Do emulators dislike Arc The Lad III? Cannot switch discs

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

I feel like I have hit a brick wall. I just hit the disc switch point and NOTHING will cause the game to recognize disc changes.

Using a playlist, manually switching the image files.

I hit eject, return to the game, let it set, change the disc to disc 2, change back to the game, let it sit, then go back and close the disc tray. And nothing. I thought it might be my images, both discs load fine individually. But neither will allow a disc swap. I made a new image of disc 2 from my disc, made sure the SHA-1 hash matched redump. That didn’t work. Tried an image from the redump set online. That didn’t work.

Tried both software and hardware. I tried Mednafen standalone with a playlist file. Allows to boot disc 1 or 2, swapping doesn’t work. Tried PCSX-R, that didn’t work either.

Do emulators have a bug with this game or something? At this point i’m just going to bust out my DexDrive and use Memcard Rex to do the disc swap on real hardware. (Which means I gotta dig out all the old hardware and junk. My CRT doesn’t have a permanent home so it sits in a corner atm)

Has anyone encountered this?

#2

Have you tried renaming your disk-1 savefile/memory card (make a backup first, of course) to match the second disk?

#3

Yeah that’s easy to do. The problem is the game only lets you save before the disc change. When you load it, it plays an event and then asks for disc 2. If you try to load that save from disc 2, it asks for disc 1.

D:

#4

On real hardware, the game reacts immediately to the disc tray opening. It will say “Please wait” while the tray is open.

That doesn’t happen at all with Mednafen, the beetle core or PCSX-RPXGP

#5

So i ended up busting out the dex drive+MemcardRex and going forward enough to save.

For what it’s worth though, I tried another emulator just to see if it would work. pSX 1.13. The eject CD function actually works here and allows the game to switch discs properly.

So, works in pSX 1.13

Does not work in Mednafen Beetle standalone Retroarch Beetle SW/HW PCSXR-PGXP

I’ve got a memory card save at the change point if anyone wants it to test I guess.

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#6

I hope that someone can take a look at disc switching. It seems like this feature is very broken.

#7

Now that i’m on to disc 2, i’m starting to run into lock ups as well. During Job #81 when you enter Cariote Cave and take the left path. The first screen after, there are multiple points where the game just locks up. Music keeps playing but nothing happens. I’ve encountered that in a few other places as well. It happens in the normal core or the HW core. I’ve tried multiple disc images and setting changes as well.

Posted an issue on github.

#8

Whoah, ok. So this happens on the official PSN Eboot on a PSP GO as well. In the same exact spot.

I guess i really gotta check this on real hardware then… or bad image???

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#9

bad image would be the first/easiest thing to check.

#10

WHELP. Definitely not a bad image! (I have already tried 2 anyway, and then the PSN release on a PSP) I have reproduced the problem on real hardware. So I guess it’s an actual game bug!. (I recorded a video of the lock on real hardware too if anyone wants to see it.)

Dang…

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#11

wow, there you go… Thanks for reporting back. This is valuable information, as people don’t typically expect game-breaking bugs like this in actual released games.

#12

Thank god for save states, I can use that at least to try and find a path through that area that doesn’t crash hopefully.

#13

Working designs strikes again

#14

Most likely a copy protection issue, i have the arc the lad collector box, i’m pretty sure i finished this one 100%, and i don’t remember having such issue on real hardware.

#15

Copy protection when it happens on real hardware with the real game disc? Doesn’t seem likely.

#16

I didn’t thought you also used the real game disc. Honestly i can’t remember having this kind of issue with mine, but that was a long time ago (2002).

Edit : i also think it’s weird i didn’t find any mention to this on internet, it should be a known issue.

#17

Yeah I only had it happen in two specific locations. The first time is on the mission in that Swamp on Ragnark where you protect Shu’s crew transporting boxes. (Didn’t really try to repeat that one)

And the one mentioned here at Cariote Cave during Job #81. At the entrance, take the path to the left straight up. Game locks up. Multiple spots in that room cause lock ups. I had to save state my way out of it. However that path is unnecessary as the path to the right is the one to take to trigger the event scenes. Perhaps that’s why it’s never been reported.

Here’s my memory card with the save at that point (The 4th slot IIRC)http://www.mediafire.com/file/cb9a7th8u4q51sm/CDROM_2.srm if anyone wants to try to replicate it. And here’s a video on real hardware. (No mod chip, just a 3rd party shell) http://www.mediafire.com/file/059whl5v3l5q9xc/ATL3%20Lock%20up.mp4