Some Games not Running

[Jason X]

Hi, just got my MiSTer yesterday and it seems to be working out for the most part. Just running into a little bit of trouble with PCE/PCECD games. Most play just fine, but some like Air Zonk, Laplace no Ma, and Blazing Lazers won't work. Any suggestions for how to fix this? I've tried alternately using the US and JP BIOS for CD games, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

[Jason X]

Think I've figured out part of the problem. I need to enable "ROM Data Swap" to get all of the PCE games to work. Still having issues with some of the CD games, though.

[12characters]

Still having issues with some of the CD games, though.

Make sure that you use Super CD-ROM v3.00 as recommended on the wiki page. Laplace no Ma are among the games that require this particular system card/bios.

[Jason X]

Make sure that you use Super CD-ROM v3.00 as recommended on the wiki page. Laplace no Ma are among the games that require this particular system card/bios.

That's the weird thing about it. I've tried using both the JP and US 3.00 BIOS files and neither one seems to fix the issue.

[aberu]

The BIOS getter script, I have determined, is getting the wrong BIOS. Thanks for pointing out this problem. From the readme for the core:

Attention about US BIOS: MiSTer requires original dump of US BIOS to work properly. It needs to be of 262144 bytes. If you can read copyright string at the end of US BIOS file, then it's not correct dump! It's already pre-swapped for emulators. While it will work on MiSTer, some CD games will refuse to start. Correct US BIOS file is when copyright string is not readable.

When I opened up the BIOS that bios-getter fetches:

HDoRS8eXDf.png (86.53 KiB) Viewed 22376 times

So this is not the correct BIOS to use. I'm finding out which one is correct and will post the hash here for it.

EDIT: TurboGrafx CD Super CD-ROM2 System V3.01 (USA).pce - CRC32 = 9759A20D - MD5 = 98D43A097A165B03DF170FD5C2AD2C2F

I opened an issue on the bios-getter issues page just now so hopefully they will fix this.

[darksakul]

Also you want to make sure some of your games are not corrupted
If you are transferring files via FTP, make sure you send files as Binary and not ascii

Otherwise pull the Micro SD card or drive your rom folder sits on and transfer it manually on a PC

[aberu]

I tested with both CD games, Super Air Zonk and Laplace no Ma, and they both worked with the BIOS I cited above as the correct one (and with CUE/BIN which matched Redump set, in addition to my CHD converted version). There are probably tons of MiSTer users with the wrong BIOS in there, but they rarely find out because it only affects a small amount of games.

[Jason X]

Thanks for looking into this! Going to have to guess that it's the games themselves, which is odd as they had worked on an SSDS3. Going to try tracking down another set and seeing if that does the trick.

[Jason X]

Just wanted to provide an update. In addition to the BIOS issue aberu found, it does indeed appear that some of my files just weren't cooperating with MiSTer. I've tried alternate copies and everything is A-OK. Thanks to everyone for your help!

[morgoth]

Aberu,
Will running update_all (which i assume includes BIOS-getter) automatically d/l the V3.01 bios, once that team makes the change? I'm just wondering whether I have to self-provision on that bios, or whether it will be eventually be "pushed" to all via the update-all mechanism.
Thanks so much,

[aberu]

Aberu,
Will running update_all (which i assume includes BIOS-getter) automatically d/l the V3.01 bios, once that team makes the change? I'm just wondering whether I have to self-provision on that bios, or whether it will be eventually be "pushed" to all via the update-all mechanism.
Thanks so much,

I don't think it will, you should probably delete the bios manually from the folder and rerun the script (or might even have to clear the cache folder of the script).

[dshadoff]

I don't know what BIOS you are referring to as "3.01"; there is no official BIOS with that designation.
If you are using the USA 3.0 BIOS, some Japanese games check for an explicit version match and it fails - so use the Japanese BIOS with Japanese games.

[jd213]

Not sure if I'm having the same problem, but my copy of Soldier Parodier that I ripped myself using TurboRip isn't working for some reason, it just hangs at "Just a moment" on the BIOS screen, which says "3.00" FWIW. Haven't had any problems with any other games yet. Will try another BIOS and/or another rip and see if it fixes the problem.

[jd213]

Got Star Parodier working after ripping it again with TurboRip and changing the bios to the 3.01 one from the bios folder (that might have been the one that I was using in the first place if it's the default one used by the core). There was also a recent core update, so not sure exactly what fixed it.

[kubbie]

I'm able to get Star Parodier, Super Air Zonk, and Laplace no Ma run on FW 3.0.0 without any issues. I used the update_all script to download the BIOS.

[kathleen]

Tried on my side and Air Zonk, Laplace no Ma, and Blazing Lazers work.
But I've noticed an issue with Air Zonk (not Super Air Zonk then)
While Zonk (I guess it is the name of the hero ) is on the top of the screen, a black line appear and disapear once Zonk move down.

[dshadoff]

You're talking about the top of the screen (marked by a black border) shifting downward as the character moves upward as shown in the screenshots above, right ?

That's part of the game on original hardware, not an issue with the core.

[kathleen]

@dshadoff,

Correct this is what I was meaning.

Oh really ? I was not aware of this. Good that you confirm that this happens also on original hardware and is a normal behavior, thank you !.

So, all the games listed by Jason X are working as they should (at least with the latest version of the core)

[arromdee]

If a byte-swapped BIOS is required, and not using it breaks some games, how is it possible that it works with anything at all? Wouldn't trying to execute code that's been incorrectly byte swapped execute garbage, and therefore break all games, not just some games? How could you even get a CD menu if you try to use an incorrectly byte swapped BIOS?