Lunar Silver Star Story Complete - Sega Saturn (Really really SOLVED)

General Games
#1

Hello everyone!

So I guessed I kinda messed up on buying this game for the Sega Saturn thinking it would be something similar to the “Complete” NTSC-U version of the game I bought eons ago for Sony PlayStation.

I love the Lunar series and when I got a deal for the “Complete” Sega Saturn version I bought it.

Little did I know that the game explicitly requires a hardware add-on called the Video CD Card to even play the game. I don’t have this card and just a single card costs way way more the the game did itself.

So I tried dumping the game thinking I could at least play it in an emulator like Mednafen which I use for every other Sega Saturn game I have but to no avail and I can’t find any information about it here either.

I feel miserable that I bought a game I can never play and I can’t seem to find much information about this matter on the web to begin with. Should have just bought the regular release instead.

Is there anyone here that actually have gotten to play this version in any form of emulator. I used SSF eons ago but I haven’t heard much good about it lately.

Thanks in advance and have a great rest of your day!

#2

I haven’t heard of any open-source emulator emulating the mpeg card properly. I haven’t heard about SSF emulating it either, are you sure it does ?

Considering the psx port wasn’t even a proper port, my recommendation would be the 2025 re-release.

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#3

Thanks for your input!

I think I know why I thought SSF might had the support, I mixed up ST-V with the Video CD Card but ST-V is completely unrelated and is some kind of arcade.

Anyway, I’m currently investigating an emulator called Nova and according to this compatibility list, the game is listed as “playable”

There might be some hope to emulate and be able to play this version of the game just yet.

Never heard of this particular emulator before though so I don’t expect much.

I’ll keep you all updated!

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#4

IT WORKS PERFECTLY!

Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3

I’m in tears :cry:

Nova is awesome, only thing I had to do was to download a Video CD Card ROM which is a hard requirement. I don’t really feel bad about that.

Now I can enjoy this version to it’s fullest!

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How do Saturn games that require MPEG cards work?
#5

That’s good to know, thanks for the heads up

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#6

You are quite welcome!

I’m going to make more tests with this one with the rest of my small japanese Saturn library.

I’ll probably just going to use Mednafen and Nova only for Lunar, but you never know, it might blow me away.

#7

Well I have been testing some more and all the rest of my games in my collection works great in Nova.

Akumajou Dracula X - Gekka no Yasoukyoku

BioHazard

Mahou Gakuen Lunar!

Rockman X4

Download for it can be found here, changelog is huge!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/nova-v0-7-0-118648844

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#8

Well I guess this is it then, Nova crashes every time when I’m about to go to the Frontier in the balloon from Myght’s Tower.

With the emulator being proprietary closed-sourced and no real way contacting the author easily I guess I will never beat the game.

Damn, I really really regret buying this version of the game. Should have just bought the non-Complete regular one instead.

They should have just made it so the MPEG / Video CD Card wasn’t a hard requirement and the cutscenes were in lower resolution if the card wasn’t present.

Might try an older version tomorrow and see if I can bypass it since it says playable in the compatibility list.

Oh well.

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#9

That really sucks, sorry to read it didn’t work out.

Anyway, be aware that “playable” is a vague word. It generally means that the game boots and it can be played, although it doesn’t guarantee you can do it until the end or be it free of bugs. Unfortunately, it’s just a blanket term some devs like to use to boost their compatibility lists, so I’m critical of it. A better usage would be like Dolphin does: “playable” exists, but there’s also a “perfect” rating that doesn’t leave the users guessing.

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#10

I have given up continuing playing the Complete version altogether now since nothing I tried worked at all.

22+ hours straight into the drain and I feel robbed mentaly.

Maybe I’ll come back to it in the future or something if Nova becomes more stable or if more emulators supports the Video CD Cards.

In the mean time I “got” the standard non-Complete version running in Mednafen. I don’t really feel bad about it so please don’t hate me for it.

Don’t ever get the Complete version like I did, just save yourself the trouble and get the standard one.

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#11

I played the psx us port back in the days (and still have the nice collector, which is the only good thing about that edition), and i have been thinking of playing the 2025 remake soon (reviews seem great).

Thanks for letting people know that the saturn complete version is just not fully playable through any emulator.

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#12

I mean, from a collectors standpoint the more obscure Complete version is kinda nice to have but from a gaming standpoint not so much.

Having a game that relies on a specific hardware peripheral that is somewhat expensive and not many emulators support is just awful and to be honest the cutscenes doesn’t look all that much better than the ones in the standard version which is slightly sharper frankly.

Gameplay wise they appear to be pretty much the same game, maybe some dialog changes and what not.

Anyway, I have rambled enough about this.

Have a great rest of your week everyone!

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#13

So yeah, quick and most definitely the last update/post on this:

I couldn’t let this go so I bought the standard/normal non-Complete version that I can play without the need of an obscure bullcrap peripheral on my Saturn and can enjoy to the fullest in Mednafen for years to come.

Got Lunar 2 Eternal Blue for a sweet price too so I have decided that I will sell the Complete/MPEG-ban version later on.

It’s really just a useless paper weight at this point anyway.

So case is really really closed, take care all of you!

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