Super Mario RPG freezing

[franpa]

same name, but SRM file extension.

[adventure_of_link]

i had been making in-game saves using the Save blocks which i guess would be save ram files, right? i was just also using save states so i could save in between those in-game save blocks. is there some special way to get the emulator to load the save ram files, or should they simply be in the list on the file selecting/loading screen in the game (as long as they're all in the same directory)?

Yes, using the save blocks triggers the in-game save feature of the game.

You don't need to do anything else to load the in-game saves, other than make sure the *.srm file is either in your defined saves folder or ROM folder (whatever your setup is) and make sure it's named the same as your SMRPG ROM, example:

smrpg.smc
smrpg.srm

And the save file should appear in the file select screen.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and sticky this one.. it appears this is the most reported problem in ZSNES.

[Panzer88]

I believe bsnes plays the game with no freezing, if your computer can run that at a decent speed it's worth a shot.

[adventure_of_link]

I believe bsnes plays the game with no freezing, if your computer can run that at a decent speed it's worth a shot.

Failing that, you can always use the latest version of snes9x

I've beat SMRPG several times on the latest snes9x on various ports (windows, wii, and linux w/ GTK GUI) and I didn't have problems other than the timed hits being a little off on the Wii version.

[DrJimesTooper]

i had been making in-game saves using the Save blocks which i guess would be save ram files, right? i was just also using save states so i could save in between those in-game save blocks. is there some special way to get the emulator to load the save ram files, or should they simply be in the list on the file selecting/loading screen in the game (as long as they're all in the same directory)?

Yes, using the save blocks triggers the in-game save feature of the game.

You don't need to do anything else to load the in-game saves, other than make sure the *.srm file is either in your defined saves folder or ROM folder (whatever your setup is) and make sure it's named the same as your SMRPG ROM, example:

smrpg.smc
smrpg.srm

And the save file should appear in the file select screen.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and sticky this one.. it appears this is the most reported problem in ZSNES.

Turns out that even though I tried to make an effort to avoid this, the srm and the smc files were not in the same directory when I tried to play the game on snesgt or snes9x. Pretty simple issue, i feel silly for getting that wrong. Relocated everything correctly and it loaded the in-game save just fine. snesGT didn't have the Smithy issue i kept running into on zsnes. everything played perfectly; it certainly felt a lot smoother too, whereas it felt somewhat choppy (for the whole duration of my playing the game, beginning to end even when it wasn't during or near one of the problem areas) or something on ZSNES.

thanks for your patient, instructive/constructive reply.

hopefully this all gets fixed some day, but for now i'll probably just use snesGT. thanks.

[adventure_of_link]

i had been making in-game saves using the Save blocks which i guess would be save ram files, right? i was just also using save states so i could save in between those in-game save blocks. is there some special way to get the emulator to load the save ram files, or should they simply be in the list on the file selecting/loading screen in the game (as long as they're all in the same directory)?

Yes, using the save blocks triggers the in-game save feature of the game.

You don't need to do anything else to load the in-game saves, other than make sure the *.srm file is either in your defined saves folder or ROM folder (whatever your setup is) and make sure it's named the same as your SMRPG ROM, example:

smrpg.smc
smrpg.srm

And the save file should appear in the file select screen.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and sticky this one.. it appears this is the most reported problem in ZSNES.

Turns out that even though I tried to make an effort to avoid this, the srm and the smc files were not in the same directory when I tried to play the game on snesgt or snes9x. Pretty simple issue, i feel silly for getting that wrong. Relocated everything correctly and it loaded the in-game save just fine. snesGT didn't have the Smithy issue i kept running into on zsnes. everything played perfectly; it certainly felt a lot smoother too, whereas it felt somewhat choppy (for the whole duration of my playing the game, beginning to end even when it wasn't during or near one of the problem areas) or something on ZSNES.

thanks for your patient, instructive/constructive reply.

hopefully this all gets fixed some day, but for now i'll probably just use snesGT. thanks.

No problem, given you:

1) complained about a SA-1 game (even tho you took it to this thread)
and 2) for not reading the FAQ on saving

in all seriousness, I'm one of the more nicer people on this board.

[grinvader]

in all seriousness, I'm one of the more nicer people on this board. :)

Being lubed from the feet up sure helps.

":)"

[nemo]

Man this really pissed me off. First of all, I was aware of this bug in the newest version of zsnes so I took the advice of everyone and used an older version (1.36). Everything worked fine until today, when I was about 3/4 finished with the game, 15+ hours in, zsnes randomly reverted my save file to an older one from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in the beginning of the game. I didn't do anything different, I didn't use any save states or anything. What could have caused this? I have everything saved in a big rom folder, and using a ntsc mario rpg rom. Ugh now I don't know if I want to redo all my work and finish the game.

Possible scenario 1:<snip>
Possible scenario 2:<snip>
Possible scenario 3:<snip>
Possible scenario 4:<snip>

For posterity, and because most people wouldn't realize this, though I know it's not the issue:
Possible scenario 5:
You watched a "movie" which is actually a savestate and a sequence of button presses. Your SRAM is going to be set to whatever it was during the movie (I think immediately, but regardless it will be set if the movie involves any saving) I haven't used ZSNES in a long time (The post-hiatus WIPs?) so this behavior may have changed.

[twipley]

Well. I kind of hope that someday, someone somewhere will find that bugish post-v1.42 line of code that produces those freezes.

Having spent some time configuring v1.51 on the .cfg in a manual manner, I am reticent to downgrade, having investigated the post-v1.42 changelogs closely..

[kode54]

I kind of hope that someday, someone somewhere will find that bugish post-v1.42 line of code that produces those freezes.

I'm pretty sure it's more than a single line of code.

[twipley]

Alright. I've just read further into this forum..

You're right. The game uses the Super Accelerator 1 (SA-1) chip, which zsnes does not seem to support. In the past, hacks rendered the game playable, but those workarounds were removed in v1.50. So, the issue is not really a line-of-code one -- the point thus goes to you, my friend.

[kode54]

Hey, why is your post count zero?

[Gil_Hamilton]

Alright. I've just read further into this forum..

You're right. The game uses the Super Accelerator 1 (SA-1) chip, which zsnes does not seem to support. In the past, hacks rendered the game playable, but those workarounds were removed in v1.50. So, the issue is not really a line-of-code one -- the point thus goes to you, my friend.

Pretty sure ZSNES DOES support the SA-1.
I don't claim it supports it WELL, but... it DOES support it.

[grinvader]

Pretty sure ZSNES DOES support the SA-1.
I don't claim it supports it WELL, but... it DOES support it.

In the current state of things, it's probably easier to admit it's not supported. :p
Especially since fixing the stuff will probably take a minor rewrite, codewise.

[nemo]

Holy shit, I haven't been here in years, who the hell Necromancered this thread? I used to come here all of the time, then the great purging occurred and I stopped showing up. Does SMRPG still not work? (I do most of my SNES emu on non 80386 hardware these days :( No zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) love) (I hope that filter still changes it to "PlAyStAtIoN 3 EmUlAtEr" or whatever it did before [upon preview, I see that it autocorrects to zsnes. How saddening.])

[franpa]

Yeah ZSNES 1.42 and 1.36 still support Super Mario RPG fairly well, laggy yes but playable from start to finish.

[kode54]

You'll have to load the last save state that was near a real save point, save your game, and transfer the .SRM file to another emulator version.

[kode54]

This is still completely broken. Switch to another emulator while you still can.

[badinsults]

If you really must play Super Mario RPG, it is probably best to pony up for a real cart or the Virtual Console release, because no emulator has perfect SA-1 emulation.

[Cammygirl192]

If you really must play Super Mario RPG, it is probably best to pony up for a real cart or the Virtual Console release, because no emulator has perfect SA-1 emulation.

for people that live in Europe, buying a cart = fuck off
for some weird reason they never released it here

[Gil_Hamilton]

If you really must play Super Mario RPG, it is probably best to pony up for a real cart or the Virtual Console release, because no emulator has perfect SA-1 emulation.

for people that live in Europe, buying a cart = fuck off
for some weird reason they never released it here

Import it. You shouldn't be playing video games in 50Hz anyways.

[Stillmatic]

If you really must play Super Mario RPG, it is probably best to pony up for a real cart or the Virtual Console release, because no emulator has perfect SA-1 emulation.

It even has problems on bsnes?

[badinsults]

If you really must play Super Mario RPG, it is probably best to pony up for a real cart or the Virtual Console release, because no emulator has perfect SA-1 emulation.

It even has problems on bsnes?

I'm sure it is better, but still not perfect. Getting a Wii/Wii U and getting the virtual console release is an option in Europe. Stop being a cheap-skate.

[Stillmatic]

I'm sure it is better, but still not perfect. Getting a Wii/Wii U and getting the virtual console release is an option in Europe. Stop being a cheap-skate.

How do you know it's not perfect? I thought bsnes is meant to have perfected everything on the SNES, that's what I've read.

I'm not a cheap-skate because I've never played this game and I don't want to play it either, not now at least. I've only ever tried ONE game on any emulator and I own it! So everything I've done is legal, I wonder if you could claim the same.

[Gil_Hamilton]

How do you know it's not perfect? I thought bsnes is meant to have perfected everything on the SNES, that's what I've read.

Everything in the console, but not all the coprocessors. Mario RPG makes heavy use of the SA-1 coprocessor. By appearances, far heavier use than most other SA-1 games, since they tend to work fine while Mario RPG breaks horribly.

I'm not a cheap-skate because I've never played this game and I don't want to play it either, not now at least. I've only ever tried ONE game on any emulator and I own it! So everything I've done is legal, I wonder if you could claim the same.

Did you dump the one game you ran in an emulator yourself? Because if you didn't, it wasn't legal.




Also, what is UP with quote tags in this thread?