FF9 NTSC - CD3 - After Gulug Stone - Crash (Opcode)

[Patarival]

Greetings!

I have a very nasty problem with "Final Fantasy IX" (US - NTSC) on CD 3.
I searched the forum for an answer but found nothing (either I'm to stupid or noone else has this problem - I apologize if I overlooked it).

I was just with Zidande and the others in oilvert, battled against the ark and took the gulug stone.
After that, the party-screen comes up and after that the scene changes back to kujas prison.

I see the cell that contains Mog (Eikos pet). Mog makes some gesture and the game crashes with some opcode message.
Besides Mog the cell is empty (I assume Eiko is supposed to be in there but she isn't).

I have tried various plug-ins and settings, I tried ePSXe 1.5.2 and 1.6, loading from savestate and loading from memorycard (usually this helps) but no luck.

Now there is something else that I find very strange: In the party-select-screen, Eiko has Marcus picture, Amarant has Blank and Quina has Cinna.

However, it doesn't seem to be so strange when I consider, that Eiko and Marcus use the same spot and also the same Gameshark-codes.
Yes, I cheat! I need to cheat because 1: I just don't have enough time to level up characters and 2: I suck.
However, the action replay codes I use are just for exp and the character stats. I don't do exotic stuff. They are just the numbers for strength and so on nothing special, they SHOULD not interfere.

Can someone help me? Is this even a known problem? I don't want to start a new game.
My CDs are brand new (and I made ISOs from them with Alcohol), because my old discs got lost when I was moving in my new house.

Thanks a lot!

[Kane]

You tried disabling the GS codes and loading up at your last memcard save?
Gameshark codes often bugger up things they aren't meant to.

[Patarival]

Originally Posted by Kane-Sama

You tried disabling the GS codes and loading up at your last memcard save?
Gameshark codes often bugger up things they aren't meant to.

Thanks! But yes, unfortunately I tried that already. I guess all hope is lost and I have to start again from the beginning? Nooooooooo!!!!!

Well, children, let this be a lesson to you: never cheat at games!