SSF
Current version: | 0.12 beta R4 |
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Active: | Yes |
OS: | Windows |
Authors: | Shima |
Official website: | Shima's Site |
Source code: | Closed source |
SSF is a Sega Saturn emulator. It is the only Sega Saturn emulator to date that has any level of compatibility with SS games and the only one worth using.
Downloads
- Latest Version (The "test versions" are development builds.)
- 0.12 Beta R4
- .zip Version 0.11 alpha R5
Review
The best, and only good Saturn emulator right now. SSF is superior to Yabause for compatibility, but is Windows only, closed source and requires mounting ISO files in a virtual drive to run them.
A recent major update to 0.12 improved compatibility for certain games and broke others. It added support for some of games such as Astal (needs "Enable SH2 Cache"). Keep both versions, pre- and post-0.12 just in case. To raise compatibility, you can try with "No Bios" enabled or disabled, and you'll want to start with the MaxCompatibility (slow) option, then try with the faster options (that do not always work).
SSF needs an external virtual drive to read ISO files. Close and restart the emulator (as it says in the Japanese dialogue popup appearing) whenever you modify the options for them to take effect.
Even though it has a "No Bios" option, you'll sometimes need the BIOS files, of course specifying the correct region in the options.
Some useful commands:
- F7: Pause and Load State (Press 0-9 to choose)
- Shift + F7: Pause and Save State (Press 0-9 to choose)
- Numeral Pad 1-6: Disable 2D layers. Useful for sprite ripps. Keep in mind this often causes 3D games to crash, and they already have lower compatibility than 2D one when it comes to general emulations.
- You can change the speed of emulation under options up to 4x.
Guides and Info
Free Virtual Drive Software
As said above, SSF requires a virtual drive to read ISO files. Sadly, most of the good free ones don't work with SSF for one reason or another. They either have a bunch of adware or they don't support mdf/mds files. The ones that do work (along with some that don't) will be listed below.
Program Name | Pros | Cons |
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Virtual Clone Drive |
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Alcohol 52% Free Edition |
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(You can mostly ignore the program by stopping it from running on startup, however.) |
Daemon Tools LITE |
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WinCDEmu |
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MagicDisc |
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