Dezaemon 2 Save Game Manager Released!

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It's Christmas time! So it's time to give you a present, or 2: one new database and one new program to test on your Sega Saturn.
This project took me about 5 months (I just finished it some hours ago), with the help of some great people around the world. So, here is:
- The Dezaemon 2 Games database
- The Dezaemon 2 Save Game Manager

Dezaemon 2 is a game developped by Athena and released in 1997, that let you create your own shoot-em-up. This game requires a backup to save your creation. But as the save game files are really huge, you need a Backup Cartridge or a Floppy Disc to save them. In Japan, a great community of users exists and they made some really wonderful games. Their works are stored on Floppy Disc but unfortunately the Sega Saturn FDs can't be read on PC, so it's not possible to share the save games. This is where our Dezaemon 2 Save Game Managesr (D2SGM) is useful.
The D2SGM lets you copy Dezaemon 2 save games from CD/Backup Cartridge/FDD to your own Backup Cartridge/FDD. Yeah, that's great, but if you don't have access to some Dezaemon 2 save games, this program is not very useful, right ? So we need to find a way to get some save games. This is exactly what I did. I found a way to dump the Dezaemon 2 save games, and this is where the story begins.

The D2SGM is a homebrew tool (so you need a mod chipped saturn or need to perform the swaptrick, it also works on emulator like SSF), developped by me (it is my first Sega Saturn program, and I needed to learn C language and Sega Saturn programming) and based on the sourcecode of the Rockin'B's Save Game Manager (http://www.rockin-b.de).

This program contains 118 games. For each game, you can listen to one music sample and watch some screenshots. The D2SGM contains a total of 3032 screenshots/pictures and 178 music samples (about 1 hour and 54 minutes of music!).
Each game has 5 save game slots (named DEZA2___._01 to DEZA2___._05), all of them are the same. Just choose the one you want to copy. They are all recognized by Dezaemon 2 game (DEZA2___._01 = slot 1, and so on).

The D2SGM works on 352x240 resolution, so you need a RGB compatible TV to see all the lines on screen (info taken from the Sega Saturn programming doc). Else, you can try using the highres mode implemented (704x480 resolution) but I don't know if it resolves the problem.
The D2SGM must work on all Sega Saturn. I only tested it on EUR and JPN saturn with RGB cable on RGB compatible TVs, and all works well.

I also made a video to let you see how it works, so don't forget to watch it ;)


This tool has been made with the help of:
- Rockin'B: thanks for your Save Game Manager and your advices
- vbt: thanks for your help on Sega Saturn coding and your advices
- darius: thanks for the AR and PC COMMS Card
- IGK: really thanks for your help, your confidence and the beta tests you made
- all the members of The Dezaemoners community for their superb works

The Games and Musics that can be found on the D2SGM are copyright by Athena, Dezaemoners, Gudakuma, HERO ZAKO, HITOSHI, IGK, Inoue Delta, ITON, Kasahara Shinya, KONNICHIHA, leimonZ, MA Project, Mac=Goe, mk2, mo4444, Moku-Mokugyo / GGE, NENG, Raynex, Sak, Shigatake, Soft Bank, Timo.
I really want to thanks once again all the members of the Dezaemon 2 community for their wonderful works and for sharing them with us, and IGK for the work he did on this project. Without them, all of this will not be possible.


Don't forget to visit the japanese Dezaemon Community websites:
- The Dezaemoners
- The dezaemon@wiki



About the Dezaemon 2 database, it covers most of the games that have been made. 99 % of the videos you will find there have been made by IGK who did a great work again! Thanks guy!!


Now, I will let you browse the database and test our D2SGM. You will probably have hundreds of hours of play.

Merry Christmas 2007!!

Source : http://www.satakore.com/