Parasite Eve II

[AstralRomance51]

Basically, I cannot get Parasite Eve II to play on the PSXFin. I've re-ripped the image file as everything imaginable, but I'm not getting anywhere. It loads the screen right after the BIOS, and then it stops. Any help would be appreciated.

Andrew

[jonc2006]

what about directly from the disk, have you tried it that way?

[TNA]

have you tryed playing it on the epsxe emulator?

[RedLion]

According to the pSX compatibility list:

Parasite Eve 2 :Freezes at 'Published by Square Electronics Arts, LLC' screen.

As suggested by TNA, try ePSXe.
P.S:Welcome to Ngemu board,AstralRomance51.

[patrickp]

PAL versions of Parasite Eve 2 are copy protected: NTSC-US versions wouldn't be copy protected, as that was never done with US issues, but may be mod protected. The reported behaviour, that of locking up at the intro screens is typical of protection.

It's essential to have a drive that reads the subcode from the CD for pSX to be able to defeat copy protection, and to be using a driver for this that supports subcode reading: Window's IOControl doesn't, although the Linux IOControl drivers do (coincidence?). Or if you're playing from an image, it must be in a format that includes subcode, i.e. .ccd/.img/.sub or .mdf/.mds, and, obviously, you'll need to have ripped it with a drive that reads subcode. The applications that rip to these formats, CloneCD and Alcohol, use their own drivers, so the IOControl driver isn't a problem there.

As a rule, -RW drives usually read subcode better than -ROM drives; whether they're DVD or CD drives, or their age, is fairly immaterial.

For playing from CD, if your drive supports subcode reading, the best driver to use is probably ASPI: download wnaspi32.dll from Nero if you're using an NT based Windows (or google for ForceASPI version 1.17 if you're using Windows 9.x and install that - don't use the wrong driver for the wrong OS!), and put it in your pSX directory. Then select ASPI reads on the CDROM tab of pSX' configuration.

That should deal with PAL copy protection; for mod protection, it's not quite that simple. Although you need subcode reading to defeat it, you'll find that the game goes to a warning screen because the protection is now working and identifies the emulator as a modchipped Playstation. However, it seems that using a PAL BIOS fools the mod protection; many mod protected games can be played this way.

Alternatively, many protected games can be patched instead; you need the correct patch for the game version, and it needs to be a protection defeating patch, not a PAL/NTSC converter or a trainer. Not all patches work, either, and your image will have to be good for effective patching. You can, however, patch images or CDs on the fly in pSX; either from the command line, or the easiest way is to use Ultima's pSX Frontend and include the path to the patch in the game's profile.

[AstralRomance51]

Okay. I've tried playing it from the disk and that didn't work, and I don't want to play it on the ePSXe because the ePSXe takes too much time to configure and I don't feel like dealing with it anymore.

Now, Patrick, I have the NTSC version, and I ripped the image using CloneCD, so I have it as .ccd, .cue, .img, and .sub, none of which get any further. I'm not familiar with the patching thing, so I don't really get what to try and do there. And, on a side note, is that what I'd have to do to play Legend of Dragoon?

Anywho, I'm really starting to get desperate. And thanks for the suggestion about ePSXE, but, like I said, that just ain't my style. I want to be able to use PSXFin for all my emulating, and I just don't like ePSXe.

[jonc2006]

thats the thing though, PE2 does not work on psx, as stated in redlions post. you dont really have that much of a choice here, so if you want to play the game you are going to have to switch to something else. now ive been using epsxe for years and if you need help setting it up, i can walk you through it easily. and epsxe isnt the only option you have in this case, you can use something like pcsx or xebra (i dont have much experience with those two so its going to be difficult for me to suggest what to do if you decide on using one of them).

[Gamesoul Master]

Have you tried the -r switch on it? Normally, I would assume it since it had a full report on it, but I think it was Megaman X5 that had the same kind of report (after the Capcom screen), but somehow nobody had tried the -r switch, and it actually worked.

[patrickp]

It's also true, I think, that with a lot of reports claiming that a game won't work in this way, copy or mod protection may be the cause: comparatively few people reporting actually seem to be certain whether their setup can read subcode and hence defeat copy protection.

Does your game play Ok in a Playstation, Andrew? If so, then read my previous post and try this

If you're running 32bit Windows 2000, or XP (possibly also Vista and 64bit Windows - I don't know), get a copy of the wnaspi32.dll (linked in my previous post) and put it in your pSX folder. Open pSX' configuration and, on the CDROM tab set CD reading to ASPI rather than Auto or IOControl. Leave Subcode reading set to Auto.

If you're using Windows 9.x google for ForceASPI version 1.17 and install it. Then open pSX' configuration and, on the CDROM tab set CD reading to ASPI rather than Auto or IOControl. Leave Subcode reading set to Auto.

If you're using Linux, you only need to confirm that Subcode reading is set to Auto on the CDROM tab.

For all OSs, put a PAL Playstation BIOS (one with the 4 digit number ending in 2) in your bios folder and set pSX to use it.

Try playing the game from each of your optical drives. If one of them is an -RW drive, you have a better chance of this working. If your game works from any of the drives, you're in; if not, we're still not certain this is because pSX really doesn't play Parasite Eve 2, or whether your system doesn't read subcode, but, short of ensuring that you have a subcode-reading drive there's no way to be sure why.

And if not, you will have to use another emulator. A few people here have suggested ePSXe, but you don't want to use that; I can understand why - it's old and excessively complex to get working. You could try, as jonc2006 says, Xebra, another pluginless emulator that, like pSX, is still in active development. See here for a link and instructions on downloading, and here for instructions on how to use it. I've never used it myself because it's Windows-only, but it's supposed to work extremely well and possibly have even better compatibility than pSX. However, it is a Japanese emulator; if there are any forums supporting it, they're probably Japanese only. I believe the gui does display in English, though.

[AstralRomance51]

Okay, I've tried everything, and it's just not working. I even tried the -r switch thing, to no avail. BIOS changes and drivers, nothing. So, I guess that my last option is to give ePSXe another chance.

So, Jonc2006, I'd like to take you up on your offer to help me configure it to my needs. Check my profile page for my contact info. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I'm sure I'll be needing your help again soon.

[jonc2006]

i sent you a pm in case you miss this. just give me a few hours to get some stuff done with my system first and once im finished ill help you out.