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Sega Saturn Appreciation and Emulation Thread

Celine

Member
Anyone have an idea why SSF might be crashing on boot with a "????CD??????????" error prompt?

I've been installing and uninstalling various virtual drive programs to try and find one that suits all my needs lately. That's the only thing I can think of that might be screwing with things.
Try Virtual CloneDrive, that's what I use.
Also remember to set the virtual drive in the settings.
 

Galdelico

Member
Astra Super Stars (requires 4meg ram cart tho)
astrasuperstarssat.jpg
You're a good sir. :)

Always been curious about Rabbit too... Is it exclusive to the Saturn?
 

TeaJay

Member
If you like dungeon crawlers it's one of the best in the genre. Not too hard, not too easy. Great music, decent graphics.

I'd kinda agree. I'm at the beginning still, managed to make my way in the forest and rescue the dog. I have heard that it's a good idea to save before going further to the cemetery so I'm back at the church now.

Music is good, especially battle music. The game flows well, but my copy was boxed without a manual so I was completely baffled by the pixie system, which the game itself doesn't explain. But once I got the hang of it it started to make sense. And of course I missed both pixies in the mine and all the items as well (went back for the pixies but screw that iron circlet). Finding them is not really easy, so I'm guessing they are not really integral to the story.

One of the characters Doyle will join you later on but he is a little tricky to find so you can miss him in a playthrough . :p

This looks like the wolf guy named "Halfling" at the first town inn, I did talk to him and arranged to meet at the forest.

Another one of my purchases was Silhouette Mirage which I also briefly tried and was pretty confused as well. I beat the punk frog (!) and got stuck in a battle with some jester who summoned a battleship to fire upon me (!!). Great-looking game but takes a while to handle the various mechanics.
 

Saturn Memories

Neo Member
I've already deleted everything and redownloaded it from the creator's site. Same error.

Have you tried setting the emulator to read your physical CD-ROM drive and using an actual Saturn disc? Wouldn't exactly solve your problem, but it might help narrow down the issue.

You could also try downloading AppLocale and launching SSF through it. Then the error message will display in Japanese. You can screen cap it and maybe someone can figure out exactly what it's saying is wrong.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Do all 3D Saturn games on SSF have an interlaced look? Or am I missing something in the settings.

Only if the games are actually designed to run in an interlaced mode.

Have you tried setting the emulator to read your physical CD-ROM drive and using an actual Saturn disc? Wouldn't exactly solve your problem, but it might help narrow down the issue.

The program literally crashes on boot. I can't even keep it open to get into a settings menu.
 

Jarate

Banned
I've been looking for a good pad to use with my PC and noticed that people generally considered the Saturn's d-pad to be the best d-pad ever made

Hence, I wanna know if you guys know of anybody that sells either new or non heavily used controllers that I can buy and if you guys had any experience with the mayflash Saturn ---> PC dongle
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Have you tried to delete the ini file?
I did have the same symptoms and that solved it.

I already said that I deleted everything. :<

Someone post a settings.ini file if it's not too much trouble. SSF isn't making a new one for me.
 

Saturn Memories

Neo Member
The program literally crashes on boot. I can't even keep it open to get into a settings menu.

I know you said you've redownloaded SSF from Shima's site, but have you tried running any older versions?

http://www.geocities.jp/mj3kj8o5/ssf/files/index.html

And this is a shot in the dark (especially given the error), but it might be DirectX related. You could try installing ye olde DirectX 9.0c from Microsoft's website. That's worked for me in the past when I couldn't get SSF to even launch.
 

piggychan

Member
You're a good sir. :)

Always been curious about Rabbit too... Is it exclusive to the Saturn?

It was an arcade game too but I think the saturn has the exclusive as far as I know quite bizarre for an EA game which isn't fifa or madden :p


I'd kinda agree. I'm at the beginning still, managed to make my way in the forest and rescue the dog. I have heard that it's a good idea to save before going further to the cemetery so I'm back at the church now.

Music is good, especially battle music. The game flows well, but my copy was boxed without a manual so I was completely baffled by the pixie system, which the game itself doesn't explain. But once I got the hang of it it started to make sense. And of course I missed both pixies in the mine and all the items as well (went back for the pixies but screw that iron circlet). Finding them is not really easy, so I'm guessing they are not really integral to the story.

This looks like the wolf guy named "Halfling" at the first town inn,

Enemies that appear either; Straight ahead, appearing left of screen, Right of Screen, Top of the screen, Bottom of the screen. You might have to anticipate and decide which pixies to select as certain ones will only assist with initiating the first attack depending on where the enemy appears.




Another one of my purchases was Silhouette Mirage which I also briefly tried and was pretty confused as well. I beat the punk frog (!) and got stuck in a battle with some jester who summoned a battleship to fire upon me (!!). Great-looking game but takes a while to handle the various mechanics.

Spend some time learning it. It's worth it and once you begin to understand it those boss fights become intense but you can breeze through it. Basically the world's computer has an explosion and everything get's split into half. Some beings become silhouettes others become mirages ie split into Light and Dark sides. (i think this basically became the premise for games like Ikaruga).
As Shyna your task is to recover and rebuild the world back into order and you have split silhouette and Mirage sides. Changing sides help you absorb enemy projectiles and also power you up iirc along with reflecting the damage back to the enemy.. Also check out that debug stage. You will have to be careful with it as it will crash the game as there seems to be quite a huge bar on how you shrink or enlarge things. I honestly feel the debug option shows what kind of 2D power the saturn has along with Xmen VS Street Fighter and Vampire Hunter hidden speed levels which you can increase the game speeds to maximum...

Apart from "the saturn can't do transparencies" but it also faced the "the saturn can't do full screen FMV" Well Silhouette Mirage certainly has full screen FMV.
 

Galdelico

Member
Another one of my purchases was Silhouette Mirage which I also briefly tried and was pretty confused as well. I beat the punk frog (!) and got stuck in a battle with some jester who summoned a battleship to fire upon me (!!). Great-looking game but takes a while to handle the various mechanics.

It's a very creative game - even by Treasure's standards - one that you don't want to approach as it was a classic action platformer. It will likely keep you surprised til the very end, once/if you find yourself at ease with its unique mechanics.

There's one boss in particular, that I remember helping out to pass through almost every single person I recommended to buy the game, back then. :D

I honestly feel the debug option shows what kind of 2D power the saturn has along with Xmen VS Street Fighter and Vampire Hunter hidden speed levels which you can increase the game speeds to maximum...
Can't remember if it was Vampire Hunter or X-Men Children of the Atom, but one of those pre-RAM cart beat'em ups had a debug/cheat mode that allowed to play mirror matches in 2PVS with all the arcade animation frames unlocked, which was pretty damn impressive at the time.
 

IrishNinja

Member
finally got a deal on Shining Force 3, woo hoo! that takes care of my big saturn stuff, so glad - especially with SF CD almost done, gonna blaze through 2 and get this one going!
..except one of y'all said i should also finish Holy Ark before Scenario 2 or 3? i forget

anyway, holiday money for Silhouette Mirage and i think i'm done

It's fantastic. Unforgettably gripping, and often terrifying.

...are you buying all these recommendations? Bottomless wallet.

(I've owned D for years, and love it dearly. Shame about the god-awful sequel[which I also own].)

aw, so D2's no good? finally gonna play 1 soon (tried for halloween & got stuck, haha) but was looking forward to that

Yeah, WARP games are really unique.

Check this one out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Sound:_Kaze_no_Regret

I have it. You can get get it real cheap on saturn or dreamcast. Nice packaging and interesting game. Oh yeah, also it features a crapton of dialogue and the DC version has some 'graphics' while on Saturn it's only blackness. I guess it's a bit like an audiobook.

yeah, that great 1up writeup Shane (i wanna say) did years ago highlighted this - it's an audio game he did for a blind kids home he worked at a short time, which i thought was really touching. it is indeed dirt cheap, and comes with seeds, too.

Also in other news I just got home and got my new housing for my NA copy of Shining the Holy Ark..

you know, i'd been buying US sports games & printing back & front covers for my loosies (pretty much just Burning Rangers now), but this actually might look better, especially since i can't get the measurements quite right
 

piggychan

Member
another 2D fighter by sunsoft.

Galaxy Fight was also released in the UK and now quite pricey..
$_12.JPG



I wonder whether to add Waku Waku 7 even though I really like the characters designs and background art, the saturn port is just so pixellated and low res...

Also..

1046543370-00.jpg
 

Timu

Member
I just did my playthrough that I will upload on youtube on Fighters MegaMix as Janet...man the a.i. is quite tough no matter what setting I put it on, oh that's right, since it's in Japanese I can't tell what it is!!!

I lost a few rounds but thankfully did not have to use a continue.

It's in 60FPS though as I'm using a upscaler to convert interlacing into progressive...though I had to use svideo for this instead of RGB like I did for the Last Bronx playthrough.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
It looks like you just opened the CD-ROM drive and then tried to pull it up. You should actually remove the top of the Saturn's shell AND the top of the drive housing. Then get underneath the spindle and very lightly wiggle it up a tiny bit.

I tried calling around to find a part and I had no luck. I called a console repair store and a mom and pop store here in town. I was shocked. I'm sure I can buy a broken model online and repair it that way. I did however buy a NTSC model and Model 2 to take its place. I won't be so anxious next time I try and fix something like that.

12434369_10153848113816465_514667242_n.jpg
 

MikeMyers

Member
I just did my playthrough that I will upload on youtube on Fighters MegaMix as Janet...man the a.i. is quite tough no matter what setting I put it on, oh that's right, since it's in Japanese I can't tell what it is!!!

I lost a few rounds but thankfully did not have to use a continue.

It's in 60FPS though as I'm using a upscaler to convert interlacing into progressive...though I had to use svideo for this instead of RGB like I did for the Last Bronx playthrough.

Really? I found the AI in that game easier than VF2.

Actually had a VF2 tournament last night for a New Years Eve party. Lost in the finals.
 

Timu

Member
I have the Japanese Version to and just left it on default. Do you like the game so far?

Also I ordered Darius Gaiden.
Yes, the game is pretty fun and I plan to play it more as well, unlocking characters and such. But next week I'll get the vid up.

I read Darius Gaiden has 2 credits on Saturn and is quite a challenge, good luck once you get it.
 
Darius Gaiden is a good game, but can be challenging. You can always use this cheats with your Action Replay if it gets to tough :) There's coop, so that's always an option. My son and I did a play through about a month ago and did the upper and lower paths. Bosses recycle , but that's expected with how many levels there are.
If you've played a Darius game before, it's business as usual.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
12459827_10153848535331465_1323325421_n.jpg


I got Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story 1-3. I played a bit of 3 tonight and it's a wonderful title because it plays in first person. I tried finding more information about this series and I found an article about the compilation they did on the Saturn entitled "Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: The Blue Destiny". That was about it. I didn't find anything on Gamefaqs either.

There's a few videos on YouTube and even a review of Side Story 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H7N_bVg2PI
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
finally got a deal on Shining Force 3, woo hoo! that takes care of my big saturn stuff, so glad - especially with SF CD almost done, gonna blaze through 2 and get this one going!
..except one of y'all said i should also finish Holy Ark before Scenario 2 or 3? i forget

Congrats! I just got mine last month as well, cool game!
 

Timu

Member
I keep forgetting to subscribe to everyones channel. Doing it know.
Mine is mitu123Copper,
and I didn't come up with the name or account for that matter, my bro did
.

Oh and another thing, for 3D fighters there will be an 1440p 60FPS option in Chrome only so you see the best quality of my vids through that.
 

MikeMyers

Member
Mine is mitu123Copper,
and I didn't come up with the name or account for that matter, my bro did
.

Oh and another thing, for 3D fighters there will be an 1440p 60FPS option in Chrome only so you see the best quality of my vids through that.

Cool, I'll look up your vids.

Speaking of, I'm surprised Batman Forever: The Arcade Game ran on Sega Saturn hardware in arcades. Seems random.
 

MikeMyers

Member
I'd get it if I find it cheap. I watched Project COE's review of it and he mentioned it's almost impossible to beat without a partner.
 

Timu

Member
Cool, I'll look up your vids.

Speaking of, I'm surprised Batman Forever: The Arcade Game ran on Sega Saturn hardware in arcades. Seems random.
Focus on the game playthroughs, let's plays and upcoming longplays. Also 1CCs and no deaths runs as well.

Ah, I heard about that game, I need to play it but man is it pricey.
 
So I'm near the end of Shining the Holy ark. Finishing up the East Shrine when I found a spot to level your characters real fast. I'll cover it in spoiler tags for those who haven't touched or don't want to know. Pics of location provided.

If this is well known, just ignore this post.


Basically go back and forth in this hallway until
t41I62p.jpg


This guy shows up.

4iO7NRa.jpg


Use Forte and Soul Steal to one hit kill him

em2FYaS.jpg


tons of xp

vjktPpM.jpg

I don't think this game really needs grinding, maybe a little for money when you acquire all characters to upgrade weapons armor etc.. but if someone needs to quick grind. There ya go.
 
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