Sega Saturn Core in Development

[musashi73]

I don't seem to be updating distribution. Core Saturn not working.Sucks...

[Tulius]

I'm worried about Sergiy Dvodnenko because it seems no one at age of 18 - 60 can leave the country now because of War and Ukrain is draining its youth population in this war.

[FPGA64]

I'm worried about Sergiy Dvodnenko because it seems no one at age of 18 - 60 can leave the country now because of War and Ukrain is draining its youth population in this war.

He is in the occupied zone.

[16Bittt]

what are the chances that this core never completes?
Saturn was always a complex system,for game developers and emulator programmers.an FPGA implementation doesn't sound like one man job even in normal conditions.
why other developers don't assist him?

[Antoine.WG]

what are the chances that this core never completes?
Saturn was always a complex system,for game developers and emulator programmers.an FPGA implementation doesn't sound like one man job even in normal conditions.
why other developers don't assist him?

For the same reasons you just stated and because FPGA developers are even more scarce than Saturn developers.

[dshadoff]

why other developers don't assist him?

I believe some minor items were contributed by others…
But he doesn’t need assistance, and has not requested assistance.
Since he’s still working on it, changes made by others might interfere with his planned changes.
So, basically, it is because we respect him.

[Waifu4Life]

Anybody else is getting the screen pushed to the left in the Saturn core when using a consumer based CRT (YPbPr)?

[capitaineflam25]

Anybody else is getting the screen pushed to the left in the Saturn core when using a consumer based CRT (YPbPr)?

That's the case on CRT/RGBs also, i imagine he will work later on centering
And i hope an option for H/V offset will be available, but i don't know how it would be presented since there is more than one resolution for the Saturn : 320x224, 640x224, 704x480i and more

[Krathoon]

Why in the heck is it asking for a CD Bios?
That does not exist.

I tried this unstable, Saturn_SingleSDRAM_unstable_20230829_04f601.

The fmvs in Panzer Dragon freeze and Death Crimson has a bunch of vertical lines on the screen. I posted the issues to Github.

[shaitan]

Why in the heck is it asking for a CD Bios?
That does not exist.

I’m guessing it’s some debug code or hooks for something in the future. Or the Mister framework has some hooks in it looking for a bios and that’s a default naming for it? It’s to be ignored for now though.

[Krathoon]

Why in the heck is it asking for a CD Bios?
That does not exist.

I’m guessing it’s some debug code or hooks for something in the future. Or the Mister framework has some hooks in it looking for a bios and that’s a default naming for it? It’s to be ignored for now though.

Yeah. I bet it is the Mister Framework acting weird.

[pbsk8]

All I get is black screen now with latest build. Singleram rbf

Something changed so I can fix and play the games?

[FPGA64]

you have a boot.rom present

Rename boot.rom boot.bin. Never have a boot.rom present
Start core, load the bios option and choose boot.bin

[pbsk8]

you have a boot.rom present

Rename boot.rom boot.bin. Never have a boot.rom present
Start core, load the bios option and choose boot.bin

Thanks, it needed the bios to be loaded manually from osd. Now it works.

[inferno999]

Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work

Thanks! Exactly what I came here for.

[jurkevicz]

Saturn Core was Updated Yesterday!

[capitaineflam25]

Nice update. The audio is no more stopping on Sega Rally

[FPGA64]

Builds from Discord

Its an Alpha core so dont report issues.

[Malan]

I still can't launch any games on this core so far... I know it's still a nightly build, but I don't understand why I am not able to launch games that people can already play...
I tested with serveral BIOS, followed many guides, the only game I can launch is Parodius with no music, and Burning Ranger but I'm stuck at file selection. I even tried to dump my own Saturn games with ImgBurn, still no luck.

Am I the only one here that got stuck on a black or white screen on almost every games?

[PistolsAtDawn]

I still can't launch any games on this core so far... I know it's still a nightly build, but I don't understand why I am not able to launch games that people can already play...
I tested with serveral BIOS, followed many guides, the only game I can launch is Parodius with no music, and Burning Ranger but I'm stuck at file selection. I even tried to dump my own Saturn games with ImgBurn, still no luck.

Am I the only one here that got stuck on a black or white screen on almost every games?

What format are your disc images in? Bin/cue is the one you want. Make sure you've run update_all and if all else fails try a different micro SD card with a fresh setup.

[Neocaron]

I still can't launch any games on this core so far... I know it's still a nightly build, but I don't understand why I am not able to launch games that people can already play...
I tested with serveral BIOS, followed many guides, the only game I can launch is Parodius with no music, and Burning Ranger but I'm stuck at file selection. I even tried to dump my own Saturn games with ImgBurn, still no luck.

Am I the only one here that got stuck on a black or white screen on almost every games?

You are likely using Antonio's Villena Mister with a 4-cell SDRAM. If that's the case, consider purchasing a new SDRAM for $50 that only has 2 memory cells, or wait for the final core release, as I expect it to be made compatible towards the end of the core development with 4 cells SDRAM. The second SDRAM can still be utilized for a dual RAM setup, so it won't be a total waste if you buy a new one actually.

[Malan]

I'm using BIN/CUE yes, and my games are stored on a NAS, using CIFS on the MiSTer to access them.

My RAM has 2 cells (I think?) here's a photo:

Any idea?

[Neocaron]

I'm using BIN/CUE yes, and my games are stored on a NAS, using CIFS on the MiSTer to access them.

My RAM has 2 cells (I think?) here's a photo:

Any idea?

Weird, I haven't hear that people with regular ram module were having issues.
Maybe it's just a problem with your bios name like FPGA64 recommended be sure to do this:

FPGA64:
"Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work"

[Malan]

Weird, I haven't hear that people with regular ram module were having issues.
Maybe it's just a problem with your bios name like FPGA64 recommended be sure to do this:

FPGA64:
"Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work"

Yes I've done that, there is no boot.rom anywhere on the Saturn folder and I have tested some BIOS files with a SHA that matches the ones adviced by srg320. I can acces the BIOS GUI without any issue, but almost every games I tried freezes just after boot.
I tested the RAM, It's stable at 143Mhz, so I don't know.

I'm quite unlucky with my DE-10 nano so far, for example, I had never been able to use any HDMI to VGA adapter with Direct Video. I tested some which have a "known working chip".

Well, hope the core will work when released, I'm just sad I can't try "NiGHTS into Dreams..." right now because I'm a huuuge fan of this game ! If someone has the same issue, please let me know

[Neocaron]

Maybe your SDRAM is damaged, did you try to test it with the SDRAM test software in utilities?

[Malan]

Maybe your SDRAM is damaged, did you try to test it with the SDRAM test software in utilities?

Yes, it's was stable for an hour at 143MHz, and every other released core work.

[pbsk8]

Weird, I haven't hear that people with regular ram module were having issues.
Maybe it's just a problem with your bios name like FPGA64 recommended be sure to do this:

FPGA64:
"Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work"

Yes I've done that, there is no boot.rom anywhere on the Saturn folder and I have tested some BIOS files with a SHA that matches the ones adviced by srg320. I can acces the BIOS GUI without any issue, but almost every games I tried freezes just after boot.
I tested the RAM, It's stable at 143Mhz, so I don't know.

I'm quite unlucky with my DE-10 nano so far, for example, I had never been able to use any HDMI to VGA adapter with Direct Video. I tested some which have a "known working chip".

Well, hope the core will work when released, I'm just sad I can't try "NiGHTS into Dreams..." right now because I'm a huuuge fan of this game ! If someone has the same issue, please let me know

do you have the redump version for saturn games?

I also had the same problem as you but mister build unstable was also missing for me, after manually putting in the root of sdcard it solved it.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Have you tried to put those problem games locally on the SD card and running them from there instead of from your network share?

[Malan]

Yes I have the Redump version, I downloaded the last MiSTer unstable on Discord and put it manually on the SD fat folder.

Yes I tried to put everything locally but same thing.

Question, is it normal that there is no loading bar screen on this core? Just to be sure.

PS: I just test the latest N64 core and it's working fine. Only the Saturn core gives me troubles now °°

[PistolsAtDawn]

Very odd. If it were me I would setup a fresh installation just to eliminate possible causes.