Saturn HDLoader

ANyone have more information on this? Highly interesting

 

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2857536502

Here's more information about the Sarooo for those that are interested. They also got pics of the prototype PCB.

 

Oh, they are using the cartridge port? That's going to be interesting. I really wonder how/if they can get cd audio working from that, to the best of my knowledge the machine doesn't have audio input on that slot.

edit: nevermind, it does, I've been looking at the specs wrong.

 

The Saturn was designed to play games from the CD-ROM or the Cartridge slot. Expense of manufacturing is the only reason a cartridge game was never released.

 

When playing CD Audio, the audio chip is directly fed digital audio data from the cd drive which it just overlays upon its own output. The cart port doesn't have this digital audio input pins as far as I know.

Emulating the CD sector pointers through a cartridge, that much I can imagine to be possible. But for CD Audio you'd need to modify game code to stream the sound into the audio chip (as in, if it was doing PCM audio playback controlled by software), and that can interfere with what the games normally do to play sound.

 

This will be interesting, but it leaves room for questioning though. What about those games that require certain ram such as the 1/4 ram carts. Will be some kind of a switch to enable both the game and the ram at the same time. If so, how will they be able to emulate it, so that it can work for things such as that.

 

don't have a saturn anymore, it f*cked in!
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still, a reason to get one nowadays would be a hd/img frontend, even if it was a passthrough for the cartridge socket! (i aint telling a chef how to cook, the RESULT is all that matters!)
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Druid II makes a pertinent point, not that i'm an expert on the saturn!
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for the response above...
assuming this device comes into reality (public access) it would have to be decked out as standard...OR it can't run those games that require expanded ram/uses custom rom, just the standard images!
extra hardware would be needed for those parts, and there would still be some emulation of sorts for it all to behave and passthrough to console as intended! (re writing the area where a cartridge rom would exist separately depending on the cd game? an SNK KOF comes to mind)
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[edit]
crap logitech keyboards..

 

It may be able to handle RAM Expansion titles if the card includes ram chips.
Using it for saves could be possible as well, it could keep them next to the firmware on that flash chip.
Supporting ROM expansion may be tricky depending on how that cart "emulates" the CD hardware. I think it may be reading the initial programs from the disc images and patching all BIOS CD Drive commands on the fly to redirect to the cart port. Sort of like what you could do with an Action Replay if you had the patience to write hundred thousands of code for it.

What I'm interested in is how they'll get CD Audio working. The initial videos in the thread opener had games playing white noise in place of cd audio.

 

none of my browsers put out audio from it...
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damn!
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and yes, to above, the CDDA output would have to be addressed up front, not sure of any saturn cd games that DIDN'T have WAV/pcm one way or another...

 

First off, I'm now sorry to have been so disbelieving at first. Appears from the PCB that they are calling it Saturn Master. However, while I could live without the RAM expansion, not having CD Audio is kind of a non-starter.

 

well this is the first version of the card and he does say he is looking to fix "some audio problems" which implies that he's got audio to work

 

Looks like sarooo was hacked?

 

When I clicked the link my anti-virus went batshit and blocked the connection.

 

the fuck is up with the site in the OP? hhahaha

 

Sooooo, a site by a Chinese Sega Saturn hacker was itself hacked... By pro-government Syrian hackers?

That's... ONE way to get your message across, I supose...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qcqzHBRssA

Heres a video with sound working, although probably not working 100%.

 

Many people ask whether SAROO available worldwide. As regards the sale area, so we are considering. Due to communication problems, the test version will be on sale only in China, will need to apply before they can buy. As the official version later in the foreign customers, can be purchased through ebay, etc.. Thank you for your support.

http://www.sarooo.com/

 

Nice to hear it's still ongoing.

 

Idk do you guys think i should i get my Japanese Sega Saturn modded or wait till this comes out?