POPStarter

PS2 POPStarter 2019/06/05

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El_Patas said:
@Roshea,

About the game Chrono Trigger, i remember that i had the problem that the sound slowed down when
entering and leaving the places and menus, there was no compatibility mode that fixed it, and from what i
know Mode 4 was never integrated in the emulator.
Apart from that, Mode 4 does not fix sound problems.
And i talk about the NTSC-U version integrated in the Final Fantasy Chronicles compilation,
not about the NTSC-J version.

Regarding the Xenogears game, it also never had Mode 4 integrated, and this compatibility Mode could
never fix the big flicker that the game has.
Nothing can fix the flickering of this game, it was always unplayable and still unplayable, there is no fix.
Mode 4 does not fix the flickering, nor fix anything in this game, it never did.

About Castlevania Symphony of the Night, he still has the problems he always had, even if
he has Mode 1 integrated in the emulator, he still has those problems.
Although the problem of broken candles and other graphic problems, if i remember
correctly they were fixed after RIP 06, because this was broken in RIP 06, they should
work well after this version.

On the MegaMan x4 never had Mode 1 integrated into the emulator, nor did it ever have any problem
with the sound.

Do not use alternative BIOS files to fix the games as they can cause problems to the
games, you should only use an alternative BIOS if a game really needs it, and it is
clearly not the case with these games.
Is strange that in MegaMan 8 the sound works fine with the PSP BIOS, never needed it.

About this question:

"In which version exactly the sound of MegaMan 8 runs fine?"

I mean completely fine, without sound problems and crashes, and without using
any alternative BIOS?

This weekend i will have time, i will try the MegaMan 8 (NTSC-U) on the internal hard drive to
see if the sound is going bad for me too.

The last version that was tested and that worked well with this game was r13.2, but it has
been a long time since that version:

https://elpatas.000webhostapp.com/pops/popsM.html

Best regards.
Click to expand...

Hello, about this question: "In which version exactly the sound of MegaMan 8 runs fine?"
In no version works correctly, with out modifications.
I try about minutes ago the 3 versions NTSC-U, NTSC-J and PAL-EUR and ALL present the same issue.
if you apply the 0x01 corrector with biospsp6.60, the game works just fine, but if you leave with the default bios with/with out
the fix, they doesn´t work, it gave me the same result in the 3 cases.

PSP6.60+fix == ok
defaultbios(with/with out fix) == sound issues
About the other games, its a disappointment that I had bad memories, maybe I played them years
ago on my psp thinking that I played them in the popstarter.
But for me megaman x4 (when x is charging energy) sound issues appear just like in megaman 8, but x3, x5 and x6 work perfectly
like rockman 1-6.

EDIT: Gracias por responder el patas, tu pagina esta actualizada? megaman legends 1 y 2 me funcionan bien en la ultima version del pops.
 
Roshea said:
Hello, about this question: "In which version exactly the sound of MegaMan 8 runs fine?"
In no version works correctly, with out modifications.
I try about minutes ago the 3 versions NTSC-U, NTSC-J and PAL-EUR and ALL present the same issue.
if you apply the 0x01 corrector with biospsp6.60, the game works just fine, but if you leave with the default bios with/with out
the fix, they doesn´t work, it gave me the same result in the 3 cases.

PSP6.60+fix == ok
defaultbios(with/with out fix) == sound issues
About the other games, its a disappointment that I had bad memories, maybe I played them years
ago on my psp thinking that I played them in the popstarter.
But for me megaman x4 (when x is charging energy) sound issues appear just like in megaman 8, but x3, x5 and x6 work perfectly
like rockman 1-6.
Click to expand...
@Roshea, i made extensive tests for the games MegaMan 8 and MegaMan x4.

In any case of my tests i don't got any crash on the games, or the sound stopped unexpectedly horrible,
although i played only the first level until i arrived to the bosses in both games.

I tested both games with internal HDD and USB and latest Beta (2019/06/05)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MegaMan 8 (NTSC-U)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Internal HDD - It works fine loaded with internal HDD, do not needs nothing.

- USB - With USB there are problems with some SFX. The voice which says MegaMan 8 in
the main menu is cut, or not heard at all, and the sound for the charge beam, when you press the
square or triangle button and hold it down for a while, you only hear a little, is very cut.

But i found two ways for fix this.

1 - Use the PSP BIOS, nothing more, only the BIOS, Mode 1 is not needed.
2 - Use the command $CODECACHE_ADDON_0 with a CHEATS.TXT file.

With any of this two ways the SFX works fine, maybe is better use the
$CODECACHE_ADDON_0 option and not the PSP BIOS, it would need play more
deeply the game for see if using the option of the BIOS can cause crashes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MegaMan x4 (NTSC-U)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For both internal HDD and USB, the SFX of the charge beam do not works at all by default.

- Internal HDD - Using the combination of the PSP BIOS and the $CODECACHE_ADDON_0 in
a CHEATS.TXT the SFX of the charge beam is fixed and works perfectly.

- USB - The combination used with internal HDD do not works for USB.
The best which i found is using the combination of PSP BIOS with Mode 4, you can
hear the SFX of the charge beam, but do not works fine, most times is cut, and others
still not heard.
Mode 1 or any other Mode do not works.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have crashes and worse results than these tests, maybe is due to your hardware or
something in your settings that interfere.
If you have any PATCH.BIN or any CHEATS.TXT in the root of the POPS folder please delete them
this can cause problems if you have anything which affects all the games.
Do not use the GSM if you are using it.
Don not apply any type of patches to the games, patches wich changes the video,
translations, etc. clean and original images of the games.
Or maybe your USB device is not so very compatible, or it is so very fragmented.

Also be careful using the POPSTARTER.ELF file from the last beta (2019/06/05) and the one
of RIP 06, because both files have the same size, (163K), and if you have both it can be easy
to be confused, to think you are using the latest version while maybe you are running the RIP 06,
which is worse.

If you can test both games by SMB using what i used here, let me know, maybe the games
work better from SMB than from USB.
What is clear is that always the games runs better from internal HDD with this emulator.

Roshea said:
EDIT: Gracias por responder el patas, tu pagina esta actualizada? megaman legends 1 y 2 me funcionan bien en la ultima version del pops.
Click to expand...

My page is not updated because i not received reports from this games, i need update it
with exact information of the MegaMan Legend games.
Please check your private messages.

Best regards.
 
Last edited:
So by latest you probably mean the version from 2019/06/05...
Through what device (USB\ETH\HDD) you have these problems?

PAL or NTSC version of the game?
 
jolek said:
So by latest you probably mean the version from 2019/06/05...
Through what device (USB\ETH\HDD) you have these problems?

PAL or NTSC version of the game?
Click to expand...

USB device (Toshiba 500gb). I didn't made any change (not installing or deleting something), the game's ISO is there since years, I just replaced the POPSTARTER.ELF file.

Btw I'll do more tests, since I use OPL-DB (since a long time) for launching POPS games, and I'm not sure if the last time I played it, I was using this build (I upgraded it, but don't remember precisely when), so it could even be a problem related to the OPL-DB rev (maybe).
 
jolek said:
Yeah, launch POPStarter through wLe can be also helpful to eliminate problem with OPL-DB.
Click to expand...

I'm still not sure is OPL-DB giving problems, it never do before.

However, is the new Wle version able to start VCDs or I need to use the old uLE_kHn_20160723??

I have many games and it's boring to replace and rename a POPStarter.elf file for each one. For this reason I've been using OPL-DB for POPS since they added the Ps1 launcher.
 
PS1 Disc format is better than POPStarter Because POPStarter is always bug & freeze and also dramatic problem and crashes
I recommended for everyone,please use PS1 Disc Format for PS1,PS2,PS3 and Emulator
 
Md Hesam said:
PS1 Disc format is better than POPStarter Because POPStarter is always bug & freeze and also dramatic problem and crashes
I recommended for everyone,please use PS1 Disc Format for PS1,PS2,PS3 and Emulator
Click to expand...

What do you mean with "Ps1 disc format"? POPS can read other formats aside VCD??

I use POPS, since I'm in PAL territory and I prefer to play games like Tekken sries, FF and many Others at their normal speed (not 50hz slowdown), plus some of my game discs aren't working anymore. My Ps2 isn't hardchipped, so I cannot play from backup discs.
 
POPStarter can also lets you play your PS1 games from the CDVD drive:
https://bitbucket.org/ShaolinAssassin/popstarter-documentation-stuff/wiki/ps1cd-mode.

I think that this person mean built-in support for PS1 (Virtualization) games in PS2 console made by $ony from retail discs.
Unfortunately he cannot understand that this emulator (POPS) was made for few games.
Currently with launcher (POPStarter) it can emulate lots of games (with or without problems) from other devices and much more.

It is homebrew project (currently dead) so... most of work was made in free time for free.
If something is wrong, why not put report about it into compatibility lists instead of writing... let say... nothing special.
 
Everything wrong with POPStarter
Because always bug & freeze and also dramatic problem
POPS cannot run Tekken 3 because Bug
Everyone should be buy blank 100 pieces CD-R for PS1 Game
then burn at 8x with OPC using imgBurn
then play these disc on PS1,PS2,PS3 & Emulator
 
Md Hesam said:
POPS cannot run Tekken 3 because Bug
Click to expand...

Sure it doesn't run prefectly but it is prefectly playable. You have to turn on the scanline generator (select + R1 + R2) for solving the bottom artifacts.
Enabling it will make the life bars to flicker a little. Btw it is less annoying overall imho.
 
I tested the game (Crash 1) starting it with uLE_kHn_20191110 it worked flawlessly. However I then started the game again using OPL_DB and didn't occurred any problem.

So probably it was some random freeze. I didn't explained it pefectly: it wasn't a crash actually but a freeze, the screen remains still and the audio too remained fixed in a continuous deafening note.

When I IGR from the game I get a BSOD.
I have OPL as FMCB autolaunch and since some apps (like POPS) automatically reset to BOOT/BOOT.ELF I have OPL renamed so.
i.e. when using OPL_DB for POPS it automatically IGR to OPL (as Ps2 games). It can not work anymore like this?
 
Md Hesam said:
Everything wrong with POPStarter
Because always bug & freeze and also dramatic problem
POPS cannot run Tekken 3 because Bug
Everyone should be buy blank 100 pieces CD-R for PS1 Game
then burn at 8x with OPC using imgBurn
then play these disc on PS1,PS2,PS3 & Emulator
Click to expand...

Did you ever bother yourself to check compatibility list?
How many games you've tried 1...5...100?

Currently I'm playing Colin Mcrae Rally 2.0 & Lost Vikings 2 without any problems.

If something is wrong with the game why not post a report, so someone else will make use of it?

If game has got problems, report about it is in compatibility list...
unfortunately nothing will be changed
because this project has been abandoned, so deal with it.

If you have got any arguments, why not instead of "every game do not work",
use I've problems with... Tekken 3... (currently you only mentioned one game).

Peppe90 said:
When I IGR from the game I get a BSOD.
I have OPL as FMCB autolaunch and since some apps (like POPS) automatically reset to BOOT/BOOT.ELF I have OPL renamed so.
i.e. when using OPL_DB for POPS it automatically IGR to OPL (as Ps2 games). It can not work anymore like this?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure with what you have problem?
  • With IGR?
  • When the game crashes IGR will not work?
  • OPL_DB will not load after IGR?
Why not just leave OPL_DB for tests (unhook it from FMCB autolaunch)?
If it is only once game, so you even can rename POPStarter.ELF into eg XX.Crash.ELF and try it with standard wLe version?
 
Last edited:
I really think you guys should use PS1 CDs on a PS3.
Please play from discs.
How about you buy a bunch of CDRs ?

Jokes apart, something was in the work/testing for the PAL version of Tekken 3. However, I don't know if the test mode still works in the last build... If so, would it look better when combined with the recent compatibility hack ported to the PAL version ?
 
jolek said:
I'm not sure with what you have problem?
  • With IGR?
  • When the game crashes IGR will not work?
  • OPL_DB will not load after IGR?
Why not just leave OPL_DB for tests (unhook it from FMCB autolaunch)?
If it is only once game, so you even can rename POPStarter.ELF into eg XX.Crash.ELF and try it with standard wLe version?
Click to expand...

about the game crashing I concluded it was a random freeze or so, that's all.

The IGR one is another unrelated problem. I have official OPL build (from this site) named BOOT.ELF placed in the BOOT folder. I access OPL_DB with a hotkey, pressing select at the Ps2 boot.
Even if using the XX.game.elf I like to start everything (Ps2, Ps1 games and apps) from OPL. Even using official OPL I'd simply list Ps1 games ELFs as apps and start them from OPL (I used to do so before OPL_DB-POPS-launcher feature).

POPS IGR always pointed to BOOT/BOOT.ELF, so in my case it IGR to OPL. Btw since I upgraded POPStarter.ELF I get BSOD after IGR, so I have to reset the Ps2. I'll try other games to see if it game related. I think IGR worked with Crash before.
I'll post again as soon as I'll test it properly.
 
I feel like a lot of the games that don't work can be fixed with a hack. Games that have freezing issues (Warcraft II), graphics issues (Spider-Man), and flickering issues (Yu-Gi-Oh!) have been fixed so far using this method. I really don't have the knowledge to find these hacks, but maybe someone who has the knowledge can.

Maybe games that have similar errors can be fixed in a similar way? I have a feeling Final Fantasy VII can be fixed by disabling/editing the black bar transition at the start of the fights (transition doesn't start resulting in just a black screen?). A lot of games marked as "unplayable" could be changed to playable in maybe one or two codes!

That's pretty exciting! I previously thought games couldn't be fixed by something like this until this guy HugoPocked showed up and fixed 8 games and then disappeared. Maybe he will return and fix more someday...
 
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