Here are a few stories of interest to the Saturn community from the past week.
Nights LEGO set hits 1,000 supporters
A Nights into Dreams playset that was submitted as a LEGO Idea last year hit 1,000 supporters last week.
Its creator, Takuro, submitted the design on Sept. 2 last year and had until this November to get 1,000 supporters and stay an active project.
It now has until May 1 next year — 256 days away — to reach 5,000 supporters, with the ultimate goal of reaching 10,000 supporters to be considered by LEGO for full production. If it reaches 5,000 supporters, it’ll get an extra six months to attain the final goal.
If you want to help get the Nights playset across the finish line, you can do so here after signing up for a free LEGO account.
SAROO cartridge knockoffs hit AliExpress
The SAROO flash cartridge project that emerged earlier this year from a long dormancy can be bought now online — but there’s a catch.
The SAROO that went up on retailer AliExpress earlier this week is not being sold by the SAROO’s original developer, TPUnix. That isn’t a problem inherently, but it may be a problem regarding support going forward.
In SHIRO’s Discord server, Derek Pascarella said that he’s been told that TPUnix plans on redesigning the SAROO to use a different, more affordable FPGA, which is what he plans to sell eventually. The SAROO on AliExpress is being sold for nearly US$200 and is just a bare PCB without a shell, so a cheaper, more polished solution would be welcome.
And with a completely different FPGA, any firmware updates created for TPUnix’s redesign won’t be compatible with the units being sold on AliExpress.
For what it’s worth, the AliExpress listing does feature a video showing that its SAROO works, and there may be developers working independently on firmware for that version of the hardware. It appears to be based on the designs that are publicly available on TPUnix’s Github.
But it’s a gamble to buy one now when there may be a cheaper version that works better — and has a cartridge shell — in the near future.
Modder inserts Daytona tracks into Mario Kart Double Dash
The skies of Mario Kart Double Dash are a little more blue now that a modder has finished making four Daytona tracks playable in the GameCube kart racer.
DebugYoshi began converting tracks that appear to be from Daytona USA 2001 for the Dreamcast about eight months ago, starting with Three Seven Speedway. They followed it up with Circuit Pixie and Mermaid Lake four and three months ago, respectively. And just on Monday, they completed a full four-track Mario Kart cup by inserting Daytona USA’s Dinosaur Canyon.
Each track plays its original Daytona music, but otherwise, Mario Kart Double Dash’s gameplay, complete with a manic arsenal of weapons and an eclectic collection of characters, remains intact.
Each track mod can be downloaded from the Mario Kart Double Dash Wiki. There’s also a guide on how to install and play the mods.
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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