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[Saturn Memories]

Haha, I didn't realize either. Well, I might have said this before, but if you run the Mednafen-Saturn libretro core through RetroArch you can set any aspect ratio you want in decimal form in the config file. And you can set it for each game individually for games that use different resolutions with per game overrides. Looking at the aspect options for stand alone Mednafen, it doesn't look like you can get that kind of AR control there. All that extra configuration makes things more complicated of course, but at least after initial setup you can launch directly into games with simple Steam shortcuts, unlike SSF.

The libretro core is still missing analog support and the bottom scanline cropping option isn't working yet though. I bug the devs about it every once in awhile because I want feature parity with stand alone :}

I've tried the Mednafen core in RetoArch but was never able to get it working. The BSNES core worked fine, so I have no idea what's up...

 

[ResidentDante]

Auto Field Skip - Combines frame limiting and frame skip. Limiting keeps the emulator from running too fast. Frame skip causes the emulator to drop frames in order to improve performance on weaker PCs. If you have a good CPU, you want to DISABLE this.

I had to enable this, testing it this evening with it disabled made the game run way too fast and in super speed.

 

[Awakened]

I've tried the Mednafen core in RetoArch but was never able to get it working. The BSNES core worked fine, so I have no idea what's up...

Maybe a BIOS issue? The two BIOS files go in the same folder as your .cue files by default. Unless you have a system directory set in directory settings, then they go there. Same filenames as stand alone.

 

[Saturn Memories]

I had to enable this, testing it this evening with it disabled made the game run way too fast and in super speed.

Read the section on Vsync. Your options are:

Leave Auto-Field Skip DISABLED, leave Vsync DISABLED, and use NVIDIA Inspector to cap your frame rate at 60fps.
End Result: Games scroll smoothly but you experience some screen tearing.

Leave Auto-Field Skip DISABLED and ENABLE Vsync.
End Result: Games scroll smoothly without any screen tearing, BUT you experience massive input lag.

Enable Auto-Field Skip and DISABLE Vsync.
End Result: Choppy scrolling and screen tearing. Not ideal at all.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

hey guys, just randomly coming over here to try and read up on the system.

i know it's pretty pricey, and i'm a shooter guy.

whats the best shmups for the system?
so far i know from sixteenbit
there's thunder force V
and megaman x4
and one of the raystorm games (prequel)

any shooter fans here can recommend a list? or point me to a post that has a good list?
(i'll dig through here eventuall but it's 300 pages and i'm just dabbling here.

 

[ResidentDante]

Read the section on Vsync. Your options are:

Leave Auto-Field Skip DISABLED, leave Vsync DISABLED, and use NVIDIA Inspector to cap your frame rate at 60fps.
End Result: Games scroll smoothly but you experience some screen tearing.

Leave Auto-Field Skip DISABLED and ENABLE Vsync.
End Result: Games scroll smoothly without any screen tearing, BUT you experience massive input lag.

Enable Auto-Field Skip and DISABLE Vsync.
End Result: Choppy scrolling and screen tearing. Not ideal at all.

Thanks so much! I think I have a AMD Radeon card of some sort, guess I need to do the V-sync option. Not that I experienced any choppy scrolling really, but I only tried it shortly with a few games!

 

[Galdelico]

hey guys, just randomly coming over here to try and read up on the system.

i know it's pretty pricey, and i'm a shooter guy.

whats the best shmups for the system?
so far i know from sixteenbit
there's thunder force V
and megaman x4
and one of the raystorm games (prequel)

any shooter fans here can recommend a list? or point me to a post that has a good list?
(i'll dig through here eventuall but it's 300 pages and i'm just dabbling here.

Shmups on the Saturn can be deadly for your wallet, Dave. Stuff like Hyper Duel, Batsugun, Battle Garegga, Radiant Silvergun, Blast Wind, Cotton Boomerang... It's all up there, at a holy grail status.

That said, you can find excellent stg on the system for relatively cheap... Games like Gunbird, Darius Gaiden, Layer Section, Sengoku Blade won't cost you an arm and a leg, yet will provide tons of shooting goodness.

 

[IrishNinja]

^good post - Souky, Life Force Deluxe Pack, Donpachi/DoDon can still be had for decent prices too, no?

 

[Galdelico]

^good post - Souky, Life Force Deluxe Pack, Donpachi/DoDon can still be had for decent prices too, no?

Absolutely, all of them. Prices can vary pretty wildly, but you can definitely get good deals on those titles. I scored myself a complete/mint DonPachi for less than 40 euros, last week.

That said - I don't know about Salamander/Life Force, as I own it for the Saturn too - but if I remember correctly, some Konami ports may be preferable on the PS1, due to a more faithful screen resolution/aspect ratio... And while DonPachi is still ok on the Saturn, I'd recommend to play the series - especially DoDonPachi - on the PlayStation, as it got overall better ports.

 

[Moor-Angol]

Shmups on the Saturn can be deadly for your wallet, Dave. Stuff like Hyper Duel, Batsugun, Battle Garegga, Radiant Silvergun, Blast Wind, Cotton Boomerang... It's all up there, at a holy grail status.

That said, you can find excellent stg on the system for relatively cheap... Games like Gunbird, Darius Gaiden, Layer Section, Sengoku Blade won't cost you an arm and a leg, yet will provide tons of shooting goodness.

Sengoku Blade became really expensive recently, I think it should be over 100 USD/EUR

 

[D.Lo]

Sengoku Blade has always been expensive. Even ten years ago it was one of the pricier games. Of course it's gone up but not disproportionately.

 

[Galdelico]

Wops, my bad. It's one of those games I own since ages, so I didn't really check it out before replying, and based my suggestion solely on memories. ^^;

 

[Saturn Memories]

Thanks so much! I think I have a AMD Radeon card of some sort, guess I need to do the V-sync option. Not that I experienced any choppy scrolling really, but I only tried it shortly with a few games!

Try "Frame Rate Target Control" in your Radeon Settings. That might work in place of Inspector.

 

[ResidentDante]

Try "Frame Rate Target Control" in your Radeon Settings. That might work in place of Inspector.

Will do! Thanks!

BTW: Are you getting that Direct3D error pop up message sometimes? It just pops up in background. Press OK on it and it shuts SSF, then SSF simply won't start up again.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Shmups on the Saturn can be deadly for your wallet, Dave. Stuff like Hyper Duel, Batsugun, Battle Garegga, Radiant Silvergun, Blast Wind, Cotton Boomerang... It's all up there, at a holy grail status.

That said, you can find excellent stg on the system for relatively cheap... Games like Gunbird, Darius Gaiden, Layer Section, Sengoku Blade won't cost you an arm and a leg, yet will provide tons of shooting goodness.

Sokyugurentai is another good recommendation on the low end. You get to experience a Yagawa game without paying for Garegga and a Sakimoto soundtrack without paying for Silvergun, lol.

 

[SKINNER!]

If you're lucky you might also find Radiant at a reasonable price if you're patient.

I say reasonable because - compared to certain SNES titles - there's a few recent cases I've seen the game sold for under its supposed value.

 

[Galdelico]

Sokyugurentai is another good recommendation on the low end. You get to experience a Yagawa game without paying for Garegga and a Sakimoto soundtrack without paying for Silvergun, lol.

True. For some odd reason, I assumed Soky could be actually more expensive than Sengoku Blade.

If you're lucky you might also find Radiant at a reasonable price if you're patient.

I say reasonable because - compared to certain SNES titles - there's a few recent cases I've seen the game sold for under it's supposed value.

There's another factor to consider.
Holy grails/generally expensive games tend to be sold much cheaper if they're not complete - say, obi and reg-card aren't included - so if someone doesn't really care about it, it's surely possible to snag some wallet-killers at very unexpected prices.

 

[Moor-Angol]

RS has always been high priced but it didn't have a spike as other games had in the latest years

Also I always have been sceptical about its "rareness": it sold more than 17k and consider that Layer Section 2 sold 5k and it's priced 1/3 (I think) than RS.

Probably that's the reason in the last 7-8 year the price has been almost stable (and back then Garegga and Hyper Duel were cheaper than RS)

 

[D.Lo]

It was the rare 'lost' Treasure game back when there was gloss to the Treasure name. Back when Ikaruga was being cited as the greatest shooter ever made.

Knowledge of shooters becaming more mainstream (with Cave being known as the new king) and the Treasure craze dying down have been balanced by general price increases.

 

[Saturn Memories]

Will do! Thanks!

BTW: Are you getting that Direct3D error pop up message sometimes? It just pops up in background. Press OK on it and it shuts SSF, then SSF simply won't start up again.

Try opening SSF.ini in notepad. Adjust the values for "WindowX" and "WindowY" to "50." Should look like:

WindowX="50"
WindowY="50"

Let me know if that works.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

thanks guys for the recommendations. gives me a starting point when i stop by my local retro stores, especially on the low end.

 

[koopas]

Sokyugurentai is another good recommendation on the low end. You get to experience a Yagawa game without paying for Garegga and a Sakimoto soundtrack without paying for Silvergun, lol.

To add to Sokyugurentai - One that doesn't get talked about enough is Kingdom Grand Prix. Dare I say the only Shmup-Racing game genre bender out there.

Price may be prohibitive FYI but it's not out of this world like some above.

 

[Nostalgic Nightmare]

To add to Sokyugurentai - One that doesn't get talked about enough is Kingdom Grand Prix. Dare I say the only Shmup-Racing game genre bender out there.

Price may be prohibitive FYI but it's not out of this world like some above.

Great game, and you can enter a code to do a shooter only mode.

 

[Armoured Priest]

Anybody else have this problem with SSF:

I was playing the retranslation of Shining Force Ep 1, and the music supported by samples were out of tune from the FM synth parts...it was maddening. Is there a setting to fix that?

 

[Saturn Memories]

Anybody else have this problem with SSF:

I was playing the retranslation of Shining Force Ep 1, and the music supported by samples were out of tune from the FM synth parts...it was maddening. Is there a setting to fix that?

No. Input lag and inconsistent sound emulation are SSF's greatest failings. There are trade-offs you can make to minimize the former, but there's nothing you can do about the latter.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

To add to Sokyugurentai - One that doesn't get talked about enough is Kingdom Grand Prix. Dare I say the only Shmup-Racing game genre bender out there.

Price may be prohibitive FYI but it's not out of this world like some above.

thanks koopas!

 

[ResidentDante]

Saturn goodies came yesterday from a instagram seller!

Anybody into retrogaming follow this amazing Japanese guy on instagram?

https://www.instagram.com/retrokk_jp/

You can contact him about items he's selling and buy through him. Fast delivery too! I was kinda nervous though, as I don't have any ebay security with it. He posted pics of the postage note and kept me updated when he had sent it etc. Great stuff!

Try opening SSF.ini in notepad. Adjust the values for "WindowX" and "WindowY" to "50." Should look like:

WindowX="50"
WindowY="50"

Let me know if that works.

Will try this out some time soon, I'll come back to you about it!

 

[SkyMasterson]

Saturn goodies came yesterday!

Anybody into retrogaming follow this amazing Japanese guy on instagram?

https://www.instagram.com/retrokk_jp/

You can contact him about items he's selling and buy through him. Fast delivery too! I was kinda nervous though, as I don't have any ebay security with it. He posted pics of the postage note and kept me updated when he had sent it etc. Great stuff!

That is awesome. Congrats!

Just checked out his instagram...I think I need to sign up for one haha.

 

[MurderOfPoes]

A little off topic but was going through my copy of Deep Fear and is it just me or is his head incredibly small?

I loled

Too much underwater pressure.

 

[SKINNER!]

Thanks ResidentDante!

Will keep an eye out for any good stuff

 

[IrishNinja]

that virtua stunner gun looks so cooool

 

[ResidentDante]

Yeah the stunner is nice and chunky!

I must say that the Virtua Cops games look very sharp and clean on my CRT with RGB cables! Gonna be playing these a lot I think!

 

[D.Lo]

I have a gun that works on both Saturn and Playstation and has an auto-reload feature. Guns just take up so much room if you have a few, I got rid of my system specific ones.

 

[MikeMyers]

I must be the only person who doesn't mind playing those games with the pad.

Sidenote; I still haven't played Virtua Cop 3.

 

[SkyMasterson]

I must be the only person who doesn't mind playing those games with the pad.

Sidenote; I still haven't played Virtua Cop 3.

Ha, yea I used to play most of my light gun games with the pad as well. I had the Zapper for the NES, but only because it came with my system!

Plus, I never could justify using the little money I had saved when I was a kid to buy a gun, when that money could have gone to another game.

I haven't played VC3 either I think I had read that Sega was considering releasing a port of it on the Xbox back in the day but scrapped it.

Surprised Sega never released the Virtua Cop games on Wii.

 

[D.Lo]

Surprised Sega never released the Virtua Cop games on Wii.

I wish they'd re-released every light game ever on the Wii. Even what was basically shovelware in Ghost Squad was sogood.gif.

Such a great system for gun games, by far the best pointer controls (more precise than old guns) and having a stock controller setup that can play them was so good.

 

[KC-Slater]

I wish they'd re-released every light game ever on the Wii. Even what was basically shovelware in Ghost Squad was sogood.gif.

Such a great system for gun games, by far the best pointer controls (more precise than old guns) and having a stock controller setup that can play them was so good.

Agreed. I still want a clean port of the original HotD.

 

[MikeMyers]

Surprised Sega never released ___

I feel like this saying shows up a lot haha.

 

[Timu]

Next year I'll definitely try harder to get more Saturn games.

 

[ResidentDante]

I feel like this saying shows up a lot haha.

"Insert famous 90's Sega arcade hit here"

 

[MikeMyers]

What Saturn arcade ports wouldn't guys have liked to seen besides Revenge of Death Adder and Virtua Fighter 3?

 

[blast processed]

What Saturn arcade ports wouldn't guys have liked to seen besides Revenge of Death Adder and Virtua Fighter 3?

I would have liked the actual Star Wars Arcade game ported instead, of what we got on the 32X. And Sonic Arcade of course.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

I don't know if it's been mentioned here, but this month's RetroGamer has an article on 11 Saturn Shmups.

 

[KC-Slater]

What Saturn arcade ports wouldn't guys have liked to seen besides Revenge of Death Adder and Virtua Fighter 3?

I wanted Top Skater on the Saturn, and Lost World (arcade) and Star Wars Trilogy (arcade) on the Dreamcast.

 

[sixteen-bit]

What Saturn arcade ports wouldn't guys have liked to seen besides Revenge of Death Adder and Virtua Fighter 3?

Mostly Capcom stuff; Alien vs. Predator, Jojo's, Street Fighter 3 New Generation, 2nd Impact, and 3rd Strike.

That rumored Raiden Fighters compilation would've been neat too. I loved Raiden Fighters Aces on my 360, but I would love it more on Saturn, lol.

 

[Tain]

What Saturn arcade ports wouldn't guys have liked to seen besides Revenge of Death Adder and Virtua Fighter 3?

VF3 will always be the most fascinating. Model 1's Wing War might have been neat. Regarding Model 2, it kinda would have been neat to see Dynamite Deka 2 looking like the original Dynamite Deka. Maybe Pilot Kids and Zero Gunner could have made it over? They would probably be 30fps in that case, but how wild would it be to see 60fps adaptations? I'm picturing Zero Gunner with flat-texture stages and a tamer camera with sprite buildings or some shit, lol.

There's a lot of big non-Sega 2D stuff of course. Raizing's Battle Bakraid and Armed Police Batrider come to mind. I would love to have seen more of Cave's early games with great Saturn ports, too.

 

[Galdelico]

Mostly Capcom stuff; Alien vs. Predator...

This. It would've been a fantastic addition to the Saturn's library.
Also, Captain Commando, Cadillacs and Dinousaurs, and some more obscure title like The Fallen Angels and Asura Blade.

 

[tomwhite2004]

Sokyugurentai is another good recommendation on the low end. You get to experience a Yagawa game without paying for Garegga and a Sakimoto soundtrack without paying for Silvergun, lol.

The only way he could experience a Yagawa game is if he bought Soukyugurentai Otokuyou with the Garegga demo, Souky isn't one of his games.........

 

[MattyH]

I will say this I had 1 aim this year and it was to buy a Saturn and nights into dreams and Xmas nights and a crt. Worth every penny

 

[Saturn Memories]

If you guys have twitter accounts and would like updates from the Sega YouTube community, consider following SegaNet at the link below:

http://twitter.com/SegaNetwork