Man, I am stoked. The route I am looking to take is buying a model two Saturn, then getting the racketboy Saturn mod chip and install it plus an action replay ram cartridge. After that, I can have access to the entire Saturn library. I wanted to play Radiant Silvergun today and downloaded the Sega emulator SSF, but it ran too slow on my PC, which is a budget setup. I then tried Cassini but I wasn't satisfied with playing through a keyboard, so decided to wait. Then tonight, I went hunting around on the internet for Radiant Silvergun to play on mame, but my computer again is too slow for that title. Anyhow, I missed picking it up through xboxlive and I am now in a holding pattern. Thanks for sharing Madroms. I checked out and bookmarked their website and will definitely look for the homemade shmup pack. That sounds wicked. The hunt is on for a Saturn now. Perhaps I will check to see if anyone is selling a modded one here as it may be less expensive than running around in the wild plus the mod chip is pricey at 44.00 alone. I can't wait to have a Saturn sitting next to my Dreamcast, with loads of 2-d Saturn content at my fingertips. Thanks again.
Breaker Pro? What do you need that for? It's just a shitty swap disc. Get a modchip and play the game directly. A basic modchip is even cheaper than the Breaker Pro disc. All you need is a 12F629 PIC and you can program it to be a PS1 modchip.
If you want my opinion - and maybe you don't, but I'm going to give it to you anyway - get a Japanese Saturn. The Japanese Saturn has virtually all the games that were released in the US, plus a ton of games that weren't. The language barrier isn't really an issue since the vast majority of the good games on the Saturn are arcade-style, and thus don't really require knowledge of Japanese. Benefits of buying a Japanese Saturn: no need to install a modchip, access to a wider library of games, the Japanese consoles look cooler, and Japanese games are usually about the same price or cheaper than their American counterparts. The one reason you might want an NTSC-U Saturn is to play the few RPGs that were released in the US. So that's something to consider. Anyway, that's just my opinion, take it or leave it.
Well there are chips out now for model 1 and model 2 Saturns, and from installation experience I don't suggest a Racketboy turd. I have had two PCB's crack as the board is just a little to thick to fit in there without some sanding and it is SUPER fragile. There is a member here that sells them for substantially lower price under $20 shipped and are good chips. And as for the PS1 if you are going to be swapping disc for backups you don't even need a Breaker Pro to boot them on a slim just one original game and block the lid sensors like you would have to do for the Breaker Pro. Then you can use either the PSXlanucher.elf of just go to the memory card screen wait for the PS2 to detect the black disc for PS1 games and swap it out then and it will load the game just fine. Never tried loading import retail disc before as I don't collect PS1/2 games (less then 20 combined LOL) but I know this method works for sure as it was how I loaded the Resident Evil 1.5 that is now floating around on my PStwo.
I recall slow down for one. It might have felt choppy too. And I was using a real console not an emulator. But it's been awhile. All I remember for sure is going, wow this is awful compared to the Saturn version. I'd have to find it again to see what the deal is. Or you can try comparing the Saturn and PS1 versions yourself. Maybe I remember wrong. GoH, just remember swap tricks don't usually work with games that use CD audio tracks. It works ok for games that are just Mode 2 XA data tracks. But games such as Rockman X3, Ridge Racer, Mortal Kombat 3, Trilogy, and many others which use CD audio tracks for audio won't play their music correctly or at all. Atleast not on PS1. I never tried swapping on a PS2 but I imagine it is the same. PS1's are very cheap, and easy to get modded. If you buy a used PS1 it's not that uncommon to find it is already modchipped.
Thanks for the advice, I'll take it. Ideally, I would rather get a Japanese Saturn as I like the aesthetics regarding color, seeing how it would match my white Dreamcast. Now, I have forgone my days of collecting and am now looking for the pure gameplay experiences, so I won't likely be buying many Saturn games outside of classic garage sale hunts and independent releases. I will be using backups just as the Dreamcast. Interestingly, with the amount of attention put to detail regarding the Dreamcast releases, with image art and hybrid DVD sleeve art, I will be buying a couple hundred DVD cases and surplus ink for my printer so that I can give my Dreamcast games more respect and identity, versus magic marker scribblings in a black cd case. I look forward to completing this project. I may seek out something similar with the Saturn. It may entail breaking out photoshop but I do like to see my selection options. So yes, thank you for your advice, I will be seeking a Japanese Saturn as my ideal choice. Besides, I will likely be playing mostly Japanese releases anyway, though I will completely mod out the Saturn once purchased. Thank you for the heads up. I had actually found that same chip cheaper at the Segastyle online store but now I am going to circumvent this chip. I saw that Bad84 sells chips which price point wise looked very good. I'd rather support someone here anyways. Turd averted. Also, regarding the PS2 swap trick, there is also a trick for Saturn, which I am sure you know about. I wouldn't want to do that repeatedly with so many inexpensive options to mod a Saturn, but I thought it was neat nonetheless considering that it's fairly simple to execute.
I don't know how well the game runs on console, but it stutters and is basically unplayable through the emulator while every other title I have including G-Darius plays great, so it isn't an issue of my computer. Perhaps there was bad porting. In fact, the mame release of the same game runs a little choppy and isn't crystal smooth.
This would be fine if I was playing back ups, But I'd like to build a decent Import collection. I was considering just buying a cheap PSone Japanese model with screen off ebay. BUT My PS2 works just fine so....
Even the arcade version had slowdown I believe. But it's a bit hard to describe just what feels wrong about the PS1 version. As I said it has been awhile. All I remember is coming away from the experience thinking the Saturn version was quite superior. Someone can feel free to do a comparison or try to find one.
Yeah, the arcade version has slowdown. Edit: I just realized you two above completely ignored my post which was contributing to the argument. You might as well state, F*ck off the forums. Thanks for the hospitality.
I did see and read your post. Maybe my post was worded poorly and it didn't seem like I acknowledged you. I don't recall the arcade version being "choppy" but I do recall some spots that seemed like they had slowdown but overall nothing bad. The PS1 version seemed to have issues, but not the Saturn version. Whatever you want to call it, choppy, clunky, slowdown, whatever. Unless I find or burn the PS1 version to try it again I can't really say for sure what I personally saw that was wrong. I just have the Saturn version right now. Great game though on the Saturn or in the Arcade. Elevator Action Returns is another cool game that's on related hardware I think.
Thank you. I actually felt somewhat over dramatic after posting my comment regarding being ignored but decided to leave it as the emotion itself was honestly felt. Well, regarding the Darius Gaiden, for whatever reason, I can't get a good experience through the emulator nor with mame, so maybe it's configuration isn't friendly with my PC hardware. Yeah, once I get a Saturn, I will have to check Darius gaiden out. It's playable on mame but again, seems to have a bit of choppiness and screen tear around heavy points in the game.
Thunder Force V is amazing. I still plan on getting it on Saturn Though I don't think there's much difference besides graphic ones.
With MAME you might need to set an option to tell MAME is sync with your monitor. And ofcourse the screen tearing certainly doesn't happen on the Saturn, and in MAME that should be avoided by using triple buffering.
