Trouble with some PCSX games

I'm running pcsx-reloaded on a 2012 Macbook Pro, no fancy options. The games I'm having trouble with are Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean: Second Story. In VP, the game runs perfectly until Freya takes Lenneth to the first dungeon in Midgard. Then the screen goes mostly black with a few random streaks of color. I've tried several different graphics configurations, but so far I've only succeeded in changing the pattern of the random color streaks. In SO, the game simply freezes as soon as I choose what sound setting I want (surround, stereo, or monoaural). The problems might be unrelated, or they might not be. I'm pretty new to emulation, so could anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

:/ don't expect much help here there are very few Mac users here

That is not to say you are not welcome here, you very much are

I will try and help regardless though

Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean 2 require special fixes to be enabled in the sound plugin for those to work correctly "SPU IRQ" options fix this (wait for CPU action) & (Force interruption flag7 or might be called handle irqs in decoded sound buffer areas), just enable and SPU IRQ option in your sound plugin and try again

I can't be certain pcsx even has those options in the sound plugins as I am a windows user

Do I need to install a program to get the SPU IRQ option to work, or is it built in like the other ones? In any case, thanks for the suggestion.

Okay, so there are two options, SPU IRQ and SIO IRQ under the emulation tab in Preferences. Checking SPU totally disables the controls for both games, and SIO has no effect on either.

SPU IRQ has nothing to do with controls

No idea what SIO is

If for some strange reason the controls are effected try and reconfigure the controls after setting the SPU IRQ stuff to on

Or try another pad plugin, that is very strange the pad controls would be effected

Yeah, the description says it fixes sound issues, but for whatever reason I can't enter any commands when it's enabled. Also, I need to correct something I said earlier. It's not when I'm picking the sound that SO freezes, it's after I pick a battle style (static, active, etc.), i.e. right before the game actually starts. That's why I thought the problems might be related, because they both mess up right before getting into the gameplay. The sound isn't really a problem for either game, though, because it works fine until the crash/freeze.

Are there other pad plugins you can use again I wouldn't know personally.

No the IRQ thing is the issue, otherwise the games do freeze as you describe, I know for the best part the sound will... sound just fine

Try with just one of the IRQ options though while I test Star Ocean 2nd story on my end with and without the IRQ settings as that game will be easy to test as it's crashing before you can start the thing

EDIT I don't know it seems to work ok with and without the IRQ hack

I will test more tomorrow though I'm tired

OK game just works whatever I do I would be checking your disc images against the information over at www.redump.org, just grab some crc checking software and make sure the disc image is ok

I just used http://www.emuparadise.me/Sony_Playstation_ISOs/Star_Ocean_-_The_Second_Story_[NTSC-U]_[Disc1of2] to test with

disc 2 is http://www.emuparadise.me/Sony_Playstation_ISOs/Star_Ocean_-_The_Second_Story_[NTSC-U]_[Disc2of2]

you will need some mac unecm software to fully extract those

After doing some research, I found two other people whose keyboards were disabled after activating the SPU hack, and both of them were running pcsx-r on a Macbook Pro. I've posted on pcsx-r's main website, so the problem should be solved one way or another pretty soon. Anyway, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Once I learn the solution, I'll post it here for the benefit of other Mac users.

I wish you the best of luck with that then :)

try to download other emulator or newer (more bugs will get fixed)