Saturn Optical Drive Emulator

Big fan of what he's doing
The saturn needs more exposure and is often mislabeled as the worst console due to the best games being very unobtainable.
Hopefully this opens doors for people to play the very hard to find games like Panzer dragoon saga, shining force 3 trilogy translation, and the cult classic made by sonic team themselves; Burning rangers.

 

I wouldn't say it "opens doors" to those things. Anyone can already burn a CD-R if they want. It's just not anywhere near as nice as being able to run disc images off flash storage. And I don't know that I've come across anyone calling the Saturn the "worst console".

 

The Saturn is the "worst console"...
as in if Michael Jackson was "Bad", and Weird Al was "Even Worse", Saturn was the "Worst".

 

Any update on where we can see the prototype?

 

Tommorrow.

 

Prof. Abrasive made a couple tweets yesterday.
First, congratulations on the birth of his (I think first) child! This obviously means less time for retro work.
His first statement was that the Drag N Derp gameboy cart (http://derpcart.com/) will go open source.
Second is that he hopes to "open up the Satisfier as soon as it is ready for more general use."

 

Well, he has started a Patreon to get this thing finished so I guess the thread deserves a bump.
https://www.patreon.com/prof_abrasive

 

LOL, his workshop went out the window for the baby! Is Patreon only a per month thing?

 

Why not just get the Rhea or Phoebe?

 

Price, choice, convenience, availability, support.

 

I really can't wait for this! Sega Saturn is such an underrated console but overinflated price for its games.

 

Aren't those just drive emulators ? From what I read, since they don't actually execute any code, there's no menu to select games. You have to blindly switch between disc images with a physical button so unless you've memorized the file order you don't know what you're going to get until it boots.

I can only speak for myself, but I prefer the idea of the Satisfier because:
- The Saturn remains intact - no internal modification required, and the optical drive still works normally
- There's a menu to select games
- Since it's executing its own code there is potential for additional features in future

 

I'm with you.

While i love the development factor on this, I feel the video title is a bit misleading. The "Cracking" of the CD Block isn't going to lead us to self-booting discs, which is the primary reason i would have wanted the CD Block "cracked" in the first place.

For all intents and purposes, I see this project as mostly redundant.

- We already have mod boards that work well, so we have physical media checked, and that happened 20 years ago.
- We have pseudo saturn for playing backups without a hardware installation
- We have Rhea, which offers the replacement of the Optical Drive and storage on SD card, which as expensive as it is currently, will only get cheaper as time moves on, so backups there aren't really needed and the install is fairly easy.

While this device will be great simply for the reason of having your library on a USB device (cheaper than an SD card), the fact that it reduces compatibility out of the gate makes it immediately less desirable for me than pretty much any of the other options out there. Yes, there isn't a physical modification required, but it isn't like a Rhea install is difficult. Yes, it keeps the CD-Rom drive intact which Rhea doesn't, but if you're using one of these devices, I'd rather go for more compatibility out of the box than to have to consider swapping hardware in and out all the time (MPEG Enhanced/Required games won't work on this, so you'd have to swap out the device to play an MPEG game or use a VCD). Yeah, there are a lot less VCD/MPEG Card users, but with Rhea you can still play these games off the SD card. If i was going for game preservation, Rhea makes more sense because more games will (supposedly) play on it.

My dream is self booting discs (yes i know, not possible), followed by an ODE that doesn't require the removal of the optical drive to use AND retains 100% of all features native to the system. MPEG enhanced/required games would still be playable, Cart slot would be open for use with any cart that was desired, and I could switch between external storage or discs with no issues.

The fact that it has been stated that MPEG games are not even going to be considered for use makes this a step below Rhea for me in use, but I'm still going to buy one and give it a shake down as I'm just that big of a fan of the system and want to support development for it in all aspects. I'm just incredibly disappointed that it seems like we're not going to move beyond this at the moment.

There is a menu for Rhea/Phoebe, its been around for over a year.

as to your other points:
1 - This has a slight advantage, yes, but to me, not worth the loss of some games.
2 - Null, see above, Rhea has a menu available.
3 - Rhea can be firmware updated for more features, so again, mostly null.

I'd still like to see it happen. I have that damned drive and know of a few things i'd like to get off of floppies lol

 

lol, apparently you haven't read anything. There's a Rhea thread a few links down from this one, for crying out loud. Neuroacid even just released an update for the menu.

 

Okay okay, it has a menu. Jeeze, that's what I get for not doing my homework before making a post. In my defense I did phrase it in the form of a question. At any rate, thanks for keeping me honest.

I looked at Rhea and Phoebe a year or two ago and I guess I missed the part where they had menus - everything I saw at the time was talking about a physical switch and no menu. Might have bought one anyway if they had been available.

I'm guessing the games you're mentioning that are "lost" are the ones that use the MPEG card? Or is there some other incompatibility I'm not aware of?

At any rate, I suppose it's all a matter of priorities. Your priority is clearly 100% compatibility, (or at least games that use the MPEG card), and mine (in no small way informed by the fact that I don't own an MPEG card, nor do I consider my life incomplete without one) is keeping the Saturn intact. Sounds like Phoebe and Rhea are the solution for you and the Satisfier is the solution for me. Isn't it great to have options?

 

Rhea/Phoebe are not easy to obtain, and compatibility remains a question? I don't know what the distribution plans are for this either, but why not have additional choices?

 

That's right. Last I checked you had to be lucky or looking at just the right time to be able to purchase a Rhea. They aren't widely available devices, just like the PS-IO.

 

With the Satalor hopefully it will bring down the price and availability of the Rhea and Phoebe. I like the idea of just plugging in a cart in the MPEG port especially for a novice like me. I'm sure as time goes on the games compatibility will get better.

 

Compatibility remains a question for whom? Bug! is the only game I'm aware that wasn't working, and that was fixed a few firmwares ago. I'm not aware of anyone else reporting non-functioning games, other than bad rips when they figure out that was the problem.

 

That is VERY interesting. I haven't kept up on firmware updates, and did not know Bug was fixed. great news!

The menu came later, but it did happen, which is the most important part. Until that came, i didn't think Rhea was ready for prime time.

I'm all for keeping the saturn intact too. I have a mod board and region free bios for that. What i'm saying here is that I'd rather see a Rhea solution that incorporates the CD Rom drive, or a solution that uses the Cartridge port, as both of these methods allow more of the saturn's features to remain intact while providing the most possible games playable. I own quite a few saturns with MPEG or VCD cards, and the thought of continually swapping those cards to use this device is not appealing. Yeah, dev the hardware and stuff, but maybe there are other ways to do this that don't tie up that port? how about a switch/relay, and a second port added somewhere else so that all i need to do is hit that switch and i'd get Satisfier or whatever its called, but flip the switch in the other direction and I get my MPEG games and VCD going, all without removing my card?

wishful thinking, and quite frankly i'm too small of an audience to cater to, but the best solution is the one that opens up the most options without taking anything away.