So the Sega Saturn hasn't been emulated properly?

[Anthony1]

It's a damn shame to me, that there isn't a decent Emulator for the Sega Saturn. The Playstation has a number of different emulators. Some of which are very, very solid. Yet the Saturn doesn't have one decent emulator?

What's up with that?

Yes, the PS1 was vastly more popular, but still.

The Saturn has it's share of devotees, and you would think that a couple of very talented Saturn lovers would have created a working, solid emulator of the Saturn.

But that doesn't seem to be the case.


What other systems from this era haven't been emulated properly yet?

[jonjandran]

The Saturn is hard to emulate because of it's dual CPU Processors.
When we get to the 5-6 gigaherz computer era it will probably happen.

[zektor]

Yep, the Saturn was definitely one complex piece of hardware...and not just to emulate. I remember reports from back in the day (round about the time I bought it) that programmers were having problems creating games on the hardware since it was so complex to code. This is one of the main reasons the PSX won that war...that and because they are Sony and pretty much had the cash/power to do anything they wanted. It was a sad instance however, as the Saturn is a great machine.

[Anthony1]

The lack of a decent Saturn emulator means that I will never be getting rid of all my physical systems.

I will at least have to hold onto my Saturn.


Also, do you really think it's just a horsepower issue? When we get to 5 to 6 gigahertz it won't be a problem?

But if that was the case, then there would already be a emulator that would run the games, but it would just run the games super painfully slow and unplayable.

But from what I understand, there isn't even a Saturn emulator out there that will do much more than show the title screen.

[zektor]

What most people don't understand is that when you are emulating processors and such, you are emulating actual hardware within software. How much power would you think a system would need to run software that would emulate a Pentium 4 for instance? Alot...

I tried a DOS based emulator awhile back to see if I can play Doom and a few others through it on my P3 (with DOS sound) and it ran rediculously slow. Keep in mind this is just trying to emulate a 486/33 on a modern day system in software.

[Daniel Thomas]

The Saturn was just an overcomplicated beast. I remember Yu Suzuki once commented on how difficult it was to program for dual processors. He felt that only 1 out of 100 programmers could really get the optimum performance out of the system.

Of course, the best Saturn games were the ones that really used the hardware, but how many developers was that? Sega's internal studios like AM2, Treasure, the Panzer Dragoon team? Most third-parties were just lost, and it really showed. The Playstation was such an easier alternative for everyone. Oh, well. Saturn is still a great machine with some great games.

There were one or two Saturn emulators in development for a while. One of which was either made or bought by Sega, if I remember. There was some progress, but again, it'll be a long time before our computers are fast enough to emulate everything properly.

Is this really a problem? A used Saturn can be found for, what, 30 bucks?

[ManekiNeko]

Giri Giri is a fantastic emulator that's compatible with many Saturn games. Out of all the Japanese games in my collection, Giri Giri works beautifully with 75% of them. Unfortunately, it doesn't yet emulate the 4M RAM cart, so if you're planning on playing Marvel vs. Street Fighter or Metal Slug you'd be better off just running them in MAME.

There's one other catch... the latest, more compatible version of Giri Giri is distributed for a price by Sega. Either you'll have to divy up the dough to get your hands on it or obtain it through, ahem, less legal measures. I wish I could give you a copy, but the rules of the board (and the threat of a lawsuit by Sega) prevents me from doing it.

JR

[Jorpho]

Oh, is that was Sega did with it? (I'd have thought they were planning to release more emulation packages along the lines of the Smash Packs.)

So where are they selling it?

[MaRiNe]

Just seems crazy to have to wait for uber computers, to be able to play a '32 bit' system we could snag on ebay for 20 bucks.

Course, emulation is free, and save states change the way to play.

[ManekiNeko]

Oh, is that was Sega did with it? (I'd have thought they were planning to release more emulation packages along the lines of the Smash Packs.)

So where are they selling it?

Here, I... guess. The site's in Japanese, and since I read Japanese at a kindergarten level I couldn't tell you exactly where you'll find the emulator. To the best of my knowledge Giri Giri isn't officially available in the United States.

http://cyberdisc.zaq.ne.jp/

JR

[Ze_ro]

Just seems crazy to have to wait for uber computers, to be able to play a '32 bit' system we could snag on ebay for 20 bucks.

If you're not happy with the state of Saturn emulation, then by all means, buy one. You'll have a much better experience playing things on the actual system rather than struggling with an unfinished emulator.

I always thought it was weird when people complained that N64/Jaguar/3DO/Dreamcast/(insert obscure system here) emulators don't work well, when the system itself can usually be had for about 30 bucks or so.

the Saturn was definitely one complex piece of hardware... This is one of the main reasons the PSX won that war

It's also the main reason the the Dreamcast is as easy to program as it is, since Sega learned it's lesson with the Saturn. Ironically, the simplicity of the Dreamcast might actually lead to "proper" Dreamcast emulators before Saturn emulators... of course, you'll need some major computrons to be able to play Dreamcast games full speed.

Incidentally, Alien Trilogy has the dubious distinction of being the only Saturn game to use only one of the Saturn's processors. I guess the programmers got fed up with trying to make everything work at once.

One of the hard parts about emulating the Saturn is making sure that all the inter-processor communication works properly. Even if you can emulate something more powerful than the dual SH2's, getting all the interconnects and having them talk to each other reliably is really complicated.

--Zero