Saturn proof-of-concept bootloader Pseudo Saturn

thanks You

Succes to Hitachi Saturn

 

What is the interest of including version 0.830 ?
I will add both versions 0.831 and 0.832 to my flasher, but I fear there won't be enough space to add version 0.830.

Edit : Oh, it fits with 0.830

That was unexpected.

 

Thanks where can we down it?

 

When it will be tested. Please wait.

 

I never said it was interesting to include 830

But could ask you the same

It was just in the iso to start with and just updated it with 832 added to it

P.S. what happened with your work on it, you done very well with the work you put into it

 

Ah, OK ^^;
On my side, I first thought to add only important releases, but as 0.832 is CyberWarriorX last release, I also added minor builds, and luckily everything fit in a single binary

Still stuck in "fix bugs, add bugs, sometimes add new feature" loop, so I don't consider it's worth releasing now (you can follow development in my blog) ...
Please wait. For sure I will release something someday

 

Sorry I should of kept that in PM's

Look forward to it though when you get the chance to work on it some more

Edit: I check out your blog every now and then anyway

You have some nice interesting projects going there as well as this one.

 

I am sorry....we will wait
Thanks you

 

Latest version of flasher utility can be found here : http://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/

I forgot to verify if 3D pad was correctly supported ... please let me know if something is broken.

No problem, it's public (but not released) now

Thank you

 

Thank you very much!

 

@cafealpha2:

In that case, and because my curiosity is killing me , I can't help asking:

What can we expect from Pseudo Saturn Kai ?

What are your hopes and dreams for the software?

 

When used with Action Replay :
- Can choose which bootloader (0.831 or 0.832) to use
- Better game compatibility ? (This need to be verified)
- Not soon, but plan to do later : Action Replay codes

When used with new cartridge (WIP) :
- Features available when used with Action Replay
- Can read/write backup states from/to SD card
- Backup data import from SD card.

 

Will jump on some tests with 832 soon myself

Would be starting with the obvious games that are wanted

831 vs kai, it has some nice compat fixes and from what I could tell nothing was broken

The only disc I had out at the time of flashing 832 though was Croc that has the exact same results with the broken graphics, a bug that happens with the original disc also though and not a game I would care for anyway myself (It was out because I was trying to figure out a way to bypass the bug with failure)

 

Unexpectedly, I am getting an error message when trying to flash the firmaware with Pseudo version 0.832...
Has this happened to anyone else?



But this only happens with 0.832 with logo, if I chose 0.832 without the logo it terminates with write success.



I did notice that version 0.832 with logo has different decompressed size, is this normal?
Should it not be the other way round, I mean, without logo version with less size?

 

Out of interest what cart are you trying to flash

And does the without logo version boot ok after flashing

P.S. The logo version did flash ok for me and boots fine after I flashed with the logo showing before the menu

 

I am using a recently acquired AR Plus (4M) purchased from EMS:







It reports back:

Flash Vendor ID: BF45 - unknown (but in green color)

Flash device ID: 0741 - unknown (but in green color)

Yes, the version with no logo flashes and boots fine, which is kind of weird.

Even weirder is that after a failed flashing Flash Vendor ID and Flash device ID changes (different number or letters) and color changes to yellow !?

I thought this had to do with bad connections or improper seating of the cartridge but no.

Only if I flash again with some firmware that works (0.832 no-logo or ARP 2.02C) the IDs return to "normal".

 

That's weird, can you reproduce this bug or does it happens randomly ?
Please try to slightly move your cartridge in its connector when firmware selection menu is being displayed. If detected as BF45/0741, there are chances (not 100% accurate however) that the cartridge can be flashed.
Please retry to reflash your cart As logo version was reported working by other members (Thank you Zorlon ), I suppose your problem is hardware/connection related.

That's "normal".
No logo version is resized to 256KB and unused space is padded with 0x00 bytes while logo version is raw binary output from compiler.
I suppose no logo version file was resized by yabause ? I don't plan to trim this file, because it was reported working as-is, and since firmwares are compressed in flasher binary, padding bytes doesn't waste so much space.
BTW, no logo firmware real size is around 71KB, vs around 95KB for logo version.

It's amazing to see how many PCB variations there are for Action Replay carts.
As you can see on PCB picture, Flash chips (SST chips on right side) are different, so I suppose one is standard (detected as BF/07) while the other one isn't detected (counterfeit ?) and flasher see its IDs as 45/41 (= E and G letters from SEGA string at the beginning of flash memory).

 

Was able to flash the logo version just fine on my knockoff AR cart.
I tested Skeleton Warriors. Still doesn't work.
But I tested Panzer Dragoon Zwei and it seems to work just fine. (I played a few levels and it's smooth. Even though I burn quick n dirty using Imgburn)
I'm going to try Panzer Dragoon Saga and see if that works too.
EDIT: Yep. That works too, though at first it failed to load.
Was kind of worried it wouldn't but I turn the console off and tried it again and it seems to be working fine now.
(I'm on the battle tutorial screen right now)
EDIT 2: Played some more. Managed to save and load fine from internal memory. This version seems a bit more tempermental than the last. (You have to reboot, or keep trying to launch game a couple of times load stuff up) but it seems more compatible. Could it be that I haven't got the AR cart quite seated in right?

 

I got the same one from EMS although the colour is black for flahing firmware.
now I'm bit worried that it may not work?

 

I'm afraid it's impossible to tell untill you try.
After the failed flashing I had to flash back to ARP 2.02C firmware to get flasher utility recognize card correctly and then flash again to 0.832 no-logo version and it worked.
At least it didn't brick the cartridge, and I have not tried again since that event.

I can confirm that too.
Pseudo 0.832 seems more picky than previous version.
I often get ERROR 1 or ERROR 4 at boot, or sometimes it simply hangs.
Hence the need to reset the Saturn and nudge just a little the cartridge forwards or backwards to sucessfully make burned CDs boot.
I don't remember this happening with 0.831, but it's possible it all comes down to bad connectors on Saturn.