Homebrew I need help running PCE CD games on Wiimednafen

[Hielkenator]

Hi,

I just can't seem to get ANY PC engine CD to load on Wiimednafen.

Iso: errors telling me the file is to big or is unable to open cd
Bin/ cue: can't find a filesystem for this file...

Trying to load Rondo of blood on this otherwise awesome emulator ( PCE is awesome on this ).

Any help is extremely appriciated!

 

[Hielkenator]

Bump: Nobody has this working?

 

[kupo3000]

I'm also interested for getting PCE CD running on Wiimednafen if possible.

 

[OriginalHamster]

I recommend you try Castlevania Rondo of Blood on VC, PCE CD emus are frustrating, having to convert audio files... *sigh*

 

[raz0red]

Hi,

I just can't seem to get ANY PC engine CD to load on Wiimednafen.

Iso: errors telling me the file is to big or is unable to open cd
Bin/ cue: can't find a filesystem for this file...

Trying to load Rondo of blood on this otherwise awesome emulator ( PCE is awesome on this ).

Any help is extremely appriciated!

WiiMednafen (like Mednafen for the PC) is compatible with cue/bin files. There is no need to convert audio files...

Do you have the CD BIOS (syscard3.pce) in the correct location as mentioned in the documentation? If so, and it still isn't working, ensure that the file name in the cue file matches the name of the iso/bin file.

Also, to load a game, you always select the cue file (not the bin).

--Raz.

 

[OriginalHamster]

This is great that you can run cue/iso files directly, without touching audio files =P
Any game that you guys could recommend aside Castlevania?

 

[Hielkenator]

Hi,

I just can't seem to get ANY PC engine CD to load on Wiimednafen.

Iso: errors telling me the file is to big or is unable to open cd
Bin/ cue: can't find a filesystem for this file...

Trying to load Rondo of blood on this otherwise awesome emulator ( PCE is awesome on this ).

Any help is extremely appriciated!

WiiMednafen (like Mednafen for the PC) is compatible with cue/bin and cue/iso files. There is no need to convert audio files...

Do you have the CD BIOS (syscard3.pce) in the correct location as mentioned in the documentation? If so, and it still isn't working, ensure that the file name in the cue file matches the name of the iso/bin file.

Also, to load a game, you always select the cue file (not the iso or bin).

--Raz.

Thank you for the reply's
I have the BIOS file in the right folder.

What I have is a a few zip files of the game.
Among the dumps I have of this game is a full dump, with wav files.

All dump of this game come in either zip files containing cue files mp3 or ogg or wav files along with 2 iso files wich are also in the zip.

Either way, mednafen tells me that 1# the file is to big or it's not a valid file, or the system for this file cannot be found, error opening cd...

Is this the right way to load these games?
I also tried to convert the files to iso and then convert them back into bin/ceu files. Did'nt work.

DOES mednafen expect a BIN/CUE + .ISO file to load these games? Or can they be loaded from an unzipped folder?

I am able to play this awesome game via VC but , I'd love to get it to work in mednafen.

If I can only get my hand on a zipped dump of this game, what would a logical step to get it to work in mednafen?

Thank you Razored for taking the time to help with this, also to all others thank you very much.

 

[raz0red]

DOES mednafen expect a BIN/CUE + .ISO file to load these games? Or can they be loaded from an unzipped folder?

Mednafen does not support extracted files, it must be a cue/bin or cue/iso.

--Raz.

 

[OriginalHamster]

I download Valis 4, and it have numerous cd_track.iso files.
WiiMednafen still can read those .iso files?
How can joint them in just one .iso?

 

[Hielkenator]

I download Valis 4, and it have numerous cd_track.iso files.
WiiMednafen still can read those .iso files?
How can joint them in just one .iso?

I have this problem too, How can I manage to get the proper bin and ceu files from these extracted folders.
Do I have to burn a pysical disc first? and then rerip the game?

If someone could shed a light on how to do this....can it be done with ultraiso?

 

[jtipp3tt]

I download Valis 4, and it have numerous cd_track.iso files.
WiiMednafen still can read those .iso files?
How can joint them in just one .iso?

I have this problem too, How can I manage to get the proper bin and ceu files from these extracted folders.
Do I have to burn a pysical disc first? and then rerip the game?

If someone could shed a light on how to do this....can it be done with ultraiso?

A lot of the dumps out there have been made specifically for compatibility with Magic Engine, which supports the extracted formats you guys are seeing, along with support for MP3 files. I would recommend you guys locate a proper dump or create one from the original media.

However, I have had some success converting those dumps to bin/cue format, but it is sort of a pain. Here are the steps I used, I am sure there are many ways to do this, these are just the steps that I used.

1. If you have MP3 files, they need to be converted to WAV files with 44.1khz sample rate (very important). I have been using iTunes to do this (right-click, convert to WAV). I also had to set the import settings to WAV encoder, custom with 44.1khz. I am sure there is an easier way to do this.

2. If the dump has MP3 files, you need to edit the cue file so that all the audio files now end in .wav versus .mp3, also set the type to "WAVE" versus "MP3". Replace the mp3 files in the directory with the newly converted wav files.

3. Mount the newly edited cue file. I used Alcohol 120% (again, you could use other tools, possibly daemon tools, etc.)

4. I used "Image Making Wizard" in Alcohol 120%. I selected the drive with the mounted image (from step #3), then selected the image format as "CDRWIN Image file".

Again, sure there is a better way to do this. I would recommend creating or finding a proper dump.

 

[OriginalHamster]

I see, that's why I see different setups for the same game, it's much clear now, thanks =)

 

[Hielkenator]

Thanks guys!

Managed to get things to work!
There are some dedicated sites to PCE CD bin/cue, iso/cue format avaliable.
I hope this is allowed to share here:

It's emulation community based.

Right now I think the port of mednafen to Wii is one of the best things emulator wise now!
It's PC engine and PC engine CD emulation are outstanding.
Also Gameboy emulation is BETTER than VBA GX. For instance the sound on GBA games is MUCH better compared to VBA GX.

Also I like the video filter a little better on mednafen and it also feels a liitle more responsive to me too compared to the FCE Ultra GX.
Also the sound of the NES emulation just sounds like it should somehow, it's hard to explain but, when playing NES on mednafen it triggers good memories...
I think it's because of the true to real sound.

VBA GX and FCE Ultra are also awesome emulator port IMHO. But this came to me as a little ( good ) surprise.

Anyway, just hoping to see more of this port!

 

[RanmaMorobushi]

Depends on what kind of games you like. Really the best on this wonderful system is wacky shooters and RPG's. Steam Hearts is a perverted shooter, cosmic fantasy is a decent RPG (after part 2 its japanese I think) the Valis games are pretty unique, ALMOST castlevania like. They are sometimes pretty hard to find and buy though.

 

[XeRo9009]

Thought I would bump; it appears bin+cue and even mpc+iso+cue with PCE CD eventually results in random audio glitches and sometimes the emulator crashing altogether. Example is a "BZZZZZT" sound possibly followed by loud static (like white noise); it temporarily freezes during these moment. Any ideas? I've seen no other reports on this so I'm very confused on what is going on. I tried both running the emulator and files from both USB and SD card, tried other sources for the games, etc.

edit: I should note the same happens for other emulators on the Wii that deals with audio files like Genesis Plus GX for Sega CD games.

 

[Disorarara]

Thought I would bump; it appears bin+cue and even mpc+iso+cue with PCE CD eventually results in random audio glitches and sometimes the emulator crashing altogether. Example is a "BZZZZZT" sound possibly followed by loud static (like white noise); it temporarily freezes during these moment. Any ideas? I've seen no other reports on this so I'm very confused on what is going on. I tried both running the emulator and files from both USB and SD card, tried other sources for the games, etc.

edit: I should note the same happens for other emulators on the Wii that deals with audio files like Genesis Plus GX for Sega CD games.

CD emulation is very problematic in general for the Wii.

 

[XeRo9009]

Thanks... I suppose that means I'll have to use something else for PCE CDs. Do you know if the original Xbox has the same problems with CDDA?

 

[Jacobeian]

That´s not true, there is nothing problematic with CD emulation on Wii, i personally have no problems with neither PCE or Sega CD rips.
The problem is when people use slow storage devices for CD image files: since those files are CONSTANTLY accessed during CD emulation (contrary to normal ROM emulation) any slowdown while reading will cause such issues.
This does not happen with fast and reliable devices. If you are using USB, also make sure IOS58 is installed and the emulator is using it, otherwise you will be stuck with USB1 speed, which I think is too slow when reading file in realtime

 

[Disorarara]

That´s not true, there is nothing problematic with CD emulation on Wii, i personally have no problems with neither PCE or Sega CD rips.
The problem is when people use slow storage devices for CD image files: since those files are CONSTANTLY accessed during CD emulation (contrary to normal ROM emulation) any slowdown while reading will cause such issues.
This does not happen with fast and reliable devices. If you are using USB, also make sure IOS58 is installed and the emulator is using it, otherwise you will be stuck with USB1 speed, which I think is too slow when reading file in realtime

The other poster said he used an SD card as well as a USB device, on top of which many emulators can only use IOS58 for USB support anyways so I doubt it is entirely the fault with poor reading speeds (although it certainly plays into this). Surely you must at least experience minor slowdowns and short bouts of BZZZZZT when attempting to emulate Sonic CD? CD emulation is very taxing it seems

 

[Jacobeian]

No, the only slowdown i got on Sonic CD happens when there are too many things running on screen ( like when being hit and lose all rings) or when there are heavy gfx effects but i can guarantee you this happened on Sega CD as well, i think people expect Sonic CD to be as fast as Genesis versions but it was known to be quite slow, yes.
Also, if it was an issue with CD emulation being too heavy for the Wii cpu, it would be constantly and consistently slow, not just random slowdowns and CD games would even run slower on gamecube, which is not the case and proves emulator has no problem running at 60 fps.
That's why i am sure what drags things down are slow device access or the drive lagging when reading file. I personally do not have the sound issues you mentionned when using sdhc or with gamecube version.

And, no, IOS58 is not required to use USB drive, it's just that access will be limited to USB1 rate