Sega Nerds

PC Saturn Emulator - ‘SSF’ - update.

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News. Tagged with Emulation, Saturn.

 

A few months ago we reported a couple of promising Saturn emulators available for your PC.  One which we ‘reviewed’ was SSF, a Saturn emulator that, while not perfect, was running most games and running them pretty darn well!

The good news is that the people/person (not sure how many are at it) behind SSF have been working on it further and have recently released an updated version of the program.  But before you get too excited, the software still isnt perfect.  In fact some may not notice much between this version and the last.

But I can tell you it has been improved, even if slightly, because I tested a few of games with the last version and re-tested them with this one and a couple of them were definitely running smoother.  But as I say, still not perfect.

Check for more information and new screenshots after the jump…

It’s not hard to imagine that the games that tend to run with reduced frame-rate are the ones that are naturally fast (on the Saturn) or heavy with 3D graphics.  Racing games, particuarly Sega Touring Cars, are almost unplayable- although Sega Rally did run quite well for me.  Burning Rangers is one of the games that has improved dramatically.  On the last version Burning Rangers was very jerky and difficult to play.  But I could forgive this as the game is very heavy on 3D graphics and lighting effects.  Now the game runs at a decent framerate (not quite to par with the proper Saturn, but getting there) the only issue with Burning Rangers is that the sound is a little dodgy, some times you hear voices repeat or breakup, but again this can be forgiven (to an extent) as the game is entirely made up of voice acting and it has plenty of it.  Also this doesn’t ruin any gameplay.  But it can be better!

There are some games do run pretty darn well, even though they have a lot of 3D graphics in them.  Panzer Dragoon Saga was runing almost perfectly for me - getting a little jerky with some of the bigger spells, but generally looking and playing great.  Bug! plays almost flawlessly - but you do notice a few glitchy graphic moments in the backdrop occassionally, but that doesn’t ruin the gameplay.

I could sit here and give you the run down of my entire Saturn collection, but, for one thing, that would take ages.  And, another thing, the way the games play depends entirely on your the specs of you PC.  So the best way for you to know what games work, is to download and test your games yourself.

-You can find the original Japanese page here.

-Or a lovely translated page here. 

-They also have the older versions still available for download, if you wish to test the differences between them.

Note: One thing I do suggest is that you turn off ‘Scanline’.  Along the top bar of the emulator, click on ‘Options’ then click on ‘Option’ in the drop down menu (its the top selection).  Then in the next screen click the ‘Screen’ tab.  This has various setting you can turn on and off.  Deselect the ‘Scanline’ option (so the box is empty).  The scan line puts lots of little lines across the screen.  This can make some games look darker and in some cases you see larger lines going across the screen, which can ruin play.  I’m not sure what it is for exactly, but I turn it off and the games seem to run just the same, but with a much clearer, brighter picture.  Example:

         

Scan Line On        -        Scan Line Off

Here are some screenshots, click a thumbnail to see full size image;

           

Bug! was running near perfect. With some minor backdrop glitches (which didn’t show up in any screen dumps I took)

           

Sonic R’s gameplay is still great and smooth, however the game suffers from some big graphical glitches- you may notice in the 3rd screendump.

           

Burning Rangers is now running very well, just some sound issues which might annoy, but at least it’s now playable.