New patches for SteamGear Mash not only translate the isometric Saturn-exclusive shooter into English but also add support for the 3D controller.
Suinevere Pendragon uploaded the patches Monday to SegaXtreme where you can download them. Just as with Suinevere’s English activation patch for Miracle of Waialae two weeks ago, the ZIP file includes three methods to patch the game:
Method 1: Sega Saturn Patcher (SSP)
- Open Sega Saturn Patcher.
- Select the image.
- Click “+ Game Patch (SSP)”.
- Select “steamgear-english-3dpad.ssp”.
- Click “Patch Image”.
Method 2: XDelta
- Use xdeltaUI or Delta Patcher.
- Select the source image.
- Select “steamgear-english.xdelta” or “steamgear-3dpad.xdelta”.
- Apply patch.
Method 3: IPS
- Use Lunar IPS or MultiPatch.
- Select “Apply IPS Patch” and choose “steamgear-english.ips” or “steamgear-3dpad.ips”.
- Select the image.
The readme file says the SSP includes both the English translation and the 3D controller support. There are two versions each of the XDelta and IPS patches, though: one of each of them translates the game, while the other adds 3D controller support. If you want both, apply both patches separately — they touch different sectors of the game, so they won’t overlap each other, and the order you do them in doesn’t matter. Be sure to only pick one method, though, i.e., use both XDelta patches or both IPS patches, don’t mix and match them.
SteamGear Mash is a Saturn-exclusive isometric shooting and platforming game released September 1995 in Japan — it never came West, although a European version supposedly was planned to be published by Ocean Software. It was developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara, the company behind Battle Arena Toshinden, D-Xhird, Choro Q Park and several other games that made their way to the Saturn. It only supports a standard control pad, since it released nine months before the launch of the 3D controller.
The patches’ creation
On the SegaXtreme Resources page, Suinevere thanked Joe, aka SegaRPGFan, for the inspiration to add 3D controller support after Joe did the same for High Velocity: Mountain Racing Challenge, aka Touge King the Spirits.
“For the best experience in 3D analog mode, I recommend using Control Type 1 in the options menu,” they said.
Similarly to Joe, who used ChatGPT for his 3D pad patches, Suinevere useds Claude/Opus 4.8 artificial intelligence to investigate SteamGear Mash and create these new patches.
“The script was only 12+ sentences and I did use Claude to help out,” Suinevere told SHIRO! on the SHIRO! Discord server. “You can’t make everyone happy, but I hope more people just get to play this weird ass game.”
In their SegaXtreme thread for the patches, Suinevere gave some details on the translation’s technicalities:
Most of the menu text was stored as plain ASCII, which made overwriting the Japanese kanji straightforward. I ran into some obvious space limitations with the kanji-to-English conversion, but I’ve been able to work around them by creating a custom tile font to fit more characters into the native 16×16 and 8×8 slots.
— Suinevere Pendragon
Suinevere is new to the Saturn hacking scene, with both of their projects releasing just this month, so they said they targeted SteamGear Mash because it was “low-hanging fruit.”
“The 3D pad was just something that I felt was ‘missing’ from control type 1,” Suinevere said. “The game is quite a bit easier with the patch FYI.”
Anyone playing the game with an optical drive emulator like Fenrir or Satiator may encounter an issue with the intro screen crashing and there being no sound. That happens with or without these patches, though — it’s apparently an ODE problem in general with SteamGear Mash. Resetting the console or mashing buttons to get through the intro are workarounds.
Using Satiator Menu Kai on the Satiator also fixes the issue.
“I tested on MODE, SAROO and Fenrir, and yeah the reset or mashing buttons trick usually gets Fenrir to skip the initial FMV,” Suinevere said.
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