Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

A forum for discusion, suggestions and information on any Snatcher-related material. Music, games, versions, differences and references.

Also the space for feedback regarding the Snatcher Music Arrangements section by MrRudi.
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Hunka Junka
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Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by Hunka Junka »

Hi all, I hope it's alright a newbie like me makes such a "big" topic here but I figured it might be convenient for there to be an ongoing thread for those having trouble with emulation and for others to share what they know so it's easier for everyone to find.

For everyone asking a question, please specify what system/ version of the game you're trying to emulate, the emulator that you're using, and what hardware/ platform that you're running this all on.

Hopefully this turns out to be a helpful thread, I suppose we'll know when we see people either using this thread or just bypassing it and all starting their own for separate questions!
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Hunka Junka
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Re: Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by Hunka Junka »

I'll start off with a question of my own:

Retroarch - blueMSX core
Windows
MSX

I've got this one running seemingly perfectly right up until the end of the intros (I believe) and when the game asks the user to "Insert disk 2 and push space key." So I insert disk 2 (using the retroarch disk toggle functionality) push the space key, and the animation stops and... nothing happens.

Snatcher (English v0.6)[Fudeba]-221201-235351.png
Snatcher (English v0.6)[Fudeba]-221201-235351.png (7.25 KiB) Viewed 3781 times

Thing is, the game isn't actually frozen or crashed or anything, it just doesn't seem to be loading anything. When I insert disk 1 or 0 the prompt will change to "Wrong disk! Insert proper disk and push space key." So the emulator and program itself are still running, but if I insert either disk 2 or disk 3 and hit space, it just hangs there waiting. I've let it run for minutes on end, even putting it on fast forward, and nada.

Snatcher (English v0.6)[Fudeba]-221202-001140.png
Snatcher (English v0.6)[Fudeba]-221202-001140.png (7.91 KiB) Viewed 3781 times

Let me know if there's something I'm missing! I've downloaded the ROMs from two different sources and the exact same thing happens, so it's not a bad ROM issue unless they're both happen to be bad.
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Hunka Junka
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Favorite Game: Earthbound
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Re: Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by Hunka Junka »

So that I'm actually contributing something beyond asking for help, I'm offering a little tip for folks that might've run into the same thing I did on another playthrough. This time it's:

Retroarch - (various Sega Genesis cores); Windows; Sega CD

I'd often run into sound issues when running the Snatcher Sega CD version on Retroarch, depending on the core some cut scenes would sometimes have garbled audio or just no sound at all.

I discovered what was happening was that I'd been running the ".bin" file (either mistakenly selecting it or just hitting "Load Archive" and assuming Retroarch was loading the right file). Specifically running the ".cue" file seems to load the audio correctly (or close to it - the sync is a little off in those parts, but I can live with that).

retroarch snatcher Screenshot 2022-12-02 003914.jpg

I wouldn't have thought it mattered as I understood "cue" files to be something like a playlist and there's only one other file in the directory, but apparently it's still necessary to load whatever inner sound files correctly. So yeah, always load the "cue" file regardless!
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TiripsRoirraw
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Re: Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by TiripsRoirraw »

I haven't used this version of Snatcher, but I've been having issues with the screen with the sega cd version. I think when I upgrade my laptop I'll be better off
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Hunka Junka
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Re: Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by Hunka Junka »

What kind of screen issues are you having?
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Hunka Junka
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Re: Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by Hunka Junka »

Hunka Junka wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 2:12 am I'll start off with a question of my own:

Retroarch - blueMSX core
Windows
MSX

I've got this one running seemingly perfectly right up until the end of the intros (I believe) and when the game asks the user to "Insert disk 2 and push space key." So I insert disk 2 (using the retroarch disk toggle functionality) push the space key, and the animation stops and... nothing happens.


Snatcher (English v0.6)[Fudeba]-221201-235351.png
Following up on this, I've since installed the standalone blueMSX emulator and got Snatcher up and running on it, and it successfully loaded up disk 2 at the point specified above.

It still baffles me what might've been causing the issue with Retorarch, since it booted up disks 0 and 1 just fine, and so you'd think if there were anything wrong with the setup it would effect all the disks. And I've read plenty of people who managed to run MSX Snatcher through Retroarch on Windows without issue, so it doesn't seem to be anything intrinsic to Retroarch.

Strange! I'd still be interested if anyone (now or in the future) has any insight. But at least I found an alternate way to play it!
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Hunka Junka
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Favorite Game: Earthbound
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Policenauts (PlayStation)
Metal Gear (NES)

Re: Emulation questions/issues catch-all thread

Post by Hunka Junka »

To make up for posting so much, I thought I'd offer another TIP!

Most folks who use blueMSX seem aware that you can adjust the emulator's CPU speed, which comes in handy to zoom through some of the slower parts of the game (at the cost of the music tempo being altered and some text disappearing before you can read it!).

But if it's specifically the long loading times that you use this feature for, blueMSX has an adjacent option that has you covered: under Options > Emulation if you check the box for "Disable Floppy Drive Timing" the emulator itself will gun it through the load times on its own.
blueMSX - Disable Floppy Drive Timing.jpg

You can even see it literally working if you have the window set to the "DIGIblue SUITE X-2" theme with the clock speed knob and gauge at the corner. You can watch it jump from your set speed to the max and back again during load times.
blueMSX - Disable Floppy Drive Timing Sequence.jpg

With this you can set your emulator speed at a comfortable level (I usually put it somewhere between 150-300% myself) without having to factor in the load times and possibly set it higher than you otherwise would, and you only have to think about adjusting it when you reach a shooting segment. One less thing on your plate!

This feature might be common knowledge by now, but I haven't seen it mentioned here yet and the load times seem to be the #1 complaint about the MSX version, so I figure pointing out any little thing that can help with that is probably worth it! Hope it helps. O:)
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