I'm new to Playstation emulation, have a few questions

[frozenspark]

I downloaded ePSXe and PSx emulators. I can see that ePSXe is better in that it enhances the graphics, but in my honest opinion.. it sucks big ones since it can't play mds/mdf files without having you download virtual drive and go through some stupid crap i simply don't have time or expertise for. I downloaded Vagrant Story and it was a mdf/mds file, and ePSXe wouldn't even recognize it. I tried downloading winISO and ISObust in order to convert it to an ISO or a BIN file, which didn't do anything. I also tried downloading the virtual drive, which also didn't help much. After pulling so much hair from my head in rage, I downloaded PSX emulator which had no problem running the game at all. But anyway.. besides that, I have some questions.

1)Lets say I play Final Fantasy 7, which has 4 disks. When I am at the end of the first disk, what do I do in order for me to have the same data at the beginning of the second disk? Do I just quicksave it using F1, or do I save it to the "memory card" folder (how do I even do that any way?) Also, PSX emulator didnt come with memory cards, can I just use the same folder for both ePSXe and PSX? Also, what is the difference between .mcr and .mcd files that are in ePSXe memory card folder?

2)What would you say is the best controller to use for playstation emulators? Will any controller for PC work with these emulators?

3)When I download games, I get the BIN file and a CUE file.. the bin is the actual game, what then is the CUE file? Can I just discard it? Should I keep it in the same folder as the BIN file?



Thanks a lot! As you can see I am new to emulation and these questions may seem like a very amateurish stuff to you, but its all new to me!

[frozenspark]

Alright, i actually got eXPSe to play mds/mdf files.. the problem turns out was that I had 1.6.0 version which did not support those files. i downloaded the newest version and it works. However, what is strange is that I have to open the .mds (size of only 1kb) file of Vagrant Story instead of .mdf (which is the main game and has a size of 762,971KM)... anyone know why that is?

[schmocke]

Hi frozenspark
1) I haven´t played multi-disc games yet on ePSXe, but there is a "change disc" option available.
.mcr files are just blank memorycards used to save the usually way instead of "save states", which are available only on emutators - try to get a memorycard manager (I don´t have the link here, but look at ngemu ePSXe-tools-section..), so you can easily manage your savegames or create new memorycards for ePSXe.

2) You can connect any direct-input controller. The best solution is to get an usb-device where you can plug in your original Sony-Dual-Shock controller, best gamefeeling ever!

3) The .cue (.mds) file contains information about the CD-image (.bin, .mdf), so you should keep it in the same folder. There are a few images around beside .bin and .mdf, e.g. .ccd .img. sub., .iso, .bwt, .cdi...

I hope I could help you a bit
regards, schmocke

[frozenspark]

Where can I get such USB device that allows me to connect a playstation controller to the pc?

[schmocke]

This is the one I use.

http://store.videogamecentral.com/pc2pousbcoco.html

regards, schmocke

[The 9th Sage]

I found one at a local Radioshack, though since Radioshack has nothing worthwile anymore, good luck on finding one there.

[frozenspark]

I got a RumblePad 2 controller.. and it works just fine, however, Castlevania Symphony of the Night does not seem to respond to my controller whatsoever, on either emulator. I tried Einhander and Crash Team Racing and both games respond to the controller but SotN won't. Do you guys know what might be causing this?



EDIT: Ahh, I got it to work. Had to switch from DualShock option to NormalPad option..

[Reaper man]

I got a RumblePad 2 controller.. and it works just fine, however, Castlevania Symphony of the Night does not seem to respond to my controller whatsoever, on either emulator. I tried Einhander and Crash Team Racing and both games respond to the controller but SotN won't. Do you guys know what might be causing this?

set your controller to "digital" instead of dualshock.

[frozenspark]

Yet another problem.. sorry guys =]

I just downloaded Wipeout XL and the game is stuck on the loading page and will not go any further. It loads up to the main movie, which I skip, and then there is a blue screen which says "Loading" and it hangs forever. Does anyone know what's going on?

Another problem: When I try to play Mortal Kombat Trilogy on PSX emulator I get the r3000: executed illegal opcode 0000#### error... What the hell is going on? I have no problems playing this game on ePSXe emulator.


Found this website by googling my problem:

http://psx.silvanthalas.com/ntsc-u_current.html

Is it true that pSX won't play any of the games that say 'NO' next to them?

[The 9th Sage]

Is it true that pSX won't play any of the games that say 'NO' next to them?

Well, that is a compatibility listing for pSX, so I would assume not. If the entry is for an older version (say it says 1.6 when you have 1.8 or some such thing) it wouldn't hurt for you to try it anyway, since compatibility may have changed.

[frozenspark]

Alright, thanks a lot for all your help so far!

Can somebody run Wipeout XL/2097 and tell me if it works for you? It hangs for me after the cgi movie on the "loading" screen, using both ePSXe and pSX. I looked it up and it seems that both emulators are capable of playing this game flawlessly.

[schmocke]

Wipeout (1,XL,3) works fine for me. It´s difficult to investigate from distance why it doesn´t run on your machine. I suggest to "play" a bit with the graphic-plugins settings. I use Pete´s (openGL or D3D) on "nice" settings.. So, you´ll have to tinker a little. Good luck.

regards, schmocke

[frozenspark]

I deleted the file, then unzipped it with winrar and did the whole unecm thing again and now it seems to work, but only on pSX. Still can't get it to work on ePSXe, oh well. Thanks for all your help.