Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

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Austin
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Austin »

Yeah, really sucks for people overseas. Not too bad for folks in the USA though--$7 for UPS Ground. More for 2-Day air or Over Night, but the lowest option is pretty reasonable.
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Lawfer
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Lawfer »

How does this compare to the other similar solutions?
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cjug
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by cjug »

Kez wrote:
fernan1234 wrote:That's more issues than I had expected, and this is only testing through the small USA library.
There are tabs for other regions as well, lots of Japanese games have been tested. Still, looks like the testing has been cursory.. bound to be more issues presenting themselves as people delve deeper into the games. Some pretty important games with issues, too.
Just an initial impression, compatibility list is not that impressive, considering the price. Yes, future firmware updates can improve on this.

Anyway, it would be very interesting to have a comparison between this, MODE, Fenrir and Rhea/Phoebe.
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Greg2600
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Greg2600 »

https://www.patreon.com/posts/launched-and-etc-41056496
Orders have opened for people 0-49 in the queue; you should have received an email, or check the queue manager. I decided to open orders slowly to shake problems out of the logistics chain, which was the right decision - I already got a grumpygram from my logistics person because their customs declarations were coming out with a value of $9999.99! Needless to say, that has been fixed... The first orders have now shipped. If you are still waiting in the queue, note that your number in the queue manager will not change; the order window will rise to include you when it's your turn.

In other news, I'm beyond impressed that slinga-homebrewhas managed to update their savegame manager to support the Satiator, before it even launched! This was entirely based on work in an emulator - I published a fork of Yabause some years ago that provides the Satiator API, though it's now a little out of date. The tool has been tested on real hardware by one of the Satiator beta testers, and even found a little bug in the firmware, which is addressed by a firmware update.

Also in firmware, I've addressed the boot issue I previously mentioned with BIOS 1.00. It turned out that it would get so eager to start up that it'd try reading an emulated disc without first authenticating it, so the CD block would lock out its read attempts... I've worked around this, and booting on BIOS 1.00 is now perfect, just like on 1.01 systems.

Another minor firmware change is that the Satiator now acts as an SD card reader over USB when the Saturn is powered off. This is pretty slow, and is not intended for copying games! - but it is useful for development work on the menu and homebrew. I actually implemented it today because I just moved house and I couldn't find my full-size SD reader, and I desperately needed to get a file on a card to look at slinga's save manager...
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by evil_ash_xero »

I'm quite happy with my Rhea and Phoebe. However, if you can keep your laser, that's a great option to have.
I absolutely love these things. I wish someone would make one for the PCE CD.
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Greg2600
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Greg2600 »

https://www.patreon.com/posts/big-batch-exfat-43392797

Latest Patreon Update:

Planning a big batch to be manufactured and ready by end of November. Should suffice for all Patreon supporters to buy. General release would follow that.

Added exFAT support.

Added Action Replay support.
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kitty666cats
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by kitty666cats »

evil_ash_xero wrote:I'm quite happy with my Rhea and Phoebe
I am too... especially since I can rip video files to VCD images in MPEG-1 format and watch em on my Phoebe for kicks! Do you know if ANYONE has updated the boring Rmenu GUI though? lol
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Greg2600
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Greg2600 »

XtraSmiley
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by XtraSmiley »

Any word on if future revisions are going to get cheaper?
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Fudoh
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Fudoh »

got mine (from the publically available ones) a few days ago.

It's a really nice device. Of course there are lot of alternatives available these days and the Satiator is DAMN expensive after all, but the fact that you can really just plug it into the back of any Saturn and easily take it from one machine to another is such a big plus. Yes, of course this was always known, but actually doing this on a stationary CD-based home system is such a cool experience.

For anybody with more than a single Saturn in regular use, this a true must-have. Seriously!
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Rikrok »

Does anyone know how to get support/post bugs for this? I can't find an email/forum/anything.

I'm getting about a second of glitchy skipped audio every half hour or so, it doesn't matter what the game is. Doesn't happen with discs.

Also the US version of Amok won't run on my Japanese Saturn (stays on loading forever when going into the main game). It'd be great if someone could tell me whether it's Saturn thing or a Satiator thing).
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by fernan1234 »

Rikrok wrote:Does anyone know how to get support/post bugs for this? I can't find an email/forum/anything.

I'm getting about a second of glitchy skipped audio every half hour or so, it doesn't matter what the game is. Doesn't happen with discs.

Also the US version of Amok won't run on my Japanese Saturn (stays on loading forever when going into the main game). It'd be great if someone could tell me whether it's Saturn thing or a Satiator thing).
In case you're not on the latest menu and firmware versions, you should try updating. I recall that one of the recent ones fixed some audio stutter issues.

Best place to ask for help is probably the Satiator channel on Discord: https://discord.com/channels/4911700638 ... 4377140355
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Konsolkongen
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Konsolkongen »

I just ordered one also. This is stupidly expensive but I'd much rather have this than ruining my consoles functionality by installing one of the other ODE options.

I own just about every game worth owning on Saturn, so this is really just for fan translations and ROM hacks >_< Thankfully a lot is happening on the Saturn these days :)
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Greg2600
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Greg2600 »

The Discord is very active, that's where I would go yes. I got one too, arrived very quickly. One bit of annoyance is that you've got to keep a working CR2032 in the system or it won't boot. The reset to menu only seems to work if you've got an Action Replay plugged in. Otherwise you have to power cycle the console. Games I've tried so far work flawlessly.
Rikrok
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Rikrok »

fernan1234 wrote:In case you're not on the latest menu and firmware versions, you should try updating. I recall that one of the recent ones fixed some audio stutter issues.

Best place to ask for help is probably the Satiator channel on Discord: https://discord.com/channels/4911700638 ... 4377140355
Thanks, I'll check it out.

Overall I've been very happy with the Satiator. Only oddness I experienced other than what I already said was when I flashed the Action Replay with the Satiator patch, it made it hang on the Sega logo. I flashed the original backup back to it and it worked again. Then I tried erasing before flashing the patched firmware, works fine now.
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Austin
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Austin »

Greg2600 wrote:One bit of annoyance is that you've got to keep a working CR2032 in the system or it won't boot.
Define "working"? Mine's been dead for ages and my Satiator boots just fine.
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Galgomite »

Austin wrote:
Greg2600 wrote:One bit of annoyance is that you've got to keep a working CR2032 in the system or it won't boot.
Define "working"? Mine's been dead for ages and my Satiator boots just fine.
That's interesting. Instructions for the Satiator say you need a working battery, otherwise the Satiator supposedly gets pre-empted by the clock setting screen. I threw a new battery in my Saturn before installing so I never saw what happens.
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Austin
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Austin »

Galgomite wrote:
Austin wrote:
Greg2600 wrote:One bit of annoyance is that you've got to keep a working CR2032 in the system or it won't boot.
Define "working"? Mine's been dead for ages and my Satiator boots just fine.
That's interesting. Instructions for the Satiator say you need a working battery, otherwise the Satiator supposedly gets pre-empted by the clock setting screen. I threw a new battery in my Saturn before installing so I never saw what happens.
Ah, I see. I have had the occasional issue where on the initial boot, it doesn't go to the Satiator menu from the CD player screen like it's supposed to. A quick power cycle always fixes it. Seems to be inconsistent for me. Sometimes I boot the system cold, exit the date/time screen, and it boots into the Satiator menu without issue.
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azmun
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by azmun »

This ODE accepts bin/cue files. But I notice some roms are encoded in other formats such mp3, .wav, etc. Are there any differences in (sound) quality? I'm almost sure the original redbook audio offers superior sound output.
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Fudoh »

.wav and .bin is basically the same. If you have an image split into .wav files you can simply mount it an rerip it using ImgBurn. To do the same with MP3 you have to convert the MP3 files to WAV first and edit the .cue file accordingly.

MP3 can sound as good as .wav with a proper bitrate or it can sound poor if it was compressed like 20 years ago with a poor bitrate.
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azmun
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by azmun »

Fudoh wrote:.wav and .bin is basically the same. If you have an image split into .wav files you can simply mount it an rerip it using ImgBurn. To do the same with MP3 you have to convert the MP3 files to WAV first and edit the .cue file accordingly.

MP3 can sound as good as .wav with a proper bitrate or it can sound poor if it was compressed like 20 years ago with a poor bitrate.
Hmm, I'm not really inclined with the encoding process. I do know wav is a format that is compressed, mp3 even more. Flac is what I understand to be lossless but apparently isn't utilized. So I suppose this means we are getting varying qualities of sound depending on the rip? Thanks for the inputs.
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Kez
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Kez »

Wav is a container rather than a prescriptive format, so it can "contain" different file types.. but it is generally not compressed. It is normally lossless redbook audio. FLAC is like a compressed WAV. MP3 is lossy compression but still wouldn't be terrible if it's not too low bitrate as Fudoh says.
Last edited by Kez on Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Johnpv
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Johnpv »

I do believe wav support got added in one of the menu updates.
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Josh128
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Josh128 »

Whats the cost of this thing? Anyone have a link for purchase?

**EDIT -- Found it here. For those saying its insanely expensive, really? $259 USD is less than a Mega SD and only $30 more than a MODE. For plug and play functionality I'd say its in line with all the other types of products like it. Sure I'd like to pay less, but when you look at the overall retro flash cart scene its middle of the road.
Deubeul
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Deubeul »

IIRC the first price point mentionned was 150.
So I guess people took it for granted.
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by bahamutfan64 »

The guy was also on Patreon for years delivering updates in a rather untimely manner, but always saying the product was just around the corner, just a few more things to work out, or a few delays to push through.

For years.
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by nmalinoski »

Josh128 wrote:Whats the cost of this thing? Anyone have a link for purchase?

**EDIT -- Found it here. For those saying its insanely expensive, really? $259 USD is less than a Mega SD and only $30 more than a MODE. For plug and play functionality I'd say its in line with all the other types of products like it. Sure I'd like to pay less, but when you look at the overall retro flash cart scene its middle of the road.
It's not just that it's plug-and-play; it's that it allows you to keep using your CD drive (assuming it hasn't yet died and/or that you actually want to keep using it). The tradeoff would be not being able to use the MPEG card and the Satiator at the same time; but I think most people aren't going to care about that.
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Konsolkongen »

It ended up being $400 for me with shipping and customs. I think that's pretty damn expensive.

Most people who get this are pirates who doesn't want to pay for anything, so it's amazing to me that this sells at all :D

Mine even came pre-scratched which was a bit annoying considering the price, but it does work really well. Also the people on discord are very friendly and helpful and that's great.

I see no improvement in loading times compared to actual game discs. Donpachi from ship select to game start is 16 seconds with Satiator and 17 with the original disc. This game has all the data near the center of the disc so the loading could be even faster had it been stored on the outer edge, so I'm guessing the load times on average are about even which is fine. Most Saturn games doesn't have as long loading times as Donpachi anyway :)
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Josh128
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Josh128 »

$400 is very expensive. Thats the very high end, I paid that for an Neo SD MVS. If the Satiator was that expensive, I'd definitely go with a M.O.D.E., as I can confirm thats a great product, but I very much like the idea of keeping the optical drive functionality that this Satiator gives. This is a bit expensive, but I think the premium over the M.O.D.E is worth it for that feature.
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Re: Satiator - Saturn ODE solution

Post by Restart_Point »

I've had the Satiator for a month and have had only one game so far that wasn't working great: D&D Shadow over Mystara which randomly froze, especially after pausing it. Tower of Doom works fine. EDIT: Just put the latest firmware on straight after writing this and it's fixed.

The build quality and finish of the device feels satisfyingly premium and solid. Taking the SD card in and out while the device is installed is ridiculously easy. I can do it without even looking round the back of the console.

Fifty or so other single-disc games have worked flawlessly, haven't tried any multi disc games yet, there's very few if any that i'm interested in. Also it has recognised all SD cards tried so far.

I have flashed the in-game reset Action Reply firmware to my Chinese red 1MB/4MB AR cart and it's a bit flakey, works on some games, not on others, then eventually freezes a game and needs power cycle. Possibly an issue with my cart, don't know yet.

I'm in UK and was charged £52 GBP for customs duty before the courier would release it, so bear that in mind, that's a huge lump to add on to the already high price. On the plus side it arrived extremely quickly, within a few days.

So far I am happy with it, I knew I was paying a premium for the no-disassembly installation and easy swapping between consoles but that's why I chose it over the others as my first Saturn ODE. Looking forward to any improvements and upgrades to come, hopefully! IGR without using an AR cart would be awesome but it might not be possible with the current version Satiator hardware, from what I have read.
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