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I wanted to take pictures of this game for an upcoming review on my website, unfortunately there are major glitches in the European version of the ROM. Run this game and you'll see for yourself (Tatooine surface and inside the Sand Crawler, top-left on the map). I also have a supposedly patched version but the exact same problem shows up.

It is reported in the FCE Ultra doctumentation:

Description: Star Wars (PAL/European Version) probably has the same(or similar) problem on FCE Ultra as KickMaster. The hack is to clock the IRQ counter twice on the "dummy" scanline(scanline before the first visible scanline).
Source code files affected: mbshare/mmc3.c

I suppose there is nothing simple I could do to fix it myself? I'm not a programmer. I noticed IRQ is mentionned in the debugger but I have no idea how this thing works. As a last resort, could someone actually kindly fix it for me if it hasn't been done before and if it's simple enough to do? I'm using FCE Ultra 0.97.5 by the way, no idea if it's the latest build or not, but I suppose it's not the culprit anyway.

Why not use a more accurate emulator like Nintendulator or Nestopia?

I still use FCEU 0.98.12 on my laptop because when I tried compiling Nestopia, all it did was freeze.

thefox wrote:Why not use a more accurate emulator like Nintendulator or Nestopia?

Moi! First time I hear about Nintendulator, it looks dandy and fixes the game glitches but how do you take screenshots?

Three words: Alt Print Screen.

Err, there's nothing more convenient? Anyway, the colours are brighter than with FCE Ultra, they will clash with my other screenshots. So nobody can fix the PAL version for FCE? Just weighing my options.

sanjuro wrote:So nobody can fix the PAL version for FCE?

Really? Do you want someone to waste their time hacking an outdated emulator or hacking a game so that it works on an inaccurate emulator (breaking compatibility with the real console) so that you can take a screenshot. Really?! That's asking a bit too much don't you think?

Why don't you do like everyone else and switch to Nestopia already? The consensus is that it's currently the best emulator for playing (it's not good for debugging because it doesn't have any debugging features), and it's pretty damn accurate too.

If you think the colors will clash with your old shots, well, times change. You'll either have to live with it or make new screenshots for the older games. On the other hand... both Nestopia and Nintendulator allow you to load custom palettes, so all you have to do is feed them the same palette FCEU uses and nobody will ever know the difference. Much more reasonable than asking people to code stuff for you, isn't it?

sanjuro wrote:I wanted to take pictures of this game for an upcoming review on my website, unfortunately there are major glitches in the European version of the ROM. Run this game and you'll see for yourself (Tatooine surface and inside the Sand Crawler, top-left on the map). I also have a supposedly patched version but the exact same problem shows up.

What do you mean with glitches? Do you mean the little flicker stuff at the top left of the screen? In this case there are two possibilities:
1. Use "Star Wars (U)".
2. Activate "PAL Emulation" in FCE Ultra. In this case, the screen will become bigger and the flicker will be at the top row, beyond the actual gameplay region, on the solid yellow part which can be removed manually.

Otherwise, you need to tell me what you mean with glitch. Maybe you should upload a screenshot.

To tokumaru: As I said I'm not a programmer. I have no idea if what I'm asking is complicated and if it's an interesting task or not. But well, from the tone of your reply, now at least I know.

Times must have been changing indeed because I've always thought FCE Ultra was the best NES emulator out there, I wasn't aware other emulators did the job better. Although for me, by now, it's too late to change.

One last precision, it's obviously not about one single screenshot but from the game beginning to end. Though it doesn't cover many titles, I have an extensive collection of screenshots, nearly 2000 for 67 NES games. I spend a great deal of time on every game to take quality screenshots so, from my perspective, it is a very serious and important matter.

Thank you for the advice on the palette.

No, it's much worse than the flickers, the game is plain unplayable in the European version.

I had tried the trick you suggested, but by using the US version in PAL Emulation the image doesn't turn the same way. See for yourself in the first cave (which works in both version):



↑ PAL version



↑ US working in PAL Emu. You see more of the top but still less of the bottom.



↑ US working in PAL Emu. In the Sand Crawler, the top is messed up as you can see.


EDIT
Here are the glitches in the European version. When you enter a new area, the image freezes like in the first picture. By turning off PAL emu it works again but if you turn it back this is what you get.

__

Just use another emulator, take the screenshots and edit those shots with a photo editor. Simple as that.

sanjuro wrote:I have no idea if what I'm asking is complicated and if it's an interesting task or not. But well, from the tone of your reply, now at least I know.

I didn't mean to be a dick, but sometimes it comes out like that...

But yeah, I do think you are asking too much. Let me explain:

Inaccurate emulators are not liked around here, because we're developers. Our goal is to make NES software, so we want our emulators to behave as much like the real console as possible. There is no motivation at all for any of us to extend the life of an imprecise emulator or to break a working game just so that a person doesn't have to change his habits.

Do you get it? Seriously, this is good advice, switch to Nestopia. Maybe because you are not a technical person you never felt the need to move away from FCEU, but the problem you are facing right now is just the motivation you needed. Take the chance and evolve with the emulators.

Nintendulator is very accurate but it's focus is on debugging/development, so it's not very friendly to players, but Nestopia is almost as accurate and is very friendly to players. If the palette bothers you so much, you can load a custom palette, like I said before.

I suggest you try the NTSC filter (by blargg) in Nestopia though. It faithfully simulates the way the NES encodes its video signal so the output looks exactly like what you get from a real NES hooked up to a TV, it's awesome. I'm completely addicted to it.