Installing Saturn on Recalbox 7.0.1

[Benzitor]

Hey everyone. I am having trouble finding a way to get the Saturn up and running on Recalbox 7.0.1 on Pi4.
I searched everywhere, and could not find a way to get this to run.
Can someone give me a hand?

Cheers

[Pitch64]

hi, there is no Saturn on rpi4

[Benzitor]

@Pitch64 Oh really ?
On the Recalbox official emulators compatibility, the two following emulators are mentioned as functioning on Pi4 7.0.1 version:
Libretro Mednafen_saturn
Libretro Yabause

recalbox.gitbook.io/documentation/hardware-compatibility/emulators-compatibility

I am confused now, especially that i could run Yabause on Retropie

[acris]

hello
on recalbox no saturn for rpi4 , it's very very slow and recalbox doesn't like slow emulator.

For documentation, it's an error, correct soon.

[SkullGrin]

The Pc version of Recalbox has Saturn. Don't confuse the PC release with the Pi 4 one. Anyway, in the modern era, Sega Saturn emulation is no longer a challenge. Mednafen for example, runs it great. Hopefully it will be added to the Pi 4 when the community learns to get the most out of the Pi 4 hardware.

[Secamfr]

@acris Libretro YabaSanshiro run very well on Pi4, better than Atari Jaguar

[Benzitor]

@Secamfr How can i install Libretro YabaSanshiro on recalbox ? It doesnt seem to be recognized. I also tested it separately and it was actually better than jaguar.
Recalbox really need to add the Saturn to become the ultimate retrogaming platform

[acris]

it's not possible to install saturn on recalbox.
Try another system.

[RustyMG]

Agree regarding Jaguar emulation.

"recalbox doesn't like slow emulator."

I tried every single game released for the Jaguar on my Pi4, and found 3 that played at an acceptable frame rate. Just 3.

There are a lot more than 3 Saturn games that run at an acceptable frame rate on the Pi4, so Im puzzled.

As mentioned above, hopefully it will be added to the next release though, and the users can decide if they want to use it or not.

[barbudreadmon]

@Secamfr said in Installing Saturn on Recalbox 7.0.1:

Libretro YabaSanshiro run very well on Pi4

Don't call that "very well", afaik :

• colors are still wrong due to pi4 gpu driver bugs
• no game run at full speed (some, mostly 2D, are close by heavily frameskipping)

[Benzitor]

I Believe 55-60fps average on ALL Saturn games in retropi+YabaSanshiro is pretty damn good.
I just finalized a retropie image with 60 tested and running Saturn games and they all run at minimum 50fps on Pi4 4gb + overclock 2ghz.
2 games are the exception. Panzer dragoon, 60fps, but buggy graphics.
Panzer dragoon Zwei, 40fps.

Calling the saturn emulation sub par to fit Recalbox is a mega stretch when the Jaguar, on the same setup with recalbox 7.1.1 (and i have similar on retropie ), runs at 30-40fps max, and 3D games are either running sub-20FPS, or not even running at all.

PLEASE consider including the Sturn, as IT DOES RUN SMOOTH for at least 50 games ( most of the classics )

Thank you in advance. I LOVE recalbox over all the other front ends, but the fact that i cannot create complete images for my multi cartitrge NesPi4 on recalbox makes me so sad.

[barbudreadmon]

@Benzitor said in Installing Saturn on Recalbox 7.0.1:

I Believe 55-60fps average on ALL Saturn games in retropi+YabaSanshiro is pretty damn good.

I'll copy my answer(s) from the retropie forum about "saturn 2D games on pi4" for anyone still interested in this :

• i didn't hear of a single game that run full speed on pi4 if you disable the auto-frameskipping, meaning some games might run "full speed", but that's at the cost of non-smooth animation since they won't render every frames
• expect 3 frames of input lag as the best case scenario, i've seen some of those games going up to 7 frames of input lag
• lots of those games are arcade games already available on mame/fbneo, with far lesser input lag (sometimes down to 0 with runahead), no frameskip, and no known glitch. another part of those games is available on psx, in a far better state of emulation too.

So tbh, except if you don't mind the very subpar emulation, yabasanshiro should only be considered for its playable exclusives, which are very few on pi4 since most 3D games won't run full speed even with the auto-frameskipping.

And for anyone wanting to play those fighting games arcade console ports for the training modes, you might be interested in looking at cheats on arcade emulators instead, they allow to infinite pretty much anything (life, time, combo bar, ...).

[Benzitor]

@barbudreadmon
I totally understand that we might have different standards. But the fact that a playable emulator for a console that people love and sherish is skipped on recalbox for the reasons you list, while 3DO, Jaguar, CD32, GX4000 are kept, besides the fact that 50% of the games are unplayable on 50% ( and some are even not loading... ) i let you get our frustration.
I was hextatic to get to play some gems of the Jaguar ( yes there is some ) and 3DO... but the shower was cold

Anyway, it will come eventually, and everybody will be happy

[barbudreadmon]

@Benzitor It's not about standards, adding an emulator knowing that almost none of its popular exclusives (panzer dragoon, virtua cop, sega rally, daytona usa, shining force 3, radiant silvergun, ...) will run "full speed" can only cause frustration (and i consider it would still be acceptable if the game had no slowdown while skipping 1/3 of its frames, but we aren't even there). And unlike the systems you mention, saturn is actually a popular system which is requested a lot, so the amount of users complaining because it run like crap would be on a different scale.