Sonic Jam revisited

LocalH · Jul 9, 2005

I'm pretty adamant that it's ported based on the work of others in the scene, but this topic came up over on ASSEMblergames.

Yakumo said:

The Saturn is home to a 100% perfect Mega Drive and Master System emulator that nobody has ever touched. To my knowledge only Technosoft and Sega have used it. Technosoft used it as part of their Thunder Force Gold packs. While the first gold pack had audio problems (music was streamed from CD and sound effects didn't seem right) the second gold pack was perfect or at least 99% perfect. Sega have also used their Mega Drive emulator in for games such as Phantasy Star Collection, Mickey & Donald Sega Ages set and Sonic Jam.
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sayin999 said:

well it was, but it baisicly it would load so much of the rom into the sega cd and load again for other parts, what I ment is that the sega saturn emu uses rom images that are split and programed with teh emu which reads parts of the roms to put into the saturn memory, though im curious if the disney collection based on quckshot and one of the mickey games has been hacked to see if the emu is slighty different in anyway.
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I've already chimed into the discussion with what I think is true, but after re-reading that second quote above, I'm not so sure. Are we absolutely 100% sure that Sonic Jam is a port of the games? I did a cursory check, and I sure as hell didn't see any ROM headers, nor any files that would be the right size for a ROM - but if what sayin999 said is true, then you wouldn't have one, since the ROM had been separated into different chunks.

If anyone wants to post in that thread and clarify some points, feel free.

Hivebrain · Jul 9, 2005

Sonic Jam is definitely a port. I disassembled Sonic 1 from SH-2 myself.

hunterex2000 · Jul 9, 2005

As far as I'm aware, the games on Sonic Jam were ported especially for the Saturn. I'm guessing Sonic Team (or whoever ported it) used as Motorola 68000 to Hitachi SH-2 disassembler of some kind.

Looking at the data in the directories on the Sonic Jam CD, you can see that the if you put all the data together as one ROM, the size would be huge. Each part of the data corresponds to different parts of the game. For example, one file loads AIZ Act One in S3, and another loads on the 'Results' screen of Act One to load Act Two. Clever how it's done.

Lostgame · Jul 9, 2005

sega saturn emu uses rom images that are split and programed with teh emu which reads parts of the roms to put into the saturn memory
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...riiigghhttt...

You're going to even consider for a millisecond that something you know to be true may not be, because of someone who can't even spell the word "the"?:P

It doesn't make sense that the Saturn would be a "perfect" Genesis emulator. No system that I know of has an emulator for another system built in-why would the company do that? Why would a company bother to build an emu when they have the source sitting right there?

Back then, Sega had the source to these games, now, they need to steal it from us. :P

I also believe they fixed a couple bugs in the Saturn version-something about the waterfalls in Sonic 1, ugh... I read it on SOST, I think... I dunno where I read it. But yeah, I also think that it would've run much smoother and there would be less errors if it wasn't an emulator.

Qjimbo · Jul 9, 2005

Yeah Sonic Jam contains ports of the sonic games. Though the ports are half-emulation, since they contain emulated m86k registers.

edit: typo.

LOst · Jul 9, 2005

QJimbo said:

Yeah Sonic Jam contains ports of the sonic games. Though the ports are half-emulation, since they contain emulated m86k registers.

edit: typo.
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Yea, very bad emulated. This was in 1997, and the emulator scene was yet to be discovered one year later. Sonic CD PC, Sonic Jam, and Sonic & Knuckles Collection were the ports that were made by a team of programmers, each working on one part of the engine in order to finish it in time.

LocalH · Jul 9, 2005

lostgame said:

It doesn't make sense that the Saturn would be a "perfect" Genesis emulator. No system that I know of has an emulator for another system built in-why would the company do that? Why would a company bother to build an emu when they have the source sitting right there?
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Nobody said the Saturn itself was an emulator. And like I said, I still believe that it's ported. I just wanted to make sure, by talking to people who have taken a much more indepth look at it than I have.

Also, to your second point, the Genesis has all the hardware necessary to "emulate" the Master System. The Power Base Converter, as far as I understand it, is just a physical cart/card adaptor. Doesn't apply here, as we know the Saturn can't emulate the Genesis in hardware, but nonetheless there have been systems with built-in compatibility with other systems.

Aurochs · Jul 10, 2005

lostgame said:

No system that I know of has an emulator for another system built in
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One might say that the PS2 has a hardware emulator for the Playstation built into it. Though that's really just an enhanced version of the original hardware. :P

LocalH · Jul 10, 2005

Which by definition is a "hardware emulator". =P

Qjimbo · Jul 10, 2005

that's more backwards compatible, or just compatible, rather than emulation.

LocalH · Jul 10, 2005

Yeah, but it's not something like the C128 where you pretty much have an enhanced version of the C64 that just happens to be compatible, the PS2 has a specific chip that has been engineered to emulate the operation of the original PSX. Same way that the C64DTV joystick is a hardware emulator for the C64, since you don't have the exact same chips (or fully compatible, but enhanced, ones), but rather a chip that has been engineered to emulate the operation of the C64.

Actually, come to think about it, the SMS support on the Genesis probably isn't a hardware emulator...but the PS2's PSX chip definitely is. By my definition, at least.

Heran Bago · Jul 10, 2005

lostgame said:

sega saturn emu uses rom images that are split and programed with teh emu which reads parts of the roms to put into the saturn memory
Click to expand...

...riiigghhttt...

You're going to even consider for a millisecond that something you know to be true may not be, because of someone who can't even spell the word "the"?:P
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I'd like to point out that no has has ever mispelled a word while speaking on a subject they are familiar with. It never has, nor ever will happen, and if someone makes a spelling or pronounciation mistake, they are incorrect by default.
A good example would be "nuculer". Many of my friends will, rather than attack someones main point, default to the conclusion that the person's point must be incorrect due to their mispronounciation of a key word.
Likewise, we never make spelling mistakes, and anyone who ever would is a horrible person.

Come on you guys, lighten up.

Lostgame · Jul 10, 2005

I was joking. Hence the " :P "

*rolls eyes*

Sonic Jam revisited

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