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Sega Saturn PC link
danielt3 - Nov 2, 2005
  danielt3 Nov 2, 2005
hi all

I'm a wannabe sega saturn programmer, and i'm stuck into this link problem. I think this was largely discussed here in the forum and i did search for answers befora posting. But since those could not answer my questions, i'm posting here.

Here they are:

1.) i'm thinking on ordering a Action Replay 4M Plus for my sega saturn

Action Replay 4M Plus (lik-sang)...

will i be able to link it to my pc using parallel/serial ports and not using the infamous CommLink card?!

2.) I read on Rockin'-B's Tutorial that exists a FreeWing IF ou yano extend cart that can act like an interface between the action replay's port and the parallel port. Anyone has built this?! Do they work properly?! I searched over the internet but i could not find any schematics for builting these. Can anyone send me a link?????

3.) Can anyone ever tried to reverse engineer the protocol in order to directly link the action replay to the pc serial/parallel port?!?!? I think that, if properly set up, PC port can provide enough speed to do the job of linking the pc and the console for development proposes.

What can you say about the viability of this??!?

that's it for now

thanks

Daniel

 mrkotfw Nov 2, 2005
go with the comms link card and save yourself a world of trouble. and do not use sbl/sgl. use charles' code as examples, use antime's or bart's linker/crt0 scripts. oh, and don't give up!

 RockinB Nov 2, 2005
The AR protocol is used in homebrew PC tools and homebrew Saturn demos, so it's sort of reverse engineered. Examples: sh2 debugger, 68k debugger, Charles MacDonald's Saturn demos.

The schematics can be found in topics of this board.


  
	
	

		
		

			QUOTE(Piratero @ Thu, 2005-11-03 @ 09:45 AM)use sbl/sgl




[post=141312]Quoted post[/post]




[/b]



This is no good advice, as it applies only for a minority of coders. The average "wannabe sega saturn programmer" will just give up and leave. Is that what you want?
  
	
	

		
		

			@Thu, 2005-11-03 @ 09:45 AM



oh, and don't give up!




[post=141312]Quoted post[/post]



True!

 danielt3 Nov 2, 2005

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Piratero@Thu, 2005-11-03 @ 06:45 AM



go with the comms link card and save yourself a world of trouble. and do not use sbl/sgl. use charles' code as examples, use antime's or bart's linker/crt0 scripts. oh, and don't give up!


well...thanks for the tip...but these CommLink cards are kinda hard to find (altough i have found some CommLink cards for the PSX...are they the same saturn uses?!?!?)

Daniel

 danielt3 Nov 2, 2005

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Rockin'-B+Thu, 2005-11-03 @ 07:18 AM-->
QUOTE(Rockin'-B @ Thu, 2005-11-03 @ 07:18 AM)
The AR protocol is used in homebrew PC tools and homebrew Saturn demos, so it's sort of reverse engineered. Examples: sh2 debugger, 68k debugger, Charles MacDonald's Saturn demos.



[/b]



well thanks...i've read charles' docs on the action replay...it doesn't seem to be hard to make a tool that can directly communicate with those via the parallel port for debugging/dev proposes...is there any obscure point that would not allow this to work?!??!