Written by cafealpha 2 comments
Well, I'm quite late, but as we are still in January I wish everyone still reading this blog an happy new year for 2023 !!!
There wasn't any release of Pseudo Saturn Kai in 2022 but this doesn't means the project stalled. Last year was dedicated to Satiator support, improvements of cheat codes list as well as many other small improvements here and there. Please stay tuned until next release of Pseudo Saturn Kai
Wishing only an happy new year is a bit cheap as a blog post, so I would like to introduce the marvelous christmas present I received last month : a pair of slippers from my favorite movie !!
I like these Deluxe Slippers so much that every morning is a pleasure to put them at the right place in the entrance to see Victor Pivert and Mohamed Larbi Slimane to welcome me back when I return back home on late night
All carts are sent. Sorry if you arrived too late !
Long time no see ! Thank you for still keeping an eye on my blog
As the title suggests, I have some USB dev cart available for sale.
Quantity is an amazing three cartridges, but hopefully it should be enough to satisfy the Saturn homebrew developers in the need of such kind of item.
USB dev cart trio
These carts use more or less the same design as original version by antime, which is not bad for a project launched in 2012, i.e. one decade ago.
This batch of cartridges was assembled basically in order to get rid of the small stock of electronic components specific to USB dev cart I was still keeping for several years.
Because of that and also the fact I'm now really low on Action Replay shells (I still have a couple of black shells, but I keep them as a souvenir), this is the very last occasion to get an USB dev cart using Action Replay shell and design similar to the original one from 2012.
If after that I really need to assemble new USB dev cart, this will probably use a 3D-printed shell and all discrete logic would be packed into a CPLD, but to be honest, there's no plan to assemble more USB dev carts in a near or middle-term future.
Because of limited quantity, ordering is done by posting a comment with the color (white or black) of the
cartridge you want to purchase. Apart from the color, please don't forget to indicate
your email in the appropriate field when writing the comment so that I
can contact you back to continue the ordering of the cartridge.
Rule
to be selected for the ordering of a cartridge is "first-come
first-served" so if all three cartridges are reserved, then you're free to post a comment anyway (it's free, I don't beg for your personal information, and sometimes I even reply to comments) but unfortunately this won't grant you a ticket to order an USB dev cart.
(If you really need one but arrived too late, then please drop me an email and explain me why you need an USB dev cart)
Pricing for one cartridge is as indicated below :
- USB dev cart (x1) : USD 65
- Shipping to USA or Europe : JPY 2400 = USD 18
- Total : USD 83
Shipping method is EMS, whose availability is "random" : if there isn't Buk missile system between your country and Japan, and also if your country is not closed because of a pandemic then you have a chance to be eligible for parcels being delivered by EMS from Japan ... but don't be too optimistic and please check the EMS availability page in order to be sure that delivery can be done.
If EMS is not available, then B-plan is surface mail which takes around three months to arrive and cost more or less the same as EMS. This expensive and slow shipping method sounds like a fraud but it's a thing (by the past I send cartridges via surface mail, and their owners are now happy to play Saturn games), and this will be an unique occasion for your cartridge to enjoy a cruise in the middle of all the oceans of this planet without any tracking information being updated during that period.
Modern shipping is fast, scanned, tracked and always connected like the average salaryman on a business trip, but on the other hand surface mail is like enjoying a digital detox during a 100 days cruise and making ties with other parcel friends in the meanwhile. The more I write about surface mail the more I am jealous about it and want to retire my work of IT, take a backpack and enjoy to be alive
To add more to the monologue about EMS, it has to be noted that pricing will be "revised" from June 1st, as described in this page, or this one in Japanese.
As a consequence, shipping fee to USA for one cartridge will change from 2400 Yens now to 3900 Yens on next month.
Back in 2015, the cost to send one cartridge was 1200 Yens (roughly USD 10), and then EMS discretely "revised" it to 1500 Yens on June 2016, and then the lowest weight range was "revised" from 300 grams to 500 grams and consequently shipping fee jumped to 2000 Yens.
In 10 years, shipping fee to send one cartridge tripled ... I wished the same performance boost for my salary but I miserably failed. Dear EMS, you won the race and congratulate you for that.
Trivia about EMS price chart : did you know that price changes according to the language the price chart page is displayed ?
EMS price chart in Japanese.
Fun fact : total shipping fees to send 5300 Saturn cartridges
Proudly fixed by myself to adjust language barrier
I suppose that the folks behind EMS have a special excuse to justify that ... maybe because of the cost it required to translate the page, or more probably because pricing is decided by throwing darts on a calendar, then multiplying all numbers being hit until getting a result higher than previous one.
If this guess is right, then maybe the person in charge of deciding the price to put on Japanese page hit 6, 25 and 26 (6*25*26 = 3900) and that the the person in charge of deciding the price to put on English page hit 5, 25 and 28 (5*25*28 = 3500). Each respective darts were quite close but unfortunately both prices don't match
Written by cafealpha no comments
Summer here means an occasion to go to the beach, but because of 'rona restrictions I virtually went to the beach by reading an old blog article.
And instead of beach I went to nearby temple, so that I prepared my bin of 5 yen coins and use it to wish for many things from world peace to success in ongoing Saturn projects.
After getting bored in tossing my coins I took pictures of cats. It was a quiet day with more cats than pilgrims
A cat
Another cat
A gang of cats
Do not feed cats ... but they seem to live well anyway.
(Are they using my 5 yen coins to buy cat food ?!)
Today is some kind of special day for me : among many other things, this is the anniversary of Jean-Luc Le Ténia, the best French singer in the world ! Jean-Luc would had be 45 years old today but unfortunately is no longer here to celebrate today with us.
Today is also the 4th anniversary of Gamer's Cartridge initial public release. For more than three years, this project was the occasion to meet many people, to loose hair on many bug and -I hope- to have contributed in a better Saturn community
Jean-Luc Le Ténia is no longer here, Gamer's Cartridge production was frozen (not to say discontinued) last year because of enough free time lacking to assemble new cartridges. And Saturn gamers are now either using Action Replay (reliable expansion RAM but no backup memory) or "all-in-one" cartridge (backup memory but sometimes buggy expansion RAM) to play their favorite games.
To makes things a little brighter, the best I can do is to develop a new Pseudo Saturn Kai fitting more nowadays needs and situation :
Built-in support with latest ODEs
In-game save data access for Satiator ODE
Save data storage on cartridge flash ROM
As a consequence of my free time being limited from this year, I thought in stopping non-priority projects to focus on other (not necessarily Saturn) ones. But on the other side, if I don't improve Pseudo Saturn Kai, I'm not sure that somebody else would do it for me !
So if the Saturn community shows enough interest, I would like to contribute to a newer Pseudo Saturn Kai
And to measure if the community is interested or not, I'm making Pseudo Saturn Kai development crowdfunding-based.
Principle is simple : the more interest (support) from the community, the more free time I allocate on Pseudo Saturn Kai. And the less interest from community, the more free time I spend on other projects.
I don't plan to make a living in developing Pseudo Saturn Kai, and for this reason all the development made so far was done on a altruist basis.
All the development made so far (cheat codes, Rhea/Phoebe support etc) was cool but honestly a lot of work. So with your help I would like to find enough energy to give it birth again
