My Model 2 Saturn & Albert Odyssey, Time for a new one?

[chriswy27]

Hey,
I have an MK-80000A Sega Saturn which is modded with Racketboy's chip. Recently I am having problems playing Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean using an original disc. Here is what happens.

When I am playing the game the Sega Saturn will simply freeze when loading a battle maybe 1 out of 10 times. The music never starts and you never get the menu to select your move. It just simple loads the background scene and sits there with the character sprites moving back and forth.

I first tried using a cd drive cleaner disc and letting that run its cycle and no luck. I then figured maybe my original disc was bad so I burned a copy (not from my personal original) on 1X speed, tested it, and got the same result! So now I am pretty sure it's not the discs.

I also have a spare parts non-working MK-80000A Saturn so I figured maybe the laser is bad in my working one. I swapped over the laser assembly only from one drive to the other and still get the SAME result!!!

Is there anything else to try or is it just time for a new Saturn?

P.S. This is the ONLY game so far that has given me any problems.

[spiritplx]

One out of ten seems to be a bit high, but I have experienced this with my original copy of Albert Odyssey as well (on both of my model 1 Saturns). I'd say on a given playthrough, it only happens to me about 5-10 times total.

I guess try not hitting any buttons while a battle loads. Or if you typically don't hit buttons, try hitting buttons before it loads. Either way, try and find out which way is causing it to freeze more often, then do the opposite. I can't remember now which one was better. Not much you can do though. Just hope for the best.

Like I said, one out of ten seems high. If you are experiencing that rate of freezing, then the game is simply unplayable. Maybe this game just loads in a way that the Saturn doesn't like. I really have no idea. But as I mentioned, two of my Saturns (one modded, one not) experience the freezing, but no problems with any other games (be that original or burned). So I would say your Saturn is fine. I guess you could always try adjusting the potentiometer, but that seems like overkill for just one game.

So all in all, I can't offer much help, just that I too have experienced this problem. I hope the rate changes so you can actually play it.

Good luck.

[chriswy27]

It started happening a couple times in the "Mountain pass" in the beginning of the game but eventually I was able to get though it. Now I am in "Balan's Fort" and I have tried THREE times to complete this but each time after 10 or less battles it will freeze and there is no save point in the fort so when it does this I have to start all over!

I usually do not hit any buttons when a battle is loading.

Anyone else have any advice?

[OmegaMaximum]

The part you're stuck at now, is that playing with the original disc, or with a backup?

I know you've tried a backup, but it might be worth another shot.
On a side note, on most of the Working Designs RPGs I've played, they have some kind of freezing problem, and it just seems to happen with their games. I've got copies of both Lunar:Silver Star and Eternal Blue, and both of them have frozen several times during play. It's odd, but it happens.

[chriswy27]

The part I am stuck at now I have tried both with a backup and my original all to get the same result. Neither works better than the other. If there were more places to save I wouldn't be complaining but after playing for an hour only to have the game freeze sucks! I was debating buying another saturn but you guys seem to think the problem is not my console.

[OmegaMaximum]

Well if it's only with that particular game, and even more so in the same spot, then its almost definitely the game. Maybe try another backup, from a different source, but like I said, every Working Designs game I've ever played, no mater the system, has frozen or just messed up at some point, for instance, I was playing Lunar: The Silver Star, at the end, after beating the last boss, if you died again and resumed from checkpoint, the last boss would respawn and kill you, this happened to me like 6 times before I found out how to make it past some lightning, but no matter original, or backed up copy, or different backup, the game always did the same thing.

[zerexerez]

The occasional freezing has also occured to me while playing the game, but not as frequent as yours. Think throughout I only had 3-5 freezes. I remember reading that Working Designs had cut down the encounter rate in the US version, which may account for this bug? Read online the japanese version of Albert Odyssey was grindfest.

[chriswy27]

Well if it's only with that particular game, and even more so in the same spot, then its almost definitely the game. Maybe try another backup, from a different source, but like I said, every Working Designs game I've ever played, no mater the system, has frozen or just messed up at some point, for instance, I was playing Lunar: The Silver Star, at the end, after beating the last boss, if you died again and resumed from checkpoint, the last boss would respawn and kill you, this happened to me like 6 times before I found out how to make it past some lightning, but no matter original, or backed up copy, or different backup, the game always did the same thing.

I tried using my original disc as well as a a backup made from another source and both results were the same. I just got past the part as the game behaved long enough for me to save so we'll see how it goes from here.

[chriswy27]

Well now things have gone to annoying to terrible. I am now in the East Tower trying to beat Aine which I have aready but please read on... I have restarted this battle 4 times now using again two different discs, one original and another burned disc made from a separate copy. Now randomly during the battle I get a nice little message at the bottom left of my screen that reads, "DBG ERR =-009" and on the next line "GFS ERR NEXIST = RESURREC.MGC -" or "GFS ERR NEXIST = YOUSEI 1.MGC -". Please not that depending on the magic ability selected the number after "YOUSEI" or sometimes the whole name will change as you can see from the pictures I took w/ my phone while playing below. Also when this happens all audio clips of ONLY the magic abilities are NOT played and the images of the angel and other animation sprites become distorted! DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS?! Because I have tried multiple discs it is either my saturn or the way the game was designed at this point. I did beat the boss one of those times when I had the error on my screen just to see if I could get past it and after he died I was greeted with a black screen and a disc that was no longer spinning inside my saturn. Even opening up the drive door did not bring back any screens. A press of the reset button was my only working option.



One farther back of the whole screen

[sneth]

I had this game lock up once or twice on a healthy Saturn.
Your laser might be slowly dying. A used saturn is like $20, so you probably are better off buying another one.

I'm not sure if there is a Pot you can adjust to increase the laser power on Saturn. I'd imagine there is one, but I'd have to look.

You can always just try cleaning the laser as well. This has solved more Saturn issues than i can count.