I'm blown away by not just the knowledge of the engineer, but the knowledge of the interviewer. He actually had a functioning understanding of the hardware and asked informed questions. Far more informed than I'd expected. Good shit.
@@ultimaIXultima Having no understanding of what they were talking about, I was impressed by how the conversation was pretty clearly not between one informed person and some ignoramus like myself.
I noticed this in passing. I worked for SEGA development in the 90's. So it's come as a surprise that our security has lasted this long. You are still missing some key tools. One being CodeScape as it was one of the first multi-processor development platforms. This was written by Cross Products the development tools division of SEGA. The Saturn development platforms were SCSI based communications onto a piggy backed main processor. The Key disks did allow you to run your code without security but on a one shot basis. You have to use the key disk every time. There was no code to make this mode survive a reboot. This only worked reliably on piggy back boards. Imagination Technology still produce CodeScape. However, the all important black box (CartDev) we produced is now nowhere to be seen today. A working version is a must have. The head count of who new all the details of the processor interface is in single figures. At least you found the wobble. Haha!
that's why we need hackers as well. (Anonymous) There are good hackers as well as bad. For him and the rest of us, he is a good hacker. For bad are the people taking our credit card info and our security. To Sega, he is a bad hacker to them.
what.. you think he applies to jobs? probably the kid selling skimmers, runs and sells zombies for ddosing, RAT installations, etc, probably shit than just that
Hi possible for me to give you by the post my sega Saturn japanese model by the post and you crack my sega for me I will pay u by PayPal is ok please give me your info PayPal I will give you my sega and pay thank u Michel trottier canada I will wait 4 your respond thank u in advance??
I will give you my sega Saturn Japan by the post and put the crack on my sega possible. I will pay you by PayPal give me info PayPal thanks and your adress I will ship to you
Dedication is everything, he probably was able to tinker with things since he was a child, and of course, whatever career he studied must have helped quite a lot.
@@MoonOvIce It's very possible he never studied it formally, and just did hardware hacking. In fact, in these cases, formal study can interfere because you learn how you are "supposed to do" and reverse engineer from that, rather than "hacking" (as in the original sense of the word), looking for shortcuts and vulnerabilities. I'm telling you this because my life was basically ruined by "studying for a career", while my hardware hacking friends have much better careers from studying whatever interested them. If you've graduated from high school, or whatever secondary school is called in your country, seriously think of not going to university. Certainly in the US, university ("college") is a debt trap and not worthwhile for starting an actual career. If you think otherwise, you've been duped.
I'm a 4th year elec eng student in the depths of semester and needed a break from the grind of it. Watched this to gain some respite. Had no idea what I was being introduced to. Dr Abrasive, you are truly and inspiration and absolute freak of exemplifying the combination of brains and persistence. You have inspired the pants off me. Thank you sir. Back to grind:)
I got about 17mins in before i realised this is irrelevant for me (never owned a Saturn, not interested in owning one)... but like you said, fascinating to listen to all the same.
4 year old vid but thank you. Both video maker and engineer here. I love Saturn games, rediscovered it as I didnt have one as a kid but man it's a fun console, especially with JP games. Thanks for keeping the hardware alive and injecting the Saturn scene with much more interest!! :)
Eliran Cohen yeah, i know puts you to sleep, watch it one more time and hopefully next time you won't wake up. It's not like anyone would miss you anyway, right.
Actually it mainly depends on your nature and interest. He certainly learned about structure of chips etc. And reading Assembly through the help of IDA isn't sorcery either. However it doesn't mean it's easy, but it's far away from rocket science (or maybe not, lol).
***** You know that there are many great artists? So is this. This guy surely knows his job and made great work for a wider audience through dedication and will. And for that he deserves respect. However it's mostly work, not something impossible as stated in the comment I responded to.
There is something very satisfying and relaxing about him working on this, would be nice to sit there too and watch even though I still (after watching it twice) have no idea what he is doing...
Thank you, DeathNote...had to first look up the explanation of "emulator" and "flash drive"....as you can see I'm not very knowledgeable in regard to those things, nevertheless, find them interesting :)
And... now kiss! :D But yeah I gotta side with Death Note here, the best way to learn new stuff is to find interesting things and sticking with them :) You will be quite surprised how much the world of IT and Electronics has to offer!
but why? it seems like he just wastes his time doing this here? educating urself about old stuff like this wont get you any good skills to make money or anything... you just fuckin waste ur time
That's where you start clicking on files and see what they do... then trying to force them into freeware viewers and "game resource ripping" tools to see what can be extracted. I was 12 ;-)
One reason why I think emulators and roms should be completely legal is because these older consoles are so aged that they are starting to die. Controllers stop working, disk drives burn out, the console itself might take a dump. If you're someone who still enjoys the classic games, it gets harder and harder to actually play them legitimately. Finding replacement parts is very difficult and will soon be impossible as time goes on. We need to take steps now and preserve older games, we need to archive all games because it's a form of art and entertainment that should be passed down and not lost.
roms/game copies are essentially legal, if you own the original game hardcopy, with 20 year old licensing bringing some of these games back to life might not be possible
dude , it doesnt even really matter. you can download all the roms and emulators in the world and your chances of being imprisoned or anything is slim to none. Nobody really gives a shit and doesnt have time to prosecute some mid-20s to a teenage kid for roms from the 1990s
Frog Dog maybe more strain on the laser, but I don't think it'd break... a friend of mine has a Dreamcast still and it plays normal and burnt games just fine.
Frog Dog There's a guy who made a similar hack to this one for Dreamcast, for just that reason (the DC lasers wear out from playing burned discs, which is very hard on the drive.) Anyway, this guy figured out how to bypass the gd-rom drive completely and use a hard drive/sd card instead.
I've worked in software for 30 years- met tons of smart people. It's very rare to meet someone who has such intimit, fundamental knowledge of the inner workings of any system, much less 30-year old never cracked proprietary game console. This dude is the real deal.
@Gaming Authority fuck them? then you better be the most murderous gangster to walk the earth. the complete fucking opposite of a nerd. are you one of those? if not shut the fuck up
Being and electric & automation engineer, I've done some reverse engineering for old Nokia phone, But here...Hat down !! This is serious engineering running here, reaching even electric layer. absolutely amazing !!
Great job Dr. Abrasive! And great video! I wish there were more videos like this, done documentary style and highly professionally made. This was super interesting to watch.
Clever Brunozoid if you can speak "computer nerd" it all makes sense, the amazing thing isnt what he's done, its that he had the drive and recorces to do it
Mike Pro They are not dead. They are worth $44 billion and have $16 billion in cash flow. job.mynavi.jp/18/pc/search/corp1557/outline.html www.morningstar.com/stocks/pinx/sgamy/quote.html
He has his hair, a beard, and is a fantastic speaker. Shoutout to the chick that stayed with him (ring at 26:45) despite him being at this for several years - after this guy, you're the real MVP. People like him is what this world needs more of. An inspiration, a hero. Salute.
Best part: He met his wife at a gig that I played at :-) And even better - she was the person who organized the show! The world certainly needs more people like both of them IMHO; perfect match.
FYI, I developed the hardware interface (cartridge slot) for the cross compiler (CodeScape) along with a cd emulator back in 1993 ish for the Saturn. It's weird seeing it 25+ years later!!! I also developed a whole host of other ICE and Emulator hardware for other game consoles. This was for a company that was then called Cross Products in the UK. The Saturn had 2x SH4 cpus and a 68K for sound IIRC. Don't have any info now though. Basically a SCSI2 interface to the PC for download/upload. The CD Emulator was a switch that multiplexed a SCSI2 HDD between a PC and the Saturn. The CD image was placed on the HDD and the Saturn booted it up. (from memory so this might be incorrect). I had the FPGA/CPLD do all the memory mapping of the SCIS2 and some DPRAM as the interface to a serial converter for CD loading with RS422 buffers IIRC. There was an FPGA (Xilinx 3000 series and a XC95xxx CPLD IIR), DPRAM and an SH2 as the main cpu on the emulator, I also had a front panel LCD + Buttons. Some of my talented colleagues developed the firmware on the emulator. My boss at the time was a very well recognised games programmer. A brilliant man who surrounded himself with other very talented people. I am very proud to have worked with a team of people like this in my career. Serious talent in a small building in Leeds !! I now develop ASICs and high complexity FPGAs.
I didn't understand 95% of what u said haha but this is awesome! The Saturn, thought it didn't become a commercial success is part of gaming history :) thanks for your comment !
@DreamsComeTrue, the way I got started was to write Assembly code (hand coded btw) for the 6502. In reality you could get an 8086 assembler and a good book on 8086 and start writing Assembly code. I would avoid jumping into C and high level languages to start out with because you can pick up bad habbits. The advantage of writing assembly is that you really have to think about what you are doing and you also get an insight into how a microprocessor functions. You will have to learn what the CPU registers do and what states the CPU runs through. This will make you a great programmer. This is basically how all the games programmers got their skills. This takes time (months to years) and once you have a grasp on this I'd suggest the next step is playing with an Arduino with an ARM cpu. Try coding in assembly again. It's harder because it's a RISC architecture but you'll get a feel for it. Once you've done that then use C and see what code it generates. Playing with an Arduino will teach you about IO's and interfaces. Once you're at this stage you are really up there with a good understanding. From there you can pick up other stuff quickly. I would add that it's worth getting a mentor and paying attention to what they teach you. Maybe a club nearby (maker fair etc) ? Stay away from a Raspberry Pi to start out with. That's a really complex system and OS for a beginner.
I would also add it's worth it's weight in gold to attend a technical university. I don't know where you are in your academic life but if you're younger you most definitely can benefit from playing with microprocessors now. I started writing assembler when I was 13. I had a fantastic mentor so I was lucky. However you have to work at it. It does take a lot of time and reading!! I still love Assembly BTW. But now I develop my own CPU's and microcode!!! Even better !!!
The actual chip set is pretty nuts with it's multiple CPU's and aux processors :-o Even the audio chip is a mind screw... and did things to interrupt the rest of the chips in annoying ways. It would have been a beast to dev for in it's day!
Really? well i assume this because of what i heard from extracredits and one guy from my country that make console museum also compare sega saturn to PS3
Possibly the best video of the Saturn architecture since Sega was actually creating this machine. This guy is a damn hero. Did he ever have a coffee fund for his work?
It's like watching a foreign language movie with no subtitles. You understand a few bits and pieces, and you get the gist of the plot, but if anyone asks you for specifics you respond with, "duh..duh...duh......"
impressive what is more impressive that even today to date it's proven a near impossible task to crack the protection. Sega build a tank of a console there which is worth mentioning
Dinis Deuchande You clearly did NOT WATCH THE video, he did hell of lot more than what the mod-chip did he even explains that in detail in the video...
I did watch the video, im talking just about the copy protection, this was bypassed ages ago and my reply was to address the comment about cracking protection, which you mentioned.
I don't understand what he did I don't understand why he did it I don't understand what is the result I don't understand the purpose I don't understand anything But it is very interesting. I think
Consoles including Saturn have protections that stop the machine from running code that is not approved to run on the system. Saturn's security has not been broken until recently. Now anyone can write games and other software that can run on the Saturn hardware. For fun is definitely the reason.
It's not just intelligence... It's determination and patience as well... I mean, he just presented what he was doing for 3 years for you in 20 minutes. Of course people would be impressed.
nope, humans can't move fast enough to take down a fully fuctional AI, which would be able to detect the intruder before the intruder will be able to make any significant findings. There's a difference between something sitting on your desk with it's core opened to you, and something shooting at you. Regardless, ai will never happen, consciousness will never be produced by human or artificial hands.
if you think this guy is good, imagine the people who built it. This probably only had a handful of prototypes early on, so literally designing on paper right to the factory.
Sub Urban Diy Guy Its actually guys like this that are creating Ai so dont gush too much, and some of them are just too drone like (follows orders) to even care about humanity. Just hint at them they need to install a wide ass back door.
wow SEGA really overengineered their copy protection and this guy is seriously amazing. i dont know what he does for a living, but it looks like companies should really keep an eye on him and hire him fast
I had forgotten how much I miss my old Sega system. Time to go on Craig's list and find another one. This guy is simply amazing. A reboot of classic gaming without running ROMs. Kudos to you!!
Here we are talking about this console like we dug it up from a 2000 year old dig site and no one knows how it works. Somewhere out there is a man who put this system together. They are probably watching this video with a giant grin on their face.
Yeah now imagine what they are working on now. Theyre prob working on some super private intranet or a future virtual life organic cybernetic immersion cosole
Marcus Torres this is to be the ignorant statement on here. There is a reason it hasn't been emulated fully. You couldn't do what he did in your wildest dreams
Jason Woelfel But no one knows exactly how it works outside of Sega itself. That's why Saturn emulation is far from perfect more than 20 years after it's release.
The future of Saturn's emulation, and also the possibility of this modchip being commercialized is surely great news not only for Saturn enthusiasts, but for people who are still not aware of how amazing this system was. Great work, man. Keep improving it!!
The Sega Saturn was a brilliant and cutting edge 5th gaming console that had so many unique eccentricities, capabilities and innovative computing with technology and hardware clearly FAR superior than the Sony PlayStation. The sad tragic unfortunate thing Is that due to the Sega 32X/Mars and having all western resources channeled for it instead, Sega of America completely dropped the ball on the console, executing it haphazardly and erratically. Not to mention the internal problems going on at the American division at the time and the hiring of Sony Marketing Director Bernie Stolar, Sega of America failed with the Saturn by failing to train developers and programmers, and failing to attempt to woo 3rd party supporters, alongside not selling or designing Localized SDKs.
Willie Murray it's low level because how near to code directly on binary and how he was working directly on the ROM and CPU. It's really a high level skill though.
Fredrik So he's engaged to his left hand. :p Good for him! If ever there was a party poopper in life I'm guessing you are it. Think you are the kind of guy to talk about death at a party full of laughing people or put a stick in everybody elses tires well they are riding bikes without you. :p Am I right? You have to point out the truths of life well everybody else is just trying to have a good time. :p Religion isn't real ... we should all be lesbians that get knocked up by doctors in labs just to turn around and have an abortion when it doesn't work out between us and our animal alien lovers.
@Batuhan I found a really good video that cleared up what was actually happening in a Fourier transform. Unsurprisingly it is really cool. ruclips.net/video/spUNpyF58BY/видео.html
this is the shit I wish I could do. my talents are limited to messing with core files, this guy makes reverse engineering and backdoor hunting fun. he's so upbeat and passionate about his work it's crazy. I can't imagine how dedicated this guy is to a project that is this complex and time consuming
The thing is that people at Sega actually know "the secret", they just don't want to tell anyone. However, if the Saturn is completely obsolete, then I don't get why they don't just share it. Instead this poor guy had to go and spend so much time figuring it out.
yea code like this, if it was never reused in another product, would be dumped after maybe 5-8 years maybe longer if an engineer that worked on it had a copy in his office. I would guess no one that worked on that project is even with sega anymore.
If Sega knew the secret to anything of the Saturn era then surely they would've properly rereleased PDS and other Saturn gems long ago instead of making shitty new Sonic games? Best hardware maker ever...if they ever made another console I'd buy three. Such a shame their PR team was (and possibly still is) pure ass. It'd be in their own interest to help him and the community making this happen. He should reach out if he hasn't. I'm worried about hearing that CD-drives are failing. Did not know that and I have "a few" Saturns (all of which work perfectly but his words make me schizo):S
Actually Sega lost a lot of their shit in a fire that destroyed a lot of their Source Code games for older stuff. The reason Sega is as it is, is because they put a lot of money into the dreamcast and emulation and sony buried them.
This interview was freaking awesome. I don't have my Sega Saturn anymore nor do I plan to get one again but I'm amazed by what this guys is accomplishing. Bravo interviewer, interviewee and community.
I really want to understand all of this but apart from codes, programs and instructions i don’t have a clue. You managed to keep me engaged and convinced me I could jump in and finish the project if you went off ill or on holiday, when really the whole time I have no idea. Great Video!!
Pause, Google everything you don't understand or don't know what it is. Yes, I do mean everything. Google and research it. Read, re read it until you understand it. Boom. You'll be surprised how far you'll go.
My favorite system ever. Criminally underrated. Even though it failed with sales and was killed off before the Dreamcast. It basically was the first super high end original CD based console. At the time this was the most insane cutting edge system available.
Saturn was fairly successful in Japan, performed modestly well in Europe, Exceptional Well in Australia, In the US, its the only region where it underperformed its first 2 years due to a steep price tag, limited 3rd party support and POOR promotion and marketing by Sega of America, By 1997 though, Saturn sales in the US were actually improving, 3rd party support begin to show up, it got a price cut and a fantastic Bundle with 3 games. Then Sega of America's COO Bernie Stolar ordered the plug to be pulled. The Saturn died in the US JUST as it was finally starting to catch on. Saturn was indeed cutting edge, predating Nintendo 64 by 18 months in Japan and 13 in North America. Both Saturn and Nintendo 64 were the two most powerful Consoles of the 5th Generation.
Bad management and bad timing. It was pushed out at a time when Sega should've been focusing on Genesis, and development of the Dreamcast. Saturn was truly on another level technology wise, but it was too expensive for the lower class, and didn't have the support of 3rd party manufacturers or retailers.
The Saturn failed mostly because Hayao Nakayama essentially manhandled SOA into following orders that worked in Japan but not the US, rather than letting Tom Kalinske do what he needed to get it on it's feet. This resulted in things like the infamous early e3 launch and stock shortages. The disastrous launch followed the Saturn throughout much of it's life until around 97' when it was just starting to pick up speed before Stolar cut the line
@@raiverns9620 Saturn did NOT fail. It underpeformed its first two years in the US. And was actually doing WELL when Bernie Stolar and Isao Okawa ordered the plug to be pulled. Nakayama did not manhandle SOA into following orders. Sega of America did Not want to get on board with Saturn because they knew nothing about its design or that it was even in development. SOJ kept Aurora TOP SECRET during 1993. Saturn didn't launch early either. CSK's Isao Okawa ordered a "Test Market" Trial Release of Saturn during May that was horribly botched due to miscommunication and sloppy marketing from SOA. Saturn launched in North America on September 2,1995.
I can assure you that after 3 days of hearing white noise and glitches, the engineer in this video got serious feels when he first heard "Daaaayyyytoooonnaaa"! Porting that CD audio though the hijacked VCD port was a huuuuge task :-)
I get PTSD when I hear it, cause the game was soo lame. It was such a boring game to have as a launch title for the saturn. To wash the stanke out after I would often play need for speed on 3d0, or road rash, or even demolition derby on psx. Crashes were everything in racing games back then, and if you didn't have them, your game was crap. I mean who watches nascar for anything else? it's boring. All you do in daytona is drive fast and turn to the left. The crashes were like 1 or 2 animations thus not simulated at all, and the music was worse then cruisin usa 64. I will never understand you folks who think it was a good game. It sucked then, it sucks now, it will always suck. I hate racing games like that. That is why sega failed, they had the most arcade of all games... arcade as in, great graphics but boring after 10 minutes. Very shallow games. Nintendo was way better, but of course PC was always king, it just took a lot of us a long time to realize that. X-com forever bitches!! YEAH!!! So yes... When I hear that cheesy "DAAAAATOOOOONAAAAA" my butt clenches in anguish and my teeth grind. Even the non sung version of the word "daytona" instantly brings about my gamer traumatic memories of a bad generic as hell racing game. It's a special kind of utter mediocrity that only sega games can do. You could see all of the games "content" in about 10 minutes. The saturn was quickly demoted to the basement gaming room for good reason. It's best game was probably sim city 2000.... yeah... now that I have pissed on the hornets nest I am going to run like sonic on the genesis... really really fast, but then you just run into spikes you can't see coming. I mean even battletoads on the nes gave you some king of graphical information of danger coming when on the turbo bikes. But nope.... gotta go fast, cause it's fun to go fast, but you never can, cause it's too fast to know of danger coming. Man I have problems, I am gonna go see a gaming shrink. Sega touched my naughty buttons, which is odd, cause their crappy controllers often had less buttons to push then others. See? I just can't help it... SEGA SUUUUUUUCKED! Their best games were zillion on the master, and toejam n earl on the gen.... Just don't play the sequels folks... esp for zillion... I need to talk to the shrink for hours about that experience alone... And what is with the obsession with vectorman? IT wasn't that good!!! VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMANVECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMANVECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN Everyone at school went on and on about it... IT SUCKED!! It was hoplessly average and mediocre... The graphics were quite literally BALLS! but thee worst... thee absolute worst abomination... sega ever committed... was knights... That... costume.... and gameplay... is THEE gayest thing, in the history of gaming... I am soo sick right now just thinking of it, I have to puke.... Those huge feet.... ... NO!!! STOP REMEMBERING!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! IT'S LIKE A GAY VERSION OF MEGAMAN!!! STOP IT!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! those stupid ear things... lJHSKLFKLASJDKL:ASDKLASKLDJSAKL and all you do is fly too fast collecting gold things!? That's the gameplay? That's it!? And everyone LOVES IT!?!?!?!?! Why why in the hell don't you all love superman 64 then... you freaks!! I can't do this anymore... I can't do this... I have to go cry in a corner now... Darn you sega... DARN YOU TO BANKRUPTCY! You ruined everything!
This may sound like a dumb question, but why couldn't you just use the expansion cartridge port? I had a GameShark for that, so it could obviously run code. Seems like it would have been an easy way to achieve this, but maybe I'm missing something.
Good question. There was a project (the SAROO) that tried to do exactly that. There are two main problems: one, you then can't use RAM expansion carts, so have to integrate that functionality into your cart. That's the easy bit. Two - the really hard bit - you have to emulate the CD block activity 100% accurately. The huge amount of work that's been put into emulators so far still hasn't got them to 100%. (I'm also not sure that all the lines you need for eg. CD audio actually run to the port, but that's another matter.)
It's funny to see all of these plebs who claim what he does isn't all that hard, or that he's not all that smart. The fact of the matter is, they are just threatened by his intelligence and need to play his intelligence down so they can feel better about themselves.
i mean you need to be pretty intelligent what he does but... its also a complete fuckin waste of time.. nobody gains anything out of what he did.. and his skills wont transfer to anything new since its old fuckin architecture...
Psychedelic Haze don't waste your breath. these morons won't understand the meaning of old skills verses new skills. just let him apply to a videogame company and everyone will deem him the laughing stock of the century. you can't sit at home and decode a bunch of old videogame consoles and expect to go anywhere with those shit skills..
This takes time and money. For a system like this, which is NOTORIOUSLY hard to program for, this is amazing work! I'd rather it be perfect than rushed. Prototypes are out for Patreon members.
When my brothers and I "sing" Daytona USA song we would say "day told us... That you were gay, that you were gay." We played it so much that we found cheat codes for a green colored car we could drive through the grass and not slow down with and a couple horses which was fun to see. Good times.
For those of you out there that have difficulty understanding what he's talking about, I simple trick I've learnt is to just nod your head at key points and also say things like: "Oh of corse!" or "So simple", because this helps trick your brain into thinking it has some remote idea of whats going on. Then by the end of the video, you will not only feel satisfied, but also think you've learnt something. Can also be useful to have the video on stand by so if somebody stops by and says "What are you watching!?", you can turn around and say "Oh just watching this tech video, I wanted to touch my skills up on reverse engineering encrypted software accessing the master chip, just a side project when I feel like it...".
What a genius.. You no idea how smart and intelligent this man is.. Makes us IT people and techies look like fools. We need more talent like these in the emulation scene.. Especially the beloved Dreamcast!
The Mastr that may be so, but this man did it ALL on his own, and to do it like this deffinantly shows his intelligence AND his peesonal drive to prove it can and should be done.
This is the kind of person who designs processor chips - his knowledge at such a relatively young age just blows me away. One in a million - literally!.
Recommended??? This algorithm is too good. I sat here and watched something I know nothing about for 27 minutes on a topic I have no interest in, and I still enjoyed it. Thank you almighty youtube algorithm.
I just love watching and listening to someone this brilliant. I don't really understand most of it, but I deeply appreciate the process and efforts made by those who do.
imagine 20 years ago the devlopers who made the saturn or any system really working on all that complex card and software and hardware. and then who can they tell? nobody lol. theyve created this marvelous thing even though outdated now but at the time there was just the team who could understand how complex it was and put this thing together. its not like the guys could come home and tell his wife we made a breakthrough in this area of code and got this piece to work with this piece etc. shed be like wtf are you talking about and have 0 interest. so really this video kind of shares with the world in a sense what those guys couldnt. it would never happen but itd be neat to have all those original team members on this video listening and commenting
It wasn't outdated when it came out, it was on par with the PSX with some performance specs better or worse then it. Realistically, it was their overachieving of making it this powerful that gave devs nightmares. PSX was tough too, but between more sales of the console and less complexity then the Saturn, it was only logical for devs to focus on producing games for the Sony unit than for the dying Saturn unit.
The internal code for the Saturn was a mess. Basically the Sony PS came out and Sega shat themselves because the specs of the PS were so much better. To make up for this they added another CPU to up the specs. There was some shared memory and a few register to boot the 2nd SH4. Basically you loaded a loader into the DPRAM and the 2nd SH4 would copy it's code. Really nasty gashy afterthought.
I always enjoy watching these kinda vids, any sort of tech mod/repairs etc, love em. And in a documentary in a style that's just a bonus! Keep up the good work! :)
It really is amazing how big tech will happily condemn these backroom geniuses but will go on to release inferior, sub-par revisions of their own tech to "paying" fans.
@@IRyu03 To me it's not. They can be any color of the rainbow, male, female, or anything in between. If they can tell me a good story of how they achieved something great, I WILL LISTEN.
No way, after all this time! This is awesome!
Really well made video, too :)
Try to crack Denuvo.. mate.
The classics just get better and better :D
And they'll never get old.
LGR Great Channel
Apart from the fact that he keeps saying "seega"
I'm blown away by not just the knowledge of the engineer, but the knowledge of the interviewer. He actually had a functioning understanding of the hardware and asked informed questions. Far more informed than I'd expected.
Good shit.
its all arranged like what u see on raw wrestling for example.
Agreed. The fact the interviewer didn't ask stupid questions was 90% of why this vid was good.
@@ultimaIXultima Having no understanding of what they were talking about, I was impressed by how the conversation was pretty clearly not between one informed person and some ignoramus like myself.
@@maniaque37 Wrong
STLLR He has probably spent his whole life On computers,He is literally already part of the matrix!!!
I noticed this in passing. I worked for SEGA development in the 90's. So it's come as a surprise that our security has lasted this long. You are still missing some key tools. One being CodeScape as it was one of the first multi-processor development platforms. This was written by Cross Products the development tools division of SEGA. The Saturn development platforms were SCSI based communications onto a piggy backed main processor.
The Key disks did allow you to run your code without security but on a one shot basis. You have to use the key disk every time. There was no code to make this mode survive a reboot. This only worked reliably on piggy back boards.
Imagination Technology still produce CodeScape. However, the all important black box (CartDev) we produced is now nowhere to be seen today. A working version is a must have.
The head count of who new all the details of the processor interface is in single figures. At least you found the wobble. Haha!
Now that all the hard work is done, the guys from Sega appear... Too late, pal, too late...
Yup. The Piggybacked Processor embedded in the CD Driver is codenamed "Milkway" its a hidden SH-1.
The Saturn was a bit ahead of it's time. Mr O'Brian, you mean one of those: segaretro.org/Saturn_CartDev ?
Huh?
That's awesome I wish SEGA still manufactured consoles.
Cracked after 20 years.
Recommended after 23 years.
lmao foreal!!
🤣🤣
Facts
copyright and patent usually good for 20 years
@@mtube620 Copyright is extended 20 years every 20 years due to lobbying by Disney, they would probably die if others can paint Mickey Mouse.
Thank god for people like this, mad respect!
i love u
I just came here to say exactly that. People like this guy are who truly advance the world.
+1 to that. This guy is a fucking boss.
God bless this wonderful man! =)
that's why we need hackers as well. (Anonymous) There are good hackers as well as bad. For him and the rest of us, he is a good hacker. For bad are the people taking our credit card info and our security. To Sega, he is a bad hacker to them.
This guy doesn't need a resume for the rest of his life.
what.. you think he applies to jobs? probably the kid selling skimmers, runs and sells zombies for ddosing, RAT installations, etc, probably shit than just that
Edward's definition of a *_1337 H4XX0R_*
SimonTekConley what because he can read instructions? I don't think so.
lol netbookeater - I'd like to see you program a damn jQuery form.
Read instructions? You can't even realyze what those instructions do. hahahahaha
Man this guy makes me realise how dumb I am.
how about the guy who made it in the first place
@@mordimustafa1275 the team u mean also they are asians
I am also a dumb ass unfortunately
@john jones Well in current year it's hard to tell when someone is trolling because there are so many sjws that are actually that dumb.
Had you spent your life learning about this stuff you wouldn't think he was smart at all.
This dude represents everything that is right in the world. Backwards engineering a classic system for the good of us all.
I knew there was something in there that was good for us all lol
😁😁😁😁
People like him will get sued by the companies
Hi possible for me to give you by the post my sega Saturn japanese model by the post and you crack my sega for me I will pay u by PayPal is ok please give me your info PayPal I will give you my sega and pay thank u Michel trottier canada I will wait 4 your respond thank u in advance??
I will give you my sega Saturn Japan by the post and put the crack on my sega possible. I will pay you by PayPal give me info PayPal thanks and your adress I will ship to you
If Alien invade us one day in city size ships with giant green laser, this dude is totally going to be the guy who'll disable their shield.
Hahhahaa
Lets hope it doesn't take 20 years though....
ha ha ha yea with Jeff Goldblum xD
@@JarofMayonaise Like he started all this when Saturn were released. :D
I am the guy with the shotgun protecting his ass
27 minutes of me just staring at a clearly superior human being wondering wtf i'm doing with my life.
What truly makes this guy awesome, is that he never once said how awesome he was.
If humans who sit on toilets and poop made it, other humans who sit on toilets and poop can understand it. There's nothing superhuman about it.
Dedication is everything, he probably was able to tinker with things since he was a child, and of course, whatever career he studied must have helped quite a lot.
I have been a programmer for years and while there is always someone more skilled out there, don't let that stifle your capacity for creativity.
@@MoonOvIce It's very possible he never studied it formally, and just did hardware hacking. In fact, in these cases, formal study can interfere because you learn how you are "supposed to do" and reverse engineer from that, rather than "hacking" (as in the original sense of the word), looking for shortcuts and vulnerabilities. I'm telling you this because my life was basically ruined by "studying for a career", while my hardware hacking friends have much better careers from studying whatever interested them. If you've graduated from high school, or whatever secondary school is called in your country, seriously think of not going to university. Certainly in the US, university ("college") is a debt trap and not worthwhile for starting an actual career. If you think otherwise, you've been duped.
This is some high level nerd shit right here...
That should be - some low level nerd shit right here...
This is like nerd porn kinky stuff ... I would even say BDSM for nerds ...
😂
HAHA
@Zfast4y0u I would say "His lvl is over 9000 !!!" 😆
I'm a 4th year elec eng student in the depths of semester and needed a break from the grind of it. Watched this to gain some respite. Had no idea what I was being introduced to. Dr Abrasive, you are truly and inspiration and absolute freak of exemplifying the combination of brains and persistence. You have inspired the pants off me. Thank you sir. Back to grind:)
How did it turn out? Grind paid off?
Enjoying EE career?
I understood almost none of that yet still found it utterly fascinating :)
me too and I fell asleep to the video but yea still so much in this world I don't know anything about.
I got about 17mins in before i realised this is irrelevant for me (never owned a Saturn, not interested in owning one)... but like you said, fascinating to listen to all the same.
Nic & Andrea Hills lmfao same
Nic & Andrea Hills Dumb ass.
Was about to say the same thing. Maybe because a piece of your childhood was on display and felt engaged see the outcome
I felt incredibly intelligent when I was just watching videos of dogs barking at cats. I will return to those now.
😂
John Young sounds awesome do you have a link
John Young best comment
I just got my Satiator today. The work that went into this is nothing less than amazing.
4 year old vid but thank you. Both video maker and engineer here. I love Saturn games, rediscovered it as I didnt have one as a kid but man it's a fun console, especially with JP games. Thanks for keeping the hardware alive and injecting the Saturn scene with much more interest!! :)
Wow ... the best "1 video before I go to sleep" I've ever seen ...
I literally falled apart, thanks man and good night!
Eliran Cohen same here, watching it in bed to send me sleep
lol, same
Eliran Cohen yeah, i know puts you to sleep, watch it one more time and hopefully next time you won't wake up. It's not like anyone would miss you anyway, right.
falled apart? fell apart.
rip
I can't imagine the kind of intelligence required to do something like this. Fantastic work all round. Great vid dudes.
Actually it mainly depends on your nature and interest.
He certainly learned about structure of chips etc.
And reading Assembly through the help of IDA isn't sorcery either.
However it doesn't mean it's easy, but it's far away from rocket science (or maybe not, lol).
*****
You know that there are many great artists? So is this. This guy surely knows his job and made great work for a wider audience through dedication and will. And for that he deserves respect. However it's mostly work, not something impossible as stated in the comment I responded to.
Agreed. Incredible guy!
The 19th Fighter Dude's got a PhD and reads binary. He's smarter than me for sure. Probably smarter than you too.
+The Game Show jkoookkp
bucketful WP mi
There is something very satisfying and relaxing about him working on this, would be nice to sit there too and watch even though I still (after watching it twice) have no idea what he is doing...
Yasmin E I understood a tiiiiny bit of it and feel the same way :)
Thank you, DeathNote...had to first look up the explanation of "emulator" and "flash drive"....as you can see I'm not very knowledgeable in regard to those things, nevertheless, find them interesting :)
And... now kiss! :D But yeah I gotta side with Death Note here, the best way to learn new stuff is to find interesting things and sticking with them :) You will be quite surprised how much the world of IT and Electronics has to offer!
This guy is a testament to why the homebrew scene is so resourceful. Much respect to this guy. And the interviewer too
This guy is reverse engineering legacy hardware while many of us can't even unzip an emulator lol.
tru
What he’s done isn’t something learnt in a day, he’s got experience in this field but you could too if you choose to educate yourself
but why? it seems like he just wastes his time doing this here? educating urself about old stuff like this wont get you any good skills to make money or anything... you just fuckin waste ur time
You clearly know nothing of the tech business.
Who me?
Why would people dislike this video? It's amazing
Lots of jealous bitter people who hate people who can do things they can't.
PlayStation Fanboys... :(
SEGA employees.
people who just dislike things for the hell of it?
Probably pissed because the Saturn is going to be scalped to high Hell on Ebay after this.
My first attempt to hack the Sega Saturn was to insert the SEGA Saturn CD into my PC hoping it would play. I was ten. :D
That's where you start clicking on files and see what they do... then trying to force them into freeware viewers and "game resource ripping" tools to see what can be extracted. I was 12 ;-)
it's a story someone would have told but he was the first, dont be an asshole
DRVR 99 not to be rude, but misspelling removes what little impact your insult had
Hi
Username checks out.
"could probably do better"
*proceeds to build his own chip boards*
He ha, the drive to me fun
Lmao.
One reason why I think emulators and roms should be completely legal is because these older consoles are so aged that they are starting to die.
Controllers stop working, disk drives burn out, the console itself might take a dump. If you're someone who still enjoys the classic games, it gets harder and harder to actually play them legitimately. Finding replacement parts is very difficult and will soon be impossible as time goes on.
We need to take steps now and preserve older games, we need to archive all games because it's a form of art and entertainment that should be passed down and not lost.
ExzoSSG But then you wouldn't buy the new one...
ExzoSSG this is my argument against a all digital future
Like these guys: archive.org/details/software
roms/game copies are essentially legal, if you own the original game hardcopy, with 20 year old licensing bringing some of these games back to life might not be possible
dude , it doesnt even really matter. you can download all the roms and emulators in the world and your chances of being imprisoned or anything is slim to none. Nobody really gives a shit and doesnt have time to prosecute some mid-20s to a teenage kid for roms from the 1990s
my brain just jumped out of my head, grew legs, and ran away screaming
bwahahaha!
🤣🤣🤣
Haha
Insane i died laughing
I spit my coffee out reading that...lol
20 years to crack the Saturn, and 20 days to crack the Dreamcast lol
Frog Dog maybe more strain on the laser, but I don't think it'd break... a friend of mine has a Dreamcast still and it plays normal and burnt games just fine.
Frog Dog There's a guy who made a similar hack to this one for Dreamcast, for just that reason (the DC lasers wear out from playing burned discs, which is very hard on the drive.)
Anyway, this guy figured out how to bypass the gd-rom drive completely and use a hard drive/sd card instead.
2017 Resident Evil 7 cracked in under 72 hours
+Wakeup Tv Your comparisson was pointless. They were talking about consoles, not software
wow explains why my laser died all those years ago. cheers
I've worked in software for 30 years- met tons of smart people. It's very rare to meet someone who has such intimit, fundamental knowledge of the inner workings of any system, much less 30-year old never cracked proprietary game console. This dude is the real deal.
I love nerds like this man, they make the world a better place
@Gaming Authority fuck them? then you better be the most murderous gangster to walk the earth. the complete fucking opposite of a nerd. are you one of those? if not shut the fuck up
+Retro Gamer
Imagine _looking_ like a nerd, and yet not having any of the talent, ability and know-how of a nerd. Oh wait... Never mind.
@@chuckiegravesfield3170 STFU, you suck buddy
Neeeeeerds
ehhh, i guess im a nerd lol
Being and electric & automation engineer, I've done some reverse engineering for old Nokia phone, But here...Hat down !!
This is serious engineering running here, reaching even electric layer.
absolutely amazing !!
AND making new hardware add ons for it!
"This is something i do in my spare time"
Wat the fok can he do in his normal time?
whatsgoingon07 pornhub on the console
Designing Starship Enterprise ... The REAL one ...
@@The101maham >pornhub on the console
absolute fuckin degenerates, the lot of you
@Travis Edwards Hahahah oh man, Phd in engineering... that was a good one!
He's working on enabling pornhub to be viewed on a gameboy.
This is my forth time watching this video, every seconds of it..still have absolutely no idea what he's talking about..yet i feel happy...
Robert Tampake - I think it leads to bitcoin
Uve watched this 4 times?? That's sad
oh lol then study electrical engineering .
@@NirtieDigger i feel happy, i dont feel sad
I can follow everything he’s saying but can’t do any of it. He’s just an expert at his craft. Years of experience.
Great job Dr. Abrasive! And great video! I wish there were more videos like this, done documentary style and highly professionally made. This was super interesting to watch.
Thanks on the production feedback :-) Shot 4k, on Zeiss lens, sennheiser lapel mics... I'm glad it didn't go un-wasted.
debuglive that lapel mic sounded great!
I don't think it was a waste. Not for anyone wanting to pause the video and look at the details.
I don't understand 90% of what he's saying but yet it still sounds so interesting.
I agree!
constantine5 what about the 10%
Is English not your first language?
What is a CPU?
I don't even know what "crack" means!!
Wow, I have no idea what he was talking about but I'm sure it was amazing. Thank you!
Clever Brunozoid I'm a little surprised someone never tried a few of his methods before actually. But yes, it was amazing.
Clever Brunozoid if you can speak "computer nerd" it all makes sense, the amazing thing isnt what he's done, its that he had the drive and recorces to do it
That's one dedicated Embedded Systems Engineer
And I thought I was a Tech genius when I built my first PC...
Mr.Money These guys are just total nerds. I myself plan to go down this route later in life. I think it'll be fun.
protip: it won't.
Tellin It Like It Is
Telling it like it is
MAKSYM This. Soviet Russia agrees lol
When you go down the route you may never come back ,route consume you
WOW!! Respect!!
The SEGA Saturn is by far my favorite game system EVER!!
It's time for a Second coming of Saturn.
SEGA is dead.
Yeap... Sega of America to blame
Mike Pro They are not dead.
They are worth $44 billion and have $16 billion
in cash flow.
job.mynavi.jp/18/pc/search/corp1557/outline.html
www.morningstar.com/stocks/pinx/sgamy/quote.html
KiloByte69 No they aren't. And if your coming here to troll, please don't be obvious.
He has his hair, a beard, and is a fantastic speaker. Shoutout to the chick that stayed with him (ring at 26:45) despite him being at this for several years - after this guy, you're the real MVP.
People like him is what this world needs more of. An inspiration, a hero. Salute.
Best part: He met his wife at a gig that I played at :-) And even better - she was the person who organized the show! The world certainly needs more people like both of them IMHO; perfect match.
FYI, I developed the hardware interface (cartridge slot) for the cross compiler (CodeScape) along with a cd emulator back in 1993 ish for the Saturn. It's weird seeing it 25+ years later!!! I also developed a whole host of other ICE and Emulator hardware for other game consoles. This was for a company that was then called Cross Products in the UK.
The Saturn had 2x SH4 cpus and a 68K for sound IIRC. Don't have any info now though. Basically a SCSI2 interface to the PC for download/upload. The CD Emulator was a switch that multiplexed a SCSI2 HDD between a PC and the Saturn.
The CD image was placed on the HDD and the Saturn booted it up. (from memory so this might be incorrect). I had the FPGA/CPLD do all the memory mapping of the SCIS2 and some DPRAM as the interface to a serial converter for CD loading with RS422 buffers IIRC. There was an FPGA (Xilinx 3000 series and a XC95xxx CPLD IIR), DPRAM and an SH2 as the main cpu on the emulator, I also had a front panel LCD + Buttons. Some of my talented colleagues developed the firmware on the emulator. My boss at the time was a very well recognised games programmer. A brilliant man who surrounded himself with other very talented people. I am very proud to have worked with a team of people like this in my career. Serious talent in a small building in Leeds !! I now develop ASICs and high complexity FPGAs.
I didn't understand 95% of what u said haha but this is awesome! The Saturn, thought it didn't become a commercial success is part of gaming history :) thanks for your comment !
speak english please
Can you recommend any resources for becoming a great programmer?
@DreamsComeTrue, the way I got started was to write Assembly code (hand coded btw) for the 6502. In reality you could get an 8086 assembler and a good book on 8086 and start writing Assembly code. I would avoid jumping into C and high level languages to start out with because you can pick up bad habbits. The advantage of writing assembly is that you really have to think about what you are doing and you also get an insight into how a microprocessor functions. You will have to learn what the CPU registers do and what states the CPU runs through. This will make you a great programmer. This is basically how all the games programmers got their skills. This takes time (months to years) and once you have a grasp on this I'd suggest the next step is playing with an Arduino with an ARM cpu. Try coding in assembly again. It's harder because it's a RISC architecture but you'll get a feel for it.
Once you've done that then use C and see what code it generates. Playing with an Arduino will teach you about IO's and interfaces. Once you're at this stage you are really up there with a good understanding. From there you can pick up other stuff quickly.
I would add that it's worth getting a mentor and paying attention to what they teach you. Maybe a club nearby (maker fair etc) ?
Stay away from a Raspberry Pi to start out with. That's a really complex system and OS for a beginner.
I would also add it's worth it's weight in gold to attend a technical university. I don't know where you are in your academic life but if you're younger you most definitely can benefit from playing with microprocessors now. I started writing assembler when I was 13. I had a fantastic mentor so I was lucky. However you have to work at it. It does take a lot of time and reading!! I still love Assembly BTW. But now I develop my own CPU's and microcode!!! Even better !!!
I can see why nobody wanted to develop for the system now.
The actual chip set is pretty nuts with it's multiple CPU's and aux processors :-o Even the audio chip is a mind screw... and did things to interrupt the rest of the chips in annoying ways. It would have been a beast to dev for in it's day!
That, and Sega pissed off nearly every 3rd party dev as well as many major retaliers at launch.
So basically it was like PS3 at its time but no Uncharted thats a shame
PS3 was not this complicated, Many developers said it was easy to develop for the ps3.
Really? well i assume this because of what i heard from extracredits and one guy from my country
that make console museum also compare sega saturn to PS3
Every once in awhile I'll see this vid pop up again on my recommendations.
I watch it every time.
And so do I. Really interesting. The good thing is though, every time I watch it, I understand a tiny bit more due to own experience made.
Fantastic. Love to see things like this, its great when people share research to benefit other peoples experiences. Good job Dr. Abrasive
Possibly the best video of the Saturn architecture since Sega was actually creating this machine. This guy is a damn hero. Did he ever have a coffee fund for his work?
I love watching videos like this and pretend like I know what they’re talking about and what’s going on.
Same here
😂 lol
Its more exciting pretending lol
When you actually learn this stuff, listening to people talk about it is very boring!
And then like the comments with lots of likes as if I know what they are on about
It's like watching a foreign language movie with no subtitles. You understand a few bits and pieces, and you get the gist of the plot, but if anyone asks you for specifics you respond with, "duh..duh...duh......"
impressive what is more impressive that even today to date it's proven a near impossible task to crack the protection.
Sega build a tank of a console there which is worth mentioning
The protection has been cracked years ago, through mod chips, this is slightly different.
Dinis Deuchande
You clearly did NOT WATCH THE video, he did hell of lot more than what the mod-chip did he even explains that in detail in the video...
I did watch the video, im talking just about the copy protection, this was bypassed ages ago and my reply was to address the comment about cracking protection, which you mentioned.
try to crack the code for Primal Rage ot Primal Rage 2. it has some of the most notorious codes that still have not been successfully cracked
Gerardo Garza García and the devs are still laughing
I don't understand what he did
I don't understand why he did it
I don't understand what is the result
I don't understand the purpose
I don't understand anything
But it is very interesting. I think
For Fun
For Fun
For Fun
For Fun
talas attila hahaha
lol
Consoles including Saturn have protections that stop the machine from running code that is not approved to run on the system. Saturn's security has not been broken until recently. Now anyone can write games and other software that can run on the Saturn hardware. For fun is definitely the reason.
talas attila SAME
My Computer Science degree now just feels like all I did was "Hello World".
lmao
same..
Or the "Maze Test" on the Commodore Pet :)
I wish i had 10% intelligence of this amazing guy.
5-6% (: just kidding
u have it .. just use it! the only thing that holds u back is such a mindset!
You just need to love what you do. I bet his annual salary triples or quadruples mine, and I make close to 6 figures.
It's not just intelligence... It's determination and patience as well... I mean, he just presented what he was doing for 3 years for you in 20 minutes. Of course people would be impressed.
hey, it worked in The Fifth Element
Guys like this are our only hope when ai starts taking over.
Guys like this are why we have to worry about AI. Thanks for inventing that, Einsteins.
nope, humans can't move fast enough to take down a fully fuctional AI, which would be able to detect the intruder before the intruder will be able to make any significant findings.
There's a difference between something sitting on your desk with it's core opened to you, and something shooting at you.
Regardless, ai will never happen, consciousness will never be produced by human or artificial hands.
if you think this guy is good, imagine the people who built it. This probably only had a handful of prototypes early on, so literally designing on paper right to the factory.
Sub Urban Diy Guy
Its actually guys like this that are creating Ai so dont gush too much, and some of them are just too drone like (follows orders) to even care about humanity. Just hint at them they need to install a wide ass back door.
Neither of us are doing AI code FTR! Except for a IRC bot that passes on the cricket score in realtime.
wow SEGA really overengineered their copy protection
and this guy is seriously amazing. i dont know what he does for a living, but it looks like companies should really keep an eye on him and hire him fast
He's probably an electrical engineer. He knows quite a bit of the electrical components and how to code. Also look at the setup that he has.
I see this said all the time. Electrical engineers =/= ELECTRONICS engineers.
I have a strange feeling that he's employed.
Doesn't really matter I think. Electronics engineers are a sub-section of electrical engineers.
And then Dreamcast happened.
I had forgotten how much I miss my old Sega system. Time to go on Craig's list and find another one. This guy is simply amazing. A reboot of classic gaming without running ROMs. Kudos to you!!
So many amazing titles from that era that are Saturn-exclusive... lots of Working Designs titles, for example... love dat console.
Agreed.
IMAGINE...SO MANY TRANSLATED JAPANESE ROMS
+Reggie-a His envisioned final product with a HDD inside is such an amazing idea. I will be doing this as soon as he releases it.
Dan Larkin An SSD inside of it would be even better, to allow read/write access times wayyyy faster than a regular CD.
Here we are talking about this console like we dug it up from a 2000 year old dig site and no one knows how it works. Somewhere out there is a man who put this system together. They are probably watching this video with a giant grin on their face.
Jason Woelfel no freaking kidding like send a email or something ask a question reach out to someone.
Jason Woelfel now imagine the same concept for ps4 pro and xbox one 20 years from now.
Yeah now imagine what they are working on now. Theyre prob working on some super private intranet or a future virtual life organic cybernetic immersion cosole
Marcus Torres this is to be the ignorant statement on here. There is a reason it hasn't been emulated fully. You couldn't do what he did in your wildest dreams
Jason Woelfel But no one knows exactly how it works outside of Sega itself. That's why Saturn emulation is far from perfect more than 20 years after it's release.
The future of Saturn's emulation, and also the possibility of this modchip being commercialized is surely great news not only for Saturn enthusiasts, but for people who are still not aware of how amazing this system was.
Great work, man. Keep improving it!!
The Sega Saturn was a brilliant and cutting edge 5th gaming console that had so many unique eccentricities, capabilities and innovative computing with technology and hardware clearly FAR superior than the Sony PlayStation. The sad tragic unfortunate thing Is that due to the Sega 32X/Mars and having all western resources channeled for it instead, Sega of America completely dropped the ball on the console, executing it haphazardly and erratically. Not to mention the internal problems going on at the American division at the time and the hiring of Sony Marketing Director Bernie Stolar, Sega of America failed with the Saturn by failing to train developers and programmers, and failing to attempt to woo 3rd party supporters, alongside not selling or designing Localized SDKs.
You're like, the most annoying fucking know it all. Just... _shut up_
??
Juliano Bittencourt That was at Sega United, the reply button didn't put the +name in
Oh, ok, then.
I use to think I was a fairly intelligent person, turns out I'm a potato
Yes you are.
Nice to see some low level reverse eng. nice work and good memories from the 8-16-32 bit days.
ZevenLV "Low" level? Ahem.
Willie Murray it's low level because how near to code directly on binary and how he was working directly on the ROM and CPU. It's really a high level skill though.
Willie Murray "Low level" in this context means close to the hardware. It's not easy stuff lol
wow , i'm a electrical engineer too but this guy puts my knowledge to shame LOL!
Damn
Jesse Bowman Hes engagement ring point in the direction that he gets help with that.
Fredrik So he's engaged to his left hand. :p Good for him! If ever there was a party poopper in life I'm guessing you are it. Think you are the kind of guy to talk about death at a party full of laughing people or put a stick in everybody elses tires well they are riding bikes without you. :p Am I right? You have to point out the truths of life well everybody else is just trying to have a good time. :p Religion isn't real ... we should all be lesbians that get knocked up by doctors in labs just to turn around and have an abortion when it doesn't work out between us and our animal alien lovers.
The jealousy is strong.
@Batuhan I found a really good video that cleared up what was actually happening in a Fourier transform. Unsurprisingly it is really cool.
ruclips.net/video/spUNpyF58BY/видео.html
this is the shit I wish I could do.
my talents are limited to messing with core files, this guy makes reverse engineering and backdoor hunting fun.
he's so upbeat and passionate about his work it's crazy.
I can't imagine how dedicated this guy is to a project that is this complex and time consuming
When the robot wars start, I want this dude in my squad
I just want him in my village
This is an incredible achievement (and the video documentary is also well done). Nice work to everyone involved.
Very impressive. But can he explain the internet to Congress?
He may be a genius but he's not a god.
Dude, No one can help the US Congress from what I’ve heard. But this guy could maybe save the planet.
Easy. It's a series of tubes :D
we know the answer to that LOL
LOL
watching it in 2019 - this is above boss level. very smart dude
2020 :)
Dude is that a Technics SL-1200?
MK2, yes.
This might be the most hardcore hack I've ever seen. Amazing work!
The thing is that people at Sega actually know "the secret", they just don't want to tell anyone. However, if the Saturn is completely obsolete, then I don't get why they don't just share it. Instead this poor guy had to go and spend so much time figuring it out.
Vince Lok I guess that's half the fun of emulating
Vince Lok The thing is they probably actually dont. A lot of old knowledge about things like these are lost to history.
yea code like this, if it was never reused in another product, would be dumped after maybe 5-8 years maybe longer if an engineer that worked on it had a copy in his office. I would guess no one that worked on that project is even with sega anymore.
If Sega knew the secret to anything of the Saturn era then surely they would've properly rereleased PDS and other Saturn gems long ago instead of making shitty new Sonic games? Best hardware maker ever...if they ever made another console I'd buy three. Such a shame their PR team was (and possibly still is) pure ass.
It'd be in their own interest to help him and the community making this happen. He should reach out if he hasn't. I'm worried about hearing that CD-drives are failing. Did not know that and I have "a few" Saturns (all of which work perfectly but his words make me schizo):S
Actually Sega lost a lot of their shit in a fire that destroyed a lot of their Source Code games for older stuff. The reason Sega is as it is, is because they put a lot of money into the dreamcast and emulation and sony buried them.
This interview was freaking awesome.
I don't have my Sega Saturn anymore nor do I plan to get one again but I'm amazed by what this guys is accomplishing. Bravo interviewer, interviewee and community.
I really want to understand all of this but apart from codes, programs and instructions i don’t have a clue. You managed to keep me engaged and convinced me I could jump in and finish the project if you went off ill or on holiday, when really the whole time I have no idea. Great Video!!
Pause, Google everything you don't understand or don't know what it is. Yes, I do mean everything. Google and research it. Read, re read it until you understand it. Boom. You'll be surprised how far you'll go.
What a smart dude.
You are now officially my hero! Where were you 20 years ago???? LMAO!!!
Lol
He was probably 8 lol
My favorite system ever. Criminally underrated.
Even though it failed with sales and was killed off before the Dreamcast. It basically was the first super high end original CD based console.
At the time this was the most insane cutting edge system available.
Saturn was fairly successful in Japan, performed modestly well in Europe, Exceptional Well in Australia, In the US, its the only region where it underperformed its first 2 years due to a steep price tag, limited 3rd party support and POOR promotion and marketing by Sega of America, By 1997 though, Saturn sales in the US were actually improving, 3rd party support begin to show up, it got a price cut and a fantastic Bundle with 3 games.
Then Sega of America's COO Bernie Stolar ordered the plug to be pulled. The Saturn died in the US JUST as it was finally starting to catch on.
Saturn was indeed cutting edge, predating Nintendo 64 by 18 months in Japan and 13 in North America. Both Saturn and Nintendo 64 were the two most powerful Consoles of the 5th Generation.
Bad management and bad timing. It was pushed out at a time when Sega should've been focusing on Genesis, and development of the Dreamcast. Saturn was truly on another level technology wise, but it was too expensive for the lower class, and didn't have the support of 3rd party manufacturers or retailers.
The Saturn failed mostly because Hayao Nakayama essentially manhandled SOA into following orders that worked in Japan but not the US, rather than letting Tom Kalinske do what he needed to get it on it's feet. This resulted in things like the infamous early e3 launch and stock shortages. The disastrous launch followed the Saturn throughout much of it's life until around 97' when it was just starting to pick up speed before Stolar cut the line
@@raiverns9620 Saturn did NOT fail. It underpeformed its first two years in the US. And was actually doing WELL when Bernie Stolar and Isao Okawa ordered the plug to be pulled.
Nakayama did not manhandle SOA into following orders. Sega of America did Not want to get on board with Saturn because they knew nothing about its design or that it was even in development. SOJ kept Aurora TOP SECRET during 1993.
Saturn didn't launch early either. CSK's Isao Okawa ordered a "Test Market" Trial Release of Saturn during May that was horribly botched due to miscommunication and sloppy marketing from SOA. Saturn launched in North America on September 2,1995.
Anyone else get get a serious case of feels when they heard “DAAAAAYTOONAAAAAA” ??
I can assure you that after 3 days of hearing white noise and glitches, the engineer in this video got serious feels when he first heard "Daaaayyyytoooonnaaa"! Porting that CD audio though the hijacked VCD port was a huuuuge task :-)
I get PTSD when I hear it, cause the game was soo lame. It was such a boring game to have as a launch title for the saturn. To wash the stanke out after I would often play need for speed on 3d0, or road rash, or even demolition derby on psx. Crashes were everything in racing games back then, and if you didn't have them, your game was crap. I mean who watches nascar for anything else? it's boring.
All you do in daytona is drive fast and turn to the left. The crashes were like 1 or 2 animations thus not simulated at all, and the music was worse then cruisin usa 64.
I will never understand you folks who think it was a good game. It sucked then, it sucks now, it will always suck. I hate racing games like that.
That is why sega failed, they had the most arcade of all games... arcade as in, great graphics but boring after 10 minutes. Very shallow games. Nintendo was way better, but of course PC was always king, it just took a lot of us a long time to realize that. X-com forever bitches!! YEAH!!!
So yes... When I hear that cheesy "DAAAAATOOOOONAAAAA" my butt clenches in anguish and my teeth grind.
Even the non sung version of the word "daytona" instantly brings about my gamer traumatic memories of a bad generic as hell racing game.
It's a special kind of utter mediocrity that only sega games can do.
You could see all of the games "content" in about 10 minutes.
The saturn was quickly demoted to the basement gaming room for good reason.
It's best game was probably sim city 2000.... yeah...
now that I have pissed on the hornets nest I am going to run like sonic on the genesis... really really fast, but then you just run into spikes you can't see coming. I mean even battletoads on the nes gave you some king of graphical information of danger coming when on the turbo bikes. But nope.... gotta go fast, cause it's fun to go fast, but you never can, cause it's too fast to know of danger coming.
Man I have problems, I am gonna go see a gaming shrink. Sega touched my naughty buttons, which is odd, cause their crappy controllers often had less buttons to push then others.
See? I just can't help it... SEGA SUUUUUUUCKED!
Their best games were zillion on the master, and toejam n earl on the gen.... Just don't play the sequels folks... esp for zillion... I need to talk to the shrink for hours about that experience alone...
And what is with the obsession with vectorman? IT wasn't that good!!!
VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN
VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMANVECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN
VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMANVECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN
VECTORMAN VECTORMAN VECTORMAN
Everyone at school went on and on about it... IT SUCKED!! It was hoplessly average and mediocre... The graphics were quite literally BALLS!
but thee worst...
thee absolute worst abomination...
sega ever committed...
was knights...
That... costume.... and gameplay... is THEE gayest thing, in the history of gaming...
I am soo sick right now just thinking of it, I have to puke....
Those huge feet.... ... NO!!! STOP REMEMBERING!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! IT'S LIKE A GAY VERSION OF MEGAMAN!!! STOP IT!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
those stupid ear things... lJHSKLFKLASJDKL:ASDKLASKLDJSAKL
and all you do is fly too fast collecting gold things!? That's the gameplay? That's it!?
And everyone LOVES IT!?!?!?!?!
Why why in the hell don't you all love superman 64 then... you freaks!!
I can't do this anymore...
I can't do this...
I have to go cry in a corner now...
Darn you sega... DARN YOU TO BANKRUPTCY! You ruined everything!
gamebro you alright mate
@@gamebro511 holy shit
@@gamebro511 super cringey and psychotic
This may sound like a dumb question, but why couldn't you just use the expansion cartridge port? I had a GameShark for that, so it could obviously run code. Seems like it would have been an easy way to achieve this, but maybe I'm missing something.
Good question. There was a project (the SAROO) that tried to do exactly that. There are two main problems: one, you then can't use RAM expansion carts, so have to integrate that functionality into your cart. That's the easy bit.
Two - the really hard bit - you have to emulate the CD block activity 100% accurately. The huge amount of work that's been put into emulators so far still hasn't got them to 100%.
(I'm also not sure that all the lines you need for eg. CD audio actually run to the port, but that's another matter.)
Could the isos be modified to run as native code on the card, rather than as simulating the disc drive?
Sure, but that'd be a manual process and different for every title - so stupendously complicated (especially considering there are hundreds of them).
+Dr. James I see
+Dr. James although with the work that was done on the project in the video, shouldn't simulating the CD drive be possible now
It's funny to see all of these plebs who claim what he does isn't all that hard, or that he's not all that smart. The fact of the matter is, they are just threatened by his intelligence and need to play his intelligence down so they can feel better about themselves.
It's just the Dunning-Kruger effect.
You nailed it !!
pffft this guy has equipment, any baby can throw this bait and get a bite. no skill
i mean you need to be pretty intelligent what he does but... its also a complete fuckin waste of time.. nobody gains anything out of what he did.. and his skills wont transfer to anything new since its old fuckin architecture...
Psychedelic Haze don't waste your breath. these morons won't understand the meaning of old skills verses new skills. just let him apply to a videogame company and everyone will deem him the laughing stock of the century. you can't sit at home and decode a bunch of old videogame consoles and expect to go anywhere with those shit skills..
Who tf engineered this console? Every company in the world should hire them.
Equally intelligent Japanese engineers
@obicapa ok thx 👍 post design documents pls kthx
This takes time and money. For a system like this, which is NOTORIOUSLY hard to program for, this is amazing work! I'd rather it be perfect than rushed. Prototypes are out for Patreon members.
when daytona started, i closed my eyes and i was in a stinky bowling alley 20 years ago lol
Mmm greasy pizza and cigarette smoke. Iconic.
When my brothers and I "sing" Daytona USA song we would say "day told us... That you were gay, that you were gay." We played it so much that we found cheat codes for a green colored car we could drive through the grass and not slow down with and a couple horses which was fun to see. Good times.
jake tripp lmfao! 😂
For those of you out there that have difficulty understanding what he's talking about, I simple trick I've learnt is to just nod your head at key points and also say things like: "Oh of corse!" or "So simple", because this helps trick your brain into thinking it has some remote idea of whats going on. Then by the end of the video, you will not only feel satisfied, but also think you've learnt something. Can also be useful to have the video on stand by so if somebody stops by and says "What are you watching!?", you can turn around and say "Oh just watching this tech video, I wanted to touch my skills up on reverse engineering encrypted software accessing the master chip, just a side project when I feel like it...".
"that" and yes, it works eeeeverrry time!
forget cracking the Saturn... you've just cracked humanity :-o
You didn't crack the Saturn. You cracked the basic BIOS.
Its still impossible to copy and dump ROMs from the Discs themselves.
What a genius.. You no idea how smart and intelligent this man is.. Makes us IT people and techies look like fools. We need more talent like these in the emulation scene.. Especially the beloved Dreamcast!
Um. No. He just spent 3 years on this and this only. If you had an IT team dedicated to this, they could do this in a few months. Maybe less
The Mastr that may be so, but this man did it ALL on his own, and to do it like this deffinantly shows his intelligence AND his peesonal drive to prove it can and should be done.
Oh nooooooo...no it is stuck in my head again. It took 11 years to get it out but it is back.
Daytonaaaaaaaa.....
I'm programmer myself, just wanne say i'm very very impressed. well done.
danny van den berg doubt it. Thx
danny van den berg
I am one also. And must say congradulations and top most respect coming from a high tech computer dweeb as myself
I gonna watch more videos and become a programmer too, now.
This is the kind of person who designs processor chips - his knowledge at such a relatively young age just blows me away. One in a million - literally!.
CPUs are easy. Designing Graphics ASICs is the tough one !!
@@GodzillaGoesGaga Our friends at AG have already implemented Graphics ASICs for RAZOR.
So you've never designed a chip I take it. Code is easy by comparison. I've done both.
@Al Bundy You obviously haven't designed an ASIC or a chip. I also doubt you have ever written any code of any significance too.
@@GodzillaGoesGaga hoax
I want this kind of passion when it comes to my coding. I gotta stop being so freakin lazy.
same
same here
same
The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. The second best time is now.
healthychemical this is more engineering
A guy can get so much done when he's not concerned about getting laid.
He's married so yeah that can work both ways :P
Yes. So much time wasted otherwise.
I bet he did all of this while also getting laid
@@jaydunstan1618 better than desperately wanting to have sex, bro
@@kalapoikedeviere7962 So you are married too?
You have my great respect for the time and thought you have invested into the Saturn.
1.3k down votes? Obviously this accomplishment went over people's heads.
Its from Nintendo
No it was from sega.
It went over my head and I up voted the video, like sheesh
Idiots will never disappear
Nintendo engineers and people who hate nerds because they'll never be anywhere near as intelligent. So basically, Trump supporters.
Recommended??? This algorithm is too good. I sat here and watched something I know nothing about for 27 minutes on a topic I have no interest in, and I still enjoyed it. Thank you almighty youtube algorithm.
lol same
You are being programmed. Unplug now.
Congrats you’re a snowflake.
@@greatomeister675In what fucking context could any of this possibly make anyone here a 'snowflake'? Your post makes literally no sense.
@@dumbomagoo says the snowflake
I just love watching and listening to someone this brilliant. I don't really understand most of it, but I deeply appreciate the process and efforts made by those who do.
I understood every single thing he explained.
This is passionate computer engineering at it's finest. Amazing project.
It's people like this that move the human race forward.
*species
@@tribemaster101 *douche
@@no_misaki ?
how so? By reincarnating dead games?
@@missionpupa By putting a lot of effort and devotion into doing something very sophisticated.
imagine 20 years ago the devlopers who made the saturn or any system really working on all that complex card and software and hardware. and then who can they tell? nobody lol. theyve created this marvelous thing even though outdated now but at the time there was just the team who could understand how complex it was and put this thing together. its not like the guys could come home and tell his wife we made a breakthrough in this area of code and got this piece to work with this piece etc. shed be like wtf are you talking about and have 0 interest. so really this video kind of shares with the world in a sense what those guys couldnt. it would never happen but itd be neat to have all those original team members on this video listening and commenting
Did you see the comment from the guy who worked for Sega Development during Saturn?
It wasn't outdated when it came out, it was on par with the PSX with some performance specs better or worse then it. Realistically, it was their overachieving of making it this powerful that gave devs nightmares. PSX was tough too, but between more sales of the console and less complexity then the Saturn, it was only logical for devs to focus on producing games for the Sony unit than for the dying Saturn unit.
Yep. We were under strict NDA back then.
The internal code for the Saturn was a mess. Basically the Sony PS came out and Sega shat themselves because the specs of the PS were so much better. To make up for this they added another CPU to up the specs. There was some shared memory and a few register to boot the 2nd SH4. Basically you loaded a loader into the DPRAM and the 2nd SH4 would copy it's code. Really nasty gashy afterthought.
@@GodzillaGoesGaga ahhhhh
I love that Aussies are always getting up to mischief with this stuff, look at this dude - the hero we need!
why the fuck did i just watch the whole video, i didnt understand anything we was talking about
Nin9fy bad life choices, maybe?
or just because this sounds interesting af even if you don't get the details.
+Nin9fy I'm 9 minutes in and wondering the same thing. Lol!!!
It was very interesting. I love games so i wanted to learn a bit how they are ran on consoles but the software he was using looked difficult to use
ha i am 9.03 mins in and in the same boat :D
18 minutes same thing
He looks like one of the dyno guys that frequently appears on MCM
lol didnt expect to see an mcm fan here
Chris Cole:D yessir!
tuning fork
he sounds like that dyno guy they use!
Been running through my mind since I switched tabs with the video still playing.
What is the software that displays the decompiled assembler with notes and graphically visualized jumps?
IDA Pro . It will be the best piece of software you ever invest in!
>implying anyone can purchase it
Anyone... can, though.
$1700 isn't even that bad, if you think of how much work probably went into it.
as if anyone can't just google "IDA Pro portable" and download it in 2 minutes like i just did.
I always enjoy watching these kinda vids, any sort of tech mod/repairs etc, love em. And in a documentary in a style that's just a bonus! Keep up the good work! :)
Precisely what I need. Is there a way I can follow the progress of this, and perhaps put in a preorder for if/when he decides to produce them?
At the end of the video it says follow @ctrix64 for updates
+Keegan Jacobson we are already in ctrix's channel
@ usually refers to Twitter handle, since that's the default mention name (@ mentions) as opposed to +. ingusmant
Twitter: @prof_abrasive
What if you're a dinosaur that doesn't use twitter?
It really is amazing how big tech will happily condemn these backroom geniuses but will go on to release inferior, sub-par revisions of their own tech to "paying" fans.
if it is white person doing it, its backroom geniuses but if chinese person did it its pirated
@@IRyu03 To me it's not. They can be any color of the rainbow, male, female, or anything in between.
If they can tell me a good story of how they achieved something great, I WILL LISTEN.
While you are at it... my car is making this funny noise when I back it out of the driveway...
JCDenton 2012 could be your transmission
must be your neighbor cat...
You took the cat out of my mouth... :D
You should have had the stem lube done on your last service.
You need to carve a particular wobble pattern in the outside edge of your tires.
So, I know all the words he said....just not in that order....