Mednafen Saturn Disc Swapping

[bujinkanrn]

Yep, I got the standalone Mednafen to work with multiple discs.  Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've played around with emus, and I found the retroarch core to be more glitched than the standalone.  But, that was a year ago.  The RA core has probably improved substantially in as much time.

[damageinc86]

I wish they could finally figure out how to auto-detect when the disc needed to be swapped and just swap it on it's own.  I saw one emulator that did that, just came out recently but I forget the name or what it emulated .  

[decoyoct]

On 8/17/2017 at 1:43 PM, bujinkanrn said:

Yep, I got the standalone Mednafen to work with multiple discs.  Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've played around with emus, and I found the retroarch core to be more glitched than the standalone.  But, that was a year ago.  The RA core has probably improved substantially in as much time.

Just had some free time to test it out and your method does indeed work perfectly on standalone Mednafen (tested both Panzer Dragoon Saga and also your Lunacy files). Retroarch remains unable to swap disks specifically on Saturn's Mednafen core, no matter what I try. Thanks for the replies!

[airbikecop]

I think the RA core is still a bit behind on a bunch of things but the standalone is still a lot better.

[Zombeaver]

19 hours ago, decoyoct said:

Just had some free time to test it out and your method does indeed work perfectly on standalone Mednafen (tested both Panzer Dragoon Saga and also your Lunacy files). Retroarch remains unable to swap disks specifically on Saturn's Mednafen core, no matter what I try. Thanks for the replies!

Yes, that's correct. Currently, Mednafen Saturn in RA does not do disc swapping. .m3us work in standalone. Disc swapping is broken in Enemy Zero, specifically, even in standalone.

[InfinityFox]

On 8/17/2016 at 4:21 PM, Zombeaver said:

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.

Hi Zombeaver...  I’m just adding the Sega Saturn Platform and had some questions on the m3u file you mention above. I have 15 games, 5 of which are multi disk games. All are in bin/cue format and each in separate folders. 

‘I gather from the discussion in this thread that for multi disk games I import the m3u file as my rom. I was wondering what folder structure I need to have for my multi disk games? Using Enemy Zero as an example, would I create on folder named Enemy Zero and place all the bin/cue files in it along with the “Enemy Zero.m3u” file? Then import the m3u file?

with the single disk games I’m importing the cue files I assume?

 

thanks ?

[Zombeaver]

1 hour ago, InfinityFox said:

‘I gather from the discussion in this thread that for multi disk games I import the m3u file as my rom. I was wondering what folder structure I need to have for my multi disk games? Using Enemy Zero as an example, would I create on folder named Enemy Zero and place all the bin/cue files in it along with the “Enemy Zero.m3u” file? Then import the m3u file?

with the single disk games I’m importing the cue files I assume?

Yep, that's all correct.

Just FYI though, unless they've fixed it, Enemy Zero specifically doesn't swap discs correctly via .m3u. That specific game has had that issue since Saturn support was added to Mednafen (again, unless it's been patched semi-recently).

And then the .m3u is set as the rom in LB.

With single-disc games, you're using the .cue.

[InfinityFox]

Thank you for the screen shots! very helpful

I had one last question... I've gone on the Mednafen website and I can't seem to find the keys the are used during the disk swapping process. could you list them for me if possible

Edited September 28, 2018 by InfinityFox

[Zombeaver]

On 9/27/2018 at 7:23 PM, InfinityFox said:

I had one last question... I've gone on the Mednafen website and I can't seem to find the keys the are used during the disk swapping process. could you list them for me if possible

F8 opens the "tray" and then F6 inserts the next disc. Then press F8 again to close the tray.

I use the RA core though, personally, not standalone. The keys can be assigned to whatever you want in it. I use numpad 0 for open/close tray, numpad + for next disc and numpad - for previous disc.

[InfinityFox]

Great thanks!