The SAROO ODE flash cart for Sega Saturn made some real waves when it started getting mainstream attention last year, and it's abundantly clear to see why; this cheap device allows you to run your Saturn games from a MicroSD card, but, unlike other Optical Drive Emulators, doesn't require any internal modification to the console.
As a result, SAROO has become the most popular ODE for the system, so any new firmware is obviously going to be of interest to lots of people – but, as reported by Sega Saturn Shiro, you might want to keep this latest update at arm's length.
Created by a developer named YZB, this isn't an official firmware update for the cartridge, but it offers some neat features – including cheat codes, audio / video players, support for Photo CDs and the ability to edit configuration files from the console itself, rather than having to eject the MicroSD card and do it on a PC.
The downsides are numerous; it's only available in Chinese, and because it upgrades the chip firmware, there is a risk of bricking the SAROO. It also comes with copyrighted files installed; the ROM data for Ultraman and The King of Fighters ’95 are included in the firmware. On one hand, this is understandable – the cartridge slot is occupied by the SAROO, and this means you can't insert the ROM carts for those games. However, distributing this data with the firmware is rather shady.
It actually goes beyond that; the aforementioned Photo CD has been taken from the Japan-only Photo CD Operator disc, and the audio player uses Sega’s sound driver. All of this is pretty dodgy (even if the SAROO is ultimately going to be used by most people to play games they don't own).
To make matters worse, save files created using the official SAROO firmware will not work with those created on YZB's (and vice versa). Sega Saturn Shiro also reports that, when Action Reply codes are enabled, slowdown is noticeable.
All things considered, I'm not sure I'd recommend rushing out to install this new firmware on your SAROO – although that's not to say it won't improve over time.