Ah... Several problems with FF9

[KuroNeko]

Hey everyone, I'm new, so please bear with me

Well, firstly, I already tried ePSXe but couldn't get graphics that were any good and the game lagged a lot.

So I moved on to pSX, and I tried playing it from my CD, which I assume by now is probably ... no good. The game froze in the middle of the opening FMV. This was similar with what happened with ePSXe, only the game would freeze, skip the rest of the FMV, and pick up after it. In pSX it just freezes.

So I used ISOProducer to make an ISO out of it, which came out as a WinRAR file, but couldn't open with WinRAR or anything but could still be read as an ISO (Im not sure if this was supposed to happen..). So I tried playing that file in pSX (and ePSXe) and even worse, the game froze at the Squaresoft logo. In the DOS window, this message was shown repeatedly:

"rldata buffer empty"

So does anyone know what I can do to get my FF9 working?

[hushypushy]

well, you probably have winrar set to associate with .ISO, that doesn't mean that it came out as a winrar file (which typically would mean a RAR).

first of all, do you have a legit FF9 in the first place? Kinda sounds like just disc problems all over the place. How about your CD drive? Does it read any other PSX games?

[KuroNeko]

Yes, acctually, my FF9 copy is legit

My CD Drive does read my other PSX games as well.

Hmm... I thought making an image from a disc would mend the disc problems? (On the iso, not the disc obviously)

[Gamesoul Master]

Well... it's never a good idea to use ISO's unless you absolutely have to. Get a program that can create ccd/img/sub files from a disc (it's called the CloneCD image format... guess the main program that makes it... XD). Alcohol 120% and CloneCD are both good for this.

Also, could you please give us more information? Like... your drive-type and age, the version of FFIX you're using (NTSC-U or PAL), the BIOS you're using, etc. Anything relevant to the problem.

[hushypushy]

try using a different program or drive to make the ISO. how's the disc, is it in good condition?

Seems like a disc or drive problem, if it's having so many problems reading off the disc and reading the ISO made from that disc.

[DarkTemplar]

Hmm dude tomorrow i will post up my settings for my FF9 and i am running mine off an iso my CD's are to valueable to use, i have the orginals from FF7-FFx-2 ^_^

Well i will bring my settings and then u can try them i had the same problem as u but i dont think that it a cd rom or a cd issue i think that it is your plugin that u are using for Graphics i have a whole list and links to the best ePSXe plugins

[Gamesoul Master]

@DarkTemplar: I think you're missing the whole point here. He came up with the same problem in both ePSXe and pSX. And pSX doesn't use plugins, so it has to be a problem that both could have. FFIX is known to be a game that can be quite touchy (the PAL version is even copy-protected). Not having the subcode data (like in an ISO image, which doesn't hold that data) can cause more problems compared to running the original CD (especially in this case).

KuroNeko needs to tell us which version of the game he's playing. If the PAL version, he really needs to either play off the CD, or use the ccd/img/sub image format for best results. And in either case, it sounds like he is having a read problem, because I have tried the game in both emulators, both from the original CD and a ccd/img/sub image, and all combinations worked just fine (using the NTSC-U version, of course).

[DarkTemplar]

Hmmmm.... i see your point... does it also mean if he has to go with making images that the software you use will to make the images?

[Gamesoul Master]

It means that he has a better chance of the images working correctly for him if he uses Alcohol 120% or CloneCD to make ccd/img/sub images.