Any ideas how to fix?

[superfamiking]

Ok, I bought a copy of Silhouette Mirage from ebay a week or so ago (jap copy for less than £30, so wasn't bad)
Anyway, I collected it from the post office and rushed home inexcitement to play my new game!
Everything loads up fine......"presented by treasure" and an excellent anime cartoon intro ;D

BUT as soon as the intro finishes...............nothing, just a black screen!. if i skip the intro from the treasure screen..........nothing just a black screen!

really pissed off!...........the disc itself looks mint, no visible scratches or anything!

any suggestions???

[Madroms]

do you have the same behavior with an emu like SSF ?
And can you rip it, then mount it and play it under SSF again ?

With your black screen, if you open the lid, does it go to the bios menu screen ?
Did you also check if the disc has some holes ?
Do you play at it on a EUR or JPN saturn ? With regular joypad ?

That's a lot of questions, but according to your replies, we can go in a way or another.

[superfamiking]

Thanks for the reply!
Well I haven't tried ripping it yet but will read up on that next!

if I open the lid it doesn't make a difference as I have taped down the tab inside the machine to allow the swap trick.
Although this is a Jap game and I'm playing on a Jap machine with a regular pad!

What I'm going to do is try ripping it.............will read up on that now

also, see those cd's with the little brush on them for cleaning cd player lasers. do you think it'd be safe to do it on a saturn???

[ajmetz]

I'm having similar problems with PAL Torico and Atlantis on my PAL Saturn. All my other games seem fine, but Torico will freeze on the intro screen, and Atlantis just goes black after the first logo screen. Torico had visible scratches, but I took it to be scratch repaired, and it still plays up. Atlantis has one tiny scratch, at the outer edge, but it doesn't look like a big deal.
Although I haven't figured out what's wrong yet - my console or discs - I've been managing to play both games, and recently completed Torico. "How?" you might ask....well, through pure trial and error. It can take up to 30minutes switching my console off and back on again, but eventually, it seems to load them up by fluke, and then once finally loaded, the rest of the game seems fine. Only had Atlantis freeze on me mid game on two occaisions.
However...on one occaision whilst switching my Saturn on and off in an attempt to boot one of these titles, my Memory Cart went blank...although that could have been a coincidence.
Am currently considering getting a new Saturn, incase it is my machine...but again, all my other games load fine with no probs...so I'm a bit confused, and may turn to copying my games and getting a chipped Saturn, incase it is due to scratches on the original discs.

Anyway, in short - I dunno what's wrong. But in my experience, if at first it doesn't load, try, try, and try again....

[Madroms]

Ok, so no swap trick for playing this game (JPN game on JPN saturn), so problem is elsewhere. Also, do you have a modchip installed ? And if so, does your saturn hang with any other game ? I already had a saturn hung randomly due to a bad modchip (which became bad after some times).

Also, which model of saturn do you have ? (HST-XXXX + model 1 or 2). I can check my saturn and this game at home to see if it is a problem of compatibility with one specific saturn.

You can also check if the audio tracks are played correctly on the bios (to go there, push and hold start or A or C button, I don't remember, at the moving saturn logo from the bios). Or push A+B+C+Start as soon as possible when the cd boots.

superfamiking said:

also, see those cd's with the little brush on them for cleaning cd player lasers. do you think it'd be safe to do it on a saturn???

I think yes, you can. In fact, this exactly what does the US Sega Saturn cleaning kit.


Ajmetz: your memory card was like flashed when you switched the power on and off, it is like your memory card got too much power (like when you sometimes switch your lights on and off) and was deleted. I am pretty sure this is what cause this behavior.

[superfamiking]

madroms said:

Also, which model of saturn do you have ? (HST-XXXX + model 1 or 2). I can check my saturn and this game at home to see if it is a problem of compatibility with one specific saturn.

Right I have run the little disc cleaner and actually got the game to load.....but only once out of 6 tries!!!
I don't have a mod chip at all, i just use the swap trick to get anything to work!!!
The saturn I have is HST-0004 and is a model 1 saturn.
I'm thinking maybe my saturn just doesn't like the game?.......as it has worked once!!!
I'll go and try the bios thing you mentioned above and let you know how I get on!

[superfamiking]

Ok, sorry for the double post.............

I done the bios test first and the 28 or 29 tracks played fine with no problems.
so I ripped the game and made a copy of it and guess what?!?!?............perfect!!!. Have tried it 5 times and it worked 5 times :-)
Then went back to the original........first 3 goes, it crashed and 4th time worked!?!?!?

Well at least playing the "backup" will keep my original good :-)

[Madroms]

ok, so for me it seems it is a problem with the lens or your original cd, nothing else. But it is strange that a cdr runs better than an orig!

[mick_aka]

Whenever I have these sorts of problem I find trial and error fiddling with the laser bias screw usually solves the problem, also having a helathy supply of spare laser assemblies is an advantage