View the SS Save Parser project on Github Parser for Sega Saturn images of various save media
This is where one clever solution comes in, transfer the data directly from the SATURN TO PC via sound! All you need is a Stereo audio Y cable adapter and a CDR. Also most peripherals use the cartridge slot itself, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to dump cartridge-based save data. The Saturn doesn’t have the ability to write to a CD-R or external HD, so the solution isn’t obvious. One difficulty that springs to mind when trying to get save data from the Saturn is how is it possible? There are a couple of tools which provide this functionality but for both you will need a Saturn capable of supporting Homebrew code.
Your own game saves stored on the internal Saturn RAM or on external Saturn cartridges will not last forever, so backing up to PC is vital to preserve any data you are specifically proud of or just nostalgic over.
This includes the Fenrir, MODE, and Satiator ODEs. SegaRetro has an excellent page on the Saturn Floppy Drive Optical Disk Emulators (ODEs)Ī number of Sega Saturn ODEs allow for the backing up of save game data to SD card.
Third parties also bundles additional features in these cartridges such as Cheat Engines (Action Replay) and region unlocking. Third party manufacturers such as Blaze and Datel also started to create their own save cartridges that could store as much as 1MB of game saves. These cartridges fit into the standard Saturn cartridge slot and offered up to 512KB of space for game saves! Similar to other consoles such as the Nintendo 64 and Playstation, it was possible to buy official memory cards known as “Power Memory” from Sega which offered additional space for games to save their state. Instead the Sega Saturn was one of the first consoles to have built in storage for game saves, although it was rather small at 32KB, it means that users didn’t need to buy an external memory card if they just played a few games. Since the Sega Saturn was CD-based it was not possible to add additional hardware to a specific game such as battery backed save files as was common on the Sega Mega Drive. Saturn Save Data Storage Options Internal Saturn Memory Note that these are not the same as “Save States” that emulators produce as these are specifically written by the game developers to store certain data such as High scores or progress but Save States store the entire console memory.
This includes built in memory on the Saturn console itself and official and 3rd party cartridges that acted as memory cards. The Sega Saturn has multiple ways to persist game data across play throughs. Sega Saturn Save Game Data Edit on Github