Mednafen for Dummies!

Nazi NecroPhile · 07/09/2007, 06:09 PM

Since some people* don't respond to PMs, can anyone here help an idiot get Mednafen to load a damn cd game? I have Mednafen (version 0.8.1) sitting in a folder on my desktop (XP, if it matters) and have a .cue file (also on the desktop), a mounted image (using Daemon Tools), or a physical disc to play from. Apparently I'm too dense to use the command line, so any helpful explanations would be greatly appreciated. Just make sure to dumb down your responses so that a mildly retarded six year old will understand. It'll probably still be tough for me to understand, but I think that I'll be able to muddle my way through.

* I'm looking at you Nod, but I understand that sometimes PMs don't make it through, people get busy, etc.

Kitsunexus · 07/09/2007, 06:51 PM

I'm tired and my brain's memory center has shut down, leaving me even wondering why I'm on here. So what's Mednafen?

Turbo D · 07/09/2007, 07:15 PM

ya, I've also been trying to get it to work

My pms have also gone unanswered, haha. Oh well, I need to get my duo repaired anyways.

OldRover · 07/09/2007, 08:53 PM

Hrm...I don't remember getting any PMs about setting up Mednafen but I can give you the basics for getting CDs to run under it.

First of all, you need to either know what parameters to pass to Mednafen, or else just be able to edit the config file. Since it makes much more sense to edit the config file, I'll cover that instead.

You'll need to change a few things in mednafen.cfg. Open it with Wordpad or Notepad++ (NOT the original Notepad, it only supports CRLF, and mednafen always does Linux-style linebreaks). Look for these lines and make the following changes and checks:

dfmd5 change this to a 0 (this is right at the top of the config file...if you're using mednafen for MSR testing, this will ensure your saves are not hosed when new patches become available)

pce.cdbios you need to set this to an actual CD bios image. Mine is syscard3.pce, so that's what gets written. For ease of use, copy the system bios to the mednafen directory and just use the filename so you don't have to screw with paths. Also, mednafen is picky about system BIOSes...I've been unable to get the 256KB US BIOS to work, but the overdumped 384.5K Jp BIOS works fine.

pce.forcesgx if this is set for 1, set it for 0. It sometimes causes alignment problems when using the emulator as a PCE.

pce.nospritelimit make sure this is set for 0 ALWAYS. Some games (MSR included) rely on exploiting sprite buffer overflow.

After these are set, you can load the cuesheet DIRECTLY through mednafen...you don't need to mount it with Daemon Tools. It's a snap too...as long as you know at least a LITTLE of how to work the commandline!

Make sure your mednafen directory is somewhere easily accessible. I put mine in C:\mednafen for ease of use. So, to get to it, it's a simple two-part operation:

c:
cd \mednafen

from the commandline. Now, you can load the cuesheet easily. I have MSR stored at E:\msong and the cuesheet is called __msr.cue so it looks a bit like this to start it up:

mednafen E:\msong\__msr.cue

If everything is set up correctly, mednafen will come up with the system BIOS loaded so you can run the disc image. Of course, you might want to configure the controls as well. For the version I use, you press and hold Alt and Shift, and while still holding them, press the 1 key. This will bring up the control config function. Just follow the onscreen directions to set up your controls, it's very very brainless. It will ask you for each one twice, so hit the key you want twice for each (I have mine set up to use my PS2 gamepad, hehe).

Maybe someday I'll write a visual frontend for mednafen. Or maybe not...hehe

Kitsunexus: Mednafen is a multiple console emulator that is renowned for its accuracy. Right now, it's the only emulator known to properly emulate the PCE, SGX, and PC-FX in one shot. It also emulates the NES, the Lynx, the Wonderswan, the Gameboy and Gameboy Advanced, and the Neo Geo Pocket.

Kitsunexus · 07/09/2007, 10:02 PM

Quote from: Nödtveidt on 07/09/2007, 08:53 PMKitsunexus: Mednafen is a multiple console emulator that is renowned for its accuracy. Right now, it's the only emulator known to properly emulate the PCE, SGX, and PC-FX in one shot. It also emulates the NES, the Lynx, the Wonderswan, the Gameboy and Gameboy Advanced, and the Neo Geo Pocket.

Wow, that sounds really cool! Thanks for telling me! ^_^

Nazi NecroPhile · 07/10/2007, 01:14 AM

Thanks Nod - I got 'er working now. Now I need to play around and figure out the controls and kill the damn Vaseline filtering.

Kitsunexus · 07/10/2007, 01:18 PM

Quote from: guest on 07/10/2007, 01:14 AMkill the damn Vaseline filtering.

It emulates N64 as well?

Keranu · 07/10/2007, 05:04 PM

Quote from: guest on 07/10/2007, 01:14 AMThanks Nod - I got 'er working now. Now I need to play around and figure out the controls and kill the damn Vaseline filtering.

You can get rid of the "Vaseline filtering" by opening up mednafen.cfg by setting the PCE's bilinear interpolation to zero so it looks like this:

Code Select

;Enable bilinear interpolation.
pce.videoip 0

Just press ctrl+F in your word editing program to search for where that is in the file.

Nazi NecroPhile · 07/10/2007, 05:54 PM

Thanks Keranu. I figured that I'd find an option in the .cfg file, but now I won't have to search for it (thinking makes my brain hurt). Is the setup for a usb pad also found in the .cfg file?

Keranu · 07/10/2007, 05:56 PM

No problem. As far as setting up gamepads, I have no clue, sorry

. I suck at Mednafen!

OldRover · 07/10/2007, 10:25 PM

When Mednafen is running, hold Alt and Shift and press the number 1 on the keyboard to enter the gamepad config. I use my PS2 gamepad with Mednafen all the time.

Nazi NecroPhile · 07/11/2007, 09:34 AM

Thanks again Nod - I got 'er working last night and had me some fun. It's too bad that Mednafen uses a separate button for turbo, as I prefer to use one button and just turn turbo on/off. No biggie - I'll get used to it.

OldRover · 07/11/2007, 10:57 AM

I've actually come to rely on the separation of the Turbos like that...no need to guess whether they're on or not, which helps for certain badly-programmed games.

TurboXray · 07/21/2007, 01:56 PM

Quote from: guest on 07/10/2007, 01:14 AMThanks Nod - I got 'er working now. Now I need to play around and figure out the controls and kill the damn Vaseline filtering.

Pfft! Vaseline filtering + 28% scanline is a great thing IMO.

cybercross · 01/31/2008, 07:45 PM

the system im using functions with the Radeon x1300/x1550 series.
whenever i try to start mednafen, i see the window for a split second, but it suddenly closes!! what should i do? is there someway
i can change the settings so it can function with the card? please help me!

ccovell · 01/31/2008, 09:21 PM

Try change the rendering type (OpenGL, whatever) in the CFG file. Also, check out the stdout.txt file it generates to see what errors it's giving you.