Sega Saturn Core in Development

[neogeo81]

strange. do you use the multinorm 1.01 bios?

[Alkadian]

strange. do you use the multinorm 1.01 bios?

I am using Japan 1.01 with SHA1 49d8493008fa715ca0c94d99817a5439d6f2c796 as indicated on the GitHub page:

https://github.com/srg320/Saturn_MiSTer

Thanks.

[ghorricks]

I'm coming to the conclusion from watching plenty of YouTube videos and being an old hand with MiSTer, that the differences we are experiencing once we have some games loading and some not, is that we have different RAM module versions (as other hardware likely doesnt matter), or that the Mister INI settings we're all using are likely different and causing the variety of loading problems.

Sega Rally (White Screen on Load)
Out Run Jap (incl Rev 1 shows black screen after loading splash)

Pixel Cherry Ninja's setup, clearly loads these game - but even following the same procedure to the last detail here isn't getting me the same results.
Yes, the core works and some games load - but I get different results from others so am seeking any definitive advice.

[ghorricks]

Tried deleting my MiSTer.ini, so that it would not be an issue. But still the same issues with those 2 games.
I use auto update, so I cant imagine that other software is out of date or wrong... I will try a fresh Micro SD setup with just the minimum on there.

EDIT - Fresh Install, no additional hardware (HDD, Wifi, BT, Midi)

With the lastest Saturn 2nd July, and the lastest stable Mister and Main, the issues of loading certain games still persists. OutRun still Shows "NOW LOADING OUTRUN" with some minor flickering in that text specifically. The only relevant thing I can now think may be the issue is the 128MB ver 2.5 module which is installed.

EDIT : Ordered "MiSTer SDRAM XS-DS v3.0 128MB Module" from misterfpga .co.uk - Lets hope this helps.

[Alkadian]

Tried deleting my MiSTer.ini, so that it would not be an issue. But still the same issues with those 2 games.
I use auto update, so I cant imagine that other software is out of date or wrong... I will try a fresh Micro SD setup with just the minimum on there.

EDIT - Fresh Install, no additional hardware (HDD, Wifi, BT, Midi)

With the lastest Saturn 2nd July, and the lastest stable Mister and Main, the issues of loading certain games still persists. OutRun still Shows "NOW LOADING OUTRUN" with some minor flickering in that text specifically. The only relevant thing I can now think may be the issue is the 128MB ver 2.5 module which is installed.

EDIT : Ordered "MiSTer SDRAM XS-DS v3.0 128MB Module" from misterfpga .co.uk - Lets hope this helps.

Thanks for the update. Please let us know how you get on with the new SDRAM module.

[ghorricks]

The new v3.0 SDRAM has solved the problem.
It was the only change made to my config and now much more games work.
For starters, When loading a CUE file... it now goes to the CD Player in the BIOS.... before it booted the game directly.
OutRun now doesnt have any speckles/noise around the "NOW LOADING OUTRUN".

So it is clear for me at least that the spec of the 2.5 SDRAM is impacted by the Saturn core expectations.

[Alkadian]

Good news indeed! Thanks for the update! Could you please confirm that Radiant Silvergun is also working with the new v3.0 SDRAM?

Thanks.

[ghorricks]

Radiant Silvergun - I get a Black Screen after SEGA Logo, soon after launching application from the CD Player screen.
JAP 1.01 BIOS.
JAP 1.02 BIOS (HI Saturn, Bios now boots with sound)

Virtua Racing now boots past the flag video and the game plays. Sound is more stable in many more games.
Clearly the Saturn Core is impacted by SD RAM quality and/or version.

[Alkadian]

Radiant Silvergun - I get a Black Screen after SEGA Logo, soon after launching application from the CD Player screen.
JAP 1.01 BIOS.
JAP 1.02 BIOS (HI Saturn, Bios now boots with sound)

Virtua Racing now boots past the flag video and the game plays. Sound is more stable in many more games.
Clearly the Saturn Core is impacted by SD RAM quality and/or version.

Thanks. So no real change with the new SDRAM.

[ghorricks]

haha, not for that game from what you're saying.
BUT in terms of stability, v2.9 + seems to be better than 2.5

[neogeo81]

New updated core

[ntt]

Latest official build, straight from Github. Please support Sergiy!

[Waifu4Life]

Can't get the saves to work and I keep getting a message in my games saying that the memory is full. What am I doing wrong?

[ntt]

Didn't have time to test this latest release yet, it may well be more unstable than usual...

Can't get the saves to work and I keep getting a message in my games saying that the memory is full. What am I doing wrong?

[capitaineflam25]

You need MiSTer binary unstable in order to make the saves works.

[Beeble]

Can't get the saves to work and I keep getting a message in my games saying that the memory is full. What am I doing wrong?

Enter the Saturn Menu go to Settings. Clear your memory there (No entry, but also no free space available) and after deleting it shows 400 something blocks free. Savegames worked for me afterwards. (Tested with Bulkslash (eng. patched) which complained while booting until I cleared the Saturn Memory.)

[jordi]

mmm all I get is a blackscreen. japanese bios 1.01

[FPGA64]

mmm all I get is a blackscreen. japanese bios 1.01

Rename your boot.rom to boot.bin. Load the core, load the bios from the menu. If you have any boot.rom the core wont work

[ntt]

With that it works for me thanks

Rename your boot.rom to boot.bin. Load the core, load the bios from the menu. If you have any boot.rom the core wont work

[Waifu4Life]

Enter the Saturn Menu go to Settings. Clear your memory there (No entry, but also no free space available) and after deleting it shows 400 something blocks free. Savegames worked for me afterwards. (Tested with Bulkslash (eng. patched) which complained while booting until I cleared the Saturn Memory.)

Yeah, this sort of works, but when I turn off the MiSTer, I lose everything and the memory goes back to 0 blocks. Also, is it normal that the save options are always grayed out and that I need to reload the Saturn BIOS after a power cycle?

[FPGA64]

Enter the Saturn Menu go to Settings. Clear your memory there (No entry, but also no free space available) and after deleting it shows 400 something blocks free. Savegames worked for me afterwards. (Tested with Bulkslash (eng. patched) which complained while booting until I cleared the Saturn Memory.)

Yeah, this sort of works, but when I turn off the MiSTer, I lose everything and the memory goes back to 0 blocks. Also, is it normal that the save options are always grayed out and that I need to reload the Saturn BIOS after a power cycle?

You also must be running the unstable Mister Main from Discord.

or

https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... 808_1968f4

[Waifu4Life]

Enter the Saturn Menu go to Settings. Clear your memory there (No entry, but also no free space available) and after deleting it shows 400 something blocks free. Savegames worked for me afterwards. (Tested with Bulkslash (eng. patched) which complained while booting until I cleared the Saturn Memory.)

Yeah, this sort of works, but when I turn off the MiSTer, I lose everything and the memory goes back to 0 blocks. Also, is it normal that the save options are always grayed out and that I need to reload the Saturn BIOS after a power cycle?

You also must be running the unstable Mister Main from Discord.

or

https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... 808_1968f4

That was probably the issue. But tell me, why wasn't posted here: https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... r/releases

[pgimeno]

That was probably the issue. But tell me, why wasn't posted here: https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... r/releases

That directory should never have existed in the first place. That's not how binaries are supposed to be distributed; the Releases feature of GitHub is there for that very purpose. The MiSTer-unstable-nightlies repository owner is doing the right thing. It's a burden to have to download every binary version of a core when you clone a repository, which should only hold the sources.

I suspect that's why the Distribution_MiSTer repository was created: to get rid of that problem (although nothing has happened yet).

[Swainy]

I keep getting CD BIOS not found! pop up on some games. Can anyone advise please?

[Schyz]

I keep getting CD BIOS not found! pop up on some games. Can anyone advise please?

In which folder did you put the Saturn BIOS file?

[Swainy]

I keep getting CD BIOS not found! pop up on some games. Can anyone advise please?

In which folder did you put the Saturn BIOS file?

It’s in my Saturn games folder.

[pbsk8]

I keep getting CD BIOS not found! pop up on some games. Can anyone advise please?

Same here, So I always run the boot bin file first, then I select the cue file for the game, at least the game runs like this, but some like guardian heroes I get black screen after fmv intro.

[gambleboyen]

It's been a while since I tried this core, but it seems I'm not the only on that have gove from some games running to no games running after some updates.

Just so that I'm not trying and retrying things that are obviously wrong:

Is it the .cue files we should start when loading a game (that gives me a black screen, bin files give me the Saturn disc menu)?
Is there some specific bios files we should use now, or should the ones that worked a few months ago still work?
Is it best to throw the bios files into the game directories so as to avoid conflict with any such stored in the games/Saturn folder?

[ntt]

For me the usual bios files still work, after renaming then to .bin and updating mister to the latest version.
Games still work in general, even though every new core version seems to bring some regression side effects.
Honestly I've not followed recent evolutions of the Saturn core with the same level of attention as in the past, though.

[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