FAQ: Floppy Disk Drive
Oct 15, 2009 18:10:17 GMT
Post by Yart on Oct 15, 2009 18:10:17 GMT
My new floppy disk drive for the Saturn came in recently, so I thought I'd clear some things up for the other Saturn gamers out there who considered it but found the price of the peripheral far out of their range.
What is the Sega Saturn Floppy Disk Drive?
It's an old 3.5" floppy drive that you plug into the back of your Sega Saturn. It uses 3.5" floppy disks to store save game data.
Can you backup save files to a PC?
No. You cannot (at least in Windows). The disks use another file system (i.e.: not FAT) that only the Saturn can read.
Do I need to use a special floppy disk?
No. You can use any 1.44MB 3.5" floppy disk with the floppy drive. On the first use you must format the disk using the included CD so that the Saturn can read it.
How does saving work?
There is a memory manager CD that comes with the floppy drive that lets you transfer your data from your Saturn's internal memory or memory cartridges to a floppy disk.
The Saturn itself in the BIOS' memory manager CANNOT see the Floppy Drive. You need the CD. Without it, the peripheral is useless.
Is this peripheral region locked?
The attachment/drive itself isn't, but the memory manager disc is. You WILL need either a Japanese or region modded Saturn, or an import cartridge to use this device.
The latter choice isn't the best idea since any import cartridge with built in memory cannot access it's saved data through anything other than the cart's own software. Not even games can access it. Good for backing up internal save files though!
What language is the floppy drive manager in?
Japanese, and will NOT change depending on the system's set language.
However it is set up exactly like the BIOS' memory manager, so if you remember what does what you will have no problem at all.
Only thing that's added is a button on the bottom right corner of the screen that refreshes the disk in case you decided to swap it out for a new one.
How much space do you get per 1.44MB floppy disk?
While I cannot remember the number off hand, you get over 11000 blocks, which is excellent compared to the cartridge's slightly less than 8000 and the internal memory's 300ish blocks.
Isn't saving on floppy disks slow?
In comparison to flash memory, yes. However, the Saturn saves to the disks very quickly. A 2608 block file (Dezaemon 2 game) saved to the floppy disk in about 10-11 seconds.
Do any games support the floppy drive?
Dezaemon 2 has built in functionality for the floppy drive, so you can save directly to disk. Good for outside-of-Japan Dezaemon 2 users who use an import cartridge.
The Saturn's web browser can also save to the disks from what I hear. Though I haven't been able to try this myself.
Any other game cannot save directly to disk. You have to transfer the files afterwards in the floppy disk memory manager.
What are the bare minimum that my floppy drive should come with to be functional?
For the floppy drive to work, you will also need the memory manager disc and the separate power connector that plugs into the drive itself. Be sure to get these with your drive!
Is it worth the purchase?
Depends on the price, and how badly you need to backup your saves. Backups are always nice to have. If you're like me, you'll experience corrupt memory cartridges quite often by either kicking the Saturn in rage when your perfect streak on some arcade game is broken right near the end, when your cat jumps on your Saturn after you've spent hundreds of hours making a Dezaemon 2 game from scratch, or when the cartridge port just decides to give out from age and abuse like the Saturn is known for.
The drive itself can be seen on eBay and other online stores for hundreds of dollars (or around $100-150 if you're patient) but remember this: a box of 10 floppy disks is about $5 these days. That's over 110,000 blocks of data you can store for $5. To store that much with memory cartridges, you would need close to 14 cartridges, which altogether could cost well around $150-250.
Plus there's the fact that disks are small and easy to store, and it would give new life to your old unused floppy disks from back in the 80s.
If you can find it at the right price I would highly recommend picking up one of these. If there was a feature to save your files onto your PC, I'd recommend it more. It's unfortunate that it doesn't.
Now my request to the witty coders out there...
Please make an application that reads the Saturn's filesystem.
That would make this wonderful peripheral a must-have!!
I would be willing to lend out my drive for the purpose of making a driver or application that allows a Saturn's floppy disk to be read on a standard PC running any operating system.
Let me know!
To Mick:
You have my full permission to publish this anywhere on the SegaSaturn.co.uk site if you wish. I think it'd be a good idea since this site would become pretty much the only English place on the net with any sort of information on the floppy drive. Not many people want to take the risk and spend all that money to see for themselves what this peripheral actually does. It would also prevent people from being disappointed from a lack of a feature they expected.
What is the Sega Saturn Floppy Disk Drive?
It's an old 3.5" floppy drive that you plug into the back of your Sega Saturn. It uses 3.5" floppy disks to store save game data.
Can you backup save files to a PC?
No. You cannot (at least in Windows). The disks use another file system (i.e.: not FAT) that only the Saturn can read.
Do I need to use a special floppy disk?
No. You can use any 1.44MB 3.5" floppy disk with the floppy drive. On the first use you must format the disk using the included CD so that the Saturn can read it.
How does saving work?
There is a memory manager CD that comes with the floppy drive that lets you transfer your data from your Saturn's internal memory or memory cartridges to a floppy disk.
The Saturn itself in the BIOS' memory manager CANNOT see the Floppy Drive. You need the CD. Without it, the peripheral is useless.
Is this peripheral region locked?
The attachment/drive itself isn't, but the memory manager disc is. You WILL need either a Japanese or region modded Saturn, or an import cartridge to use this device.
The latter choice isn't the best idea since any import cartridge with built in memory cannot access it's saved data through anything other than the cart's own software. Not even games can access it. Good for backing up internal save files though!
What language is the floppy drive manager in?
Japanese, and will NOT change depending on the system's set language.
However it is set up exactly like the BIOS' memory manager, so if you remember what does what you will have no problem at all.
Only thing that's added is a button on the bottom right corner of the screen that refreshes the disk in case you decided to swap it out for a new one.
How much space do you get per 1.44MB floppy disk?
While I cannot remember the number off hand, you get over 11000 blocks, which is excellent compared to the cartridge's slightly less than 8000 and the internal memory's 300ish blocks.
Isn't saving on floppy disks slow?
In comparison to flash memory, yes. However, the Saturn saves to the disks very quickly. A 2608 block file (Dezaemon 2 game) saved to the floppy disk in about 10-11 seconds.
Do any games support the floppy drive?
Dezaemon 2 has built in functionality for the floppy drive, so you can save directly to disk. Good for outside-of-Japan Dezaemon 2 users who use an import cartridge.
The Saturn's web browser can also save to the disks from what I hear. Though I haven't been able to try this myself.
Any other game cannot save directly to disk. You have to transfer the files afterwards in the floppy disk memory manager.
What are the bare minimum that my floppy drive should come with to be functional?
For the floppy drive to work, you will also need the memory manager disc and the separate power connector that plugs into the drive itself. Be sure to get these with your drive!
Is it worth the purchase?
Depends on the price, and how badly you need to backup your saves. Backups are always nice to have. If you're like me, you'll experience corrupt memory cartridges quite often by either kicking the Saturn in rage when your perfect streak on some arcade game is broken right near the end, when your cat jumps on your Saturn after you've spent hundreds of hours making a Dezaemon 2 game from scratch, or when the cartridge port just decides to give out from age and abuse like the Saturn is known for.
The drive itself can be seen on eBay and other online stores for hundreds of dollars (or around $100-150 if you're patient) but remember this: a box of 10 floppy disks is about $5 these days. That's over 110,000 blocks of data you can store for $5. To store that much with memory cartridges, you would need close to 14 cartridges, which altogether could cost well around $150-250.
Plus there's the fact that disks are small and easy to store, and it would give new life to your old unused floppy disks from back in the 80s.
If you can find it at the right price I would highly recommend picking up one of these. If there was a feature to save your files onto your PC, I'd recommend it more. It's unfortunate that it doesn't.
Now my request to the witty coders out there...
Please make an application that reads the Saturn's filesystem.
That would make this wonderful peripheral a must-have!!I would be willing to lend out my drive for the purpose of making a driver or application that allows a Saturn's floppy disk to be read on a standard PC running any operating system.
Let me know!
To Mick:
You have my full permission to publish this anywhere on the SegaSaturn.co.uk site if you wish. I think it'd be a good idea since this site would become pretty much the only English place on the net with any sort of information on the floppy drive. Not many people want to take the risk and spend all that money to see for themselves what this peripheral actually does. It would also prevent people from being disappointed from a lack of a feature they expected.
..can you make some videos from this on Youtube?
