Le FAQ de Snes9x

Wassail,
This is the much anticipated and highly informative Frequently Asked Questions a
rticle,
which contains, believe it or not, Frequently Asked Questions as well as Frequen
tly
Answered Answers! I shall be your host on this gleeful sojourn through a text d
ocument,
where anything can, but probably won't, happen.
By popular demand the FAQ is now sorted in some form of coherent order, and has
little
liney things, which are supposedly neat.
On our first section of this mystical journey you shall see various frequently a
sked
questions, as well as their answers!
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 1:
Emulator Specific Questions
Or
It's Not the Size of an Emulator That Counts; It's How You Use it.
Q: When is the next version (of Snes9x) coming out?
A: Chances are it will be coming out when enough changes have been made to sui
tably
make a release. You can generally guesstimate the release date by paying attent
ion to the
Developers forum at snes9x.com.
Q: Why doesn't Snes9x have feature X?
A: There is no feature X, it is only an illusion... A trick of the mind, if yo
u will.
Q: Why do my games run too fast?
A: Through proper nutrition and training an increase in abilities is often fou
nd. It is
possible that certain ROMs, whilst training for the annual Rohm race, surpassed
a sane
limit. Generally not allowing them to run will cause atrophy, making them somew
hat
slower. Seriously though, try using the + and/or - keys to adjust the emulated s
peed. If
you are feeling lucky, you might also wish to try holding down Shift, and pressi
ng the +
and/or - keys. In the display settings make sure the "Use Frame Limiter" and "Au
tomatic
Frame Skipping" boxes are checked.
Q: Why doesn't Snes9x support transparencies?
A: It does!!!!
Q: I recently purchased a game pad controller. Will it work on Snes9x?
A: More than likely yes. Any USB compatable controller will work. Generally th
is means
any controller made within the past 7 years or so. Some Gravis Game pads seem to
have more
trouble than most however. Consider updating drivers and recalibrating your cont
roller if
it does not work.
Q: Why can't I run forward while jumping and shooting?
A: Lack of cognitive exercise can often affect brain patterns, resulting in an
inability to
multitask. An example would be an inability to rub ones tummy whilst patting on
es
head. Occasionally the cognitive abilities can atrophy so much that you are una
ble to run
and jump whilst carrying firearms. Alternatively, all keyboards can only input s
o much
data to the CPU at a time. Depending on the brand and placement of the keys, thi
s
number can vary, however three keys does seem to be a standard limit. There are
multiple solutions to this problem. Obtaining a game pad of some form is the mo
st
highly suggested method, as playing the Snes with a keyboard was not one of the
greatest
videogame ideas of the last century. You can also try to reassign buttons to ke
ys that
allow more input; Ctrl and Alt for example. The final method is to assign multi
ple tasks
to a single key, though this can be frustrating in near-all instances. As an ex
ample you
could configure the spacebar to jump AND shoot, however the drawback is that you
would not be able to jump without shooting, or shoot without jumping.
Q: In Snes9x my game pad is having trouble inputting any diagonal directions on
the D-Pad.
How can I fix this?
A: While setting up your controller functions in Snes9x, make sure you do not
setup the
diagonal buttons; leave them blank. Ye olde Snes only had 4 buttons on the D-Pad
: Up, down,
left and right. By pressing two directions you would go in the appropriate diago
nal
direction(game specific of course).
Q: Soooooooo... Why the heck do you have diagonals in the controller setup anywa
y?
A: Simple really. Some people enjoy using the keyboard, or have no other choic
e.
A few questions up the topic of keyboard input limitations was addressed. Being
able to
input the diagonals can help hinder that occurrence. It can also make keyboard u
sage
a bit easier... assigning the directional controls to the number pad for instanc
e.
Q: I gotsid me a translation patch (.ips) for my game. Now what do I do so I can
use it?
A: Make sure both your ROM image and .ips file are in the same folder. Finall
y make sure
they have the exact same name (minus file extensions, of course). As an example
"Pie.smc"
should have "Pie.ips" and "Super_Pie3(E).smc" should have "Super_Pie3(E).ips". N
ow open up
Snes9x, load your ROM and voila!
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 2:
Game Specific Questions
Or
How I learned To Stop Worrying and Love the ROM
Q: Why doesn't Star Ocean/SFA 2 work?
A: These games contained a rare processor with a rather nasty compression sche
me,
making it hard to properly crack. It is possible to play these on Snes9x, though
you need
to obtain the aptly named "graphics packs" which contain the uncompressed graphi
cs of
the two games. After you have obtained these you can fiddle with setting them u
p, which
is explained in the read me, and then you too can play your emulated copy of the
games
you no doubt own.
Q: Heeeeeey, Star Ocean is working, and I don't have this graphics pack thing yo
u are
talking about.
A: Yes, last time I mentioned it contained a processor that was difficult to c
ompletely
emulate due to its compression scheme. Through vast work our crack team has best
ed the
little bugger and now you can reap the benefits. What this means is that games
with said
processing unit, the s-dd1, can now run without graphics packs. You can still us
e the
graphics packs if you would like to, and it may increase speed and playability o
f said
games. Snes9x will, by default, run these games without using the graphic packs
but you
can change this in the options menu. The exact ROMs that can now run without gra
phics
packs are Star Ocean (J), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (E), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (U)
and Street
Fighter Zero 2 (J)
Q: Why doesn't MegaManX2 and/or 3 work?
A: With the present state of economy it is often hard for valuable tradesmen t
o find
long-standing jobs. As such, it is possible that it proves even more difficult f
or the
aforementioned games. More than likely it does work, however depending on your
operating system, it may not yet be implemented. If this is the case, upgrade yo
ur OS or,
alternatively, bribe your port maintainer to implement the code.
Q: Why doesn't game X work?
A: There are three possible answers to this question, depending on the scenari
o. Answer
one is that it does work, but your ROM dump is incorrect (this MAY be fixed by r
e
attaching your cartridge to your copier and redumping). Answer two is that we ha
ve
found a solution to the problem, but have not yet implemented a fix. Answer thr
ee, a
subsidiary of answer two, is that we do NOT know what is wrong with it, and as s
uch
have not yet implemented a fix.
Q: Why doesn't Snes9x display SD3/Secret of Mana/other hi-res game?
A: To answer this one must first understand what hi-res games are. There are
games
that used higher resolution than the Super Nintendo standard. You can easily act
ivate the
Hi-res mode by configuring it in the settings panel. This may slow down game sp
eed on
some lower-end computers, which is why it is an optional feature.
Q: In some games, including Seiken Densetsu 3, the text and options screen seems
stretched and distorted. How do I stop this?
A: First, make sure you have Hi-res enabled in the display screen. Also make s
ure your
image filter is not set to "NONE." If you find the Hi-res checkbox is unselectab
le,
increase your resolution in the Snes9x display options to at least 512 x 480.
Q: I'm all like "Hey, Yoshi's Island" and it's all like "error" and I'm all like
"Ooooh, no
Yoshi's Island" but my friend is like "Yay, Yoshi's Island." Why?
A: Try selecting "mode 2" from the interleave dropdown box in the "open" menu
before
loading said ROM Image.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 3:
All About Netplay
Or
More Slow Than a Quadriplegic Ninja Turtle, But Only Half as Entertaining
Q: Snes9x netplay sucks, can I make it better?
A: Yes you can! Snes9x is open source so all you need to make netplay better i
s
advanced programming knowledge and a will to improve upon the Snes9x code. At
present time Snes9x is more for LANplay, best used in a small network of local
computers. I recommend Zsnes (www.zsnes.com) and zbattle (www.zbattle.net) for y
our
random chaotic netplay needs.
Q: I am using a Windows port of Snes9x. My friend is using a Mac. Can we netplay
?
A: Yes... Just not with each other. Snes9x, at this time, does not support cro
ss-platform
netplay. Or good netplay.
Q: Yea who don know dat but when i do what do afta y find som1
A: An excellent... ...question. I couldn't have worded it better myself. Despi
te my sarcasm
however I must cringe at the fact I can actually understand it enough to answer.
The answer
depends on if you are acting as the server/host or the client. If you are the ho
st you
must first find your IP Address and give it to the person you intend to play onl
ine with.
Next open Snes9x, load the ROM you wish to netplay, and then from the netplay me
nu, select
"Act as server." Then you wait until the client connects... Now, if you are the
client, first
receive the IP address from the host, open Snes9x, and open the ROM you wish to
netplay. Select
"connect to server" from the netplay menu, and fill out the nessecary informatio
n. Server
address should contain the IP Address of the host. After that is done click "Con
nect."
Assuming both parties have done their role correctly, a netplay match should soo
n start.
Q: How do I chat with my partner duirng netplay?
A: I personally recommend yelling really loudly, but the telephone is also a s
omewhat
plausible answer I suppose. Seriously.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 4:
Mac, Linux & Dreamcast Specific Questions
Or
Don't Buy into the Paneful Propaganda
Q: My buddy, whose soul has been lost to M$, says he can run games like Doom and
Starfox2, but Snes9x on my Mac has all sorts of problems when running them. What
I
do?
A: The aforementioned games, as well as a few others, use a special chip calle
d the
Super FX. To emulate this chip the Windows port uses an i386 assembler core, whi
le the
Mac uses a c++ core. Full support for the Super FX chip has not yet been impleme
nted
due to the differences in coding.
Q: Can I change the keybindings on Linux?
A: From what I've been told the keymap is hardcoded to the source, making cha
nging them rather difficult. The only way to change them, for now, would be to
edit and recompile the source, which from what I've been told isn't somethign ev
eryone can do.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 5:
Miscellaneous Questions
Or
Q-Bert Is My Only Friend
Q: Is it legal?!
A: This has been asked time and again, and the answer is yes. Developing,
downloading, or using the emulator, Snes9x, is completely legal. Downloading ga
mes,
called ROMS, however is not. If you own the original cartridge of a game, you a
re still
not entitled to download the ROM image of that game. You may create a single bac
kup
image of your own cartridge via proper hardware, but it must be YOUR cartridge a
nd is
only usable in place of the original... so only one may be active at any time. M
any sites
claim that you may legally download ROMs for up to 24 hours before they must be
deleted. This is also wrong; you can't legally download these for "trial" purpos
es. You
can't download ROMs for educational purposes either. If you wish to use Super Ni
ntendo
Entertainment System games for educational purposes, contact your closest Ninten
do
Outlet and discuss educational programming with them. Finally, a small number o
f
ROMs are labeled "(PD)". This means public domain, and these games are not under
copyright. As such they are legal to download at your hearts content. These incl
ude
programs created by internet users such as yourself for use in Super Nintendo em
ulators.
As of this time there are no commercial videogames in the public domain.
Q: My friend, Tibby, says that you are wrong and that game companies don't care
if you
download games!
A: Whilst not actually a question, and more of a statement, I am afraid Tibby
is
incorrect. Feel free to peruse the various legal documentation sprawled through
out the
World Wide Web or your local constituency. As for the blatant generalization tha
t
companies do not care; At least one does, and truthfully many more do as well, a
s such
the statement is obviously a fallacy. For those who think it is not fair, or sh
ouldn't be the
way it is... perhaps not, though as holders of a copyright it is up to Nintendo
to decide
how and when their products are distributed.
Q: I just purchased your fine program off eBay for $19.89, but my friend says I
can
download it for free. Can you guys give me my money back?
A: Okay, this question hasn't actually been asked, however our free downloadab
le
program does seem to get sold on eBay more often than it should, which is to say
at all.
We cannot reimburse anyone who was unlucky enough to be scammed into purchasing
Snes9x, just as McDonalds cannot reimburse you if you purchased 100 Happy Meals
from a random stranger and he gave you a frozen fish. If you find yourself in th
is
situation... Purchasing Snes9x, not frozen fish... Please take the time to infor
m eBay via
their heavily disguised investigations department, and leave any negative feedba
ck that
you wish. It would also be appreciated by the Snes9x team if you could mention
where
and when this happened so that we can take measures to stop it from happening ag
ain.
While the fact we aren't making money from the program in no way bothers us (It
is
freeware after all), that some grubby bastards are does.
Q: So err, where exactly do I contact y'all, eh?
A: The most convenient way to contact us would be via www.snes9x.com. There i
s a
forum that is checked at least 12 times a day by regulars, and at least a few of
us can
actually give some advice. E-mail is also a possibility, though it is much slow
er, and
you'll hafta find the e-mail addresses on your own. Be sure to read the FAQ and
Read me
before posting, as things already answered many a time will probably result in r
andom
insults or heavy sarcasm.