#Sega Saturn

1 messages · Page 111 of 1

idle gorge
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it says 8bitcontroller FW now

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while before it just said controller

rotund steeple
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Which controller exactly?

idle gorge
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this one

image.png
rotund steeple
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I have this on too, works fine for me in default mode on Mister.

idle gorge
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do you use the dongle or wired?

rotund steeple
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Via the white dongle

idle gorge
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this is weird, the controller's green and blue lights are blinking. i dont know if it its stuck in pairing mode

analog totem
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is there a way to factory reset the controller and then update the FW again?

rotund steeple
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The Genesis Mini Controller has it's own Firmware Udate. It works different to other 8bitdo Pads.

idle gorge
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ty imma try that

rotund steeple
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Follow the English readme inside the zip

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And don't forget the RR Receiver Update (for the white dongle)

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If it still doesn't work then try this.

8bitdo_M30_re-connect.png
idle gorge
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usb update is grayed out

rotund steeple
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You have to press L+R and the "-" button together for 3 seconds (It's called "select/mode" in the manual pdf). Then you can update. Select the .dat file and the update process begins.

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Just tried it. Works fine.

idle gorge
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ok i think the issue is that its not picking up my controller wirelessly still

rotund steeple
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You can't update the receiver?

idle gorge
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no and im trying to repair it now but wheni hold mode the status indicator doesnt blink

rotund steeple
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On the PC?

idle gorge
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yea

rotund steeple
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Strange, especially on the PC it should reconnect easily. But now you might have an older firmware on the receiver and the latest on the controller.

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I find it odd that L+R+Mode/Select button combination doesn't allow you to flash the .dat file.

idle gorge
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yeah nothing works

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its weird

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it just wont pair

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so something weird, when i put the dongle in my my mister i can navigate the menus going up and down but the actual buttons dont work

rotund steeple
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Mister side won't solve it.

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There is no real factory reset for this controller. It's not bluetooth.

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It should just work.

idle gorge
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yeah, this is weird

rotund steeple
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And what about a wired connection? Is it still working?

idle gorge
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testing

rotund steeple
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if yes, then maybe the dongle is broken

idle gorge
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the problem with wired is it wont let me do direct x input i think

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when wired its only the green light

rotund steeple
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No function?

idle gorge
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it works but controls for certain games are messed up since its not x input

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its weird though, when i connect the dongle i can move the controller and navigate just cant use my buttons

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a, b, c etc

rotund steeple
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You tried all 3 modes?

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Home+Up: X-input
Home+Left: Nintendo Switch
Home+Down: D-input (Genesis mini)

idle gorge
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the other inputs only work with the dongle right?

left chasm
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in the PC you can easily see the mode it's at. and with xinput you need the mapping like this picture for face buttons #controllers message

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in the mister gamepad mapping (not core one)

image.png
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as the UI shows a 4 face button controller

rotund steeple
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I thought it worked before correctly in Mister?

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Did you ever mapped it in the Mister Input Config = Define Joystick buttons?

left chasm
rotund steeple
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I meant Vyadis. It's not clear for me.

idle gorge
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im trying to map it now

rotund steeple
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If you don't get a solid blue on both, controller and dongle, it might not work.

idle gorge
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on the dongle i get a blue

rotund steeple
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Not blinking?

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Controller back side LED should show a solid blue too.

idle gorge
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correction: the dongle is blinking blue

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when the controller is not plugged in it is solid blue

rotund steeple
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Then it's not connected correctly. I still think your are in a wrong input mode

idle gorge
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do you think i could try re-pairing them?

rotund steeple
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Well, when the 3 seonds hold on the Mode button doesn't work..

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Home+Down (Genesis Mini Mode) also doesn't work?

idle gorge
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no

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wtf now the dongle is solid blue

rotund steeple
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Nice.

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Pad too?

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Now you should be able to map the pad in Mister.

idle gorge
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well the issue right now is that i can only move up and down

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i cant use other buttons

rotund steeple
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I thought it's solid blue now, both?

idle gorge
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yea it is

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i have no idea whats going on

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its like it only partially works on mister

rotund steeple
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Can you check the buttons and d-pad in the PC Windows settings?

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It should work

idle gorge
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ill try hang on

rotund steeple
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With the dongle in the USB port, of course

idle gorge
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now the problem we have is that windows picks up the dongle but not my controller wirelessly

rotund steeple
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Dongle is still solid blue?

idle gorge
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yes

rotund steeple
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Maybe the Receiver update works now.

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L+R+Mode Button for 3 seconds

idle gorge
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question

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does the 8bitdo controller need bluetooth by default to get picked up on the pc or should the dongle do that?

rotund steeple
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No, it should work with just the 2.4GHz dongle. Maybe you have plugged in other intput devices? I would remove everything

idle gorge
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im checking now

rotund steeple
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btw: Windows 10 detects the pad as "6button Controller"

idle gorge
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im on windows 11

rotund steeple
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Or try another USB port.

idle gorge
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trying that

rotund steeple
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Hubs can be nasty in detection

idle gorge
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its suppose to look like this right

image.png
rotund steeple
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It's normal. But when you press L+R+Mode for 3 seconds it should allow you to click on USB_Update.

idle gorge
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this sucks, im about to give up

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thanks for your help though

burnt matrix
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For today’s SATURNDAY, I made art representing every RPG on the Sega Saturn:

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‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌‌ ‌ ‌ ‌🐉

cabbagepatch ⚔️

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A fat baby fighting his natural enemy, the dragon

frail token
glossy steppe
inner kayak
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wow. Fascinating what the fixes are like now, really showcases how hopeless it was to try and program for this thing on any kind of timetable or budget

glossy steppe
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What? You mean a system that operated on quads and instead of tris and had like six processors that you all had to keep in sync in assembly was difficult to develop for?

image.png
inner kayak
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quads vs tris is a red herring, it’s the other stuff. The bus contention alone boggles the mind.

wise brook
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Quads are easier to build with

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they are the native primitive of the hardware, from a time when there was no particularly dominant standard

glossy steppe
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Yeah tris were not AS a universal standard yet, but both their heavy competition was using tris, as was just about every consumer pc 3d accelerator

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They also caused problems attempting things like transparencies

onyx gulch
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Is there a plan to add support for Action Replay or Gameshark cartridges in Saturn core?

burnt matrix
onyx gulch
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I tested all revisions in .BIN format but I only have a bootloop. As there’s no cheats in Saturn core, it would be a great addition

burnt matrix
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Oh ok no cheats, glad I could help

sudden tusk
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Why is my Astal sound still borked !?

mortal mist
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With latest unstable mister main?

visual grove
sudden tusk
rotund steeple
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With fast timings Level 1 seems ok, normal timings leads to distortion. But with fast timings on Level 2 has distortions later on in the level.

sudden tusk
sudden tusk
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Sometimes level 1 plays fine and distortion on level 2 and vice versa

rotund steeple
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Yeah, maybe it's just random. This would need more tests.

sudden tusk
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I’ll go back to testing in a few , got sidetracked testing the new Cdi unstable

sudden tusk
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Looks like this unstable did fix the sound issues on WWF in your house ! Its still a little glitchy but definitely a huge improvement

faint iris
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Hi everyone! Is it just me, or have all the 2025 stable Saturn core builds been showing more slowdown in Castlevania: SotN than real hardware? I'm using a QMTech MiSTer with 128MB SDRAM, and the game is the Ultimate 1.1 version. I was watching a video of someone playing on a real Saturn using a SAROO, and at the beginning with Alucard, killing those wolves was much smoother. I'm also getting heavy slowdown when running up the stairs to the Dracula fight as Richter at the beginning. Has anyone else noticed this regression?

river river
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I'm not sure someone running it from a Saroo is the best benchmark. Can you find a video of someone playing it from disc or another ODE like a MODE or Fenrir?

ripe valley
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#1046941029296779344 message

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That message and the reply from Kuba-j.

burnt matrix
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MiSTer wins again!
elmorise misterkun elmorise

burnt matrix
frail token
celest lake
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And what robby said. The saturn core is in a very good place, so you will want to confirm against youtube videos of real hardware

wide glacier
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waiting for the decomp to be finished so no one has to play saturn SotN anymore

frail token
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That would be sweet

scarlet goblet
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There's a hack which translates and fixes almost everything in Saturn Castlevania except the extra pixel problems

wide glacier
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"fixes" is an overstatement lol

mortal mist
glossy steppe
wide glacier
mortal mist
jagged spire
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It would be nice to have a list of games with slowdowns on single ram

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If only I could get my Saturn's controller ports to work, I could try to do some comparisons

ripe valley
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Good luck for doing the whole list.

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Sometimes it is just a single slowdown during the ending of a game.

jagged spire
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I don't think I could manage the whole list, but it could be interesting to know which popular games are affected

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I'm surprised nobody did that already, with all the youtubers covering the platform

burnt matrix
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Most perf issues that have been brought up have been confirmed to be accurate hardware behavior.

glossy steppe
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Really wondering if the DE-25 can help with that someday since it appears like it would be possible to go dual-RAM on that thing without sacrificing the standard analog board. Then other than price there would be little reason not to just go dual-ram

burnt matrix
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Honestly, I think it’s an issue that can get figured out with some clever hackery.

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But is it worth a core devs time? I don’t know.

ripe valley
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The issue is the DDR3 latency.

glossy steppe
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.... which ironically the DE-25 (at least from it's specs) also mitigates

burnt matrix
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Yeah I’m aware. But those issues can get figured out with enough time.

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like every other issues has been solved for the core prior

glossy steppe
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Not that I am saying "Hey, everyone get a de-25" mind you

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Just looking into what can be done if it can't be done on the de-10

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For all we know mister will never be ported to the de-25

burnt matrix
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but maybe a solution to that ddr3 latency workaround would make the core more inaccurate? Who knows.

ripe valley
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srg320 exposed clearly on a previous statement how he proceeded with the Fast timings, and the dual RAM core.

glossy steppe
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But the de-25 has both 128mb of on-board SDRAM while still having all 40 GPIO pins that the DE-10 has, and has 1GB of DDR4 RAM that is dedicated to the FPGA and not shared with the CPU which is what causes the latency

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N64 has that latency issue too wit the FPGA and CPU using the DDR3 at the same time

burnt matrix
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Yup, and that’s the solution from here on out or until he decides to spend a lot more time digging into it. Maybe the fast timings is a permanent option that gets turned on since we’ve yet to find issues with it being on?

glossy steppe
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(Though it appears to lack the RTC header? Don't think it has an rtc built in either)

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IIRC it does cause issues in some games if it's on

ripe valley
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That's why it isn't activated as default.

glossy steppe
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Hmm, anyone tried any tech demos/homebrew with fast timings on? I would assume stuff like that might be the most likely to break if it's sensative to it

burnt matrix
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That’s just my opinion though.

ripe valley
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I agree.

glossy steppe
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I could never manage to control that homebrew FPS with """raytracing""" correctly on the Saturn controller

burnt matrix
# ripe valley I agree.

Oh nice, you’re a super smart dude, so that makes me glad I didn’t say a crazy thing lol.

glossy steppe
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Technicallty you DID just say "a crazy thing"

mortal mist
glossy steppe
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Oh right, speaking of controlllers, still no analog trigger support

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Need main to support that for it to work

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And saturn would be the only core that would be able to use it... for a handful of games

ripe valley
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srg320 took already several weeks for optimizing the RAM system on the core and speeding up everything to the max.

burnt matrix
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I think my perspective can be misunderstood, for which I am sorry. I come from a position of believing he can keep achieving the impossible, given enough time.

glossy steppe
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Sadly we are really really hitting hardware limits

burnt matrix
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That’s what they always say

glossy steppe
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It dosen't matter if the most genuis programmer spends a million years optimizing it, they still would not be able to ge Crysis running on a Commodore64

burnt matrix
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Also you have to understand that part of my job is telling programmers to do the impossible lol

glossy steppe
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so both our lines of work are pissing off programmers XD

burnt matrix
ripe valley
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"We need to call Carmack"

glossy steppe
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Most of my past roles were to mess with what programmers made until it breaks then tell them it's broken and to fix it XD

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Ironically usually by creating smaller programs of my own that try to break said programs

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.... or servers

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........ or both

burnt matrix
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But uhhhh, if beggars can be choosers, I’d rather SRG work on the 3DO than Saturn. 👀

glossy steppe
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Relax, I am sure the 3DO will happen after Saturn is perfected, and the JaguarCD is perfected, and the CD-I is perfected, and the Virtual Boy is perfected, and the Game.com is perfected, and the Mattel Hyperscan is perfected, but I am sure after that the 3DO will happen

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... no idea if the mister can even handle the Hyperscan, but I mean, there is a REASON that's about the only console ever to have never had an emulator even to this day. You would be better off getting an Apple Pippin

ripe valley
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And the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

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😏

glossy steppe
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Oh right, but that's Jotego...... is that ever coming out?

burnt matrix
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I am under the impression that he’s abandoned it for the moment.

I could be completely wrong so please correct me if I am.

glossy steppe
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OH! Moonwalker finally came out? Didn't notice that. Been waiting on that one since I got my mister

ripe valley
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For the issue ticket on Sonic R, I will close it next Monday.

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Everyone, enjoy your New Year's Eve, and stay awesome.

More importantly, SEGA Saturn Shirou!

glossy steppe
native dagger
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Does anyone have really simple instructions on converting a bup to what the mister needs?

minor cipher
# native dagger Does anyone have really simple instructions on converting a bup to what the mist...

https://savefileconverter.com/#/mister
i think this is what you want

image.png
Save File Converter

Converts save files for retro consoles: MiSTer, srm to sav, sav to srm, GameShark (sps and gsv), PS1, GameCube, N64, DexDrive, Action Replay, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Saroo, Sega CD, Nintendo Switch Online, Retron 5, Wii Virtual Console, emulators, various flash cartridge formats, and save states from online emulation websites. Decrypts PSP saves...

native dagger
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thanks, do you know if I need both a bup and another file to have it convert?

glossy steppe
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What format is bup?

native dagger
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dunno, it's a new one to me so that's why I was asking

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I've seen people bring it up here and there

ripe valley
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Just the BUP file.

native dagger
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Ok, when I try that site the convert option stays grayed out. I set .bup for the external memory save and wrote a filename in the output filename field

minor cipher
glossy steppe
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Why does bup format sound so familiar....

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I could have sworn I messed with it recently

minor cipher
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it doesn't seem to allow you to convert .BUP files at all right now. i think the dropdown should probably have two entries for Saturn rather than one with two browse dialogs

glossy steppe
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I think I used either that or another app to convert some saves to or from bup recently

minor cipher
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N64 has two entries in the dropdown

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none of the other entries have two browse options

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and yeah, neither work

glossy steppe
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N64?

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I thought you was trying to do saturn

minor cipher
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the site has a dropdown

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if you look in the dropdown menu, there are 2 entries for N64, but only one for saturn, but the Saturn one has two Browse entries... and is broken. doesn't work at all

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i'm thinking it should be like the N64 one

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there's a github for this, let me see if i can track it down

glossy steppe
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Looks like I used either "SaturnSaveConverter" or "SaturnSaveConverter" when I was doing it

minor cipher
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yeah there are other tools for this that should work

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i'll make an issue on the github for the site

glossy steppe
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I recall convering my old old OLD saves from when I pulled my saves off my saturn using a 4-in-1 and a ISA Comms card to I think BUP so I could then convert them using that site

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To then put them on mister

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My original saves had no format at all, not even an extension

native dagger
glossy steppe
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(In fact, the extension was part of the filename since saturn saves could have 11 characters in their filename, so it just saved something like "BURNINGRANG" as "burningr.ang"

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Could have sworn I bup worked though

burnt matrix
glossy steppe
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I just think of Toad when I hear "bup"

minor cipher
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you need to convert the .BUP file first

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click the left arrow in the middle to change the direction, then upload your .BUP file

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that will create a .bkr file which you can use in the prior menu

stiff latch
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bup means back up

minor cipher
stiff latch
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it can be used to contain a blob of saves from the saturn internal memory

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save game copier homebrew (for real consoles) lets you back up the bups

burnt matrix
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lol convert the bup

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Sounds like code words to doing illicit drugs

native dagger
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Thank you everyone for the info and steps 🤘

burnt matrix
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Ok sorry I’ll stop posting garbage lol

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I just never heard of bup before

stiff latch
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just saturn things~

frail token
jagged spire
native dagger
wide glacier
noble copper
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@wide glacier that is the cutest emoticon I have ever seen in my life

burnt matrix
wide glacier
noble copper
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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AHAHAHAHAHAH

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AHAHAHAHAH

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THIS IS EVEN CUTER

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CUTE OVERLOADED -- explodes --

glossy steppe
winter phoenix
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Clockwork Knight 2, too (North American version … I don’t think PAL has different screens for holidays)

wide glacier
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puyo puyo sun has some christmas outfits for the characters in the credits sequence iirc

pearl harbor
ancient surge
wide glacier
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you're right

image.png
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very cute little extra

ripe valley
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Waku Waku 7 should have a New Year message, if I remember well.

ancient surge
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Twinkle Star Sprites has an easter egg, where the animation of Load Ran flying across the company logo changes based on the date. There are variations for Halloween, Christmas, New Years Day, and Valentines Day.

glossy steppe
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Christmas NiGHTS had several time-based events, it's a reason why there is a clock and date on the title screen

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IIRC there is an April Fools event too, and it rains acid on some really far off future date

minor cipher
next bronze
sturdy gorge
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I just wrapped up Policenauts with the translation patch last week. No issues at all.

I also completed Shinobi about a week before the update to fix that game, and I detected no problems … at least not any that I thought were the core’s failings.

I think that I’ve wrapped up my backlog on Saturn, and that’s something I thought would never happen without a much more concerted effort just to be able to play at all.

This core was the reason I got a Mister to begin with, and I’m happy I did.

burnt matrix
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MiSTer wins again!
elmorise misterkun elmorise

pine bobcat
burnt matrix
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Someone try this out on the Saturn core, plz

drowsy hull
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The scheduler has chosen you robby

safe trail
sturdy gorge
# safe trail I'm assuming that works fine with single SDRAM ?

I have a dual RAM system, but I was using the standard single RAM core, so yeah.

I actually bought my Mister a while back when we weren’t sure what Saturn would need, so I got the dual RAM, but I haven’t actually used it yet. It seems the games that benefit from it aren’t really of much interest to me anyhow.

safe trail
sturdy gorge
winter phoenix
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There's a new Miami Vice-like first-person shooter for the Sega Saturn by homebrew developer Riccardo Campione named Vigilant Paradise! But it might not be as new as you think ... get the details in my story:

https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/01/02/vigilant-paradise-a-new-homebrew-saturn-fps-flies-under-the-radar/

SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!
Danthrax
Vigilant Paradise, a New Homebrew Saturn FPS, Flies Under the Radar

There is a new homebrew first-person shooter for the Sega Saturn — or rather, there has been for nearly two months. That’s because Vigilant Paradise was announced by its developer Riccardo Ca…

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(I haven't had time to test this on MiSTer yet but I'll bet it works!)

burnt matrix
kindred peak
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Came out of nowhere and got shadow dropped by the creator. What a stud.

winter phoenix
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Yeah haha

analog totem
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anyone here tried it yet? Thinking about grabbing it

green swift
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Dude I love the look of that game. I gotta try it.

winter phoenix
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Using the latest unstable, single RAM

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There’s a rather unpleasant audio bug during the opening cutscene before the title screen that doesn’t happen on real hardware, but thankfully it goes away once the cutscene ends

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The loading times are extremely long, but it’s like that on real hardware, too. SegaXtreme guys think it’s because the dev is using a slow command in JoEngine for loading files, plus he’s using folders, which slows it down more

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Got the bug again during the maze training portion. Before that, in the first target practice area, it whiffed on playing a voice clip. Didn’t get those problems on Bizhawk (Mednafen fork) or real hardware via Satiator.

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I think this “clicking” audio bug happens every time the Redbook music tries to loop the track

burnt matrix
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Could it be a bug in the game that the Bizhawk and Satiator manages to bypass?

inner kayak
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speaking of quads, the new game from Q Games (makers of the PixelJunk series and Tomorrow Children) called Dreams of Another goes all-out with quads: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3561230/Dreams_of_Another/

Steam
Dreams of Another

A World Shaped by Musician Baiyon’s Vision
Director Baiyon, originally a musician and later a multimedia artist, brings his unique vision of games and art to life through this title. This one-of-a-kind experience comes together as one unified experience of game, art, sound, and story. The concepts of  “No Creation Without Destruction” e…

Price

$22.74

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turned up to max settings, it's beautiful and amazing. like a parallel timeline of rendering tech

glossy steppe
left chasm
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Testing the core as I document it. Seems like the BIOS files for auto load end with .rom (given by main_mister), but to select a BIOS in the OSD, it expects *.bin and I can’t load them. Would it make sense to suggest it uses the same extension, so we don’t need to duplicate bios files?

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I was naturally expecting to load the bios I have via the menu 😅tiny polish, but maybe I can do it later

inner kayak
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these are the same folks who accomplished multi-bounce path traced lighting in The Tomorrow Children for PS4.

left chasm
winter phoenix
burnt matrix
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Probably unlikely, lol

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just thinking outloud

winter phoenix
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I guess the only way to really know would be to burn it to a CD-R and play it on a Saturn that way

burnt matrix
winter phoenix
ripe valley
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I'm reading some backlog messages.

Okay, I will take a look tomorrow night or the day after too.

winter phoenix
burnt matrix
winter phoenix
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(unzip it first obvs)

idle gorge
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Shining Force 3 is fun

lofty spire
winter phoenix
glossy steppe
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I remember years ago people asking why their burned PSX games did not work, only to find out that they burned the ISO file itself onto the disk. So yeah, I can definiely see that RAR thing happening too

river wing
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There's a picture of Chiquito de la Calzada on this Saturn game! 😮

chiquito.jpg
winter phoenix
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I love the different vampires portraits in that room 😆

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The Count from Sesame Street always sends me

warm ledge
left chasm
serene epoch
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Is Vigilant Paradise completable on Mister?

serene epoch
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The sniper level keeps freaking out on my real Saturn + Satiator. I'll have to try with a disc. Solution: Try a different Saturn.

ripe valley
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I can't see the issue with Thunder Force Gold Pack 1&2 neither, on my single and dual RAM systems.
Someone is reporting some FMV corruption at the beginning.

celest lake
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I can look

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just let attract loop?

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or do I need to start a game

ripe valley
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Just the intro FMV with the Techno Soft logo.

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Let the attract mode loop, yeah.

celest lake
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I have them as separate entries (Thunder Force Gold Pack 1 and Thunder Forfce Gold Pack 2). Is that correct?

ripe valley
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Correct.

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If you want the ticket.

celest lake
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smells like a bad dump

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I should reword that. But won't

small ore
celest lake
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I mean this custscenes are like 120p, but I haven't seen any corrupted frames

ripe valley
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I'm filling a ticket right now.

river wing
sharp comet
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yes but the american version tastes worse when you eat them

strong osprey
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sounds about right to me

ripe valley
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srg320 asked us to check the end of the music files on Vigilant Paradise.
The stuck sounds seem to be present on the player too.

#

I'm not available at the moment for doing it, as I'm working on completely something else on my side.

#

I listened to the tracks on PC, and they sound fine. The problem is definitely with the core. (srg320)

celest lake
#

something.......else

ripe valley
#

More like, just sorting thousands of photos from some recent exhibitions.

#

No 3DO involved here, nor Saturn system.

winter phoenix
mighty zephyr
#

I need to check later if there is still a pause in the Sonic 3D intro

ripe valley
#

The audio tracks work correctly on a PC player, so the problem is with the core.
srg320 replied and has already checked on his end while I was asking to check here.

winter phoenix
#

ah OK

modern kite
#

Hello everyone.

Is shining force III playable on single ram?

burnt matrix
#

For the very small handful of games that have issues, single ram has a fast timings option that mitigates it as well.

floral saddle
marble laurel
winter phoenix
#

Damn, he’s fast!

trim nimbus
#

Srg added support for the 6mb cart?

hallow fossil
#

Yeah, quite a few months ago

trim nimbus
#

Is that the max the Saturn could address?

ancient fractal
#

The cartridge connector has at least 25 address pins (maybe 26, docs say 25 but on schematics there's clearly 26) so in theory it should be able to address 32Mbytes. The core uses 25 wires for CART_MEM_A which checks out.

finite hound
finite hound
#

It seems to have quite a few bugs though

rich violet
burnt matrix
ripe valley
#

I'm very satisfied of the results on Astal right now.

#

And I leave it one last time to the person who opened the ticket to check if the warbling music on stage 2 is fixed.
But on my tests some minutes ago, it was perfect on my MiSTer Pi system.
I'm on stage 5 at the moment.

thorn pagoda
#

do you have musical training or just lots of experience ? i can never tell when a core has audio issues unless its extremely blatent

#

i'm always shocked when people make recordings and i can finally hear it

drowsy hull
#

Does the dac frequency even match the og samplerate, resulting the sound veing wrong by default?

ripe valley
#

Lots of experience on some games + around 25 years of beta testing emulators.

rotund steeple
#

Astal sounds good now, indeed. Stage 3 and no distortions yet.

ripe valley
#

I can't see the testing sheet anymore on the pinned messages, is it normal ? @burnt matrix

burnt matrix
#

s

ripe valley
#

Oki Doki Loki.

burnt matrix
#

@ripe valley found it!

ripe valley
#

Maybe, I will test some more games tomorrow after my work day.

ripe valley
#

Okay, some good news, and some bad ones.

#

Today, I was on a new testing spree with the Saturn core.

#

Most of the games work correctly and seem even perfect on it (71,5% of the whole licensed library tested, yeay 🎉 )

#

But, I have found some others that can't work at all or just loadable.

#
  • Virtual-On for Sega Net cannot go in-game, as it requires a valid Xband modem connection, that title is a paperweight nowadays.
#
  • I added 3 titles on the issue log just a moment ago : Cat the Ripper, Deadalus (JP name of Robotica), Jikuu Tantei DD - Maboroshi no Lorelei.
#

I am confident that srg320 will one day find a way to solve the first two problems, but the last one concerns loading the second disc and will probably involve changing the entire method of loading games onto multiple discs.

#

The game exists on the PS1.

#

I should work on the PSX core.

#

If you REALLY want to play it (and I question your mental health if you want to play it voluntarily). 😏

polar mountain
#

Whoa! What in the holy hell is Cat the Ripper!!!

hallow fossil
#

Does the xband disc work on any software emulators?

ripe valley
#

None, from my personal knowledge so far.

hallow fossil
#

Ah, that is a shame. I was thinking maybe they figured out a way to spoof it to get it to at least load something

ripe valley
#

Sometimes, I miss some Saturn emudev, like Steve Kwok (NOVA).
He was the sole one who was interested to emulate some peripherals and the MPEG card.

#

And he was the first one to create a correct SCSP implementation of the chip, far more advanced than Mednafen, and even Ymir at the moment.
He even emulated the floppy operator system on an undisclosed version of the emulator.

#

It's a shame he abandoned his emulator after that.

burnt matrix
#

Wait no I was thinking of a different game lol

polar mountain
#

I'm looking at a video of it

ripe valley
#

Dang it, Robby.

polar mountain
#

And one thing is certain

#

It will haunt my dreams

#

!!!!

burnt matrix
#

that’s for PS1 tho

#

My bad!

polar mountain
#

What a great hobby this is with all these crazy games to discover

burnt matrix
winter phoenix
livid grotto
#

Translation patches were crazy this year. Still blown away that Princess Crown was finally done.

glossy steppe
glossy steppe
warped saddle
glossy steppe
#

So it's some different multidisk issue?

winter phoenix
#

Yeah what’s the problem with Jikuu Tantei DD?

ripe valley
#

You cannot let the game continue on the second disc.

#

Even if you have the two discs on the same folder.

ripe valley
#

@mortal mist Have you tried AFTER the title screen for Cat the Ripper ?

#

The first video before the title screen works, and the loading time is correct against a real Saturn system.

mortal mist
#

Works with dualsdram fine

ripe valley
#

We have another game that only works on Dual RAM. 😏

#

Too bad, it's a really (NOT) 'good' game. 🤭

#

I don't think people will do tantrum because that game only works on Dual RAM systems.

#

For Deadalus, that was my USB stick which isn't fast enough.
I tried with a better one, the game loads fine.

#

I choose to close the issue ticket, the game works only on Dual RAM system.
And if people wants to play it absolutely with a Single RAM system, the game is available on the PSX too.

hearty marten
ripe valley
#

Saturn core is sh**, it doesn't allow to play Cat the Ripper on Single RAM.
50 YT videos and so on, I know.

hearty marten
#

Why Saturn emulation is still a mess in 2026

burnt matrix
#

Saturn core doesn’t support libcattheripper

ripe valley
#

I took the liberty of testing all the PC and Raspberry Pi emulators (under Batocera 42 & an internal version of Recalbox 10.0.0-4 Patreon) for the Saturn yesterday, using the latest test ROMs.

I also verified & calibrated them against real consoles.

I even set up some tests with the help of a local classic gaming association, which lent me several machines, to check the synchronization & possible lag. Between a real console and a real disc of SEGA Rally vs. Fenrir vs. SAROO (the Satiator wasn't available).

#

When I say that the Saturn core (especially with a Dual RAM configuration) is what resembles the most to a real system with a real optical disc reader, it's not just an opinion or a trivial remark.

It's a proven fact, based on measured and detailed evidence.

#

Even the Fenrir and the SAROO cart don't pass all the tests that the core does.

Without going into all the technical details, the Fenrir can't even read the CD Block test and crashes on the first (simplest) one.
On some games like Astal, we have a bug on the music, that's why srg320 had to seek a real Astal disc & test it on his modfied Saturn with the logic analyzer.

The SAROO, during the packet conformity & CRC32 hashing tests, loses packets 1 to 2% of the time, or even fails to hash them.
On 4 different consoles.
The flaw on my tests is that I had only a SAROO for testing, that will probably need multiple more tries from other people, I asked privately some friends to test their SAROO in the following weeks.

minor cipher
ripe valley
#

I forgot about the MODE, touché.

#

Yeah, maybe at a later time, I will try to note down that : to ask for some private tests with the MODE.

#

Thanks.

minor cipher
#

thank you for your efforts with this core and MiSTer in general!

ripe valley
#

I'm a passionate person.

I love many things, and when I become interested in a subject, I want to be a part of it, pushing the field as far as possible (sometimes at the expense of my health, mea culpa).

This trait isn't always appreciated, even inside some preservation organizations as I can often seem to hog the spotlight, and I apologize if that's the case.

I've been intrigued by MiSTer and FPGAs for almost seven years, particularly regarding their energy efficiency for certain tasks, even before considering the other advantages we know (but also taking into account the limitations, especially the latency of DDR3).

The greatest reward is when a child sits down with a controller in front of it, and enjoys playing games like SEGA Rally, when I come with my MiSTer to conventions.

Thank you for your support, as well as everyone working on the project.
Without everyone here, positive user feedback, and constructive criticism, we wouldn't be able to reach this level of excellence.
I don't know if what we do makes sense sometimes or if it's always right, but we try to do it with heart.

visual grove
ripe valley
#

That's some SEGA CD games.

#

Not Saturn ones.

#

Use the SEGA CD/Mega CD core for these.

visual grove
#

Also for anything that looks interesting on SegaCD, prepare for disappointment 😉

#

Damn he deleted the messages now we look CRAZY

ripe valley
#

The Internet remembers.

wide glacier
ripe valley
#

Nope, I didn't had that info during the tests.

#

I could do a counter-test sometimes next month, most probably.
EDIT : Or, I should ask to someone I know of who uses it next weekend.

#

Thanks for the info.

frail token
#

So yo Dawgs what's up with cat the ripper I can't play my favorite game over here on sdram y'all any reason?

burnt matrix
ripe valley
#

Don't touch it.

#

MC Hammer was right.

frail token
visual grove
#

Just touch yourself during the day, problem solved

burnt matrix
jagged spire
#

I'm just waiting for a hacky AND reliable solution to eliminate slowdowns in NiGHTS and other major titles, so I can have an excuse to not fix my Saturn's controller ports NotLikeThis

wise brook
ancient surge
shut haven
#

Just got my Mister recently and am trying to get the Saturn core running, I get the boot screen, but then when I try to load either bin/cue or chd and the bios itself says 'Game disc is ot suitable for this system"

celest lake
#

make sure region is set to auto in your OSD

#

Did you use update_all to grab a bios?

shut haven
#

Yeah

shut haven
#

Auto did the job thanks

split heart
#

update_all isn't grabbing new BIOSes for some reason

#

Trying to get it to fetch the Saturn BIOS boot.rom but it isn't

#

nvm

#

i hate the hisaturn bios

#

lol

jagged spire
wise brook
split heart
wise brook
#

https://www.retrocastlestore.com/products/mister-fpga-full-kit-vga-dual-sdram-2024-version?cfb=b770e5f3-551a-4e18-bff0-1489e8d6662c&scm=collection.v38.177.654.203.204&score=0.3333333333333333&ssp=-&spm=..index.product_carousel_1.3

张弛
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#

my personal daily driver

#

addons has a similar solution

strong osprey
#

its so easy simply buy a new mister

wise brook
ripe valley
jagged spire
visual grove
#

I always wear a mask when using MiSTer, so that the radical emulation party can’t hunt me down

celest lake
#

Any dac that does that will work

leaden dagger
#

Mister addons sells a good dac.

#

Designed specifically for this

celest lake
#

yeah, the prism is real cool. But you could also do an io direct (which is slightly cheaper) and keep everything in the stack

glossy steppe
#

The MiSTer Pi can do SNAC with dual RAM right?

wise brook
#

yeah, I believe addons has an IO board that can drop onto a de-10 or MPi

#

only reason I held off on getting one myself was confusion about the whole sub carrier update

glossy steppe
#

What about the I/O board the Pi comes with?

wise brook
glossy steppe
#

I meant the SNAC still works in that in a dual ram config right? The only thing that gets disabled is the DB15, 3.5mm, and optical audio ports?

#

By removing the bridge

burnt matrix
#

Yeah SNAC is supported

glossy steppe
#

Good to hear, might have to start considering it

#

... Before AI increases the prices of this several decades old type of RAM XD

burnt matrix
#

With the USB polling rate increased by default and adapters like the Reflx, daemonbyte, and timville, you can use any original controller with the MiSTer now

glossy steppe
#

I find it useful for anything that didn't have a controller that's similar to modern ones, like the N64 or Genesis

burnt matrix
#

yes don’t let me dissuade you, do what you makes you happy

#

I only mention this because I feel like I have to as a mod lol

glossy steppe
#

I wish I could just get a modern controller with six face buttons, that would fix the Genesis/Saturn issue for me

#

And by that I meant a six button face controller that still has dual analog and four ahoulder buttons with the back to being analog

#

Literally just an Xbox controller with six instead of four face buttons

burnt matrix
#

I think there was some Hori bullshit thing

#

Ok no dual analog

glossy steppe
#

I have been searching for a controller like that but have not found one, all of them seem to be missing something like the second analog stick or four shoulder buttons, or the back two are not analog, or something else

#

Like I said, literally a current Xbox controller but with six instead of four face buttons

#

Hell, I don't even care if the 5th and sixth face buttons are just duplicates of two of the shoulder buttons, no system that I am aware of had six face buttons and more than two shoulder buttons anyway, so that would still work for me as an all-in-one for most consoles on MiSTer

burnt matrix
#

So, unpopular opinion probably but you don’t really need a second analog stick for PS1

#

Unless you’re like an Ape Escape fan number one

#

Or really like using the joysticks in Gran Turismo

#

Analog triggers are also not supported and maybe not anytime soon either

glossy steppe
#

Well, I would want that controller to be an all-in-one for everything for me. I would also use it on my PC for both modern games and emulated

#

Currently I'm loving the Gulikit ES PRO, finally a modern dual analor controller with a good d-pad, and TMR sticks no less

#

Put two more face buttons on it and it's perfect XD

burnt matrix
#

Ok another unpopular opinion

#

I want what you want btw, only playing devil’s advocate

#

But aside from Capcom fighting games, what else needs six buttons? I know obviously the Saturn pad has six buttons but most games don’t use them all.

glossy steppe
#

Genesis and Saturn both had them, and it's just easier to play games when the buttons are in the correct locations. The problem is even though games generally didn't use all of them, usually, which ones they did use differs so there is no one size fits all button mapping that works out well for ones with four face buttons.

#

And even software emulators generally don't have per game mapping options, MiSTer certainly does not

#

I've had many Saturn games where suddenly the main primary button is now a shoulder button, and others where it's not

#

Because I would have to map two of the six face buttons to shoulder buttons

burnt matrix
#

Yeah not ideal

glossy steppe
#

Trying to look up a video of that Cat the Ripper game that was mentioned... It's just still images?

#

Remind me of when I played games on Newgrounds

glossy steppe
# burnt matrix Yeah not ideal

Also, I have found the right stick useful for games like SmashTV or Xenocrisis, I can map the buttons in a way where basically the games become a twin stick shooter XD

jagged spire
wise brook
#

no

#

not the modern one anyway

celest lake
#

Yes it is

#

But there are io boards that support dual ram and have the snac port

pallid pier
#

IO Direct

glossy steppe
#

The SNAC port is in the analog board generally isn't it?

celest lake
#

it is

#

I dunno why Jae thinks differently

glossy steppe
#

IIRC so is the second SD slot but thats been obselete for a while, my analog board dosen't even have it populated by a slot anymore, though it has the pads

#

Is that even used by anything anymore? Wondering if the pins could be repurposed for something else now if that is the case

celest lake
#

I am not sure it was a pin thing

#

I think the only core that still uses it is SharpMZ? And I think Alan is trying to cut it out of there too

glossy steppe
#

I thought the pins of the second SD slot connected directly to the FPGA like the SNAC port does?

#

... Speech to text kept trying to replace "thought" with a rather vulgar word instead

#

Bad! Bad speech to text!

celest lake
warped saddle
#

it does not

glossy steppe
#

I see, would be pointless to repurpose it then, I thought they were GPIO pins

celest lake
#

well there you go. I was literally typing "I hope zakk comes and corrects me"

glossy steppe
#

Oh

#

So the second slot is using the gpio pins?

warped saddle
#

yeah

glossy steppe
#

I see. If it's not used anymore maybe it would be better to repurpose the pins for something else by this point. Especially if there is only one core left that still even supports it and even that is considering removing it

warped saddle
#

repurpose them to what?

burnt matrix
warped saddle
#

need you to pin the triple sdram core build

drowsy hull
#

would be a nice machine, double better than puny single ram

ripe valley
#

Next time, a Double DE-10 Nano MiSTer sandwich system.
One per VDP chip & per SH-2.

leaden dagger
# wise brook https://misteraddons.com/products/mister-fpga-io-direct?variant=41070923350149

Dont even need that
https://misteraddons.com/collections/kits/products/reflex-prism-hdmi-to-analog

MiSTer Addons
Reflex Prism - Digital Video to Analog Video Converter

THE FIRST BATCH OF REFLEX PRISM IS HERE! I ordered a small quantity for the first round, as this is a new product. However, I enabled pre-orders for the next batch as a separate variant! Features: Lag free 1:1 digital video to RGB, YPbPr, and S-Video conversion - no resolution (upscale/downscale), or crop/aspect ratio

glossy steppe
wise brook
#

but yeah bang on

leaden dagger
#

You mean sync for lightguns?

wise brook
#

i’d say get addons direct board

wise brook
leaden dagger
#

Yeah that just converts Digital to analog, you can use it with basically anything

inner token
#

Didn't the extra SD card pins already get repurposed? for 24 bit RGB and they may have already been used for dual ram, I can't remember.

warped saddle
#

no, the 9.2 board still allocates them for sdcard

inner token
#

ok, I was thinking they got dual purposed or something but am probably wrong.

visual grove
#

I think porkchop proposed that and auto detecting the secondary card slot was in use? But that might be wrong

inner token
#

yeah it was something like that, I might have did some of the test code for it. Sorg probably came up with a better way

livid grotto
#

If it makes people feel better, I picked up a real Saturn with a Fenrir installed. Thunderforce 5 and Nights do have a bit of slowdown on real hardware as well, so the core is pretty accurate.

wide glacier
glossy steppe
#

Nobody is saying that the Sega Saturn didn't have slowdown, they're saying that the core, especially with single ram, can slow down even more than the real hardware did

#

I definitely expirenced considerably more slowdown in NiGHTS on single RAM without the fast timings hack than was there on the original hardware

hearty marten
#

Maybe we need a slowdown testing spreadsheet

#

Capture games where people think there may be slowdown, then compare fast timings and dual ram to actual hardware

#

That would at least give a consistent answer when anyone asks the question, coordinate testing, and allow people to see the value for dual ram before buying

left chasm
#

Zet-sensei was saying that "finding games that need the fast timings option is really, really complex", I had the same doubt (I asked in Taki's discord)

#

I didn't follow up to understand where the complexity exists, is it maybe related to randomness of core builds (hence some builds of other cores having issues or not depending on seed?) or differences in ram frequency? No idea, just noob speculation

mortal mist
#

"The FAST option makes half of Saturn's components (CPUs, SCU, ROM, RAM-L, CD block) inaccurate (faster than the original). It is needed to save a few cycles, which PARTIALLY compensate for ddr3 delays when accessing RAM-H in single sdram build."

hearty marten
#

I guess it’s that it may be better in some places but cause issues in others, even within the same game, potentially

#

In theory you’d have to test every part of the game and compare with original hardware

#

Which is practically impossible 😅

left chasm
mortal mist
#

Sometimes slowdowns occur in different places, and it is difficult to determine whether this is due to hardware or the lack of fast timings, and this option may cause additional problems.

drowsy hull
#

Since grandia op is slowdown plaza, I might check later if consoles themselves behave different to each other...

ripe valley
#

Dinosaur Island and the intro of Fighters Megamix are scrambled if you launch them with the Fast timings option.
For some examples I found yesterday night.

#

But, in-game, Fighters Megamix needs it for compensating at max with the incorrect timings.

dreamy ravine
drowsy hull
#

Someone sacrifice themselves and order that thing

scenic snow
#

It's OCTA Pro

#

But shit yeah first one with 6 face buttona and 2 sticks I've seen

#

No analog triggers though... The search continues

scenic snow
#

Still pretty good potential for mister

#

Not sure Ape's escape is any good with that miniscule right stick tho

celest lake
#

I have the wireless version

#

it's fine

heavy phoenix
#

this guys makes custom controllers maybe ask him to make one for mister

fightwedge-v3-v0-7ek3iavmw3qe1.webp
#

FightWedge V3

ancient surge
stiff latch
#

fight wedge lol

wide glacier
leaden dagger
#

Expensive though

glossy steppe
untold lintel
scenic snow
#

It's pretty tempting for mister tbh

full cedar
#

I have one of the original octa controllers. It's okay. Buttons feel great, but dpad is pretty lacklustre and stick has a very digital feel. Not great for 3D games.

burnt matrix
#

Are we talking about Saturn or the controller

#

huehuehuehue

glossy steppe
#

Yes CDI

drowsy hull
#

Robby guy getting saved by the rules 😔

ember terrace
#

Hi guys, what is everybody doing currently to save games in the Saturn core? Is it still just to use the built-in system memory? Because I know that that's very inadequate as far as the size of what you can store. Thanks!

wise brook
#

you can set the cores virtual cartridge slot to backup memory for expanded storage!

#

it’s a per game thing, unless you put a bunch of .chd or bin/cue in the same folder (iirc) then they can share a backup cartridge

#

i suggest leaving it to just basic storage for most the library, turn it on for games like simcity and romance3k

glossy steppe
ember terrace
#

I do have all of my chds in one folder. Maybe I can separate just the ones that require save files into their own folders

glossy steppe
#

Generally you are meant to use a seperate folder for each game for CD-based systems like the saturn or PSX, it will create a save file for basically each folder

#

So if you have a folder that for some reason was called "Bluedabadee" and put Disks 1-4 of Panzer Dragoon Saga in it, it would create a file called "bluebadadee.sav" that is a dedicated save file just for Panzer Dragoon Saga

#

PSX and SegaCD core also works this way, as well as I am pretty sure every cd-based core

ember terrace
ember terrace
wise brook
glossy steppe
ember terrace
#

Ah, but not CHD

glossy steppe
#

CHD too

#

That's why I used Panzer Dragoon Saga as an example, since it's a 4-disk game, you would want all four CHDs in the same folder, since you obviously would want them to all share the same save file

#

Most games which are 1 Disk you would just have a single CHD in a folder, generally with the same name as the game

ember terrace
#

I get it now. Thanks!

#

How does saving work for games that don't have save features but do save menu options like a shmup

glossy steppe
#

If the game would write a save file to an actual saturn then it would create a save file on mister too

#

Oh, also, since you using CHD, check the pinned messages

#

There are a small handful of uncommon Saturn games that break if coverted to CHD

#

They should be left as BIN/CUE

visual sundial
#

Blah it’d take me a weekend to make a folder for every game I have lol

I’m on disc 2 of Panzer Saga right now actually and I’m basically loading disc 1 first, then loading up disc 2. That way it sees the save file from the first disc

glossy steppe
#

Can probably be scripted

#

To put them all in folders I mean

tribal burrow
#

There’s def a script to do that somewhere

glossy steppe
#

I used copilot to write a script that would auto-compress my BIN/CUE files to CHD and then put them in their own folders XD

tribal burrow
#

I used something called CHDMan I think and then I had a folder making script but I forget where I got it. Definitely didn’t do it myself

wise brook
tribal burrow
#

Yeah I used a bat iirc

glossy steppe
#

Yeah, the bat files that come with chdman are what I modified into that

#

Also they apply the recommended optimization settings that were mentioned in the psx channel

#

It helped me find some CHDs with errors, since it also tracks how many it failed to turn into chd

#

... I found it did have limits though in that it fails to delete the original bin/cue files if the image used something other than .bin, like wav or iso

ember terrace
#

The CHD files by themselves are on archive so I just got them initially that way instead of converting later

visual sundial
#

From what I can tell, the core seems to make new save backups for each individual game anyway, so I think folders would really just help for multi disc games, right?

glossy steppe
#

I keep them in Bin format on my PC so I don't want to download them twice, also that would not work out for hacks and translations, especially custom ones I apply myself

visual sundial
#

Which is cool as I really don’t like having separate folders for what are mostly individual .chd files

ember terrace
#

Do you know where the Sega Saturn .SAV files are stored on the Saturn?

wise brook
#

go up to root and it’s in the save folder - in the saturn folder

visual sundial
ember terrace
#

So I just switched the cartridge to backup, and now when I try to play magic Knight Ray Earth I get a message but the cartridge ram is not ready for backup because it has not been initialized, it's telling me to erase it but I already did that and I still get the error message

ember terrace
#

It seems sorted now

ancient surge
#

I've had that error happen to me. Going into the SEGA Saturn BIOS and restarting the date and time fixed it.

graceful horizon
#

top 3 saturn exclusives:

  1. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei
  2. Panzer Dragoon Saga
    3.Panzer Dragoon
hearty marten
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Just ordered all the stuff required to convert my MiSTer setup to a dual RAM one smugnep

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Bye bye £100 😭

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But worth it for better Saturn elmorise

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No more peasant “Fast timings” for me SureSure

plush flower
river wing
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Oh, and Jaguar! 😄

hearty marten
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I think the single ram build is a miracle and a great way to play the Saturn, but the #1 benefit of the MiSTer for me is not having to second guess whether my configuration or hardware is causing any deviations from original hardware. I know the dual ram build still won’t be “perfect” due to DE10 limitations, but if it gets closer to that ideal, that’s perfect for me

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Up until this point, every bit of slowdown has had me querying whether or not it’s authentic or if I should have fast timings enabled, which weirdly limited my enjoyment a little bit

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I guess it’s a brain worm, but I’m the sort of person who never plays with the turbo cores/options because authentic slowdown is exactly what I’m here for. Seeing a core slowdown in the same places I remember from back in the day is one of my favourite bits

visual sundial
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It’s great knowing it ‘just works’, I definitely prefer dual SDRAM

graceful horizon
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Is there a list of tested games and which ones need dual sdram

hearty marten
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Generally the 3D fighting games

graceful horizon
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So virtual fighter?

hearty marten
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E.g. last bronx is still slow with fast timings

graceful horizon
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Is burning ranger affected?

hearty marten
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VF2 seems okay iirc

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Pass, sorry

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This is why I bought it. I never want to have to think about it again 😅

graceful horizon
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I don't have a point pf reference with how these games are supposed to run on og hardware as i experienced them off emulation first then mister

hearty marten
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Burning ranger doesn’t seem to be mentioned, so you’re probably fine

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But new ones always end up being found

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But often fast timings can mitigate issues, at the risk of introducing new ones

graceful horizon
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Wait, do i already have dual ram?

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I bought the turbo mister pi

hearty marten
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Does it have… 2 ram sticks?

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Analogue or digital out? If it has analogue out, it’s not dual ram

graceful horizon
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One sec

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1gv ddr3 + teh SD 128mb ram

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I am not sure if that's what the dual ram set up is

hearty marten
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No. Single ram

IMG_8165.png
graceful horizon
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Well crap

hearty marten
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You can convert it to dual ram with minimal cost though

graceful horizon
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Neither way it wont matter for other cores neither way yeah?

hearty marten
#

Just take off the top mezzanine IO board, flick a switch, and add second ram

hearty marten
burnt matrix
graceful horizon
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Fuck the jaguar anyways

hearty marten
#

I’d strongly suggest searching discord before you make purchasing decisions though - my priorities may be different than yours

graceful horizon
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The saturn has alot of good stuff, i was surprised last year

hearty marten
#

For me the extra cost is worth the reassurance alone, for other people that may not be the case

burnt matrix
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If you’re content with single ram, no real need to upgrade to dual ram.

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Fast timings is always there

graceful horizon
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I don't even know if this is hardware accurate or not

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But one issue that keeps popping up is sometimes the bios doesn't load the game unless i reset

burnt matrix
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I mean does anyone really

graceful horizon
#

Also not all bios rips work

burnt matrix
#

yeah sounds like your bios is fuk’d

hearty marten
#

The reset seems a bit finicky at times, a reset fixes this

burnt matrix
#

I have never once had that issue

hearty marten
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If you change games lots of times and quickly it can be an issue, or at least it used to

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But it’s 2 secs to hit reset - hardly a big deal

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But it might be fixed now. I haven’t had the problem in a long time

burnt matrix
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I use MGLs to launch games which reloads the core

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Because that is what cool people do

hearty marten
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🤢

visual sundial
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I know the policy is to support single SDRAM, but I don’t think we should downplay the fact that a not insignificant amount of games don’t like single SDRAM. Hopefully the day will come when dual SDRAM isn’t needed, but we’re not there yet

ripe valley
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Not possible on the Saturn.

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srg320 have already optimized the RAM access as possible on the core.

visual sundial
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I mean, I have dual SDRAM and any remaining slowdowns I’ve encountered are those I know exist on real hardware. I’m personally fine just using dual SDRAM going forward

burnt matrix
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There are not an insignificant number of people who use single sdram, the vast majority of MiSTer users use single sdram,

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the official policy is make it work for single sdram, sometimes when pushing the absolute limits of hardware for a hobbyist project there will be a need to leverage everything you can for the most accuracy possible

visual sundial
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It’s really just a Saturn thing, people not expecting to use Saturn much don’t really need to do it. I bought my MiSTer as a drop in replacement for my real Saturn so it’s a bit different

burnt matrix
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The number of games affected is such a minor percentage of the total library that I think people are way overblowing it.

visual sundial
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They’re notable games though. Like Dead or Alive

burnt matrix
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That’s not what I’d call notable at all

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Plus it’s on PS1

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Additionally there is a faster ram timings option as well.

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Dual sdram is great and SRG is fantastic for figuring out a solution for single sdram users and at the same time leveraging everything he can.

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Amazing work

visual sundial
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It’s one of the more significant Model 2 ports to Saturn, and very different to the PS1 game. But that’s just subjective whether it’s notable I guess

ripe valley
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There is an option for faster timings on the Single RAM, but the list of games is not detailed, except for a few games that really demonstrate it.
The list will not be easy to compile, because sometimes it's a slowdown in the middle of a game that doesn't show anything else in the gameplay.

burnt matrix
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It’s notable for you and also me

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But it’s less widely known than say VF2

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DOA Saturn is cool

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@ripe valley lol I was like “nooo it was a good point”

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But smart to combine it together into one post

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@visual sundial I apologize if my single sdram comments are overbearing. I am trying to not make any particular group feel like they have an advantage or they are missing out, if that makes sense.

left chasm
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||pssst Robby has dual ram||

burnt matrix
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Some people cannot upgrade to sdram because of their setup, so I don’t want them to feel bad about that choice. And they shouldn’t at all.

burnt matrix
graceful horizon
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I don't even have DoA 1 on this SD card

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Itagaki's console was the xbox anyways

graceful horizon
burnt matrix
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That game with the polygons

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Sorry polygon, just one

visual sundial
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Zool 2 🤢

graceful horizon
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Dude, the janguar is like one step above the CDI

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And i still want to play the nintendo unc slop on the CDI more

burnt matrix
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Yeah but Jaguar has the one game

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You know, the one with the colors

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and uhhhh

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It uses buttons

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you know

graceful horizon
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It has doom

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Which is a jaguar exclusive as we all know

burnt matrix
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yeah!

graceful horizon
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Not reloading is an unc mechanic

burnt matrix
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ok listen, I was drunk at the time and I thought they said “shag war” instead of Jaguar, and I was totally down to go to battle

sharp forum
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One day I’ll finally learn what unc means

graceful horizon
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Uncle

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YN slang

sharp forum
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Great! Now I need need to learn what YN means NotLikeThis

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I’m literally only 33 how is this happening to me

graceful horizon
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Instead of young or old man, its unc. But really, the kids calling you unc are thinking of you as an old man rather than closer to their age

sharp forum
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No it’s true, I’ll own the old man identity

graceful horizon
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Well, Y is young N is.. the N word

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Dude in 31, we are part of the same generation

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Alright, need some info on how shinobi saturn with the 60hz patch works on this core

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Any issues with that game?

ocean burrow
visual sundial
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I loaded up the Jaguar core with all the games this week then realised I didn’t have any anything to play. I guess it has the second best console version of Cannon Fodder after CD32 lol

river wing
graceful horizon
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Oh well

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There's a pc port for that yeah?

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I was playing some burning ranger earlier today...
If it ran this horrendously on og hardware, can it get source ported or something?

visual sundial
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The odd slowdowns that happen going through the long tunnel in the town in Panzer Saga happens on real hardware, I remember from 1998 lol

burnt matrix
graceful horizon
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Because god damn, no analogue cameras and those frame drops is insane

river wing
ocean burrow
graceful horizon
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Ray man, a game that's everywhere

graceful horizon
ocean burrow
visual sundial
graceful horizon
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Gog probably has it

burnt matrix
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Specific

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Hold on

river wing
graceful horizon
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GBA version ftw

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Scratch that, ngage version

river wing
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Eww...well...no

graceful horizon
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Rayman's first game was okay

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Tbh, i only finished the ps1 version as a kiddo

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Neither way the work on the core is good for preservation purposes

burnt matrix
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@ocean burrow ok so I own that game and on the inside there’s an ad for the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact

IMG_2554.jpg IMG_2555.jpg
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That’s the game he committed insider trading fraud for LOLOLOL

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he learned about that game early in development and invested a bunch of money into the company making it before the news went public

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He was leaving clues the whole time!

sharp forum
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What was Balan Wonderworld being dogshit a clue towards?

graceful horizon
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3d Sonic being shit

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But balan wonderworld is worse than the peak 3d sonics

burnt matrix
sharp forum
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But after that…

graceful horizon
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Dude i have the GC disc with me still but when i tried to play it again, every mode aside from sonic and shadow's sucked

sharp forum
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Skill issue

graceful horizon
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Enjoying it or not

visual sundial
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Every single person who has worked with Yuji Naka does not like him lol. Even the extraordinarily polite Mark Cerny

graceful horizon
#

Sounds like inafune again

sharp forum
graceful horizon
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Does the CDI core have issues without dual ram too?

sharp forum
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So that’s no surprise

visual sundial
graceful horizon
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I should switch over to #controllers and ask for dreamcast controller alternatives

burnt matrix
sharp forum
#

No you’re right about that, we don’t know the whole story

burnt matrix
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like maybe they wanted him to stop his life of crime to help, ok I’m back to trolling

graceful horizon
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What makes the saturn artitechture so hard to develop software emulation and a mister core for?

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Because it took ages for that emulator to become stable

sharp forum
graceful horizon
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Interesting

visual sundial
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2 CPUs that cannot access RAM at the same time. 2 VDPs

sharp forum
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Multi core/processor programming was also very uncommon in the 90s

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And Sega also didn’t provide great tooling in their SDK

graceful horizon
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Jesus

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Even the CD drive controller has a dedicated chip for it

hearty marten
ocean burrow
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Thank goodness for ymir

graceful horizon
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Is it just me or is emulation on gen 6 consoles better in feel than the rest?

burnt matrix
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what is feel

sharp forum
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Gen 6 is when a lot of the “modern” graphics technologies started appearing

burnt matrix
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what is love

graceful horizon
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It doesn't run game speeds correctly but the stable frames for certain titles is an improvement for too

visual sundial
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Saturn has a lot of half finished emulators that largely still haven’t beaten Beetle/Mednafen

burnt matrix
#

What is love? Love is free, free

sharp forum
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Gen 6 emulators uses a lot more high level emulation because that’s the only feasible way to emulate some part

burnt matrix
#

[Chorus]
Understand, understand the concept of love (Uh)
Understand, understand the concept of love (Uh)
Understand, understand (Uh)
Understand, understand (Uh)
Understand, understand the concept, the concept of love (Uh)

hearty marten
graceful horizon
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Back to saturn, this core was one that took a while along side the n64 one yeah?

hearty marten
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Yep. Started before though iirc

burnt matrix
hearty marten
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Took a bit longer due to the war (I strongly suspect!)

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A miracle it exists tbh

graceful horizon
#

Is one of the developers based in Ukraine or something?

hearty marten
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Yep

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And he was in one of the occupied regions I think

burnt matrix
#

He was, he lost his home

hearty marten
#

Thankfully he is safe (I hope), now

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So doubly mind blowing that he was able to continue to make progress imo

burnt matrix
#

he did it for you

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Specifically you

hearty marten
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and that’s why I bought dual ram

burnt matrix
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lmao call back

hearty marten
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Despite you telling everyone not to eyes_squint

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Robby is gate keeping DoA Saturn NotLikeThis

graceful horizon
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Yeah...i dont think i like puyo puyo dungeon much

burnt matrix
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Listen, dual ram takes more resources which slows down my bitcoin mining script

hearty marten
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But you have 256MB of SDRAM

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  • the 1GB DRR3?
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A truly mind blowing amount

burnt matrix
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that’s now how computers work

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I’m a computerizor, I’ve computed lots of coms before, I know what I’m talking about

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We call them coms in the field btw

hearty marten
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Bill Microsoft said nobody will ever need more than 640k of RAM

burnt matrix
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You’d know if you were a computerizor like me

hearty marten
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Linux King elmorise

burnt matrix
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Microsoft doesn’t even have the word Com in their name. Capcom does, follow the money.

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play Saturn Marge vs Capcom

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Marvel

graceful horizon
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If cps3 core is a thing and it needs dual ram, im buying dual ram for sf3rd strike

hearty marten
#

Konami did the Marge game

graceful horizon
#

Right now no motive

hearty marten
#

Fair

graceful horizon
#

Some people like parries and footsies, others want low poly jiggle physics

left chasm
# burnt matrix He was, he lost his home

I kept procastinating setting up Patreon, this made me subscribe his right away, so awful. Not finding a way to send a larger one-off, just subscribing monthly

ripe valley
#

I was told to leave srg320 alone for the SNES PPU (and 3DO), so that's what I've been doing ever since.

graceful horizon
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Is it normal for the saturn to have an image shifted slightly to the right compared to other cores?

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I keep needing to readjust h axis on this CRT

hearty marten
ripe valley
#

*him

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srg320 never said anything about it, just some people here wanting some 3DO.

hearty marten
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Sorry, I was making a bad joke

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I’m sure he appreciates all the work you’ve been doing 🙂

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(I know we all do. ||Except for those annoying 3DO fans||)

ancient surge
graceful horizon
#

It's analogue output

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It's like a +2 shift to the right

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Vs other cores and consoles

celest lake
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a lot of cores are positioned differently on the screen. SNES is different from saturn which is different from PSX which is different from Neo Geo

graceful horizon
#

It's probably that

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Neo geo has a different aspect ratio even

celest lake
#

I would just set your screen up for 240p using the psx 240p test suite and roll with that

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I have found, the more and more I dig into analog video, that I will now never know peace

graceful horizon
#

That's what i did but ive been mostly saturnin as of late so had to use the CRT settings a bit

burnt matrix
#

sounds like analog is an anal log of trouble

graceful horizon
ancient surge
#

Maybe its your television? CRTs are prone to being off center slightly.

graceful horizon
#

All 3 sets?

celest lake
#

if they are all oriented in a way where the tube is angry with the earth's magnetic pull, yes

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I have a spot on my desk downstairs where 4 tvs will be off center. Only one of my tvs works there

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never know peace

graceful horizon
#

It's fine with SNES, GC, dreamcast, ps1 and ps2 but then saturn needs that a slight adjustment on that

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Neo geo and arcade cores are another rabbit hole

celest lake
#

yeah, that's likely just a byproduct of the system's analog output. We never noticed as kids because we didn't know any better

graceful horizon
#

But that's probably because of their resolutions and none 4:3 aspect ratios

#

Just lost an hour of progression on grandia because i didn't hit menu NotLikeThis

hearty marten
#

MiSTer wins again! elmorise elmorise elmorise

jagged spire
#

How's Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force 3 on single sdram? I really don't want to resolder my Saturn's controller ports

celest lake
#

totally fine

jagged spire
#

Great thanks, is the Shining Force 3 bug still there?

celest lake
sturdy dagger
hearty marten
sturdy dagger
celest lake
#

any 9.2 io board doesn't need the switch flipped

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so any of the stock ones (which the mister pi uses), pork's, and the new QMtech one - as long as it's 9.2, all the switches can be set to off

floral saddle
sturdy dagger
celest lake
graceful horizon
celest lake
#

you are not a silicon lottery winner, unfortunately

ripe valley
#

And I need some rest for at least several days.

hearty marten
celest lake
#

nah, the framework checks with the board first and ignores the switches if the board is like "yeah, two ram sticks here"

hearty marten
#

Thank you. TIL

celest lake
#

or "nope, one ram and and a DAC"

hearty marten
#

I will be a digital IO board peasant - since I was previously an analogue board peasant and didn’t see the point in getting the new analogue only to remove the mezzanine, given that I’ll never use it with a CRT

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Should have just bought digital to begin with, but didn’t know about dual ram so thought “maybe just in case”…

floral saddle
livid grotto
#

I have 3 setups now…. Single ram Mister through component to CRT. Real Saturn through composite to CRT & a Batocera setup on a mini pc with scanline overlays to a modern TV. The emulation on the PC actually eliminates the “accurate” slowdown on games. The real Saturn via composite gives that fake transparency effect, cheats with an action replay & the mister outputs crystal clear RGB/HV. So, all of this can fry your mind when comparing… however the mister overall is quite a good option.

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Also real hardware degradation can affect performance too…. Just to drive you nuts.

wise brook
#

thinks transparency effects aren’t real if it’s achieved via video output.

#

“ignore the evidence of your lying eyes”

livid grotto
glossy steppe
glossy steppe
graceful horizon
#

I'm tempted to buy a real saturn to compare side by side at this point

wise brook
#

and yes, normal single ram behavior

graceful horizon
#

this is some single ram shit?

#

god damnit

wise brook
#

that was a biggie on this discord a few years ago

glossy steppe
#

Fast timings dosen't help?

wise brook
#

NOOO

glossy steppe
wise brook
#

a lot of tinkering was attempted on the fast timings to eliminate it. couldn’t be done

glossy steppe
#

🙁

graceful horizon
#

I don't recognize normal saturn behavoir or the mister not doing it right with single ram

#

this is not a console I have any experience with, most of it is off the mister core really

floral saddle
#

FYI Shining Force 3 bug is still present with the latest unstable.

wise brook
#

which one is that again?

#

crashing on battle animations?

graceful horizon
#

oh no

#

I was planning on doing shining force 3, so it crashes?

ripe valley
#

No.

#

An effect isn't completely rendered with some magic spells.

floral saddle
ripe valley
#

All emulators do that too.

floral saddle
#

Shame as it's a game I would like to play some time.

ripe valley
#

I tried to reproduce it later on the game but failed.

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I must have done the first part with an older build and never seen the issue.