Sega Saturn - Nights Into Dreams

Sorry if this is off topic but it seemed the most appropriate place to post. I recently fitted a mod chip and region switch to my Saturn, and although it works fine with 99% of games, I just cannot get Nights into Dreams to work from a backup CD. I have tried the PAL/JAP/NTSC versions, as well as several different ROM sources (including the Darkwater ISO which I've been lead to believe are usually reliable) but they ALL crash in exactly the same place - the "Team Sonic" animation during the intro. I have tried different brands of CD-R and even another Saturn I borrowed, but still the same result.

Does this game have some kind of extra copy protection that prevents it playing from a backup disc? I have searched Google and nobody else seems to have reported it. What else could it be as I've so far ruled out CD-R brand, the console itself, and bad ROMs? Could it be my burning software? I'm using Toast on Mac. But as said, no problems with any other games.

 

I'd probably try burning it using IMGburn, hopefully you have access to a PC.

I don't have any blank discs in the house at the moment, but I'll grab one tomorrow and burn the Darkwater image and test it.

I assume the images you are using are BIN/CUE? Saturn ISO images are generally not very good.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes I've been using BIN/CUE files, but did try an ISO too and that wouldn't boot at all. I have a PC laptop at work so will try burning one on that.

 

Verify your dumps with the checksums on redump.org

http://redump.org/disc/17998/
http://redump.org/disc/7007/
http://redump.org/disc/22400/
http://redump.org/disc/17355/
http://redump.org/disc/7006/

Regards,
iCEQB

 

x

 

Interesting. I've never had any problems with ImgBurn, either natively in Windows (32- and 64-bit) or with Wine in Linux (32- and 64-bit; both Wine and Linux). I quit using Nero a long long time ago due to its bloated nature.

Anyway, I've never had any problems running a burned copy of Nights. I use pretty generic (and probably sub-par) Memorex CD-Rs burned at 16x using ImgBurn, and every disc I've made so far has run fine without any problems that I've noticed.

I know I had tons of problems attempting to get a modchip to work with my model 2 Saturn (in fact, I never got it to work at all-- it was a Racketboy chip) so maybe it has something to do with your console or the modchip. (I've since acquired a VA0 model 1 and installed a consolegoods chip, and I've never had any issues with it.)

You could also try burning the disc on a different computer/drive.

 

+1 on this.................back around 12 years ago i burned Guilty Gear X for Dreamcast about 6 times and it wouldnt boot , i burned the same game with someone elses PC and burner and it worked.


one more note Nero does a better job at burning Saturn than IMGburn , when scanned Nero causes less C1/C2 errors

 

Just curious if this is something due to ImgBurn itself, or possibly just how it interacts with your burner. I remember back in the day, when I used to use Nero, I would occasionally burn coasters. Not a significant amount, and that wasn't a contributing factor to me dropping it, but they did happen. I've been using ImgBurn for a few years now and I don't think Ive made one coaster yet. I had a number of bad Saturn CD-Rs that I've made, but it was due to crappy media-- I've reburned everything on different media and they all work great now.

I know that software can make a big difference in some cases though. K3b won't even open most Saturn images, much less even attempt to burn them-- "Seems not to be a usable image"

 

I use ImgBurn for everything and I've never had a problem with it that wasn't hardware or config related. As for Dreamcast games some burners back in the day couldn't really handle what was (and still is) a somewhat unusual format for disc images. I had to use Discmangler at 2x to burn properly (the drive could only handle 4x but the demo forced the issue).

 

x

 

Do you think this is because of ImgBurn in general, or how it communicates with some drives? (or maybe even other hardware in someone's particular computer setup) Like I said, ImgBurn seems to work fine for me, but obviously it doesn't for others.

 

I have 100% success burning Saturn/Dreamcast/XBOX/PS1 in IMGBurn. Never had a coaster. I'm using the SuperDrive in my Core 2 Duo Intel iMac.

IMGBurn is running in a Bootcamp install of Windows 7 Home Premium (X86).

I use Verbatim AZO DVD for GCN and XBOX, burned at "best" speed. I use Maxell CD-R or CD-R Pro for SS, DC and PS1, all burned at 8X.

I've used most of the common authoring software in the pass, and quite honestly I think success is more down to quality of image/media/drive than the software you use.

 

Good burn is almost always matter of cobine good burner+good discs (PI errors, jitter etc)

 

finally someone that speaks my language , ive been preaching for some time trying to teach people the art of burning.


i can also add burn speed and burn software comes into the equation too

 

Nights is one of the few weird Saturn games which use MODE2XA track after a MODE1 track on the data partition. Try a different burner maybe ?

 

Thanks for the replies, got it working. Looks like my Mac drive doesn't like this one game for some reason, just burned it with imgburn on my PC laptop and all good

 

Some burners can't burn discs with DATA tracks of different kinds on the same *session* due to firmware coding not supporting that (or being buggy).

It gives people headaches with some PlayStation games too. But it gets ugly when people try to burn "odd" stuff like PC Engine games, for example.

 

Fortunately these "bad recorders" are exception. So no need for databases. The act of trying a different recorder is usually enough to remedy the situation.