MiSTer FPGA Sega Saturn New Core Testing! Games That Just 99% Work Perfectly on the Current Core!

Sega Saturn on MiSTer FPGA is now on update all and while its still in beta there are still a ton of of best Sega Saturn games and Sega Saturn hidden gems to play! MiSTer FPGA Saturn core fun times!
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I asked, you answered...and I try to listen :) Of all the requests for new content on the channel one of the most frequently asked for videos is a series on the Terasic DE-10 Nano MiSTer FPGA hardware...so here it is! Retro gaming goodness.
NOTE : the Sega Saturn MiSTer FPGA core was just added to Update_all as an official release yesterday. But its the same core we are currently testing on so it's still WIP. Just a heads up...and that's what this video is today! Plus CHD support has been unofficially added but we will talk about that in an upcoming setup guide!
This is a list of games that just 100% work on the current MiSTer FPGA Sega Saturn core!
SRG320 just updated the Sega Saturn core with new code...AGAIN just more hours ago on October 4th......so of course we are going to test the new binary and see how it performs. and now it's been folded into MiSTer Main and Update_all! Seriously...the improvements in performance and compatibility is a small retro gaming miracle! A LOT of games we tested previously have HUGE improvements and some new games work that never used to! and some games that STOPPED working on previous cores are now back and better than ever! Plus Burning Rangers has a seriously awesome improvement!
and now we have new working games that never worked before as well! Amazing. This is a core testing video with user requests! So enjoy!
This core fixes a massive ton of issues from the last Saturn core. Also make sure you update MiSTer main as there are some CD loading fixes in there that benefit Saturn!
and now it seems like more people that have older RAM modules / the four chip ram module variants are seeing more success running the current Sega Saturn MiSTer FPGA core too!
and game saves are here! Which is HUGE for the core! Because playing Sega Saturn in FPGA on MiSTer FPGA without being able to save your game was NOT easy!
So that means its time to test a new batch of games...viewer requests too!
Note: this is the current build of the Sega Saturn core for MiSTer FPGA and NEW GAMES WORK! but really its the save functionality that is the huge thing! Also this is a MiSTer FPGA Sega Saturn setup guide as the core is once again manually installed and you need to switch to MiSTer Unstable Main vs being on Stable main...which I will show you how to do in the video!
This is part of the MiSter FPGA Sega Saturn testing series...but now with a brand new core build! So lets put it through its paces! Because the audio quality on the new core just sounds PERFECT...in spots!
Note; you may need to format memory depending on the game. See here vampier.net/Sa...
Patreon Thanks: Seth Peterson, John Thompson, Paul Daniel, Porch, Jon Anderson, RayceARoni, Kuranghu, Jason Hixon, Alex Tessler, Jonathan Leung, Martin Donlon, Tom Van Deusen, barabob, Steve Randall, Ahab, K-2, Renaissance 2K, Ivar Wennerhold, Adrien Sebbane,
Mike Puelinckx, Tony Escobar, H7, Ben Parfitt, Holger Schmidt, Tim Lehner, Shad Uttam, Dan L, Coupon Joe, Sunder Raj, Dorfus the Maple Syrup Man, John Booty, Richard S, Eric Gutt and Robert Alger!
THIS IS THE LATEST TEST OF 2023 using the September 22nd Sega Saturn FPGA core…and I can't wait to follow along with the Sega Saturn FPGA core progress in 2023. It's been incredible to watch the retrogaming community test the Sega Saturn core from Srg320 and I can't wait to see more improvements!
Games Tested: Keio Fying Squadron 2, Dungeons & Dragons Shadows Over Mystara, Decathelete, Wipeout and Capcom's fighting game of brilliance X: Men vs Street Fighter!
Note: You can use a single RAM or dual RAM build of the Sega Saturn core for MiSTer FPGA. You need Unstable Main currently as well!
Consider supporting SRG320. He could use it!
and thanks to Andy D!
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Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and I will do my best to answer each and every one of them!
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You can follow us at IG : ChicagoGameCollector , or join our Discord Server : / discord
VGE
#retrogaming #misterfpga #sega #segasaturn #retrogamer #retrogames #arcade #arcadegames #arcadegame #emulator #emulation #retrogaming

[@Cookiedon15]

The Saturn Core update also fixed the image being shifted to the left on CRT TVs. Thank you to the core devs 👍

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy to do them!

[@Cookiedon15]

@@VideoGameEsoterica 😀👍

[@METR0lD]

Once again, Saturnday is my favorite day of the week! 🤘

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

SaturnDay is the best day by far

[@beefquiche]

the chillout-room music on night striker is beautiful

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

They should just put THAT in elevators

[@Riz2336]

Looking through my binder of burned discs for the Saturn I didn't have night striker, time to add that one

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s a classic. Enjoy it!

[@urbanknish]

Never saw Night Striker before - this is going on my list! Thank you! Need for Speed has better "look ahead" than anything I've seen on the N64.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Enjoy it! It’s an absolute classic. One of the best Taito games ever made IMO

[@chryoko]

Thanks VGE for the inspirations : I tested today those recommended games. Hereby my modest feedback. 1) Night Striker will not boot. Need to deactivate the 2nd controler into the core menu. Then make sure to have no epileptic issue.... 2) D&D games are full Japanese, that is quite hard to follow for those who can't read the text. No English patch available. Fall back solution is the Arcade core into Mister : It is fully english speaking and also great ! 3) Megaman X4 is a really good and neat game !!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes those are all in Japanese but it’s still doable / a game that just works. Odd on Night Striker

[@BobbyHo2022]

yep. Having trouble booting Night Striker. Black screen.

[@BobbyHo2022]

yep disabled 2nd contrller and now works great. thank you for your info!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad it worked

[@phillai]

I need to upgrade to the better memory to get this Saturn core to work like yours! 😔

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I use MiSTer Addons 128MB modules and they are all tested before ship and work great

[@jonniefast]

ive been having so much fun with testing this core i dont report my findings but 😅 works out of the box with my composite adapters, played children of the atom to completion for the first time ever 🥺💕

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Nice. Composite out is a fun time too

[@superpcengine]

can you test out virtua fighter 1 and remix next time? those are still tough to emulate lol

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll take a peek

[@SiincereARC]

Comparisons coming soon? I'm thinking original vs. Jp with ram cart (optional) vs. Saturn w/ fenrir vs. Saturn w/ satiator (however it's spelled) vs. Software emulation vs. MiSTer FPGA. Either all components or S-Video. Saturn Bomberman (mostly sound check), Tetris Plus (precision), Street Fighter Alpha 3 (performance), Darkstalkers (color accuracy).

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Comparisons once the core is “done”. Any sooner and it’s really not a fair fight

[@chryoko]

@@VideoGameEsotericaFully agree. Also the RPi5 is arriving and is already demonstrated to be 60FPS stable on Saturn emulation under Recalbox. Will be interesting to compare Mister and RPi5 on side to side as you did in the past for the PSX core

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I have a Pi 5 on pre order. Just need to wait for it to arrive

[@chryoko]

@@VideoGameEsoterica me too ! 😁Dreamcast, Naomi, Cave, Saturn... are looking great already on Recalbox (60FPS). Some upscaling maybe too.... however PS2 not so great on first tests. Maybe need better Vulkan drivers....time will tell if the RPi5 is capable to emulate the PS2 well. Would be a great solution for that.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Now I’ve just gotta wait for the Pi 5 to arrive

[@Vvewa]

Have you tried a controller with analog sticks for Nights? Curious how it controls

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I haven’t yet but I’ve heard it works great

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

It really needs proper verification to make sure the core isn't just mapping d-pad control to analog. Shame we don't have a 240p test suite for Saturn that could test accessories.@@VideoGameEsoterica

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yeah that’s a huge benefit on the N64 side with the analog control tester

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

NiGHTS HD on X360 messed this up by mapping d-pad control to analog and it would snap to 8 directions. If you have a good eye for it in NiGHTS you can do loops and see if they are smooth and don't snap to the 8 points. Might have to try and do it slowly though. There are probably some other good games that you could use to verify. Japan made a big deal out of Magic Carpet and bundled it with the 3D Control Pad.@@VideoGameEsoterica

[@billford171]

Did you cover In The Hunt? Love that game!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I have in the past. Works great

[@billford171]

@@VideoGameEsoterica must have missed that one, and really good to know! Havent done an update-all in awhile, think if Saturn is part of the download will try this weekend. Been focused on Pocket lately and my poor mister is sitting there unloved.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Gotta give MiSTer some good lovin 🤣

[@T200026]

subbed, Great Content. 👍

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Super appreciate it!

[@cyberspace_man9722]

I can’t get these games to work, are they working on your end? Elevator Action Returns, Tactics Ogre, Shining in the Holy Ark. Thanks for this amazing tutorial.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I haven’t had any issue with any of those. What’s your setup? Ram version?

[@cyberspace_man9722]

@@VideoGameEsoterica analog IO board w/ stock RAM from Mr Addons, using Hi Saturn 1.01 bios. Elevator Action Returns: Drive door open error message, Shining the holy ark: blank black screen, Tactics Ogre: freezes permanently at Original game by Quest 1995 intro….does not make it to title screen. Any suggestions? Thx

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Drive door open is an odd one. Try new files.

[@Jokerwolf666]

Damn this covid, I want to do stuff

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Covid sucks

[@urbanknish]

When watching KOF99, I had a memory of using MAME to play King of Fighter games (probably 97?) on a Pentium II, 366MHz in the late 90s. It ran at full speed if I recall, or maybe I didn't know any better. If you had a 3dfx card and a Soundblaster, you were good to go and of course we played Sega Saturn on our real Sega Saturn. LOL Get off my lawn. Kidding aside, I'm glad people can play these games in 2023.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha we’ve come a LONG way since the early 2000s and I love to see it

[@Metaljedd]

Used to use NeoRageX on a 233mhz machine with 32 megs of RAM and a Sidewinder. Neo Geo games use to take 30 minutes to load later KOF games into the Windows 98 swap file and towards the end of that era there was a special version of MAME that would let you play online via dial up. Wasn't very good, but mind blowing at the time. Emulation has come a long way.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Oh I’m sure. Giant roms for the era. Still the slowest loading games on MiSTer based on size

[@tog2842]

Maybe it is my memory being off, but did the original Saturn run Nights into Dreams as smooth as this core?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It ran smooth on OG hardware for sure

[@markderidder]

When playing the core on a CRT via direct video the image seems dark. Is this known? Or is it my CRT? Other cores look fine. Also virtua fighter 2 jitters and lacks sfx. Again wondering if this is normal for the core.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Analog support isn’t perfect for the core yet so all that is just normal as of now

[@Renulph]

Did you play through Stellar Assault SS yet? Great game.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ve played a bit. Not much. Awesome translation though

[@Renulph]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Worth a full play through on the infinite credit version, I felt it was really fun (useful to use a guide so you can get the true ending, there are some specific requirements for it in certain stages). Easy mode also helps. It's got some really memorable parts.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

As soon as I get some free time ( who know when haha)

[@BenGarcia]

for puzzle fighter, i'd rather play the arcade core for it that's already released.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That’s totally fair

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

Maybe at this point it might be better to showcase stuff that isn't working. (all regions)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha that would be a very bad video. You’d just have black screens

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

and partially broken games. 😀@@VideoGameEsoterica

[@silenthill4]

Mystaria and Dark Savior?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Both work well

[@BobbyHo2022]

I can't get Night Striker to work. It is just blank.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Try setting controller 2 to off

[@RazorEdgeBullie]

I was playing nights into dreams the other day and noticed gourad shading was not implemented yet on the last update. Has this been added on the newest release?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I don’t believe so

[@ValeaPenaJogardeNovo]

What is the core version? Mine is 23/10/18 and Night Striker S didn't work :/ It stuck on the screen after the second Sega logo.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s the most recent core. I’d have to check the date but I am not in front of my MiSTer currently

[@chryoko]

you need to disable the 2nd controler into the core menu. then it will boot correctly. odd but real....

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I forgot since it had been a minute

[@anthonywhittica5687]

KOF 98 and KOF 2000

[@dan_perry]

Will this core run the Irreal demo?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Unreal? Yes it will. I showed it some videos back

[@eebobobo2565]

Hi. Any chance of testing Rayman please?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll add it to the list for later :)

[@GiuseppeAriciTiamarie]

Does Super Tempo work on the core?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Last I tested yes

[@remygamb1t]

Hi! Tactics Ogre let us cling together, is not working here.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That one I haven’t tested in a long time. Good to know

[@cyberspace_man9722]

Same for me, I can confirm that it does not make it to the Title Screen.

[@DanimanXCL]

Do you prefer mmx4 on ps1 or sega Saturn?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I play on Saturn but that’s just because I prefer the controller so for that reason Saturn

[@iokuse8498]

Is public version single or duel?

[@KokoTheGorilla69]

Single

[@ScandalUK]

Yeah I wondered if they merged it or something cuz I couldn’t find the dual build for the versions after it was added to update_all

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’d have to check. I still manually install for the most part

[@ROBSILVERGUN]

This title is the very meaning of the word clickbait. 😂

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Lol dunno why you’d think that. It delivers what it says; games that work 99% as good as real hardware

[@nodieza]

It is a literally description of what is in the video 🤦‍♀️

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha seriously

[@miltonbates6425]

I'm thinking of picking up the new RetroBit Pro Analog Sega Saturn controller (2.4 Ghz) for this core (in place of the 3D Control Pad). Has anybody tested it out yet?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

No. At least now me. Is it even out yet?

[@miltonbates6425]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Yeah, it's already out with some online retailers. It's not on the official RetroBit site, which seems weird.

[@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

It doesn't have analog triggers which means it's not valid as a 3D Control Pad replacement despite supposed compatibility.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It doesn’t have analog triggers?? How’d they mess that up?

[@miltonbates6425]

@@Reprogrammed_By_SEGA Yeesh. Good to know.

[@H6rdc0re]

Another video? "Don't you understand? He never sleeps." Love your videos. 🫡

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I plan ahead :)