Introduction
Virtual Game Station (VGS) may be an older PlayStation emulator, but it can still be very useful and in certain cases runs a game better than the other PlayStation emulators out there.
It's also unique in that it doesn't require a bios (but being a commercial emu, you need to own the emulator itself, of course).
I found these to be some good reasons to try and get it running in Windows Vista, which turns out to be not all that hard. I did try this with Vista 32-bit.
Required files
- VGSVideoPatchXP requires the Visual Basic 5 runtime library, MSVBVM50.DLL, which does not come with Vista by default. This file needs to be in the same directory as VGSVideoPatchXP or in the SYSTEM32 directory (usually \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32). It's available here: DLL-files.com - msvbvm50.dll, free download
- Aside from that it's a good idea to update your copy of VGS to the latest version. Perhaps you've just dug up that old CD containing version 1.3, but you deleted the patches a long time ago. No worries, they are available here: http://www.samor.nl/files/cvgs_updates.zip
How to get it working
If you already ran VGS under Windows XP, that knowledge will come in handy. Still, with Windows Vista, there's a few additional things you need to change. For this tutorial, I'm just going to start from scratch and assume you know nothing about the XP procedure either. I do assume you know your way around the Vista OS, though. If not, you really should read a different tutorial before this one.
- Install VGS from your VGS CD. Make sure that setup is ran in compatibility mode for Windows 98/ME or it will refuse to install.
- At the end of the installation, do not choose to restart the PC (it's not needed).
- After the installation, remove the VGS autolauncher from Windows' startup menu (you don't want it).
- Apply the updates (the 1.4 update and 1.4.1 update from cvgs_updates.zip), in the right order. Once again you do not need to restart your PC.
- Make sure you run VGS (Connectix VGS.exe) once to create tnkXfs.dat in your Windows temp directory, it's needed for VGSVideoPatchXP to work. The program will say it will only run under Windows 9X. That's fine, it means you clicked the correct file.
- Copy VGSVideoPatchXP into the VGS directory.
- Create a shortcut to VGSVideoPatchXP. Edit the shortcut to run it as administrator. Make sure compatibility mode is set to Windows 2000 or Windows XP (otherwise the sound will be bugged).
- When CVGS Video Patch XP has launched, select "ModChip Patch for backup CD by Morlac", "SaPu's fix for Windows XP/2000" and "Full Screen Video Stretch (daNIL & Sapu)". At least, I needed that last one or I'd get trembling video. You might perhaps need the Pentium 4 fix as well.
- Now press the Run button without any PS1 disc in the drive. Configure VGS to your liking first; here's why: once there's a game running for some reason you will often not be able to escape back to the menu with and can only quit the emu with ALT+F4. It might work normally for you, but this turns out to be a bit of a hit-and-miss situation.
- Once you've set up the emu, exit it and VGSVideoPatchXP (also to restore your proper desktop resolution).
- Now, put in a PS1 CD and launch VGS through VGSVideoPatchXP again and it should launch your game with your preferred settings.
Closing notes
If you need to reconfigure anything in VGS, just launch it without a game. Also, a warning: don't try to start accessing the menus in the beginning when VGS says it's loading a game (in case you have a PS1 CD inserted), you'll make the emulator crash.
And, don't let the numerous screen changes when the emulator starts fool you. There's nothing scary happening.
That's all
