A workaround has been found for users unable to get past the difficulty screen added to the English localization of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen.
Patch developer Paul Met released an update over the weekend that allows players to hold the A or B button during the Sega logo screen on startup to get past the screen. You can download the updated patch from Romhacking.net here: http://www.romhacking.net/translations/6514
After the patch was released last week, players using Retro-bit controllers and official 3D analog controllers found that they couldn’t get past a screen that appears before Ogre Battle’s title screen asking them to choose a difficulty — press A to select the original Saturn game’s, or press B to pick the harder PlayStation port’s.
But the screen was programmed to accept controller inputs in a way called “direct mode.” Paul Met hadn’t anticipated Retro-bit’s controllers and the 3D pad sending controller information in a different way that the screen was unable to interpret.
SHIRO!’s own Knight0fDragon attempted to explain the problem on SegaXtreme’s Discord server:
“Well from what I am seeing, Paul is “cheating”. He is in direct mode, and he is just polling for ABC+Start. Not something the homebrews would do. Since that is all he is doing, the 3D pad will fail because it sends a series of bytes that includes non-controller button data, so it doesn’t behave like a standard digital controller in digital mode. Would be weird if the Retro-bits also worked in this way.”
Knight0fDragon
Paul Met explained that he programmed the screen using direct mode because Sega’s documentation on the other controller input method, SMPC mode, is unclear.
“The BIOS monitors button presses until the Sega Saturn logo disappears,” Paul Met said. “So, up to this point, any controller will work. The code of the last pressed button remains in RAM. This is the easiest way to solve the problem with exotic gamepads.”
Check out Shiro’s initial coverage of the Ogre Battle localization patch here: https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2022/04/06/meduza-team-release-ogre-battle-english-translation-patch/
Danthrax is a contributor to the Shiro Media Group, writing stories for the website when Saturn news breaks. While he was a Sega Genesis kid in the ’90s, he didn’t get a Saturn until 2018. It didn’t take him long to fall in love with the console’s library as well as the fan translation and homebrew scene. He contributed heavily to the Bulk Slash and Stellar Assault SS fan localizations, and has helped as an editor on several other Saturn and Dreamcast fan projects such as Cotton 2, Rainbow Cotton and Sakura Wars Columns 2.
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