HDLOADER for SEGA SATURN form China(working...)

Dhampir

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Anything new for the Sega Saturn is always welcome. I was a diehard Saturn fan during that generation, begged for one and got it for my birthday.
 

Foxi4

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I'm definitely interested in this, I'd love one for my Saturn. Optical drives have limited life spans, HDD loading would fix the problem easily. I've seen a couple devices like this one, some first and third party to check their game builds, some made by homebrew engineers, but no commercially available ones.

If the project ever comes to fruition, I've got dibs on reviewing this thing! Very exciting news (if genuine), hqyhqyhqy.
 

Dhampir

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It wouldn't load good on my computer, I did see it booting with a menu. Do the videos show how the device is actually reading them via USB?
 

Foxi4

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It wouldn't load good on my computer, I did see it booting with a menu. Do the videos show how the device is actually reading them via USB?
They don't, but I can tell you how without digging much. It's more than likely an ODDE-type device connected via the drive ribbon - the cartridge slot can't load full-on games, just small chunks of code (see: Action Replay Plus). At least that's my educated guess - that's the method used by other such devices, both experimental and used by actual developers.
 

Foxi4

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Here's a hit-and-miss translation of Sarooo.com, might not be too accurate since I aided myself with Google Translate:
sarooo-saturn-hdloader
sarooo group - to a childhood dream
What SAROOO is?
"SAROOO" is an expansion card used for the Sega Saturn. With this card, the Saturn can read games via a USB device. In other words, it is an HD Loader. When making this device, the original idea came from one of our crew's childhood dream. After more than a year of effort, we can already run games and successfully played some . It can be said that it (SAROOO) has achieved initial success. Here are actual videos of SAROOO, voice and animation work. In addition, there are many things that need to be perfected.​

SAROO reading Langrisser 3
SAROO reading Langrisser 4

We will continue to work hard and hope that you can play with everybody using the recent "SAROOO" on Saturn.
It's not a 1:1 translation, there are some re-wordings/replaced words to make the post readable for an English-speaking audience.
 

tbgtbg

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I hope this pans out.

I wonder if it works with all models or just model 2. I hope all, as I don't have a model 2 (round button).
 

Foxi4

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I hope this pans out.

I wonder if it works with all models or just model 2. I hope all, as I don't have a model 2 (round button).
Saturns used a variety of different drives, so this might be a concern, now that you mention it. That being said, the security scheme itself was the same on all models, it's just that the model 2 didn't have a drive light, so swap tricks were more difficult to perform on it.
 

lovewiibrew

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Saw a thread about this on another site. I posted a comment on Sarooo website using google translate telling them good luck and asking if they would ship worldwide. My comment was deleted for some reason. I do hope this comes to fruition. With this and PSIO/DCIO I would be set.
 

Foxi4

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My body is ready for this thing, as I've said earlier in the thread. Teasers are all nice and dandy, but I can't wait till it's on the market, hopefully affordable. My Saturn drive is functional and works very well but swap tricks and CD-R's will eventually kill it and I want my system future proof.
 

CyberAxe

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I'm defiantly interested in this.

Saw a thread about this on another site. I posted a comment on Sarooo website using google translate telling them good luck and asking if they would ship worldwide. My comment was deleted for some reason. I do hope this comes to fruition. With this and PSIO/DCIO I would be set.

who needs a DCIO? you can solder an IDE cable directly to the DC and get the same effect plus can continue to use the disc drive, i have the link somewhere if anyone needs it.
 

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