Just WHY?

[the_EMU_kid]

Sega Satur emulation was already at ''full speed'' in 2001 GiriGiri emulator , and then Sega bought the software to provide an online service for downloadable Sega Saturn titles.
So i ask why are the present Sega Satur emulators so bad or so system demanding.
p.s. is cassini legal or not

[Zach]

Cassini is not legal as far as we know. It's just a hack up of GiriGiri and although we won't censor discussion of it, most of our members make a choice not to provide support/help to people who use it.

Giri may have been good, and running full speed, but it has several advantages in its favor. Sega has intimate knowledge of how their consoles work and all the hardware schematics they need to study when translating its functions into a software program. They also have the luxury of porting any code / functions to their software emulator such as the Saturn BIOS and other ways of doing hardware functions that others may not have the rights to legally use code for, etc.

Other emulators are legal because they have to reverse engineer the console, in a way that it does NOT work like the original Hardware (again Sega is not restricted by that because they own all the rights/copyrights). Reverse engineering all by itself is an extremely expensive and time consuming effort by a corporation - let alone one or more open source programmers doing a project in their spare time. It's a matter of knowledge, skill, and time, to develop any emulator.

However, I believe Steve Snake (the programmer behind Kega Fusion and its earlier incarnations) is going to be the savior of Saturn emulation - whenever he finally gets around to putting out a finished, stable project, or incorporating that code into Kega Fusion or whatever he plans to do.

Steve obviously has great skill and knowledge, and worked in the games industry for many years, especially around Sega hardware (which is why his stuff is so good and accurate). Many months ago he dropped me an e-mail link to a Video of Burning Rangers running at full speed WITH sound. It was captured from his PC via TV-out and was a little stuttering but he assured me that was because of the capture process, not the emulator itself.

That gives me a little hope.. Although I have not been able to demo the program or anything (getting an e-mail / reply from him is like winning the lottery at times) I have faith based on his success with Kega Fusion, that whenever he gets around to adding Saturn support, or releasing an independant program - it is going to rock and kill everything else out there, including SSF.

[the_EMU_kid]

ok so what we know that its not ilegal+not legal=controversy what is the best present emu so i can play my old dusty games

[Zach]

A lot of people seem to like SSF, but Saturn is a unique beast because of its multiple processors. The best thing to honestly do is download all of the top rated ones and compare for yourself. There are only 2 or 3 out there anyway I think.

Frankly if you had the money I'd just buy a used/modded console from Ebay or Estarland or something. Hell maybe there are even boot disc version, I don't know.. But then you can just burn to a CD and play it in all its glory anyway.

I'd buy a Saturn and Dreamcast if I had the spare money, personally. But like I said its either that, or download the 2 or 3 emulators in existence and try them out.

Also, we cannot provide links for ROMS, ISO's, or BIOS files. No soliciting or inuendo about PM's, etc. Other than that there are hopefully some folks around here that routinely use saturn emulators to the point where they could help you with any issues.

[the_EMU_kid]

Frankly if you had the money I'd just buy a used/modded console from Ebay
I'd buy a Saturn and Dreamcast if I had the spare money, personally. .
dreamcast's nulldc no problem even on my old rig 1.8ghz thats why i say the saturn emus are bad



Also, we cannot provide links for ROMS, ISO's, or BIOS files. No soliciting or inuendo about PM's, etc.
.
i know ,call me strange but i read any ''contract'' i accept even EULA



Other than that there are hopefully some folks around here that routinely use saturn emulators to the point where they could help you with any issues.
with that there i need no help just because its my old PC that its old(not software configuration) ,my bro gave it when he buyed a new one so thanks to his new one that i can try some new emulator like pcxs2 dolphin x64

[retroguiden]

I've personally tried Cassini, Giri, Satourne, Saturnin and SSF. Noone work as well and is compatible with so many games as SSF. Hands down it's the best one around today. (I didn't know about Snake's plans but it sounds exciting!)

It's also further down the road than NullDC. i have much more problems with DC emulation than I have with Saturn at the moment.

I use SSF 009 beta R2 at the moment. I would have upgraded to latest 010 prototype R3 if it had been compatible with the saves I have done playing SF3 recently. When I make it through SF3 I'll upgrade.

So, SSF is the choice in my book. And even if you have a really good computer, right now you'll probably enjoy more playable games on SSF than any of the Next-gen emu's.

[the_EMU_kid]

It's also further down the road than NullDC. i have much more problems with DC emulation than I have with Saturn at the moment..

i had no problems what so ever with nulldc except doa2 (i had to turn sound off for 100% speed)
and saturn emulation is doesnt worth it ,i just tried the sonic games and thats all
p.s the SF3(zero right?)better an kawaks

[Zach]

One or two games doesn't make emulating a system not worth it. Either way, with all the consoles from N64/PSX onward you are going to have issues with speed, compatibility and other issues for many years to come. They simply aren't simple machines like the older 8 and 16-bit consoles.

[retroguiden]

i had no problems what so ever with nulldc except doa2 (i had to turn sound off for 100% speed)
and saturn emulation is doesnt worth it ,i just tried the sonic games and thats all
p.s the SF3(zero right?)better an kawaks


All I know is that I have to switch emulator between NullDC and Demul depending on what game I want to play, and even then many don't play without problems.

Sega Rally won't work at all, Crazy Taxi has major issues, RE Code Veronica is barely playable as is Soul Calibur, Virtua Tennis and Shen Mue.
Dreamcast isn't near the level of emulation that Saturn is!

Btw, I didn't understand your 'P.S.'

[Zach]

Think he's saying Street Fighter Zero works better in Kawaks

[retroguiden]

Funny, as I was referring to Shining Force 3 :D
And Kawaks, isn't that an arcade emulator of some sort? Is that able to play Saturn games?

[Zach]

Kawaks is an arcade emulator, and like many games, a lot of times the arcade versions are better emulated than console versions.. That was probably the point he was getting at, but you're talking about Shining Force 3 so I guess it's all moot.

[retroguiden]

Still, I make a difference between arcade and console versions of a game so even if I was talking about Street fighter I wouldn't think a hint to Kawaks would be helpful. But as you said, it's all moot now.

[the_EMU_kid]

OMG jaw breaking http://www.segasaturn.org/index.htm just look at the specs needed to emulate an saturn, just jaw breaking

[FatTrucker]

From the emulator author.


I've been getting emails from people assuming my new test system is needed to run Saturn emulation. It's not.
You could run SSF at full speed on a $400 Dell (the main exception being some of the 3D fighting games running low FPS).
As far as games running slower on my old system, I could have enabled Frame Skip in SSF to speed them up but then I wouldn't
have had an excuse to upgrade :)
I specifically built this system to run Crysis at a reasonable frame rate and just happen to use the same system for testing SSF.
So please keep that in mind.....

Not as bad as it first appears really.

[Wolf1777]

Did I just read 6 gb ram O_o...holy...or am I mistaken..

OCZ XMP Ready Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel

I am glad I dont plan on emulating dreamcast. Just gba and psx, n64 mainly.

[retroguiden]

The specs on that guys test machine has nothing to do with the minimum specs needed for SSF or DC emulation!

[Zach]

lol...

You guys are funny.. Anyway I wish Steve Snake would hurry up and release the Saturn Emulator he's supposed to have been working on for a while now.

I have a feeling it will blow SSF and anything current, out of the water by huge margins.

[FatTrucker]

lol...

You guys are funny.. Anyway I wish Steve Snake would hurry up and release the Saturn Emulator he's supposed to have been working on for a while now.

I have a feeling it will blow SSF and anything current, out of the water by huge margins.

Amen to that. All the better if its integrated into Fusion like his others. My breath is truly baited....etc.

[Wolf1777]

The specs on that guys test machine has nothing to do with the minimum specs needed for SSF or DC emulation!

Good. No way in heck my comp comes close to that.

[the_EMU_kid]

lol...

You guys are funny.. Anyway I wish Steve Snake would hurry up and release the Saturn Emulator he's supposed to have been working on for a while now.

I have a feeling it will blow SSF and anything current, out of the water by huge margins.

i dont know Zach, its not the man its the dam machine thats hard to develop something on it ,let alone emulate it

[Zach]

Steve showed me a TV-out capture of his Saturn emulation project and believe me, when I say I am pretty sure its at least beta release-worthy.

This thing was running Burning Rangers (I think) at full speed with sound. No glitches, no stutter, no FPS dropoff.

Steve is a very talented guy, and has worked extensively with Sega products/hardware in the past. That's why his emulators are so good and so accurate without sacrificing speed. He has an inside edge that other Saturn emu devs likely do not.