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[Shin Johnpv]

This is a pretty awesome development. I've got like 2 or 3 backup Saturns because of the fear of the drive dieing.

I hope this becomes commercially available, I would jump on one right away.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

Perfect. Just in time for me to play all these new games!

 

[Peltz]

Allows loading games from USB via the expansion card port, plans on making boards available for sale. Will open up doors to homebrew communities and preservation of the console's functionality for years beyond the CD drive croaking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOyfZex7B3E

Holy shit.. Everyone should actually watch the video. It's fascinating as hell.

 

[Wereroku]

Nice all the reverse engineering he did has been shared with the emulation folks as well. So cycle perfect saturn emulation could actually come pretty soon. Apparently it's unlike any other system that emulators have tried to work with before.

Edit: I like how the commercial release was delayed so he could finish his PHD because of course this guy has a PHD. If this was his hobby work I wonder what his Doctoral project was.

 

[chronic_archaic]

What about fan translations and undubs for JRPGS/Adventure games.



........
Would this make importing easier? Or would the games still be region locked if we loaded them via the USB thing? I can't view the video right now, so what does the device look like? Is it just a card you slide into the expansion port that has a usb port on it? You load games from HDD? Do you still need a mod chip? Also was there anything said about pricing?

VCD bus overrides boot routines and redirects code execution to a menu where you can load ISOs from a USB device. No modchip required. Plug and play solution.

 

[colonyoo]

Would this make importing easier? Or would the games still be region locked if we loaded them via the USB thing? I can't view the video right now, so what does the device look like? Is it just a card you slide into the expansion port that has a usb port on it? You load games from HDD? Do you still need a mod chip? Also was there anything said about pricing?

Importing is already fairly accessible and region locking wasn't mentioned in the video, but with how easy everything is to bypass with the tools we have now, I'd imagine it's a given. The biggest benefit to all of this is getting access to game backups without the need of a working CD drive or cartridge slot, since both are very commonly failure-prone.

And yeah, it's just a card that goes into the expansion slot and lets you run stuff from a connected USB device, no mod chip needed. Things are still pretty early, so pricing definitely wasn't mentioned.

 

[Man God]

Bernie Stolar didn't kill Saturn, this guy did.

 

[Droog]

I will definitely keep an eye on this as someone with a Saturn with a dying CD-ROM drive! That console gave me some of the best years of my life!

 

[Onaco]

Avatar quote?

Since you aren't understanding the joke, I agree.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

This way funny A. Cuz Larry and B. Cuz I like your thought process

 

[Azure Phoenix]

Is this the longest a system has gone without being broken wide open?

 

[Azure Dream]

That was pretty cool! I didn't know Saturn CD functionality had been a continuing problem, having heard about mod chips during the era. I'm glad he's been sharing his discoveries with the community, and acknowledging the work he built it off from.

 

[Polioliolio]

My 8bit NES, Sega Genesis, GameBoy, GameGear, Nomad, N64 still work as great as when I got them.

My saturn? Disc drive is failing
Dreamcast? A couple of disc read fails the last time I used it
PS2? Laser died 4 years into owning the console.
360? RROD
PS3? YLOD

My interest in vintage gaming pretty much ends at N64, discs are just so fragile and disc drives worse... Still, I plugged in a PSone last year and played some games and it felt great... Ps2 might be alright if you can get a system going, but even if disc drives last, the online demands for patches, DLC, etc, completely cripple games after the PS2 era for essentially forever.

I'm intrigued by this Saturn crack though. Always wanted to play and collect Saturn games but stayed away because the hardware.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Good Guy JHL.

Will buy when it comes out.

 

[Anth0ny]

Great news.

Now something similar needs to be released for the other disc based consoles. I want to load my entire PS2 library off an SD card.

 

[Zophar]

Eagerly looking forward to translation hacks of Grandia and Shining Force 3 Parts 2 and 3, now.

 

[InfiniteNine]

That video was really interesting hearing about how the copy protection works! I'm up for buying this whenever it's ready since my friends Panzer Dragoon Saga disks I used are rotting now and scared of the prospects of buying a rotting set of disks.

 

[Foffy]

Always a fan of system breaking for greater preservation.

I can't think of anything negative here. We're talking about a system that hasn't had commercial clout from the 1990's.

 

[cireza]

My 8bit NES, Sega Genesis, GameBoy, GameGear, Nomad, N64 still work as great as when I got them.

My saturn? Disc drive is failing
Dreamcast? A couple of disc read fails the last time I used it
PS2? Laser died 4 years into owning the console.
360? RROD
PS3? YLOD

Old cartridge consoles are pretty much indestructible.

Both my Saturn and Dreamcast still work perfectly well. I play them very often. Sega CD too.

 

[LeleSocho]

If this trend continues Sega might even get out of the console manufacturer market... I'm scared tbh.

 

[miserable]

i have a feeling this will cost a couple of hundred bucks, like the PS1 and DC projects

 

[InfiniteNine]

i have a feeling this will cost a couple of hundred bucks, like the PS1 and DC projects

Honestly it'd probably still be cheaper than a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga which disks may or may not be suffering disk rot. (The copy my friend lent me were rotting on disk 2 and 3. >

 

[Brhoom]

Great news.

Now something similar needs to be released for the other disc based consoles. I want to load my entire PS2 library off an SD card.

You can load them through a usb, and there are sd to usd adapters so I think they would work as well.

 

[InfiniteNine]

You can load them through a usb, and there are sd to usd adapters so I think they would work as well.

Well the USB ports on the PS2 are 1.0 so it extends the load times because 1.0 is really slow.

 

[Accoun]

You can load them through a usb, and there are sd to usd adapters so I think they would work as well.

Isn't the USB slow as hell? Like, 1.0 or something.

 

[Tain]

Sounds nicer than Rhea due to using the rear expansion port, but doesn't Rhea have the same result?

 

[Sorcerer]

The nice thing about the Saturn from what I noticed is without any modification is that it looks great on an hdtv. I couldn't believe how good Nights Into Dreams looked just using s-video or even composite. Of course my monitor is not huge so that might play into it.
The N64 was a horrible mess on my hdtv.

 

[yyr]

I wonder if this might eventually lead to being able to run ST-V stuff on a stock Saturn.

My 8bit NES, Sega Genesis, GameBoy, GameGear, Nomad, N64 still work as great as when I got them.

My saturn? Disc drive is failing
Dreamcast? A couple of disc read fails the last time I used it
PS2? Laser died 4 years into owning the console.
360? RROD
PS3? YLOD

I guess cartridges were the right way to go after all

Seriously though, that's the unfortunate thing about anything with moving parts. The lifespan is finite. Want your thing to last forever? Take out the moving parts.

 

[InfiniteNine]

The nice thing about the Saturn from what I noticed is without any modification is that it looks great on an hdtv. I couldn't believe how good Nights Into Dreams looked just using s-video or even composite. Of course my monitor is not huge so that might play into it.
The N64 was a horrible mess on my hdtv.

The built in blur for N64 kills PQ for that you can use de-blur action replay codes to partially take off that but you'd also have to use the HDMI mod to get rid of it almost completely since it contains a deblur function that takes care of the hardware level blurring.

 

[Bobs Big Boy]

Video is super interesting - thanks for sharing!

 

[djlr181]

Eagerly looking forward to translation hacks of Grandia and Shining Force 3 Parts 2 and 3, now.

Pretty sure there are already translation hacks for Shining Force Part 1 (new translation compared to western release), 2, and 3.

 

[Zapperkhan]

Anyone know the difference between what this guy is doing and what the Rhea is doing?

 

[Thaedolus]

Pretty sure there are already translation hacks for Shining Force Part 1 (new translation compared to western release), 2, and 3.

There are. I've got a modded Saturn and have played them. This would be nice for future-proofing and drive failures in the future though.

Now I just need that Dreamcast SD card GDROM replacement

Also holy shit I just saw the price of my complete copy of SFIII...

 

[InfiniteNine]

Anyone know the difference between what this guy is doing and what the Rhea is doing?

Well it doesn't require ripping apart your Saturn and taking out the CD drive since it's just a card you slip into your expansion port. So that's a big benefit!

 

[t26]

Mod chips/Action Replay.

Saturn action replay doesn't allow backup

 

[Labrynian Rebel]

.

 

[Omegasquash]

This is a very, very good thing. If there's any way to contribute (with little technical capability), then I'd love to.

 

[crimzonflame]

Sega Saturn: 22 Years
Sega Dreamcast: 22 seconds

 

[_Ryo_]

Great news.

Now something similar needs to be released for the other disc based consoles. I want to load my entire PS2 library off an SD card.

You can run PS2 games off of SD card via freemcboot and a usb sd card reader. It will have very slow load times, slower than the the discs.

Alternatively you can install freemcboot and a network adapter and HDD, which you place inside the actual ps2. So there won't be any clutter at all. Your PS2 will just be a bit more heavy.

You can rip your discs to the IDE HDD and load them from there. Load times via this method are much faster. For example something that took 30secs to load via disc will probably take about 5sec from HDD. You can use an adapter to convert the IDE to SATA as well. This method also allows you to play modified games such as imports/undubs and fan translations.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Sega Saturn: 22 Years
Sega Dreamcast: 22 seconds

The official uk dreamcast magazine had the disc that allowed the workarounds lol

 

[Zapperkhan]

Well it doesn't require ripping apart your Saturn and taking out the CD drive since it's just a card you slip into your expansion port. So that's a big benefit!

I can't speak for the Rhea, but the GDEmu is only a few screws and is more or less fool proof and it's fun to just open the lid and swap out sd cards as needed.

 

[Thaedolus]

Saturn action replay doesn't allow backup

It does allow region unlocking though. I've got to use it for non-US games.

 

[Joey Ravn]

This is probably the final nail in the coffin for SEGA. Going third party in 3... 2... 1...

Also, that makeshift spinning display at the start of the video! So good.

 

[Sorcerer]

Sega Saturn: 22 Years
Sega Dreamcast: 22 seconds

One has to chuckle when the guy looks at the motherboard and he sees no less than 4 processors and says its way over engineered.

If the console had only come out earlier when 3D wasn't a thing and the focus was soley on 2D the system would have been a beast.

 

[Anth0ny]

You can load them through a usb, and there are sd to usd adapters so I think they would work as well.

You can run PS2 games off of SD card via freemcboot and a usb sd card reader. It will have very slow load times, slower than the the discs.

Alternatively you can install freemcboot and a network adapter and HDD, which you place inside the actual ps2. So there won't be any clutter at all. Your PS2 will just be a bit more heavy.

You can rip your discs to the IDE HDD and load them from there. Load times via this method are much faster. For example something that took 30secs to load via disc will probably take about 5sec from HDD. You can use an adapter to convert the IDE to SATA as well. This method also allows you to play modified games such as imports/undubs and fan translations.

yeah I heard there's a way but it sounds like a lot of work

this new saturn tech in the OP sounds like it's just plug and play, like a flash cart on a cartridge based console. that's what I'm waiting for.

let me know if I'm way off here

 

[Peter Ian Staker]

How an old cartridge system without any moving components in more likely to fail eventually?
Do chips go bad over time? How long will solder joints last?

 

[SonicXtreme]

Amazing, can't wait to play some panzer saga and shining the holy ark.

 

[ThatsMytrunks]

I really, really enjoyed this video, but the thread's title is a little misleading. Copy Protection hasn't been cracked, this guy's found a way to emulate the CD Drive's calls and functions on what's ostensibly a flash card. I'd say it was circumvented, but it's not like you can burn a CD and pop it in now.

 

[Man God]

One has to chuckle when the guy looks at the motherboard and he sees no less than 4 processors and says its way over engineered.

If the console had only come out earlier when 3D wasn't a thing and the focus was soley on 2D the system would have been a beast.

Even then the Saturn for whatever reason was missing some important bits. The way it handles transparencies is pretty terrible considering its potential in the 2D space.

 

[dragonyeuw]

I hope this doesn't end up hurting SEGA too much

I'm not sure if this is legit or sarcasm. If the former....oh boy....