Mednafen is the best, though there are probably games SSF works better on (again, we lack compatibility tests). So right now there are 3 Saturn emulators worth looking at, SSF, which has been actively maintained by the same single author for 20 years (which may be a record), Yaba Sanshiro and Mednafen. Recently it has become pretty interesting with graphical options that attempt to improve elements and worth keeping an eye on too: It also finally took away the fear of what would happen if Shima ever lost interest and departed the scene (the next best emulator at the time Yabause, was not really close), as Mednafen is open source.Īround the same time, Devmiyax released Yaba Sanshiro (formerly uoyabause), a Yabause fork that concentrates on graphics. It has an optional shader which imitates the old crt monitor look, which I love, here's a couple screenshots I captured of Saturn games with it enabled: This is what I currently use to play saturn games.
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This was very exciting news as Mednafen has the best PC Engine emulation, and may have the best PSX emulation (it's that or Dr Hell's "Xebra", but sadly no one has done proper compatibility tests), so people were very excited to try it.Īnd happily, right off the bat, Mednafen's Saturn emulation was superb, and already in certain games was better then SSF. Saturne, Saturnin, SaturnTV, Yabause all came and went, but SSF remained by far the best way to play until 2016.Īt that point, the fantastic multisystem emulator Mednafen, written by emulation veteran Ryphecha added Saturn support. Shima released new versions steadily (checking my archives the only years he hasn't released a new version were '12 & '14, and it may just be I lost those releases). Up until 2016, SSF remained the unquestioned best way to play Saturn games. Sadly others were not, but that Saturn emulation had already gotten this far was impressive. By 06 I had bought a computer that was capable of running it, and was amazed - some games were already indistinguishable from playing on real hardware. By 2004 it was easily the best Saturn emulator, but had significantly higher requirements then Girigiri. SSF, a closed source emulator by Shima, had been started in 1999. Girigiri was a dead end though - closed source itself, there was no way to improve it, though people tried to pretend they could (emulator forum link) with projects like Cassini (be careful looking Cassini up, some versions shipped with viruses).Īll the time I was using Girigiri, I knew that there was actually a better emulator out there. Had minor graphical glitches and sound issues, but as someone who was using SNES9x and ZSNES, I was very used to that. It was pretty good for 2004, I recall getting very far into Shining Force 3 Scenario 1 in it, and I may have even completed it. Someone called Gavionne managed to hack this version so it would play any Saturn game, not just the ones Sega were selling, and released it. Girigiri, a Saturn emulator written by MegaDeath had been licensed by Sega for commercial use.
The first time I used a Saturn emulator was probably 2004. But the truth is it's really never been in a bad state. above.For almost the last 20 years, it seems wherever you discuss Saturn emulation there will be people who talk about what a bad state the emulation accuracy is in.
If you are using per-core configs MAKE SURE YOU’VE LOADED THE Mednafen Saturn config file first! Don’t overwrite the default RetroArch config file with a new default BIOS directory location – unless you’re going to put ALL emulator BIOSes in that directory (see 2.C.Set the directory to wherever you saved the two BIOS files in step 2.The first directory option under the Directory section is System/BIOS Dir.Near the bottom of that column is the Directory section.It is in the second column – “Settings” the one with the gears for the icon.
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