SSF: Saturn on your PC
Posted by Gill Figno. Filed under News. Tagged with Downloads, Emulation, Saturn.
A few days ago, Chris highlighted an update of a Sega Saturn emulator called SSF that actually works. Well, the resident Sega Nerds have had a chance to play around with it. Is SSF worth the download or is it another failed attempt at bringing Saturn to the PC? Let’s find out.
Let me start off things by saying this: SSF is by far the best Sega Saturn emulator yet. It can actually boot a lot of games, emulates Saturn’s Menu’s properly and you can get some quality play time with some of the titles. Previous Saturn emulators had trouble getting games to run or even boot. Could the reason be Saturn’s notoriously complex hardware? I’d likely chalk it up to general lack of interest, but it could be any number of things.
SSF can only run from a disc, no roms at this point. (Unless you know how to mount a CD image, which may work, but I have yet to try it.) However, this is only an alpha release, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a later version implemented it. Upon placing your Saturn disc into the drive, you’ll be greeted by the Saturn’s start-up sequence with full sound (if you’ve configured a bios file, normally the game simply boots.) From here, things get a little more familiar…with a few hick-ups.
The first and most obvious issue the emulator runs into is the framerate. Every game I tried was running at speeds much lower then usual, even simple 2D games like Baku Baku were chugging along. It’s strange how inconsistent the framerate is. Panzer Dragoon and Virtual Hydlide run well, but Baku Baku doesn’t? I’m not sure what the recommended specs for the Emulator are, since it’s readme is in Japanese. Sure, my computer isn’t top of the line, but I can get a steady framerate on most new PC games and other emulators for systems like N64 and Playstation run fast. So, I think this is due to the coding of the Emulator. I even tried disabling the sound, since this some times helps, but to no avail. I don’t expect this to be an issue in further updates, since as I mentioned before, this is an early release (0.08 Alpha R3 to be exact.)
I experienced a few problems with getting some games to run, such as Duke Nukem 3D, which would simply crash the program. This may have been an issue with the US version of the game. Because, my mate from across the pond, G’s copy was working like a charm. Though, he seemed to have more steady framerates then I did in general. So this could be an issue with my computer. The built-in screenshot feature freezes the program. I had to ‘print screen’ all my pictures for this review. Bummer. G also mentioned the color looked a little off, but I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Most of the games I played looked better then the true system, but I did experience some strange ghosting effects on some games.
It’s a little unusual to attempt to control Saturn games with a keyboard, so I wouldn’t advise trying it. Thankfully SSF has an option to enable a joystick. This helps out a lot for games like NiGHTS and Burning Rangers, which would be near unplayable with keys. All this may seem like a lot of trouble to play a round or two of Virtua Fighter, but it’s a nice up-and-coming Saturn emulator. I’d say if you’re into the Saturn emulation scene, this is the one to watch.
I’m just amazed a Saturn emulator is this far along. Saturn emulation has generally been ignored. The ease of use of the emulator is refreshing, all you have to do is drop a CD into the drive and you’re on your way. No messing with Bios or configuration files. Overall, in this early state it’s a solid emulator. You’ll be tempted to check out each of your Saturn games on this baby, even with the framerate issues. Keep an eye on this one.
But…If you don’t have a PC fast enough to play, want to use the classic Saturn controller or generally can’t stand the dirty feeling you get from using an emulator…just pick up an actual Saturn, I honestly can’t believe you don’t have one yet, dude.
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Ok people- Warren gave a link to the Japanese page for the system specs.
Here is the same page but translated into English.
It lays out the necessary Specs to run the emulator properly.
http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww7a.biglobe.ne.jp%2F%257Ephantasy%2Fssf%2Findex.html&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
It does seem as though you need a fairly decent system- though by the looks of it most ’standard’ systems these days can run it happily.
My views on the emulator are slightly different to Warrens.
I have found that the VAST majority of my games run pretty well. There are a few moments of jerkyness.
Panzer Dragoon Saga runs almost flawlessly, Duke Nukem 3D is perfect on my system- I’m not sure why Warrens was so dodgy.
Die Hard Arcade was a weird one- at first it was quite jerky, but then it suddenly smoothed out and was really good.
The two games that were pretty awkward were Sega Touring Cars and Nights.
Nights ran ok and was playable- but was also suffered from a dodgy framerate- and was therefore no way near as fun as normal. Sega Touring Cars was only really playable in Time Trail mode. It ran ok unless you eithe rcrashed or had more than 2 other cars on screen- then it would become almost unplayable.
Admittedly I didn’t try out my entire collection. But I’d say like 90% of the games I tried ran very well.
The sound was perfect- I was most impressed.
Warren mentioned I had concerns about the colours. It was only on a few games- where the background colours were not right at all.
Also there were lines across the screen when I first started playing- BUT there is actually an option which gets rid of the lines….random I know, but if you too have Line Problems like I did- fiddle with the visual settings a bit.
One other very cool feature is that the Emulator supports not only the ‘State Save’ Which every emulator has. But it also supports the standard in game saves. I always forget about State Saves -so when saving my Panzer Dragoon Saga file, I need not worry about losing it by normal saving means.
-Thats about it for my quick round up of the Emulator. I am so damn happy with it- its a godsend as my Convertor Cart is damaged and therefore can no longer play foreign games- but this plays all regions very well.
G
Posted January 9th, 2007 at 6:55 am.