VOGONS


First post, by bounty vb

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Hello everyone 😀

last week i downloaded the playstation 1 emulator 'pSX'
the program works great on my vista machine (finally i can play my FF's again! 😀 )

but i also tried to play it on my older pc, and it keeps crashing.
(i really want to play on that pc, as it's on my room)

here are my specs (AFAIK it should be able to run pSX)

Pentium 3, 933 Mhz
~350MB RAM
3dfx Voodoo Banshee
windows XP pro sp2

when i start the emulator a DOS window comes up, and another small window where i have to select the language.

after i select a language (dutch or english) the program crashes with this error.
"b0rken
unhandled exception, save a crash dump?"

i have a crash dump. (i'll upload it if you want)

now i also tried 'epsxe' and that DID run, it just can't play FF
(only games i have left... 🙁 )

i think the drivers for my videocard are outdated.
i googled for ages, and tried different drivers, but to be honest, i have NO IDEA which drivers are good.

i was hoping you guys would know a couple of good (/latest) drivers for the '3dfx voodoo banshee' for winXP.
i have checked guru3d etc. but they have so much drivers and it's a little overwhelming.

i'd really appreciate your help 😀
if you need more info, just ask and i'll try to provide it

thanks in advance

Reply 1 of 12, by ADDiCT

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You won't have much fun with PSX emulation with your ancient computer. I've been using pSX for a while now, and never had any crash problems. Your problem is your outdated GFX card (and if pSX would run, probably the slow processor).

Reply 2 of 12, by DOS_Boy

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By the way, is there a playable ps2 emulator available these days? if so, where can I legal download the bios file?

"But listen to me brother, you just keep on walking, 'cause you and me and sister ain't got nothing to hide..." - Scatman John

Reply 4 of 12, by ADDiCT

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PCSX2 is not an emulator. It's the preview of something that might become an usable emulator someday. Compatibility is not very good ATM, and you need one hell of a machine to run the games at a decent framerate.

P.S.: the BIOS question is so silly that i didn't even bother to answer it.

Reply 5 of 12, by Sune Salminen

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Come on, there must be a way to run pSX on a Voodoo Banshee..

Even if his CPU might be too slow, there must be a new modified driver that will work.

Where are all the 3DFX experts!? 😘

I sent the OP here, hoping they would fall over one another to answer this post. Instead there's someone asking where to download the PS2 BIOS.

🤣

Reply 6 of 12, by wd

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The first reply has a valid point though, and an "unhandled exception" feels
like a rather unspecific thing.
(Is pSX known to work under vista?)

Reply 7 of 12, by StickByDos

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I played FF8 through the 1st cd on a K6-2 375MHz at an acceptable speed
It was on ePSXe with Lewpy glide plugin and a voodoo5

On your pc, I think a faster graphic card may help

Type win to loose the power of your computer !

Reply 8 of 12, by Sune Salminen

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@StickByDos

A 'fast' video card won't help. pSX doesn't use your video card like ePSXe does. It only uses 3D acceleration to draw the final output to the screen. So it runs fine even on Intel 810 integrated video...

@wd

pSX works fine under Vista.

I agree "Unhandled Exception" is kind of vague but the OP got the emulator to go a little further installing the March 2008 DirectX redist, so I thought it might be video related. And pSX only needs MMX and SSE so it should at least run on a P3. I've seen it running on an old Celeron 1.20..

I think a recent, hacked Voodoo driver is his best shot but I don't know anything about Voodoo cards. I do know that some 3DFX archaeologists hang out over here (oh sharp one, I summon thee!) and I was hoping they might have some suggestions on which driver to use.

Reply 9 of 12, by leileilol

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pSX uses a 24/32bit buffer. Voodoo Banshee won't ever do this in hardware.

Also, pSX is an "accuracy" emulator. It is also quite CPU taxing, you'll need something of a AthlonXP 3000+ to play on it at a playable speed.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 10 of 12, by bounty vb

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[offtopic - more important in a way 😜 ] hmmm, funny that an Athlon 3000+ is mentioned, as i have one of those as well 😀

i just really messed that thing up about 2 months ago, when i loaded 'high performance defaults' in the BIOS.

the PC started freezing in winXP (also having trouble booting) ever since.
i loaded the regular default settings and it's still freezing 😢 😢
(any idea what the problem might be?) [/offtopic]

anyway, back to the Pentium3. i borrowed 'breath of fire IV' from a friend, and i can play it in epsxe!
it runs just fine, 60 fps on full screen etc. + very minor graphic glitches
(nothing that makes it unplayable)

i thought epsxe was more demanding then pSX?
(for the videocard atleast)

but the game i'm really trying to play (Final Fantasy 7) is unplayable in epsxe.
1st of all the lower half of the screen (where you select the attacks etc.) is just black, so i have no idea what i am doing.
then 3 minutes into the game you have to name barret, and the entire pc just freezes up.

PS: i did see the options in epsxe to make ff7 run, i'm also using that lewpy glide plugin, but all the fixes for the game didn't do a thing so far.

any response is welcome, wether it's an idea on how to 'fix' my athlon (oh i'd LOVE that!! 😀 )
or an idea for the Pentium3 (meh, but still 😉 )

thanks for the replies though, got a lot more then i expected after that 2nd reply

Reply 11 of 12, by Sune Salminen

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leileilol wrote:

pSX uses a 24/32bit buffer. Voodoo Banshee won't ever do this in hardware.

I don't think that's why. If that was the reason, pSX wouldn't be working on Intel 810 video.

leileilol wrote:

Also, pSX is an "accuracy" emulator. It is also quite CPU taxing, you'll need something of a AthlonXP 3000+ to play on it at a playable speed.

pSX runs fine on my wife's old Celeron 1.20GHz PC.

Hey bounty vb - on the machine with the Banshee, try setting your desktop bitdepth to 16 before starting pSX.

Reply 12 of 12, by Sune Salminen

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I've found this for you:
http://www.falconfly.de/banshee.htm

Scroll down to the bottom and in the section marked "Voodoo Banshee WinXP Drivers", download Raziel64's Evolution Driver (V1.00.00b) from May 2004.

Please let me know how it turns out. Good luck!