Still WIP, and last week was a busy one !
First, I fixed USB dev cart legacy firmware-like screen that wasn't working at all. Well that's a developer-oriented feature that I seldom use, but that needs to be fixed anyway 
The fact I seldom use this feature was the starting point of the problem : modifying a module apparently not related with that feature caused major bug ... software development in a nutshell 
Thank you Shazz for beta testing my firmware There are still other bugs remaining, and I plan to fix theses soon 
And, (what's more important), game loader was sometimes loading game, sometimes not. Loading game backups is Pseudo Saturn Kai main feature, so I really don't want it to fail
Origin of this bug was unclear, but I fixed/improved many things at once, and game loaded every time after that, so let's hope I won't have to face with it in the future 
One additional "bug" was game loader being kicked to multiplayer screen, and it was caused by ... game corrupted dump 
First half of the game IP header was filled with zeros, so Saturn couldn't even recognize it as a Saturn game ...
I "fixed" what I could on firmware side by displaying something like "bad game dump/burn ?" message before kicking to multiplayer screen.
Let's hope it will reduce the amount of "can't load xyz game ! Hurry up to fix your bloody firmware !!" kind messages after release 
And of course, there were many, many minor fixes, for example :
- Added scrolling help messages under menus
- Credits screen ... stub (names missing), and only in Save Data Manager for the moment
- Added alternate menu exit keys : it is now possible to do something like "A/C:select, X:delete, Y:info, Z:whatever" in a single menu. This is preliminary work for Action Replay codes addition
So firmware development is continuing ! Everything is in good way :
Pseudo Saturn Kai development is going well. Please disperse.
(Screenshot from The Naked Gun)
Nothing to see here
(Mr Nielsen, you're missing us 
)
On a positive note, I tested Bubble Bobble (listed as incompatible in Pseudo Saturn compatibility list), and it worked fine
I absolutely don't know why it works fine. I suppose that registers cleanup and running RAM cleanup code from ROM just before loading game helped a bit ... well at least it works
Completely unrelated note : I uploaded 10+ years old videos of me playing Tetris Attack puzzle mode ! You can enjoy the videos in my
Tetris Attack page , or directly in the appropriate
youtube playlist for theses videos.
Tetris Attack puzzle mode ending screen
Read more Pseudo Saturn Kai : still WIP ...
Pseudo Saturn Kai firmware development is currently paused in order to focus development into Save Data Manager application
Saturn Save Data Manager is an application in order to manage (copy, delete, etc) save data on your Saturn.
Basically, it is similar to the save data manager provided by Saturn BIOS, but also offers extra things, such as multiple selection of items to copy/delete, GPL license, and also save data import from various formats.
Saturn Save Data Manager main screen running on emulator.
It also works on real hardware, but I was too lazy
to take a picture of my TV screen
At first, this Save Data Manager was made only in order to test Virtual Memory Cart behavior, so maybe user interface looks a little cheap, but I plan to improve this in the future according to first users eventual feedback
I really want to thank two people whose work helped to make this application :
- Rockin-B : for his good old SaveGameManager application (yes, I copied the name of the application).
- hitomi2500 : for his ss-save-parser application that really helped to understand Saturn Save Data structure. Also, I merged its Save Import related sources to my project, so that copying save data from dump file is possible directly on Saturn too
And, there's one screen that I need to show from ss-save-parser application : the "extract options screen". This is image is worth a thousand words when trying to explain how save data is arranged in Saturn backup RAM
THE screen everyone need to see before
hacking Saturn saves data
Save data is arranged as header
(containing save name, comment, etc),
then blocks allocation table,
then data itself, with header data at
the beginning of each blocks.
Extra #1 : last month, I took a video of USB dev cart in action !
Nothing really spectacular however, but please watch it if you want to see what developing application with USB dev cart looks like
My dev laptop, a plain, not modded Saturn and USB dev cart,
ready for testing Saturn application on real hardware
- USB dev cart firmware update
- CD-ROM unlock by using Pseudo Saturn hack
- Upload and execution of program from PC to Saturn via USB, allowing testing of application performing CD-ROM access.
Extra #2 : with this USB dev cart, I could dump Shining Force Scenario 1 saves from Gosub .
You can find theses saves here.
Backup cartridge with gosub's saves on it.
Thanks to Darius for providing me the cartridge
Gosub pushed each Shining Force character to their maximum competence on real hardware without using any cheat.
Really impressing work oO
Extra #3 : last month, my car reached its life achievement : 777777 kilometers :]
Wow. Many lucky seven. So beauty 
Next challenge : 777 777 kilometers !
Read more WIP : Saturn Save Data Manager, Pseudo Saturn Kai & USB dev cart, etc
Last week, I soldered new USB dev carts, so please let me know if you want to purchase one
What's new with theses carts ?
I use new PCB (Rev 2e) and flash chips that allow to store firmware larger that Action Replay firmware :
- Action Replay Flash ROM : 256KB
- USB dev cart Flash ROM : 512KB
It will be useful when making custom firmware for this cartridge 
And, I'm now familiar with using flux when soldering ! Before, I was soldering small pitched parts (typically, the FTDI USB chip) with stain in excess, then using solder wick. This gave good results, but I wasn't satisfied with the visual aspect nearby soldering points :
Before : only stain & solder wick used to solder FTDI chip
After : flux used to solder FTDI chip
And, there are now "ROM cartridge" available for sale !
This is just an "USB-less USB dev cart", but it allows to run Pseudo Saturn firmware, and also future revisions of the firmware with ROM size larger than 256KB available on Action Replay carts. And of course, it is a little cheaper than USB dev cart
ROM cartridge ... well, this is just USB dev cart without USB modules, so nothing really new ^^;This cartridge is interesting in the case you want an USB dev cart for dev things, and another cart for gaming purpose.
Read more New USB dev carts for sale !
