Mod-free disc protection bypass finally achieved?

[Anthaemia.]

Barely hours since a thread at ASSEMblergames was shared here about a cartridge in development that may allow games to be loaded through the Saturn's cartridge port, now someone has revealed a proof-of-concept bootloader that appears to bypass the disc protection check entirely using nothing but a CDR with custom code!

If my understanding is correct, this project owes a lot of its existence to a recent dump of the ROM for the SH-1 used to control the CD drive and simply replaces the text string a genuine disc contains, though at the moment this requires an Action Replay card to be flashed, disabling its features in the process.

With so much activity in the Saturn homebrew and modification scene at the moment, I suspect we'll soon finally be able to run backups with greater ease than before. Also, I'm hoping more engineer types look into exploiting the Video CD Card expansion port (which is supposedly what the Eclipse upgrade actually used)...

Here's the all-important link where you'll find a better explanation than I could ever provide:

www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?52526-Saturn-proof-of-concept-bootloader-Pseudo-Saturn

[Deleted]

The CD drive is the worry at the back every Saturn (and Dreamcast) owner's mind. The sooner there's a solution to either use standard CD drives or a solidstate alternative the better.

[antime]

No, this is something CyberWarriorX had been working on for a while.

You need a cartridge with a custom ROM, because you need to get the custom loader running somehow - the Saturn still won't boot burned CDs directly.

For the technical details, the SH1 will not load anything from a CD, unless a validation function has been called. If the CD looks like a Saturn game, it also has to pass the copy protection check. On the other hand, if it's some other kind of CD (eg. photo CD, video CD, audio CD) then it can be read just fine. What CWX did was change some data on the disc so that the SH1 no longer recognizes it as a Saturn game disc, and then used his custom AR ROM to load and start the game manually.

This is kind of what Rockin'-B did to load homebrew software burned as audio CDs, and I could have sworn I talked with someone about reading data CDs a long time ago.

[television2000]

That someone might be me Antime. I got the Cart+CD combo working to a very wonderful results for sometime now on my game. (Dynamic loading, Audio etc)
However the current price and whatever demand is what's keeping me from bringing this out in the open, that and my team is pushing me to ditch the Saturn and move up to Psvita/Ps4. So no idea still... I'd still like a reply to that PM I sent sometime if possible.

At the end I'd say if people really want this (and piracy aside), a mod chip has been available since the 90s and works just as good.

[zyrobs]

This was mentioned as news a few years ago already.

The problem is that you STILL need to install extra hardware somehow, so its not much different from adding a modchip.

JHL's mpeg cart slot based sd loader sounds more interesting.

[fightingvipers2]

that's what im waiting for something that doesn't need a modchip, as it stands even with a modchip you still need to rely on the cdrom, long term for a Saturn owner its not an option, Its not like the PS1 or PS2 where you can buy a replacement laser unit/drive and have it shipped from china for £8.
There needs to be some way to use a catridge and run games from a memory stick etc, im unsure if its possible but I hope someone can do it oneday

[Deleted]

By all means boot from a custom cart but I can't see it working without a mod as I suspect the cart slot won't be up to the job (would be delighted to hear otherwise) If a device can connect via the Saturn's/DC's drive interface and therefore replace or bypass the drive I would be in the queue for the mod.