Official Sega Saturn NetLink Guide

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SEGA RPG FAN
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#511 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:21 pm

hawkzer0 wrote:You'll have to clear out your netlink settings from the saturn memory when switching between patched and non patched images, however.

That shouldn't be an issue anymore. That was only needed on the pre-release versions.
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#512 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:27 pm

SEGA RPG FAN wrote:
hawkzer0 wrote:
Roareye wrote:Downloaded them, but those disc images don't work. The Fenrir just restarts constantly. I have working disc images, would they be of use to whoever made the patches?


Yup for some reason, only some of the patched games work for me. Those ones that work are : JP puyo tsun, JP puzzle bobble, JP shadows of the tusk, JP virtua fighter, USA sega rally, and USA duke nukem. None of the other patched images work with my fenrir. Maybe sega rpg fan can enlighten us if there was a different process he used to patch the other ones.


They were all patched the same way which makes it odd that only some work. Do you both have issues with the same set of games?

The only differences would be the game title in the IP.Bin. I could try re-building a problem game with the official sega tools to see if it makes a difference. I didn't go that route because the tools are 16 bit which don't work in modern OSes and I didn't have a way to automate building the Saturn style disc layout file.


Hmm. I imagine it might indeed have something to do with the IP.bin. All the patched images work on my fenrir when I boot into them using the pseudo saturn cart, but I don't want to hotswap if I dont have to lol.

If you had time and were willing to do that, I would be very grateful! Hopefully Roareye can test and see if he has the same issue with the same games.
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#513 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:28 pm

SEGA RPG FAN wrote:
hawkzer0 wrote:You'll have to clear out your netlink settings from the saturn memory when switching between patched and non patched images, however.

That shouldn't be an issue anymore. That was only needed on the pre-release versions.


Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification!
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#514 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:51 pm

Another thing I can think of is possibly an issue with how the Fenrir auto patches the region. These discs have two IP.Bins. The first one is patched to JU (Japan, US) on all the games but the second one is not, because at least on real hardware it's not needed. The game wouldn't load the second IP.Bin until you start a multiplayer game though. Is there a way to disable region patching as a test?
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#515 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:08 pm

SEGA RPG FAN wrote:Another thing I can think of is possibly an issue with how the Fenrir auto patches the region. These discs have two IP.Bins. The first one is patched to JU (Japan, US) on all the games but the second one is not, because at least on real hardware it's not needed. The game wouldn't load the second IP.Bin until you start a multiplayer game though. Is there a way to disable region patching as a test?


Interesting! Unfortunately, no way to disable region, only change, which I just tested and doesn't help. So it wouldn't be as simple as using something like the Saturn Region Patcher tool to change the two ip.bins to the same region?
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#516 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 6:00 am

Just tested all the games on my Fenrir (running on latest firmware), this is what works and what doesn't on my card;

NetLink Titles
Daytona USA CE NetLink Edition ("Failed at retry" and "Failed to unlock drive" errors)
Duke Nukem 3D ("failed at retry")
Saturn Bomberman ("Failed at retry" and "Failed to unlock drive" errors)
Sega Rally Championship Plus
Virtual On ("Failed at retry" error)

SegaNet JP Titles
Battle Cubes (Boots to Sega screen then reboots system)
Daytona USA CE Remix ("failed at retry")
DecAthlete ("failed at retry")
Puyo Puyo Sun
Puzzle Bobble 3
Saturn Bomberman ("failed at retry")
Sega Rally Championship Plus ("failed at retry")
Sega Worldwide Soccer 98 (Boots to Sega screen, hangs then kicks to Saturn music player with visual oddities - left green cube is big red sphere but no music is playing)
Shadows of the Tusk
Virtua Fighter Remix
Virtual On ("failed at retry")

Unpatched SegaNet Titles
Dragon's Dream (not patched)
Habitat II (not patched)
Pad Nifty (not patched)
Pad Nifty 1.1 & Habitat II (not patched)
Sega Internet 1 (not patched)
Sega Internet 2 (not patched)
Special Disc with Saturn Internet 2 (not patched)


COMPARISONS
Between myself and Hawkzer0, there is only one game that acts differently - Duke Nukem 3D. UPDATE: hawkzer0 has confirmed that Duke Nukem 3D doesn't operate on his Saturn either, meaning every single release reacts the same across two different pieces of hardware.

Daytona USA (US) - Not working
Duke Nukem 3D (US) - UPDATE: Not working
Saturn Bomberman (US) - Not working
Sega Rally Championship (US) - WORKS!
Virtual On (US) - Not working

Battle Cubes (JP) - Not working
Daytona USA (JP) - Not working
DecAthlete (JP) - Not working
Puyo Puyo Sun (JP) - WORKS!
Puzzle Bobble 3 (JP) - WORKS!
Saturn Bomberman (JP) - Not working
Sega Rally Championship (JP) - Not working
Sega Worldwide Soccer 98 (JP) - Not working
Shadows of the Tusk (JP) - WORKS!
Virtua Fighter Remix (JP) - WORKS!
Virtual On (JP) - Not working
Last edited by Roareye on Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#517 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 9:37 am

Thanks for the detailed info. I haven't been able to find a pattern between the games that work and those that don't. I'll try a different build method and send you both some links via PM.
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#518 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:34 pm

Roareye wrote:
COMPARISONS
Between myself and Hawkzer0, there is only one game that acts differently - Duke Nukem 3D. I even deleted the game data for the four non-working USA titles and then re-copied them to ensure the error wasn't when the files were copied, but the same results for Duke Nukem 3D. Could be a difference of Fenrir firmware, or a difference in disc image. Either way I've deleted and re-added Duke Nukem 3D to make sure it wasn't a copying issue and the same error shows up. It's not working on my Saturn.


Well, just double checked and it looks like I was wrong. Duke Nukem does not work for me either. Sorry about the false flag.
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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#519 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 2:02 pm

SEGA RPG FAN sent me and hawkzer0 two alternate builds for DecAthlete, here are my results with these;

v1 - "Failed at Retry" error again, tries and fails to boot back to Fenrir menu
v2 - "Failed at Retry" error again, tries and fails to boot back to Fenrir menu

This issue doesn't occur on the non-patched version, which I also tested and boots perfectly. I have noticed a big difference between these patched versions and the original that works.
For some reason these patches have only one BIN file and one CUE file. The working games (non-patched) include a CUE file and multiple BIN files (often referred to as Tracks, I assume as track numbers on the disc). I've uploaded a tested and working copy of JP SegaNet DecAthlete and sent it to SEGA RPG FAN to see if there's something he can find in comparing them that could be causing the issue.

I wonder if it is possible that the Fenrir has a filesize limitation. There are 11 BIN files for the working copy of DecAthlete, rather than one large 140MB BIN file in the patch. I initially thought it could be a size issue with having multiple tracks spreading the load, but the patched US Sega Rally works and it has a single 453MB BIN file. So maybe it's game dependent, in how each title searches for track content?

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Re: Official Sega Saturn NetLink VOIP Guide

Post#520 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 4:21 pm

v5 WORKS!!!! WOOOO!!!! Thanks RPG!
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