Could the Saturn have the same boot protection as the DC?

Is it possible that the Saturn uses the same boot protection as the Dreamcast?

I don't own a Saturn but am interested in seeing if there's any way to self-boot games.

For dreamcast games an audio track has to be inserted in a certain location of the image for it to self boot. There are many tools to do this. I prefer bin2boot.

Can someone post up a directory listing of a Saturn game? I'd be interested in seeing it.

There's a good possibility you guys know much more than me on the subject, but don't flame me. I just want to help. LMK.

Doom5.
 
No, the Saturn has a special "security ring" around the edge of the disc that needs to be present, but can not be copied by commercial burners.
 
"Is it possible that the Saturn uses the same boot protection as the Dreamcast?"

The protection against unlicensed publishing is similar to the scheme used by Saturn and Sega CD (and, to a lesser extent, Game Boy). However, that's fairly irrelevant for copying games. Curtis's explanation sums up most of what is commonly known about the Saturn copy protection - the only thing I've been able to find out beyond that is that official Saturn discs seem to be padded with tracking info (probably a dummy track of some kind not listed in the TOC) so that the laser can actually seek to the outer ring.

"For dreamcast games an audio track has to be inserted in a certain location of the image for it to self boot."

Not really; the data just needs to be on the second session - the first session can be a data track too (and from what I've heard, it *should* be data). However, the disc *must* have the Sega logo program in the bootstrap, and the program pointed to in the IP.BIN must be scrambled. But like I said, if you're just copying games, none of that really matters...

As for Saturn directories, you're not missing much; here's the directory of Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru:

Code:
 Volume in drive E is TAROMARU

 Volume Serial Number is BA90-8F27

 Directory of E:

11/19/1996 09:32 AM      602,356 0TARO.BIN

01/26/1995 06:35 AM         7 ABS.TXT

03/29/1996 02:36 AM      227,040 BG1.BIN

10/21/1996 08:00 AM      250,816 BG2.BIN

10/21/1996 08:00 AM      254,272 BG22.BIN

10/21/1996 08:00 AM      10,208 BG23.BIN

10/21/1996 09:09 AM      241,856 BG3.BIN

10/21/1996 09:09 AM      346,624 BG32.BIN

10/14/1996 03:40 AM      160,672 BG4.BIN

01/26/1995 06:35 AM         7 BIB.TXT

08/20/1996 02:39 PM      176,416 BOSS1.STB

07/29/1996 02:35 AM     2,486,272 CDDA1

01/27/1995 07:41 AM      806,912 CDDA10

10/01/1996 09:57 AM    34,271,232 CDDA11

10/01/1996 10:33 AM    39,874,560 CDDA12

10/08/1996 02:01 AM    37,523,456 CDDA13

07/29/1996 02:22 AM    22,319,104 CDDA2

07/29/1996 02:18 AM    13,887,488 CDDA3

07/29/1996 02:20 AM    21,766,144 CDDA4

07/29/1996 02:28 AM    45,770,752 CDDA5

07/29/1996 02:21 AM    40,042,496 CDDA6

10/01/1996 04:12 AM    37,441,536 CDDA7

10/01/1996 09:27 AM    84,158,464 CDDA8

10/01/1996 08:05 AM    35,002,368 CDDA9

10/22/1996 06:59 AM     3,846,144 CDDAED1

10/24/1996 03:28 AM    11,831,296 CDDAED2

07/24/1996 02:04 AM     3,086,336 CDDAOP1

10/21/1996 01:49 AM     3,141,632 CDDAOP2

10/20/1996 05:23 AM     3,651,584 CDDAOP3

11/14/1996 03:18 AM        64 COPY.TXT

11/19/1996 09:28 AM       8,984 DEMOPLAY.PRG

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      302,284 EDSOUND.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM        672 EFFECT.PAL

09/17/1996 09:43 AM      74,944 EFFECT.STB

10/21/1996 01:36 AM      186,272 ENDBG.BIN

11/19/1996 09:29 AM      10,524 ENDING.PRG

10/30/1996 02:36 AM      112,160 ENDTEX.BIN

10/09/1996 09:55 AM       1,376 ENEMY1.PAL

10/09/1996 09:42 AM      219,360 ENEMY1.STB

08/15/1996 04:27 PM       1,152 ENEMY2.PAL

08/15/1996 04:27 PM      124,416 ENEMY2.STB

05/30/1996 10:43 PM      144,096 ENEMY22.STB

10/11/1996 05:32 AM        736 ENEMY3.PAL

10/11/1996 03:31 AM      137,184 ENEMY3.STB

08/07/1996 08:58 AM      106,656 ENEMY32.STB

10/15/1996 05:29 AM       1,088 ENEMY4.PAL

10/15/1996 02:55 AM      187,168 ENEMY4.STB

10/29/1996 01:46 AM      32,232 ENETEX.BIN

12/12/1995 01:42 AM       3,072 FONT.STB

10/30/1996 02:54 AM       6,817 LOAD.BIN

11/19/1996 09:29 AM       1,340 LOGO.PRG

10/24/1996 04:41 AM      71,748 MODEL1.BIN

10/24/1996 04:42 AM      126,604 MODEL2.BIN

11/12/1996 11:09 PM      86,964 MODEL3.BIN

10/24/1996 08:09 AM      19,228 MODEL4.BIN

10/05/1996 04:51 AM      86,176 OPBG1.BIN

10/17/1996 03:31 AM      176,928 OPBG2.BIN

11/19/1996 09:28 AM      18,888 OPENNING.PRG

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      280,692 OPSOUND.BIN

10/19/1996 04:01 AM      232,672 OPTEX.BIN

11/19/1996 09:28 AM       3,192 OPTION.PRG

10/30/1996 02:55 AM      20,896 OVER.STB

10/28/1996 07:09 AM       7,920 PAD1DAT.BIN

10/28/1996 07:04 AM       7,920 PAD2DAT.BIN

11/19/1996 09:29 AM       1,764 RANK.PRG

10/17/1996 01:32 AM       9,344 RANKBG.BIN

10/05/1996 06:23 AM       6,720 SHUJI.BIN

09/25/1995 04:51 AM      23,520 SOUND.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      381,270 SOUND0.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      78,456 SOUND1.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      70,726 SOUND12.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      78,674 SOUND2.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      90,614 SOUND3.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      81,772 SOUND32.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      82,574 SOUND4.BIN

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      70,628 SOUND42.BIN

10/30/1996 02:51 AM      89,456 STAGE1.BIN

05/24/1996 11:01 PM        928 STAGE1.PAL

05/31/1996 10:32 AM      86,272 STAGE1.STB

11/11/1996 05:25 AM      106,928 STAGE2.BIN

08/29/1996 11:29 PM        992 STAGE2.PAL

08/29/1996 11:29 PM      108,544 STAGE2.STB

08/29/1996 11:29 PM        640 STAGE22.PAL

06/24/1996 04:57 AM      78,352 STAGE22.STB

10/30/1996 02:53 AM      34,544 STAGE3.BIN

08/31/1996 01:02 AM       1,344 STAGE3.PAL

10/22/1996 03:31 AM      73,440 STAGE3.STB

11/08/1996 02:56 AM      122,592 STAGE4.BIN

09/06/1996 02:39 AM        192 STAGE4.PAL

09/13/1996 09:12 AM      26,336 STAGE4.STB

10/30/1996 02:54 AM      310,720 TARO.STB

10/30/1996 02:55 AM      18,400 TITLE.MAP

10/30/1996 02:55 AM       1,280 TITLE.PAL

10/30/1996 02:55 AM      129,312 TITLE.SCB

10/30/1996 02:55 AM      93,536 TITLE.STB

10/28/1996 05:50 AM      39,488 TWI.CEL

10/28/1996 05:50 AM      24,576 TWI.MAP

10/29/1996 05:37 AM      19,872 WARNING.BIN

       98 File(s)  448,324,281 bytes

        0 Dir(s)        0 bytes free
 
Aren't you curious to know what's inside the misterious outer ring? I mean, what words of wisdom seeks the system before entering the boot? I suppose there's a copy of that (or at least the CD bus traffic) inside the mod chips. But most of us will provably never know (altough i bet it's the "SEGA licenced by Sega" screenie code) :p.

Doom5, the executable is the first one on the listing (in that case 0TAR0.BIN), and it's normally less than 1 Mb in size. Some games (ST-V based, like Elan Durée), seem to use a file of 20Mb in size to boot. I suppose the boot code might be somewhat diferent in those games, or maybe the code just loads the first Mb of the file.
 
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