Is there any advice out there for getting SNESKey running on a 486? I've tried the troubleshooting section but there are so many variations on what to try I was hoping someone could save me the trouble.
The symptom is, 'sneskey /x' works fine for the Playstation controller adapter I built, but the app freezes when running the app (or /t for tsr mode).
From the manual:
This will have to do with the software end of things. Try fiddling with the "8042Addr =" line in the ini file (only if you are not using the "newest" KeySimMethod). The setting should range from 00 to 1F. Most modern machines use 1F just fine, but try 00 and go up if that doesn't work right off. Once you find this value you will use it for all your games, so you will probably want to change your "default" ini file (c:\sneskey\sneskey.ini). This also means that if your other games work correctly the problem is most probably (all most certainly) somewhere else.
If that doesn't work change the "MainInt =" line to "MainInt = 0x08", "MainInt = 0x1C" or "MainInt = 0x28" and the "TickFreq =" line to "TickFreq = none" (that might sound strange, but its ok, believe me). Now, run the game (using "go" to start it) and see if it works. If so, and the game seems to be responding quickly enough, use these settings, but I would appreciate an email about what game, what version of SNESKey you are using, and a copy of your ini files, so I can try to fix your problem appropriately.
There is another possibility, SNESKey uses an interrupt as a "wakeup." Whenever this interrupt is executed, it makes sure that the interrupt SNESKey uses for most of it's work (usually 0x70) is doing fine. I have never had this cause a problem on interrupt 0x08, but I guess it could. If it does, try using 0x09, this is the keyboard interrupt, it is only called when you press a key, so if SNESKey seems to have stopped responding, hit a key and see if it wakes up. You can also disable the wakeup function by setting the line in the ini file that says "WakeUpInt = " to "none" (no quotes). There is also a variable in the ini file called "TweakType." This variable tells SNESKey what kind of wakeup to do. Values range form 0 to 2, each being a different type of wakeup. A value of 1 does a "safer" subset of 2, and 0 does neither.
Have you tried this?
Yes, I tried the steps in the troubleshooting section.
It starts by saying 'try 00-1F' which is 32 reboots just for _that_ section. I tried the other tips which have less iterations but the wording on those is vague in my opinion.
I was hoping someone with a 386/486 had already encountered this.
Hi, I also have a 486 PC and have the same issue. Trying the troubleshooting steps mentioned above, I manage to make the program pass the freezing point by changing the "WakeUpInt =" line from 0x08 to 0x09. Now I got another error when launching Sneskey with /v parameter: "Unable to find necessary files. Please start program from the default drive and directory." It would freeze at the "Spawning external program..." line before I do the change. The parallel port is set to 278/IRQ5 with SPP mode. The game I want to use Sneskey with is Prince of Persia 1 if that matters. What should I do now?
I've tried to run two other different games with Sneskey and the results are different each. A Chinese game called Wlong says "Stub exec failed: dos4gw.exe No such file or directory". Running Hexen causes the freezing again even after changing the "WakeUpInt =" to 0x09. This is really wired.
Okay, my bad. I didn't copy the proper .ini file to the game folder before launching go.bat. After doing that the game can be started successfully, but my controller does nothing. I've also tried to change the ProgPath variable to c:\command.com and set DrawDots to true for troubleshooting as the manual mentioned to no avail. I'm out of idea.
