Sega Saturn

[naive whale]

I’ve been not talking at all so I can rock off a ten min VO if something cool happens. I’ll sound a bit rough but that endears people to me having done it for some reason

[high bramble]

Oh... you mean your voice was normal before? 😬

Seriously man, sorry you're not feeling well. Hope you get better soon. I know that's no fun.

[celest lake]

It’s almost thursday. What could possibly happen……..

[tacit viper]

I am waiting on my AV cable to come for my real Saturn to test marvel super heroes, but I don't remember the slowdown to be as bad as it is in the Saturn Mister core. It is very apparent on the fire stage that it is not running full speed.

[burnt matrix]

Pins updated to point to Kuba’s builds

[pearl harbor]

Feel better soon! 💉

[slow osprey]

With this new build, does it mean I can just set P1 input to 3D pad and leave it? Non-analog games will work using dpad as before? I'm using a PS5 controller.

[ripe valley]

Toss a coin to your Tester

[winter phoenix]

I’m using a wired Xbox One controller. How do I get the Saturn core to use my analog stick?

[celest lake]

if you and kuba have patreons, I absolutely will

[pearl harbor]

Did you set it up first in Main (outside of the Saturn core)?

And then make sure that when you map it in the Saturn core, that you do not map dpad directions to the stick. And then set to the controller mode in the OSD to 3D controller.

Keep in mind that the analog triggers will not work still. That can only be done with an actual 3D controller through SNAC still.

[winter phoenix]

I suppose not

[pearl harbor]

Make sure to go through the entire process. Just skip through the stuff that isn't relevant.

But don't stop until you've gone through all of them.

[winter phoenix]

How do I start this process?…

[pearl harbor]

Hold on a sec, I need to boot up my MiSTer to remember. 😅

[winter phoenix]

Thanks! Sorry for being a bother

I’m looking at this screen

[pearl harbor]

It's never a bother to ask!

Just hit the B button (cancel button), and then select "Define joystick buttons".

[winter phoenix]

OK! I did that, then started up the core and a game, set my pad to 3D pad … and now the game doesn’t respond to any buttons 😅

It was nice being able to set up a two-button combo to bring up the menu instead of having to use a keyboard to do that, though

[pearl harbor]

Did you map the controller in the Saturn core now as well?

[winter phoenix]

Yes

It never asked me about stick directions, just D-pad ones

[pearl harbor]

Yeah, the cores never ask for analog stick setup. That's only done in Main. Never map the up, down, left, right inputs to the stick.

[winter phoenix]

I didn’t

[pearl harbor]

When changing it back to digital, does it repond then?

[winter phoenix]

Yep

[pearl harbor]

Hmm, let me try my Dual Shock 4.

[naive whale]

Thanks. Shits kicking my ass. 101.5 temp. Chills. That’s no way to make MiSTer vids 🤣

[green swift]

Is 3D pad implemented yet? I thought it was SNAC only still?

[pearl harbor]

He's asking about an Xbox One controller and if the analog stick will respond.

[green swift]

Ah, I imagine it should, but probably only as a D-pad.

[winter phoenix]

Oh, if analog is SNAC only then I guess I’ll have to wait a couple weeks for that to come in the mail

[pearl harbor]

It works, just not with the analog triggers. If you play a game that only uses the stick, it should work.

I just tested it with my Dual Shock 4, and it works on my end.

[green swift]

Yeah, to my knowledge the Saturn's analog stick and, by extension, Mission Stick are SNAC only at this time.

I can try my N64 controller real quick, and I have a DualSense I can try.

[pearl harbor]

Interestingly, you can actually play Sega Rally with analog steering by selecting Mission Stick, and it thinks it's using a wheel controller. Full analog steering with my dual shock 4. Just no analog gas and brake.

Selecting the 3D Controller also works with the stick in Sega Rally, but then the gas and breaking don't work since there's no analog trigger support.

[green swift]

Triggers for sure aren't in there yet, but maybe the stick is now?

[pearl harbor]

The stick has been implemented for a long time. Just no triggers.

Like for over a year at least.

[winter phoenix]

Nope, I just tried Christmas Nights, which definitely has analog support, and it won’t recognize the stick or the D-pad when I set 3D pad from the menu. It recognizes buttons, though, unlike Bomberman Fight…

[pearl harbor]

Let me try that game.

Confirmed working in Christmas Nights on my end.

[green swift]

So I just tried Night with an N64 controller and set to 3D pad and it works.

Yup

[pearl harbor]

I just don't have an Xbox One controller at the ready to test.

[green swift]

Yeah, maybe that's the issue. Danthrax, is it Xbone or Series? I have a Series pad I can try

And how are you connected? Are you using that proprietary dongle?

[winter phoenix]

It’s a PowerA brand wired Xbox One controller

[green swift]

Oh, hmm

[winter phoenix]

Hooked into the USB port

[green swift]

S'poze I can try my series controller wired.

[pearl harbor]

Actually, scratch that, I do have one.

I'm trying it with blue tooth right now, and yeah, the analog stick is working.

[winter phoenix]

I don’t know what I’ve set up wrong…

[pearl harbor]

I'll dig out a micro usb cable and try it wired.

[green swift]

Yeah, Series controller is working fine wired too

I would remap your controller in the Main core

It will have you tilt Stick 1 (left stick) Up and then Right, Then it will have you map Stick 2 (right stick) Up and then Right. Then it will take you through the face buttons of an SNES pad. Do those, then skip all mouse buttons. At the end it will have you map Stick 1 one more time Up and then Right.

[winter phoenix]

Oh I have to do the stick 1 again? I thought it had looped or something so I quit out of it when I saw that

[green swift]

Man, how did I miss that update? I've been using a Mission Stick on snack when I could have been using a USB logitech joystick. 🤦‍♂️

[green swift]

Yeah, map it again when it asks at the end

[pearl harbor]

Yeah, as I said earlier, you need to finish the entire process!

And yes, in wired mode, my Xbox One controller worked with the analog stick.

[winter phoenix]

I didn’t know what “entire process” entailed 😭

[green swift]

Its confusing. 6 years of mapping in main and it barely makes sense still

[winter phoenix]

OMG it works! 😆

(It’s hard to play Nights one-handed, heh)

[pearl harbor]

Huzzah! 💪

[warped saddle]

now I get to sit here and wonder why it didnt' work initially. main should already know about the analog sticks on an xbox controller

[winter phoenix]

Thanks for helping me realize the error was between chair and MiSTer! 😆

[pearl harbor]

Who knows why it doesn't work initially, but I've seen enough cases like this where the solution is always mapping it in Main first, and going through the entire process without quitting it early. Works every time!

[wise brook]

3rd party

[winter phoenix]

By the way, the music in Rabbit repeats the first couple seconds of each stage’s track over and over. At least it did for me.

It’s the English-patched one, to be clear, although that shouldn’t matter

[wise brook]

we’ll make sure to hit you up if/when sorglig adds analog trigger support to MiSTer main

[green swift]

Remap each stages track in main

Just kidding

[winter phoenix]

Actually now that I’m tying it again, this first stage’s music is OK

[green swift]

Are your disc BIN/CUE or CHD? Local storage or Cifs?

[winter phoenix]

I think this game is a bin/cue. it’s on the MiSTer’s SD card.

[green swift]

I've heard of people hearing some chop over network

I think

Hmm not sure then! You said it sounds good now though?

[winter phoenix]

I’m playing it again and the first couple stages have been OK

[pearl harbor]

Do we have another MiSTery on our hands!?

[winter phoenix]

Maybe just this particular stage is meant to repeat three notes over and over, LoL

Please disregard my one-handed playing and the sound of my girlfriend’s Instagram feed in the background

[pearl harbor]

I'm not familiar with the game enough to know unfortunately.

[winter phoenix]

Nope it’s definitely a MiSTer problem with this stage. Here it is on hardware, skip to 5:45 https://youtube.com/watch?v=VnHlDM-LUfM&si=6quYY30T-kZJv5p9

Yeah, next stage does the same thing and it’s not supposed to. The player select music and the first two stages weren’t stuck, though!

Fifth stage’s music is fine, though

Actually I think all of Rabbit’s music might be missing instruments

Some tracks are just more affected than others

[median tartan]

Saturn has two sound processors. One for the PCM recorded sounds (which is not likely to mess up unless there is a problem reading the compressed data) and a synthesizer. If you're only missing certain instruments, I'd guess you have a synth problem.

[burnt matrix]

Time to annoy Sorg again for analog trigger support lol

[wise brook]

motion control too! just for Wario Ware Twisted

[burnt matrix]

Man that would be cool

[dense sundial]

is there like a USB solar sensor out there?

although, I would be screwed playing Boktai either way, I am a night owl

[wise brook]

but only if the functionality is written to purposefully exclude Yoshi Topsy-Turvy, because it deserves no love or attention

[manic mica]

anyone happen to have an answer on if game saves work on saturn core? idk what causes it, but sometimes it saves- and works just fine. but then all the saves are just gone every now and then

also the sega ages outrun, after burner and space harrier ask to clear the memory

typically i just play alot of stuff that doesnt really need saves but im curious just in case I wanna play an rpg or something

feel free to @ me if anyone knows. thanks alot!

[dense sundial]

do you have all cues and bins gathered together in one folder?

[manic mica]

yeah

[dense sundial]

sort them into different folders per game

[manic mica]

the are in individual folders per game

[dense sundial]

different folders will make a separate memory storage per game

ow

[manic mica]

also since im here does .chd behave differently when it comes to saving?

[dense sundial]

no

[manic mica]

okay cool good to know

[dense sundial]

I only had one game quit to Saturn menu during load but maybe that wasn't even .chd's fault

[manic mica]

ill just mess around and try and pin down what excatly is causing it

[celest lake]

Sarv, I assume you have auto save on in the osd and are opening it after you save?

I know this ain’t your first rodeo. But I literally did this myself like 3 weeks ago and thought it was a bug with the core until I realized autosave wasn’t on

[manic mica]

Yeah ive been having auto save on. I actually think the problem might be that i was using some of the test cores as well for saturn

So that may have caused the issues between the different versions of the core. Especially seeing as saving hasnt been an issue with other cores

[mortal mist]

I've never had a problem with saving and I only use test cores

[wet hull]

do you open osd after saving in game

[manic mica]

yeah always

[wise brook]

single ram confirmed

[median tartan]

What is the deal with dual ram? Does it have something to do with simultaneous access or can you just make a 256mb chip?

[kind bough]

its to increase bandwidth, not memory size

so a single 256MB stick wont give the benefit

[mortal mist]

here is good explanation for Saturn core

[kind bough]

increase bandwidth / decrease latency

[mortal mist]

no dualsdram no fun 😛

[marble laurel]

thank you Kuba

you will propose a PR ?

[median tartan]

Holy shit. That means Saturn dev kits were still raw dogging assembly.

[median tartan]

Yeah, assembly and basic bitch C
https://segaretro.org/Saturn_CartDev

[mortal mist]

I think srg320 will fix it , he knows where the problem is. Before PR it certainly requires more general testing of more games.

[marble laurel]

ok !

[thorn pagoda]

The gba core actually has support for this game. When you play it a special control appears in the core osd that sets the light level

[dense sundial]

Oh I know, I meant using solar sensor for light level

Otherwise you need to make awkward stipulations on how to not to keep steamrolling the game with max level

Or use a weather app

[upper dust]

Have you tried emptying the Saturn's save directory and/or deleting the core's config file?

[thick oriole]

Interestingly, I seem to remember max sunlight actually overheating your weapon at some point. I played through via a patched version, so I typically didn't run it at full sun. (I do own the carts, but for ease of use it was definitely easier to just play patched.)

[vocal timber]

Nba LIve 98 Has corrupted graphics with the latest version of the core, when you start a game , someone can try it and confirm if it happens to them , i do not see and issue on github for this game

[celest lake]

Dual or single ram?

Yup I see it too

I'll wait for Kuba or Zet to verify that it's not related to an existing issue. But I tested with the latest unstable and Kuba's VDP2 fix core.

Corruption at the bottom of the loading screen. Once in game, textures are missing from the court, and the audience texture appears corrupted

[mortal mist]

Latest unstable

[neon python]

the Claude Monet version of NBALive

[celest lake]

yup, you're seeing what I am seeing

I wonder if the chair texture is missing

and that's why the audience looks wrong

[mortal mist]

everything looks bad there

[high bramble]

NBA Smeared Jam

[mortal mist]

interesting case 🙂

[celest lake]

Issue isn't in github, but not sure if it's related to anything else

[mortal mist]

will you report it on github ?

[rich violet]

Has the Rabbit music been reported?

[mortal mist]

more people have tested it ?

it's worth checking out

[celest lake]

rabbit music?

[mortal mist]

yes

[burnt matrix]

Pins updated to point to #unstable-nightlies

[vocal timber]

not yet

[celest lake]

https://tenor.com/bVsNJ.gif

[vocal timber]

created https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/issues/337

[ripe valley]

I will test Rabbit later if nobody else does, but that's all for me after.

[celest lake]

I can test rabbit when I get home. What am I testing?

[rich violet]

I tried just now, but I have no ear for music and haven't played the game before

On the other hand, I found the options screen has a sound test, and those play the music, so that might be a quicker way for someone else to checl

*check

I was playing the English patched version with the latest unstable dual ram build

[rich violet]

An issue with the music on stage 4: #1046941029296779344 message

[celest lake]

Ok, I’ll take a look

[rich violet]

This is the start of the original mentioning of it: #1046941029296779344 message

[upper dust]

Testing Rabbit (CHD Japanese version) on single ram, 01/22 build and seems ok - got up to stage 6

applying the English patch to test soon

[celest lake]

playing now

all the music seems a little scuffed if Im being honest

[upper dust]

trying patched english rom and options Sound Test seems normal

[celest lake]

sound on that stage is fine for me

just using the JPN redump bin/cue

Definitely doesn't sound like the video clip

[upper dust]

after patching the game (the patcher auto combined the 28 bins into one) there are a few audio hiccups. When playing arcade mode, it plays the last half second of a track then pauses, then starts to play the track as normal. Trying again with the keep 'em seperated option

following the directions on the patch's github btw

keeping the files seperate when patching the game did not fix the audio glitch - just for fun I'm going to CHD the files and try again

nope - something funky with that English patch, or the patcher (SegaSaturnPatcherV2).
https://github.com/DerekPascarella/Rabbit-EnglishPatchSaturn

[celest lake]

so now...how does it sound on real hardware

[ripe valley]

I've checked Rabbit just a moment ago.

With my Mister Pi Single RAM and my other Dual RAM system.
CHD file coming from my personal archives (same as Redump format).

No problem at all on the 3rd and 5th stages, unlike Danthrax.

The core is pretty solid on the SCSP sound chip implementation now.
And I remember some old dumps from DW with incorrect tracks pregaps.
So check your dumps.

Same results on audio with a Saturn system from a friend and consistent with the reference video shared.

[manic mica]

That i havent but i sure will when i get home. What is the location for cfg with saturn? (At work rn so cant check)

[ancient surge]

Reminder that the redump packs contain the good dumps for verification.

[celest lake]

Is it english patched? That seems to be the thing

[ripe valley]

Original game (Japan).

[celest lake]

yeah, that sounded perfect for me too. Something with the english patching process that gums up the works

[ripe valley]

Okay, I've not followed completely the issue.

Thanks for the reminder.

[celest lake]

you're good, Zet. Go get some rest, my friend

Not sure it's worth filing because we don't know how the same image works on real hardware

Maybe Kuba can check when they are around

[ripe valley]

Time to rest, you're right, I had 10-15 minutes for testing.

[mortal mist]

zet-sensei take care of yourself

I just corrected in core what I messed up yesterday ....

I'll check out Rabbit as soon as I can

[ripe valley]

👌

[mortal mist]

I don't hear anything wrong in Rabbit game with patch 1.0 , I have the bin/cue version (multi-bin)

music plays fine

is there something I need to pay special attention to ?

[celest lake]

Stage 4. You can hear in this video that the music just loops the intro over and over #1046941029296779344 message

[mortal mist]

ok will check

Works fine

No loop

I fought several battles with different characters , no errors

While testing games with vdp2 fix core which I posted yesterday I found one regression , In Castlevania when opening the menu the text and frame elements were missing from the screen. I corrected it. From my quick tests the games with which there could potentially be a problem work well (Radiant Silvergun stage 2c , Snatcher , Golden Axe , Dodonpachi (normal screen and tate ), Castelevania SotN).If anyone could find some time to test it, I would appreciate it

[hearty marten]

Kuba 🫡

[upper dust]

I couldn't get the audio looping issue with the english patch, but there was an audio track delay issue.

Unpatched worked just fine

[ripe valley]

Golden Axe & DoDonpachi are okay, I leave you the rest to test with the last builds from kuba.

[tribal burrow]

For someone who isn't aware of how updates are pushed, do @mortal mist 's fixes eventually get wrapped into SRG's main?

[burnt matrix]

Yes, he wants it tested before he submits a PR

This is why the MiSTer community is the best. It’s not just core developers but the entire community working together to make it as awesome as can be.

[tribal burrow]

Cool

[rich violet]

Maybe this will be like the Grandia flicker issue, where it only happens on some systems and not others

[green basalt]

I had a flickering issue with Earthworm Jim 2 for ages until it just stopped in one revision. I asked on here and no one else had encountered it

Can't remember what revision fixed it but yay

[mortal mist]

This happens only in the version with a eng patch for some people

[quick sorrel]

Nice Zeal wallpaper

[mortal mist]

crazy tree finished me off

is still the best game on the Saturn

[burnt matrix]

I didn’t know they made an Evil Dead game.

[winter phoenix]

It came with the SD card

So I’m catching up on all the Rabbit discussion yesterday … I suppose I should test the unpatched version

[celest lake]

unpatched worked fine for me

weeeird game

Have your animal thing out? 20FPS. No animal? 60FPS

[burnt matrix]

lol those are images pulled from my wallpaper collection - https://github.com/RGarciaLago/Wallpaper_Collection

I think I labeled it Chrono Trigger.

[winter phoenix]

Oh nice haha

[burnt matrix]

I don’t know what Zeal is though

[upper dust]

If they didn't scale the sprites so much it would look awesome. I like the JoJo stands and the one time use supers you get from defeated enemies.

Also has the king of Saturn Fat Babies

[celest lake]

oh is that why I keep getting new animals?

[celest lake]

they did not license my likeness

although I haven’t worn my hair like that in years

[burnt matrix]

Honestly brother, if you can rock that, you’re a legend.

[upper dust]

Yeah when you build up your meter under the health bar, the counter goes up. Pressing forward and Z uses a previously defeated enemies stand's super attack that's queued up at the bottom of the screen, and uses one counter point.

[supple vine]

What game is that? 🙂

[upper dust]

Rabbit

[burnt matrix]

RABBIT

The “we have jojo at home” game

[drowsy hull]

I am positively surprised about your knowledge

So which youtubster made a video about it?

[celest lake]

Oh you didn’t get the memo?

we are all rabbit experts now

[high bramble]

It's the name of that floating kingdom in the game... and yes, that wallpaper is gorgeous. 😉

[serene thunder]

that game looks as if they drew the artwork and then scaled it up to get the default size

otherwise is pretty cool

[upper dust]

Yeah - unique fighter, but the scaling get's out of hand and can make attacks harder to judge. Might also attribute to gameplay slowdown too.

[rich violet]

It seems it can be played without the scaling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhwIQFFPcmc

But that’s not all the patch does — it also enables from the start all of the extras in the options menu that usually need to be unlocked by beating the game multiple times. Those options include zoom, animal stock, stock count and damage.
Zoom changes the game’s starting camera from its default zoomed-in state to a more zoomed-out “75%” state. When set to 75%, the camera won’t zoom in and out as the combatants get farther apart or close distance with each other, as it typically does.
https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2024/03/13/english-translation-patch-releases-for-saturn-fighting-game-rabbit/

So zoom can be turned off in the English translation

[burnt matrix]

Oh thank god, I thought I screwed up another wallpaper by labeling it as the wrong game lol

Oh shit

That’s next level trolling

Omg

Time to relabel the Earthbound one as “Undertale”

[upper dust]

oh yeah this looks much better

still slowdown when you bring out the stands but much easier to follow what's going on

[dense sundial]

Virtual Hydlide is the best soulsborne for the Saturn

[mortal mist]

I need brave testers

[upper dust]

I hopped around it some today and it seemed good!

[mortal mist]

Thanks for testing!

[ancient surge]

Puyo Puyo Sun is acting slightly unstable for me on the dual RAM build. No idea if it's something on my end or the core.

It's just the occasional hiccup, which is why I'm skeptical it's the core acting up.

Using the latest build (January 22 2025)

[vocal oar]

This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

[ancient surge]

Been trying out NOON on the core. It's kind of like a mixture of Sokoban and Puyo Puyo. I like the presentation, but the gameplay is kind of confusing. Would be better if it was possible to pull the spheres.

[wet hull]

I can almost swear there was a pretty thorough README in the Saturn repo

Not anymore

[rich violet]

Perhaps you're thinking of the old repo: https://github.com/srg320/Saturn_MiSTer/blob/master/README.md

[wet hull]

yeah that one

That one needs some update, but should probably be added to the one in devel

[ripe valley]

I'm building an image of Radiant Silvergun EXTRA.
Should be better for testing purposes.

As you can select your stages and using an invincibility option.

srg320 gave us that advice a little earlier.

[tacit viper]

Wow do I have egg on my face today

I learned two things - I was dead wrong, marvel super heroes on OG Saturn has same slowdown as Mister. #2 retroarch beetle apparently was making the game run faster when I tested and is not 1:1 to the actual console.

[ripe valley]

I've already checked the game last time with a friend, on their original system.
But, you've seen it yourself.

[mortal mist]

this just shows how accurate core is 👍

it is always worth reporting the suspicion of any error, it will not hurt and may help. We have super testers here

[tacit viper]

Yup had to see it for myself bc I honestly didn't remember it being this slow.

[celest lake]

Saturnday? Or….R•E•A•L3DAYO

[mortal mist]

quartus day

[celest lake]

That’s everyday

[winter phoenix]

yeah, the Mednafen emulator (which Beetle Saturn uses) runs slightly too fast.

It's generally the best Saturn emulator right now, but it's not perfect.

[frail token]

So is MiSTer the best Saturn emulator now

[winter phoenix]

possibly

[sturdy dagger]

So I don't think I have properly set up the Saturn core yet. Is there anything special I need to do?

(also ordered an M30 controller to use for the Saturn core)

[sturdy dagger]

Just got it all working. Sweet

[wise brook]

glad we could help 🥂

[green basalt]

Might have missed it, but is disc switching working yet?

In the mood to play through policenauts

[polar mountain]

Yes. Yes there is. Everyone is required to watch the 4 hour Sega Rally documentary, then to play Sega Rally for however long it takes to knock UNK off the top leaderboard spot.

[wise brook]

yeah

set your games up right of course

[burnt matrix]

Yes

Without question.

I love Mednefen too btw

[hearty marten]

BeTtEr tHaN oRiGiNaL hArDwArE!!1

[burnt matrix]

In terms of accuracy? No. In terms of convenience? Yes.

[hearty marten]

I know. I’m messing.
Seriously I think it’s approaching the point for most games where the accuracy deficiencies are pretty much worth the trade off for the convenience

[high bramble]

retteB naht lanigiro !erawdrah

[burnt matrix]

In terms of messing? Maybe.

[hearty marten]

Possibly

[high bramble]

In terms of possibly? Definitely.

[celest lake]

But does it play AVP?

Checkmate

[hearty marten]

It doesn’t play superman 64 either

[celest lake]

Worthless. No wonder sega lost

[high bramble]

Double whammy!

[burnt matrix]

Saturn SEGAL

[celest lake]

https://tenor.com/bLtDo.gif

[hearty marten]

Just fired up my MiSTer. Gonna play some Saturn 😎

[gloomy hedge]

today's blind kumite will be saturn btw

but

no saturn mister, cuz I already have a saturn and the dude im playing against has no mister

so what do you guys care 😛

I'll advertise in #share-media 😛 but I figured I'd at least put it here in the saturn club

[pearl harbor]

I helped you out using my mind...while I was sleeping. I'm too good at this. 💪

[winter phoenix]

not if you’ve got a CRT with a Saturn hooked up to it right in your living room like an absolute unit

[burnt matrix]

Ok you’re right, that’s pretty badass

[dense sundial]

Are Saturn replacement shells a thing?

I want to use it as a starting point for my MiSTer

[high bramble]

Yep. For example...

[dense sundial]

Oh god damn it the one I want is 95$

Might as well get a broken Sat

But thanks!

[hearty marten]

But for $95 you could buy one and put your existing MiSTer in it. Then you could beat Taki to the market

I’ll even sign the case for you

[marble laurel]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/commit/cf0d4f19b3c964be724ca8bfb191d5f8bcb12888

[mortal mist]

Beautiful! Now I can rest in peace 😂

[ripe valley]

https://tenor.com/view/sheeeeiiittt-gif-22570287

[hearty marten]

STV support?! 🤯

[sturdy dagger]

Stv? Sega TV?

[hearty marten]

https://segaretro.org/Sega_Titan_Video

More games to test!

[high bramble]

It was kind of a big deal in arcades. 😏

[ripe valley]

A friend just said, I need a MiSTer system now!

He was waiting for Recalbox to add the system on their future v10, like some others.

That will annihilate their 'surprise' now if the support should be completed later in 2025.

[sturdy dagger]

Oh that's interesting

[wet hull]

Very nice!

[warped saddle]

don't overlook 'use mister date/time for system date/time'

that's nice

[thorn pagoda]

happy saturnsday folk

[wet hull]

Will update arcade organizer

Hopefully srg doesn’t do a Battletoads rom loading

[hallow fossil]

Wow, STV!

Whoever runs the testing sheet is going to need a new tab 🙂

I am surprised there is space for STV

[pearl harbor]

Dis just got real.

[hallow fossil]

What is the best STV pack and how large is it?

[drowsy hull]

remove cd, add cart and ready is the naive stv core which fits the fpga

[wet hull]

There is no best pack

[green swift]

Damn, this is exciting. It already was but it still continues to be. 🙂

[wet hull]

Mame doc

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/sega/stv.cpp

[pearl harbor]

So what are the actual exclusives on STV?

[drowsy hull]

1-2 mahjong thingies

[hallow fossil]

Guess someone is going to need to make a pack for these if support is going to be baked into the core.

Interested to know how you set up the BIOS as well

[rich violet]

Looks like a fantastic update from srg320 😍

[warped saddle]

I actually fixed that last week. I have a battletoads core that runs off of MRA, with dipswitch and nvram saving

now if only I were smart enough to fix that one graphical bug with misaligned items

[wet hull]

Very nice!

Yeah that core has some bugs…

Maybe a PR to his repo might make him revisit

[marble laurel]

it seems it loads just bios of STV for the moment

[sacred goblet]

Waiting core available with update_Saturn script

[naive whale]

STV working eh? @pearl harbor pinged me

[dense sundial]

Terra Diver?

https://imgur.com/a/dGJNUcA

[celest hearth]

I've gotten to play that entirely once, due to severe graphics issues. Loading that core causes heavy shaking and flickering of the output (within the game core. MiSter menu overlay is perfectly stable during this.)

[wet hull]

Yeah

Framework needs update

[naive whale]

So booting into games yet or?

I’ll soon a vid up tomorrow if so

[warped saddle]

no one has made a spreadsheet yet so we have no way of knowing

[wet hull]

I’m talking about battletoads hehe

[celest lake]

It’s been an hour since the commit and no spreadsheet. Has anyone done a dandy wellness check?

[sacred goblet]

For me core is not available with update script yet

[celest lake]

It’s not on update_all. You need to grab it from #unstable-nightlies

[hallow fossil]

Hah, Saturn is one system I didn't make the sheet for, I am not sure who owns that one. Hopefully a pack mysteriously appears and a corresponding new tab then appears on the Saturn testing sheet, assuming there is one still. Or I guess I can just make one for STV if needed.

[mortal mist]

it's me....

[clear condor]

Here's an ST-V game that was played at Awesome Games Done Quick this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRv-m-MzZr8

it is absolutely bonkers

[ripe valley]

I will need @floral saddle retesting Radiant Silvergun and @cursive ravine on Princess Crown when possible.
Thanks.

[tawny forge]

What’s STV?

[ripe valley]

Arcade version based on the Saturn architecture, using cartridges.

[tawny forge]

Are there dumps of them?

[ripe valley]

All inside MAME.

[sacred goblet]

Lara in Tomb Raider is looking fine now 🙂

[tawny forge]

I have the full MAME 217 on my MiSTer

Does it contain those?

[rich violet]

Did VF2 get fixed?

[naive whale]

If someone checks the core and lets me know what format it’s looking for in regards to STV file sets I can certainly recommend them. Can’t pop into my office currently

[ripe valley]

I'm busy for the rest of the day, need some calm moments with my other half.

Bye.

[mortal mist]

Radiant works

[mortal mist]

yes

[thorn pagoda]

so whats the most exciting STV games?

[naive whale]

Saturn or STV

[mortal mist]

sat

[marble laurel]

STV just the bios runs

1061

[naive whale]

Ahh so it’s not to the point of booting games yet?

[marble laurel]

the commit said "initial support :)"

[thorn pagoda]

neat it passes all the tests 🙂

[rich violet]

STV can be selected on the menu where RAM cartridges are enabled

[naive whale]

Yes STV has addressable carts so it may be working in core and nobody has just loaded it correctly

Someone should load the STV bios, then load a cart then reset and see if it comes up

Or exit the test menu in STV

[marble laurel]

The bioses don't need to be patched like ElectronAsh version

so maybe the games needs to be rebuild

[naive whale]

What format is the core asking for STV in @marble laurel ?

[hallow fossil]

Could renaming the STV BIOS to boot.rom and having an STV folder work like it does for CDs?

[marble laurel]

the bios just copy from mame

but I think game needs to be concated

with Mame informations

[warped saddle]

rom concatenation/twiddling trivially done with mras. although I imagine he won't leave it like that if it is currently required

[marble laurel]

sure !

[hallow fossil]

Some of the games do require additional daughter boards with extra sound chips etc. I wonder if there is really enough space for STV support in the core as full as it is or it will ultimately need to be a sister arcade core, which would probably be better for the end user if update all grabbed all the ROMs like other arcade systems

[warped saddle]

I doubt there'd be room for any of the extra stuff

[naive whale]

ill try and look tomorrow at exactly what its looking for

[warped saddle]

there's not much to strip out that is 'saturn only'. the cdrom, basically

[naive whale]

as STV come in either ZIP format with individual MPR files or the Darksoft set which is custom

[warped saddle]

worrying about romsets right now is just...worrying. the stuff exists in the normal places

we'll get there. there's even already another console core that runs arcade games so we aren't even in uncharted waters!

[cursive ravine]

Awesome news! Will check tonight when I get home

[naive whale]

If the fitment becomes an issue then I’m sure it could be forked to a STV core where the cd-rom code is removed for the additional STV bits

[warped saddle]

I don't think the cdrom code is that big, really. srg likes pushing a lot of the cdrom functionality to the arm side

[marble laurel]

cat mpr19631.7 mpr19631.7 mpr19632.2 mpr19633.3 > shienryu_stv.bin

using command of Electron Ash without changing rom just cat

after I have Good Morning and black screen

[ancient surge]

I mean, if the STV is being implemented now, it sounds like srg is confident enough that he can make it work.

[warped saddle]

to be fair he may not have looked deep enough to find the few games that have custom chips

[drowsy hull]

ignoring games which had a dedicated cabinet for controls, which games are there except for batman using additional hardware?

[marble laurel]

with using epr-23603

i can go in game

[radiant karma]

Thanks for the heads up, closing the issue on GitHub as soon as I get home.

[marble laurel]

Coin and start are mapped on the same button so Cotton 2 can just coin

[visual grove]

Awesome my STV will be shelved forever

Srg320 rules

[naive whale]

Yeah I’ll def be selling my board

[naive whale]

Go into test menu if you can and try to set it to free play

Should be able to work around the double mapping

[lone mural]

how to mount this ?

I would like to try with Suiko Enbu

[marble laurel]

I couldn't move on test menu of the game

on system bios it is ok

[naive whale]

Then all the inputs aren’t hooked up yet

[marble laurel]

I found the freeplay on system bios but "start" that coin/start are mapped couldn't go in game

[ancient surge]

Where is that ElectronAsh guy, maybe he'll know something.

[mortal mist]

@untold cloud

[naive whale]

He was having the same issue

It could be additional protection not present. Some games have that

[warped saddle]

yeah, some of the protections are just 'game start' protection

[naive whale]

It might be worth trying the darksoft pack for STV as those may bypass checks. Not sure what they did with their files

[hearty marten]

Saturn channel just got filled with arcade nerds

[warped saddle]

all desperately trying to get something to work that probably isn't in working shape. so just like owning real arcade hardware

[hearty marten]

I wish you all luck

[warped saddle]

for the authentic experience it needs to have been working fine for years, and then just....not work one day

[hearty marten]

Save today’s version of the core and then just roll back to it randomly at some point in the future

[naive whale]

You mean the cool kids got here?

[hearty marten]

I know what I said

[naive whale]

It’s not real gaming hardware unless it can break your table if you drop it from any decent height

[hearty marten]

OG Xbox controller confirmed real

But how different are the STV versions of the games? Is this just a “completeness” thing, or are you all excited because it gives a genuinely different experience?

[marble laurel]

maybe mra could help to by pass protection 😅

[naive whale]

Minor differences at most

But some exclusives

[warped saddle]

a lot less loading, tho!

[visual grove]

Better for use in a cab for the vertical games since most of the Saturn versions have no way to save when you put them into tate mode that persists between running the title

Also no home console cruft

Just coin up and play and load instantly

[hearty marten]

Thanks for explaining all 🙂

[floral saddle]

Steep Slope Sliders is quite different from the Saturn version. I read that Groove On Fight has more frames of animation on STV but don't know if that's true. Chiptune music instead of cd audio makes a difference in a few games as well.

[untold cloud]

OK, just tried to catch up. lol

At least it looks like I was mostly on the right track, with the code tweaks I did.

Sorg (EDIT: Srg320 / Sergiy, sorry) added quite a lot of extra stuff, though.

The issue with games like Cotton 2 / Cotton BM, seems to be related to issues on certain software emus.

Mr Bacon sent me a link recently, to a git issue about it.

I only managed to get it to move the cursor around in the Cotton test menu.

But never got it to register Start in the game.

I do think it's related to that problem, but needs more investigation.

Other games like Radiant Silvergun do use a protection IC.

Many ST-V games use the same (or very similar) chip as many NAOMI carts, for ROM decryption and other checks.

I did get Radiant to boot before, but it won't react to Start. That's a separate issue to Cotton, as I reckon Radiant will need the proper protection IC implemented.

Or maybe there are some patched versions of games out there. I honestly have no idea?

What I can say is, I looked at the protection IC code in MAME, and it's about 100 times more complex than the few tweaks I did to get some games to start booting. lol

I would assume the ROMs still need to be merged properly, into a single BIN file, like I was doing?

[outer relic]

That's what was being described, although I wasn't able to get any of the ROMs I tried to be recognized as valid carts

[untold cloud]

ROM_START( cotton2 )
    STV_BIOS

    ROM_REGION32_BE( 0x3000000, "cart", ROMREGION_ERASE00 ) /* SH2 code */
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20122.7",    0x0200000, 0x0200000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20117.2",    0x0400000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20118.3",    0x0800000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20119.4",    0x0c00000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20120.5",    0x1000000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20121.6",    0x1400000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20116.1",    0x1800000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20123.8",    0x1c00000, 0x0400000,
ROM_END

Example MAME code for Cotton 2 ROM loading.

[outer relic]

Yeah, I was working from hash/stv.xml

[untold cloud]

Notice the area for each ROM is usually 4MB, but the first ROM is only 2MB.

The first ROM is usually the actual SH2 code for the game, and the rest for data.

(although I imagine the upper ROMs could contain code as well.)

It also shows ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP, so those ROMs would need to be byteswapped before loading.

[outer relic]

Aha, I wondered about that

[untold cloud]

dd if=mpr20122.7 of=rom7 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20117.2 of=rom2 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20118.3 of=rom3 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20119.4 of=rom4 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20120.5 of=rom5 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20121.6 of=rom6 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20116.1 of=rom1 conv=swab
dd if=mpr20123.8 of=rom8 conv=swab

cat rom7 rom7 rom2 rom3 rom4 rom5 rom6 rom1 rom8 > cotton2_stv.bin

Example Linux shell thingy. ^

I don't know exactly how Sorg has done the tweaks, but it probably loads the (merged) Cart ROM the same way I was doing?

[warped saddle]

fyi, that's not Sorg

[untold cloud]

Oh, it was actually Srg320.

OK, I didn't spot that. lol

That's good, because he knows his core better than anyone, and I reckon he'll get quite a few games running.

So yeah, the ROM concat thing...

[warped saddle]

yeah, I assume he has A Plan

[untold cloud]

If Sergiy does expect the Cart ROM in the same "flat" format - the core will be expecting the (converted) MAME ROMs to be contiguous in memory...

So I had to repeat rom7 twice there, to "pad" the gap between the first copy of rom7, and rom2.

I'm not 100% sure the ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP thing actually means WORD swap or BYTE swap now.

Not that Cotton 2 is playable yet, due to the Start button issue, but it was just an example.

Other games might need more complex byteswap / wordswap, and concatenation.

I only tried a handful of games, tbh. It was hard enough just getting two or three playable. lol

Shienryu was one that worked reasonably well.

[untold cloud]

But I did see that reply.

So maybe Srg made it so you don't need to do the usual Byteswap of a typical MAME ROM, before merging?

I posted lots of other info, I think on the Dreamcast channel. Too much stuff happened to do a summary here. lol

(and then I got working on DC PVR2 again, which pushed most of the ST-V info out of my brain.)

[marble laurel]

After checking some bios swapped that don't boot. I tried Mame one non modified and they work so for games I cat only cotton 2 and shenryu following your commands posted end of the previous year.

[untold cloud]

I think it might need a fair bit more logic than this, before more games start booting...

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/blob/cf0d4f19b3c964be724ca8bfb191d5f8bcb12888/rtl/Saturn/STV.sv

Unless that was added on a previous commit.

The IO chip on ST-V has internal counters. According to the MAME code (and debugger), quite a few games seem to use those.

[gloomy hedge]

hahahhahaha

[untold cloud]

Ahh, OK. Maybe he made it so the core already reads the ROMs as Byteswapped, so we can skip that step?

[marble laurel]

Yes

CODE MAME

ROM_START( cotton2 )
STV_BIOS

ROM_REGION32_BE( 0x3000000, "cart", ROMREGION_ERASE00 ) /* SH2 code */
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20122.7",    0x0200000, 0x0200000, CRC(d616f78a) SHA1(8039dcdfdafb8327a19a1da46a67c0b3f7eee53a) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20117.2",    0x0400000, 0x0400000, CRC(893656ea) SHA1(11e3160083ba018fbd588f07061a4e55c1efbebb) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20118.3",    0x0800000, 0x0400000, CRC(1b6a1d4c) SHA1(6b234d6b2d24df7f6d400a56698c0af2f78ce0e7) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20119.4",    0x0c00000, 0x0400000, CRC(5a76e72b) SHA1(0a058627ddf78a0bcdaba328a58712419f24e33b) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20120.5",    0x1000000, 0x0400000, CRC(7113dd7b) SHA1(f86add67c4e1349a9b9ebcd0145a30b1667df811) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20121.6",    0x1400000, 0x0400000, CRC(8c8fd521) SHA1(c715681330b5ed37a8506ac58ee2143baa721206) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20116.1",    0x1800000, 0x0400000, CRC(d30b0175) SHA1(2da5c3c02d68b8324948a8cdc93946d97fccdd8f) ) // good
ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr20123.8",    0x1c00000, 0x0400000, CRC(35f1b89f) SHA1(1d6007c380f817def734fc3030d4fe56df4a15be) ) // good

ROM_END

Command
cat mpr20122.7 mpr20122.7 mpr20117.2 mpr20118.3 mpr20119.4 mpr20120.5 mpr20121.6 mpr20116.1 mpr20123.8 > cotton2.bin

[naive whale]

Haha it’s true

[untold cloud]

Looks like Srg might have extended the Address bus even further, to allow for 26 bits.

Which would allow loading of ST-V ROMs up to 64MB.

(merging the ROMs into one Cart file is going to be a bit inefficient, due to the repeating/padding of the MAME ROMs, but yeah.)

I doubt many ST-V games are going to be over the 64MB limit, but I haven't checked.

[untold cloud]

That does make things a lot easier, but I think some games require only some of the ROMs to be Byteswapped?

And some MAME ROMs also have the upper and lower Byte in two separate 8-bit PROMs.

[open swan]

finally, i can play Danchi de Quiz: Okusan 4taku Desu yo!

[untold cloud]

So those will need to be "unified" as well.

[untold cloud]

Play it? I can't even pronounce it. lol

I'm definitely not into things like bullet hell shooters. I'm more of a Mario Kart 64 kinda guy. 😛

I'm too feeble to play proper games.

[hallow fossil]

Skimming online the largest zipped ROM is 21meg, most are a lot smaller, so likely none over 64mb unless zips are super effective

[untold cloud]

Would that by any chance be Die Hard? lol

[marble laurel]

We need MRA at some point or pack

[untold cloud]

Oh, Zipped.

Yeah.

I have no idea which tools people used to generate the MRAs for previous cores, btw.

I would assume it uses the MAME code as a look-up, to generate the XMLs.

[hallow fossil]

These zips seems to contain multiple files

[untold cloud]

In theory, the Saturn core could also be made to load ST-V Cart ROMs a lot faster, by loading directly into DDR3.

There's a CONF_STR option for doing that.

And I think also in the MRA format.

[warped saddle]

yes

[open swan]

Zakk, have you tested Danchi de Quiz: Okusan 4taku Desu yo! yet?

i know you are waiting

[warped saddle]

no, I'm just going to wait until this stuff is actually done!

[untold cloud]

That's probably a good idea.

[ivory kindle]

no fun in that

[open swan]

i should hook up my real life Fantasy Zone via SNAC to the core

see if it works

[warped saddle]

only reason I'm messing with it is if I'm fixing it

[untold cloud]

I would hunt for some recent info on ST-V, but my brain has melted tonight.

[warped saddle]

also most people don't "generate" mras, they hand edit them with love

(and have to go look at the interleave code again because they forgot how it works)

[open swan]

yup, oh what fun

yes i know i should have d'End up there instead of d'Start a second time, i left it up for fun

cuz i felt like it

[hallow fossil]

By my count there are 101 ROMs in Mame, so this is going to be a bit of a project

[open swan]

but yeah if it's only partially complete i'll wait

also like half of those roms are probably dumb crap like Name club

[hallow fossil]

I think about 30 of them are print club

[open swan]

lol i don't doubt it

[untold cloud]

Every time I ever look at the MAME loading code, it confuses me. And it's been that way for about 20 years. lol

[open swan]

we definitely have to get this one working for @burnt matrix

[untold cloud]

Robby might have to sit on the backrest.

[warped saddle]

look at this shit I had to do for battletoads

[hallow fossil]

I am not entirely sure what these print club things are, are there mini games or content in there, that you would then print out?

[warped saddle]

        <part crc="0dfd1e35" name="btc0-p0.u120" map="00210065"></part>
        <part crc="df7487e1" name="btc0-p1.u121" map="21006500"></part>
                </interleave>

[open swan]

yeah that's how interleave works

[clear condor]

so you're saying you do have battletoads then

[open swan]

they probably built this ultraman game off the same thing

"game" sorry, ride

[warped saddle]

a lot of times it just takes a picture of your face and lets you add little decorations/borders and then prints it out. sometimes as a sticker

[hallow fossil]

Fun times...

[warped saddle]

they're completely pointless on mister

[hallow fossil]

Do they do anything on Mame?

[untold cloud]

Did that actually have to swap BITs or BYTEs between the ROMs, too? lol

[naive whale]

https://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=711

This is the good list of actual games

[untold cloud]

I never did even figure out the ROM interleave for CPS1, when I was doing my lame attempt at a "core", years ago.

System16 is a great site, but I wonder if they fixed the specs on NAOMI yet?

The NAOMI (New Arcade Operation Machine Idea) is also Japanese for beauty above all else.
CPU : Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU (200 MHz 360 MIPS / 1.4 GFLOPS)
Graphic Engine : PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC)
Sound Engine : ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHZ (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
Main Ram : 32 megs
Main Memory : 32 MByte
Graphic Memory : 16 MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte

Actually, it's not "wrong", it's just they repeated the Main 32MB twice.

[open swan]

system16 is only useful to me to get a quick overview of what are maybe related games under one system umbrella

i use arcade italia to look up one of the games then look at the platform there instead since it's generated from MAME info

[untold cloud]

For the full list, you need to go to the Umbrella Corporation.

(sorry)

[warped saddle]

yeah, too many people see the broad category and assume they are doable as 'a core'

then you read details and it's like <uses custom chips X, Y, Z, sound B>

for every game

[open swan]

wait, next you are going to tell me that all of the psx-based hardware is just a regular psx and there's no baggage in trying to bring that to fpga

thanks to system16

[warped saddle]

I mean, psx+qsound!

[untold cloud]

Even ST-V is a lot more involved than I thought.

They did some super weird stuff, vs the Saturn.

Like, almost abandoning most of the usual Joyport signals, but used a few of them for other stuff.

They used one of the Joyport signals to reset the 68K for the Sound system, AFAIK.

(even though the SMPC chip has a specific output pin for Resetting the SCSP, which is what the Saturn uses)

[warped saddle]

some of the psx based hardware would be nice but with the data now having to be stored in some ram and that core already kinda pushing the envelope of stability....

[untold cloud]

If the BIOS Factory test is passing all of the tests with Srg320's new code, though, it's presumably OK.

[warped saddle]

and g-net with the pcmcia cards

[untold cloud]

Quartus is killing me.

It's SO slow.

It's a stock 3700X, but still.

35+ minutes, for each PVR2 test "core". sigh

And now TimeQuest is taking AGES to run. lol

[ancient surge]

The one STV game I want to try out is Taisen Tanto-R 'Sasissu!', the obscure fourth game in the Puzzle & Action series.

[ivory kindle]

yeah I mean honestly until this core could even play Taisen Tanto-R 'Sasissu!' it was pretty much useless

[celest lake]

I was literally just writing “return to sender” on it

[clear condor]

hah this looks excellent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIkj4_PXC-c

very Bishi Bashi

[dense sundial]

-# parappa much?

[naive whale]

Maruchan De Goo people!!

[sharp violet]

are there any issues playing light gun games on Saturn with a SNAC adapter?

[wise brook]

oh my the menus and how you choose games really show it’s Tant-r lineage

good game btw , available on the Switch right now

[wise brook]

the quality of the 3rd party connectors isn’t ideal, loose connections aplenty

and i think snatcher could have a problem with the light gun not being plugged into port 2

[celest hearth]

Which SNAC adapters are the good ones?

[wise brook]

mine

no you can’t buy one

and the connector everyone uses is the same aliexpress part

[celest hearth]

Maybe I can track down a dead Saturn mainboard and harvest some official controller ports

[wise brook]

so you just gotta find someone willing to prove your particular unit has been tested

[wise brook]

hopefully you find one that’s really dead-dead. like someone whose broken it beyond all hope of repair

a lot of them are very salvageable

[celest hearth]

True

[wise brook]

also not 100% sure if the pins on the original port will fit the pcb designs out their

i have 1 very dead board i can start experimenting with tomorrow

[celest hearth]

Alternatively, could use an extension cable.

[gloomy hedge]

I am also feeble and that's why I play bullet hell ... Cuz they're simple for smooth brained me

[green swift]

Saturn extension cables are infamous for being really bad. The only known good female connector is the one in the actual system.

[dense sundial]

so don't cheat on her, support and care for her and accept her shortcomings

[subtle tusk]

I was looking at a list of STV games and one of them is "Pokemon Photo"

Apparently there were quite a few kiosk-type cabinets that did photo booth and personalized tat that ran on STV

[dense sundial]

The ancient corporate conspiracies are unraveling

[subtle tusk]

I hope STV support includes webcam and printer support so we can replicate the experience

[quick sorrel]

Is that an arcade version of the game?

[ripe valley]

A version with Option+ already activated, so we could use the invincibility and the stage select.

[rich violet]

Radiant Silvergun EXTRA has both Saturn and ST-V variants

[lone mural]

no idea how to compile the roms in windows

[cursive ravine]

@ripe valley fairy effect is fixed! Gradriel is also excited about it

[marble laurel]

type rom1.bin rom2.bin > final.bin

[lone mural]

in order of numbers ?

or in mame order ?

should the bios be in this equation ?

[marble laurel]

mame order

[marble laurel]

nope

my command is just an example

[marble laurel]

for cotton 2

[hard reef]

If you're using windows, you'll need to use "copy" so that you can specify binary for the filetype, e.g.
copy /B mpr19631.7 + mpr19631.7 + mpr19632.2 + mpr19633.3 shienryu.bin

These steps load:

• Set Cart type to STV
• Load the BIOS - I used the Japanese Mame STV one and named it 'epr-23603.bin'
• Load your cart image

So far I've managed to get these STV titles to boot to attract:
cotton2, cottonbm, elandore, grdforce, groovef, hanagumi, rsgun, shienryu, prikura

[hallow fossil]

So just the files within each Mame zip need combined, you don't need to also merge the BIOS?

[ripe valley]

Nope, that's not the Sufami Turbo case.

[hallow fossil]

Hopefully a properly merged pack of them all is incoming from someone...

[ripe valley]

Like the Sufami Turbo one, I don't know. 🫢

[pine bobcat]

Are you saying the connectors in Saturn Multitaps are bad as well? I was thinking of grabbing one for building a Retrozord.

[celest hearth]

I think Schnoogums means 3rd party female connectors in general. So official multitap ports should be good. Plus you get 6 of them out of one multitap and no consoles are harmed! Just stick to Sega made models and they should be using the same port components.

A different issue arises though: price. Official multitaps are not cheap.

[pine bobcat]

I can get a dirty Hudson SBom Mutitap for relatively cheap in the junk bin at HardOff, quality should be comparable

[marble laurel]

cat mpr19337.7 mpr19337.7 mpr19333.2 mpr19334.3 mpr19335.4 mpr19336.5 > prikura.bin

[naive whale]

well I got into Shienryu. Seems like left doesnt exist haha. Hard to play

[marble laurel]

yes left doesn't work

prikura seems to work great 🙂

[hard reef]

Elandore is playable but doesn’t render correctly

[naive whale]

if Lance Charlson can help build some kind of online repository of compiled BIN files for the core please let LANCE CHARLSON know so LANCE CHARLSON can do this for the community

@hallow fossil lmk if this is cool per rules haha

[marble laurel]

it has a key like rsgun

[hard reef]

Groove on fight you can start but one of the directions is incorrect

Similar with Hanagumi so not easily playable!

With Cotton Boomerang it’s like the other in that start and coin both trigger and it won’t start

[marble laurel]

for groovef
I use this command cat mpr19820.7 mpr19820.7 mpr19815.2 mpr19816.3 mpr19817.4 mpr19818.5 mpr19819.6 mpr19814.1 mpr19821.8 mpr19822.9 > groovef.bin

but I have black screen

after the bios

[tender axle]

Like me ❤️

[hard reef]

Ah - mpr19820.7 is only 1 meg so you need to pad with more copies of it 🙂

[vocal timber]

Nba live 98 gameplay is fixed with the last version , but the usa version have some garbage at the botton in the loading ( euro is ok ) , can some one confirm if this happens in original hardware or this is a bug , before i close the issue ?

[marble laurel]

I see so 4 times

thanks !

[tender axle]

👍🏼

Controls needs to be fixed in core ...

and some sound glitches

[naive whale]

Well I got enough for a vid so thats a win!

[tender axle]

@hard reef you managed to merge rom like Golden Axe with epr file ?

[naive whale]

well if people end up with BINS somehow that BOOT if they want to DM Lance Charlson he is happy to help do something with them very community minded

[hard reef]

No, had no luck with those

[untold cloud]

From the Srg code...

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/blob/cf0d4f19b3c964be724ca8bfb191d5f8bcb12888/rtl/Saturn/STV.sv#L23

    assign IN[0] = {1'b1,JOY1[15:12],JOY1[9],JOY1[8],JOY1[10]};
    assign IN[1] = {1'b1,JOY2[15:12],JOY2[9],JOY2[8],JOY2[10]};
    assign IN[2] = {1'b1,1'b1,JOY2[11],JOY1[11],JOY1[7],JOY1[3],1'b1,JOY1[11]};
    assign IN[3] = 8'h00;
    assign IN[4] = 8'hFF;
    assign IN[5] = {1'b1,JOY2[4],JOY2[5],JOY2[6],1'b1,JOY1[4],JOY1[5],JOY1[6]};

From Saturn.sv...

    wire [15:0] joy1 = {~joystick_0[0]|joystick_0[1], ~joystick_0[1]|joystick_0[0], ~joystick_0[2]|joystick_0[3], ~joystick_0[3]|joystick_0[2], ~joystick_0[7], ~joystick_0[4], ~joystick_0[6], ~joystick_0[5],
                              ~joystick_0[8], ~joystick_0[9], ~joystick_0[10], ~joystick_0[11], ~joystick_0[12], 3'b111};

So that jumbles around the direction inputs, because they are different on ST-V vs what MiSTer uses.

On MiSTer, the lower four bits of joy1 (etc.) are Right, Left, Down, Up.

[tender axle]

✌🏼

[warped saddle]

how about instead of "collecting bins" one of you just spend 3 minutes and realize you can make an mra do this for you, lol

[untold cloud]

The ~ operator also inverts each bit, because the STV.v (IO) module expects things to be Active-Low.

[ancient surge]

Just testing to see if the date/time thing works properly now, and yup it does.

For context, both Twinkle Star Sprites and Puyo Puyo Sun have easter eggs where the characters will wear kimonos on News Years Day.

[untold cloud]

The bits from the joy busses are very strangely replicated.

[naive whale]

Lance Charlson 123 said he isnt sure how long it takes for archive to populate information but Lance is on the case

[untold cloud]

joy1 = {~joystick_0[0]|joystick_0[1], ~joystick_0[1]|joystick_0[0], ~joystick_0[2]|joystick_0[3],                               ~joystick_0[3]|joystick_0[2], ~joystick_0[7], ~joystick_0[4], ~joystick_0[6], ~joystick_0[5],
        ~joystick_0[8], ~joystick_0[9], ~joystick_0[10], ~joystick_0[11], ~joystick_0[12], 3'b111};

Nah, I don't get it. lol

oh, probably to prevent "diagonal" inputs?

Or, actually, to allow them. It's super confusing, the way it's written.

So for the first "bit" of joy1, which I guess would be joy1[15], it would trigger when Right OR Left was pressed.

Which again, makes zero sense.

Saturn CONF_STR for joystick mapping...
"J1,A,B,C,Start,R,X,Y,Z,L;",
"jn,A,B,R,Start,Select,X,Y,L;", 
"jp,Y,B,A,Start,Select,L,X,R;",

MiSTer joystick_ busses...

bit [0]  = Right
bit [1]  = Left
bit [2]  = Down
bit [3]  = Up
bit [4]  = A
bit [5]  = B
bit [6]  = C
bit [7]  = Start
bit [8]  = R
bit [9]  = X
bit [10] = Y
bit [11] = Z
bit [12] = L

I guess jn and jp are for the other Joypad modes on the menu?

I genuinely think that code above, is to prevent Right+Left, or Down+Up being sent to the core at the same time.

No idea when that would ever happen on a typical controller, but maybe?

Like, a joypad with a very bad D-pad, or something.

OK, so the joy1 mapping is...

joy1 / JOY1 bus...
bit [15]  = Right
bit [14]  = Left
bit [13]  = Down
bit [12]  = Up
bit [11]  = Start
bit [10]  = A
bit [9]  = C
bit [8]  = B
bit [7]  = R
bit [6]  = X
bit [5] = Y
bit [4] = Z
bit [3] = L
bit [2] = unused ?
bit [1] = unused ?
bit [0] = unused ?

So it jumbles around the A,B,C,Start signals, before routing to the core.

My code doesn't do the weird mapping thing, it just uses joy1 directly.

Tell a lie, it still has that..

It's just, there are TWO Saturn.sv files in this core. sigh

https://github.com/ElectronAsh/Saturn_MiSTer/blob/d8413725011d87de76db95959143f1de4641aa77/Saturn.sv#L592

[coarse token]

wire [15:0] joy1 = {~joystick_0[0]|joystick_0[1], ~joystick_0[1]|joystick_0[0], ~joystick_0[2]|joystick_0[3], ~joystick_0[3]|joystick_0[2], ~joystick_0[7], ~joystick_0[4], ~joystick_0[6], ~joystick_0[5],

[untold cloud]

That's the main-main top-level Saturn.sv.

There is another file in the rtl folder, which relates to the core itself.

OK, yep. I was using joystick_0 etc. directly, which get shoved into joy0...

// Button inputs to core are Active-LOW !
// 
wire [7:0] P1_CONT = ~{joy0[1],joy0[0],joy0[3],joy0[2], joy0[7:4]};
wire [7:0] P2_CONT = ~{joy1[1],joy1[0],joy1[3],joy1[2], joy1[7:4]};
wire [7:0] P3_CONT = ~{joy2[1],joy2[0],joy2[3],joy2[2], joy2[7:4]};

//wire [7:0] P4_CONT = ~{joy3[1],joy3[0],joy3[3],joy3[2], joy3[7:4]};

// Added some extra buttons to CONF_STR, so they can be mapped to P4.
// Also mapping the directions (U,D,L,R) from P1 to P4, which is probably not a good idea, but TESTING. ElectronAsh.
wire [7:0] P4_CONT = ~{joy0[1],joy0[0],joy0[3],joy0[2], joy0[19:16]};

So the bits of joy1, joy1, joy2, joy3, should be in the "MiSTer" order, and all Active-High.

Srg version, after the joystick_0 weird mapping stuff, and inversion...

    assign IN[0] = {1'b1,JOY1[15:12],JOY1[9],JOY1[8],JOY1[10]};
    assign IN[1] = {1'b1,JOY2[15:12],JOY2[9],JOY2[8],JOY2[10]};
    assign IN[2] = {1'b1,1'b1,JOY2[11],JOY1[11],JOY1[7],JOY1[3],1'b1,JOY1[11]};
    assign IN[3] = 8'h00;
    assign IN[4] = 8'hFF;
    assign IN[5] = {1'b1,JOY2[4],JOY2[5],JOY2[6],1'b1,JOY1[4],JOY1[5],JOY1[6]};

This is why joystick mapping stuff sucks. It can get VERY confusing. lol

I don't see why Sergiy is even mapping the Direction inputs?

Which would be on JOY1 bits [3:0].

This is his logic, for reads of the STV IO block, onto the C (CPU?) bus.

    assign CDO      = !MSHCS3_N || !DRAMCE_N || !ROMCE_N || !SRAMCE_N ? MEM_DI :
                     !STVIO_CS_N                                     ? MEM_DI :
                     !SMPCCE_N                                       ? {4{SMPC_DO}} :

This is the address decoding for the IO chip...

assign STVIO_CS_N = ~(CA >= 25'h0400000 && CA <= 25'h040007F && ~CCS0_N && CART_MODE == 3'h5);

[warped saddle]

    <setname>saturnstv</setname>
    <rbf>Saturn</rbf>
    <about></about>

    <buttons default="B,A,L,R" names="Attack,Jump,Coin,Start"></buttons>
    <rom index="2" md5="" zip="stvbios.zip">
                <part crc="f688ae60" name="epr-23603.ic8"></part>
    </rom>

    <rom index="3" md5="" zip="prikura.zip">
         <part crc="76f69ff3"  name="mpr19337.7"></part>
         <part crc="76f69ff3"  name="mpr19337.7"></part>
         <part crc="eb57a6a6" name="mpr19333.2"></part>
         <part crc="c9979981"  name="mpr19334.3"></part>
         <part crc="9e000140"  name="mpr19335.4"></part>
         <part crc="2363fa4b"  name="mpr19336.5"></part>
    </rom>
</misterromdescription>

copy saturn rbf to /media/fat/_Arcade/cores/Saturn.rbf

[untold cloud]

OK, yep, so it only does the Chip Select for the IO chip, if the MiSTer menu option is set to "ST-V", for the Cart.

[warped saddle]

oh, delete the buttons line, forgot that

[untold cloud]

Srg's fix, for how the ST-V resets some stuff, like the Sound hw...

//            SMPC_PDR2O3_OLD <= SMPC_PDR2O[3];
//            SMPC_PDR2O4_OLD <= SMPC_PDR2O[4];
//            STV_SCPU_RES_N <= 1;
//            if (SMPC_PDR2O4_OLD != SMPC_PDR2O[4]) STV_SCPU_RES_N <= 0;
            STV_SCSP_RES_N <= ~(SMPC_PDR2O[3] | ~SMPC_DDR2[3]);
            STV_SCPU_RES_N <= ~(SMPC_PDR2O[4] | ~SMPC_DDR2[4]);


wire SCPU_RES_N = CART_MODE == 3'h5 ? STV_SCPU_RES_N : SNDRES_N;

[warped saddle]

the first time you use it you'll have to go into the menu and set the cart type to stv and then save settings and reload the mra

(probably trivial to automate if the stv cart can be loaded via a dedicated index)

also I made the set name 'saturnstv' just so you only had set the cart type once. but if you want to name it differently for every game that'll work too

[untold cloud]

Presumably for adding DIP switches later, but not used atm...

.STV_SW('1),

Ohhh, I see now.

[warped saddle]

oh and obviously copy stvbios.zip and prikura.zip to mame dir

[untold cloud]

The weird mapping thing in the top-level Saturn.sv swaps the BIT order as well. sigh

joy1 / JOY1 bus...

bit [15]  = Right
bit [14]  = Left
bit [13]  = Down
bit [12]  = Up
bit [11]  = Start
bit [10]  = A
bit [9]  = C
bit [8]  = B

So with Srg's mapping in the STV IO module...

assign IN[0] = {1'b1,JOY1[15:12],JOY1[9],JOY1[8],JOY1[10]};

Start and other buttons are mapped via other input ports...

    assign IN[2] = {1'b1,1'b1,JOY2[11],JOY1[11],JOY1[7],JOY1[3],1'b1,JOY1[11]};
    assign IN[5] = {1'b1,JOY2[4],JOY2[5],JOY2[6],1'b1,JOY1[4],JOY1[5],JOY1[6]};

I forgot to mention - some games apparently use one of the "spare" IO ports for extra inputs.

Like, the actual JST connectors on the board.

One is usually for "Kick" inputs, but I'm fairly sure some games are using some of those buttons for Start, as well.

Which could explain why certain games don't react to Start.

Although we know games like R Silvergun need the protection IC, or a ROM patch.

And games like Cotton 2 seem to have the same issue as the SMPC flag bug on certain emulators.

[warped saddle]

that seems odd, because it would be a complete operator nightmare if start were just off on some random kick harness

[untold cloud]

I'm not 100% sure on the Kick input being used for Start buttons yet.

[warped saddle]

also I've never heard anyone bitching about having to rewire their cab for an ST-V

[untold cloud]

No idea, it's just what I found when trying to get some games running.

Also, from the MAME notes...

// 0x0001 PORT-A (P1)      JAMMA (56P)
// 0x0003 PORT-B (P2)      JAMMA (56P)
// 0x0005 PORT-C (SYSTEM)  JAMMA (56P)
// 0x0007 PORT-D (OUTPUT)  JAMMA (56P) + CN25 (JST NH 5P) RESERVED OUTPUT 4bit. (?)
// 0x0009 PORT-E (P3)      CN32 (JST NH 9P) EXTENSION I/O 8bit.
// 0x000b PORT-F (P4 / Extra 6B layout)    CN21 (JST NH 11P) EXTENSION I/O 8bit.
// 0x000d PORT-G           CN20 (JST HN 10P) EXTENSION INPUT 8bit. (?)
// 0x000f unused
// 0x0011 PORT_DIR

Port-F is usually for Player 4, but apparently some games use it as a kind of Kick input?

[marble laurel]

if we swapped epr19531.13 of puyosun
I can have the message the rom is loaded but after I have black screen maybe the core doesn't support next rom with the size
0x0400000

[untold cloud]

Hence, me trying this...

// Added some extra buttons to CONF_STR, so they can be mapped to P4.
// Also mapping the directions (U,D,L,R) from P1 to P4, which is probably not a good idea, but TESTING. ElectronAsh.
wire [7:0] P4_CONT = ~{joy0[1],joy0[0],joy0[3],joy0[2], joy0[19:16]};

But yeah, I think many of the issues with controls in some games, is unrelated.

My CONF_STR...

"J1,A,B,C,Start,R,X,Y,Z,L,STV-S2,STV-Mcart,STV-Pause,STV-P4-B1,STV-P4-B2,STV-P4-B3,STV-P4-B4;",

That's why it ended up as a mess. lol

I was trying whatever I could, to get controls working, in the handful of games which would actually boot.

I'll try Srg's core again later, and see if I can debug Left not working in Shienryu.

'cos it did work fine, when I was testing it.

I mean, with the tweaks I did.

[untold cloud]

The core should in theory just expect the ROMs to be mapped in contiguous fashion in the Cart binary.

Then each MAME ROM mapped at the address it expects.

If that makes sense? lol

[untold cloud]

Thinking about it, you're probably right.

ie. Normally the Start buttons are always hooked up to the same Ports.

And PORT-F used either for Player 4, or as extra "Kick" inputs.

Oh yeah, Port C is the "SYSTEM" port on ST-V.

// PORTC (System) inputs...
// 
// b7 = Pause (if the game supports it)
// b6 = Multi-Cart Select.
// b5 = Start 2 ?
// b4 = Start 1 ?
// b3 = Service 1.
// b2 = Service - No toggle??
// b1 = Coin 2
// b0 = Coin 1
//
// Button inputs to core are Active-LOW !
// 

// With the current CONF_STR, these bits would be...
// joy0[8]  -> PORTC[0] (Coin 1)   = R
// joy0[9]  -> PORTC[1] (Coin 2)   = X
// joy0[10] -> PORTC[2] (Test ?)   = Y
// joy0[11] -> PORTC[3] (Serv  )   = Z
// joy0[12] -> PORTC[4] (Start P1) = L
// joy0[13] -> PORTC[5] (Start P2) = STV-S2
// joy0[14] -> PORTC[6] (Game Sel) = STV-Mcart
// joy0[15] -> PORTC[7] (Pause   ) = STV-Pause
//
wire [7:0] SYS_CONT = ~joy0[15:8];  // With the current CONF_STR

I think one of those is technically the "Test" button, not "Service", as such.

[warped saddle]

some inputs may be duplicated for various reasons too

[untold cloud]

Probably the No-Toggle thing is actually the Test button.

[outer relic]

There's a bit of a catch with the date/time. Assuming the RTC board is not present and configured, if the NTP sync hasn't completed before the core starts, the date/time will be 2069-12-31 4:00.

[warped saddle]

oh hmm, I guess all these mras are trivial to generate since it's all the same duplicate rom X, concat the others, right?

[naive whale]

NICE

[untold cloud]

Ahh, 2069 - the year I finally get laid.

But I'll be 87. Oh well.

Well, I'll probably be dead, but that'll be fun, too.

[warped saddle]

Here lies Beavis, he never scored

[untold cloud]

I don't get why Shienryu can't turn left. It's like the Zoolander core.

https://tenor.com/view/zoolander-zoolander-movie-movie-zoolander-ben-stiller-benstiller-gif-4425833449756546803

[outer relic]

'Red Steel'

MAME lists the offset for the first ROM as 0x000001. Does that mean it skips the first byte of the ROM, or that it's padding by 1 byte?

[untold cloud]

That's usually for interleaving.

I have no idea why some of the maps set that to 0x000001, when there's only one ROM in that range.

Unless it's to start off the Byteswap thing, which kinda makes sense.

Maybe it helps tell the code if the first byte is the "Odd" or "Even" byte?

Which I guess would in turn, determine whether or not to ignore the byte swap command? lol

I read a page on the MAME thing a few weeks back, but it's still confusing.

It's almost as confusing as the old MiSTer code for the CONF_STR.

[outer relic]

I only looked at the first ROM for Die Hard Arcade. The first byte was part of the copyright message. Maybe it's insignificant

[untold cloud]

I don't think it skips the byte, but who knows?

If you mean the "S", I wouldn't skip that, AFAIK.

I need to switch my brain from joypad mode, to Cart ROM mode.

Furrtek refers to it as "Context Switching". lol

[outer relic]

The game wasn't recognized by the BIOS as a valid cart either way

[untold cloud]

I got Diehard to show up on mine.

Including displaying the WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS screen.

And the games Test screen.

Just no further than that.

ROM_START( diehard ) /* must use USA, Europe or Taiwan BIOS */
    STV_BIOS
    ROM_DEFAULT_BIOS( "us" )

    ROM_REGION32_BE( 0x3000000, "cart", ROMREGION_ERASE00 ) /* SH2 code */
    ROM_LOAD16_BYTE( "fpr19119.13",
    ROM_RELOAD_PLAIN ( 0x0200000, 0x0100000 )
    ROM_RELOAD_PLAIN ( 0x0300000, 0x0100000 )
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr19115.2",    0x0400000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr19116.3",    0x0800000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr19117.4",    0x0c00000, 0x0400000,
    ROM_LOAD16_WORD_SWAP( "mpr19118.5",    0x1000000, 0x0400000,
ROM_END

(removed all of the CRC+SHA1 stuff, for clarity)

So that just looks like the fpr ROM would be a 16-bit wide ROM anyway.

Usually that's the main SH2 code for the game.

But it repeats loading it twice. well, three times total, AFAIK.

Oh, twice.

Dunno. lol

OK, yep. I just confirmed the fpr ROM is 1MB.

[outer relic]

Does STV have region lockout?

[untold cloud]

Erm, pass.

It was hard to find concrete info on some of that stuff.

AFAIK, the Saturn reads the Region from a few pins on the SMPC, like some spare Joyport pins.

I can't remember if changing the region on the menu had any effect on ST-V games.

I think ST-V just relies on the BIOS Region itself?

Oh yeah...

So for diehard, you need to use the US region BIOS.

[outer relic]

Hmm... Now I'm wondering what an invalid region message looks like

[untold cloud]

Which was erm, trying to think of the version num.

[outer relic]

Or if the 'invalid cart' message I was getting was it

[untold cloud]

Quite often, if a Cart isn't byteswapped or merged correctly, or if the System Assignments don't match what it expects, the cart name won't show up in the Service menu.

But if it's the wrong region BIOS, the game will usually show an error screen, or maybe refuse to boot at all.

Games seem to be very fussy about the System Assignments thing, and often the correct BIOS.

But many games will use the Japan region BIOS, ofc.

It's actually quite hard to explain all of the trouble I went through, just trying to get the right combination to boot a few games. lol

[outer relic]

I chose a very small game to start with... Shanghai-something, which only had 2 ROMs. It booted but had corrupt foreground tiles. I think I had to reverse the order of the ROMs to get it to boot

[untold cloud]

Most Japan region games (at least in MAME) will be using epr-23603.ic8.

But Die Hard needs 17952a, or 954a.

I think all of the 1795*a ROMs are probably US region?

Oh, and I had far better luck getting certain games to boot, when using the stv1061 BIOS.

That's what the stv1061 BIOS shows, if the game region doesn't match the BIOS.

[outer relic]

Ah. I've been testing with stv110. You get the cool PCB flyby animation with blinking red text

[untold cloud]

Also... quite often, I had to use the Service menu to Clear the BACKUP RAM.

Before some games would even boot.

Plus I found that when some games crash... they REALLY crash. lol

The Master SH2 just tries to read garbage instructions, and keeps incrementing the Address, until it wraps to zero.

Then the SH2 will freeze, and I have to load the RBF (of SOF) again.

[outer relic]

Crash handling? In my arcade machine?

[untold cloud]

Most games need the Cabinet Type and Alone/Multi thing set correctly.

Else, in most official BIOSes, the Service menu won't even display the game name, on the first page.

Many games also required the Backup RAM to be cleared, before attempting to boot them.

I have no idea if Srg's latest updates fix any of that, or if it even saves the Backup RAM for STV to SD card yet.

The "Each Game Test" is actually the games own Test menu, which can have additional options.

Although, in Cotton 2, the game's Test menu refuses to move the cursor. lol

Until I did a small tweak of the SMPC, then I could move the cursor, but it wouldn't react to the button to actually enter the menu option. sigh

Example of "Each Game Test", from Die Hard...

AFAIK, that is code being run from the Die Hard cart, not from the BIOS.

Including the gnarly font.

You could also try doing the Backup Data Clear from that menu, too.

Couldn't get that to even show the WINNERS screen, with BIOS 17954a.

But this was with 17952a, which I believe is what MAME was using, as the US ROM for Die Hard...

But alas, it crashes right after. lol

Worth trying on Srg's latest core, though.

I guess I'll have to compile the latest core.

[warped saddle]

if you want his core with no changes just grab it from the unstable channel

[untold cloud]

Ahh, yep. Good point. lol

'cos there are no "Tags" on the git repo, for releases.

And in case anyone was wondering - Yes, some of this stuff really is this annoying to get working. lol

Are both the Unstable builds for Dual SDRAM?

Oh, I do still have both modules plugged in.

Trying the Dual SDRAM version, as the other one only gives a black screen.

It does bring up the MiSTer menu, though.

I tried manually loading a BIOS, but still a black screen

[warped saddle]

one is for single, the other dual

[untold cloud]

Nope, black screen from both.

I reckon I need to byteswap all of the BIOS files. sigh

[warped saddle]

did you set the cartridge type to stv?

[untold cloud]

Yep, it was already set, from using my crusty-patched core from before.

But it won't even load the Saturn BIOS now.

[warped saddle]

works here

[untold cloud]

I just tried Dual SDRAM as well (unstable), and nothing works?

[warped saddle]

oh wait, let me power cycle

[untold cloud]

Yep, just trying that, too. lol

Nope.

Black screen.

Dual SDRAM unstable.

Oh, OK.

Saturn BIOS boots now.

So it's probably, erm...

Not sure.

I can't see why it wouldn't auto-load the Saturn BIOS, as I've always had that as boot.rom.

But it worked when I power-cycled, and then loading the Saturn BIOS from the menu.

None of the STV BIOSes seem to work, so I probably need to byteswap them.

(or leave them as-is, from MAME, in other words)

That's... very frustrating.

Yep, and the Saturn BIOS won't work again, after ST-V has crashed.

I think there are some things in the Saturn core which aren't being fully reset, btw.

It should never get into a state where a Reset (from the menu) doesn't work.

Saturn BIOS...

(My boot0.rom should be the same thing)

stv1061 etc. looks the same too.

So yeah, the ST-V BIOSes would never have booted in the first place, unless the endianess matched the Saturn BIOS.

So something else is crashing on mine, probably the Cart ROM.

I also had the DC emu thing (minicast) running on MiSTer earlier, which probably doesn't help. lol

(it would have been writing stuff to DDR3, right at the place where the Saturn maps stuff)

[warped saddle]

my mra loads things as-is from mame and it all boots. that does mean it never auto-loads a saturn bios from disk tho

[untold cloud]

Is there an option to load an MRA from the Saturn core menu?

'cos that would be SO much easier for me, for debugging.

[warped saddle]

no, mras are not loaded from core menus

[untold cloud]

Oww

[warped saddle]

you just load the mra and it loads the core

[untold cloud]

That's my one main issue with MRAs, but I get why it's done that way.

'cos arcades.

OK, so right now, I'm aiming to get Die Hard to at least show the WINNERS screen, on Srg's latest (unstable Dual SDRAM) core.

I would love to see the first "3D" ST-V game running.

@warped saddle Do you possibly have a link to one of your MRAs?

[warped saddle]

look above I pasted one here

[untold cloud]

OK

I did scroll back just now, but clearly not far enough. lol

OK, got it.

#1046941029296779344 message

I always forget which folders to copy the RBF and ROM zips.

scp Saturn_DualSDRAM_unstable_20250126_19138e.rbf [email protected]:/media/fat/_Arcade/cores/Saturn.rbf

[warped saddle]

that's correct, rom zips in /media/fat/games/mame

[untold cloud]

OK, thanks.

[warped saddle]

sir please hide the password to your mister so you don't get hacked

[untold cloud]

lol

I don't think there's too much danger there.

I might use "12345" soon.

SO many steps, for using MRAs.

scp Saturn_DualSDRAM_unstable_20250126_19138e.rbf [email protected]:/media/fat/_Arcade/cores/Saturn.rbf
scp stvbios.zip [email protected]:/media/fat/_Arcade/mame
scp prikura.zip [email protected]:/media/fat/_Arcade/mame
scp prikura.mra [email protected]:/media/fat/_Arcade

Sheesh. lol

Well, there’s a surprise.

[warped saddle]

no, roms in /media/fat/games/mame