God Damn Sega Saturn

[cube_b3]

So I dusted off my Sega Saturn after maybe 10 years of collecting dust.
I have lost my black American Sega Saturn, fortunately I still had the grey and white one in the closet.
I think both the white one and grey one are Japanese (the bios were in Japanese).
I did not think this would be a problem as I had an ST Key Card.
My games are divided among PAL and NTSC/U.
None of them were booting with the ST Key Card.
I rummaged through my Saturn Collection and found something called a Magic Card V2.
It helped me successfully boot up the games, but they are hanging and crashing.
Is it a Card problem or could it be the lens?

[DaMadFiddler]

Do you have any games that are native to the system's region? That would be the best point of comparison.

Keep in mind that the Saturn is approaching 20 years old, and optical drives (particularly ones made in the mid-90s, when they seemed to be cutting the most corners) age much worse than the other parts of the system.

Depending on how the Saturn was stored, problems can also be caused by corrosion or by leaky caps--in the unit itself, or in your card. All electronics that aren't just a simple circuit rely on various types of capacitors, which are basically chemical-filled packets used as short-term batteries. Since they are chemical in nature, they have a finite lifespan, which tends to be about 20-30 years before they start operating outside of their tolerance range. They sometimes last longer if consistently kept in a cool, dry environment, but tend to fail quicker in more humid environments. Manufacturing process is also a major factor.

Keeping in mind that your Magic Card is probably of a similar age to the Saturn, and likely of cheap gray-market origin, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if something on the card had failed. There do still seem to be plenty for sale, though it's unclear whether they're of recent manufacture or just NOS. If NOS, they are not likely to be any more reliable than a "used" one, as the issue is age, not wear.

[PH3NOM]

Not sure if it helps, but I am able to play import games on my NTSC-U Saturn with no problems.

I dont even use a "Magic Card" or any other hardware. I actually use the swap trick on every game that I play The system has not failed me yet

Just copy the disc to your hdd as an image, and then patch the region of the image, I think I used SSRP
http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/861/

[cube_b3]

I was wondering if you could recommend me a Saturn emulator?

PH3NOm, I don't even know what a swap trick is...

[DaMadFiddler]

I was wondering if you could recommend me a Saturn emulator?

PH3NOm, I don't even know what a swap trick is...

You can boot burned discs on an unmodified Saturn by starting it with a "real" game in and swapping it out at exactly the right moment. It's much harder with the Model 2 than with the Model 1, but if you don't want to track down a Saturn mod chip, it's pretty much the only way to play homebrew.

[cube_b3]

I guess the right time would be when they say produced by or under licence by Sega.

Anyway, my av lead was acting up as well so I browsed online and found them very cheap. Only problem is shipping costs more than the lead.

So I googled retro stores in San Antonio got the number and called one up.

15 Freaking Dollars for a lead :/...

I could get a complete Sega Saturn for 30$.

[Juan]

I was wondering if you could recommend me a Saturn emulator?

http://yabause.org/

[Ex-Cyber]

You can boot burned discs on an unmodified Saturn by starting it with a "real" game in and swapping it out at exactly the right moment.

It's better to do a double swap:

1) Start with the burned disc
2) Swap to the original at the first big lens movement
3) Swap back to the burned disc at the second big lens movement (same point at which you'd do a single swap)

If done correctly, the security ring is the only thing read from the original disc.

[cube_b3]

@ Juan: I browsed the Yabuse website.
According to compatibility list, it doesn't seem quite ready.

According to Racketboy the best emulator is SSF.
I wonder if it upscales the grpahics, biggest problem with Vintage consoles is how muddy 3D graphics look.


Edit: I went ahead and downloaded Yabuse.
Booted Panzer Dragoon.
Also booted Nights... a game that refuses to work with my Saturn.

I think the games on Yabuse look inferior to CRT tv.
I also couldn't get my 360 controller to configure with Yabuse.
Additionally the sound was lagging. I am starting to think, very few retro games can be played without nostalgia.

Panzer Dragoon and NiGHTS are both great in terms of Gameplay.
The only way I could play 3D Saturn game is if I could run it through bleem like graphics filter...
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P.S. My White Saturn's lense is busted. A few days back I tried to play the audio tracks from a disk and it refused. Shortly after booting the disc stopping spinning. I tried cleaning the lense with a quetip, it did not help.

Fortunately my Grey saturn runs fine most of the time.