Sega Saturn

[drowsy hull]

how else can you be happy?

[pearl harbor]

You so silly.

[plush pelican]

i didn't know you could use analog stick on saturn core

playing sega rally championship

[tiny flare]

you can use analogue stick for 3D controller, just not analogue triggers just yet, unless you use a real 3D controller via SNAC

[plush pelican]

That's awesome

the game shows me the Arcade Racer instead of the 3D pad though. I thought it was showing me the back of a controller lol.

[tiny flare]

if you've set it to 3D controller in the OSD that might just be a quirk of the original release of the game, I've been playing the Netlink edition using a 3D controller via SNAC and it definitely shows up properly there at least

[plush pelican]

That makes sense, maybe it's a hacky way to get modern analog controls to register properly.

[quick sorrel]

If memory serves me correctly, there aren’t many games that use analog triggers all that much.

[tiny flare]

Sega Rally does at least, but yeah not sure how many others there are

[upper dust]

Nights into Dreams

[green swift]

Don’t the Sega Ages super scalers use the analog triggers?

[tiny flare]

it would certainly make a lot of sense in a racing game

[quick sorrel]

I knew that Nights did as my game was a controller bundle pack

Racing for sure but I don’t have a memory that many were truly analog for accel and brake

[quick sorrel]

Think I’m going to start selling off most of my collection and keep only my most nostalgic ones.

[tiny flare]

yeah I definitely need to let go of some hoarding tendencies and get rid of some stuff I never use, pretty much all of my old consoles are either modded or replaced by MiSTer, so I really don't need to be holding on to quite so many discs and carts any longer...

[humble epoch]

I haven’t been able to bring myself to get rid of them yet but I boxed up all my ps3 and earlier discs/carts and put them in the attic. I did get rid of my CRT though, so progress is being made lol.

[visual grove]

Everything was good until the CRT, get that back

[humble epoch]

https://tenor.com/view/old-man-shake-fist-gif-5551471670646767345

Nah, I had to carry that thing one too many times. I am getting old. The back isn’t what it used to be.

And the wife let me get a retrotink 4k for getting rid of it.

[dim tulip]

Owning a tink 4k upstairs for the fancy tv and having a giant trinitron downstairs, the tink is almost enough for me to think I can live in a post-CRT world, but things like light gun gaming will probably keep it around for a long while in the interim, though maybe when I get around to doing some Gun4IR stuff that will change

[radiant karma]

Only reason I kept a crt was the lightgun games, sent it to storage after sinden got supported and haven't looked back. I am still deciding whether to sell it or not alongside the original lightguns.

[gloomy hedge]

is the sinden really that good? I felt it was kinda a little ... slow?

[visual grove]

Fools, you’ll be back

[radiant karma]

I had issues on PC, so my sinden gun sat unused for a while. Mister had snac support so with a crt and my original lightguns I was happy. Also I had a guncon 3 so even when using mister on flat panels I was covered. When sinden got supported I did a test and its performance seemed better than on pc. After using it for a few weeks I felt it was more than capable of replacing the guncon 3 and my other lightguns.

[gloomy hedge]

thats VERY cool!

thanks!

I wonder why it is so much better than PC

I didnt even know Mister supported the sinden

so you A/B'd them?

[humble epoch]

https://tenor.com/view/alfred-never-batman-smile-loyalty-gif-5163408

[radiant karma]

Not between my pc and mister, as I had to setup retrobat or batocera for sinden and that is quite something I was not prepared to spend time on. But as my memory serves, on mister it was much more consistent for lack of a better word. Comparing to the guncon 3 the sinden was faster and more accurate, so much that you can play without crosshairs.

[radiant karma]

That is the only reason the crt is in storage and not gone. Fear of regret

[gloomy hedge]

yeah I mean isnt the guncon3 like a wii sensor type thing?

I guess I would want the comparison to Gun4ir but the problem there is all the hassle of making one

[visual grove]

Gun4IR will definitely be better

Processing is on the gun, no chance it will get starved by other work on the HPS

And the camera itself shits out emitter coordinates from hardware so it’s just a lot simpler to get the position of the “square” do do the math than having to first use CV stuff like sinden.

[radiant karma]

I also think gun4ir should be more accurate than sinden. But to me it meant going diy and the sinden was readily available so was quite a practical choice. Besides, no sensors and no calibration needed means moving the mister and the gun a non issue. No setup needed. I haven't really heard of anyone with sinden on mister complaining about accuracy or lag so I think most are having a really good experience like mine.

[gloomy hedge]

yeah this makes me want to try it on mister!

@naive whale have you tried sinden on mister?.

[naive whale]

No. I don’t have a Sinden. Sold it when I got Gun4IR

[gloomy hedge]

one of 3 people with a gun4IR

lool

but yeah if I could buy a G4IR I would have one

[clear condor]

Taki IR lightgun when

[gloomy hedge]

but I aint doin all the modding and sourcing guns and all that

[naive whale]

Don’t hate the player, hate the firearm

[pearl harbor]

Feel free to hate me though. I feed off of it.

[naive whale]

You live in Wisconsin. You suffer enough

[pearl harbor]

It is suffering knowing that we are the only ones with good cheese. Your cheeseless pain pains me.

[naive whale]

You guys invented cheese curds because it’s the only thing soft enough to gum through once your backwater teeth fall out around 12 🤣

You guys don’t even RIOT well

[pearl harbor]

But cheese curds aren't even that soft!

[gloomy hedge]

they are mad squeaky tho

I bet they'd be even squeaker on a nice set of gums

what am I saying

BRING US BACK ON TOPIC SOMEONE

[lofty spire]

Sega Saturn's creamy 3D graphics

[tall radish]

Only Robby can save us now...

[hardy lodge]

Robby has been missing for a few days. Last time he was here he talked about a guy that would let him drive his cybertruck. My guess is that Robby went insane and is now driving through texas mad max style.

[drowsy hull]

Still climbing the first slope

[naive whale]

or he's buried in a ditch

"free candy cybertruck"

[pearl harbor]

Maybe it has something to do with the game that he's been working on just being officially announced now? Might just be busy.

[hearty marten]

We miss you Robby 😭

[hardy lodge]

He doesn't do any real work anyway! which game is that?

[hearty marten]

I think they’re guessing borderlands 4

[acoustic sable]

Robby's ok! But yes super busy

[high bramble]

He's been on a press tour the last few days.
"No, I had nothing to do with that ridiculously awful Borderlands movie!"

[pearl harbor]

That's the one. 🤘

[hearty marten]

I’ve only played the first two, and not finished the second yet 😔

[naive whale]

That’s what the person who abducted and buried him alive would say

Current feed of Robby

[acoustic sable]

You are correct!

No wait

shocked look Who could suggest such a thing!

[naive whale]

I got footage of the crime too. I was there!

[acoustic sable]

He's probably just tired due to being subjected to Randy Pitchford's incessant magic tricks

[naive whale]

@pearl harbor witnessed it. I got footage

[acoustic sable]

🪦

[drowsy hull]

he never did get that cowboy hat

[serene thunder]

Percy Pringle the legend

What a weirdo

[gloomy hedge]

never did beat me in sega rally

rip

[serene thunder]

You used to play online Sega Rally vs Paul Bearer?

[gloomy hedge]

nah just robby

(his son)

[drifting frigate]

I played BC Racers with the My Pillow guy. Basically the same thing.

<I did not, in fact, do this>

[naive whale]

I played blackjack with Mr. T once

Really confuses TF out of you when the man himself sits down at a table at 3 am in Vegas

[drifting frigate]

I pity you, fool.

[drifting crown]

Clubber Lang is my second favourite boxer

[naive whale]

We all think Butterbean is number 1

[drifting frigate]

His recovery has been amazing to watch. Joking aside.

[drifting crown]

Spider Rico

[serene thunder]

Reminder that this is one of the greatest things ever committed to ... VHS?
https://youtu.be/0Y1abMt1UGw

If you are ever feeling uncertain, confused, unclear, or even unsure
Watch this for guidance

(they think i kid)

[hearty carbon]

what happened to Butterbean?

I saw him box at The Toughman Contest back in the 90's 😄

Beat the hell out of some poor scrub

[drifting frigate]

Running at 400lbs destroyed his hip and knee cartilage. He had fused vertebrae as well, I think. He was in a chair. There was some reality show with an ex wrestler that got him ready for surgery and now he's walking again and it's really great to see.

He was doing something like 5 miles a day, which is super impressive. But not great on his joints.

[hearty carbon]

well, that just made me grimace about my own knee and back pain while I'm running.

I'm not 400lbs but I put some rough mileage on the equipment over the years

[serene thunder]

I would do a backpack with hiking type activity
Or biking
or even just speedwalking

[thorn pagoda]

bikings good, low impact

rowing too, or crosstrainer machines

[hearty carbon]

Things that are better than running for your joints and your body: numerous things. Things I will do on a regular basis to exercise: mostly running.

There's a degree of 'go outside and run' simplicity that counteracts motivation and fatigue issues. Plus, it's hard to beat that blown out gassed feeling of putting in a long run.

I'll just hobble around probably. 😦

[drifting frigate]

He's also a retired pro boxer, so for sure there were probably some instances where he ran because the pain killers he was on for everything else didn't let him know he needed to NOT do that. I know a pro wrestler from Japan (he's not Japanese, that's just where he wrestles) and he's on basically everything all the time after a bout, so he ends up overdoing things because he can't feel his body saying no. They really are selling themselves, but then...aren't we all?

[hearty carbon]

Yeah, I will sometimes take some pain medication for my back, just ibuprofen, and it noticeably affects how hard I can push by injuries when I run with it.

You just feel it when the pills wear off

[serene thunder]

Too bad we never got a game adaptation of the movie The Wrestler
pain management, palliative care, etc

All while going for the glory and approval from the crowd

[hearty carbon]

Metal Gear Solid 4?

[serene thunder]

Can you get a side-job as a wrestler in any games?

[naive whale]

My knees are garbage but I won’t let the damn surgeons take them. They keep saying knee replacements. I keep telling them to kiss my ass. They are my bones damn it!

[serene thunder]

Inject fentanyl directly into them

[naive whale]

Also I’m not even 40. They last max 20 years. That means if I live til 80 I’d be on my third fucking set of artificial knees

Sure they have no cartilage left and ok they sound like a coffee grinder when they flex and maybe they are put back together with gaff tape and dreams but they can’t take em 🤣

[serene thunder]

Maybe you can drink glasses of gelatin

[hearty carbon]

Coming down the stairs or standing up from a crouch sounds like someone quartering a chicken sometimes

I'm sure that's fine

[pearl harbor]

I hate joint pain so much! My dang body attacks all my joints...

[topaz mica]

I have an old friend who had 3 ACLs by age 30ish

(sports injuries)

[naive whale]

Yep. Same story

[topaz mica]

body was definitely telling him to quit lol

[naive whale]

I’ve done a full acl/mcl tear on both knees and just an acl on the other one again

[topaz mica]

god...

[naive whale]

Haha it happens

Damn fragile meat

[topaz mica]

yea 🙂

[naive whale]

I get by. I can still ski and get down the mtn switch. And I still haven’t turned my bindings down 😂 18 DIN on a 5’6” body lol

Chart says 9 max. I say double it baby

[acoustic sable]

Knees are the worst. I got four years of trouble out of one MCL twang while boarding, going 30mph on a blue traverse to zero speed on a front edge catch. Last run down on the last day of the trip 🙄 Couldn't breath in for about a minute after that chest smash

[visual grove]

One of the best part of skiing is annoying my friends on skiis waiting for me to get into my snowboard bindings.

[acoustic sable]

Step in and slap in. Or do you use the old strappy ones?

[visual grove]

Straps with rachets

[naive whale]

A LONG time ago I could do a pole plant front flip and jump into my bindings. Now if I did that id probably just die 🤣

[visual grove]

Knees would explode and the shrapnel would take out a ski school

You’d be famous

[topaz mica]

haha

[naive whale]

Haha you never know

I can still throw a backflip now and again if I’m feeling lucky. Rails are fine too. Just not a lot of spinning any more. That’s the real knee killer if you fuck it up

But my wife doesn’t really love hanging out in the park so I’m mostly just a point it straight and send it man now

[green swift]

An actual picture of @naive whale as a kid

[naive whale]

lol I did the first one at 19 so kinda accurate

[tiny quartz]

I'm a photographer, I used to hang out with the parkour crew, and they'd train in gyms with the trickers. Trickers are nuts, blowing their ACL was a rite of passage for most of them. Youth and energy, and not much discipline.

[serene thunder]

Never Forget 🦅 💦

[drifting frigate]

I had a friend who recently tweeted "I was born with four kidneys. Then two turned into adult knees. This joke is better in person."

Which made me smile.

[inner kayak]

heh

[hearty carbon]

Breaking a leg and the same toe twice, I barely notice my fucked up ACL 😄

Feels like an add-on now instead of the primary issue.

[inner kayak]

I learned 2 years ago that one of my ligaments in my angle was 100% torn in half a few decades ago. I only figured it out once I got deeper into focusing on my physical therapy and body work. Some of the issues kept regressing, I got orthopedic inserts and saw quite a few specialists. Eventually got an MRI and bam, there it was. Podiatrist said "your ligament is just flapping in the breeze, not connected"

getting old sux

[hearty carbon]

😬

[naive whale]

Haha I’m still in my 30s sadly

[inner kayak]

I wish I had learned about the torn ligament in my 30s. My walk was fucked, and meant monthly trips for massage + Chiro for pain that I thought was due to working at a computer all day

[plush pelican]

Is there a game about knees on the Saturn?

[scarlet goblet]

No.

[hearty carbon]

https://media.tenor.com/1udqcgXdAGMAAAAC/virtua-fighter-virtua-fighter-combo.gif

[warped saddle]

radiant silvergun

[radiant karma]

That knee still gives me nightmares. Might be the hardest move ever.

[trim nimbus]

I am pretty sure there are two pair of knees sticking out of a house in pulirula

[trim nimbus]

Or don’t forget “Tiger knee”

[hearty carbon]

https://tenor.com/view/street-fighter-alpha-three-sagat-gif-3561293

[drifting frigate]

Tiger Knee

(Also he's wearing a zip up hoodie under a suit jacket. Congrats. You can never unsee it now)

[clear condor]

and all the while an undead zombie, no less

[hearty carbon]

I think it's just a zippered shirt but it's certainly a look either way

[violet wolf]

The intro clips to saturn bomberman look pretty good, not sure why they dedicated a slot to a video card specifically

Actually not sure what would be sensible to put there tbh, never been big on console add-ons.. if you add performance enhancing hardware you'll have developers having to allot resources to two versions of the game which isn't always feasible

[serene thunder]

Well, VCDs were quite popular

Do some movie watching with the card installed

[violet wolf]

Well that strategy panned out for sony with ps2 as a dvd player and ps3 for bluray

Maybe I underestimate the popularity of VCD, I did read it was fairly popular in asia

[tranquil mulch]

Really? Did people have players?

[ripe valley]

The CD-i was our player for VCD on my family.

[tranquil mulch]

That is super cool. What games and movies did you have?

[ripe valley]

Around 500 movies in this format, my uncle and my father were very passionate about digital cinema at that time.

And most of the 'popular' games at that time : 7th Guest, Asterix, Burn Cycle, Marco Polo, Hotel Mario...

[tranquil mulch]

That is really cool. Were the movies 4:3 or 16:9? Did they all fit on one disc?

[topaz mica]

typically split across multiple discs

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Original-Trilogy-on-VCD-Video-Compact-Disc-albeit-the-1997-Special-Edition/id/84783

[ripe valley]

Generally, at least 2 discs.

And for the format, it depends on the movie.

The collection was sadly destroyed during a house fire, but I already dumped and scanned everything years ago.
And shared it on a certain archive.

[tranquil mulch]

Thank you so much for sharing.

Is there plans to do a CD-I core? This could theoretically play all those dumps

[ripe valley]

Work in progress here but it would need to support the external MPEG card too.

#1103404843512631357

The dumps work on a private beta version of a CD-i emulator.
The data structure is relatively simple, so dumping those are child play.

The problem is not the Video CD ones as they are encapsulated MPEG1 files around menus and some indexes (could be read back with MPV, VLC), but a great part of the movies are encoded fallowing the Green Book standard (CD-i Video). With another encoding method, specific for the CD-i.
Like for the UMD Video on the PSP system.

[tranquil mulch]

ok, I think I understand. Like the PSX could use Red book, which was like the CD quality sound. I guess Saturn can do that too?

[ripe valley]

Only for the Video CD as the decompression card is MPEG2 too (backwards compatible with MPEG1), not the CD-i Video ones.

[tranquil mulch]

ok

[ripe valley]

Do you follow ?

Simply, that one could be played with the Saturn and the MPEG2 card.

The other could only be played on the CD-i.

[lofty spire]

More like the ||mpreg || card

[tranquil mulch]

So the CD-i had its own standard and some discs could only be played on it, because they used the green book standard?

[ripe valley]

That's right.

[tranquil mulch]

Was the quality hugely different?

[ripe valley]

You need to check the left part of the disc box.

Not immensely but today's standards.

[tranquil mulch]

I am reading the wikipedia artible about it right now

It seems like if you look at the CD-i as just a games machine it is super underwhelming but as a multimedia machine it was pretty next level

It also seems like it was a stop gap to start puching new formats

[ripe valley]

CD-i was more of a standard, like 3DO 4-5 years later.

They wanted to create a multimedia module for everyone in the family.
And were talking about creating dial-up connections in their initial plans.

It failed up as the machine was way too expensive and people weren't ready for that.
10-15 years too early.

[tranquil mulch]

Can even teh older versions of the player play the games technically even if there isn't a controller port. The 100 series came out all teh way back in 1988

[ripe valley]

Yes.

[sinful verge]

Idol Janshi Suchie Pai II intro looks like this on saturn core. 1st image from core, 2nd from youtube. I tried last couple of builds. This is the only part of the game I checked so don't know if there are more problems in game.

[naive whale]

Saturnday over on #share-media

[tiny flare]

Hah, looks like some kind of alpha mask bit got flipped or something, definitely report that on GitHub if there isn’t an issue already

[ripe valley]

I'm checking it in right now.

Issue confirmed with an incorrect window mask applied.

Issue opened, srg320 will see it later.

[ripe valley]

@sinful verge Nice catch.

[sinful verge]

Thank you for taking care of it 👍

[serene thunder]

That's pretty interesting, seems like CD storage allowed them to dump in assets and mask them on the fly

Maybe it gets used multiple ways in the game

[tiny flare]

Haven’t seen it in motion but you could create nice effects that way like having the masked out part scroll in the other direction

[polar mountain]

I just bought a saturn lightgun and I don't care who knows it!

https://tenor.com/view/joker-happy-dance-dance-happy-spin-gif-19841590

[tiny flare]

which colour?

[polar mountain]

Black as death

Death to zombies

[tiny flare]

nice, I inherited one but it's blue. Virtua Gun is so beefy and cool though, I can't wait to be able to use mine with the core

or the Stunner I guess if you're in NA

[hearty carbon]

It looks like a proper scifi weapon at home in something like Blade Runner

[safe trail]

Yes, but is the YouTube from an actual machine, or from Mednafen ?

[sinful verge]

I don't know but ps1 version looks like that from yt

actually that's wrong

ps1 version has different alpha cutout going

[ancient surge]

Happy Saturnday!

[wise brook]

and Ukraine independence day too, appropriate for this thread

[mortal mist]

Yeah!

[undone oyster]

Wooo happy Saturnday

[thorn pagoda]

awesome

[ripe valley]

The return of Saturnday.

I'm will perform the usual tests/update the issue log.

The bot will be faster for compiling the core than by myself, so let's wait.

https://tenor.com/view/sega-kiss-gif-9193635882300784136

[mortal mist]

nice 😄

core wins! fatality

[ripe valley]

I'm testing other values and with also not-disclosed other tests right now.

With all the current unit tests and SCSP demos (disclosed and undisclosed), the core is virtually identical to a real system now.

[mortal mist]

Princess crown looks fine now

[ripe valley]

For information, on the issue tracker, I'm generally mentioning the commit which fixed a problem.
I'm doing it, as it could be useful if another issue/regression could emerge later.
We could going back in time quite quickly and check directly where it fails.

That's not for rushing people to restest and close an issue.

[hardy lodge]

Time to test the grandis flicker I guess

[ripe valley]

I don't think the flicker will be fixed for some of you, as it's not a part of the VDP2 that was changed.
But you can retest as you will just to be really sure.

[violet wolf]

That looks so good and it's jp only. The saturn library is too daunting when it comes to japanese stuff

[ripe valley]

The game was published once more on the PSP system and a partial translation exists too.

[ripe valley]

One of the first games from EDIT : part of the ATLUS team that will form Vanillaware later.

[violet wolf]

I knew it, it looked like vanillaware, that's why it at least looks immaculate

[hardy lodge]

Yeah it's still there. I'm still glad about every update, as it moves the flicker closer to the chopping block it stands in line for (I hope).

[visual grove]

Holy hell, sometimes I forget with Robert existing in the world that there was always another S-tier dev

[ancient surge]

Technically Princess Crown is not a Vanillaware developed game; it was developed before Vanillaware even existed.

It's just Princess Crown has much of the same staff that would later leave Atlus to form Vanillaware.

[river wing]

Has someone got L and R buttons on the RetroBit V2 Saturn pad to be mapped correctly on the Saturn core?
Only ZL and ZR seem to work, but not normal L and R.

[ripe valley]

Mea culpa.
I've made an edit.

[violet wolf]

I actually googled it because I thought it must be vanillaware but left it once I saw nothing but atlus. I'm just happy I recognized the style, it's very distinct

Any lists for jp titles where you don't need to know the language or download a translation?

[green swift]

Someday we’ll get a translation. Someday.

Probably one of the biggest holdouts in the JP library at this point.

[mortal mist]

You never rushed anyone 🍻

[analog totem]

I went through the whole Saturn library fairly meticulously a while back and checked what games appeared playable without knowing Japanese. I can share that list in a bit…it’s probably not 100% perfect, but it should still have pretty much everything that’s playable without knowing japanese

[ripe valley]

Mostly 2D fighters and shmups.

https://racketboy.com/retro/sega-saturn-shmups-2d-shooters

https://racketboy.com/retro/sega-saturn-2d-fighters-library

You can check those lists for some ideas.

[shell musk]

So, what's bringing last build?

[ripe valley]

Fixes on the VDP2 on Idol Suchie Pai 2 and Princess Crown.
Accuracy on the SCSP chip, on par with the real system (according to the newer most advanced testroms).

[violet wolf]

That sounds great. Also, quite a project. How many japanese titles, at least a thousand right?

[violet wolf]

Makes sense, I was hoping for something akin to symphony of the night but that is hoping for too much perhaps

[gloomy hedge]

on my fenrir there is a list called "Japanese titles for English Speakers"

I will share it shortly

but the problem is

I think I already pulled some games out of it for my favorites

[analog totem]

i forget how many, but a lot yeah

[gloomy hedge]

so oops my B

big image dump incoming sorry

im too lazy to get my sd card out

Japanese exclusive games for English Speakers (minus games aktane already pulled out and put in his favorites which are probably all shmups and fightin games)

here are my favorites ( pretty random not even truly all my favorites ) that should all be playable for english speakers like me :

[kind quarry]

Gals Panic SS you say…

[thorn pagoda]

should i stop using the default bootloader thing on fenrir

[ripe valley]

I see, a man of culture as well.

[gloomy hedge]

done

sorry for the dump

whats the diff

I got no idea

mine boots up like this

and I get to my game and play them

and it looks kinda cool

[thorn pagoda]

i can never get my head around why people use Kai instead of fenrirs default loader, is it better somehow?

[gloomy hedge]

the screen shots are fucked cuz im being an idiot and pulling off a shitty tiny window cuz im lazy

ohhhh

you mean like the fenrir vs the kai cartridge

mine just boots to this so Im like w/e it looks cool

has space

[thorn pagoda]

did you flash kai onto your cartridge?

i think i just don't actually play enough saturn to understand the advantage 😄

[gloomy hedge]

nope

I just put it in my saturn

it just boots like this

[thorn pagoda]

oh it came like that

[gloomy hedge]

I didnt do jack / shit yeah

[thorn pagoda]

i have some carts but they're all old, i think i could flash them but eh

[gloomy hedge]

so I bought a saturn with a fenrir and the games - and then I bought the black cartridge thingy

its not expensive

[thorn pagoda]

i've got a saroo now aswell if i want saturn stuff to fiddle with 😄

[gloomy hedge]

and then it just like loads up like this :

and you can do some cool customization and what not

also the thing on the right is a lie, this is my stream layout for radiant silvergun which is a 352 pixel game

this is not retrotink on 352 cuz the menu is not 352 lol its 320

[violet wolf]

On your fenrir, was about to ask if that is some kind of type of linux server where you upload files.. okay that's a good start, I kind of recognize some actually. Might need to finish sexy parodius, hoping it's even sexier than the ps1 version

[gloomy hedge]

sd card

I just drop em on there

no server or anything

I dont really do that kinda shit cuz im too lazy, I take the direct course

also while im here - please dont play blast wind's original rom, get the boosted music hack

thank me later

trust your pal

[violet wolf]

Yea I figured, very unknowledgeable about everything saturn. also the 2d fighters.. tbh my eyes just glaze over them at this point, sad to say

[gloomy hedge]

also I didnt make this list

so I cant confirm if these are all fully playable for english speakers

[violet wolf]

Noted

[gloomy hedge]

I'm a shmup guy so thats where my "fake expertise" lies

[naive whale]

Ooh fun

[gloomy hedge]

everything else is even faker

[naive whale]

Any good improvements minus what’s listed?

[gloomy hedge]

saturnday

[violet wolf]

I'm more like "oh I could probably get into shmups" and download a bunch, then mostly don't play them except for once in a blue moon where I'm annihilated by small objects flying too fast

But I do appreciate the visuals and audio and still think I could get into them, so I'll keep downloading lol

[analog totem]

@violet wolf

[gloomy hedge]

Based grandma exclusive list

[analog totem]

probably some stuff in there that doesn't necesarily qualify as a game too because I also kinda curated this list for streaming and whether I could get at least 10 minutes of entertainment out of something without knowing Japanese 😅

if it has a translation available, it's not on the list

[violet wolf]

Literally the first game I google is a sliding puzzle one with japanese babes, now we're talking

[gloomy hedge]

Yeah English translated is a different list for me as well

[analog totem]

oh huh I guess I had two copies of groove on fight for some reason...technically I also have this list split up into two folders Japan and Japan (misc., oddities), but I combined them here

[violet wolf]

Literally going to download the fish tank simulator

[analog totem]

oh technically there are two other games from my NSFW folder that seem to be playable 👀 :

My Best Friends - St. Andrew Jogakuin-hen (Japan)
Shutsudou! Miniskirt Police (Japan) (2M)

[fallow oracle]

oh man, miniskirt police

that came up when we were romdiving at a con and just using the random script to launch stuff

what a strange game

it's nsfw in the sense that you wouldn't want to stream it but it's also just so fucking goofy

also some of the minigames just made zero sense

[violet wolf]

Nothing turns me on more than a sliding puzzle game

Turns me into angry irritation

[fallow oracle]

there's one minigame with a...lowrider car of sorts with hydraulics

and you just have to make the car bounce

it was so dumb and we couldn't figure out what to do lmao

[violet wolf]

Seems thematically appropriate in a way.. yea a lot of the challenge in this area

[fallow oracle]

I think there was also a really bad spy hunter ripoff

[violet wolf]

Can take me a minute or two before even realising there's actually no game here, it's a photo mode

[fallow oracle]

worth a visit if you enjoy bad games and can tolerate risque content

[violet wolf]

I do like that tbh

[pearl harbor]

It's Saturnday!? Again!? Whooooo!

[ripe valley]

https://tenor.com/view/sega-saturn-segata-sanshiro-it's-saturday-せがた三四郎-segata-sanshirō-gif-5912919664128752629

[green swift]

I didn't like the Kai loader and switched back to default.

[violet wolf]

Sorry guys, it's basically a sceensaver. One might have deduced that from the name but I thought the fish would be 3d at least. Not game of the year 2024

[sacred goblet]

I think i find a graphical bug. In Tomb Raider (Lara's Home) the harp in the second room seems to be glitched. I've looked on original hardware and this bug is not present!.

[ripe valley]

Do you have some screenshot ?

[thorn pagoda]

ha, didn't that exact same harp have glitches on the psx core too

[small gust]

Another day with a new saturn build, another day with flicker in Grandia :).

[hardy lodge]

Words of hope: #1046941029296779344 message

[small gust]

Yeah, I would assume it will get fixed one day, and there is plenty of other games to play until it is. But I'm not gonna lie, I have been yearning to replay Grandia for a while now since the undub patch got released for saturn.

[hardy lodge]

Same. Grandia is the game I'm most excited to play on Saturn. But that's why I'll wait till it's fixed, even though it's perfectly playable right now.

[cunning citrus]

There is a bug with Saturn newer pcb version showing that harp wrong iirc.

[small gust]

But I guess if the urge gets to big, I do have a region-free modded Japanese Saturn lying around that I have never really used. Though I have not tested it, but that might be able to play CD-R's.

[mortal mist]

Looks fine for me

Ntsc-u

[humble epoch]

Yeah this is the one I want most.

[green swift]

I'm sure we'll get it someday. There are a lot of talented translation teams out there and I wouldn't be surprised if it was being worked on already.

[ripe valley]

So, "it's not a bug, it's a feature" for Tomb Raider.

[humble epoch]

I think last I checked it’s been in the works for like a decade:

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=15979.0

[sacred goblet]

Was in (Europe) so it is not a bug 🙂

[green swift]

@humble epoch Yeah, that was pretty much abandoned. If I was a betting man I'd say a more recent group like Derek/Ateam's or Danthrax's group are probably looking at it. (no pressure to you guys if you see this)

[ancient surge]

Still waiting for that interlacing fix for 480i content.

[rich violet]

Everything sounds perfect now

I had been using the regular SEGA Rally, and I wanted to try the Netlink Edition without losing all my records. So I copied the save from the Regular SEGA Rally and gave it the name of the Netlink version ROM. When I started it offers this, and it works! So if anyone wants to upgrade SEGA Rally you can keep your records 🙂

[clear condor]

Wow, that's super considerate of them

[mortal locust]

Hey all, I've been trying to get Gunbird (japanese version) running using the core since some time (i tried a june version and also the latest and the one before) but can't make it load. I'm using Bios Hi-Saturn 1.02 (J).bin and other games load (like batsugun) but gunbird never does. Anyone experiencing something similar or has tested the jp version of gunbird recently? (I'm using one BIN file and CUE for my backups for all my saturn games)

[ancient surge]

Change .bin to .rom for the BIOS file for starters.

[mortal locust]

yeah, that's done, without that i don't think any other game would load, right?

Interesting, i was able to make it load by splitting the game unique BIN file into multiple ones using binmerge. So, some games don't need to be split (having a unique BIN file would still make the game load) but some others need to?

[ancient surge]

The .rom format for the BIOS just makes it so the core automatically boots it up.

[ripe valley]

I've tested Gunbird earlier, it works perfectly.

[ripe valley]

Some game need a perfect synchronization between tracks, moreover when you have multiple audio tracks.
Dumps realized with a single BIN file could fail to load if done improperly.

[mortal locust]

thanks for the insight. What is then a good program that dumps Saturn games in a single BIN file "properly"?

[stiff patrol]

why dump ?

look on ar archive

[mortal locust]

i like playing my backups

[native dagger]

I really need to get back to the Saturn core one day

[ripe valley]

Sega CD and Saturn could be nightmarish to dump accurately.

Between manufactories errors, master errors, non standard pregaps, multi-indexes inside a same track.

Dumping those games by yourself without specialized equipment and dumping tools could sometimes be a mess.

[tiny quartz]

@gloomy hedge - I could never get Kyuutenkai running on my fenrir. Does it work on yours? (I had the original, it's not great so I'm not missing out, but from time to time I like to remind myself why I sold it, heh)

[gloomy hedge]

let me have a quick test!

[tiny quartz]

Alright, so... I guess I have a bad image or something. All I get is a black screen.

Thanks for that!

[gloomy hedge]

ya no worries - ! if you get stuck after getting a proper dump, just uh, let me know and I can hook you up or w/e

also what is this

technosoft naked lady pinball

[tiny quartz]

I wish I could say it was great, because Tecnosoft, but it's strictly middle tier. =/

great bouncy jubblies but that's about where it stops.

[gloomy hedge]

my saturn looks a little red colored, might need to check the ol SCART

but that might also just be the game

[cunning citrus]

This 20240824 build audio is really good! Amazing!

[humble epoch]

Runs on mine as well

[tiny quartz]

Bah

My life as the eternal Edge Case Guy

[ancient surge]

Is it just me, or is the sound mixing kind of off? Like the streamed audio in certain games is more quiet than the rest of the audio.

Maybe it's just a mandela effect messing with me.

[gloomy hedge]

listen I entirely bought a saturn, a retrotink, scart cables, and a fenrir, and a pseudo kai... because my MISTER was the cursed mister for this core... so I hear you on the edge case lol

[tiny quartz]

technology was a mistake. 😄

[mortal locust]

I see 🙂 thanks for the explanation, appreciate it

[tiny flare]

I’m on v2.9, so I can’t test, but the timing issues with v2.5 SDRAM were totally solved a while back now right? Or are people still seeing issues with eg. Sega Rally?

[ripe valley]

srg320 reworked the SDRAM controller some months ago, so normally the discrepancy between v2.5/v2.9(3.0) RAM shouldn't exist anymore.

[ripe valley]

I've found a regression on Gunbird, need to check when the issue began on the core.

When finishing a stage, the portraits are all scrambled.
EDIT : Fixed with a full reboot of the core.

[waxen vortex]

Sorry if this is well known.

Fighters Megamix has an awful lot of slowdown during a fight. NTSC-J Version.

[ripe valley]

Known issue.

Fighters Megamix, Dead or Alive and Fighting Vipers have slowdowns at the moment.

[mortal mist]

Maybe it is better , we are getting older. Slower games are better 😉

[ripe valley]

@sacred goblet Is it resolved ?

It tried some CD-Audio from the Saturn set just a moment ago and they are working on the last core version.

[sacred goblet]

Yes was a mistake. My pad buttons was incorrectly mapped 🙂

Do you know if it is correct to enable fast usb polling with PS5 pad?

[ripe valley]

No idea at all.

[ancient surge]

I wonder if the slowdowns in Grandia and Sonic R are also related.

Maybe there is a bottleneck with how the core is rendering polygons?

[stone sky]

in case of Grandia , depending on the part, it even happens on the original hardware, I say this because I'm playing it on my Saturn.

[ancient surge]

I'm aware that Grandia does have problems with lag spikes on occasion for both the SEGA Saturn and PS1 versions, but I swear it's happening a lot more frequently on the core that it makes me wonder if there is a bug causing it.

Like I said, Sonic R is also exhibiting occasional lag spikes too. An easy to replicate one is on Resort Island, where the frame rate suddenly tanks around the stone structures at the start of the course.

That game does a lot of programmer tricks to optimize the hardware as much as possible, so when it just lags like that it makes me skeptical that something isn't right.

[stone sky]

It is possible, but without having specific points for comparison it is difficult, unfortunately on my side I do not record or have streaming equipment, if I have, I would record the gameplay of the original to have a Reference and compare with core

[ripe valley]

Maybe, like the N64, we are getting to the limits of the bandwith or something is doing a bottleneck for that system at the moment.

[ancient surge]

Worth noting that not all games have this issue. For example the "Sonic World" mode in Sonic Jam lacks any lag spikes.

[ripe valley]

Dead or Alive seems to be much slower since the SCSP changes. when I tried yesterday and today.

But in a same time, accurate timers were implemented on the SCSP, so it was necessary.
And on SF Zero 3, the game is too fast during the intro, so most probably an issue with the VDP timers.

[analog totem]

I know I always had fast polling enabled when using mine

[sacred goblet]

I notice some random slowdown in games (bug!, virtua fighter, Sega Rally ...)

[drowsy hull]

Things you only notice when trying to align captures.... (should still be noticeable in garbage encode)

[acoustic sable]

Woah. Trippy.

[plush pelican]

||are there any good 🥵 games on Saturn?||

||I already know about Steam-Heart's. The Playboy Karaoke doesn't count, I'm looking for interactive stuff.||

[ancient surge]

I'm going to guess the VDP1 and VDP2 are not synchronized like they should due to incorrect timings.

[drowsy hull]

looks like it

[ancient surge]

Might be good to let srg know on the official github issues page.

[stone sky]

Good catch...

[ripe valley]

I need a confirmation on that issue, please.

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/issues/239

[marble laurel]

is it the same story of SNES game or it is quite different ?

[ripe valley]

Same.

I need also a confirmation -or not- with an original system on Advanced VG (Japan).

I need to know if the scrambled line below your opponent is present on OG system AFTER winning a battle.
And only after winning (or losing) a battle, that line isn't present before.

[ancient surge]

Did you double check that you aren't accidentally using the wrong controller settings?

[ripe valley]

Triple checked.

Reloaded the core, verified the controller type.

You can skip the intro but when on the title screen, no more any button responds.

[ancient surge]

Oh no, that isn't normal. There should not be any junk under the portrait.

[ripe valley]

I've seen some footage from 14 and 10 years ago, that could be OG system too, with the same issue.
EDIT : After some checks, old emulators footage or different system, and not present on some original hardware footage.

But, I need someone here to retest just to be sure, as I don't have my Saturn system with me at the moment.
EDIT : Classified as original game bug.

[drowsy hull]

Happens with original HW as well

Or there are different revisions

or it could just be in the overscan area

[ripe valley]

I'm not aware of a revision of that game.

Touché.

I will update the issue log.

[ripe valley]

Thanks for the help, really appreciated.

I'm closing the issue and leaving a note.
So we have it on the backlog for one day as original game bug.

[plush pelican]

I suspected that might be an overscan detail

[mortal mist]

Do you have problems with texture flickering in Grandia ?

[drowsy hull]

Yes

[mortal mist]

I don't have flicker and I don't have such a problem with desynchorization , probably it is related

[drowsy hull]

Hmm

[mortal mist]

I recorded it at different speeds to see this desynchronization

[drowsy hull]

I did a standard 60hz capture and slowed it down for visibility, though single frame skip should be faster

[mortal mist]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/issues/210

Here you can see it in the two videos posted below. Video with flicker , there is desynchronization , video without flicker , there is synchornization. Just slow down these two videos and it is visible.

[drowsy hull]

Ok, will close the issue then

[mortal mist]

You could have not closed it, I just wanted to find the cause of this desynchro and noticed the connection , that's all

[drowsy hull]

Nope, thunder gone.
If the core never gets perfect you are now to blame 😔

[mortal mist]

maybe all this will help in finding the cause of it

[mortal mist]

https://tenor.com/view/i-miss-you-too-i-miss-you-gif-3270566121564095906

[ripe valley]

The issues are connected on the tracker, so you can't hide it anymore. 😏

https://tenor.com/view/robert-deniro-meet-the-fockers-point-looking-at-you-im-watching-you-gif-5145428

[mortal mist]

with flickering

no flickering

[hardy lodge]

I like the no flickering option better to be honest. Can we get that version please?

[drowsy hull]

Flicker however gives you double the unique frames...

[thorn pagoda]

nice find, wonder if this makes it easier to fix

[ancient surge]

Why do some people have problems and others don't? Is it a RAM timing issue?

[thorn pagoda]

not sure anyone knows but there was one person who said it was cured by switching sdcards

so maybe something in the cd-access

[mortal mist]

yes , me 🙂

I don't have flicker problems on four MiSTers at the moment

I only had flicker on one de10

[sacred goblet]

Allez your misters have the same config?

[mortal mist]

yes , sdram 2.9 + io board

[mortal mist]

probably at some future update it will start flickering again 😄

[mortal mist]

for me also no response to start

I didn't have time to check it before

[burnt matrix]

[gloomy hedge]

who are you

[burnt matrix]

The king of Sega Rally!!!

[ripe valley]

You need to test the last version of the core with the SCSP accuracy tests completed now, Robby.

[dusk cedar]

Hey all. First time posting in this discord but was finally going to bite the bullet and get a MISTer....but why are there so many options?! I would at a minimum want it to work great with Saturn games and everything else would be a bonus. I have a PC VGA CRT I'd likely use or I could connect it to a standard HDMI LCD TV, but I was curious what people recommended as I'm clearly new to this scene. Not even sure if this is the best channel to ask.

[gloomy hedge]

https://tenor.com/view/nod-kermit-nod-nodding-gif-24624072

[gloomy hedge]

here ya go : https://misteraddons.com/products/mister-pre-configured-bundle-with-aluminum-case?variant=40854910140549

I actually am considering getting a second mister as well but not sure ... might be nice to have one for my arcade cabinets

[ripe valley]

I'm waiting for Taki Udon for my 3rd MiSTer.

Waiting a little bit about his solution and evaluating if I should bite or get a more standard MiSTer system with the new 9.2 I/O board.

[dusk cedar]

Thank you @gloomy hedge . And screw you @ripe valley for immediately saying there are more options! 😛 What is a Saturn AV port for? Like my Saturn cables will work if I want to use those?

[gloomy hedge]

I actually havent a clue im sure someone here does lol

my mister is from the ye' old time

[ripe valley]

But, but, I'm not a bad bear...

@dusk cedar Depends where you are located. If you're in the USA, Mister Addons is the choice.
In Europe, Ultimate Mister could be an option.

On AliExpress, you have also RetroCastle which use a Saturn cable type for analog video.

You could reuse your cable from your original Saturn system with the RC one, that's right

We recommend a single 128MB RAM system, as it was revealed during the last years that we could do everything without a double RAM option.

[dusk cedar]

US. So I'll check that site. I guess I'm unsure why I would want to use my Saturn cables if VGA and HDMI are options. My Saturn currently uses a SCART cable connected to an OSSC, but it's been giving me some issues especially with games that switch resolutions. Would I still need/want to use an OSSC for Saturn games to get it working on a 480p monitor? i.e. does the MISTer do any resolution scaling or does it output like a native system?

[gloomy hedge]

mister scales everything for you

[ripe valley]

VGA and HDMI could be better options, that's sure too.

[gloomy hedge]

yeah I think if you have VGA, you get the analog VGA one and you dont look back but thats just me

I keep things simple

[ripe valley]

The MiSTer system have a scaler function, not extensive like a RetroTINK one, but it does the job.

[dusk cedar]

Awesome

Yeah, I was debating a RetroTINK but at that price I figured I may as well just jump into the MISTer instead.

[ripe valley]

The current limitations of the core at the moment : no gun support, no mouse support, no Twin Stick, 480i output is WIP.
We are trying with the developer (srg320) to iron out the last remaiings bugs on the core before adding those features.

The last 15 days we tried with the help of an external homebrew dev, to iron out totally the SCSP chip (sound chip) on the corewith unit tests.
Since 2-3 days, the core should be identical on that part with an original console.

Otherwise, it works quite spectacular.

[dusk cedar]

I knew about the lack of gun support, but I stupidly gave away my guns nearly two decades ago because I'm an idiot who plugged them into my new LCD and said, "Oh shit! My guns are broken!" I don't have a twin stick nor a mouse. So this sounds great so far.

[ripe valley]

So, you have a quick overview here.

[dusk cedar]

Thank you again.

Actually, one last question in terms of controller support. What are you all using to get your 3D pads working on the MISTer?

[pearl harbor]

SNAC!

I'm using the one from MiSTerAddons.

[ripe valley]

I don't use a 3D pad, but you have some controller adapters called SNAC.

[dusk cedar]

Oh ok, the website (https://misteraddons.com/products/hdmi-controller-adapters?variant=39583021170821) said it only worked on "basic" controllers and wasn't sure if that included the 3D pad

[reef estuary]

Does the Mission Stick work through SNAC?

[pearl harbor]

Just keep in mind that you need both the SNAC (or SNAX) adapter and the controller adapter.

[gloomy hedge]

they're completely different objects - I mean you're not gonna be able to use your mister to make real hardware scale

but yeah I got a mister many years before I got a real saturn, ps2 and a tink lol

[acoustic sable]

IT'S HOUSE CLEANING TIME and today our unlucky letter is T

Thank you for your sacrifices

Geez I should script this

@mossy epoch Try now?

[mossy epoch]

I have an arcade cab now and am looking into light gun support. I have two Sega Saturn guns, SMS light phaser, Atari XEGS light gun, NES Zapper, and Playstation... 2(?) guncon. I also have an EMS TopGun II from forever ago I maybe used once on a PC. Suggestions? My fave to use are the twin Saturn ones.

[Shakespearean aside] - I can post here now!!! Thank you!!!

[mortal mist]

Saturn core does not currently support light guns

[pearl harbor]

I dodged another bullet! Huzzah!

[mossy epoch]

Ahhh. This is an unfortunate but likely temporary setback. Still, for the cores that do support lightguns, can I use my Saturn ones or are PSX guncons the main choice?

[visual grove]

Even Saturn needs purging? Survived another round of layoffs suckabs!

[drowsy hull]

savage

if you kick the Js, will you kick yourself?

[polar mountain]

Game over yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaah for those people

[acoustic sable]

They can just walk back in y'know

[trim nimbus]

Did Robby get removed yet?

[acoustic sable]

He does that himself three times a day

[warped saddle]

well not all of them can walk back in 😉

[acoustic sable]

🤸‍♀️

Other methods of locomotion are also acceptable

[humble epoch]

Saturn is finally popular!

[trim nimbus]

“I liked Saturn before it was cool…”

[humble epoch]

https://tenor.com/view/very-popular-dorinda-medley-real-housewives-of-new-york-rhony-well-known-gif-21244929

[noble escarp]

Why no twin stick? It's just a digital pad...

[ripe valley]

The code isn't implemented.

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/issues/147

There are placeholders for some controllers inside the source code.

I've taken a look some days ago, if I could do it trivially for some of them - with checking the code from the PSX code.
But I've not succeeded a the moment and srg30 could most probably do it much efficiently and more cleanly at a later time.

The SCSP part and the new testrom were much more important than the controllers, I hope everyone here agrees with this priority.

[fresh gale]

Is a 480i interlacing fix potentially coming down the line? 😮
Or is it more like educated speculation?

[ripe valley]

I'm not the dev, srg320 is the sole one who chooses the next step.

[noble escarp]

Digital controllers are working via snac?

[ripe valley]

The sole thing I could say today : please enjoy the core as much as possible. srg320 worked for our pleasure in vide games, even when it is/was in a war zone.

I don't have SNAC on my systems, so all tests are from other users and reports on the issue tracker.

[noble escarp]

I can try it later today

[ripe valley]

If it works, we could update the feature request.

[noble escarp]

Did a quick test and snac with a digital pad or twin stick is working perfectly fine. Latest unstable build.

[tiny flare]

Twin Stick is definitely working fine

yep lol

I think maybe some users are confused about what it actually is? Like if they haven't used a real Twin Stick before and have only played ie. the emulated arcade port of Virtual On in whichever Yakuza game it was then yeah, you might think you needed analogue controls for this

when yeah, in reality it's literally just a regular digital pad rearranged

also re. that one user's report that their controller didn't work via SNAC - the Saturn SNAC port is notouriously finicky, they probably just needed to wiggle it around a bit more to get it to be detected

[burnt matrix]

twin stick is awesome for virtual on

[ripe valley]

Dual Mission isn't supported, not Twin Stick.
Mea culpa.

Issue modified.

Thanks for the tests.

[alpine pagoda]

So a single mission stick works?

[pearl harbor]

I'm going to make a bold prediction! Lightgun support will be added before the end of the year! I have spoken! 🙏

[shell musk]

Poor T letter... :p

[gloomy hedge]

and I will add on that heavy gun will be done in 2025~!

[ancient surge]

It will be a glorious day for Death Crimson enjoyers

[naive whale]

Hey you are back! I thought I smelled something

[high bramble]

The good BBQ ribs he smuggled in from out of state?

[tribal burrow]

came to ask if grandia was good to go or not yet. ty for the info.
Playing on my saturn right now but my TY CD-Rs don't seem up to the task. 4x burn speed and the battle theme skips, 10x burn speed and battle theme is fine but I get random freezes when opening the menu and stuff :/

Hm apparently that happens a lot with Pseudo Saturn ... GG

[mortal mist]

These flickers do not occur for all users. If there is no flicker then it is completely playable.

[tribal burrow]

Interesting I should update and give it a go then eh...

[vapid mural]

With analog audio: the clicking / short distortion at the beginning of some audio tracks is still present in many games. Is that still familiar?

[ripe valley]

A recording of the short distortion should even be better for tracking down the possible issue.

[vapid mural]

eg Salamander Deluxe: at 00:00:08 (Konami jingle)

Or Sega Rally (beginn of music in the demo).

There used to be a general ticket for this - but i can't find it on git anymore. It was also discussed here: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=2110&start=900

[mortal mist]

what core version ?

[vapid mural]

with the current public and the Saturn_unstable_20240824_111077

[radiant karma]

I don't get that distortion using digital hdmi on the latest core. I remember I had DACs that would mute the first second of an audio cd track to avoid that kind of distortion upon start of playback, maybe something similar is needed.

[vapid mural]

That would be a strange solution.
The problem does not occur with any other core with CDA.

[radiant karma]

We did had those distortions on digital HDMI at the start of the core development. Don't remember when it was fixed. Mister main did some changes for cdda on Saturn, could be the reason the issue only shows on Saturn.

[ripe valley]

The SCSP code seems solid now after the unit tests passed these last days, so maybe a problem elsewhere.

[earnest terrace]

I definitely see the flicker at present

[ripe valley]

WARNING!
A new SCSP testrom is approaching fast.

[burnt matrix]

What’s the new one do

[ripe valley]

I don't know at the moment, I'm searching my consoles and ask some help from friends too.
Testing the new version on PAL and NTSC Model 1/Model 2 systems before trying anything with the core and other emulators.

"Testing the tests"

[burnt matrix]

lol, that’s how you know you’re hardcore

[marble laurel]

🫣

[drowsy hull]

At least the old test passed on Model1 pal

[burnt matrix]

I think a bigger spotlight needs to be placed on the hardcore fans who help make sure these cores are as authentic as can be. That’s a massive undertaking and an incredible knowledge resource that everyone greatly benefits from.

The core developer is of course the star of the show and we’re all in their debt. But we’re also in debt of the people who test endlessly, point out the minor discrepancies, and work alongside the core dev to make these cores as good as can be. That’s pretty incredible work from the hardcore fans. We’re all in their debt too.

[ripe valley]

On the 2024-08-24 core revision.

On Mednafen

[drowsy hull]

top one is core or hw saturn? k

[ripe valley]

Let me finish typing...

😁

[drowsy hull]

Don't press enter before you are finished!

[ripe valley]

So, 2 failed tests this time, issue log reopened and the test shared there.

[drowsy hull]

That's how rumors get started

[burnt matrix]

Don’t press arit before you enter typing!

[marble laurel]

For EG Test Mednafen is better so 🙂
What is the EG and PLFO ? what could be the impact in games ?

[hearty marten]

Looks like Grandia flicker will have to wait 😉

[burnt matrix]

Grandia flicker is basically Sega’s way of determining who is worthy and who isn’t

Grandia doesn’t flicker for me because I have in my ❤️

[hearty marten]

Sega’s way of telling everyone to play the PSX version 😅

[burnt matrix]

I have the PS1 version and it is cool game, very good

[hearty marten]

$299

[wise brook]

https://tenor.com/view/choopo-jingle-jangle-keys-pay-attention-gif-5329561005981139666

[drowsy hull]

It is called living environment friendly and not buying a new pcb every time the decimal number changes.

[hearty marten]

By your comment I’m guessing it struggles on particular board revisions?

I suspect sdram?

[ripe valley]

PLFO is for Pitch Low Frequency Oscillator.
EG is a register.

[burnt matrix]

Aww @wise brook blocked me I can’t leave a laugh emoji on their post : (

[marble laurel]

Thank you 🙂

Do you know if it is the final version or more tests will come in the futur ?

[burnt matrix]

If the PLFO is failing I take it the audio wouldn’t be correct?

[hearty marten]

Probably the pitch low frequencies might be off, due to the oscillator tests failing

[marble laurel]

this kind of check may be quite difficult just with ears.
oscillator helps in this case

[ripe valley]

Yes

I need some rest now, I will reply later.

[burnt matrix]

Have a great rest!

[thorn pagoda]

haha nice

[burnt matrix]

lol I like that the tests was like a call to action for SRG

SRG sitting there going “NAH, MY CORE WILL BE BEST”

[drowsy hull]

Interesting, test passes on pal@60 saturn, but fails to boot @50Hz on Pal Model 1 and 2

[ripe valley]

The dev have only a NTSC system and I didn't have time to check the PAL models before sharing.

[vapid mural]

I just posted an issue at git and got this 🧐

[trim nimbus]

well, that looks extremely dubious

[warped saddle]

I know this is obvious, but dont' download etc. those bots have been all over github lately

[trim nimbus]

also, I believe the place you want for file issues is the actual mister repo: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/issues

[vapid mural]

yes, I saw that afterwards too 🙂
should I just put it there again?

[trim nimbus]

yes

looks like kuba has been asking people to post the bugs in the “official” repo, so I’ll mirror that request

[vapid mural]

Why do the two repositories exist and what is the difference?

[trim nimbus]

you posted to srg’s original development repo

When it was released, sorg created an official mister repo for the core. It is the way the project is run. All official MiSTer cores are maintained inside the MiSTer github account.

[vapid mural]

ok i understand - i'll close the ticket and open it again in the right repo

[mossy crystal]

What's the recommended way of saving?

I played Grandia, saved my file but the last time I played, my save file was gone.
I think I was able to select "save" on the mister menu and then wait for 10 seconds before I closed my game.

[upper dust]

@mossy crystal Did you open the MiSTer OSD and have auto save turned on? You have to open the OSD after saving in the game if auto save is on, otherwise you'd need to manually save in the OSD. This will update the save file on the sd card

[mortal mist]

Never lost my save in Grandia

[mossy crystal]

Oh I see, I don't have auto save turned on for the saturn core.

[tawdry lion]

turn autosave on, then make sure to go to the right and save the core settings so autosave STAYS on

Any settings changed are temporary until you save the core settings.

Then once autosave is on you HAVE to open the OSD for the game to save

You'll see it show a popup "saving..." before it displays the menu, but only if something in the save ram or memory card (core-dependent) changed

It might seem monotonous but tbh you get used to opening the OSD every once in a while like when you pause, etc

It just becomes habitual 😛

[analog totem]

if they properly did a manual save in the OSD, shouldn't it have worked though?

[drifting crown]

Yes assuming that option was selected. From the sounds they saved in game then opened the osd thinking it would then write the save to the sdcard.

[analog totem]

ahh yes, that would make sense why it didn’t work if that’s the case

[mossy crystal]

For the record, I saved in game, and then I also selected the save option in the OSD and then waited 10 seconds before going back in game

[burnt matrix]

Make sure auto save is turned on

[analog totem]

"Save Backup RAM", right?

seems like even if Auto was turned off, clicking "Save Backup RAM" should have worked

[uneven dove]

Correct me if im wrong but, if you're not using autosaving, dont you have to select "save backup ram" in the OSD and then also close and open the OSD one more time for the save to actually go through

[small gust]

Just to be sure, check the naming of the savefile on your sd-card. Sometime in the spring, something changed on the naming scheme of the savefile with multi disc games and a new build of the core, and I had to rename the save file for the core to find the save file.

I belive I have had to do this twice this year.

I can't remember though if it went from being tied to a specific disc to omit the discs and using the folder name, or if it was the reverse.

[open swan]

cores typically will use the folder name for any cd file inside of a folder for the save name

this is because of multi-disc games, yeah

for example:

./Valkyrie Profile (USA)/Valkyrie Profile (USA) (Disc 1).chd
./Valkyrie Profile (USA)/Valkyrie Profile (USA) (Disc 2).chd

will use one save file named Valkyrie Profile (USA).sav

if this core is setup the same way as all the other cd based cores currently

[warped saddle]

it's not, it tries to remove '(Disc X)' from teh filename

[open swan]

well that's the wrong way to do it

should be folder name to be idiomatic

hrm, yup you are right, i see it now

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/commit/f19685b11826fcd6494fba3cd2f41e63270d684d

it hsould be the same result IF the user just names things the way i did, but if they do any other kind of naming scheme it could screw it up

multi-disc save file in emulators is always messy haha

it's an okay assumption that the naming will be the same consistently given all the popular rom sets use the Disc X naming like that

isn't there a way to check against a string and make it case insensitive?

[drowsy hull]

strcmpi?

[open swan]

i'm seeing both strcmpi and strcasestr can be used for this, but they aren't part of the c standard library

strcmpi is just for microsoft i guess

from their compiler

MS says to use _stricmp instead of strcmpi as well

since it's always on mister and mister is always on linux you could probably use strcasestr

yeah already used throughout

[drowsy hull]

Ah, that one was cpp I think

[warped saddle]

it checks for Disc, disc, DISC I think

[open swan]

yeah

if ((p1 = strstr(buf, "disc")) != 0 || (p1 = strstr(buf, "Disc")) != 0 || (p1 = strstr(buf, "DISC")) != 0)

[trim nimbus]

guess we aren’t worried about unicode?

[open swan]

could just change this to this if ((p1 = strcasestr(buf, "disc")) != 0)

[warped saddle]

nothing in mister cares about unicode. speak english or die etc

[open swan]

not sure i follow. exFAT is 99.9% unicode permissible except a few characters

the string is from the filename

[trim nimbus]

right, but c strings are just collection of bytes, so not unicode aware…if someone is crazy and names their set with emoji….

I guess I should say collection of single bytes

[open swan]

well we don't want people naming their filenames emojis anyways

[trim nimbus]

so strcasestr isn’t unicode aware

[drowsy hull]

Cutting it down to strcasestr would open up the option to filter against (CD n) without making it an unreadable concatination of expressions

[warped saddle]

or just use the directory name like everything else

but srg just did whatever and no one ever got around to fixing it

[open swan]

the function that generates the save name for all the other cores should have the if else and check for cd file formats and this should probably be moved out of the specific support files

it's the same thing repeated in multiple support files right?

this might run into trouble actually now that i think about it

because of weird stuff with different save files probably

okay nvm

some other cores might have good reasons to have special exceptions

i need to setup the arm cross compilation dev environment on my new pc again

just realizing

[trim nimbus]

can always introduce a standard and allow for overriding?

[open swan]

the spirit of the mister core specific stuff is to keep it easier on the individual developers when possible

[thorn pagoda]

i like the simplicity of just using folders tbh

[open swan]

yeah it's easier once you know

[thorn pagoda]

naming scheme stuff like that i always end up having to look up like "ok how does it work on this thing"

like i think mode uses CD# wheras xstation and swiss uses Disc #

[ripe valley]

I was talking privately the other night with Frogbull (totally by chance during a common friend presentation) which is porting at the moment Crash Bandicoot to the Saturn.
He is porting Metal Gear Solid to the Saturn too.
And shown to him the quick current progress done by srg320 -with the help of the last testroms from celeriyacon on the SCSP-, he seems really interested to get a MiSTer quite soon.

At some point, I want to ask the permission to test his prototypes on the core, if he allows me to.

[burnt matrix]

That’d be super cool

[ripe valley]

I didn't recognize him at all when we started to talk each other. 😁
He is impressed by the core and the global project.

I've also seen that fafling (that I know a little bit from Kronos development) have commented an issue on The Legend of Oasis during the last video from VGE.
I tried to transcript the issue to a ticket for srg320.

[burnt matrix]

MiSTer is the coolest thing in retro gaming at the moment imo

[ripe valley]

I know that fafling shall have some VDP1 (maybe VDP2 ?) testroms -even undocumented functions- too.
Should be interesting to talk with him at a later time, as I want to say 'hi' to some of the others from Kronos and NOVA during next September.

Tomorrow, I will test the next version of the Flashback port too, as I've seen the last alpha prototype have some sound now.

[ancient surge]

I would not be surprised if there is innacurate timings going on with the VDP chips. A bunch of games are experiencing lag where they shouldn't.

[ripe valley]

I think too.

I'm writing down my last ideas here, I don't promise anything but if I can light up some interest from others developers and people from the Saturn dev community, that should be just perfect.

As it can be reciprocal, with the new findings from srg320 for creating the core and the possibility to have something more handy for them for developing their homebrews.

[lucid comet]

Hello and good morning everyone👋 I am trying to get the Sega Saturn cores. For some reason I cannot get it when I use update all so I'm trying to manually install it. Could someone point me in the right direction to get the cores or share the files with me would definitely be appreciated. Thank!

[mortal mist]

Latest core #unstable-nightlies message

[lucid comet]

Hey thank you for the quick response I'll go and check it out. Kuba! I've been trying to do this off and on all yesterday🤦🙏lol

[naive whale]

I tried to get in touch with him to do a video of it on Saturn but wasn’t successful

[ripe valley]

No reply at all ?

[naive whale]

It was Twitter so maybe they never even saw it. Twitter is weird like that

[ripe valley]

I should text him later today or maybe tomorrow, I will try to ask him directly.

[willow siren]

Been a while since I checked the core, seems to be improving so fast.
Just wondering what isn't added yet, I guess still 480i?

[ripe valley]

Gun, Mouse, 480i, some refinements on the SCSP at least, and 2-3 bugs on the SMPC / SH2 side.

VDP timings too, most probably.

[burnt matrix]

Hey everyone, just checked the latest reports and the Saturn is still freaking amazing.

Carry on.

📈

[ripe valley]

Saturnday is two days away.

[jovial lichen]

Direct video is working?

[ancient surge]

It does work, but the 480i doesn't work like intended so the picture will be distorted any time interlacing happens.

[analog totem]

huh Powerslave just crashed on me while loading the first level:

I also noticed that if you let the starting animation play out without skipping, it eventually just goes to a blue screen and the audio just keeps skipping lol i’ll try and capture this

the audio crashes at the perfect part

eh ok just a fluke I guess…a mister reboot fixed it

a cold reboot

[burnt matrix]

Still, good find. I’ll try to repro it on my end.

[analog totem]

one interesting thing…after I got it working fine, the game told me my base ram wasn’t properly initialized for saving…despite the fact I already had a Powerslave save…so I cleared the ram and am going to do some more testing with saving now

[ripe valley]

I need to check some VDP transparencies priority on the Cotton games.

Just to be sure.

fafling saw something interesting missing years ago on SW emulators and I want to check that the core is doing the blending correctly.

In the icy cave.

[inner kayak]

I love your test-driven approach to these things!

[analog totem]

working with someone and troubleshooting issues they're having with saving in the 20240628 core (last one in update_all)...were there any saving inconsistencies reported back when that was released that anyone can remember? The person I'm trying to help has been having issues where they can save a game a few times but then the saves stop committing after a certain point 🤔

[ripe valley]

The blending seems okay inside the icy cave on Cotton Boomerang.

Let me illustrate.

You have 4 layers of transparency on objects, sprites and background.

You can see-through some parts but not others and some solid sprites on the last layer.

Take a look on the bigger ice block in the center.

You can see-trough but not from everything - my shot is hidden by a small ice pillar but it could let some part of the background appearing.

That's really complex to perform and could define the 2D powerhouse of the Saturn.

On the icy spikes and the shots, you can see it well too.

[ripe valley]

Never seen something of the sort on my side.

There is an issue about save corruption on the tracker but don't know if it's relevant or not since it was opened.

[analog totem]

hmmm yeah, the only issue I see is the "changing game corrupts save data" issue which seems like it was caused because the reporting user didn't have each game in its own folder

the person I am trying to help confirmed that they do have their games in their own folders

[mortal mist]

there were also problems when someone had boot.bin instead of boot.rom

[analog totem]

good tip, I kinda forgot about that

[serene thunder]

Saturn has some odd limitations with transparencies though - Is this one of them?

[ripe valley]

More like the blending that could be quite so advanced with transparent and semi-transparent layers when done right.
Without failing during masking, and without using mesh.

On some emulators, rendering priority is incorrect and blending+masking aren't done correctly, so you can't see those effects.

[serene thunder]

Yeah I was just remembering the Guardian Heroes cape

[burnt matrix]

Steep Slope Sliders is a pretty damn cool game

[trim nimbus]

If it weren’t cool, it’d just be steep slope hikers

[serene thunder]

I've been speedrunning Super Toboggan

[polar mountain]

I love Steep Slope Sliders! A dog chases you on one of the levels! A dog!

[minor cipher]

check out the music visualizer in the options if you haven't already. absolutely nutty bonus in that game

some of the choons are pretty sick, too

[mortal mist]

https://tenor.com/view/mood-gif-19953994

[gloomy hedge]

Did you enthusiasts already see this? Lol

Now we absolutely need lightgun support...

https://x.com/memory_fallen/status/1829143997966889255

Bo (Low Context Burning Rangers) (@memory_fallen) on X

Here's a video of the stage select cheat in action — quite an effect!

Technical details are on my reverse engineering blog: https://t.co/9CUaSBZjJH

Twitter · Aug 29, 2024, 1:08 PM

[fluid root]

saturn core doesn't report good date / time from MiSTer only year is correcte

[ancient surge]

I remember complaining about this a long time ago and got ignored.

I think the Tomodachi game uses the time and date to keep track of the pets, but I could be wrong.

I know games like Twinkle Star Sprites and Puyo Puyo Sun also had easter eggs related to the date.

[hearty marten]

Did you complain via GitHub issue? That’s probably the only way to make srg320 aware 🙂

[wise brook]

you’re mistaken

you must set it for each game

load the game, press start+a+b+c to the saturn bios, set clock, done.

[cunning citrus]

Load the game then hold a, set clock, done.

[burnt matrix]

yeah, it should still pull from the MiSTer clock (if possible)

ain't nobody going to manually set the time for every single game, haha

[cunning citrus]

Exactly, a bunch of games reacts to the setting. Waku Waku 7 shows images according to the seasons of the date it boots up.

[burnt matrix]

that's cool, I miss games doing that fun stuff

[hearty marten]

What if I wanna? Eh? EH?!

[burnt matrix]

embrace your internal time gladiator and grab the saturn core by the horns!

[violet wolf]

I feel like that's where my unwillingness to divulge personal information in electronic form began... Mario doesn't need to know my time zone or location

Clenching my jaw as I'm playing through the Earthbound intro

[ancient surge]

Happy Saturnday!

[ripe valley]

https://tenor.com/view/sega-kiss-gif-9193635882300784136

[wise brook]

You’ve all heard of JT Fridays,
i’m more of an SRG Saturday guy

[sacred goblet]

I notice something. When i start the core i dont have bios animation in 3D. The Sega saturn screen appears immediately. I'm using PAL Bios.

When i start the game then the console is resetting and i see the animation.

[high bramble]

Same, using Hi-Saturn 1.02 region-free.

[pearl harbor]

If it's a day that ends in "y", it's Saturnday!

[plush pelican]

Does Assault Suit Leynos 2 crash for anyone else?

the first in-game sequence with dialogue has this distorted noise, and when music start it goes away. after the sequence is done, it fades to black and a jittering sky blue line appears.

this is happening on Saturn 24.06.28

[ripe valley]

Please update on unstable 2024-08-24 manually.

[plush pelican]

ok I'll check it out again

it works now, thanks!

[ripe valley]

Some SCU (control unit) and SCSP (sound chip) important changes were done these last months, so most of the games are working and sounding like the real console now.

[plush pelican]

does that mean less games will have abruptly super loud sound with bass boost xtreme limit?

[ripe valley]

Yes, the sound chip is almost perfect now on the last tests done.

Even better than software emulation.

Hidden under a small line on the changelog (scsp accuracy fixes) during these last 3 weeks.

[steel sparrow]

how does one find the latest saturn cores?

[plush pelican]

#test-builds

[ripe valley]

#unstable-nightlies message

Not Test-builds

[plush pelican]

my bad

[steel sparrow]

I looked there - i assumed it was from today that it released, neat will do thanks!

also saw the unstable downloader script, will look into that too! cool

thanks

[ripe valley]

The next version shouldn't be too long, knowing now srg320.

We left him with some issues to check and the last version of the SCSP testrom since 4-5 days.

[polar mountain]

The Saturn core is so damn hot right now!

[serene thunder]

[burnt matrix]

https://tenor.com/view/so-hot-right-now-trending-meme-zoolander-this-is-epic-gif-26091622

[tall radish]

Is there still a benefit of using the dual ram version?

[ripe valley]

Not at the moment.

[burnt matrix]

Dual ram is a really cool option but nothing uses it in any meaningful way. MiSTer development always targets just a single stick of ram.

[tall radish]

Why releasing unstable versions of it then?

[tall radish]

In future?

[burnt matrix]

Because it’s for testing and development

Early on cores may require dual ram but those aren’t intended for general public release

Dual ram is for core development use generally

[tall radish]

And not one difference found from testing?

[drifting crown]

I’ve heard dual ram will be needed for lightgun support

[burnt matrix]

No because the intent isn’t to require dual ram so the target is single ram

I’ve switched from dual ram to single and everything works identically

[tall radish]

Sure. That is also the same for PSX but you still have tiny differences there.

[burnt matrix]

If no one pointed out the difference you would have never have known

[tall radish]

Even on the non human perceived level?

[burnt matrix]

Yes correct, no difference and if there are they will be fixed

[thorn pagoda]

there did used to be differences, and when there were that was really interesting for debugging, but it stopped being a thing about a year ago now?

[pearl harbor]

Yeah, there really isn't a single publically released core that requires dual ram as far as I know. Only stuff that's in development or stuff that was abandoned.

[ancient surge]

Never forget the Jaguar core. 💔

[mortal mist]

https://tenor.com/view/rip-rest-in-peace-rip-bozo-pour-one-out-homie-gif-22783396

[west quail]

Can you still grab the unstable nightlies from github or only from the unstable Chanel. The reason I ask is because I cannot navigate/locate where there are on github lol.

[mortal mist]

https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nightlies/Saturn_MiSTer/releases/tag/unstable-builds

[west quail]

I didn't look at the tags on the right, what a doughnut! Thanks Kuba.

[mortal mist]

I guess there is nothing worse than not being able to reproduce the problem

[thorn pagoda]

maybe suggest trying different sdcards?

thats the only thing we know of that seems to affect it right

[mortal mist]

This also does not guarantee success , it is a lottery. A card that caused flickering in another de10 nano may work fine.

[thorn pagoda]

still it's something

if srg320 knows thats a factor he can probably contrive slow IOs on purpose

[rich violet]

I wonder if he could reproduce the desync issue: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/issues/238

[visual grove]

Mail him an sdcard where it flickers maybe?

[mortal mist]

it's related with flickering

[rich violet]

So far as I know that's just a presumption

[ancient surge]

Is it CHD or Bin/Cue? Maybe the decompression from the former is causing issues?

[mortal mist]

I can't reproduce this problem on any of my de10 nano's

synchoro is ok

every video that has appeared with flicker , when slowed down shows the same desynchornization problems

of course, I can only imagine it or be blind

[rich violet]

Okay!

[wise brook]

i could send him my mister

i’ve got 3 now so it’s not gonna kill me

[ripe valley]

Can't reproduce it with my Single and Dual RAM Systems.
Either the original JPN and EN translated versions.
Tried with BIN/CUE & CHD formats.
So I think that's not a format problem but elsewhere.

[thorn pagoda]

have you tried other sd-cards?

[ripe valley]

The game is on a USB stick, not a SD card.

I always separate the system from the other data.

[hearty marten]

What if it’s chd with weird compression settings?

That would add more load to the system I guess

Slow storage + “heavy” decompression?

[mortal mist]

my "flickering" card

now I'm trying different cards

works fine

[wise brook]

also happens to me when i boot the game from an ssd

[ripe valley]

I've tried the standard compression with cdlz,cdzl,cdfl & the newer compression zstd method.
No changes.

[mortal mist]

I'll try formatting the sandisk again

[safe trail]

If it's a "flicker" issue, are you running from HDMI or VGA out ?

[mortal mist]

hdmi and vga

[safe trail]

He may not see the same thing as you if he is using a different output

[ripe valley]

HDMI and VGA too.

[thorn pagoda]

its not the entire screen flickering is it just specific textures?