About Saturn emus...

[SteveO]

Has anyone actually seen a functional, easy-to-use Saturn emulator? Satourne gives me an endless string of initialization errors, even though the required files are present, and are in the proper directories, while Yabause just won't do anything. Is there a better way to go about this?
<P ID="signature"></P>

[Sliver X]

This should be under GenEm, but whatever:

The state of Saturn emulation is pathetic, even to this day. Some are better than others, but that's like saying lethal injection is better than the electric chair.

Honestly, your best bet to play Saturn games is to get a Saturn off eBay or somewhere, mod chip it (Or get it preinstalled; some people will do this), and go on a pir8 spree downloading Saturn ISOs. Emulation for this system is not a viable option, and probably won't be for a long time to come.

I'm not sure if this is all because the hardware is poorly documented, overly complex, or there's just not as much interest emulating it as in other systems (Probably a mix of all the above).
<P ID="signature"></P>

[ToastyCheesy]

> Is there a better way to go about
> this?

I recommend you try SSF which you can get from its own site here (http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/%7Ephantasy/ssf/index.html)

I know its in japanese, but If you click the third link from the top(where you can see the version number), that should work.

Also, no saturn emulator is perfect

<P ID="signature"></P>

[puduhead]

yep, saturn emulation is an unfulfilled dream. SFF is your best bet. I played through part of http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/legendofoasis/Legend_of_Oasis.htmlLegend of Oasis</a> with it. sound was kinda choppy. gameplay was OK.
<P ID="signature">http://www.xanga.com/Genesis1dot0<img src=http://pc.xanga.com/c3/7a/c37ac403ff93c46e67341c22cde75af03236737.jpg border=0></a></P>

[Reaper man]

> yep, saturn emulation is an unfulfilled dream. SFF is your
> best bet.

funny, SFF crashed and burned on me when I tried to load it. ;/

Sadly, I have no clue why. :<
<P ID="signature"></P>

[SteveO]

Eh, I tried a few versions of SFF last year, and none of them would even start up. I'd try to open the program, and nothing would happen. This was ORIGINALLY going to be about rom hacking (Specifically, Nocturne in the Moonlight), but I guess that's a lost cause now, huh?

Just out of curiousity, why is it so hard to emulate a Saturn? I've never played one, nor have I ever seen one, so I don't know much about them at all. In fact, I'd never seen them available in stores, even back in the mid-90's.
<P ID="signature"></P>

[MonsieurSirhan]

> Just out of curiousity, why is it so hard to emulate a
> Saturn? I've never played one, nor have I ever seen one, so
> I don't know much about them at all. In fact, I'd never seen
> them available in stores, even back in the mid-90's.


IIRC, it has to do with two processors of different speeds a pain in the ass to sync.

<P ID="signature">_- | -_
</P>

[SamIAm]

> IIRC, it has to do with two processors of different speeds a
> pain in the ass to sync.
>

The Saturn's two main CPU's actually run at the same speed each - 28.6MHz IIRC. The same two chips are together in the 32X but at a lower clockspeed, and as Kega Fusion and Gens have shown, this isn't very hard to emulate. In the Saturn's case, the problem is that there are just a lot of CPUs, period. Two CPUs, two VDPs (each totally different from the other), a sound control CPU, a sound synth chip, a CD-ROM drive control CPU, a bus controller, a controller input processor, and a fixed-point math co-processor.

When it works, which varies according to each build, SSF really isn't that bad. It can run a high number of games, including complicated ones. It just requires a beefy computer (for 3D games especially), and is a little clunky on the user's end.
<P ID="signature">http://www.angelfire.com/mt2/sirsamiam/sonicsig1.txt http://www.angelfire.com/mt2/sirsamiam/sonicsig2.txt
</P>