Pseudo Saturn Kai official thread

[kroda]

Oh I see. Thank you for the help.

But I tested a bit more and maybe the issue is not even that.
I tried the disk on my computer and it didn't show anything, as if there was no disk inserted at all. If I checked the properties of the CD drive it showed 0 bytes.

Does it mean the CD I got is not burned at all? Or maybe just corrupted?

EDIT: I made the aluminium fix, didn't change anything. I really think the CD I have has nothing on it.

 

[privateye]

EDIT: I made the aluminium fix, didn't change anything. I really think the CD I have has nothing on it.

Rip the disc to an image file using ImgBurn - if the image file is smaller than 582MB or the disc can't be ripped at all, that pretty much confirms the disc is bad.

 

[Ace_of_DiscaL]

The "Aluminium Foil Tape" roll should cost a little under $3, give or take. It will give you a cleaner result than if you use normal kitchen foil.

It will fix the cartridge's temperament!

 

[kroda]

Hi, just to let you know, the issue was indeed the disk itself which was not even burned.
I received another one and it worked like a charm. Thanks for your support!

 

[Tongara]

Thank you for all the hard work you've put into this for the community over the years!

I'm currently using a Fenrir 20 Pin ODE inside my Saturn in addition to Fenrir Loader Kai. I have a Kai 4-in-1 (all in one) Cartridge from Jimmy Choi in Hong Kong. Several layers of Aluminium Foil Tape added to the inside, all working good. As I have Loader Kai already I had no need for the Kai software on the cart and I wanted to be able to add more cheats than Kai would allow, so I replaced the software on the cart with AR v1.94. (Anything above this like 2.01 or 2.02c would brick the cart, no idea why)

Now, onto my question... if I use the original Fenrir ODE menu and load a game by pressing C, it will return me to the AR menu so that I can then select cheats and play the game with them. When I've tried this with Loader Kai, it simply just boots into the game, meaning I have to manually restart my console, which of course isn't the biggest deal in the world, just a bit inconvenient. I can't even do the A+B+C+Start method to restart it with the cartridge, as it just flashes to a black screen. (I think this behavior is normal for the AR software even without Fenrir or Loader Kai installed, which is a whole other issue in itself)

Now, am I crazy, or did Loader Kai used to allow you to do the same thing by pressing C? I'm probably just misremembering. Would it be possible to have this added to Loader Kai? Obviously this isn't a demand, and I know nothing of any potential technical limitations, but it would be a cool feature to have.

Again, thank you for your hard work, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes in the future~

 

[privateye]

Now, onto my question... if I use the original Fenrir ODE menu and load a game by pressing C, it will return me to the AR menu so that I can then select cheats and play the game with them. When I've tried this with Loader Kai, it simply just boots into the game, meaning I have to manually restart my console, which of course isn't the biggest deal in the world, just a bit inconvenient.

Now, am I crazy, or did Loader Kai used to allow you to do the same thing by pressing C? I'm probably just misremembering. Would it be possible to have this added to Loader Kai? Obviously this isn't a demand, and I know nothing of any potential technical limitations, but it would be a cool feature to have.

Unfortunately, Load Cart feature is not (and has never been) available in Fenrir Loader Kai. Limitations of FLK are explained in section 3 of the readme - https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/readme_fenrirloaderkai.txt

 

[Tongara]

Unfortunately, Load Cart feature is not (and has never been) available in Fenrir Loader Kai. Limitations of FLK are explained in section 3 of the readme - https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/readme_fenrirloaderkai.txt

Ah, completely missed that. Thank you.

Guess I'll just have to keep going up to the console and resetting it that way then!

 

[fafling]

The Select cheats screen of PS Kai has a strange behavior when no cheat is enabled that confuses some users (see this post) :

• When pressing A, C or start to launch the game, the code where the cursor was is enabled in the game as if it had been selected by the user.
• When pressing Z to add custom codes, then selecting Load built-in codes, the code where the cursor was is automatically added to the code list (this is an example : https://youtu.be/zh7fnF0LwQU?t=139). If cancelling with B to go back to the Select cheats screen, that code is now green as if had been selected by the user.

 

[privateye]

When pressing A, C or start to launch the game, the code where the cursor was is enabled in the game as if it had been selected by the user.

In my opinion this behaviour is intuitive; the alternative is requiring the user to select the code with X and then press A/C/Start to launch the game, which doesn't really make sense for a single cheat code.

When pressing Z to add custom codes, then selecting Load built-in codes, the code where the cursor was is automatically added to the code list (this is an example : https://youtu.be/zh7fnF0LwQU?t=139). If cancelling with B to go back to the Select cheats screen, that code is now green as if had been selected by the user.

Yeah, I had this noted down as something to report to @cafe-alpha. I think things can be made a bit more intuitive with the following changes :

• Rename "Load Built-in Codes" to "Load Selected Codes".
• Add "Enter New Codes" to the following menu which populates the Custom Code Input screen only with the stored master code for that game (or the default master code if the game isn't in the cheat codes list)
  
  
  
  
  
  That's how it currently behaves if you invoke Custom Code Input from this screen :
  
  
  

 

[fafling]

In my opinion this behaviour is intuitive; the alternative is requiring the user to select the code with X and then press A/C/Start to launch the game, which doesn't really make sense for a single cheat code.

It's unintuitive because there's a message that says "No cheat codes enabled". It doesn't say "The highlighted code will be automatically enabled in case you don't select any code".

 

[privateye]

It's unintuitive because there's a message that says "No cheat codes enabled". It doesn't say "The highlighted code will be automatically enabled in case you don't select any code".

Ah, I forgot that it says that. It's probably a good idea to remove or replace the "No cheat codes enabled" message to remove this potential source of confusion.

 

[privateye]

@fafling : Cheat code functionality is more intuitive in the latest beta version of Pseudo Saturn Kai, as demonstrated in this GIF:

Other recent progress :

• Fixed a bug reported by @mhmetalheart where the presence of a Pseudo Saturn Kai cartridge would make the Satiator's SD card unavailable for save data import and export in Save Data Manager.
  
  
• Fixed a bug reported by @TraynoCo where the presence of an XBand modem could cause Satiator Menu Kai to re-load itself when booting a game.
  
  
• Various other improvements as mentioned by @cafe-alpha in his recent Patreon post

 

[cafe-alpha]

Thank you for the detail of recent progress, @privateye :]

Another point worth mentioning is that Satiator Menu Kai (as the name implies, for Satiator ODE) will function correctly when used with an Action Replay (or other clone) cartridge with latest version of Pseudo Saturn Kai being installed on it.

So far, it was required to erase the firmware to get Satiator Menu Kai working and because of that the cartridge would not be usable on a Saturn without Satiator ODE. On next release, the cartridge will function on an unmoded Saturn, or with Rhea/Phoebe/Fenrir/Satiator ODEs without having to adapt the firmware according to the ODE. One cartridge to rule them all

 

[jujududu]

What are the folder/file name requirements for Pseudo Menu Kai? I think I've found a bug: The menu appears to only list up to an alphabetical letter and then stop. None of my games from L-Z were being displayed in the menu.

Detail and partial success:
After looking at my card, I realized the first L title was "Lunar - Silver Star Story Complete (Japan) [T-En by Mr Conan v0.74] [req Video CD Card]". I wondered if that title was too long, so I shortened it to "Lunar - Silver Star Story Complete (Japan)". Booted back into PMK, and all games A-V were scanned in and then displayed. Now I'm getting cut off in the V's. V-Z is missing. The sorting is working differently in PMK than in Linux. So it's hard for me to tell which file is the culprit. As far as I can tell, there are folders with longer names that are appearing, and I can't narrow it down to a special character that's having trouble.

Has anyone encountered this before?


Steps to reproduce
1) Added 647 games to the SD card
2) Boot into Pseudo Menu Kai

Expected:
I should see all 647 games A-Z

Actual:
Only games A-K were displayed

 

[cafe-alpha]

What are the folder/file name requirements for Pseudo Menu Kai? I think I've found a bug: The menu appears to only list up to an alphabetical letter and then stop. None of my games from L-Z were being displayed in the menu.

Detail and partial success:
After looking at my card, I realized the first L title was "Lunar - Silver Star Story Complete (Japan) [T-En by Mr Conan v0.74] [req Video CD Card]". I wondered if that title was too long, so I shortened it to "Lunar - Silver Star Story Complete (Japan)". Booted back into PMK, and all games A-V were scanned in and then displayed. Now I'm getting cut off in the V's. V-Z is missing. The sorting is working differently in PMK than in Linux. So it's hard for me to tell which file is the culprit. As far as I can tell, there are folders with longer names that are appearing, and I can't narrow it down to a special character that's having trouble.

Has anyone encountered this before?


Steps to reproduce
1) Added 647 games to the SD card
2) Boot into Pseudo Menu Kai

Expected:
I should see all 647 games A-Z

Actual:
Only games A-K were displayed

Which ODE are you using ? I suspect you are using Fenrir (because it limits the folder names to around 50 characters) but as each ODEs have their own way of listing folders, I would like to be sure about your setup before investigating in details.

 

[CoolM4rc]

Is it possible to install custom themes to an All-in-one Pseudo Saturn Kai cartridge? I'd really like just a plain Saturn logo background like the opening splash screen of the saturn

Also, can you use the 4mb ram with the action replay or cartridge memory? Like, why is there a switch?!

 

[privateye]

Is it possible to install custom themes to an All-in-one Pseudo Saturn Kai cartridge? I'd really like just a plain Saturn logo background like the opening splash screen of the saturn

No, custom logo feature is only available on Gamer's Cartridge and Satiator Menu Kai.

Also, can you use the 4mb ram with the action replay or cartridge memory? Like, why is there a switch?!

Backup cartridge memory is not available in games utilizing 1MB/4MB expansion RAM, so the switch should be set to the feature that you wish to use.

 

[CoolM4rc]

No, custom logo feature is only available on Gamer's Cartridge and Satiator Menu Kai.


Backup cartridge memory is not available in games utilizing 1MB/4MB expansion RAM, so the switch should be set to the feature that you wish to use.

BOOM! Thank you so much! Nailed it

 

[cafe-alpha]

As Action Replay or other clones don't feature SD card connectivity, it's impossible to select an user-made logo for them. So, a "better than nothing" idea could be to put some images in a spare area of the cartridge ROM and from Pseudo Saturn Kai to allow to select the one to display.

Please let me know if someone wants to provide logo images (320x224, transparent color is accepted) and I shall update Pseudo Saturn Kai accordingly.
Conditions regarding the addition of the images is to be copyright-free, so no Sonic or Mario or registered company logo "borrowed" from an internet page please.

(PS: as there is not a lot of spare room available in the cartridge ROM, some images may be discarded at my discretion. I may also discard some images if they contain illegal material, or advertisement etc)