Error specific to a certain area in Zelda Majora's Mask

[Venoman]

I just thought I'd post here to see if anyone has experienced a similar error, or recognizes the sort of problem I'm having (and hopefully has played the game). I haven't seen this problem listed in the FAQs or previously in this forum, which seems odd.

When entering the area beneath the Ikana Graveyard, when you go into the room with all the bats in it (just before the room that has an Axe Knight, where you learn the Song of Storms), after several seconds an error will kick in and emulation will end (or with various advanced settings checked/unchecked, sometimes video will freeze and sound will continue, with no error displayed). It always happens approximately 5 seconds after being in the same room with the swarm of bats, so it may have to do with rendering that many enemies, I'm not sure. Playing the game up to this point I've had no problems whatsoever. It gives one of two errors (with default settings):

Failed to load word
Verify ROM and ROM Settings.

Also occasionally shows another error that I can't seem to replicate, that said something to the effect of "loading from unmapped area, verify ROM and ROM Settings".

The ROM is verified by goodn64 as Legend of Zelda, The - Majora's Mask (U) [!], and here are my PC statistics which are well above minimum requirements:

Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2
CPU : AMD Athlon 64 3000+ , 2 GHz
512MB RAM
Graphics Card : RADEON 9600 SERIES
Screen Resolution & Color Depth : 1024x768 32bit 75Hz

Edit: I'm using all Jabo's default plugins (d3d8 video), except I'm using N-Rage's input (packaged with the 1.6 install) since it emulates the rumble function more accurately. I have tried Rice's video (and jabo's d3d6) to see if it made a difference, and also disabling the sound plugin; neither setting helped.

Here is a link to a save state taken before the error happens. Going back above ground or anywhere else in the game, things will continue to run fine. Staying where you are no error will happen either. If you walk forward into the area with the bats, that's when it kicks in, several seconds after wandering around.

Majora's Mask Save State

Thank you for reading; any help is appreciated.

-Venoman

 

[RadeonUser]

Interesting bug you've found there... Nothing I change seems to affect it and loading a clean save (not a save state) doesnt work either.

I'll (or Gent or TrotterW if they're up to it) have to look at it some more in the morning.

On the bright side I dont think the error really messes with gameplay. What *really* bothers me is that I've gone through Zelda MM thoroughly before and that problem didnt show up. That's why I just tried it on 1.5, but I got the same error... Definitely interesting... Like I said though, in the morning its already 1 am here :|

 

[Nekokabu]

I have this problem with Venoman's Save State.

but It can be avoided.


1. play Song of Time, and Save .
2. Reset a Project64,
3. Start MM without Save State
4. Go to Ikana Graveyard again

it's no problems


Save State problem??

 

[Venoman]

aha. Well, interesting to find out it's not only me. And you know, I could swear I played through this part before and didn't have this problem either. I just decided to pick up the game again since I bought a new PC and hadn't bothered to finish it before.

As far as it affecting gameplay, I can't remember what the Song of Storms is even used for in this game, other than that you can use it for watering beans after you plant them. Hopefully you don't need to use it for anything important since I have no way to get it

Anyway, if I can do anything to help, testing things out on my setup etc. let me know, and thanks for the reply.

Edit: you were able to enter after restarting and not using the save state? hm. I'll give that a try again.

Edit X2: I'm positive I tried resetting & going back to the graveyard and the problem was still present, but just barely when I did a normal save & restart I was able to proceed normally. I have no idea what sort of problem I managed to cause; I suppose it is possible the state was saved incorrectly somehow, although that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If the specific cause of the error can be found, it may be worth noting in the gameFAQ as a potential problem anyway.

 

[Venoman]

Oh, RadeonUser, I was killing insomnia and decided to remove the black gunk on your avatar.

Old:

New:

I don't know, looks better to me anyway. You can use it if you want.

Edit: seems especially noticeable when using the dark board theme.

-Venoman

 

[RadeonUser]

Oh, RadeonUser, I was killing insomnia and decided to remove the black gunk on your avatar.

Old:

New:

I don't know, looks better to me anyway. You can use it if you want.

Edit: seems especially noticeable when using the dark board theme.

-Venoman

I'll get around to fixing it eventually, it gets on my nerves too... The problem with removing the gunk is that it also introduces some jaggies that get on my nerves even more

As for the whole save states thing... You shouldnt really depend on them more than a handful of states. The thing is... state saving allows any small bug in the emulation to stay active and possibly affect the stability of the game. I *did* however try a normal game save and still got the problem so dont know what's up there...

So if normal saving helped then good. Still, I have to wonder why the song of time is needed... Just going to the owl to save normally *should* be enough.

 

[Doomulation]

On a side note, you need the song of storms to complete the game.