Sega Saturn - Yabause core (Compatibility)

RetroArch General
#1

I’m setting up this system on RetroArch and didn’t find much info.

I finally got it to work with the Darkwater images, except some games. I only have for it the exclusive titles, so very few. Among of what I tested “Sonic R” seems to not work well, yabause compatibility list says the Japanese version works fine, can anyone confirm? “Astal” also doesn’t seem to work but we might see it working very soon. And finally would like to find a confirmation if the game “Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari” works at all.

EDIT: Actually without knowing today Yabause got updated to 0.9.14. This might fix compatibility with many games so hope the core gets updated to test along.

#2

We have a wiki for that:

http://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?titl … patibility

It’s far from being complete though.

Astal has been working with the HLE BIOS for quite a while, assuming you’re using devbuilds.

#3

Thanks for the input, I can confirm it works, even if it’s not a verified Astal image. Maybe we should test again when the core gets updated to the new version.

Only the japanese Sonic R version (USA version is glitched) is stated as playable on the official compatibility list, problem is that that one with the “Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari” are two games I can’t find on a readable format for yabause, so can’t test them.

#4

Yeah, I don’t think there’s any good source for proper Saturn dumps out there.

It should be possible to convert MESS CHDs (which are freely available on the Internet Archive) into a Yabause-friendly format, but I’ve never really looked into that myself.

#5

I managed to get an ISO/mp3 dump of “Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari”, it loads fine, but after a minute into the game it get’s stuck, a script event that doesn’t occur, also the main sprite glitches but I guess it would be playable even with it.

Testing Panzer Dragoon Saga now… Edit: Played the first few minutes and plays fine. Some heavy screen tearing in cutscenes, but I guess it’s due to playing the PAL game on my 60Hz monitor, I guess in TV plays better.

Well, except for Sonic R and Nanatsu… the rest of the games play quite fine, so I’m happy to see a reliable Saturn emulator specially in RetroArch.

#6

For Sonic R, you can at least play the Gamecube port included in Sonic Gems Collection through Dolphin. I’ve only ever tried the NTSC-U version, but it seems to emulate perfectly as far as I can tell (using a dev release that’s a few months old). It’s based on the PC version so it has the extra snow and rain effects too :smiley:

#7

Yes, there was that too! I think I’m kind of a purist here… for me Sonic R = Saturn, it’s a very old game too so IMO there’s not much you can enhance other than applying some great RA shaders. I will try to hunt the presumably compatible Japanese version otherwise deal with it, besides except for soundtrack it’s not that of a great game tbh, and at this point I refuse to go back through the burden of SSF, Daemon… What is more painful is the Nanatsu game, maybe someone can double check. I’ll wait for the new version if it fixes the issues or wait for devs to fix these in next versions.

#8

I tested “Sonic R (JAP) (DW0019)” and it doesn’t make a difference so either the compatibility list is misleading or the core port changed something. Tested also Nanatsu, still trapped in a loop at the very beginning. Both games tested with latest cores.

Also and just to let you know, the latest FBA core still has the load savestate issue, I don’t think it will be corrected for the stable release in a few days.

#9

Like I said the Saturn compatibility list is far from complete, I’ve added a note about that to the wiki page. I gave Sonic R a try and can confirm it’s a glitched mess, not much can be done about that unless it gets fixed upstream.

#10

I wasn’t talking about your compatibility list but official yabause one where it is stated Japanese version of Sonic R as playable, I deem it not playable. link: http://yabause.org/compatibility-list/?start=S But thanks for confirming.

#11 
Status: Playable
Version 0.8.6
Screen flickers really bad and the BG tears as you are running.

Sounds just like how it runs in the libretro port.

#12

ahm, didn’t notice that thanks. Still wondering what is playable on it…

#13

I tested a few more games. Dragon Ball Z has some input issues (Start doesn’t respond). Panzer Dragoon has some minor audio stutters, but is playable. Legend of Thor renders black screen.

Hopefully this emulator gets better soon, emulation state is a bit poor currently.

#14

Saturn Bomberman is playable, that’s all i ask :P.

#15

There are many exclusive unknown games that deserve a look. Like Nanatsu Kaze or Super Tempo which I will test soon.

Edit: Super Tempo renders black, Tryrush Deppy is playable (minor graphical glitches only)

#16

I can’t believe I can play Dragon Force on my breaks at work. Would love to see save state support and backup ramcart support. Obviously more speed to and more frame skip options. Current setup has a ton of input lag, but at least it is playable.

#17

It doesn’t need backup ramcart support as the save files all get written out as separate files to disk (giving, in effect, automatic infinite backup cart). The purpose of the backup ramcart was because there was only a tiny amount of room for save data on board and you would have to move things off it and back on if you had so many games that they wouldn’t all fit. You couldn’t (to my knowledge) save and load directly from the backup cart anyway.

#18

Um, since there is no save state support the ramcart would be useful for saving on the map screen. The ramcart supports saving and loading files to. This isn’t the action replay we are talking about. So yes, they need to add ramcart support and save state support. Nothing sucks more than having to stop games and lose progress because I have to go back to work.

#19

In game saving should work. I’ve tested it in Albert Odyssey and Panzer Dragoon Saga and can save and load in game normally. It makes a .srm file with the game’s save data in your save folder like most of the other cores.

#20

Yes, saving does work, just not everywhere. You guys have to be joking. Can only save away from the map. That’s why save state support and ramcart support is needed. Smh