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Some help please guys.

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:09 am
by Mr. Seed
Hi all,

Now, I've done a bit of retro rom emulation in the past, by my knowledge is limited. I know a lot of you guys that post on here are pure emlutaion kings so I ask for your advice.

If possible I'd like to find and run a (PC) PC Engine CD emulator to play my copy of Snatcher CDROMantic on. If this is even possible, could someone please provide me witha definitive step-by-step route to success, including relevant links to downloads and the like. If it isn't possible then...boohoo.

I hope someone can help me out. Thanks!

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:22 pm
by Artemio
http://www.magicengine.com/

That emu does the trick... it costs though.

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:51 pm
by HorseFactory
When I was a PC user, I used Yame.

Run Yame.exe, go Language - English (It's in Japanese by default) and then find the Preferences menu and configure your CD rom drive and such. After this, you'll need to find the Super CD Rom system 3.pce rom, file - open that and hit run, you should be fine from there.

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 12:44 am
by 8bitsonic
HorseFactory wrote:When I was a PC user, I used Yame.
Yes, that is a nice multisystem emulator with PCE Super CD-ROM2 support. I remember having problems with saving your game, so I would advise you not to quit the emulator for the entire game of Snatcher. :razz:

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:43 am
by HorseFactory
Is that Snatcher specific? I've never used Yame with Snatcher, just Dracula X a while ago and had no issues saving.

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:33 pm
by Mr. Seed
Excellente, I'll give that a go and let you know how I get on in a short while. Thanks!

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:41 pm
by Marc
I recommend Yame. Magic Engine apparently doesn't play Act 3 at all. Yame doesn't play the intro, though (with the credits). You could use Magic Engine for the intro and Yame for the rest.

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:49 pm
by 8bitsonic
Osiris wrote:Yame doesn't play the intro, though (with the credits).
I'm going to have to disagree there. Yame, at least when I used it, played the intro fine and completely.

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 12:13 am
by HorseFactory
Yeah, Yame displays the intro perfectly as far as I know. That's real strange :???:

hmm...

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 3:24 am
by Mr. Seed
Hi guys,

I download Yame (TG-16), but I found the preference section that Horse Factory spoke about can chose 1st drive, but my Snatcher PCE disk is understood as an Audio CD when inserted and cannot be understood by Yame...

This leads me to the pce.rom file that HorseFactory mentioned... is this needed to run the ROMantic Snatcher CD in my drive? is it a specific file or will ant game rom file do the tirck? Or is that some kind of Bios file?

I hope some one can't point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:51 am
by HorseFactory
Yeah, you need the Super CD Rom system 3 rom, which is actually the CD BIOS. Basically you don't open your CD drive with Yame, rather this rom. When it loads it says "Press Run to Start!" or something, and you hit whichever key is bound to run and it loads the game in the CD drive you gave Yame's preferences box.

I'd post the rom, but I'm quite sure it's against the rules here though you should have no problems finding it with Google.

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 6:18 am
by Mr. Seed
Hmm.. I can't seem to find one. Can anyone at least give me a link?

EDIT: No worries - its all cool, worked it out now and have it up and running.

I have no CD-READ sound though. SFX work, but no sound from the disc, any ideas?

What would be your advice for saving? Is there any way to get it to work?

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 8:58 am
by HorseFactory
I think that's an issue with the CD/DVD drive not being connected to the soundcard with one of those little analogue sound cables, cos old PCE discs use analogue audio tracks I think. Someone else might know more about that one than me.

If that's not it or you don't have a cable or something you might have to use Magic Engine. Could also make a .bin/.cue copy of the cd and mount it with Daemon tools, 'cos D-tools emulates analogue audio stuff I think.

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:26 pm
by 8bitsonic
It might be a speed issue too. Sometimes the drive can't deliver the audio fast enough for the cue the game gives it, and when the drive is too late, it continues without the CD audio. I've seen this happen, and I recommend to have nothing running except YAME if you start getting CDDA dropouts.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:12 pm
by Mr. Seed
Thanks for the feedback!

I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but CD audio tracks don't work at all. The main test was to try Metal's Music CD Player on the Piolt disk, and sure enough he dances under the disco lights in pure silence (the fool). My guess would be as you said, a miss communication between the CD and the Emu, and my CD drive does speed up and slow down to load different sections and SFX speach, so maybe it just isn't ready to deliver the CD sound at the right moment.

Also, as discussed previously - the intro doesn't work fully... it dies before the Snatcher animated title screen and the whole experience seems, well a bit slow and 'crashy' - an experinece I've had many times with emulation. So I guess it's just my set up.

Thanks for all the advice though!

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 7:37 am
by HorseFactory
Have you tried Magic Engine? I just tried it on a buddies machines and the same issue was present in Yame but ME was fine.

Also getting a bit technical now, you could try making an ISO (.bin and .cue 'cos that format supports CD tracks properly) with CDRwin or Alcohol 120% if you have access to those programs (I think CDRwin has a demo version though im not sure) and using Daemon tools to mount it. That can emulate analogue audio and won't have issues with disc spinning up and such as it's just reading a file off the hard drive.

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:19 am
by Painaxl
HorseFactory wrote:Have you tried Magic Engine? I just tried it on a buddies machines and the same issue was present in Yame but ME was fine.

Also getting a bit technical now, you could try making an ISO (.bin and .cue 'cos that format supports CD tracks properly) with CDRwin or Alcohol 120% if you have access to those programs (I think CDRwin has a demo version though im not sure) and using Daemon tools to mount it. That can emulate analogue audio and won't have issues with disc spinning up and such as it's just reading a file off the hard drive.
I think this is the best solution. As someone who's dealt with all kinds of CD-Based game system emu's, I find that the CD is the least reliable part of the scenario.

Nero and Roxio also both have the ability to make an image (make sure it's .bin and .cue format).

Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:44 pm
by HorseFactory
Hey, i've just learned about another PCE emulator (mednafen) from someone at another forum that has proved to be excellent and may just solve your problems if you still need a hand. He posted a decent guide to getting it setup, so I can paraphrase it for folks here if there's interest.

Also worth noting that the emulator in question works on linux and OS X as well as Windows.

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:32 am
by Marc
8bitsonic wrote:
Osiris wrote:Yame doesn't play the intro, though (with the credits).
I'm going to have to disagree there. Yame, at least when I used it, played the intro fine and completely.
You mean the Bio Hazard intro? Or the One Night in Neo Kobe intro?

I've heard Magic Engine doesn't play Act 3 at all. Can anyone confirm this?