Saturn Development

[retrogod]

Hi,


I've been away from the Saturn scene for a number of years now (ever since I sold my 115 games and 4 Saturn consoles) and now I'm interested in joining the community once again.


I need to know whether there are any experienced ex developers or fresh developers that can code in assembly within the community. I have a Saturn PSY-Q dev kit in my possession and the original dev kit complete with Japanese manuals. It runs on Apple System 7 or Windows 95 so I was toying around with the idea of producing an updated dev kit with the right experienced people. I have already spoken to a guy from Liverpool who ported Doom to the Saturn and still has all of the original in-house documentation for it too who is willing to help for a fee. Do you think it would be a successful kickstarter campaign?  www.psygnosis.org/history/SATURNPSYQ/

[mick_aka]

There is already updated dev software available, the hardware is completely unnecessary nowadays as PC's are more than powerful enough to emulate the system for debugging and testing purposes.

Your PsyQ kit, much like all my own devkit is nothing more than an interesting conversation piece, PsyQ wasnt a complete dev kit anyway.

[retrogod]

Where is this updated dev kit? Could you make the link available please?

Also, emulation is rubbish and I hope something comes of the SH2 chips now being open source like an enhanced open source clone

[Yart]

Look for Rockin' B's page.

[retrogod]

Ive just checked it out. Its old, messy and totally not good enough at all.

[mick_aka]

Care to elaborate on what's so poor about current Saturn emulation as far as using for development and debugging are concerned?

I'd also be genuinely interested in what you found inadequate about Saturn Orbit, don't get me wrong my own experience with it is pretty light but you're the first person I've heard say anything negative about it, especially after looking at it so briefly.

On a side note I'd also be interested to know who you're in touch with from Rage, I've met a few of those guys over the years.

The fact you've found someone with previous experience willing to do any sort of development for the system is quite an achievement, as we know from talking to people that worked on both first and third party Saturn titles back in the day most would rather eat their own eyes than work with the system again.
The Saturn port of Doom is notoriously poor and barely utilises any of the systems potential, so interesting choice as far as getting an ex developer on board.

[mick_aka]

Yea I'm aware of it's compatibility issues, I think it got itself a bad name for that over the years, but that last version they released was a giant leap in the right direction, I hope someone is pushing on with it.

[redtail]

Oct 17, 2014 19:42:12 GMT mick_aka said:

Yea I'm aware of it's compatibility issues, I think it got itself a bad name for that over the years, but that last version they released was a giant leap in the right direction, I hope someone is pushing on with it.

The compatibility list on their site is really a joke. The only game that I've been able to get running almost perfectly has been PD Zwei, and I had to revert back to an older revision to do it. Yabause is a long, long way off from being practical. That said, I do hope they keep at it. Their emulator actually has better long term potential than SSF.

[mick_aka]

Yea I've always thought so, there's a lot that's playable in it but little that's 100%. It seems to have a LOT of issues with anything using FMV.

[redtail]

Oct 18, 2014 19:05:55 GMT mick_aka said:

Yea I've always thought so, there's a lot that's playable in it but little that's 100%. It seems to have a LOT of issues with anything using FMV.

Makes me wish Shima would make SSF open source. Pretty sure he could retain the commercial rights to anything derived from his code if he did that.

[retrogod]

Oct 16, 2014 20:17:44 GMT mick_aka said:

Care to elaborate on what's so poor about current Saturn emulation as far as using for development and debugging are concerned?

I'd also be genuinely interested in what you found inadequate about Saturn Orbit, don't get me wrong my own experience with it is pretty light but you're the first person I've heard say anything negative about it, especially after looking at it so briefly.

On a side note I'd also be interested to know who you're in touch with from Rage, I've met a few of those guys over the years.

The fact you've found someone with previous experience willing to do any sort of development for the system is quite an achievement, as we know from talking to people that worked on both first and third party Saturn titles back in the day most would rather eat their own eyes than work with the system again.
The Saturn port of Doom is notoriously poor and barely utilises any of the systems potential, so interesting choice as far as getting an ex developer on board.

Whats so poor about the current emulation and development scene? Are you kidding me? There isn't one! Thats the problem. There isn't a single emulator out there that can replace a Saturn and there isn't an updated quality alternative dev kit for use with a real Saturn. Just count the amount of new software out there or activity. Theres no need to elaborate. I really hope you dont think that dev page is adequate enough for most users. The Saturn is a difficult beast, dont get me wrong, but thats why we need an easier package that runs on current hardware if the scene is ever going to be attractive to homebrew developers. Every platform has an active scene so I dont want to hear about numbers and sales figures for the system.

The issue is that most people dont write in assembly but this guy does and hes been in other development houses too. He wont do it for free but hes good. Its nice to see that you are pulling him apart already but he wasnt a choice. It was a chance visit and we got talking. Internal documents on in-house saturn development is rare to own so its great to have both the documentation, hardware and the person who used it all together. I got to chat to the developers of Wipeout and Destruction Derby for the Saturn once whilst I was repairing his Mac about 4 years ago. Its funny who you can bump into.

Anyway, its nice to see that people on the scene are happy with emulation and current dev tools. I'd rather try and fail at something I love than just stick with and accept  whats on offer so I'm going to see what I can go with this guy and hopefully others too. 

 

[vbt]

the best compiler version for saturn is here :

ci.opengamedevelopers.org/view/SEGA%20Saturn%20SDK

github.com/SaturnSDK