I recently got a new Dell comupter that has Windows XP. For some reason, I am unable to use emulators to play games on it. I can download the emulators and all, but when I go to open them I get some sort of error and it just closes.
We had Windows 98 on our old computer, and I could download all the emulators and ROMs that I wanted and everything worked just fine. Why can’t I use emulators on XP? Is there some way that I can change this?
It’s probably because your emulators are old. I have XP and can use them fine for many systems.
What exactly are you trying to download?
The ones I’ve tried to download are the same ones I used on my old computer, like SNES for Super Nintendo, and GENS for Sega, and almost all of the other ones that are listed at www.romnation.net.
It’s frustrating because I have a CD with emulators and games on it, and they won’t even open on this computer.
Hmm, I used snes9xw currently and it works fine and it’s listed at that site. I don’t have a Sega so I don’t use that one and can’t offer any advice there. And if it’s not the emulator itself then I don’t know.
Do you think it might be the CD itself is just getting old? I’ve had one CD that was working fine and then suddenly I can’t find any data on it at all. Might be worth it to reburn it if it’s not too much trouble. But here I’m just grabbing at straws.
I guess I didn’t pay complete attention to your OP. You’ve re-downloaded these files and they still wont play.
Have you gone ahead and reinstalled all the other software for windows that makes things work like DirectX?
I don’t know what you mean by reinstall DirectX. I went into my Program files and found the DirectX folder and all thats in there is an empty folder called setup. This computer is less that 3 months old. I thought that maybe XP had put up some sort of blocking device or something against emulators but obviously not, if you can get yours to work fine.
I’m gonna download SNES9x again and see what happens.
You can try and start - windows update try finding DirectX there, or Microsoft offers it. It deals with the graphics. It is a requirement and you might (for some wierd reason) not have a recent enough edition or the edition on your computer might not be completely installed if the folder is empty.
I check that update about once a week and more then not they have something critical to install. Might as well try DirectX when you’re doing that. Oh well, I’m off to install 2 more critical updates, one caused by an earlier patch, ah me.
Well, I got SNES to download and all. And I have a couple roms on the computer already and damned if it won’t find them. I have a little folder called GAMES and I can go to Open Rom in SNES, and I can go to the GAMES folder and…nothing is there!
I have no patience with computers!
Well I got a game (Harvest Moon) to open with the emulator. BUT theres a problem. The screen is TINY - like 2 inches tall by 6 inches. And I can’t read it. No problem, you say, just do the full screen or stratch screen. Well it stretches it out so far sideways that you cant even read it. I give up. Emulators are crap.
You’ve probably tried this, but if not, XP has a compatability mode.
You right-click on the program you want to run and select properties, then compatability. You can then run in various Windows modes - 95,98,ME,NT and 2000, and set up number of colours and resolution.
Wow, I never knew that Merseybeat. Cool.
I didn’t know that either, and I changed SNES’s compatibility to Windows NT and it didnt make it work. So I went online and i’m downloading Direct X right now.
I haven’t any experience of SNES emulators, but just downloaded snes9x, and will try Harvest Moon if I can, and let you know if I get it gong.
I love a challenge!
To fix the 2 inch screen you can turn off full screen and then stretch it. This will have it fill the window which you can resize at will. Right now I got it 2 inches wide and 10 inches long, however you want. I think DirectX might be your main problem though.
Thanks for helping guys - I appreciate it! I’m just gonna let this stuff finish downloading and then get back with you on the results.
And the screen thing - that may be just because of the game, I don’t know. It only takes up the top half of the screen while the bottom half is just black.
Hmm - this is interesting. I used full screen and stretch screen together and a got a full display on Harvest Moon. But pretty scratchy sound though. And it didn’t seem to matter if I used XP or 98.
I think I’ll have a look at the DOS one and see how that goes, and try it with VDMSound under Command Prompt.
Could be back to the DirectX drivers, though. Ain’t PC’s a bitch?
That might be the playback rate, might as well set that to maximum.
I got a new Dell & my old emulators work just fine without loading any roms, what message do you get when you use one?
I just downloaded the newest version of DirectX. The games still aren’t playing right. If I could take a screen shot, I would because its hard to describe what the screen looks like. I don’t have any way to get the screen shot online, though. Im downloading the newest version of SNES 9X right now.
Sorry for the interruption. Are you really asking, on this message board, how to play illegally optained ROMs on emulators of dubious legality under windows XP? And you’re all helping him? And the thread’s been open for over a day?
-lv