Finally....... Check this out.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-03-04

http://www.retrogamenetwork.com/2014/06/26/new-sega-saturn-sd-flashcart-project-sarooo-aka-saturn-master-currently-in-development/

Subject: Re: Finally....... Check this out. Fri Jul 25, 2014 9:44 am

They seem to forget to mention that this will greatly improve reliability of these cd based systems. CDs have bad reads, skip, do all sorts of annoying things.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-03-04

cds have never been reliable. but they are a vast improvement over tapes. some old games were actually on casette tapes.

i think there was one released for the famicom called the data recorder.

i can just picture that your loading a game and it starts eating your tape. what a turd.

by the way im no engineer but i always believed it was possible to load games from the cart slot on a saturn because the action replay loads its program that way.

i wonder though if they will be able to combine the sd loader with a 4mb memory expansion cart.

Subject: Re: Finally....... Check this out. Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:17 am

mvsfan wrote:: cds have never been reliable. but they are a vast improvement over tapes. some old games were actually on casette tapes.

i think there was one released for the famicom called the data recorder.

i can just picture that your loading a game and it starts eating your tape. what a turd.

by the way im no engineer but i always believed it was possible to load games from the cart slot on a saturn because the action replay loads its program that way.

i wonder though if they will be able to combine the sd loader with a 4mb memory expansion cart.

Loading a program is possible, what I was never sure about was if the cartridge slot had enough speed to run a full game. Some of these expansion slot loaders don't run as fast as the original cd drive. For example freemcboot on my playstation 2 runs games from the usb slot, but it's not as fast as the dvd drive which causes issues with a few games from what I've read. The saturn slot (which I've never bothered researching) doesn't seem to be serial which gives me hopes that it's a fairly fast way to communicate with the system.

Obviously rom based hardware was always my favourite storage system. Those cartridges last forever, run at warp speeds, never have any issues playing a game (unless a stupid zif system is involved), and the limited size of the roms back in the day forced programmers to be very clever with game design.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-03-04

there is also another guy working on a saturn as well as a pc engine cd rom sd drive replacement.

I saw a picture of a saturn interface hooked up to an fpga development board. http://gdemu.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/saturn-wip.jpg

i guess after the dreamcast one someone had to do the older stuff. Smile

by the way im no engineer but i always believed it was possible to load games from the cart slot on a saturn because the action replay loads its program that way.

i wonder though if they will be able to combine the sd loader with a 4mb memory expansion cart.[/quote]

Loading a program is possible, what I was never sure about was if the cartridge slot had enough speed to run a full game. Some of these expansion slot loaders don't run as fast as the original cd drive. For example freemcboot on my playstation 2 runs games from the usb slot, but it's not as fast as the dvd drive which causes issues with a few games from what I've read. The saturn slot (which I've never bothered researching) doesn't seem to be serial which gives me hopes that it's a fairly fast way to communicate with the system.

Obviously rom based hardware was always my favourite storage system. Those cartridges last forever, run at warp speeds, never have any issues playing a game (unless a stupid zif system is involved), and the limited size of the roms back in the day forced programmers to be very clever with game design.[/quote]

Subject: Re: Finally....... Check this out. Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:02 pm

I'm really excited about the idea of a pc engine loader. The pc engine cd has a terrific library. Of course a saturn loader is also exciting.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-03-04

pc engine/tg16 is about the only good 16 bit system that i dont own. mostly because ive never had the money for one at the right time.

Subject: Re: Finally....... Check this out. Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:09 am

mvsfan wrote:: pc engine/tg16 is about the only good 16 bit system that i dont own. mostly because ive never had the money for one at the right time.

From my memory the turbografx technically isn't a 16-bit system. I think it's an 8-bit system (same processor as the nes) running at a high speed.

Posts : 63 Join date : 2013-06-01

Some concern has been raised regarding cd audio compatibility and that adapter being designed by the Chinese team.
I do not know if this holds any weight but information about this project seems scarce.

On a related note, there is this guy who made some breakthrough that could help make an Optical drive emulator for the Saturn
Read that very recently on Assembler.
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?52419-Saturn-CD-Block-ROM-dumped

Subject: Re: Finally....... Check this out. Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:09 am

MaxWar wrote:: Some concern has been raised regarding cd audio compatibility and that adapter being designed by the Chinese team.
I do not know if this holds any weight but information about this project seems scarce.

On a related note, there is this guy who made some breakthrough that could help make an Optical drive emulator for the Saturn
Read that very recently on Assembler.
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?52419-Saturn-CD-Block-ROM-dumped

Interesting. So does this bypass the cd assembly and interface with the bus directly?

I don't know why he's so proud of doing this without using assembly. I really like working in assembly. Especially considering that he's posting that on a place called "assembler games". Why do people have such a phobia of assembly?