Panzer Dragoon 2: Zwei won't go past first FMV opening

[ZJrocket]

I've googled this and found numerous variables on the issue and numerous solutions so it's looking like I'm gonna have to start from scratch, I suppose.

I'm using SSF Ver0.12 Beta (it works on Windows XP, yey) I have no BIOS loaded, I'm using VirtualClone Drive to mount and play my games, but if I try to skip the opening cutscene or let it play, it just says at the bottom left hand corner of the screen "Drive door open" so... yeah. Let's... go from there, shall we?

What would be causing this issue for me? :C

[Zorlon]

A couple of things, first is just incompatibility with that version, I can confirm that later, I'm off to bed now though so will test that later, but the biggest well known reason of them all is a badly done dump, usually missing or incorrectly dumped CDDA track/s

Seen that issue with 3 "Saga" plenty of times, so many I ended up uploading a working copy as it was annoying so many had the same issue, I will do the same again if this is another one that is just a bad disc images floating around the internet

[ZJrocket]

Awww, I actually found this by you: http://www.epforums.org/showthread.php?89921 I'm not sure if it's outdated or anything or won't work for me, but it has pretty much the same exact issue as Zwei, just won't go past the first fmv. Oh well, if the case is that I have to settle on waiting for a new PC, that's ok.

[Zorlon]

I know that is a perfect disc image though I was using the latest build of SSF

If you have not been make sure to mount the disc image via the cue file

Otherwise try with D-Tools Lite instead, just be careful when installing to install the SPTD drivers but none of the adware and make sure you reset before trying it


EDIT: quickly tested Zwei in SSF 0.12 beta and it runs to in-game just fine

I use a BIOS file, that I'm sure is recommended anyway
I use Daemon Tools Lite + the SPTD drivers with the disc image mounted by the cue file
SSF is on default settings except for the Region & CD drive to read and the BIOS is setup

[ZJrocket]

NEVER MIND, I ACTUALLY GOT IT TO WORK AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH this is fantastic. Although, I have no idea how I did it, but D-Tools Lite sure did help ,some how. It's a tiny bit laggy but I guess I'll have to put the settings down a bit, at least I HOPE that'll help.

Edit: Started playing Zwei, audio is a little skippy every 15 seconds during FMVs. Oh well, it'll do for when I can finally play this on a better PC.

[Zorlon]

Guess you could possibly rip the FMV and play it back via a PC video player (depends on the video format and if it is actually FMV and if it's standard Saturn Movie file format)

There are a few converters and players for a couple of Saturn format video files

[ZJrocket]

I tried the first CD for your Saga uploads and mysteriously can't be read on SSF. I opened the file and it shows literally nothing inside the cue file (whereas Zwei would show a bunch of game-material from within). Strange...

[Zorlon]

Sounds like a corrupt download to me, I did test it before uploading and it has been used by other users on the forums

EDIT: quickly downloaded it to look myself and it's still fine

the cue contents is
Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. Though if you are getting a blank one the chances are the binary file is also corrupt

For an archive inside of an archive it is always best to extract the main archive to your computer then extract the archive that was inside of it, do not try and extract that while it is still inside of the original archive, i.e. extract the passworded file first, that will give you an rar file, that should be extracted while it is in a folder and not while still in the passworded 7z file, also use 7-zip for that process.

[ZJrocket]

I tried that just now, no dice... Hmm, when I can, say, burn images onto a CD (like a DVD or an actual CD for music? I have both) would that make things a lot more easier? Yea, it doesn't solve the missing cue file information, but I was just curious before I can actually get my hands on another computer.

[Zorlon]

No burning will not make it any easier unless you have a real console, but for emulation I would say don't burn anything and advise against burning

As I downloaded the same file and got it extracted fine I assume you have some sort of download error, if extracting with 7-zip did not help and you extract the rar file from the 7z file with the correct password then extracted the rar file itself while it was in a folder or your desktop and not inside the 7z file

Out of interest did you get an extraction error at any point as it could of just been an extraction issue if you attempted to extract the contents of the rar file while it was still inside the 7z file

[ZJrocket]

Ah ok, I was just curious, I had a feeling it wouldn't do any good. :p A real console seems not too pricey though, if I got a real one I shouldn't have as much trouble as I'm having now I presume? (Or unless getting a new computer would suffice)

Edit: For some... inexplicable reason, it's working now. Now the only thing I'm concerned with is when I reach having to switch to disc 2 and then onward.

[Zorlon]

It's done via saves if I remember correctly as the system resets back to bios as soon as the lid is open, most Saturn games work like that, I would be tempted to say all but I have not played them all to know that for certain.

SSF has a drive open/close option anyway, so set it to open then change the disc image in the virtual drive, think it auto closes anyway, but if not hit close drive, I actually don't know a use for that asides from playing another game without having to close down the emulator and restarting it

[aspinia]

Heh even now it's better to use an old version of SSF to fully play the game, I remembered years ago the Cassini emulator was compatible but gameplay is a bit slow, ssf and yabause still hangs not only with panzer dragoon zewi but also Panzer dragoon saga, there must be something wrong when these emulators play the videos, in my case I only needed to press start to bypass the videos, maybe you only need to bypass the opening video.

About the cue errors cassini emulator could actually fix cue files (bin and cue game images) I don't know if there's a tool to do that I encountered some bad cue files that I could correct myself, some cue files had written .mp3 on every audio files when they should be wav files, so just modify the name using wordpad on the cue files and if the audio tracks have any other format that is not wav then you must convert them I even downloaded some bin and mp3 files when they were supposed to be iso and mp3, fortunatelly there's a tool to convert bin to iso for Saturn images, that actually helped cause those games were playable after all this process, yes it's really annoying nowdays all games should be full not ripped back then my Internet speed was really crappy so I was thankful to download small iso images, but now things are different and it's better the full image of any game.

[Zorlon]

The cue was not the ral issue as he download was corrupt the latest sff plays he game perfect with no lag, but lower end older machines would lag plus the latest ssf sems to have issues with xp, casinni aka girigiri hacked was never that stable, it was ok for the time as itwas js about the only option though.