SSF
From Sega Retro
- This article is about the emulator. For the audio format, see Saturn Sound Format.
SSF is a Windows-based emulator of the Sega Saturn and Sega Titan Video (ST-V, an arcade board very similar to the Saturn). Despite the historical difficulty of emulating the Saturn's rather idiosyncratic and complex architecture, and the fact that SSF is developed by a sole developer (Shima), it has overtaken other Saturn emulators to the point of being able to run the majority of games with few to no issues. It is designed to run game CDs directly, so images must be mounted with a virtual drive program (e.g. Daemon Tools) in order to be played.
Contents
Features
- BIOS file not required, but may improve compatibility in certain cases
- All regions (PAL & NTSC) emulated
- Backup memory emulated
- Savestates supported
- Joystick support
- Can dump screenshots in BMP format, and audio in WAV format
- Unoptimized PAL games can be made run at the speed of their NTSC counterpart by setting the "Emulation Speed" lever to 1.20, often without unwanted acceleration of music and sound playback.
Compatibility
SSF currently has a very high level of compatibility, running more than 80% of known Sega Saturn games. A frequently updated compatibility list is available at segasaturn.org, and the SSF Tribute sites (see below) also offer lists.
| Component | % |
|---|---|
| SH2 emulator | 100% |
| 68000 emulator | 100% |
| VDP1 block | 95% |
| VDP2 block | 95% |
| SCU block | 100% |
| SMPC block | 100% |
| SCSP block | 95% |
| CD block | 85% |
Minimum system requirements
| Operating system | Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP 64-bit Edition |
| CPU | Any CPU supporting: FPU, MMX, SSE, SSE2, TSC (P4-class or higher) |
| RAM | 256 MB or more |
| Graphics card | DirectX 9.0c capable, graphics card supporting Vertex Shader 3.0 and Pixel Shader 3.0 |
| Sound | DirectX 9.0c compatible, able to play 44100 Hz stereo PCM |
| CD drive | Drive supporting MMC3 read command |
Download
|
Download SSF
File: SSF_012_beta_R4.zip ("SSF_012_beta_R4.zip" does not exist) (info)
Current version: 0.12 alpha, revision 4'' |
Prior versions
The most recent version is usually the best to use, though a few games may work better with previous ones (see compatibility lists). A repository of previous versions (starting from version 0.06 alpha 4) is maintained on the official site. For convenience, those available at the time of writing have been bundled below.
- SSF versions 0.07 beta R1 to 0.12 beta R3 (info) ("SSF versions 006-011.7z" does not exist) (6.02 MB)
- 0.06 alpha 4 is missing due to a virus alert.
Known issues
The emulator has a certain amount of input lag, which can't be reduced to the levels of e.g. Yabause. This can be problematic for games that require fast reaction, such as shooting games. The author acknowledges these input lag issues but and gave reasons for these on the project homepage. He also offers some suggestions to reduce the problem, e.g. use a high spec PC, disable V-sync (emulator settings, causes tearing) and enable "VDP2 RAM write timing".
External links
- SSF official homepage (Japanese)
- SSF compatibility list at segasaturn.org (updated frequently)
- SSF Tribute Neo including help, compatibility list and screenshot sections
- SSF Tribute including help, compatibility list and BIOS downloads