Hello everyone, I've always loved to try and mess around with Sega Saturn games, either to find hidden things or modify the games themselves. I pretty much have no programming experience, so even though I could make some stuff here and there, I almost always ended up hitting a wall. I've always had ideas of things I wanted to mod, so I turned to Claude to see if it could point me in the right direction and help me achieve what I wanted. To my surprise, it easily decoded game files and allowed simple things to be done, so I wanted to try making something more challenging: a track editor for Sega Rally Championship. After 10 days of work, I think I can present something that I am happy with for a first version.
In this version 1.0 you can:
Note: This was made to work with the Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) version. Other versions probably won't work or will have issues; I have not tested them.
Step 0. Go to the folder where you have your Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) files (the one with 17 .bin files and 1 .cue file) and create a folder called backup or original. Copy and paste Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) (Track 01).bin into that backup folder.
Step 1. Open Sega Rally Track Editor.
Step 2. In "0. Your original game files", press the "Open disc image (ISO/BIN)" button and select the Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) (Track 01).bin file INSIDE the original/backup folder.
Step 3. Pick either one of the tracks or multiple (let's stick to one for now). Pick "Desert Stage" in "1. Course".
Step 4. Go to "2. Shape" and select "Bean".
Step 5. Go to "4. Build track/tracks" and press "Build track".
Step 6. Once it is done, press "Create patched disc image" and select the Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) (Track 01).bin file OUTSIDE of the backup folder.
Step 7. Run the game.
This was not tested on an actual Sega Saturn, and the tracks have some limitations, so don't make very complicated ones or they will have problems. Have fun and experiment! Sometimes you will see red text while building a track saying a corner is too tight, but it can still work in game, it's just a warning that it may cause issues.
In this version 1.0 you can:
- Edit the track layout, either by manually dragging lines and adjusting them, or by simply drawing the circuit layout and letting it auto-form
- Edit the sky textures of the tracks
- Edit the height profile of the track (where it goes up and where it goes down)
- Ensure AI cars follow the path correctly
- Ensure the co-pilot announces turns correctly
Note: This was made to work with the Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) version. Other versions probably won't work or will have issues; I have not tested them.
Step 0. Go to the folder where you have your Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) files (the one with 17 .bin files and 1 .cue file) and create a folder called backup or original. Copy and paste Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) (Track 01).bin into that backup folder.
Step 1. Open Sega Rally Track Editor.
Step 2. In "0. Your original game files", press the "Open disc image (ISO/BIN)" button and select the Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) (Track 01).bin file INSIDE the original/backup folder.
Step 3. Pick either one of the tracks or multiple (let's stick to one for now). Pick "Desert Stage" in "1. Course".
Step 4. Go to "2. Shape" and select "Bean".
Step 5. Go to "4. Build track/tracks" and press "Build track".
Step 6. Once it is done, press "Create patched disc image" and select the Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan) (Track 01).bin file OUTSIDE of the backup folder.
Step 7. Run the game.
This was not tested on an actual Sega Saturn, and the tracks have some limitations, so don't make very complicated ones or they will have problems. Have fun and experiment! Sometimes you will see red text while building a track saying a corner is too tight, but it can still work in game, it's just a warning that it may cause issues.