A Saturn emulator...

evanft · Post by **evanft** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:19 pm

It's always seemed weird to me that there hasn't been a Saturn emulator developed for the DC. It would seem like something that someone would have done already, as many who are DC enthusiasts are also into the Saturn.

Is it just too difficult to accomplish?? I'm not really familiar with programming or the hardware specfics of the Saturn (I know it had 2 CPUs and was hard to program for, though).

bizzle · Post by **bizzle** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:27 pm

There is a Saturn emulator for Dreamcast, it's just very slow and very early in development. I suggest you start using the search button.

Post by **Quzar** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:29 pm

been done.

http://yabause.sourceforge.net/

evanft · Post by **evanft** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:42 pm

Woops..sorry. I looked at that list of non-emulated systems, and it was there.

Orange_Ribbon · Post by **Orange_Ribbon** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:42 pm

Man, if it just emulates the CD Player I will be happy.

Post by **BlueCrab** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:55 pm

It's always seemed weird to me that there hasn't been a Saturn emulator developed for the DC. It would seem like something that someone would have done already, as many who are DC enthusiasts are also into the Saturn.

Is it just too difficult to accomplish?? I'm not really familiar with programming or the hardware specfics of the Saturn (I know it had 2 CPUs and was hard to program for, though).

The saturn is one horribly complex machine to emulate. In fact, on my 2.4 GHz PC, I still do not have a saturn emulator that runs full speed. There are some fun tricks that you could do with the similarities between the saturn and the dc, but I haven't had time to work on any of them yet. Anyway, that being said, there is one in progress, and it'll stay that way for a while yet.

Orange_Ribbon wrote:Man, if it just emulates the CD Player I will be happy.

The currently released version can get that far. There's no sound, and no controls though :/

abydos1000 · Post by **abydos1000** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:11 pm

Me thinks if you want anything Saturn related, your best bet is to find one on ebay. Unless you are looking to get something like Panzer Dragoon Saga or Dragon Force, most of the US releases can be had for a reasonable price.

This is not to put down BlueCrab's hard work, but it's really the more realistic option for you right now.

evanft · Post by **evanft** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:33 pm

Yeah, I'm definately keeping my eye out. The problem is, 2 of the games I want the most (Shining Force 3 and Panzer Saga) are very rare.

Grimlock · Post by **Grimlock** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:59 pm

Which means you intend to pirate them.

DCmad · Post by **DCmad** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:04 am

Grimlock wrote:Which means you intend to pirate them.

He said nothing.

LyingWake · Post by **LyingWake** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:03 am

Heh...

Orange_Ribbon · Post by **Orange_Ribbon** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:05 pm

Man, if it just emulates the CD Player I will be happy.

The currently released version can get that far. There's no sound, and no controls though :/

I know you will get it. That had the coolest CD player (when you Hid the console)

Post by **BlueCrab** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:44 pm

I did have some images of the spaceship in the background running on the windows version of yabause, so in theory, it should work as well on the dreamcast.

I haven't tested said theory though

Hilltopper · Post by **Hilltopper** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:09 am

I know that version .0.0.8 (not released yet, but screenshots are up) of yabuse shows some actual games loading. Can the DC version do everything the PC version can at this point?

Post by **Quzar** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:40 am

the DC version hasnt been updated to the most recent CVS.

Hilltopper · Post by **Hilltopper** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:43 pm

ok, just thought that I would ask, as those new screens of games actually starting to run are very nice.

Post by **BlueCrab** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:16 pm

The DC version of 0.0.7 should theoretically boot up some games. All the code is there to make it do so. But as quzar said, the DC source is nowhere near recent. In fact, the CVS repo for yabause only has dc-related code up to 0.0.6.

I think I'm gonna skip the next release of yabause to give me time to work on it some more. (I think the next release is slated to be 0.5.0 at this point....)

Hilltopper · Post by **Hilltopper** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:39 am

cool, thanks for the info.

mankrip · Post by **mankrip** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:17 pm

IMO the most important thing to do in the DC version is to get the endianess-converter done.

Hilltopper · Post by **Hilltopper** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 1:47 pm

yeah, I agree. It would blow people away to see a satrun emu on the DC actually running something at a decent speed, and the endianess problem must be solved for this to ever happen.