Sega Saturn directly on VGA

[youplaboum]

Hi

I'm willing to make an adaptator to connect my saturn to a vga screen, as this engine supposedly handles this kind of display (see a discussion in french about it here), and i found your website. In fact I'm relatively newbie in electronic but certainly motivated

I bought an S-video cable (I usually use a scart cable) and tried to mentally connect this s-video output to a 15-pin vga using your (and some others) diagrams. Well, I tried and I failed . Do you think I can link directly this s-video plug to a 15-pin plug? Or do I need  to carve on the saturn side?

I fact i wish i could make an adaptator without carving any cable

[dj898]

my uneducated guess is you will need some kind of converters to make S-video into RGBVH... maybe if you tap inisde Saturn...

never occured to me to hook up Saturn via VGA though...  :blink:
RGB is good enough for me - well on YUV connection using the transcoder that is...

[NFG]

While the Saturn chip was capable of VGA this mode is software controlled and there are no games that enable it.  Yes you can easily create a cable to connect a Saturn to a VGA monitor, but you won't be able to do anything with it since the software will ignore it.

[youplaboum]

yes, and apparently the vga mode can be activated with a boot cd. A user in another forum has bought a dev console that comes with a vga cable (and this boot cd), and uses it, so I guessed if i can make this cable and rip a boot cd, i can play saturn on a vga screen

[dj898]

are you going to devleop a game in VGA then    

[benzaldehyde]

It would be cool, but the Saturn was a worse uglygon machine than the Playstation, and any sprites it could (masterfully) produce would block out at VGA resolutions.

The question is, do we really want Saturn VGA? < _< >_>

[youplaboum]

The question is, do we really want Saturn VGA? < _< >_>

the question is: who cares?

I posted here to have help to make a vga cable for a saturn, to exploit a saturn feat. This is not a question of "this is useless 'cause psone is best" or "i personnally will never use such a cable, so no one will"

I want saturn VGA, and I don't matter if you want it or not. I hoped to have answers here, if you don't have some, there is no need for you to post.

[atom]

The real problem is, that you already have all the information of connecting a saturn to a vga monitor, you are just unable to use it. You need to teach yourself more about electricity and signals before you dive into this project. You are likely to never find that boot cd.

Your best bet is to use an SCART to VGA converter (not adapter), people on these forums reccomend the XRGB line of converters.

[Endymion]

What he said. We know you want Saturn in VGA, but there are no games that can enable this mode. Boot disc? Keep dreaming. You aren't programming your own games. The goal is noble, the motivation is flawed.

Get an XRGB2+.

[benzaldehyde]

The question is, do we really want Saturn VGA? < _< >_>

the question is: who cares?

I posted here to have help to make a vga cable for a saturn, to exploit a saturn feat. This is not a question of "this is useless 'cause psone is best" or "i personnally will never use such a cable, so no one will"

I want saturn VGA, and I don't matter if you want it or not. I hoped to have answers here, if you don't have some, there is no need for you to post.

Whoa, man. Calm down. I like to joke like that.

I didn't say anything like you accuse. If you'll reread my comment, it was a veiled allusion to the fact the Saturn is pretty damn good on a 15kHz monitor. VGA sometimes has the double-edged effect of aggravating issues with graphics (any Capcom 2D fighter on the Dreamcast, for example). Good luck to you, but as it really isn't possible, just be happy with the Saturn as it is.

Oh yeah. And the "Sony is better" comment? Meet me outside.

*Gets his shotgun.*

[Lagi]

Whoa... 2 years after... I didn't know my messages on the forum of Gamekult had come until here...

Youplaoup, have you succeded in finding this VGA cord ? I just registered today to see any information how to hook up a Saturn to a Vga monitor. Interesting actually that we can't because the software doesn't allow to do this. Then, how does Nick Rivers from the link in the first message was able to say "Yes Radiant Silvergun in progressive was beautiful because there is no more the flickerings due to Standard definition (15 Khz) and he has tried RGB before of course, he's from Switzerland.

I already knew the solution of the XRGB 2+. I know what i have to do now. Nevertheless, are there japanese wired scarts or european wired scarts on Micomsoft products. Thank you.  

[GZeus]

The software alone does any switching from 15/30 to 31/60.
If radiant silvergun enables this, somehow, it would need to be in a menu of some kind, because it also works in standard mode.

Perhaps they were speaking of RGB and thinking it's prograssive or they think upscans do soemthing other than...upscan.

[timofonic]

Any news about this? What about that Sega saturn boot disc?

[GZeus]

Any news about this? What about that Sega saturn boot disc?

I don't think it would work. The way the individual framebuffers work, it's not going to be easy at the very least.

I'd guess it was a rumour caused by a theory that no one executed.

[Endymion]

I'm happy to put it in the "myth" pile, personally. This is the one and only point of information that I have ever heard whisper of a tell about it, and nobody has it, so . . .

[kendrick]

I can only add this tidbit of information... From what I'm told by a couple of the Canadian software houses, the only function of that Saturn boot disk is to establish serial connection to the development kit PC. It's not like the Dreamcast boot disk, allowing unsigned or unencrypted code to run off of any disk in any output format. Whether or not any of that is true, it doesn't change the fact that the video mode is a persistent function of the software and can't be overridden or intercepted.

-KKC, looking for 8.5 inch-tall DVD cases to hold Saturn games and manuals.