Mednafen Saturn Disc Swapping

[bujinkanrn]

Has anyone figured out how to change discs with games that have multiple ones?  I've played Lunacy to the point where it asks for Disc B, but my latest save won't work if I try to launch the game from the second disc.  Currently, I've listed each disc as a separate entry in LB.  Is there a way to mount multiple discs to a single game listing?

[DOS76]

I tried testing this in the Mednafen Saturn core for RetroArch and I couldn't get it to function so I'm not quite sure its there yet I don't know about the stand alone though I've never used it.

[Zombeaver]

Yeah this is actually one of the first things I tried. It doesn't work currently in either standalone or RA. m3u support is sortof there but only in a preliminary state. The first disc will load when loaded via m3u, but in RA you can't actually switch to a different disc and in standalone you can switch but the graphics are all screwed up afterwards. I think it's just something that's still being worked on.

Enemy Zero is a good game to test this with, for reference - the first disc is literally just an intro cinematic.

[bujinkanrn]

I looked on the Mednafen page, but the process of making .m3u files isn't really clear.  Do you all know of a good place to find an example?  Thanks, guys!

[Zombeaver]

Yep, it's actually really simple. All you have to do is create a text file with the name of each of your .cue files, in order, one per line. So, for example:

Enemy Zero (Disc 1).cue

Enemy Zero (Disc 2).cue

Enemy Zero (Disc 3).cue

Enemy Zero (Disc 4).cue

Then save it. Now you just need to rename the file and change the extension from .txt to .m3u and use that .m3u file as your "rom" in LB. In Retroarch you'll need to assign keys to the "open/close tray" function, "next disc" function, and "previous disc" function. These have default keys but I changed them so I don't recall what they are. I changed mine to 0 for "open/close tray", + for "next disc" and - for "previous disc". So if I want to change from disc 1 to 2, all I have to do is press 0 (open), + (next disc), and then 0 (close). At that point you can continue playing normally.

Keep in mind, like I said, this doesn't quite work yet for Saturn. It works beautifully for PSX though. This is how I have all of my multi-disc PSX games setup.

[bujinkanrn]

Thanks for the fast reply!  Since I'm using the standalone emu, I'm assuming the F6 & F8 keys will work for changing discs.

[Zombeaver]

Yep! Those are the keys for standalone. I don't know if there's a way to rebind those if that matters to you...

[bujinkanrn]

WHOA, it worked on Lunacy!!!  I had to rename my save files, but I followed your directions and created the .m3u file.  When I next loaded the standalone emu, I opened the disc tray with F8.  This caused the Saturn media player screen to appear. I changed to Disc 2 with F6 and hit the "Load Application" planet button and VOILA!!!  The game loaded, seemingly properly, and I am able to continue.  Thanks, man!

[Zombeaver]

Hmm interesting. Admittedly the only game I've tested it with for Saturn is Enemy Zero, so the issue there may be game-specific, I'm not sure. I assumed it was across the board since the RA version doesn't seem to let you do it at all, either via m3u or the "disk management" function in the quick menu. Again though, I only tested the RA swap function with Enemy Zero. Launching the second disc from the start works just fine in both RA and standalone so it shouldn't be an issue with the disc images.

Glad it's working for you though! I guess I'll have to test it with some other multi-disc Saturn games.

If possible, could you upload your save file? The reason I used Enemy Zero to test is because the first disc swap happens at the very beginning. I don't have a save far enough in anything else to test.

[bujinkanrn]

Sure thing!  There are 3 different files.  Worth noting is that the game asks if you want to save on Internal Memory or Cartridge Memory.  I used the Cartridge option, which probably affects the save files.  I'll also upload my .m3u file as well.  Hope this helps.

Lunacy.1154aee19ed19c45d11396242320a0b0.bkr

Lunacy.1154aee19ed19c45d11396242320a0b0.smpc

Lunacy.1154aee19ed19c45d11396242320a0b0.bcr

Lunacy.m3u

[bujinkanrn]

Confirmed, Lunacy playable to completion.   I also have been able to successfully use the swap method for Panzer Dragoon Saga; each disc runs at least to the save file screen.  Without a save files I'm not sure how the rest of the content looks.

[airbikecop]

It's very impressive that this was implemented on the first release as most of the time emulators for disc based systems don't support multi-disc on the first release.

I know when I cleaned up my ISO images for Saturn games, this was the first thing I did - made the .m3u files for multi disc games. I haven't actually tried them but thanks for testing!

[Baloo]

EDIT: Nevermind, thank you so much for this guide! I'm playing through Policenauts and got through Disc 1 and ran into this problem. I created a new M3U file with the names, then renamed my save files from the cue I was initially using to the name of the save files for the M3U after it is loaded into Mednafen. I'm using Mednafen Standalone and can confirm that creating an M3U and using F6 and F8 to swap discs works perfectly! Thank you so much again!

Edited March 7, 2017 by Baloo

[Zombeaver]

The .m3u shouldn't have the .bin names unless that's a typo. It should only be the .cues:

Policenauts (Japan) (Disc 1) (English).cue
Policenauts (Japan) (Disc 2) (English).cue
Policenauts (Japan) (Disc 3) (English).cue

I'm not sure how it works with standalone, but with RA Mednafen the saves (or any other related files) simply need to match the file name that you want them to be associated with. So if you start the game with "Policenauts.M3U" you would then have "Policenauts.bcr", "Policenauts.bkr", and "Policenauts.smpc". That would work for RA Mednafen (though I believe it uses different file types), I'm not sure about standalone. Have you tried "Policenauts.147b1db63e40e97cc61028633f482985.bcr" etc.? It looks like it would probably need that based on bujinkanrn's post above.

[bujinkanrn]

Sorry I'm late to the party.  It's been a hot minute since I've tinkered with Mednafen.  IIRC, once the save file(s) match the .m3u file, the F8&F6 trick should work.  I wouldn't swear to it, though, as it's been several months since I've had time to work with emus.

[Drybonz]

Did they add a built-in disc swapping funtion to the saturn core since this thread?  Doesn't the mednafen psx have an auto disc swap?  Has anyone tried Panzer Dragoon Saga disc swapping?

[Zombeaver]

2 hours ago, Drybonz said:

Did they add a built-in disc swapping funtion to the saturn core since this thread?  Doesn't the mednafen psx have an auto disc swap?  Has anyone tried Panzer Dragoon Saga disc swapping?

As far as I know RA Mednafen Saturn has always had the disc swapping function, but it's not "auto". In RA Mednafen PSX it's in Quick Menu -> Disk Management if you want to manually change from one disc to another (and I believe the Saturn core uses the same thing). m3us are faster though because you don't have to go into the menu at all, just use the hotkeys for "open/close tray" -> "next disc" -> "open/close tray".

[LogicalEgo]

1 hour ago, Zombeaver said:

As far as I know RA Mednafen Saturn has always had the disc swapping function, but it's not "auto". In RA Mednafen PSX it's in Quick Menu -> Disk Management if you want to manually change from one disc to another (and I believe the Saturn core uses the same thing). m3us are faster though because you don't have to go into the menu at all, just use the hotkeys for "open/close tray" -> "next disc" -> "open/close tray".

Absolutely this. m3u is the best way to go with disc swapping on the mednafen cores.

[decoyoct]

I've attempted it a couple of months ago with Panzer Dragoon Saga and it didn't work. I previously tried swapping discs using the same method on Mednafen PSX and it worked just fine, so I know I was doing it right. Has anyone here actually succeeded to swap discs using m3u on Mednafen Saturn via Retroarch? I see some success stories on the standalone version, but not on Retroarch.

My error was the same as this dude's: https://forums.libretro.com/t/disk-swapping-issues-saturn-mednafen/6229 (Failed to set disc.)

[Zombeaver]

10 hours ago, decoyoct said:

I've attempted it a couple of months ago with Panzer Dragoon Saga and it didn't work. I previously tried swapping discs using the same method on Mednafen PSX and it worked just fine, so I know I was doing it right. Has anyone here actually succeeded to swap discs using m3u on Mednafen Saturn via Retroarch? I see some success stories on the standalone version, but not on Retroarch.

My error was the same as this dude's: https://forums.libretro.com/t/disk-swapping-issues-saturn-mednafen/6229 (Failed to set disc.)

@bujinkanrn completed Lunacy on standalone Mednafen. He's got the save files attached above - I never did get around to testing them in RA, but you might want to give that a go. I'll try it as well if I get a chance.