Is SSF the best, most up-to-date Saturn emulator?

[Lodestar]

Been wondering if there's a better alternative, seems a lot of the games I run with SSF have no music. I looked it up and supposedly it's because of certain rips having mp3 audio, but none of mine are like that. I only have one particular rip that came included with WAV files - and that one has no music, either.

[deathsled]

Been wondering if there's a better alternative, seems a lot of the games I run with SSF have no music. I looked it up and supposedly it's because of certain rips having mp3 audio, but none of mine are like that. I only have one particular rip that came included with WAV files -and that one has no music, either.

it's all in the disc image/mounting and not a problem with SSF at all.

Make sure you're loading the cue file and not the bin when you mount the image if it has wavs or mp3s.

I typically generate a new cue file for most Saturn "isos" (use SegaCueMaker) I obtain because the ones from most popular sites that come in bin/cue format always seem to have a cue file that isn't written properly for the files (wrong files names most often).

Sometimes it works best to take your newly created cue (and bin + wavs or mp3s) and use something like Nero to turn that into a single iso or nrg file. I had to do this for Hyper Dual in order to get music even after I had a good cue file. Daemon tools didn't like to mount it for some reason. Nero opened it just fine and converted it to a single iso (nrg actually). Now it plays perfectly. This is how images should have been distributed in the first place honestly...

There is no better Saturn emulator than SSF which works almost flawlessly. I've been using SSF for years and it has come a long long way. It can play practically everything without needing a bios now. Only a few games seem to need a bios in order to work (like Street Fighter 3 Zero for example).

[Lodestar]

Thanks for the clarification, I got Sega Cue Maker, but it's saying "there are no ISOs or raws in the directory" when I try to generate a cue file. I'm guessing this doesn't work with BIN files.

[deathsled]

Thanks for the clarification, I got Sega Cue Maker, but it's saying "there are no ISOs or raws in the directory" when I try to generate a cue file. I'm guessing this doesn't work with BIN files.

I think you're right. I just looked through all my images and I think everything that I haven't converted to a single file is in cue/iso format.

What you need to do is get bin2iso, convert the bins to isos (duh lol), and then make your cue file.

Again, I have no idea why images are distributed in these formats that don't work lol. However, a little elbow grease on your part and they'll be perfectly playable.

[Lodestar]

Make sure you're loading the cue file and not the bin when you mount the image if it has wavs or mp3s

It doesn't have a cue, just a single BIN file.

Well, I'm trying to convert the images, but when I mount and try to make new images, they all fail due to unrecoverable blocks (doubt they're all defective).


EDIT:

Tried again with ULTRAISO, they convert, but when I do so they lose multi-track information? Is that something to worry about? I've tried booting a few of the conversions that I've made CUEs for with Sega Cue Maker, same issue with no music. Others won't boot at all.

So tedious. I wish this shit would just work.

[deathsled]

lol that sucks

Blame the people "ripping" and distributing those images though, it's not really SSF's fault

I had several games that took me a hot minute to get sorted out. Hyper Duel was definitely the worst image I had to work with.

Once you get things working properly it's sweet haha

[Lodestar]

Frankly, I don't know what else I can do besides what you suggested. Convert to iso, make cue... that it? Because I have Dragon Force in bin/cue format and it works just fine untouched - music and everything.

[deathsled]

that's pretty much it. I admit the ones that have wavs or mp3s outside of the iso/bin are a complete pain.

I think in almost every case what I've done with those is make a new cue file with SegaCueMaker (and convert bin to iso if necessary) and then use that cue with Nero to create a disc image via the built in Image Recorder in the NRG format (Nero's own). Once I've done that the disc image mounts properly via Daemon Tools and plays properly in SSF.

When Nero loads the cue file it doesn't care if the audio is in mp3 format but for some reason Daemon Tools does and doesn't like to load the ones with mp3 audio it seems.

[Lodestar]

Turns out I just had some horrible rips. Found some better ones and the music is present.

I just don't understand why people are releasing these god-forsaken things to the public, knowing full well they aren't versatile images suitable for emulation. Thanks for the help.