Dezaemon 2 Save Game Manager Released!

Dezaemon · Post by **Dezaemon** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:01 pm

It's Christmas time! So it's time to give you a present, or 2: one new database and one new program to test on your Sega Saturn.
This project took me about 5 months (I just finished it some hours ago), with the help of some great people around the world. So, here is:

- The Dezaemon 2 Games database
- The Dezaemon 2 Save Game Manager

Dezaemon 2 is a game developped by Athena and released in 1997, that let you create your own shoot-em-up. This game requires a backup to save your creation. But as the save game files are really huge, you need a Backup Cartridge or a Floppy Disc to save them. In Japan, a great community of users exists and they made some really wonderful games. Their works are stored on Floppy Disc but unfortunately the Sega Saturn FDs can't be read on PC, so it's not possible to share the save games. This is where our Dezaemon 2 Save Game Managesr (D2SGM) is useful.
The D2SGM lets you copy Dezaemon 2 save games from CD/Backup Cartridge/FDD to your own Backup Cartridge/FDD. Yeah, that's great, but if you don't have access to some Dezaemon 2 save games, this program is not very useful, right ? So we need to find a way to get some save games. This is exactly what I did. I found a way to dump the Dezaemon 2 save games, and this is where the story begins.

The D2SGM is a homebrew tool (so you need a mod chipped saturn or need to perform the swaptrick, it also works on emulator like SSF), developped by me (it is my first Sega Saturn program, and I needed to learn C language and Sega Saturn programming) and based on the sourcecode of the Rockin'B's Save Game Manager (http://www.rockin-b.de).

This program contains 118 games. For each game, you can listen to one music sample and watch some screenshots. The D2SGM contains a total of 3032 screenshots/pictures and 178 music samples (about 1 hour and 54 minutes of music!).
Each game has 5 save game slots (named DEZA2___._01 to DEZA2___._05), all of them are the same. Just choose the one you want to copy. They are all recognized by Dezaemon 2 game (DEZA2___._01 = slot 1, and so on).

The D2SGM works on 352x240 resolution, so you need a RGB compatible TV to see all the lines on screen (info taken from the Sega Saturn programming doc). Else, you can try using the highres mode implemented (704x480 resolution) but I don't know if it resolves the problem.
The D2SGM must work on all Sega Saturn. I only tested it on EUR and JPN saturn with RGB cable on RGB compatible TVs, and all works well.

I also made a video to let you see how it works, so don't forget to watch it

This tool has been made with the help of:
- Rockin'B: thanks for your Save Game Manager and your advices
- vbt: thanks for your help on Sega Saturn coding and your advices
- darius: thanks for the AR and PC COMMS Card
- IGK: really thanks for your help, your confidence and the beta tests you made
- all the members of The Dezaemoners community for their superb works

The Games and Musics that can be found on the D2SGM are copyright by Athena, Dezaemoners, Gudakuma, HERO ZAKO, HITOSHI, IGK, Inoue Delta, ITON, Kasahara Shinya, KONNICHIHA, leimonZ, MA Project, Mac=Goe, mk2, mo4444, Moku-Mokugyo / GGE, NENG, Raynex, Sak, Shigatake, Soft Bank, Timo.
I really want to thanks once again all the members of the Dezaemon 2 community for their wonderful works and for sharing them with us, and IGK for the work he did on this project. Without them, all of this will not be possible.

Don't forget to visit the japanese Dezaemon Community websites:
- The Dezaemoners
- The dezaemon@wiki

About the Dezaemon 2 database, it covers most of the games that have been made. 99 % of the videos you will find there have been made by IGK who did a great work again! Thanks guy!!

Now, I will let you browse the database and test our D2SGM. You will probably have hundreds of hours of play.

Merry Christmas 2007!!

Source: http://forums.segaxtreme.net/showthread.php?t=16011

445meg , have fun:)

RGB · Post by **RGB** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:42 pm

Thank you for that

I don't have much experience with deza 2, though I had some great time 'trying' to make a shmup using deza kids! for the PSX. Unfortunately it is sooo time consuming, I haven't finished any...

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:17 pm

Wow, what a great Christmas gift! I was just raving about Lemureal Nova for Dezaemon 2 in this thread:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=17742

I was bummed to learn that this required the expensive FDD attachment, but now comes this perfectly timed homebrew announcement! Woohoo!

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:34 am

Are there any new homebrew Dezaemon Plus or Dezaemon Kids game titles worth d/l'ing?
I know that a typical Dezaemon Plus game creation save takes up an entire 15 blocks (or "uncompressed" 1MB file size for that matter) on a standard PSX memory card...

I've got some cool custom Dezaemon Plus BGM tunes (including some funky 1970's stylized beats) stored on a few PSX memory cards for posterity. The custom Deazaemon Plus BGMs are the result of some heavy experimenting with the limited BGM music editor -- about four years of work right there. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

TerminasluT · Post by **TerminasluT** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:08 pm

I can't copy games to my Action Replay Backup Cartridge (4in1) it seems... do I need a regular Backup Cartridge? or am I doing something wrong?

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:09 am

Oh snap! This is a great project!! Too bad my Saturn isn't modded.

I might just pick it up anyway.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:16 am

Okay. I've read that text three times already, and I cannot understand what it helps me to do. Can someone explain if I'll be able to move Dezaemon data from Sat to Sat, or memcart to memcart without a FDD?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:50 am

It does seem overly complicated, and not very intuitive, but by following the included video I was able to fumble through getting Lemureal Nova up and running on the SSF emulator.

Unfortunately I don't own a saturn to test it it, but it looks to me like you are just copying it off the CD (via the tool) and onto a memcart.

Madroms · Post by **Madroms** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:57 am

Hello guys. I just registered here to answer some of your questions.

To TerminasluT: It will NOT work with an Action Replay because the internal memory of the AR can't be directly accessed by the saturn and the games. So you need an official backup cartridge or an unofficial that can be accessed directly.

To Specineff: I tried to be as clear as possible

So what you can do with the D2SGM: it lets you copy the save games provided with the D2SGM to your Backup cartridge or your floppy disc if you have a FDD.
But here are all the transfers you can do. Copy save games:
- Cd => backup cartridge
- Cd => floppy disc
- backup cartridge <=> floppy disc
- internal backup <=> backup cartridge (not for dezaemon 2 save games as they are too huge for the internal backup
- internal backup <=>floppy disc (not for dezaemon 2 save games as they are too huge for the internal backup

You can also delete saves from backup cartridge and floppy disc and you can format these 2 peripherals.

To understand well how it works, please watch the video and read the help menu (shown just after the title screen or if you press the START button) to know the action made by each buttons.

If you have any other questions, fell free to ask me, I will check this thread often in the following days.

TerminasluT · Post by **TerminasluT** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:56 am

thanks! tracking Backup cart mode ON!

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:11 am

Madroms, thanks for registering! Are you going to release any updates to the dezaemon2 save games? For example, I know there is a new version of Lemureal Nova (v1.24) but not sure about how to get it loaded if/when it is released.

Madroms · Post by **Madroms** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:11 pm

I will make an update of the D2SGM if I will receive some new D2 games from the japanese community, but it will not happen soon (not that they don't want to send me new games but it will take time to have some new games to include in a future version of the D2SGM, and not only few games).
About Lemureal Nova, I got the FD with the game on november this year and it was an updated version already. It is v1.01, and yes it seems Raynex continue to work on this game. So if I will make a new version of the D2SGM, I will probably get this updated version with some new games.
But I can't tell you for sure we will get this updated version in the future.

ryosnk · Post by **ryosnk** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:06 pm

Thanks op.

beam · Post by **beam** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:17 am

Thanks for this great project !
Is there a way to update the iso manually, just to remove unwanted games and add others ?
Some games in the Dezaemon 2 database are not available in the Dezaemon 2 Save Game Manager. Were they too big to fit in the iso ?

Madroms · Post by **Madroms** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:50 am

You can replace manually the save games in the ISO but:
1) you need to have any other save games
2) the description and screenshots will not be accurate (you will get the info for the replaced games instead of the new game)

For the other games found on the Db but not found in the D2SGM: I don't have the games in hand because we don't have the agreement from the authors or the Deza2 community to share them for now

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:09 pm

Awesome release, Madroms.