I sometimes have several nice stories about hardware/firmware/software development experiences I would like to develop on this blog, but when comes the time to write it's usually annihilated by ...
The lack of free time : my "free time" for Saturn is usually one hour or two in the early morning, or a similar duration during night
The lack of financial support : while Pseudo Saturn Kai kept me busy for around 5 years (I started by developing firmware flasher in August 2014, to then start developing my own Kai firmware from the following year), I only received 5 US dollars for it. Maybe it would had been smarter to do more aggressive show business about my Saturn projects to get more money from crowds, but while I consider development as a funny activity, show business isn't : bragging about some project super cool but shall be finished someday is not for me. I prefer to directly try finishing theses unfinished projects instead
The lack of motivation : after writing an article here, that usually ends in ... - People commenting, but about a Pseudo Saturn Kai setup trouble on their clone cartridge usually not related to the blog article it was commented from. - People commenting, but about requiring about unrelated XYZ feature in Pseudo Saturn Kai, or any kind of technical collaboration that I should definitely volunteer on. - Nobody commenting : I personally consider this is as the best option because at least it doesn't requires me to spend time writing any reply.
Okay, here is just a flaky blog about B-rank homebrew projects made by one random dude on a vintage video games console, so who care ? But whatever it may be, I continue unidirectional writing here in order to get fun stories to tell to grandchildren in the future
Back to the main topic : no motivation and no time for this blog. As a countermeasure let's write a short article
As indicated on the title, this is about installation videos of Pseudo Saturn Kai ! For the "no time and motivation for show business" reasons detailed above, I personally don't had time to do any kind of video, but Retro Sim was kind enough to prepare one
Pseudo Saturn Kai v6.314 installation video
I hope this video showed how easy to upgrade from an older version of Pseudo Saturn Kai to latest one : that's just the matter of burning a CD-R, to boot it in the same way as your favorite game, and to follow instruction displayed on screen !
The only difficult part during installation of Pseudo Saturn Kai (for example from Action Replay stock firmware) is that it requires usage of CD swap method to make setup CD-R booting correctly.
This is however not necessary when installing over an older version of Pseudo Saturn Kai, so there are no excuses to use outdated version of Pseudo Saturn Kai
This latest v6.314 flavor of Pseudo Saturn Kai was made with my heart, blood and tears as the previous ones, so I hope it will contribute to make Saturn more and more appreciated
There aren't major feature addition from previous (6.274) version, but cheat codes support was a bit improved and all control pads including third party ones should be now correctly supported. And as usual, it's free (like in free beer) to use
As indicated in the title : I'm glad to announce the release of Pseudo Saturn Kai v6.374 ! It is available for download at the usual address on my homepage.
This time, there aren't any "big" feature added, but rather a streak of small fixes as well as few minor improvements too. So don't wait to upgrade your cartridge and enjoy even more your favorite games with Pseudo Saturn
What's new :
Show error message when SD card is not inserted into Rhea/Phoebe ODE.
Added RmenuKai : enjoy cheat codes on Rhea/Phoebe even without cartridge !
Improved compatibility of JHL loader-only games with Rhea/Phoebe ODEs. (Panzer Dragoon Saga can now be correctly loaded from Rhea ODE)
Improvements in automatic selection of game in cheats codes feature.
And there's also a small Easter egg hidden in some menus ... will you be able to trigger it ?
What didn't changed :
Plays games backed up on CD-R, without the need of any hardware mod.
Comes with a bunch of pre-installed cheat codes.
Provides image selection menu for Rhea and Phoebe ODE.
Available for free and for everyone : it doesn't costs any license to install, and I didn't begged any money to develop Pseudo Saturn Kai too.
This version was thoroughly tested by same beta testers who followed development from last public release, but on the other hand it was tested by ... nobody else during beta testing phase ... this is probably a fault from me (it was announced for one week on segaxtreme forums, and ... for one day on this blog), but today is the third anniversary of initial release of Pseudo Saturn Kai as well as Gamer's Cartridge so I didn't wanted to miss this occasion
So don't worry and happy playing ! I spent last 5 months in developing this version, and my favorite beta tester spent the same period in testing around twenty beta builds so it will run fine on your Saturn ! Trust me, I'm an engineer
Not my favorite PCB,
but at least it works.
It's time to pick up the kids at their Monday evening activities but I still have many tidbit stories to relate about ! So please stay tuned in future article(s)
Edit (2019/06/10) : it should be a good idea to add links for discussions on external sites :
Once upon a night, I wanted to verify Pseudo Saturn Kai products lineup and realized PRO edition was recently added !
The PRO edition itself was based on same technology as lite one, but requiring a small subscription (in one-digit dollar range) in order to allow installation. In other words, the same contents as lite (free of charge) edition, but financially supporting firmware development and maintenance costs.
Pseudo Saturn Kai PRO edition was so popular that it was attracting enough money to cover my daily personal expenses and at some point it was even enough for apartment rent as well as family's cost of fuel and light ! On the other hand, Pseudo Saturn Kai PRO edition support team was greedier and greedier about new features, visual improvements of the firmware's UI, and the longer it went the more oppressed I was to maintain Pseudo Saturn Kai code base.
And then, the poor man's alarm clock (= in simpler words, light of the morning sun) woke me covered in sweat and experiencing high heart pulsations.
I had to verify this was a nightmare ! ... But before that it was time to start the day with laundry, because procrastinating the laundry duty delays all the subsequent tasks after that until the end of the day
So during my earliest spare moment during that day (somewhere between 6:30PM and 7PM), I could verify that everything was normal regarding Pseudo Saturn Kai project : the lite version free for everybody, and the full version also free but usable only in my hardware projects.
So no deadline, no pressure, and no impatient users ! I was relieved because I have enough of that at regular work !!
On a more serious note, I'm glad to announce that release candidate version for next release of Pseudo Saturn Kai is ready !
This RC version was thoroughly tested by same beta testers who followed development from last public release, so the risk of bricking cartridge or facing bugs bigger than an elephant are quite low.
I'm however not confident about usage in unusual configuration, so that I would like it to be tested by a few more people for my peace of mind before putting it on the wild.
On the other hand, if you just want to use latest version and don't plan to give testing feedback, then please *don't* contact me and wait patiently for one week or two until RC version becomes publicly available.
What's new in upcoming next release : basically there aren't new major feature available (like cheat codes in previous v6.274 release), but enough changes and/or improvements to make everybody wanting to upgrade.
Show error message when SD card is not inserted into Rhea/Phoebe ODE.
Added RmenuKai : enjoy cheat codes on Rhea/Phoebe even without cartridge !
Improved compatibility of JHL loader-only games with Rhea/Phoebe ODEs. (Panzer Dragoon Saga can now be correctly loaded from Rhea ODE)
Improvements in automatic selection of game in cheats codes feature.
And there's also a small Easter egg hidden in some menus ... will you be able to trigger it ?
To shortly sum up the changelog, Rhea/Phoebe ODE users will be happy to find that this release will allow usage of cheat codes without the need of any cartridge And some Rhea users shall also appreciate Pseudo Saturn Kai finally loading Panzer Dragoon Saga correctly.
There are also some fixes and improvements around cheat codes (available for everybody, not requiring ODE or any special cartridge) and I sincerely hope theses will contribute to make more people enjoying playing Saturn
Rare footage of Pseudo Saturn Kai development room.
And some Rhea users shall also appreciate Pseudo Saturn Kai finally loading Panzer Dragoon Saga correctly.