How to get Skies Of Arcadia (echelon) working properly!!!!
- Thread starter aika-san
- Start date
- Thread Starter
- #182
Fina said:
I will make the modification, because knowing my luck someone will get caught on it. Then it will be my fault they didn't read before clicking. It's the only serious problem the patch could cause and I was thinking about fixing it myself anyway. It's probably best if I do it because I'm working on repairing another echelon game, and it's likely I'll use a modified version of SOAPatcher for that rather than re-invent the wheel. Most of the source code is suitable for any type of game patch.
hmm, i have been testing disk 2 (havent gotten to it yet/used another file)
and flying around entering places seems to be okay. i hope the whole game will soon work. i will attempt the blue gigas battle for the 4th time in a row soon to try and get past it, this time with cpu power at 100%. (fingers crossed) the last boss also works with multiple characters.
and flying around entering places seems to be okay. i hope the whole game will soon work. i will attempt the blue gigas battle for the 4th time in a row soon to try and get past it, this time with cpu power at 100%. (fingers crossed) the last boss also works with multiple characters.
Fina said:
i'm doing the exact same...the codes should be right because i c+p them. i'll post the zipped .ini if you want. i would be interested if the codes work for anyone besides me (my codes work on both disks).
lol i find it crashes when entering a ship battle (on foot) if you are in one of the 'small boats' with four characters. gilder, enrique and drachma sometimes crash battles by using normal attacks, but fina is fine and i think shes what you want.
please done ask why my codes for soa are under the game: ;Virtua Striker 2 Ver.2000.1 [MK-51028] [V1.002] :whistling
ChankastCheater+ loads up that game when i start SOA... the files are also oddly named, but they work.
EDIT: and guys? we have a problem with completion of disk one, it can't be done right now. crash while recieve blue moon crystal (from the king, not in the dungeon). tried it 4 times.
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Fina
New member
That worked. For some reason that worked.
I've got a question, I've tried making a code for 99 Magic Droplets. I went through the process of narrowing down the number until I got this :
014DAB4E 00000063
That should be 99 Magic Droplets, but I don't know what to do with it now. If I try to use it as a code, it does nothing.
I've got a question, I've tried making a code for 99 Magic Droplets. I went through the process of narrowing down the number until I got this :
014DAB4E 00000063
That should be 99 Magic Droplets, but I don't know what to do with it now. If I try to use it as a code, it does nothing.
- Thread Starter
- #187
dreamer said:
Do you have a save just before the point?
Just spent the last 3 hours doing a complete XP re-install on my download box and setting my network up again. I think I got a virus. Stopped me from running all exe's and reduced my admin priveleges so I could not add the required exe registry key data to the registry. Real nasty!!!:whistling Anyway, didn't lose anything, and everything's running fine again now.
Fina said:
hmm, if it does nothing then i'm afraid its the wrong code.. i wanted a simple code to change how vyse looks as he is running around (eg when you control aika when they get separated) but this just didnt seem to work. try and hack the code again, i find sometimes it wants me to search for values in hex, and sometimes in dec. very confusing. also after getting some more Dreamcast games - music all perfect, therefore the annoying glitchy SOA echelon music must be like that because of the downsampling of the game. if only we could get a perfect rip of the game... :huh: (misses original music)
aika-san said:
damn, thats pretty nasty, i got that virus once, it slowly destroys all .exe files and programs, lucky i had nortons anti-V at the time to get rid of it. hope u can continue with the patch and stuff ok now. i'm pretty annoyed that we have a crash right before the end of disk one. its one of those crashes where the music will freeze/loop wrongly, in such cases the game will crash within around 10 seconds.
EDIT: my save file is the same as posted on page 11 (near the bottom) of this thread.
EDIT: i came up with an idea about the music a while ago, but it seems to make more sense now. since then i have got a few more DC games and their flawless music has only reinforced my belief that the unbearable SOA music is only due to it being the Echelon version. i was checking out the folder's of the game image and found a 'sound' section, now these are labelled as either:
STV17.MLT (so thats .MLT extention)
141S.P04 (thats .P04 extention)
since Aika-san seems to be good at programing, would it be possible to work out how to convert/play these files? or convert mp3/wav to MLT. i have the original SOA soundtrack and could replace the midified ones with proper tracks. i think this would be a worth while thing as the sound fx and voice in the game is perfect, but the music sucks in the only playable version. get back to me on what you think.
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Fina
New member
After much frustration around Yafutoma, I am on disk 2!
The whole town is a piece of crap. You CANNOT hang around. You must know exactly where you are going and go right to it. There are save points on each side of town, one at the dock, and one at the guest house behind the temple. These are imperative to getting through the area. As soon as you finish an event, rush to the nearest savepoint. Try to avoid going to the shops, as they seem to cause crashes here. Though note that you will need the sword sold here later for a crew member. There is also a cham under the waterfall you walk under that is fairly easy to get.
After you fight the bosses and are back in the town, RUSH TO THE NEAREST SAVEPOINT. After this, you can try to get the two crew members in town, then head to the docks.
When you leave the town, after a brief cut-scene, it will ask you to save the game and insert disk 2. After you save the game, it will ask you to change disks. Even if you do change disks, the game does not recognize disk 2. You must quit Chankast, switch to disk 2, and then start the game again. The game should now work just fine, and you can continue the game.
I am curious if the second disk is more stable than the first. I hope so at least.
I suppose I could post my Disk 2 save if anyone wants it.
The whole town is a piece of crap. You CANNOT hang around. You must know exactly where you are going and go right to it. There are save points on each side of town, one at the dock, and one at the guest house behind the temple. These are imperative to getting through the area. As soon as you finish an event, rush to the nearest savepoint. Try to avoid going to the shops, as they seem to cause crashes here. Though note that you will need the sword sold here later for a crew member. There is also a cham under the waterfall you walk under that is fairly easy to get.
After you fight the bosses and are back in the town, RUSH TO THE NEAREST SAVEPOINT. After this, you can try to get the two crew members in town, then head to the docks.
When you leave the town, after a brief cut-scene, it will ask you to save the game and insert disk 2. After you save the game, it will ask you to change disks. Even if you do change disks, the game does not recognize disk 2. You must quit Chankast, switch to disk 2, and then start the game again. The game should now work just fine, and you can continue the game.
I am curious if the second disk is more stable than the first. I hope so at least.
I suppose I could post my Disk 2 save if anyone wants it.
Fina said:
yes, post disk two for me, i find it impossible to get to. i agree with yafutoma being unstable. i found it crashes when i try to take more time eg: go in shops. but after the gigas fight, it will always crash either when the cutscene with the king ends, or as soon as i have exited (too earily for me to dask to the save point. i'm curious as to how it worked for you? but glad that disk one is done. anyway i'll look forward to your disk 2 save
- Thread Starter
- #193
dreamer said:since Aika-san seems to be good at programing, would it be possible to work out how to convert/play these files? or convert mp3/wav to MLT. i have the original SOA soundtrack and could replace the midified ones with proper tracks. i think this would be a worth while thing as the sound fx and voice in the game is perfect, but the music sucks in the only playable version. get back to me on what you think.
Thats a good idea. I will look at this possibility over the weekend and let you know what I find out. I already have the SOA soundtrack in mp3 format. Maybe the music incompatabilites are the main thing causing the locks we are experiencing. It seems like everything goes tits up shortly after the music cuts out.
Fina
New member
Attached is the save game. Extract it, rename it to ARCADIA_E005, and then upload it to your memory card with the VMSBrowser.
Notes -
- Disk 2 seems considerably more stable in random deck battles, but still crashes.
- Yafutoma is still very unstable on Disk 2.
- Yafutoma, while the 'under raid' music is playing, doesn't seem to crash or show any signs of being unstable. This further leads me to believe that the music has something to do with the crashes.
- After you return from the Lands of Ice, you will return to Crescent Isle and have a little cutscene. After this, you will take a rest and wake up the next day. However, when you wake up, you will be stuck to the bed and unable to walk away. Thankfully, you can 'use' the bed, go to sleep again, and this time wake up as normal and be able to leave your room.
- The fog in Glacia doesn't render, just like Rixis, which results in really bad performance.
- If you want the downloadable addons, you can download the PAL addon .dci files from SoAWorld and add them to the memory card with VMSBrowser. They work fine for me.
- The Maw of Tartas seems to be fairly easy to pass, especially if you don't care for the contents of the chests inside. (Moonbery, Dexus seed) Since it is an airship dungeon, the random battles have the tendency to be unstable. You are now far enough in the game to get the White Map item that reduces battle rates too. However, most of the battles inside the Maw are long battles with large creatures.
- All of the crew members and discoveries seem to have no problems at all.
Notes -
- Disk 2 seems considerably more stable in random deck battles, but still crashes.
- Yafutoma is still very unstable on Disk 2.
- Yafutoma, while the 'under raid' music is playing, doesn't seem to crash or show any signs of being unstable. This further leads me to believe that the music has something to do with the crashes.
- After you return from the Lands of Ice, you will return to Crescent Isle and have a little cutscene. After this, you will take a rest and wake up the next day. However, when you wake up, you will be stuck to the bed and unable to walk away. Thankfully, you can 'use' the bed, go to sleep again, and this time wake up as normal and be able to leave your room.
- The fog in Glacia doesn't render, just like Rixis, which results in really bad performance.
- If you want the downloadable addons, you can download the PAL addon .dci files from SoAWorld and add them to the memory card with VMSBrowser. They work fine for me.
- The Maw of Tartas seems to be fairly easy to pass, especially if you don't care for the contents of the chests inside. (Moonbery, Dexus seed) Since it is an airship dungeon, the random battles have the tendency to be unstable. You are now far enough in the game to get the White Map item that reduces battle rates too. However, most of the battles inside the Maw are long battles with large creatures.
- All of the crew members and discoveries seem to have no problems at all.
- Thread Starter
- #196
jareg said:Ok i tried your patch but i have a problem
When i push Start Patching then it will never finish
I am using deamon tools 3.29 and the first cd
The time stays on the first bar
That's strange. Could you please do the following. Start doing it as normal, and click 'Begin Patching'. Now browse into the SOAPatcher cfg folder. You should find a number of files have been created here named CDPatch1.bat, CDPatch2.bat, etc.... Can you please upload those?
jareg
Just A Guy
Ok here they are
I packed all the 5 into one rar
Hope it helps you solve my problem
PS:I dont no it makes the files in the C:\soatp but the patcher does not finish it stays on the first loading bar (So i have to end the process to shut it down)
Shouldnt it say Patching Completed or Something
I packed all the 5 into one rar
Hope it helps you solve my problem
PS:I dont no it makes the files in the C:\soatp but the patcher does not finish it stays on the first loading bar (So i have to end the process to shut it down)
Shouldnt it say Patching Completed or Something
- Thread Starter
- #198
yes, it should say patching complete once everything is done. It should also enable some proper exit buttons for you once complete too.
It looks like everything is being done correctly, except the DOS commands are having trouble executing. I notice you are running SOAPatcher from the following location:
C:\My Documents\Mängud\Emulation\DreamCast\Games\Mmm\cfg\FastBoot
and that may be the cause of your problem. DOS sometimes has problems resolving long pathnames like these. Please put SOAPatcher in a simpler pathname, like:
C:\SOAPatcher
and try running it again. Let me know if this fixes your problem.
It looks like everything is being done correctly, except the DOS commands are having trouble executing. I notice you are running SOAPatcher from the following location:
C:\My Documents\Mängud\Emulation\DreamCast\Games\Mmm\cfg\FastBoot
and that may be the cause of your problem. DOS sometimes has problems resolving long pathnames like these. Please put SOAPatcher in a simpler pathname, like:
C:\SOAPatcher
and try running it again. Let me know if this fixes your problem.
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