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Sega Saturn Boot Disks available
Devil Ken Masters - Apr 18, 2003

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  Devil Ken Masters Apr 18, 2003
AFAIK, there are ¿2? sega saturn boot disks, one to run Sega games and another on to run Third Party ones, and the 2 of them boot directly on the saturn and let you insert a cdr with the sega/third party game to boot it... only if you have the ORIGINAL boot cd's, because if you don't you need to do the swap trick to boot the cd boot so then you can boot the game... pretty stupid in that case because you add one step to the boot sequence, am I wrong?

What I readed too is that one of the boot cd's available (another one?) does that the Saturn do not read anymore the protection ring while you do not turn off the console. Is it true? And does that mean that if I boot the Saturn with an original, then I do swap with the special boot cd, it lets me reset and play a cdr game and when I'm tired of it reset again and play another cdr without reading any protection ring until I power it off? (so booting cdr without swapping?) Because that way I will have to do the swap only one time and will be able to play some games

Thanks if someone explain it to me because I think I'm a little confused with those boot disks.

 AntiPasta Apr 18, 2003
yeah I heard that's the case - apparently it does something with the Saturn that makes it skip the security check, and that setting remains until power is switched off, so just reset and you'll be fine.

Finding these bootdiscs is another matter, however - anyone had any luck finding them? The only thing I got was a 70k RAR file which contained an ISO that only contained a file called '0' filled with zeros - seemed like a fake to me.

 Devil Ken Masters Apr 18, 2003
Well I was asking that because a probably stupid idea, but an idea anyway:

What about picking a 8cm 185 MB CD-R (the small ones), recording there the boot disc that theorically let you use cdr's without the copy protection until you power off the console.

Then picking an original (scratched or very cheap one), doing a hole in the center of the size of the 8cm CD-R... precise of the same size of the small cd (hey I'm not mad ) and puting them joint so it's a cd-r of normal size with the boot in the 8 cm one and the security ring in the other part... then booting with it for the 1st time and finally playing imports/cdr without doing any swap...

I suppose that everyone will consider cutting cd's and joining them that way a really stupid think... but that's an a idea I think is very strange nobody tried yet :\

 Curtis Apr 18, 2003
It has been talked about before. The problem would be getting the cut accurate - you'd need a laser engraving tool to do it properly. I can't see why it wouldn't work in theory, but nobody has really tried becuase modboards are so cheap.

Have fun.

 antime Apr 19, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by AntiPasta@Apr 19, 2003 @ 01:08 AM



 The only thing I got was a 70k RAR file which contained an ISO that only contained a file called '0' filled with zeros - seemed like a fake to me.


Sounds about right, the real beef is in the AIP. The padding is there just to make the track legally sized.

 AntiPasta Apr 19, 2003
so there's no code that somehow talks to the CD system? Darn.

 antime Apr 19, 2003
As I said, what you're looking for is in the AIP.

 mal Apr 19, 2003
Out of interest, does anybody know if there is an image of the Sega (1st party) system disc floating about anywhere?

No, it isn't a request; a yes or no is all I want.

 AntiPasta Apr 19, 2003
antime: what's the AIP exactly? Just some kind of header or does it include any code?

 antime Apr 22, 2003
AIP stands for "Application Initial Program". It's the user-defined part of the IP that's run after the first read file has been loaded (if one is specified).

 AntiPasta Apr 22, 2003
right... so if the AIP contains the code, it can be ripped as discussed in the dev board and disassembled? Why hasn't anyone done this yet

Okay I gave it a shot... basically the 'First read address' area in the IP.BIN is 0, which means no code will be loaded into memory... now what could this mean?

 Berty Apr 22, 2003
I havent been able to find a copy of the 1st party boot disc yet cause my isp has disabled ports 6667 so i cant use irc. I have looked for it for about the last 2 years and have had no luck.

Anyone used the boot disc KD20? ( i think thats its name ). all that happens when i use it is that you put it in, the system boots and then on the sega saturn splash screen the words "complete" come up in the bottom corner, after that it just spits you out to the CD player menu where you cn boot your game. I was hoping that it gave you some debugging options

 printf Apr 23, 2003
The code used by the AIP of the boot disc is kind of confusing. Maybe if more people tried to disassemble it it'd work. But beware, there is still about 2KB code in there. Not all of it is needed to do what the boot disc is supposed to do, and some things might even be undocumented. If you still want to give it a shot, go ahead.

 antime Apr 24, 2003
I've been working on it, but I don't have so much time or energy to spend on it plus the lack of documentation of the CD interface registers isn't really helping.

 AntiPasta Apr 24, 2003
I don't really get this bootdisc thing... the IP.BIN I got seems to be correct but according to Sega's documentation the AIP wouldn't be loaded because of 1ST_READ_ADDRESS is 0... but then there seems to be a lot of code in it, even the 'COMPLETED' text that appears... but disassembling with SH2D32 got me lots of 'unrecognized' opcodes

 AntiPasta Apr 24, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by antime@Apr 24, 2003 @ 10:42 AM



 I've been working on it, but I don't have so much time or energy to spend on it plus the lack of documentation of the CD interface registers isn't really helping.


I mailed the Satourne guy about this, as he apparently knows something about the CD block (judging from the log files generated by Satourne)...

 antime Apr 24, 2003
Yes, Fabien would know about the CD registers as his emulator can run real games. Only pride, stubbornness and laziness has prevented me from asking him.

The AIP is part of the IP, the "1st read file" is the file that is located first in the CD filesystem. If the 1ST_READ_ADDRESS is zero it simply means that no file will be read and the AIP will be run immediately, otherwise it is run after the 1st read file has been loaded. The process is described in one of the manuals (Boot ROM User's Manual IIRC).

 AntiPasta Apr 24, 2003
great. Fabien replied to my e-mail, and guess what... he pointed me to a doc... on your site! I had a quick look at it, and, indeed it did contain info on communicating with the CD block on a register level

 antime Apr 24, 2003
I've read the doc, but it doesn't tell everything. There's a number of registers that are not mentioned at all, and the addresses of the identified registers aren't disclosed. Neither are the actual commands you have to send or expect back. I doubt Fabien (or any other emulator author) managed to get CD access working based solely on that document.

If I have the time I'll try to write up what I've dug up so far (which is not much) and post it sometime next week.

 AntiPasta Apr 24, 2003
hmm as you seem to know more maybe you could ask this guy at satourneNOSPAM@consollectionREMOVETHISTOO.com...

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