Translating Saturn Grandia

[zyrobs]

Nice job Trekkies. Also this is really cool too:

https://www.retrorgb.com/grandia-sat...l-box-art.html

The translation isn't even finished but people are already gearing up towards selling repros of it. wow.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The translation isn't even finished but people are already gearing up towards selling repros of it. wow.

The guy who made that particular one asked me first if I was ok with it. He basically just enjoys making things as a sort of "What if Sega actually localized this?" kind of thing. To my knowledge he's just making a Manual, Back Case Insert, a Map, and then blank discs with the art on them for people to burn the patched image to. So that I'm fine with since he asked and the quality of the work itself is quite nice.

That said, there are people who have had pre-orders up for repros since I started the project without really asking anyone if it was ok, or even caring if the patch was done yet. I actually saw one with it up for the original 0.5 release that had game crashing bugs in it. Another had repros of Sakura Wars up within minutes after that patch released. Those are the ones that ticked me off as it's clear they're just trying to make a quick buck.

[Knuckle Duster]

So I've been running 0.8.5 on a white Japanese Saturn. I've been booting the game using Red Pseudo Saturn Kai carts. One cart is older and on PSKai Lite v6.074. CWX PS 0.831 & JHL PS 0.832. Grandia gives me no issues whatsoever.

Another cart I have has the 4MB/1MB/Save switch. PSKai Lite v6.274 was installed. Both Loaders only got me to the main menu, where it freezes and locks up if you choose New game, without being able to ABC+Start reset anymore. If you choose load game, it goes to the black screen and stays there, and you can still ABC+Start reset.

I flashed up to Kai Lite v6.324 and it's still giving the same results.

This could be hardware related to that cart itself, but it works perfectly on all the other games I'm throwing at it and I am wondering whether there was something broken as PS Kai received updates.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Those cheap All-In-One Pseudo Saturn Carts are garbage and are known to cause tons of problems. Don't use them. They're cheap Chinesium and cut a lot of corners. The creators of Pseudo Saturn are not really happy about them. For some reason they tend to keep intercepting data on the bus and mucking with it, which causes problems for games like Grandia that are constantly streaming data. Some people have theorized that it's Electrical Interference causing problems but I'm not sure I buy that considering the bulk of the Saturn motherboard is shielded from the cartridge and the CD Ribbon Cables are pretty far away.

[Knuckle Duster]

Confirmed trash. I downgraded the flash on it to the version that was otherwise working, and the cart still locks up. Now I wonder if it will do the same thing when paired up with a Satiator.

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

Probably not the same problem you are running into but I figured I may as well mention it, I picked up a Backup Unlocker Kai from Retro Gamer and Backups about a week ago, tried it out with my jap saturn and it didn't freeze but I just couldn't get it to go past the main menu for some reason. Tried a few different discs with it and same result. Then I switched it over to my US saturn and it worked like a charm. Maybe it doesn't like certain models of the jap saturn?

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Probably not the same problem you are running into but I figured I may as well mention it, I picked up a Backup Unlocker Kai from Retro Gamer and Backups about a week ago, tried it out with my jap saturn and it didn't freeze but I just couldn't get it to go past the main menu for some reason. Tried a few different discs with it and same result. Then I switched it over to my US saturn and it worked like a charm. Maybe it doesn't like certain models of the jap saturn?

No idea, report it to the people who made it.

[xelement5x]

The guy who made that particular one asked me first if I was ok with it. He basically just enjoys making things as a sort of "What if Sega actually localized this?" kind of thing. To my knowledge he's just making a Manual, Back Case Insert, a Map, and then blank discs with the art on them for people to burn the patched image to. So that I'm fine with since he asked and the quality of the work itself is quite nice.

That said, there are people who have had pre-orders up for repros since I started the project without really asking anyone if it was ok, or even caring if the patch was done yet. I actually saw one with it up for the original 0.5 release that had game crashing bugs in it. Another had repros of Sakura Wars up within minutes after that patch released. Those are the ones that ticked me off as it's clear they're just trying to make a quick buck.

Yeah, the people on etsy who are just waiting for blood in the water of new translations frustrate me a lot too.

People complain all the time about why don't we get more translations blah blah, and I'm like it's pretty straightforward. If you'd donate to the people doing the actual work instead of the people who spend a couple hours in photoshop mocking up a disc and case and sell it at an outrageous price then maybe there would be more traction on projects. I know you guys do it as a labor of love but seeing someone monetize it is just super frustrating, and I'm only a bystander!

[Knuckle Duster]

Those cheap All-In-One Pseudo Saturn Carts are garbage and are known to cause tons of problems. Don't use them. They're cheap Chinesium and cut a lot of corners. The creators of Pseudo Saturn are not really happy about them. For some reason they tend to keep intercepting data on the bus and mucking with it, which causes problems for games like Grandia that are constantly streaming data. Some people have theorized that it's Electrical Interference causing problems but I'm not sure I buy that considering the bulk of the Saturn motherboard is shielded from the cartridge and the CD Ribbon Cables are pretty far away.

Probably not the same problem you are running into but I figured I may as well mention it, I picked up a Backup Unlocker Kai from Retro Gamer and Backups about a week ago, tried it out with my jap saturn and it didn't freeze but I just couldn't get it to go past the main menu for some reason. Tried a few different discs with it and same result. Then I switched it over to my US saturn and it worked like a charm. Maybe it doesn't like certain models of the jap saturn?

Interference it was.

I just put foil tape down on the inside of the front and back cart shell. Now Grandia is booting, with full access to the save cart.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Version 0.9.0 is out which adds FMV Subtitles and a few other bug fixes:

https://segaxtreme.net/resources/gra...lish-patch.67/