Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 232 posts

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#101

Post by bane »

pedrocr wrote: post #38

He mentions archival as a motivation but can we trust the rest of the hardware to last more than a few decades? Isn't emulation the real archival solution?

Yes. In general there are two real paths to long-term archival of games: emulation and reproduction.

Emulation is the best possible path IMHO since it enables the games to be played (and experienced) on pretty much any hardware. I think this work may do quite a bit to help in that area, there's really no reason the Saturn isn't nearly perfectly emulated these days.

Reproduction is the next best and much harder than Emulation. Basically figuring out how to build the hardware again. There's several versions of this with much older hardware (C64, 2600, etc.) with new hardware being produced that can run the old software natively. There's also "lesser" versions that use modern CPUs, etc. to run the code basically also in emulation, but this is not the same thing. However, reproduction is both technically more difficult and has a smaller audience who's willing to add yet another machine to their collection to see old games.

also, MESS's emulation is also not too terrible, I was pretty surprised with how many games worked under it

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#102

Post by bane »

ekianjo wrote: post #54
erikj wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSF exists and is much better than Yabause, although it's not open source.

Non Open Source emulators are dead in the water in terms of archiving. 10 years later if the original author is not around anymore, you won't be able to rely on it nor improve on it. I wish all emulator writers understood that. PPSSPP and Dolphin have made great progress BECAUSE they were open.

Saturn emulation on MESS is surprisingly good. Not up to some of the others, but I was pleasantly surprised last time I tried it with how many games were playable.

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#103

Post by elliottcarlson »

StavrosK wrote: post #82
donatj wrote: post #5

I can't wait for him to start selling these! I would buy one in a hot minute. My Saturn is collecting dust and there are so many games I just can't get my hands on for my Saturn, and emulation in my experience hardly works. It's way too weird a machine.

Does anyone know how you go from a PCB to a product? I've made PCBs before, but I wouldn't know where to begin to make it into a product that I can sell to people...

For PCB printing, OSH Park is a highly recommended one: https://oshpark.com/

For PCB assembly, http://www.4pcb.com/ is recommended.

Some reviews from Lady Ada: http://www.ladyada.net/library/pcb/manufacturers.html

Also check out http://pcbshopper.com/

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#105

Post by nathancahill »

serge2k wrote: post #72
christoph wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case it helps, there is actually a very low tech solution to booting copied games on Saturn hardware that works with the vast majority of games released (especially expensive/rare/hard to find games like the Treasure releases). Tape/wedge the drive lid sensor down, power up with a real game in (you don't need to close the lid as the sensor believes the lid is always shut) and allow it do the initial copy protectio…

I practiced this trick with my original playstation years ago. Then I killed it trying to mod it. Got a PS1 instead, couldn't figure out the trick anymore. It was funny that they kept on changing the points where the disc would read info, you had to swap multiple times at different points. They wouldn't stop either, just slow down.

Hah, yeah, I used to do that too with the PS1 until I modded it with a chip. It was flaky though, worked 50% of the time.

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#106

Post by PostOnce »

Grazester wrote: post #58
83457 wrote: post #21

If only the Dreamcast protection had been that good. Was really disappointed when it died :(

You certainly didnt know the history of Sega or the Dreamcast if you think it died because of piracy. ...with that thinking then the Saturn would of been an ultra success.

I knew a lot of people who owned a Dreamcast and no games.

No modchip required, no soldering, broadband penetration on the rise, filesharing was now a thing.

I completely understand the Saturn's botched launch and limited number of retail outlets, but the Dreamcast had the best launch of all time up to that point and broke sales records.

I'm not convinced piracy is not in fact the cause of the Dreamcast's demise.

I really did love the Dreamcast, built in modem and the second-screen VMU.

If you don't think piracy killed it, what do you think killed it? The PS2?

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#107

Post by sitharus »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #74
christoph wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case it helps, there is actually a very low tech solution to booting copied games on Saturn hardware that works with the vast majority of games released (especially expensive/rare/hard to find games like the Treasure releases). Tape/wedge the drive lid sensor down, power up with a real game in (you don't need to close the lid as the sensor believes the lid is always shut) and allow it do the initial copy protectio…

Why not just cut the wobble edge of a real CD off and attach it to a burned CD? Maybe you can shave the back of the shimmed wobble edge down, so that it won't stick out as much on the burned CD. This shimmed wobble can be your key for all the burned CDs you have. Maybe double sided tape can keep the wobble shim attached to your burned CD while still allowing it to be removable for other CDs. I've never had a Saturn,…

it's not a physical wobble, it's a data track written in a wave-like path. You can't write it as all CD-Rs already have the spiral track so it's very hard to fake.

It's similar to the Gamecube using the burst-cutting area to implement DRM - it's impossible to duplicate without a production setup.

Re: Sega Saturn CD Cracked after 20 Years

#110

Post by voltagex_ »

bane wrote: post #100
voltagex_ wrote: post #37

I'm so so glad he mentions archiving in this video - I don't think enough thought has been given to the impact of DRM on museum collections in 10-50 years.

There's actually a very large collection of Saturn games archives at archive.org. They're MESS compatible CHD files (I wish other emulators would support it, it's a good way to handle large drive copies), but it's a fairly good collection.

I may be wrong, but a quick Google shows a lack of development resources for the CHD format. Either they need to do some SEO, or some straight up marketing.
Post reply on HN