vib-ribbon (PAL) [help!]

6710 Views 29 Replies 6 Participants Last post by DJMagdalen, Oct 23, 2001

DJMagdalen

Discussion Starter · Oct 1, 2001

Hi --

I've just recently managed to pick up a copy of vib-ribbon (PAL), what I consider one of the greatest games ever made.

Unfortunately, I can't get ePSXe to run it completely.

What happens:

I boot up, the game runs fine -- even through the introductory screens and the title page. You get a choice of language (ENGLISH) and then a menu.

If you choose GAME or INSTRUCTIONS. The LOADING page comes up (complete with spinning stars). Then -- after a small wait -- the stars stop spinning and the game just hangs.

I'm fairly certain it's not a graphics problem. The emulator/plugin has no trouble with the simple,vector graphics and I'm fairly certain that the opening menus, etc are all "in game".

I know vib-ribbon reads audio tracks from CDs to make the boards that make up the game, and I'm fairly certain this is where it's going wrong. In the case of INSTRUCTIONS, the game hung, but the music played in the background anyway.

Is it the CD plugin? The audio plugin? Or the emulator itself?

PLEASE if anyone could give me advice, I'd *greatly* appreciate it!

-- d

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DJMagdalen

Discussion Starter · #21 · Oct 10, 2001 (Edited)

Well, I tried it with right clicking on session1/raw...

...no luck.

This is how the original CD looks in ISObuster:

CD
|---Session 1
|---Track 1
|--- ISO
| |---GAME
| |---KIOSK
| |---TITLE
|--- Track 2
|--- Track 3
|--- Track 4
|--- Track 5
|--- Track 6
|--- Track 7
|--- Track 8

(2-8 are listed as music tracks)

Then, if I open my iso file after trying the above, I get...

CD
|---Session 1
|---Track 1
|--- ISO
|---GAME
|---KIOSK
|---TITLE

Notice that none of the secondary audio tracks (2-8) come over.

Is there a way to add files to an image afterwards? As I've said, I've tried both right-clicking and getting both the CD as raw and Session 1. It ends up the same way...

...also, I thought I'd be all clever and try and figure out what was going on by adding "-debug" to the runtime. It runs (I don't get an error) but my keyboard won't work when I try to choose something from the menu. Does anyone know if the control-scheme is different/screwed up in debug mode?

Thanks!

-- d

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DJMagdalen

Discussion Starter · #22 · Oct 12, 2001

bump.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

-- d

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Betamax

· #23 · Oct 12, 2001

Ok this is damn strange. When I made an iso of teken 3 it Definately copied the audio tracks as well however I just checked it in isobuster and yep, no mention of it

. I'm stumped.

ps don't let bgnome catch you bumping.

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galtor

· #24 · Oct 15, 2001

Sorry men, but vib-ribbon is incompatible with ePSXe

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DJMagdalen

Discussion Starter · #25 · Oct 15, 2001

Oooh. That sounds bad.

Just out of curiosity, what about vib-ribbon makes it incompatable? Is it compatable with any emulator out there? Will it ever be compatable with ePSXe?

Thanks!

-- d

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Betamax

· #26 · Oct 16, 2001

Well that clears that one up:doh: . The only emu which has better compatiblity is vgs, but that one is commerical. Even then I'm not sure of it will work.

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DJMagdalen

Discussion Starter · #27 · Oct 22, 2001

An update.

I can't find *any* emulator, to my knowledge, that will work with vib-ribbon correctly. Most do precisely what ePSXe does -- when you attempt to run the game, it gets to the LOADING screen and then locks.

VGS works *slightly* better. It manages to show the 'instruction' animation correctly while playing the music track (although it's out of sync). However, it still locks up when you try to play the game.

I'm a coder myself and I'm curious if anyone knows precisely *why* the game is doing this and if there's an open-source emulator that I could try tinkering with to try to get the game to work...

In any case, thanks everyone (particularly Beta...) for your help!

-- d

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· #28 · Oct 23, 2001

from what I hear it seems simply a problem with loading....
happens a lot with cd-based emus...

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galtor

· #29 · Oct 23, 2001

Originally posted by DJMagdalen
An update.

I'm a coder myself and I'm curious if anyone knows precisely *why* the game is doing this and if there's an open-source emulator that I could try tinkering with to try to get the game to work...

-- d

Its easy, the psx uses a memory buffer to load the cdda track and then spu play it. Vib ribbon loads this buffer to make the obstacles. In the PC its easier (and faster) tell to the cd "Play track #4!", and the CD-ROM do the rest, but you cant access to the music from the emulator

-Galtor

PD: I know, my english sucks a lot :emb:

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DJMagdalen

Discussion Starter · #30 · Oct 23, 2001

OK...so let me see if I get this straight...

The basic problem is *how* all of the emulators are playing CD tracks. Normally when a playstation game asks for a CD-track, it's loaded as you described above, but on the emulators, they just start playing the track directly...thus in the case of Vib-Ribbon the program doesn't get the information it needs and hangs.

If this is true, does this mean I need to fiddle with an emulator directly (and are there any open-source emulators out there) or just with a CD-plugin?

Thanks!

-- d

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