kahel
Armored Scrum Object
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2014
- Posts
- 251
I had a chance to get a Rhea from the first production run and i just wanted to share how awesome it is and how happy i am with it.
For those who don't know , Rhea is the latest project from the creator of the GDEMU. It is a small pcb that replaces your Saturn (20 pin models for now) CD-ROM and lets you load the disk image directly from a SD card to your saturn. The installation is a little more complicated then the GDEMU , you will need to find a 5V line , a ground and solder a wire to both of them to power the Rhea.
Like the GDEMU , the selection of Image is done via a button on the PCB but is accessible when you open you saturn lid. There is no on screen menu so you need to keep a list of the images you have on your SD card. It the thing that most people complain about but for me it not a big issue compared to being able to play disc image and not having to worry about my Saturn CD drive breaking .
Rhea also has a automatic region patch that let you play japanese games on your US saturn without modding or a Action Replay. You can also do the reverse like play US games on a Japanese Saturn.
The read speed is not faster nor slower then the standard Saturn CD drive. The read speed is limited to 2X by the bus speed itself compared to the DC who read games faster with the GDEMU compared to the GD-ROM drive. So it totally transparent that you are playing game from a SD card instead of the drive except that you don't have a CD drive making sound like it going to roll over and die .
This is a great alternative to installing a mod chip in your saturn. I have been able to play games that i would have only dream of seeing because of the prices. You can take most image available on the Net and convert them to the CDI format. I keep a library of Saturn Games on my PC Hard drive ready for Rhea and copy those that i play the most on my Rhea.
I played many US and Japanese games and have not encountered any issues or problem so far.
So far only the earlier 20 pin models are supported but he is working on a version that would work on a 21 pin saturn.
It one of my best purchase so far beside my JNX supergun of course.
Here a link to his site: https://gdemu.wordpress.com/
For those who don't know , Rhea is the latest project from the creator of the GDEMU. It is a small pcb that replaces your Saturn (20 pin models for now) CD-ROM and lets you load the disk image directly from a SD card to your saturn. The installation is a little more complicated then the GDEMU , you will need to find a 5V line , a ground and solder a wire to both of them to power the Rhea.
Like the GDEMU , the selection of Image is done via a button on the PCB but is accessible when you open you saturn lid. There is no on screen menu so you need to keep a list of the images you have on your SD card. It the thing that most people complain about but for me it not a big issue compared to being able to play disc image and not having to worry about my Saturn CD drive breaking .
Rhea also has a automatic region patch that let you play japanese games on your US saturn without modding or a Action Replay. You can also do the reverse like play US games on a Japanese Saturn.
The read speed is not faster nor slower then the standard Saturn CD drive. The read speed is limited to 2X by the bus speed itself compared to the DC who read games faster with the GDEMU compared to the GD-ROM drive. So it totally transparent that you are playing game from a SD card instead of the drive except that you don't have a CD drive making sound like it going to roll over and die .
This is a great alternative to installing a mod chip in your saturn. I have been able to play games that i would have only dream of seeing because of the prices. You can take most image available on the Net and convert them to the CDI format. I keep a library of Saturn Games on my PC Hard drive ready for Rhea and copy those that i play the most on my Rhea.
I played many US and Japanese games and have not encountered any issues or problem so far.
So far only the earlier 20 pin models are supported but he is working on a version that would work on a 21 pin saturn.
It one of my best purchase so far beside my JNX supergun of course.
Here a link to his site: https://gdemu.wordpress.com/
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