This guide was created with the thought in mind that you know virtually nothing of computers and emulation, so hopefully anyone could boot up a game with these instructions. Enjoy!
This guide provides instructions on
- Getting the emulator
- Getting the game
- Converting the MP3 files
- Creating a playable image file
- Configuring the emulator
Getting the emulator
The first thing you will probably need, is a decent emulator. Get
Cassini (which is essentially a patched-up version of GiriGiri), as it has pretty good compatibility and help files, that should explain some things. Don't expect miracles, as the emu works with some games, but the speed is often quite crappy. You also need to get a BIOS file, and place it in the same directory as the installed emulator. The file should be renamed
BIOS.BIN for GiriGiri, and
EURO.BIN for Cassini.
Getting the game
Then, download the game you want. There are some on the EP tracker, and another few on the main page too. If you don't know how to open Bittorrent files, read
this. I recommend using Panzer Dragoon for test purposes, it works nicely, and is a rad game to boot! So, you've got yourself an archived file, probably. If you don't already have it, download and install
WinRAR, it handles most file formats. If it has the .7z extension, you need
7-zip. So you've got the tools, now extract the files in some directory, which you'll be deleting shortly, anyhow. If the archive contained a CUE and a BIN file, you're almost set, skip to the last part. If it has an ISO file and some MP3s, you've got to convert them, first.
Converting the MP3 files
You need the MP3 files to be in uncompressed WAV format. The Cassini emu has a tool packed with it, called Saturn MP3-WAV converter. It's easy to use, just select the MP3 files you want converted (In the case of Panzer Dragoon, something like PD01.MP3, PD02.MP3... ) click the
Add to job list button on the right, then
MP3 -> WAV. Soon, you'll have the .WAV files. For some weird reason, this did not work for me, though.
So, an alternative method to convert the MP3s to WAV is using a free converter, like
dBpowerAMP. Install this little prog, and after that you can either start it up and then select the files that need to be converted, or open the folder where the files are, and select them. Right click, and there should be a new option,
Convert to... Anyhow, now you need to set the output format. Select WAVE, 16 bit, 44100Hz, 2 channels, these are the defaults for CD quality. Click
Convert>> to start converting.
Creating a playable image file
Now you have the audio tracks in WAV format, the rest of the data in an ISO. If you already have a proper CUE file, skip this part. You can use a proggy called
Sega Cue Maker to create a CUE file. Just put it in the folder with the ISO and WAV files, launch it, then input the name of the CUE file to be created (for example, Panzer_Dragoon).
Mount the CUE file with a virtual CD drive, like
Daemon Tools. Installing this will create a small lightning shaped icon in the tray in the lower left of your screen. Left click on it, then select
Device 0. Select the CUE file, and now it should be mounted. You should have a virtual CD drive, with the contents of the game. So that you can play it easily later, I recommend creating a proper CUE/BIN image. Get
Alcohol 120%, it's a pretty decent disc copying program. Start it up, select
Image Making Wizard, then select the virtual drive you've mounted the game to. Choose
CDRWIN Image file as the image format. Once it finishes, you have a normal image file. You can either play this on an emulator, or burn it to a disc with the
Image Burning Wizard function of Alcohol 120%.
Configuring the emulator
Now, start up Cassini! On the
Config page you can set the controls for the players. On the
General set the resolution and the CD drive, if you are running the game from disc. I prefer using the image itself. Now, select
Run CUE/BIN, and locate the image file you made. Now, it should launch. If it goes to the BIOS, giving you an error message, you need to alter the region of the game. First, set the language to English, so that you know what you're doing. Choose the middle button in the top row, then the second option. Select English, obviously. After that is done, exit the emu. The next time you start Cassini, have Force Region enabled, and the region selection should be something that's most likely compatible with the game. Or you can use the
Country Code Changer program to much the same effect, it displays other useful information, too. Another program that does almost the same is the Saturn
Region Patcher, but it can add multiple area codes.
A
very important note: You can't have the image file of the game in the same folder as the emulator, or it will show a "Disc not suitable for this system" error. Just create a subfolder and put the game in there. This made me waste quite some time.
Another thing that I learned the hard way: Don't use long filenames with spaces in them. Open the CUE file with notepad and edit it accordingly, if you have to rename the BIN image.
And that's it, you're set! If you used my example, now you should be playing Panzer Dragoon!
Leave me some rep if you find this guide useful. Suggestions/corrections are always welcome.