Update
2021 Dec. 12th : Orders are closed for this sale. Thank you everyone and happy playing
Good news for everyone looking for a Gamer's Cartridge : 4 more cartridges are available for sale
As the title suggests, this is the last occasion to purchase a Gamer's Cartridge in 2021. So if you want one that's a good timing but if you're hesitating then don't feel obliged to order one. (There may be few Gamer's Cartridges available for sale in 2022, maybe not. It depends on my free time, if I can find cartridge shells etc)
So
in order to order a cartridge, please post a comment with the ID of the
cartridge you want to purchase. And 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 someone wrote a comment with the ID of your favorite
cartridge, please select another cartridge or wait for another flash
sale ... if any.
List of cartridges available :
- #03 (b) : white & glow in the dark shell (details)
- #12 : White & glow in the dark shell + Dezaemon 2 label (details)
- #13 : White & glow in the dark shell + Dezaemon 2 label (details)
Cartridges
support in-game backup memory to SD card, Pseudo Saturn exploit (play
CD-R backups), cheat codes and smooth support of Rhea/Phoebe and Fenrir
ODEs.
On the other hand 1MB/4MB expansion RAM, CD-ROM emulation or any other advanced features are not supported.
Pricing is the same as before : USD 77 for the cartridge itself and shipping price is described in EMS homepage in "Up to 500g" row.
So for example of an order to USA, the total is USD 77 + JPY 2000 (around USD 17) = USD 94.
If
you live in a country not (yet ?) covered by EMS, the only alternative
is surface mail, which takes an eternity to deliver (well, I exaggerate,
but three months is quite long for a small package to arrive) and not
super well tracked too.
Payment method is
Paypal only : sorry but I don't accept any electronic currency as well
as barter economy as well as anything else than Paypal.
(Lower half of this article in same as above but in Japanese.
Update 2021 Nov. 30th : I received more orders than expected ^^; Please wait until current orders are processed so that I can re-open this article.
Good news for everyone looking for a Gamer's Cartridge : 4 of them are available for sale
As in previous flash sale, these cartridges use 3D printed shell whose shape and color may vary.
So in order to order a cartridge, please post a comment with the ID of the cartridge you want to purchase. And 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 someone wrote a comment with the ID of your favorite cartridge, please select another cartridge or wait for another flash sale ... if any.
Cartridges support in-game backup memory to SD card, Pseudo Saturn exploit (play CD-R backups), cheat codes and smooth support of Rhea/Phoebe and Fenrir ODEs.
On the other hand 1MB/4MB expansion RAM, CD-ROM emulation or any other advanced features are not supported.
Pricing is the same as before : USD 77 for the cartridge itself and shipping price is described in EMS homepage in "Up to 500g" row.
So for example of an order to USA, the total is USD 77 + JPY 2000 (around USD 17) = USD 94.
If you live in a country not (yet ?) covered by EMS, the only alternative is surface mail, which takes an eternity to deliver (well, I exaggerate, but three months is quite long for a small package to arrive) and not super well tracked too.
Payment method is Paypal only : sorry but I don't accept any electronic currency as well as barter economy as well as anything else than Paypal.
(Lower half of this article in same as above but in Japanese.
Update 2021 Nov. 29th : As promised, Gamer's Cartridges are now internationally available Please refer in the article here if you're interested in ordering one.
Update 2021 Nov. 15 : Unless there is a last-time cancel, the two cartridges listed in this article will be sold soon. I plan to resume sales with other cartridges soon, and next time it shall be international sales
Sorry non-Japanese players, but this sale is restricted to Japan customers only. Main reason is that it's a long time I went to the post office and consequently want to restart things gradually.
A bit more (but not a lot of) cartridges are planned to sell in similar flash sales, so please stay tuned
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
Sorry for the clickbait title, but I'm sorry to say that it's not possible to fix your Action Replay (or any similar clone) with Pseudo Saturn Kai
Below are common myths wrongly related with Pseudo Saturn Kai : theses are detailed in this blog article in the hope it will help users with similar problems, and also to -hopefully- relieve my emails inbox regarding theses inquiries ...
Q1 : Expansion RAM no longer works ! Will reflashing Pseudo Saturn Kai help something ?
A1 : It won't change anything ! Expansion RAM is a cartridge hardware feature and consequently Pseudo Saturn Kai (software side of the cartridge) doesn't have any interaction with it.
→ If your cartridge is experiencing troubles with expansion RAM, it's likely to be related to cartridge connection or cartridge itself. So rather than e-mailing me, it's more relevant to contact the manufacturer or re-seller of your cartridge about this kind of issue.
Generally speaking, all Action Replay cartridges and their clones are using legacy electronic components no longer manufactured for nearly a decade. So even if your cartridge was sold as "brand new", it may either contain refurbished chips, or counterfeit chips, or both : there's not a lot to expect regarding quality.
Q2 : Cartridge self test feature in Pseudo Saturn Kai doesn't reports any problem : does it means that the hardware of my cartridge is working correctly ? And consequently does it means that the XYZ problem I'm experiencing is related to Pseudo Saturn Kai ?
A2 : Cartridge self test feature just tests the bare minimum of the cartridge : if it fails, then there is certainly a problem around hardware. Conversely, it doesn't means anything when no problem is reported.
BTW, I developed this self test feature to quickly test the hardware of a cartridge, and not to get a proof that hardware is not guilty when a problem happens ! It's always exhausting to read stuff like "cartridge self test passed, so my XYZ problem is caused by Pseudo Saturn Kai" ...
Q3 : I heard that game XYZ isn't compatible with Pseudo Saturn Kai ? Is that true !? Hurry up to fix that !
A3 : There are many causes of incompatibility other than Pseudo Saturn Kai :
Frequency incompatibility : Pseudo Saturn Kai bypasses game region check, but isn't any help regarding frequency compatibility : if a game was tailored to work on a PAL console, it may then not work correctly on a NTSC one and vice-versa. Simple countermeasure to this problem is to use game from same region of the Saturn where it will played on. And if it is not available then complete countermeasure is to add a frequency mod on your Saturn, or eventually to use a both NTSC and PAL Saturns for playing games of each regions.
CD-R and Saturn laser affinity : Saturn wasn't developed to play games from CD-R, which may be harder to read than official CD-ROM. So if a game doesn't wants to boot, then it's worth trying with another brand of CD-R, or to burn it at different speed etc.
Disc image dump quality : iso+mp3 format was good when downloading few tenth of MB cost time and money but is an aberration regarding compatibility. Nowadays, downloading large files is not a real problem hence bin+cue format should be considered as the bare minimum requirement that usually plays well but may cause problems with some games.
And, most accurate dumps are usually found in format supported by Rhea and Phoebe and should be preferred if you want to avoid problem(s) caused by discs badly dumped.
Additionally, I would like to remind that Pseudo Saturn Kai main role is to play CD-R backup copy of games from your collection, so if you want to ask me about the not playing iso or bin dump of the game you don't even own, then you're about to knock to the wrong door
→ First, purchase the original CD-ROM of your game, and test if it works on your Saturn or not : if it doesn't play, then supported frequency and/or hardware problem on Saturn side should be considered before asserting anything about Pseudo Saturn Kai. If the original game plays correctly it is then time to copy it on CD-R and then preserve original game preciously
Finally, it would be appreciated from users (you) to report non-working dumps to the webmaster of the page where theses were downloaded from : this would help whole community regarding preservation of Saturn games.
Q4 : Are you earning royalties from Action Replay (and
other clones) cartridge manufacturers ? If yes, then hurry up to fix my
hardware problem !
Also, I never begged any crowdfunding to develop Pseudo Saturn Kai, and even preferred to nullify my donate page
rather than receiving donation related to Pseudo Saturn Kai. You paid
$0 for Pseudo Saturn Kai to be developed ? I did it during hundred of
hours of my free time and sometimes with high doses of motivation
And while restricting Pseudo Saturn Kai usage to my own projects (USB dev cart and Gamer's Cartridge)
would had significantly simplified software architecture, I did my best
to keep Pseudo Saturn Kai compatible with other legacy cartridges so
that a wide range of users can enjoy playing Saturn. Maybe that looks
simple to do, but it's really not : the more complex the
software architecture is, the more likely development becomes difficult,
or that unexpected problem happens in the meanwhile.
So if your cartridge is experiencing a problem, it would be appreciated if its manufacturer could be blamed instead of me
This Q4 / A4 is an half-joke : so far I wasn't asked about that, but it is mentioned here to put emphasis on all the time and energy it cost to develop Pseudo Saturn Kai (I started its development at the end of 2014 !), and all the returns I have from it ("fix my flaky cartridge", "fix support for that poorly dumped game") ...
It took time, but I could find a card a bit linked to customer support from my Dragon Ball cards collection, and hope you will appreciate it ... the card, not my customer support skills
