--- Rmenu `Kai' for Rhea/Phoebe ODE --- A replacement for RMENU utility, for Rhea/Phoebe ODEs. By cafe-alpha https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/ http://ppcenter.free.fr/pskai/ (mirror) 1. Overview ========================================== Rhea and Phoebe are Optical Disc Emulators (ODE, a modern replacement for CD-ROM drive) which uses SD card to store CD image to play on Saturn. More informations about Rhea/Phoebe is available at the following page : https://gdemu.wordpress.com/about Rhea/Phoebe SD card can contain several disc images, and selection of which one to play on Saturn is done via a Saturn application called Rmenu. In order to make the usage of Pseudo Saturn Kai features user-friendly, the configuration job normally done on Rmenu is available on Pseudo Saturn Kai side, thus allowing image selection and selection of cheat codes by only the usage of a couple of menus. 2. Features ========================================== Nearly all the features from Pseudo Saturn Kai are available in RmenuKai : - User friendly list of disc images available for ODE - Several sort methods for listing disc images : - Alphabetical order - Folder ID order - Release date order - Automatic selection of previously selected disc image - Cheat codes functionality 3. Limitations ========================================== 3a. Lack of features requiring cartridge ROM ------------------------------------------ The features below are disabled because of of cartridge ROM unavailability : - In-game USB transfer with USB dev cart is disabled - ROM-based cheat codes handler is disabled In practical terms, theses limitations are not invalidant : ROM-based cheat codes handler is the slowest one, hence enabled only when other can't be used, which happens when enabling too many cheats at once. 3b. Lack of "Load Cart" feature ------------------------------------------ RMENU's "Load Cart" feature isn't available in RmenuKai, for the simple reason that installing Pseudo Saturn Kai on bootable cartridge does this job. As a consequence, usage of legacy firmware such as Action Replay or X-Terminator isn't supported by RmenuKai. 3c. Incomplete support of hardware and software reset ------------------------------------------ For a majority of games, a software reset triggered with A+B+C+Start keys combo makes Saturn returning to disc images selection menu thus allows to select another game after that. However, RmenuKai doesn't makes possible to reset back to this disc images list when a game requiring JHL loader is selected. Additionally, when running RmenuKai in : - Standalone mode -> hard reset triggered with console reset button causes the Saturn to crash when the CWX loader is used, and will reset the game when the JHL loader is used. - Boot cartridge mode -> hard reset will return to Pseudo Saturn Kai's "Select Loader" menu with the game still loaded in the ODE. From here, it's possible to return to the disc image selection menu by pressing X+Y+Z+Start to perform a soft reset. As a substitute for the reset button, disc swap button on Rhea/Phoebe will usually return to the disc image selection menu when the CWX loader is used. Games requiring JHL loader are for example Dragoon Saga, Mortal Kombat II etc and full list of these games is available below : https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/compat/#autoset If this limitation is too much of an inconvenience then you should opt to use RMENU instead of RmenuKai. 3d. Insufficient region bypass ------------------------------------------ Games requiring JHL game loader (for example Panzer Dragoon Saga) are not covered by region bypass feature. This can be fixed with configuration of auto_region setting in Rhea.ini/Phoebe.ini file, which enables on-the-fly region patching of all Saturn games on the ODE side. It should be noted that the JHL loader in the cartridge-based versions of Pseudo Saturn Kai is region-free, hence it is not strictly necessary to configure the auto_region setting when using the Rhea/Phoebe disc image selection menu there. However, it is still recommended to configure this setting in order to avoid the "Cartridge not suitable for this system" error which occurs when loading a game that doesn't match the system's region via the JHL loader, and then performing a soft reset. Instructions on how to configure this setting can be found here : https://gdemu.wordpress.com/operation/rhea-operation/ 3e. Incomplete support for Memory Card Plus and EMS 8MEG Cartridge ------------------------------------------ Memory Card Plus and EMS 8MEG cartridge backup memory is recognized only when CWX loader is used. As a consequence, games requiring JHL loader (Panzer Dragoon Saga etc) can only access Saturn internal backup memory. 4. Setup ========================================== 4a. About boot cartridge and standalone modes ------------------------------------------ There are two modes of operation for RmenuKai, as described below. - Standalone mode : -> Runs instead of RMENU -> Doesn't requires any cartridge to work - Boot cartridge mode : -> Installation on boot cartridge such as Action Replay or Gameshark etc -> Allows access to RMENU in case of compatibility issues in RmenuKai 4b. RmenuKai installation : first steps ------------------------------------------ Place the appropriate configuration file from the Settings folder into the root directory of your Rhea/Phoebe SD card : - Rhea ODE -> Rhea.ini - Phoebe ODE -> Phoebe.ini After that, open the configuration file in your preferred text editor and change the letter at the end of the first line so that it matches your console's region : - J : Japan - T : Taiwan and Philippines - U : USA and Canada - B : Brazil - K : Korea - A : Asia PAL area - E : Europe - L : Latin America Example : USA console -> auto_region = U More configuration settings can be found at the link below : https://gdemu.wordpress.com/operation/rhea-operation/ Next, install RMENU by following the instructions in its readme file. It can be found at the link below: https://gdemu.wordpress.com/links/ If you wish to run RmenuKai in : - standalone mode -> proceed to section 4c - boot cartridge mode -> proceed to section 4d 4c. RmenuKai installation : standalone mode ------------------------------------------ RmenuKai re-uses RMENU builder and can be enabled by overwriting 0.bin file in RMENU's cd folder : [SD card Root] |-Rhea.ini |-01 (folder) | |-RMENU.exe | |-RMENU.iso | |-BIN (folder) | | |-mkisofs.exe | | |-mkisofs.txt | | |-RMENU (folder) | | | |-0.BIN <- File to overwrite with 0.bin from this archive | | | |-ABS.TXT | | | |-BIB.TXT | | | |-CPY.TXT | | | |-IP.BIN | | | |-LIST.INI | | | |-Z.BIN After overwriting 0.bin file, it is necessary to rebuild RMENU.iso image file by using RMENU.exe utility. 4d. RmenuKai installation : boot cartridge mode ------------------------------------------ Please install Pseudo Saturn Kai on your cartridge by using flasher utility. Installation step is similar to normal usage without ODE : 1. Copy flasher utility to Rhea/Phoebe SD card 2. Rebuild RMENU.iso image file by using RMENU.exe utility 3. Load flasher utility on Saturn 4. Follow instructions displayed on screen For more information, please refer to section 4 of the Pseudo Saturn Kai main readme file. After first run of Pseudo Saturn Kai, it is necessary to change optical disc type to "Rhea/Phoebe" in Loader Settings available from main menu. 4e. Virtual folder support ------------------------------------------ Unlike RMENU which displays all disc images in a single list, RmenuKai allows disc images to be arranged in nested folders. To do this: 1. Launch RMENU.exe on your Rhea/Phoebe SD card. 2. When it asks "Edit game titles?", type 'y' and press Enter to open RMENU.INI with your system's default text editor. 3. Put a forward slash character at the beginning of the path to indicate it contains subfolder(s) and also use forward slash as a folder separator. 4. Save the changes made to RMENU.INI and close your text editor which, in turn, will close RMENU.EXE and save a new copy of RMENU.ISO. Example : The following titles : 02 = Sega Rally 03 = Nights into Dreams 04 = /Sonic/Sonic R 05 = /Sonic/Sonic Jam 06 = /Shmup/Darius Gaiden 07 = /Shmup/Radiant Silvergun 08 = /Shmup/Raizing/Soukyugurentai 09 = /Shmup/Raizing/Battle Garegga Shall list as the following tree in RmenuKai : |-Shmup | |-Raizing | | |-Battle Garegga | | |-Soukyugurentai | |-Darius Gaiden | |-Radiant Silvergun |-Sonic | |-Sonic Jam | |-Sonic R |-Nights into Dreams |-Sega Rally Note that the actual folders on the Rhea/Phoebe SD card must still follow this naming scheme : - 2 digits for the first 100 folders (0 -> 99) - 3 digits for the next 899 folders (100 -> 999) - 4 digits for the next 8999 folders (1000 -> 9999) 5. Credits ========================================== - Deunan Knute - CyberWarriorX - privateye