Star Ocean: crashing on the hour

[tcaudilllg]

My ROM of Star Ocean (autopatched by ZSNES) crashes a few seconds after the play clock hits 1:00. This crash is reliable and always the same distance from 1:00 in seconds. It simply freezes, no matter what I'm doing at the time.

Any idea what makes this happen? I doubt it's a problem of a corrupt ROM, considering that it happens on the hour....

[Jipcy]

after the play clock hits 1:00.

Forgive me, I am inexperienced with Star Ocean. Is this some kind of in-game clock? Or are you referring to the "Game Clock" option on the ZSNES Options page, that allows you to see your system time while playing a game?

Furthermore, what version of ZSNES are you using? What are you system specifications, including operating system?

Have you experienced this behavior with any other game or any other version of ZSNES?

What is precise time (minutes and seconds) that ZSNES crashes?

[tcaudilllg]

after the play clock hits 1:00.

Forgive me, I am inexperienced with Star Ocean. Is this some kind of in-game clock? Or are you referring to the "Game Clock" option on the ZSNES Options page, that allows you to see your system time while playing a game?

Furthermore, what version of ZSNES are you using? What are you system specifications, including operating system?

Have you experienced this behavior with any other game or any other version of ZSNES?

What is precise time (minutes and seconds) that ZSNES crashes?

The ingame clock visible on the menu screen, where all the character data and miscellaneous commands are, where you save your game etc. The same kind of clock that keeps track of how long you've played in every RPG since... Final Fantasy IV?

ZSNES 1.42, the latest official build. WindowsXP AMD Athlon 1.5Ghz, 256 megs RAM.

I've never experienced this behavior before in any other game. Only the latest versions of ZSNES can play Star Ocean at all, as is well understood.

Here's the deal: ZSNES doesn't crash. Star Ocean does. The game literally freezes, however the emulator remains perfectly functional. The precise time is... 1:00:~30 seconds, that's what it seemed. However it might have been the moment of crossover from 1:00 to 1:01. (and it probably was)

[grinvader]

If you're loading a state, it'll always freeze at the same time.

Use the in-game save feature often (= whenever possible) and get some patience if you plan on finishing the game.

[Jipcy]

Does this only occur when you use savestates with Star Ocean? Or does it also occur while playing the game without ever loading a state?

EDIT: What grinvader said.

[tcaudilllg]

If you're loading a state, it'll always freeze at the same time.

Use the in-game save feature often (= whenever possible) and get some patience if you plan on finishing the game.

Agh. ...OK. I'll keep you posted on my efforts.

But what could be the cause of this? It would seem ZSNES isn't emulating something correctly, like if you write to memory in an invalid place in a homebrew ROM. It doesn't crash the emulator, just the program.

...I tried reloading the game from SRAM. Same thing happened.

[grinvader]

Restart from scratch, rely on in-game saves only.

This game is a timing-nazi in certain situations, and zsnes obviously isn't accurate enough for it. The same issue causes tunes to bork samples on load, before you ask.

[tcaudilllg]

Restart from scratch, rely on in-game saves only.

This game is a timing-nazi in certain situations, and zsnes obviously isn't accurate enough for it. The same issue causes tunes to bork samples on load, before you ask.

:\

Maybe it's not "time" to play this game....

[grinvader]

1 hour isn't much.


It's roughly half what you need to clear the game (skipping everything that can be skipped).

[SquareHead]

1 hour isn't much.


It's roughly half what you need to clear the game (skipping everything that can be skipped).

Youre shitting me.

[Jyunichi]

The record is around 3 hours, I think.

Snes9x runs this game without crashes if you don't use savestates. It's still very playable in ZSNES, though.

[grinvader]

The record is around 3 hours, I think.

Time to update, folks.

Youre shitting me.

You wish.