Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

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Kurasiu
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Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#1 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:20 pm

Did anybody of the fellow forum members played the very first Grandia on Sega Saturn? Because I'm having a weird freeze, that doesn't let me progress through the game.

I was using a burned copy on my modded Model 2 PAL Saturn and everything was cool and good, 4:30 hours into the game, until I got to the New Parm in the New World. When I leave the city in order to get to the Feena's house, the game simply freezes on a black screen (normally it should display the world map with all of the location choices).

Now what's the weird part here? I tried using three different ISO images, two different burning programs, two different Sega Region Patcher versions and NOTHING! No matter what I do, it still freezes on that map screen! Is this some kind of a bizzare copy protection? Or is Grandia simply refusing to work on my PAL machine?

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Xiden
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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#2 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:13 pm

Kurasiu wrote:Did anybody of the fellow forum members played the very first Grandia on Sega Saturn? Because I'm having a weird freeze, that doesn't let me progress through the game.

I was using a burned copy on my modded Model 2 PAL Saturn and everything was cool and good, 4:30 hours into the game, until I got to the New Parm in the New World. When I leave the city in order to get to the Feena's house, the game simply freezes on a black screen (normally it should display the world map with all of the location choices).

Now what's the weird part here? I tried using three different ISO images, two different burning programs, two different Sega Region Patcher versions and NOTHING! No matter what I do, it still freezes on that map screen! Is this some kind of a bizzare copy protection? Or is Grandia simply refusing to work on my PAL machine?


What method are you using to boot the disc? Also where did u get the iso?

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Kurasiu
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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#3 » Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:49 am

Since I have a modchipped console, I just put the disc in and that's it. ;) The game boots and loads fine, but always freezes on that one specific map screen (before I unlocked the road to Feena's house, that screen loaded just fine...)

Tried using ISOs from Emuparadise, The Iso Zone and Love Roms, plus Sega Region Patcher 3.0 and 2.1a. According to SRP info, all three images were valid dumps of Grandia 1. Also tried using more expensive media (Verbatim CD-R), but the problem persists.

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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#4 » Wed May 17, 2017 1:46 am

Haha, oh man, what was that... :D I actually went as far, as getting the original release of Grandia (it was quite cheap anyway, and I really dig those Japanese releases of SS games), and guess what? The SAME THING happens! Even with the original game, it freezes when I leave New Parm Town.

I tried every Saturn trick there is (cleaning the lens [although every other game works just fine], changing the date, setting the language to Japanese, copying the save from the cartridge to internal memory), and nothing worked. So either Grandia doesn't like modchipped consoles, or I have stumbled upon an extremely obscure glitch that apparently nobody ever experienced (judging from my amount of Google queries).

I might try running it on my old, unmodded and untouched Saturn (although the laser is kinda weak in that one), because I have no other idea what might be happening. If any of you would stumble upon some hint, do give me a shout!

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Aleron Ives
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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#5 » Wed May 17, 2017 4:13 am

I would guess that whatever the modchip is doing is crashing the game, since the retail copy doesn't work. Modchips aren't always able to operate seamlessly and sometimes don't play nicely with sensitive software. That's one reason softmods are generally preferable.
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Xiden
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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#6 » Wed May 17, 2017 9:29 am

If you have the PC power, you might also try the Yabause Sega Saturn Emulator on PC and see if it happens there. If you have a netlink adapter for saturn you could email me your save file and I could see if the problem persists lol.

There may exists some weird game shark/action replay code that could help bypass that issue but no idea. Who's modchip are you using? I know there's two universal types and then there's one that's more or less designed specifically for model 1 saturns.

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Aleron Ives
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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#7 » Wed May 17, 2017 7:46 pm

I certainly wouldn't make any assumptions based on results in an emulator, as Saturn emulation options are pretty bad compared to most systems from that time period.
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Xiden
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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#8 » Wed May 17, 2017 9:04 pm

I agree. I only suggested an emulator because you could trade out the bios. It would be interesting to know if this issue is possibly limited to PAL Saturn Bios.

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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#9 » Thu May 18, 2017 3:08 am

Xiden wrote:It would be interesting to know if this issue is possibly limited to PAL Saturn Bios.


It actually could be, as yesterday I dug up my old, unmodded PAL Saturn, and after an ungodly amount of laser calibration and tinkering I managed to fire it up and run Grandia. And sadly, the same thing occurs... so it's not the modchip's fault. Either a PAL console exclusive bug (one commenter said he finished Grandia on an NTSC console some time ago and never encountered such crashes), or some weird glitch I somehow managed to trigger.

And sadly I don't have an Action Replay, or a NetLink cartridge. :(

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Re: Weird Grandia issue (Saturn)

Post#10 » Thu May 25, 2017 3:22 am

Oh my God.
So, yesterday the Japanese Sega Saturn I ordered (wanted to get one for a long time) arrived, so naturally the first thing I wanted to check was that dreaded Grandia save.

IT WORKS
I didn't do anything to the console/save/game, it's the same save that crashed both of my PAL consoles. Tried exiting and re-entering the dungeon/town several times, each time the map screen loaded normally.

So yeah, Grandia does have a thing with PAL consoles and refuses to work, even with the retail copy. Don't play this game, unless you have an NTSC console, kids!

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