Trying to program a game for the Sega Saturn

[fishsandwich]

IN BASIC. Geesh, I haven't tried to program in BASIC since 1988! "Game Basic For Sega Saturn" connects your Saturn to your PC and lets you program games and then play them back on your Saturn. I'm tryng my hand at a simple shooter, but it's VERY slow going. The manual is in Japanese, and the virtual keyboard is a bitch to figure out. Anyone else try this? I'd love some tips! The web isn't exactly giving me a lot of info.

On a related note, the Saturn disk is supposed to contain a sample shooter called "Lightning Gunner" that was developed entirely in BASIC that includes music, bitmaps, polygons and sound effects. I can't find it... anyone else have this game and know how to boot it up?

http://www.sega-saturn.com/images/lgunner-a.jpg
Screenshot of shooter
Lightning Gunner


http://image1.play-asia.com/350/PA.05497.001.jpg

http://image1.play-asia.com/350/PA.05497.002.jpg


Thanks!

Fish Sandwich

[Cauterize]

all i can say is good luck!
i know no BASIC
and no japanese !!!!

[rbudrick]

Your best bet is to find someone who speaks Japanese and have them translate that book for you. Buy them dinner or a gift certificate to a game store or something.....

Or, if you are really determined, pay a professional translation service to do it.

-Rob

[Iron Draggon]

WOW! I didn't even know they made anything like that for Saturn! I swear, the Japanese video game market is so much more badass than our own is!

[max 330 mega]

wow where did you get this , i have been looking for one of those forever, PM me if you can give any info.

[davidleeroth]

Play-Asia, $79. I think it's a good deal. I though of getting those once but then I remembered I can't even program my VCR. :(

[evilmess]

Does any of this help?

http://www.segaxtreme.net/Developer/

They also have a Saturn dev forum

And have you tried asking the kids at http://assembler.roarvgm.com/

:)

[dj898]

that pops up on Yahoo Japan for around $40 from time to time.

cheers

[GaijinPunch]

$79 isn't bad. They ask about 9800 for it in Akihabara. I had one ages ago, and sold it. From what I remember, the manual is pretty damn big. If it was small, I"d have a go at it, but you're talking about hours upon hours of translation.

[dj898]

and it's BASIC guys.
not sure how thorough it is but don't think it will be of any use...
but then I used to program in BASIC on my FM-NEW7 and PC-8001 back in my days... jeez I sounds like old man... :p

cheers

[dj898]

isn't there 2D shooter construction title? from memory someone was creating shooter using it... you will probably need FDD to stored data though...

think it's called deazamon(?) or something...

cheers

[davidleeroth]

isn't there 2D shooter construction title? from memory someone was creating shooter using it... you will probably need FDD to stored data though...

think it's called deazamon(?) or something...

cheers

The Saturn got the Dezaemon 2. I think the data is stored on the memory cart.

[fishsandwich]

Play-Asia, $79. I think it's a good deal. I though of getting those once but then I remembered I can't even program my VCR. :(

This is indeed where I got the programming kit. Brand-new, great condition. I, too, had been looking forever, but I was looking for something called "Saturn Basic" when I should have been looking for "Game Basic for Sega Saturn."

It cost about $95 with the cheapest shipping, which came in about a week and I highly recommend.

Oh... thanks for the link Evilmess! I shall check it out!

Fish Sandwich