Sega Saturn Core in Development

[pepito]

no, I"m very happy about mine.
If the Saturn core is not optimized for the RAM issue, I'll have just to swap the RAM from 4 blocs to 2 blocs .. cost 50€

[johhenrik]

What is IIRC please ?

If I Recall Correctly

[berighteous]

When I try and load some discs I get "drive door open" on the screen and I can't start the games. Has happened on games that have played before as well as new things I'm trying

[Akuma]

Does this need an update script like the PSX?

No one commented, so I will give this one more try

I made an update script for the PSX nightlies about 7 months ago, and it did pretty well in retrospect. I did not find one for the Saturn and I can easily adapt it "if" there is any interest.

With the PSX core released and all, I could pivot my attention to the Saturn.

[Hectic]

When we have regular public compiled pre-releases on github, a update script will be so usefull.

[pva]

I made an update script for the PSX nightlies about 7 months ago, and it did pretty well in retrospect. I did not find one for the Saturn and I can easily adapt it "if" there is any interest.

With the PSX core released and all, I could pivot my attention to the Saturn.

FWIW, I found your PSX script supremely useful, thanks!

Pivoting to the Saturn would require, as Hectic commented above, nightly builds of the core to be available first, would it not? It's my understanding that it'd require some work from srg320, who I'm sure has his plate full as is.

[KremlingKuthroat19]

Let's pump the brakes on having Saturn nightlies. Forget the whole Ukraine situation for a sec, which is it's own unique set of obstacles, and realize that the PSX core is the one core where we'll get stable nightlies because that's how Robert likes to develop. srg320 only likes to release things in a nearly finished state so it's unfair to copy and paste the development environment of the PSX core over to the Saturn core. In fact Robert's completely transparent and collaborative dev. environment is the exception not the rule. Let's get out of our heads that this is how core development works. It puts unfair pressure on srg320.

Can we please just be patient? It appears that srg320 wants to finish the 32X core before the Saturn core in general since the majority of the Github commits have been on the 32X side over the past few weeks. Once the 32X core is finished, which it's getting very close, then I expect Saturn updates. In the meantime, there are thousands of other games to play atm including the entire PSX library

[Akuma]

Let's pump the brakes on having Saturn nightlies...

The script does not need to be nightlies and github. It just needs a couple of links to the internet and some hashes for verification. When a new build is released, I'll update the script.

It's just automation, so "you guys" don't have to

[Mr. Encyclopedia]

I mean if you want to do the work and make sure you coordinate with Kuba who is building and sharing the cores on Discord I don't see any reason why not. It's probably more work than is necessary since the Saturn isn't going to get the rapid update cadence that the PSX got, but on the other hand I don't like the way communities hide their knowledge and updates on non-public facing places like Discord servers. There's probably more than a few MiSTer users who aren't on the discord and have no easy way to get access to these files and a script could certainly help them.

[pgimeno]

Pivoting to the Saturn would require, as Hectic commented above, nightly builds of the core to be available first, would it not? It's my understanding that it'd require some work from srg320, who I'm sure has his plate full as is.

I don't think srg320 needs to do anything besides committing to the WIP repo. If you look here, you'll see that all commits are from the same person, namely theypsilon: https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... mmits/main

In case that's a concern, I'm not sure what the general sentiment is, but as for me, I'm supporting his Patreon without any expectation of anything exclusive for patrons; same as for the PSX core and any other cores I'm a patron of. I'm supporting it exclusively to aid and encourage development and to help him in the context of the difficult situation that his country is living. I'm not expecting to receive anything at all just for being a patron; for me it's just a mechanism for making donations.

I strongly advocate for development (not just of the Saturn, of anything) to be as public and open as possible. It's true that FPGAzumSpass got a lot of stress on him, stemming from his openness with the development, and maybe srg320 wants to avoid having to deal with things like unwanted bug reports or possibly harsh criticisms because of the WIP status of the core. Both the PSX and the Saturn have the problem that they are extremely popular, and the more interested people there are, the more likely it is that some "black sheep" can bother you. But well, the fact is that the core is now out in the open by his own decision, so maybe it's not that much of a concern from him.

[splintercell70]

Is Shining Force 3 fully playable yet?

[Waifu4Life]

Just be patient guys, unless you're a big Jaguar or 3DO fan, this will probably the last huge game console core to be released. Go play some PSX while you're waiting.

[dshadoff]

Is Shining Force 3 fully playable yet?

Assume nothing is fully-playable yet.

[Akuma]

I mean if you want to do the work and make sure you coordinate with Kuba who is building and sharing the cores on Discord I don't see any reason why not. It's probably more work than is necessary since the Saturn isn't going to get the rapid update cadence that the PSX got, but on the other hand I don't like the way communities hide their knowledge and updates on non-public facing places like Discord servers. There's probably more than a few MiSTer users who aren't on the discord and have no easy way to get access to these files and a script could certainly help them.

Yeah thats a problem, I dont use discord and he's not a member on this board.

[dshadoff]

and maybe srg320 wants to avoid having to deal with things like unwanted bug reports or possibly harsh criticisms because of the WIP status of the core. Both the PSX and the Saturn have the problem that they are extremely popular, and the more interested people there are, the more likely it is that some "black sheep" can bother you. But well, the fact is that the core is now out in the open by his own decision, so maybe it's not that much of a concern from him.

...More to the point, he already has a pretty clear idea of features/bugs to work on at the moment, and doesn't need redundant comments telling him what he already knows or asking about status on something he has not specifically announced as available.

When he opens it up and asks for comments, that would the be appropriate time to answer with comments; that point in development gets rapid-turnaround on fixes, and is a much more realistic timeframe to have such an update script.

Given srg320's past work, I'm surprised that this code was placed into a public repository at this stage of development. Perhaps he was afraid that he would lose access to the internet altogether, and that his work might be lost due to the ongoing conflict which is going on all around him.

[Mr^O^BIG]

I hope the conflict will stop soon and srg320 and his family will be safe and sound, we can wait for the saturn core it's less important than the srg320 situation

Mr BIG

[retro]

Is Shining Force 3 fully playable yet?

You can always keep abreast of the latest updates for the fan translation at http://sf3trans.shiningforcecentral.com/progress

As of today, Episode I is 100% completed and Episode II is 67% done.

[hipsofjw]

I hope the conflict will stop soon and srg320 and his family will be safe and sound, we can wait for the saturn core it's less important than the srg320 situation

Mr BIG

Srg320's home is deep within Russian-occupied territory and is behind the only front where Russian troops have made significant headway in the last few weeks. This has already become a protracted war of attrition so don't expect srg320 to be out from under occupation any time soon. If you hear that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have retaken Severodonetsk then there might be hope that srg320's village could be liberated soon after. I wouldn't expect that to be possible for at least a few more months.

[Waifu4Life]

Just an update: I've been told that Sergey replied on his Patreon yesterday saying he's OK.

[Malor]

Oh, good. Saturn emulation is so much further down the list of priorities than 'developer is safe and well'.

Of course, "safe", in these circumstances, is probably a huge overstatement.

[DaveGeorge]

You can always keep abreast of the latest updates for the fan translation at http://sf3trans.shiningforcecentral.com/progress

As of today, Episode I is 100% completed and Episode II is 67% done.

I think he was refering to playable on the Saturn core

And I’m not sure what you mean with episode II being 67% done? I played all 3 episodes fully translated on my saturn years ago.

[retro]

I think he was refering to playable on the Saturn core

And I’m not sure what you mean with episode II being 67% done? I played all 3 episodes fully translated on my saturn years ago.

Whoops... my bad

The status for Chapters 5 and 6 in Scenario II is still Beta.

And all of Scenario III is Playable, not Finished.

From the website --> 'Playable describes chapters in which the english has been inserted and are playable but have not been thoroughly reviewed for content or presentation.

Beta describes chapters which have been thoroughly reviewed and are ready for beta testing'

[splintercell70]

You can always keep abreast of the latest updates for the fan translation at http://sf3trans.shiningforcecentral.com/progress

As of today, Episode I is 100% completed and Episode II is 67% done.

I think he was refering to playable on the Saturn core

And I’m not sure what you mean with episode II being 67% done? I played all 3 episodes fully translated on my saturn years ago.

Yes, I was referring to the playable status on the Saturn Core. Have you tried it? I'm guess not, since you already beat all 3 episodes! If you did try it, how playable is it? Also, does it require dual RAM? Thanks!

[bry111]

It looks like there's a Saturn SNAC adapter for sale... does that mean the SNAC pinout has been decided?

Not sure how well-known this is, but the Saturn is somewhat compatible with Genesis/Megadrive controllers. It would be neat if the Saturn SNAC pinout was chosen such that those with a working Genesis SNAC adapter could use it to plug in a Genesis controller without also having a Saturn SNAC adapter, and get some compatibility with some Saturn games.

There are a couple forum posts on nfggames and segaxtreme with details about compatibility on real hardware. Also, MDPatcher is a tool that claims to be able to increase compatibility.

Code: Select all

Sega    Genesis          Saturn  Genesis SNAC
naming  (3 btn TH=0/1)           "USB" pin
U       1 up/up          3 D0    D-
D       2 down/down      2 D1    D+
L       3 GND/left       8 D2    RX-
R       4 GND/right      7 D3    GND_d
VCC     5 VCC            1 VCC   5V
TL      6 A/B            6 TL*   TX-
TH      7 select         4 S0    RX+
GND     8 GND            9 GND   GND
TR      9 start/C        5 S1    TX+

* - Saturn pin 6 is often called "5V input" online but this is only for the basic digital Saturn controller; other controllers use this pin for other purposes.

A decent game to test compatibility with is Daytona USA, it supports Genesis 3 and 6 button controllers and has an option for controller remapping (options -> key assign -> edit -> push start, then any button except left or right on the d-pad will cause the corresponding Saturn button to blink). Note the Genesis 6-button controller's "mode" button gets mapped to the Saturn's R trigger (nothing maps to the L trigger).

But this would just be a fun bonus thing as there is limited usefulness of this arrangement. Light guns are apparently not compatible. The Genesis Mega Mouse apparently is compatible with Saturn games though, maybe this might be of some use, especially if there are any Saturn games that support two mice (as apparently SNAC is the recommended way to get two mice on MiSTer).

[adamchevy]

I'm thrilled a Saturn core is being created for the Mister! I recently joined Sergey's Patreon. I hope the Mess in Ukraine gets wrapped up quickly and things can get back to normal. Well as normal as they ever were I guess.

[Waifu4Life]

For people wanting a script for the Saturn core, this claims to update that for people. It's not mine, and I haven't used it either, so it's your choice and don't blame me if it blows your house up, kills all your pets and steals your car.
I does seem that people are starting to write their own update scripts now though, particularly for the arcade cores, due to us not really having a great deal of options in relation to sorting what must be maybe thousands of MRAs now and obviously nobody really wants to mess around moving everything around manually after updating.
Looking at the comments, they seem to have written it to "Complete the update_all script". Obviously, if you know about script writing, have a look at it yourself.

No point to this until Sergey makes any sort of changes on the Github. Speaking of which, it's been over 4 weeks since his last reply on his Patreon or anywhere else. Anyone has any news?

[Malor]

That's the 'sorgelig' user, right? I just saw him post in the PCXT thread a few days ago.

edit: he posted in that thread on July 27, four-ish days ago.

[MostroW]

That's the 'sorgelig' user, right? I just saw him post in the PCXT thread a few days ago.

edit: he posted in that thread on July 27, four-ish days ago.

Sorgelig is someone else he's the one who started MiSTer as far as i'm aware, Srg320 is the one who's developing this core.
Two different people.

[Malor]

Oh, crud. I hope Srg320 is okay.

[KnightNZ]

srg320 made a minor update to some of the github docs about a week ago, so still alive!