
ZSNES Frequently asked Questions
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Q : How come I don't get any sound?
Q : Why is zsnes giving me an error that it can't support stereo sound?
Q : When do you think you'll support GUS/PAS sound cards?
Q : When do you think transparency will be emulated?
Q : How do you enable transparencies?
Q : Why doesn't *name of game* work on zsnes?
Q : Can you get *name of game* working by the next release?
Q : Why is *name of game* not working in v.*version #* of zsnes?  It
    was working before.
Q : Where do you get the games?
Q : When do you think you will emulate the *DSP/SFX/C4* chip?  My favorite
    game *name of game with chip* won't run without it.
Q : Why is zsnes slow?
Q : How do I speed up zsnes?
Q : Can you please make zsnes faster?
Q : Can you implement dynamic recompilation into zsnes?
Q : Why does the game slow down even though I'm using auto frame rate and
    the FPS is pretty high?
Q : Why is the sound in zsnes not very good?
Q : There is this layer of fog blocking my view.  What's wrong?
Q : Why can't I press more than 2 keys at a time?
Q : This game tells me that it is not compatible with the MultiTap.
    What should I do?
Q : How come the cheat search engine doesn't work?
Q : How come the net/modem options doesn't work?
Q : How come my sidewinder pad doesn't work?
Q : How come the graphics are really screwed up?
Q : I have a gamepad pro and how come zsnes freezes?
Q : Why doesn't my joystick work anymore?
Q : How come my joystick keeps holding in one direction?
Q : Why does ZSNES produce a lot of static?
Q : How come stereo is reversed?
Q : How come the game genie codes don't work?  They used to work in v.400.
Q : How come ZSNES freezes when I run it under pure dos?
Q : When I load a ROM, how come ZSNES crashes?

For more Q & A's, visit this great unofficial zsnes faq located at :
  http://gameshark.simplenet.com/zsnes/

Thanks to AptivaMan for this great site!

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Q : How come I don't get any sound?

A : There could be several situations :

    1.) You haven't enabled sound.  You can enable sound by either :
        - Editing zsnes.cfg using by notepad or edit.exe and changing
          Sound = 0 to Sound = 1
        - Running zsnes through the commandline -s
    2.) Your windows 95 doesn't create a SET BLASTER string.  To verify this,
          type SET in DOS and look for a string starting with BLASTER=
          If such a string exists, then this is not your problem.
    3.) You don't have a SB2.0 compatible sound card.  If this is your
          case, then there is nothing you can do at the moment.  ZSNES
          uses auto-initialization mode for sound which requires SB2.0+
    4.) Your SB IRQ conflicts with another device.  If this is the case,
          read the following message below from lil of Emulation Camp.
          Thanks to lil for this great message!
    5.) Zsnes doesn't like your sound card


*------ Start Message -------------------------------------------*

Posted by lil of Emulation Camp the 02/21/98 at 21:21

          It's well known that alot of us, myself included, have
          had problems getting sound to work in zsnes. No matter
          what options we use, stereo, force 8-bit, sound rate,
          nothing changes. Well at long last I present the
          solution to all our problems. :-)

          I will explain how I got it working today. I have a
          sound blaster 64 awe (not gold) so my example should
          work for everyone else, if it doesn't, don't complain
          to me, I'm not a hardware guru.

          First, its not a totally a problem with the zsnes code.
          It's more of a hardware configuration problem. All you
          have to is change the IRQ of your sound card to 5 and
          it should work.

          If you don't know how to do that, here's how to do it
          in Windows 95:

            1. Press Start, goto Settings, and select Control
               Panel.
            2. Double Click the System icon
            3. Click the Device Manager tab on the System
               Properties screen
            4. In the list box, double click on Sound, video, and
               game controllers
            5. Double click on the sound blaster driver in the
               sub-list
            6. Click on the Resources tab in the Properties
               screen
            7. Double Click on Interrupt Request in the list box
            8. In the Value box, change the number to 05
               (zero+five). This is hexadecimal so don't forget
               to put the zero.
            9. If it says theres a conflict in the Conflict
               Information Box you've got a problem, otherwise
               click Ok and reboot your computer, sound should
               work when you run zsnes. (Assuming you have sound
               enabled in the zsnes.cfg or use the -s parameter
               on the command-line.)
           10. If you do have a conflict you can try changing the
               IRQ of the device thats already using irq 5 using
               the same steps listed above, but its dangerous if
               you don't know what you are doing. In fact, i had
               my modem on 5, moved it to 4 which conflicted with
               my mouse, so when I got on the internet my mouse
               froze. My modem only works on irq 4 and 5 when its
               in com 3, so I had to open up the case and move
               the modem to com 2, which ran on the unused irq 3.
               And I had to search for new hardware in Windows of
               course. I don't suggest moving hardware around if
               you aren't experienced with computers.
           11. You may need to edit your autoexec.bat at the DOS
               Prompt. This is what my blaster line looks like
               and yours should look similar if you did what I
               did.

                    SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6

               The only thing you need to change is the I5
               because that tells you what IRQ you are using.
               (Which was just changed to five.)
           12. Close all windows and reboot when your done.

          I hope that's enough explanation to get it working for
          you. Its worked for two others already, so it appears
          to be a feasible solution. Just don't forget to change
          that zsnes.cfg file! ^_^

          zsknight and _Demo_: Feel free to put this info in the
          next zsnes readme.

          Thanks goes out to GB for helping me with the device
          setup.

          - lil of Emulation Camp

*------ End Message ---------------------------------------------*

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Q : Why is zsnes giving me an error that it can't support stereo sound?
    I have an SB Pro/Compatible which has stereo sound.

A : Zsnes doesn't support 8-bit stereo sound.  You need a 100% SB16 compatible
    card to support stereo.

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Q : When do you think you'll support GUS/PAS sound cards?

A : We've considered implementing those sound cards, but a lack of time
    and also by the fact that we haven't really touched those cards before
    prevents us from implementing it.

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Q : When do you think transparency will be emulated?

A : Transparencies are already in zsnes.

A:  You first need a vesa 2.0 driver for dos.  SDD6.0+ should include a file
    called univbe.exe in its directory.  Run it under dos, then run zsnes.exe
    using -v 3 or -v 5 (or run it under a 65536 color video mode).  Running
    with transparencies on is definitely slower because of the extra math
    equations, memory, and video space involved.

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Q : Why doesn't *name of game* work on zsnes?

A : Getting the compatibility higher is a very hard task to do.  We're always
    trying to get more games working.

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Q : Can you get *name of game* working by the next release?

A : We're always trying, but we can never guarantee a specific game will be
    working because of the difficulties involved in bug fixing.

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Q : Why is *name of game* not working in v.*version #* of zsnes?  It
    was working before.

A : Whenever we change something in the emulation, whether it's optimisation
    or bug fixes, it is always likely to have caused a problem elsewhere.
    Usually, these problems aren't discovered until after a release.

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Q : Where do you get the games?

A : zsKnight or _Demo_ will *NOT* provide any games or any links to games.

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Q : When do you think you will emulate the *DSP/SFX/C4* chip?  My favorite
    game *name of game with chip* won't run without it.

A : We will consider emulating extra chips only if decent information on
    those chips are found.  However, even if we find info on them, we
    cannot guarantee to be able to implement them.

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Q : Why is zsnes slow?

A : Emulating a snes is slow because it is a complex system.  Also, zsnes
    is using a line by line engine which is slow, but should be accurate.

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Q : How do I speed up zsnes?

A : If you have a lower end system such as a 486, you can use -Q to speed up
    emulation with sound enabled.  The drawback is that you get lower
    quality sound which can get sometimes get annoying.
    Also, try running zsnes in pure dos.  This will give a noticeable
    speed increase when compared to running under a win95 dos box.

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Q : Can you please make zsnes faster?

A : We're always trying and there are still a lot of room left for
    optimisation, but a lack of time keeps us from implementing them.

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Q : Can you implement dynamic recompilation into zsnes?

A : There is no plans to implement it since it doesn't seem necessary.
    The snes only uses a 3mhz cpu compared to say a 33mhz on a playstation
    or a 93mhz on an n64.  Implementing a dynamic recompilation engine will
    be hard work and won't improve performance by much.

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Q : Why does the game slow down even though I'm using auto frame rate and
    the FPS is pretty high?

A : A game slows down like that when it executes its code beyond the speed of
    cpu emulation that zsnes currently handles.  To reduce such slowdowns,
    increase the percentage of execution by using either -p or editing
    zsnes.cfg.

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Q : Why is the sound in zsnes not very good?

A : It's because zsnes is still lacking some sound features.  Also, avoid
    enabling the sound buffer since that degrades the sound.

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Q : There is this layer of fog blocking my view.  What's wrong?

A : You need to either enable transparencies (see above) or you can
    disable certain backgrounds by pressing the 1,2,3, or 4 keys.  If
    you get lost while pressing those keys, press 6 to re-enable all
    the backgrounds.

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Q : Why can't I press more than 2 keys at a time?

A : It's mainly the limitation of the PC Keyboard.  If you want to press
    more than 2 keys at a time, either use a joystick or change the keyboard
    keys around until you find a combination where you can press more than
    2 keys at a time.  Another technique that works is to set multiple
    buttons to a single key.  That way, pressing that key presses multiple
    buttons at the same time.

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Q : This game tells me that it is not compatible with the MultiTap.
    What should I do?

A : Set both Player 3 and Player 4's input device to 'None'

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Q : How come the cheat search engine doesn't work?

A : It's not implemented yet

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Q : How come the net/modem options doesn't work?

A : It's not implemented yet

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Q : How come my sidewinder pad doesn't work?

A : Try pressing the mode button twice when in zsnes.  If that didn't work,
    then try the following :
      - Disable the Win9x Sidewinder Profiler
      - Install an older version of the Sidewinder win9x drivers
      - Install a newer version of the Sidewinder win9x drivers
      - Uninstall your sidewinder drivers
      - Run zsnes under pure dos
      - Try clicking Sidewinder Fix in the Options menu of the GUI
      - Make sure your sidewinder is plugged in and not broken
    Then try pressing the mode button twice

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Q : How come the graphics are really screwed up?

A : You probabily have the New Graphics Engine enabled.  Just disable it
    in the options menu.  If not, then it's a problem with the emulation.
    You can try running the game using -p 80 or -p 120 in DOS to see if
    it fixes it, but it might not be the solution.

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Q : I have a gamepad pro and how come zsnes freezes?

A : Chances are, you set the configuration as a gamepad pro and you don't
    have your gamepad set on GrIP mode

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Q : Why doesn't my joystick work anymore?

A : You might have accidently clicked the 'Use Joystick Port 209' check box.
    Just uncheck it.

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Q : How come my joystick keeps holding in one direction?

A : That happens when you hold a direction when ZSNES starts up.
    If that happens, then exit ZSNES and reload to recalibrate.  Clicking
    on SET in the input device window also calibrates the joystick, but
    it also resets the controls to the default joystick settings.

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Q : Why does ZSNES produce a lot of static?

A : Try reducing your sampling rate or disable stereo sound

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Q : How come stereo is reversed?

A : Click on the box by 'Reverse Stereo' in the Sound configuration in the
    GUI

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Q : How come the game genie codes don't work?  They used to work in v.400.

A : You probabily didn't insert the '-'

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Q : How come ZSNES freezes when I run it under pure dos?

A : Try loading your mouse driver or run zsnes using -j

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Q : When I load a ROM, how come ZSNES crashes?

A : It could be that ZSNES doesn't recognize your sound configuration
    so to fix it, disable sound or try changing your sound configuration.
    It could also be that the ROM you're loading isn't compatible with
    ZSNES.

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