Topic: The "I need help emulating things, y'all" thread.

[SiFi270]

I've started emulating X68K games, and I've encountered two problems:

• Running Nemesis '90 Kai puts me at a command prompt screen where I have no idea what it wants from me.
• Castlevania gives me three options for how to play the music, but none of them seem to be SC-55.

Can anyone help?

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Are you running ex68 or are you running win68k?

The third one should be SC-55 (which ends up just using your Windows Microsoft MIDI Mapper driver).  Should be the one that has the RolandGS Icon.

For Nemesis, did you load disk 1 into fdd0 and disk 2 into fdd1?  If you did, and it still happens you 'might' have a bad BIOS ROM.  Or, you might need boot ROMs set up on the emulator(s).

[SiFi270]

I'm using Win68K. I meant to clarify that in the first post, but I guess it slipped my mind.

I chose the third option like you suggested, and it seems to be the right one. I guess what threw me off was that it didn't sound exactly like the PSX version, which I'm assuming was enhanced.

For Nemesis, I'm not entirely sure how to 'boot' ROMs, but I'll try to look elsewhere for BIOS.

EDIT: All of a sudden, I seem to be having trouble with the name entry screen in Castlevania. When I get to the second letter, pressing "confirm" makes it go back to the previous letter before instantly going back, and pressing "back" makes it do the same, but in the opposite direction. If I press either one enough times, it allows me to change the first letter again.

FURTHER EDIT: I seem to have disabled the above problem by disabling JoyKey.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Ex68 and Win68k will NEVER sound exactly like the Roland GS Sound Canvas SC-55 unless you actually have the Roland GS Sound Canvas hardware installed on your system OR have an equivalent driver.  Or you're like me and have access to software synthesizers that you can use as device drivers.  You 'may' be able to use the Roland
In fact, Microsoft Windows Sound Driver won't sound exactly like the SC-55 ever, because it will be missing the "Roland GS" samples (meaning when you listen to Theme of Simon it won't have the heartbeat or running water samples, and when you listen to Moon Fight it won't have the creaking door and slamming door sounds that are in the tune).  It will use just regular "General MIDI" samples, so you will not get a modern complete set.  It usually does enough of a good job.

These days you'd need some kind of software synthesizer plugin/device driver for whatever OS you're using, to get the quality that the PSX version outputs.... but with a little luck, you may even exceed it.

[SiFi270]

So I tried different versions of both the system's BIOS and the game's ROM with Nemesis, and it still leaves me at the same command prompt screen. I'm pretty sure it just wants me to type something so I can start the game, but I have no idea what that might be.

I also tried running Salamander, which seems to have some very confusing controls, but I have a feeling I'll be able to work this one out on my own.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Did you check out this guide?
Although the Win68k you're using is probably newer, this makes for good reference.
Clearing the SRAM sometimes helps (it essentially resets the game).  I heard of a dude that reset the game like 20 times to get it to work.  Also, this game is notorious for taking longer than normal to run.

Not sure what to put in the command prompt.

[SiFi270]

So I managed to get it working by selecting "The amount of MainMemory setting in SRAM" from the "Option" menu and setting it to 10. Let this be a lesson to all others who may struggle with emulation: When in doubt, screw around.