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Sega Saturn... anything worth playing?


vaderag

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Posted

How is the Saturn the hardest to setup? It's not hard at all. The only issue with the Saturn if your are using SSF as your emulator as you should,  is that you can't run it with a bezel unless you are in windowed mode in which case you get a tiny window. 

 

If you go full screen while keeping the aspect ratio, you may or may not get black bars on the sides because games were made in all sorts of different resolutions. On the plus side you get perfect scanlines.

 

If you don't like black bars, you make it stretch to fill the csreen but this screws up the scanlines.

I personally found it to be a massive headache getting this to work. Between having to find a version of Daemon tools that actually worked SSF on Windows 10, figuring out how to do bin/cue files for the first time, learning how to convernt non bin/cue files, setting up the controls was HORRIBLE.

Then, you have all the options... I don't know what 90% of them mean, or even do. There so out there I couldn't even begin to guess as to their functions.

and even still, now when I boot up games in Hyperspin via RocketLauncher, half of them don't give me a stretch to full-screen. I get black-bars on the top/bottom/sides, no matter what I do to that stupid module, or how many times I save my settings.

Especially since I can make it work right outside hyperspin. lol

It's by far the most complicated emulator I have ever setup.

I'll also throw in that the lack of shaders really sucks. This emulator needs a RetroArch core SO bad.

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Posted

Ive heard the Earthworm Jim 2 is the best version on the saturn!

Have so much other games to play right now tho, so i might as well wait until the retroarch core becomes stable enough!

Posted

Ive heard the Earthworm Jim 2 is the best version on the saturn!

Have so much other games to play right now tho, so i might as well wait until the retroarch core becomes stable enough!

Might have just been the way I setup SSF (Complex options... seriously, what do like.. ANY of them do?)

But I couldn't get any of the sprites to show up on screen for that game.

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Posted

Might have just been the way I setup SSF (Complex options... seriously, what do like.. ANY of them do?)

But I couldn't get any of the sprites to show up on screen for that game.

Which version of SSF? I keep R3 and R4 both kicking around as I've found some things don't wanna play nice in R4 but work fine for me in R3.

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Posted

Which version of SSF? I keep R3 and R4 both kicking around as I've found some things don't wanna play nice in R4 but work fine for me in R3.

R4, I always get the latest version.

What works better in R3?

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Posted

R4, I always get the latest version.

What works better in R3?

I've had problems with Nights into Dreams and few others I can't remember in R4 with video playback and flickering sprites. I'll have to pour over my R4 setup further to determine if it's something I can fix in the settings but R3 has them working in the meantime.

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Posted

I made sure the game booted, but honestly I've never played it.

That's a huge reason I am doing this project actually. I've always been an avid gamer, but the amount of information on game history and development that I have learned while working on hyper-spin is nothing short of absurd. if there was a degree in video game history, I would be a shoe in. Always more to learn of course, but that's a big part of why I keep doing this. However, reading about games is one thing.

Being able to play things you never could have otherwise, is something special all on it's own. (For example, how ****ing cool is Rocket Knight Adventures!? I can't believe I didn't have that as a kid!)

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Posted

Yeah I agree. That's also why I was so stoked when the Bliss-Box 4-play came out. Not only could I play games I didn't have a chance to before but I could use the proper controller to do it without having to hunt down and setup sometimes incredibly rare consoles and games.

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Posted

Yeah I agree. That's also why I was so stoked when the Bliss-Box 4-play came out. Not only could I play games I didn't have a chance to before but I could use the proper controller to do it without having to hunt down and setup sometimes incredibly rare consoles and games.

Theeeeeee what now?

I use a USB sega Saturn pad for 2D games, and an X1/X360 controller for 3D games.

Honestly, if they would JUST make an Xbox controller with Z/C buttons... it would be everything I've ever wanted in a controller. (No the original Xbox one doesn't count with the black/white lol)

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Posted

Theeeeeee what now?

I use a USB sega Saturn pad for 2D games, and an X1/X360 controller for 3D games.

Honestly, if they would JUST make an Xbox controller with Z/C buttons... it would be everything I've ever wanted in a controller. (No the original Xbox one doesn't count with the black/white lol)

 

This lil guy. Universal adapter. I had a lot of USB modded original controllers and mono-system adaptars beforehand but it never felt perfect. Being able to use the real controllers for each system is just... the tits.

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Posted

I personally found it to be a massive headache getting this to work. Between having to find a version of Daemon tools that actually worked SSF on Windows 10, figuring out how to do bin/cue files for the first time, learning how to convernt non bin/cue files, setting up the controls was HORRIBLE.

Then, you have all the options... I don't know what 90% of them mean, or even do. There so out there I couldn't even begin to guess as to their functions.

and even still, now when I boot up games in Hyperspin via RocketLauncher, half of them don't give me a stretch to full-screen. I get black-bars on the top/bottom/sides, no matter what I do to that stupid module, or how many times I save my settings.

Especially since I can make it work right outside hyperspin. lol

It's by far the most complicated emulator I have ever setup.

I'll also throw in that the lack of shaders really sucks. This emulator needs a RetroArch core SO bad.

 

I just play the games that the Yabause core runs well lately. It's getting better, ever so slowly...

Posted

I just play the games that the Yabause core runs well lately. It's getting better, ever so slowly...

I decided to try it out (I am a HUGE retroarch fan nowadays) but when I booted Sonic R, it was completely unplayable, so I said "YEP, sticking with dirty SSF" lol

But you are saying some DO work well? Any you know of off hand?

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Posted

I had Saturn setup with RetroArch I believe... actually the only system I ever really had setup with RA...

 

Sega Saturn is another Sega 32X... basically two systems that you either love or hate!

 

It's all personal taste with the Saturn.... most of the games were on other systems that did them much better... it's pretty much like going back to Colecovision, A2600, A5200, A7800, and whatever other systems were out in that era.. they all had the same main games and each one probably had a few system only games or some that were better on that certain system.

 

All I'm gonna say is Saturn was the first system I took off my Hyperspin setup and it wasn't for the quality of the games but more for how I wasn't impressed with how the system was emulated. I put Sega Saturn in the same boat with TurboGFX 16, etc. systems that you probably wouldn't miss much if you didn't have them.

Posted

All I'm gonna say is Saturn was the first system I took off my Hyperspin setup and it wasn't for the quality of the games but more for how I wasn't impressed with how the system was emulated. I put Sega Saturn in the same boat with TurboGFX 16, etc. systems that you probably wouldn't miss much if you didn't have them.

 

Interesting. Outside of some comic ads for Bonk (which looked stupid lol) I had ZERO experience with the NEC systems.

That being said, after getting my hands on the games, I would NOT give it up lol. Between Devil's Crush, Castlevania - Rondo of Blood, Ninja Spirit, & Samurai Ghost I've deemed the system an invaluable lost gem lol. I even combined the TG16 and TGCD into a TurboDuo wheel lol

That being said, I had to rip more Shmups out of that console's library than ANY other. (I HATE shmups) and not just by a little, by a LOT, like there was an absurd amount of them.

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Posted

Yeah emulation is kinda hard for the sega saturn with its chipset. That's why I have a modded console that will play backup discs hooked up to my cabinet. It's the best way to go if you love the saturn.

Posted

Interesting. Outside of some comic ads for Bonk (which looked stupid lol) I had ZERO experience with the NEC systems.

That being said, after getting my hands on the games, I would NOT give it up lol. Between Devil's Crush, Castlevania - Rondo of Blood, Ninja Spirit, & Samurai Ghost I've deemed the system an invaluable lost gem lol. I even combined the TG16 and TGCD into a TurboDuo wheel lol

That being said, I had to rip more Shmups out of that console's library than ANY other. (I HATE shmups) and not just by a little, by a LOT, like there was an absurd amount of them.

I thought the tg16 and cd were much like the neo geo cd - just cd quality audio... Am I missing some stuff there???

Posted

I decided to try it out (I am a HUGE retroarch fan nowadays) but when I booted Sonic R, it was completely unplayable, so I said "YEP, sticking with dirty SSF" lol

But you are saying some DO work well? Any you know of off hand?

 

Shinobi Legions, Saturn Bomberman, Cotton Boomerang, Albert Odyssey, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, and Shining Wisdom I've tested as quite playable. The three Panzer Dragoon games run well if you have enough CPU power for it. Someday they want to redo the Yabause core to support hardware accelerated video like the stand alone version, which will help the speed a lot.

 

For Sonic R, the best way to play on a modern PC is via the Sonic Gems Collection in Dolphin. That's based on the PC version so it has the extra weather stuff and it runs perfectly.

Posted

Yeah emulation is kinda hard for the sega saturn with its chipset. That's why I have a modded console that will play backup discs hooked up to my cabinet. It's the best way to go if you love the saturn.

If there was a way to actually softmod this system I'd be all over it like  cake on a fat kid. 

I know there's that disc swap trick... but why wear out the laser and disc motor...

I don't have the technical knowledge on hard-modding stuff, not to mention finding a model 2 is damn near impossible at any local stores (I refuse to buy electronics like that online)

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Posted

I thought the tg16 and cd were much like the neo geo cd - just cd quality audio... Am I missing some stuff there???

There are some games that have the upgrades like Bonk 3, but there's plenty of exclusives.

Castlevania - Rondo of Blood being the obvious choice, but you also need to get a translated version. It's out there, I'd tell you where if I could.

A couple of the Ys games were TGCD exclusives too I think. Might not be the right title... I'm not an RPG fan really so I get them mixed up a bit. Especially if it's one I've never played.

I think that's the version of the addams family game where you play as their lawyer instead of an actual family member too lol

When in doubt, I find checking the full XMLs will give a good insight into what is actually on a system.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I think there is a sd card mod being worked on or it might be out now.

I'll have to look into that.

A Soft-mod for a Model 1 Saturn would be amazing lol.

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