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PCSX for Mac OS X: A Step-by-Step Guide

mount instead of burn

vincewhirlwind said:
Hi there

I'm using Test Build 3 of PCSX on my G4 Powerbook, running OS X 10.5.8.

I burned a cue file (the bin file was in the folder on the desktop with it, so it did burn) of a PS1 game to CD-R (Maxell, so decent brand) using Toast Titanium 9. Once it was cooked I spun it up, having followed Splture's generous 'how to' guide while setting up PCSX.

It almost worked. There was life, but not the sort I'd hoped for. Just a bitmappy green field with blocks of colour, and a highly distorted rendition of the audio.

I tried reloading maybe 3 or 4 times, but always the same result.

I've read that burning an img file rather than a cue file can produce better results, but I really don't know if that's true or not.

Has anyone encountered this particular version of events themselves, and can anyone offer any suggestions?

Many thanks in anticipation.
Click to expand...

I skipped burning the .bin and just mounted it as a disc drive ... in PSX I just ran CD. So far so good ...
 
Loading Saves/Load Error

Posted this in another thread but this one actually has some recent activity, please help me out


So I just got my shiny new macbook air and downloaded PCSX-R, last week i had successfully been playing Suikoden 2 on my pc and had loaded up a previous save from Suikoden .

PCSX-R seems to work just fine except for some wonky audio in the opening cinematic, but i can live with that. What i'm struggling with is the fact that when i try to use an .mcr format save file from EPSXE for suikoden 2 OR try to load a suikoden 1 save (from gamefaqs, multiple formats like .gme) in order to make a new game, i get a 'load error' message.

I need a hand either finding/formatting a suikoden 1 save or formatting my suikoden 2 saves, hopefully someone with some more experience can give me a hand?


Additional details: all the saves i tried show up just fine when i'm setting up the memory cards in PCSXR, tells me the lvl of the character and whatnot, won't work in game though.
 
MontuRa said:
So I just got my shiny new macbook air and downloaded PCSX-R, last week i had successfully been playing Suikoden 2 on my pc and had loaded up a previous save from Suikoden .
Click to expand...

Ahhh, haven't got to the saves part yet. The video does indeed work a lil bit sucky, but hey... Suikoden is the best game ever, so a bit of a challenge is accepted. Funny there's another crazy dude around the world that went to the same trouble to play the same game...

No, no solution to you problem tho. Sorry.
 
intermittent freezing with ps3 controller on bluetooth

**edit: after further testing, title should read "intermittent but regular controller signal 'stalling' on certain games but not others"**

hello all.

i've been playing my favourite games with pcsxr since january on my MBA 13" i7. very happy with the overall performance, despite a few glitches here and there.

i'm using a ps3 controller on the mac's built-in bluetooth connection (brilliant!).

i've played through all of "need for speed iii: hot pursuit" and "battle arena toshinden 3" without this problem, as well as most of "ridge racer 4" and "ace combat: electrosphere."

however, recently, playing "intelligent qube" and "3xtreme" i've run into this problem where the ps3 controller signal seems to "jam" or "freeze" mid-game (whether during game play or even on the menus), and whatever command i've given the controller lingers within the game for somewhere between 1 and 2 seconds. it happens at very regular intervals as well. if i freeze the game state and then defrost it and make the exact same move with the same timing within a game (for example in "intelligent qube" running toward the cube wall, turning right, then up, then back just before the first rollover, which is at regular intervals) the signal will "jam" and whatever i've told the character on screen to do they will simply continue to do, accepting no other commands, for a little under 2 seconds' time.

i can switch back over to any of the other games i've played without the problem and play for ages without ever seeing the glitch / jam. then switch back over to "i.q." or "3xtreme" and find the glitch again at regular intervals.

there is also a very regular "hiccup" in the audio. for instance, if a plain techno beat is playing in the background music, you can time the bars in the song before it "hiccups" and misses a beat. i'm not sure if the issue is related, as the audio glitches occur in the other games where the controller "jam" problem has never seemed to have happened. also, it's quite easy to overlook audio "hiccup" issues, but not controller signal jamming issues.

just curious what i should try or if anyone else has found the same, and whether or not they've found it in the same places in the same games.

cheers.
 
Last edited:
Madd the Sane said:
Specs, please. Also include the version of PCSX-R that you are using.
Click to expand...

MBA 13" i7 8GB ram, Mavericks 10.9
running PCSX-Reloaded 1.9.93 (86936)


also, i've since tested with a USB cable plugged in, then with a different PS3 controller, connected first by Bluetooth then by USB, and the same problem remains at the same rate in the same way in the same game(s). in other words the "stalling" problem is consistent regardless of controller or connection method.

thank you.
 
Might i recommend giving RetroArch a try? One of the PSOne cores, which uses mednafen, is very stable and accurate. It requires 3 bios files (US, EU, and JP) to run, but the amount of shaders, and customization options make it very worthwhile.

They are currently on v 1.0.0.2, but you can download the source from github and compile the newest version, which adds support for more shaders, and updated cores.
 
Madd the Sane said:
Try using version 1.9.94, which is marked as alpha. Don't worry, it's about as stable as 1.9.94
Click to expand...

kaioshade said:
Might i recommend giving RetroArch a try? One of the PSOne cores, which uses mednafen, is very stable and accurate. It requires 3 bios files (US, EU, and JP) to run, but the amount of shaders, and customization options make it very worthwhile.

They are currently on v 1.0.0.2, but you can download the source from github and compile the newest version, which adds support for more shaders, and updated cores.
Click to expand...


thanks very much. i'll give them a shot.
 
Spulture said:
PCSX/PCSX-Reloaded for Mac OS X: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to play PSone games in Mac OS X​
Update: Added PCSX-Reloaded

Video Tutorials
PCSX Tutorial:

About
PCSX/PCSX-Reloaded is a PlayStation (PSone) emulator for Mac OS X. I've been experimenting with it a little and I've made a guide for anyone who wants to play PlayStation games on Mac OS X.

Key Things

  1. PCSX/PCSX-Reloaded
  2. PlayStation BIOS
  3. ECM for OS X
  4. cdrmooby PCSX Plugin (*only if running PCSX)
Downloads

PCSX-Reloaded
http://pcsxr.codeplex.com/releases/37759/download/98565
(or)
http://www.mediafire.com/?35wf0lkojjuxa6b

ECM for OS X
http://www.neillcorlett.com/downloads/ecmosx.sit
(or)
http://www.mediafire.com/?3jhi03zw0dc6eiv

http://www.mediafire.com/?ud7r8l06a4u8d1l

cdrmooby PCSX Plugin (*only if running PCSX)
http://www.mediafire.com/?ud7r8l06a4u8d1l

PlayStation BIOS

I am not legally obliged to give links to the PlayStation BIOS file, so use your preferred Internet search engine and search for “PlayStation BIOS” or “PlayStation BIOS Download”. There’s quite a few websites that have the PlayStation BIOS for download so you shouldn’t have trouble finding this.

Just to clarify things,the name of the file you need is called "SCPH1001.BIN".

BIOS.png


The Guide​

One

1. Open PCSX.

Two

1. Open PCSX to create a Pcsx folder in Application Support. Go to: Finder>Home>Library>Application Support>Pcsx>Bios

2. Copy the PlayStation BIOS file "SCPH1001.BIN" into the Bios folder.

Three

1. Open PCSX.

2. Click PCSX in the Menu Bar to bring up a drop menu. From this menu select Preferences.

3. A window should appear called PCSX Preferences. It should be on the Emulation tab. Under the Options, Game Fixes, and Hacks panes... uncheck all of the boxes. Having these checked may reduce game quality.

4. Select the Plugins tab. Under the Graphics pane, click Configure.

5. A new window will appear. Uncheck all of the boxes except for Enable Hacks. Some games may work better or worse with the Hacks enabled.

6. Return to the Plugins tab and under the Sound pane, select Configure.

7. A new window will appear. Move the sliders all the way to the right. Under Misc check the High Compatibility Mode box. Under XA Music check the Enable XA Playback box.

8. Return to the Plugins tab and under the Controller pane, select Configure.

9. A new window will appear. Here you can configure the controls to your keyboard or joystick, and select between a Digital controller and an Analog controller. You can also change the controls for Controller 2.

Playing PCSX via CD

At this point you are ready to play PSone games on your Mac provided that you have a CD. Simply pop it in the CD-ROM and wait for it to mount... then in PCSX, under File, select Run CD. The game should play. If not, try again.

Playing PCSX via File

At this point you are ready to play PSone games on your Mac provided that you have a file of a PlayStation game. Simply go to File in the Menu Bar, and select Run ISO (or Run CD if playing on PCSX). A browser window will appear, find the PlayStation file, select it, and click Open. The game should run.

**if you are using PCSX, open the cdrmooby PCSX Plugin folder, copy the cdrmooby.psxplugin, Secondary-Click the PCSX icon to bring up a drop menu. Select "Show Package Contents" and open Contents... Plugins... paste the cdrmooby.psxplugin into the Plugins folder. When you are playing a game from a file, open PCSX, go to Preferences... then click on Plugins. Under the CD-ROM pane, select "cdrmooby disk image driver". When you have a PlayStation file, go to File and select Run CD (⌘R) a Open Image browser will appear. Find the file and click on Open. The game should load.

Downloading PlayStation Games

It's illegal to download PlayStation games, and I'm not obliged to give out links to websites to download. Use your preferred Internet search engine and search for "PlayStation ISOS" or "PlayStation ROMS" and there's quite a few websites that have almost every PlayStation game for download.

Games.png


Not so fast...

Even if you download a PSone game file... many of the files end in .ECM and PCSX will not run it.

So what do you do if the file extension ends with .ecm? Remember ECM for OS X?

Four

1. Return to the Desktop and open the ECM for OS X folder. Inside this folder is an application called ECM GUI. Open it.

2. A window appears and has some information on it. Click on the Un-ECM bubble first.

3. Click Select File. A browser window appears. Find the .ecm PlayStation file and click Choose.

4. Once you see text in the field at the top, click Begin. Wherever the .ecm file was, there will be a replacement file that excludes the .ecm portion and then it will run perfectly in PCSX.

Issues

If all you see is a black box when you load a game check the Preferences and Graphics Configurations and make sure all of the boxes are unchecked. Also, make sure (if you’re playing from a file) that the file extension doesn’t end with .ecm. And if it still isn't working, go back to the cdrmooby PCSX Plugin folder and open compressIt again.

If PCSX crashes when you select Run CD... reopen and try again.

If PCSX crashes when you select a PlayStation file... reopen and try again.

If PCSX crashes on one particular game try playing another game that does work and then retry the game that wasn’t working. This has helped me the most.

If PCSX crashes on one particular game, try changing the file extension to .ISO, .BIN, TOAST, .IMG, or MDF.

If you ever get an Error message, just quit and reopen PCSX and it should work again.

In some games, things are gone or missing... I haven't found the solution to this issue, but it's only happened on one game so far (tested on Loony Tunes Sheep Raider).

The key is persistence! PCSX/PCSX-Reloaded is stubborn occasionally and you need to continue retry loading the games.
Click to expand...




thanx brotha
 
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to run Metal Gear Solid 1 on my pcsxr, which runs FF8, Crash Bandicoot, Metal slug etc.. smoothly.
MGS is the only game I had to extract using unecm. I did buy the app to decompress so I was sure it will be ok.

Once got the converted .bin file I made a specific .cue file to run it. Opening that .cue file gave me a "error opening CDR plugin" message.
I then renamed the .bin into .iso and I managed to start the game.
The problem is, the start up logos come through and once got to the main menu I can get to start a new game, which crashes almost instantly. There is no audio through the whole into logos, main menu and game start sequences.. not sure is conversion related!

What do you guys think?

I also added a new CDR plugin "cdrmooby.psxplugin" in the plugin folder inside the app but it doens't show in the configuration panel.

Any help is very appreciated!

Cheers,
Alex
 
I try to speed up the games and the plugin dont come with the download... i downloaded it but it no matter that appears about a successfully installation doest work (cdrmooby.psxplugin). Sugestions!?
 
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