day one which I think he did.

 

Funny thing about the 32x was that on day two, of what was  the number one selling system on day one of all time to that point, the 32x, on day 2, Sega announced the Saturn was coming to the United States.  

 

At first we were under the impression that it was going to be two different localized systems 32x for the US markets and Saturn for the Japanese Market.

 

I bought the Saturn before the "free three games pack" and before the N64 came out which I also got.  

 

The three of us even had a quasi relationship with a fairly out of town video rental store where we supplied the games for rent to a video rental store and then we just organically took them back whenever we wanted to play them when they weren't out or when the  deal wad eventually done.  Each of us were making an average of Saturn game a month income.  We quit eventually because a couple of our games got stolen.  What game we doubled up on to one of us buying individual Guardian Heroes with stolen so I made a deal.  I did out of my deal with them when I found Guardian heroes for cheap in a used record store for like 10 bucks.

 

Someone mentioned Video Game exchange earlier I'd like to thank the person who worked at Video Game Exchange in Southgate Ohio for both pointing me to one of the real first early retro stores video game connection on Memphis Road in Cleveland.  I was asking for ColecoVision games and back then as soon as 1985 came I never found a Colecovision game in the wild a video game exchange Record exchange or Funcoland.

 

The best thing he did was tell a second strategy where you can pick up precreash games real cheap: garage sales and thrift stores like Goodwill.  I've been popping those tags since the '90s looking for ColecoVision games but never found one in the wild even though I found lots of other old systems in the wild.  I also bought a Colecovision at that unique really old retro video game store that's  been around a long time.  I also bought a Eternal Champions CD that day.

 

I became the most popular guy in the group when I bought Bomberman.  Most people talk about games of GoldenEye or Mario Party but we were talking about while playing Bomberman,Guardian heroes virtual cop the near arcade perfect Capcom Fighters and another found party favorites Decathlete.

 

Actually going through thrift stores and stuff made me find enough Saturn controllers where I could host an NHL game complete with human goalies with no computer opponents.  Yes the Saturn can handle 12 players. We never actually played NHL till we got it late in the thrift store era but we could have. 

 

That was my college years.  Thrift shopping for old games and bargain hunting for new games on the Saturn.

 

And I got the one Saturn purchase on a fight game I can actually win against the guys mainly by maintaining strategic swapping of characters namely X-Men versus Street Fighter.

 

Before I had any doubles I literally maybe have sold one or 2 games in my life.  It was Wacky Worlds for the Sega Genesis.  It was a creative studio that wasn't very creative.

 

AH memories.

 

That's basically my history with the Saturn.

[tripletopper]

I got a couple things I don't know how to use exactly.  Ihave a Pseudo Saturn Kai that's supposedly lets me play burnt Saturn games, and let's be play foreign  Saturn game.

 

I also bought a Dreamcast SD card reader that goes in the back slot and appropriate CDR that lets you boot to that SD card.

 

The problem is mostly instructions are for PCs and I have never had a PC.  Our first two computers were an Apple IIe and an Atari 800.  Then we never owned a new computer till 1999 when this new thing called the internet came about.

 

My point about mentioning the fact that we never had a PC is I don't know any Mac specific instructions about either downloading games preparing them to be used on a CDR for the Saturn, or microSD card for the Dreamcast. 

 

I don't understand either process.  I've wasted about 10 CDRs trying to burn for the Saturn but all of them were failures.

 

a little help?

 

By the way I clicked on that link that talked about bin files and ROM files and I cannot make heads or tails of it cuz there's no Mac specific instructions. 

 

Also how is Safari in terms of downloading ROMs?

[SlidellMan]

Something new on the Saturn Homebrew front:

Granted, these are all experiments, but they do show some potential.

[Van Halbgott]

Back when I wanted a Sega Saturn during school, I later worked enough to afford not just the localized black Model 1 system but also a copy of Nights into Dreams and a 3D Control Pad to play it properly.

 

I had bought all three of them on Amazon and fell in love but stressed out over figuring out how to play the game before I got a Night Over.

 

Eventually, I mastered the game, defeated the evil Wizeman...and didn't get to see the closing cinematic for both Claris and Elliot likely because either the disc was worn or the Saturn wasn't reading, so I viewed the cinematics on YouTube and can happily confirm that I actually beat a Sega video game that I enjoy.

 

Tried to use memory cartridges too but the Saturn was being picky with each of the two I've owned: the third-party model survived while the first-party model deteriorated and broke because I fooled with it learning how to properly use a memory cartridge on a Saturn...but the other one reads just fine if I adjust it.

 

Maybe the other user was right about the games being so pricey that you only can afford a few games per system...but I wanted a Saturn because I like Sega and was able to afford it at the time, and I still play Nights and Virtua Fighter 1 and 2 as if I bought those games along with the system back in the late 90s.

 

Anybody who likes Nights into Dreams or Virtua Fighter can look at the fansites too: http://www.nightsintodreams.com/ https://virtuafighter.com/

 

And then there's Sega Saturn, Shiro too that I discovered while using WordPress: https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/

 

Yeah, I am a huge Sega nut usually because I wanted to play something old yet new to me.

 

Then I bought an Atari 2600: who knows what might happen next as I collect more video game stuff...or if I get an NES for that matter.

 

 

[SiberianSpForces]

@tripletopper Is your PSKai already on a flash cart? As far as burning discs, you want something like ImgBurn to burn the cue file.

[eightbit]

55 minutes ago, SiberianSpForces said:

@tripletopper Is your PSKai already on a flash cart? As far as burning discs, you want something like ImgBurn to burn the cue file.

+1 for ImgBurn

 

If going the disc route it is imperative also to burn at 8X or less. Don't expect 16X speed or higher burns to work properly or at all. 

 

Sadly you'll need an older CD burner as burners made today cannot burn at lower speeds. The same goes for PS1 burns. I tried just the other day to burn Einhander at 16X with my modern PC just to see if this console can handle it, but the cinematics were a choppy mess. Went over to my P4 rig and burned it the same way (same media type) at 8X and it works smooth as butter.

 

I don't think a lot of people realize this at all honestly. 

 

One more reason moving over to ODE' s for playing backups is just a more feasible option in today's world.

[tripletopper]

2 issues:

 

The Pseudo Saturn Kai was preprinted on a Sega Saturn Cartridge Slot cartridge, bought at a store, but I can't figure it out.

 

The Dreamcast reader uses an Expansion Slot SD Card Reader and a CD-R to get the Dreamcast to access it.

 

There are two problems with this burning.  One is that some sites have them in different formats and other sites have them another formats. Some are more directly usable by computers and some are more directly usable by the original hardware.  I don't know which is which or how to get it from one form to the other. 

 

The other issue is I need Mac specific instructions and all these things you talk about don't have a Mac version. 

 

I do have roxio toast for Macintosh and was wondering if that would help me get it working.

 

I know I could get it down to 8X possibly 4X and it burns correctly... I think.

 

I understand there are different forms of discs like PC dats discs, Mac data discs, CD music discs.  What format would a Saturn Disc be considered?

 

I would like the instructions to make it run on original Saturn hardware and Dreamcast hardware.

 

Thankfully my internet is finally up to 50 M in 50 M out, so it won't take all day to load a disc. 

 

What format should the CD and the SD card be in respectively.  I have an unformatted 512 gig micro SD card from SanDisk. 

 

Nowhere on the internet can I find Mac-specific instructions for this.

[eightbit]

I have no idea about the DC expansion slot SD reader. I use a GDEMU and that was really easily to set up...but again I used a Windows application to do so (GDMenu Card Manager). So I will be of no help to you there.

 

For Saturn, you should be looking for .BIN/.CUE rips. Usually it will be multiple .BIN files and a .CUE file. 

 

But, you'll need to find a burning app on Mac that will burn BIN/CUE format. I am not a Mac person so you should ask someone maybe in some Mac forums?

 

Or, alternately, dual boot the Mac with Windows and use Windows to do this stuff. Or, Linux.

[tripletopper]

First of all the SD card reader in the Dreamcast expansion slots will not destroy your GD reader.

 

Second of all Mac got rid of dual boot as early as Mac OS 12.  They're currently on Mac OS 14. Anything with an "M processor" will not work with Windows.

 

Let's just say I feared windows ever since the only way I could get someone to stop tapping into the windows portion of my Mac was literally physically unplugging the power cord in the computer and then erasing it clean from the Mac side.

 

After that I vowed never again.  

 

When it comes to PC viruses I'm like Adrian Monk.  I try to avoid them if I can't deal with them.

[phoenixdownita]

I read that https://burn-osx.sourceforge.io/Pages/English/home.html can be still used.

You should be able to just open the .cue files with it (many dumps are in cue/bin format).

 

For the DC you need to burn dreamshell4 (same as above) and that allows you access to the SDreader, that you attach to the serial port. 
I can’t remember if “teh romz” have to be in a specific format for the sd … way back when you were able to find many DC games downgraded to fit a MIL-CD usually by removing or heavily compress any and all animations, so that’s another way too (make sure your DC can boot MIL-CD … if it can boot dreamshell you are good,  va0/va1 mb can do it while va2 not so much [sticker bottom of DC tells you that]).

Edited Thursday at 03:03 PM by phoenixdownita

[SiberianSpForces]

16 hours ago, tripletopper said:

Pseudo Saturn Kai was preprinted on a Sega Saturn Cartridge Slot cartridge, bought at a store, but I can't figure it out.

Should just pop the cart in and the burned or import disc, then start it up and it should boot up PSK. Then hit Start Game. Now if I could get the Ultimate Symphony of the Night to play on disc.... 😝

[tripletopper]

The problem is I don't know how to burn the disc right on a Macintosh to get it to play every time I put a burnt disc, it says there are errors.

 

I understand there are two versions of the Saturn files ones made for computer emulators and ones made to run natively on Saturn hardware.

 

Also there are two different versions of Dreamcast ROMs ones compacted to fit on a CD and ones that fit on a full GD.

 

I assume if I have a Saturn hardware I want the ones made for the Saturn hardware, not the ones made for computers, and if I got a 512 gig MicroSD card I want the one that are the full GD versions of Dreamcast games.

 

How do I tell the difference between those corresponding pairs of Saturn files and Dreamcast files?

 

I know that .bin files is what the Saturn uses and the .cue files are individual tracks that are marked off as CD music tracks if I'm correct that can be accessed on a regular CD player if they were .wav and not .cue .

 

I'm getting too many errors with the Saturn disc running and don't know how to fix it.

 

Add to the fact I got a Macintosh which now is no longer PC compatible because Apple took out PC compatibility as of OS12, when they switch from Intels to M processors.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

2 hours ago, tripletopper said:

The problem is I don't know how to burn the disc right on a Macintosh to get it to play every time I put a burnt disc, it says there are errors.

 

I understand there are two versions of the Saturn files ones made for computer emulators and ones made to run natively on Saturn hardware.

 

Also there are two different versions of Dreamcast ROMs ones compacted to fit on a CD and ones that fit on a full GD.

 

I assume if I have a Saturn hardware I want the ones made for the Saturn hardware, not the ones made for computers, and if I got a 512 gig MicroSD card I want the one that are the full GD versions of Dreamcast games.

 

How do I tell the difference between those corresponding pairs of Saturn files and Dreamcast files?

 

I know that .bin files is what the Saturn uses and the .cue files are individual tracks that are marked off as CD music tracks if I'm correct that can be accessed on a regular CD player if they were .wav and not .cue .

 

I'm getting too many errors with the Saturn disc running and don't know how to fix it.

 

Add to the fact I got a Macintosh which now is no longer PC compatible because Apple took out PC compatibility as of OS12, when they switch from Intels to M processors.

I will state right now that 10 years ago I didn't have any issues burning such 'backups' for my Saturn and DC. But that changed a few years ago because as it turns out, you really have to burn the discs at as slow a speed as possible. A more recent example of this, is that I made like 4 or 5 coasters trying to burn wav files onto a CD for standard audio playback in my sega CD. The reason being that the game I was playing at that time, allowed you to use an audio CD for the OST vs FM sound and I wanted to get that working. No luck using about a half different burning software applications. I suspect the main issue is that my DVD burner is about 5 years old and the slowest speed it will burn at it is like 16x or something. As a result, the data doesn't seem to be getting made in a way that the SegaCD will accept. I finally had a buddy of mine out of state that still has a working 4x CD burner, burn the image onto a CD at 1x speed for me. And sure enough, that worked without any issue on the first try on my SegaCD.

 

Now, before you or someone says that I must not have specified the audio CD format properly, one of those coasters...is in my car right now playing the songs without issue as has my PC and a few other CD players. So the disc was burned to the right format, but the speed and perhaps quality of the CD being used just wasn't going to cut it for working on my older retro consoles anymore. 

 

BTW...the .GDI format is the one for raw or uncompressed Dreamcast images designed to be burned on to actual GD-ROM discs. The Bin/Cue format along with IMG and others is for everything else pretty much. I know that the RHEA in my Saturn has mostly Bin/cue. I also have bin/cue on my MODE in my Dreamcast, but I also have a few .GDI images as well since again those tend to be uncompressed and not have items stripped out of the contents.

 

[eightbit]

As @-^CrossBow^- said, burning speed is the key. Burning backups for many years I know this to be true ever since trying to burn the CDI rip of "Skies of Arcadia" for the Dreamcast. That rip will not play right unless burned at 4X or slower. It was then that I had realized the importance of burning at slow speeds to get these backups running properly. Same goes for the SegaCD, although I did get away with burning games at 8X speed and those worked fine depending on the media used (quality media). 

 

The .CDI rips (releases by the groups back in the day) did some things to make those Dreamcast games fit on a 700MB CD-R. Sometimes FMV was removed or downsampled and so on. I recall releasing a title or two where I converted the 44KHz audio tracks to 22KHz to make things fit on a CD-R with some games. The things people tried to pull off to get as much of the game into 700MB were actually quite impressive.

 

Now, the .GDI images are pure 1:1 copies of the original games with nothing ripped out, and no cracktro's. Those are ultimately what you would want to play if at all possible today on a Dreamcast obviously. But, as no commercial GD writers or GD-R discs exist for the general public you are limited to either using them in emulators or on a real Dreamcast via some ODE. I use the GDEMU clone in mine and the experience is superb.

 

Because the hurdles mentioned above, trying to burn games to CD-R today is just not worth it unless you don't have the money to buy ODE's. If that is the case you can find an old PC with a slow burner, get some spindles of Verbatim or Memorex CD-R media and go to town. I have moved my Saturn and DC to ODE's and thank goodness for that. The only console I am burning discs for (for now) is the PS1 and trust me as soon as I can obtain a PSIO that will be enough of that as well.

[tripletopper]

For the Dreamcast I have a micro SD card reader that plugs into the Dreamcast specific expansion port in the back.  I'll try downloading a.gdi emergency if that works on the Dreamcast player or MicroSD cards on the Dreamcast.