Once upon a time, it was claimed with some degree of confidence that the MiSTer FPGA platform would never host cores for consoles like the PS1, N64 and Sega Saturn, yet in 2025, we have excellent and accurate options for all three.
Of that trio, the Saturn core has always been seen as a crowning achievement, largely down to the fact that Sega's 32-bit system's dual-CPU architecture is notoriously tricky to emulate, even on powerful PCs.
Despite this, Sergiy Dvodnenko (better known as srg320_) has created a Saturn FPGA core which, according to recent reports, passes every emulation test. This has led some to claim that it's the most faithful way to play Saturn games outside of original hardware.
I've been playing Saturn titles on my MiSTer and have to admit, they feel pretty much spot-on – but Dvodnenko has taken to social media to refute the claim that his core is "100 hardware accurate".
Responding to a post from fellow FPGA developer Jotego, Dvodnenko says:
"That's not entirely true. It's still far from complete accuracy."
Many people assume that FPGA cores are inherently more accurate than software emulation because they replicate the performance of consoles, handhelds, computers and arcade machines on a hardware level, but like any kind of emulation, errors and inaccuracies can creep in, meaning that some FPGA cores never achieve 100% accuracy.
Of course, a core doesn't have to be 100% hardware accurate for it to provide an agreeable gameplay experience – many of the games we play via emulation on other platforms aren't 100% one-for-one when compared to the original hardware – so it doesn't mean Dvodnenko's core isn't worth checking out if you haven't done so already.