Android Version of Yaba Sanshiro Adds RetroAchievements

The Android version of Saturn emulator Yaba Sanshiro now supports RetroAchievements, the service’s community manager announced Saturday.

“We have an exciting new partnership to announce to you!” said the community manager, Nepiki. “From today onwards, you can play your favourite Sega Saturn games on Yaba Sanshiro, a standalone emulator for Android!”

RetroAchievements provides users the ability to earn achievements in retro games by comparing a game’s RAM to achievement code written by one of the project’s developer. Achievements are linked to a user’s RetroAchievements account. The project was created by Scott Breen in 2012 when he hacked some open source emulators to add RetroAchievements features to them.

Up to this point, Saturn games had RetroAchievements only through the Mednafen cores in RetroArch and Bizhawk .

SHIRO! reported a couple weeks ago that Yaba Sanshiro’s developer, Shinya “DevMiyax” Miyamoto, had posted on social media about testing the achievements in his emulator. He also made a couple videos showing off RetroAchievements working in Sega Ages After Burner II.

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Nepiki said Yaba Sanshiro supports RetroAchievements’ Hardcore Mode, “meaning that you can either decide to play in Hardcore with restricted features to keep the competition fair, or play in Softcore and use all the features you are familiar with!”

Hardcore Mode restricts the player from using an emulator’s built-in functions to load save states, enable cheats and use speed-altering features like rewinding, slow-motion, and advancing the game one frame at a time. Completing a game in Hardcore Mode earns a player a “Mastery” designation.

RetroAchievements are not yet supported in the iOS and Windows versions of Yaba Sanshiro, but Nepiki said they’re planned.

“Please give the emulator developer the time they need to do so, and we’ll let you know when it’s ready!” Nepiki said.

The Yaba Sanshiro website describes how to use RetroAchievements with the emulator:

• Account Creation and Login
  • First, visit retroachievements.org to create an account and complete email verification.
  • In the settings screen, tap “Login to RetroAchievements” and enter your account username and password to activate the feature.
• First, visit retroachievements.org to create an account and complete email verification.
• In the settings screen, tap “Login to RetroAchievements” and enter your account username and password to activate the feature.
• Find Supported Games
  • Check if you have a game supported by RetroAchievements from here.
  • Select “Achievements” from the game menu to view locked achievements.
  • HARDCORE mode prohibits the use of save states and cheats, allowing for a purer gaming experience. This mode is required for mastery achievements and leaderboard participation.
• Check if you have a game supported by RetroAchievements from here.
• Select “Achievements” from the game menu to view locked achievements.
• HARDCORE mode prohibits the use of save states and cheats, allowing for a purer gaming experience. This mode is required for mastery achievements and leaderboard participation.
• Play and Earn Achievements
  • When launching a game, if the game supports RetroAchievements and you’re successfully logged in, progress status will be displayed in the top-left corner as shown.
  • When you unlock an achievement. An achievement notification is displayed.
  • For an achievement which needs steps, the progress indicator is displayed as shown below.
  • At the end of the game, your score is submitted to the leaderboard.
• When launching a game, if the game supports RetroAchievements and you’re successfully logged in, progress status will be displayed in the top-left corner as shown.
• When you unlock an achievement. An achievement notification is displayed.
• For an achievement which needs steps, the progress indicator is displayed as shown below.
• At the end of the game, your score is submitted to the leaderboard.

Yaba Sanshiro began development in late 2015 as a fork of Yabause, an emulator that is no longer actively worked on, to bring it to Android devices. A PC version was released about a year later that’s been occasionally updated alongside the Android version — most recently, it was updated in February .

Leaderboards were added to the Android and iOS versions of Yaba Sanshiro in June .

Its name was changed to Yaba Sanshiro 2 in April 2021 after Google blacklisted the original app for including Action Replay cheats.

The emulator wasn’t approved for the Apple App Store until August last year when Apple changed its policy regarding game emulators.

	Danthrax
		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 he's helped as an editor on several other Saturn and Dreamcast fan projects such as Cotton 2, Rainbow Cotton and Sakura Wars Columns 2.