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 ?!)
Read more End of Summer (2021/09/19)
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 !
A4 : I don't earn anything from
legacy cartridge manufacturers : you paid $35 for your Action Replay
cartridge ? I received $0 from it. You paid $60 for a red "all-in-one"
©®TM cartridge ? I received $0 from it.
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
「お父さんは、エンジニアリング以外のことは苦手なんです。」
だから、開発すら関わってないモノのサポートについては期待しないでね。
Read more How to fix your cartridge with Pseudo Saturn Kai
Just a small post to indicate I'm back from holidays
In fact, I went back home one week ago, but didn't had time to write this article so far ... but in comparison with other articles on this blog, this one is quite timely anyway 
Hand Spinner ! 540 Yens ! 売れています！
It seems I took vacations to the last place in the world where
hard spinner are still popular
I honestly have no idea when Pseudo Saturn Kai will be ready for release except than "when it's done" 
So, please be more patient until having fun with cheat codes !
Among other small things, I'm currently making some updates to the credits page. Because a careless mistake until version 6.074, credits page was available only in Pseudo Saturn Kai full version, hence this will be the debut for it on next release for Action Replay users 
Read more Back from Holidays
Normal sales people make announcements when their things to sale are available ... I personally don't like aggressive advertisement, hence prefer to make announcement when things to sale are not available
So I don't plan to process Gamer's Cartridge for a while ... reason for this is simple : I can't go to post office during winter vacations (and probably won't have time for emails too), so I prefer to temporarily stop selling cartridge rather than asking people for waiting
Sorry, that's the only picture I found for this article
(Grabbed from here )
So I wish you nice winter vacations ! I don't know there, but weather here is cold and windy, hence well suited for playing Saturn
Edit (2017/01/12) : cartridges are back for sale ! More informations on my Saturn cartridges page.
During winter vacations, I found a couple of cartridges with "Rev 3.3 (a)" PCB (one revision before latest revision, only position of LEDs is different) while tidying up my apartment
BTW, happy new year 
Read more Gamer's Cartridges temporarily not available ! (Edit: now available ♪)
First post in 2016 Happy new year !!! 
Last week was "new year's bargain" here in Japan.
So, no, I didn't spent my whole day in choosing clothes
Instead, I went to electronics store, and bough a 128GB SD card for only 5000 Yens (around 40 US dollars) 
I use this SD card in order to watch movies on my Pandora during lunch time
Pandora : Youtube, Firefox, Thunderbird, mplayer,
and real keyboard in my pocket
Read more Happy New Year !
