15 new Taito Type X / X2 games now working on domestic PC's

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

So am I correct in understanding that SF4 as it's released only single player? I saw mention of Super SF4 as an arcade version with 2P support.. Has this been released as well?
Can someone who's more familiar with these clarify for me?

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

I didn't really test it because it didn't really work due to my computer's specs, but I'm pretty sure SF 4 is the single player only version.

Also, no, Super SF 4 hasn't been released. 

[Howard_Casto]

I wanted to give an update on these games and some of the problems and fixes I've found/created.

The vertical games:

I'm in the process of writing a wrapper that automates the entire process!  You still need irotate and dhwnd, but you don't have to deal with them, the wrapper does everything.  It isn't one of those lame key simulation ahk exes either, all of it is done in pure api code.  I even added support for bezels since there is a lot of empty space, praticularly if you are playing them on a hd display.  I made a 4:3 and 16:9 bezel from the ps2 bezel in giga wing and it looks quite nice.  

I"m taking the time to make sure the wrapper is as stable as possible, but there isn't much to it, so I should release it tonight.  This really brings me back, btw.  Emulators are pretty much command-line friendly at this point.  These pc games are the first time I had to write a full-fledged wrapper in over 10 years!  Memories......

SFIV:

One of the benefits of programming a lot of wierd stuff is the fact that if a commercial product has a bug, you might recognize it.  Prior to Vista, videos played in a directx application could be handled via a colorkey overlay.  Since then it's been removed in favor of a more universal hw accelerated one.  I think this is why SFIV locks up on the videos seeing as how it was programmed for win xp.  There are tweaked video drivers that can handle this issue but I'm not brave enough to try them.  At least we know where to look though.    

BTW it is NOT the codec.  I've tried several videos in place of the official one, including avis and mpegs (renamed to wmv of course) and none of them play properly BUT I can hear the sound of the video.  

Raiden IV:

Boy this game has some issues.  I'll look into it when I have a few days to kill.  

Arcana Hearts 3:

This is a new release.  It has a bunch of bad hacks implemented instead of using the typex_loader.  Key bindings I might not be able to fix BUT it's weird exit issues and such I can via a wrapper.


Alt Key:

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but the games appear to "pause" when you press alt.  This is because it's brining up the alt-menu, even in fullscreen!  The fix is simply not to use alt, BUT if you want to be able to pause the games there you go.  


I hope that helps some people.

[Howard_Casto]

I didn't really test it because it didn't really work due to my computer's specs, but I'm pretty sure SF 4 is the single player only version.

Also, no, Super SF 4 hasn't been released. 

It's single player online though.  You can have two pcs connected to you network one running with the "master" settings and one running with the "slave" settings and it will indeed work!  This is the most popular version in japan due to the popularity of single-player "candy" cabs and thus this is why it was the first one to be dumped.  I'm sure the others will come out though.

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

^ Wise words

I was thinking about authentic and traditional multiplayer you see...

[joeH]

Did I miss a solution, or does BlazBlue still have graphical issues for ATI users?  Everything runs full speed for me without issues, except for the graphics problem I have with BB.   

[jimmy2x2x]

great work Howard, can't wait to try it out

[Howard_Casto]

I ran into a little snag on some of the vertical games.  They run too damn fast!

I thought "no problem, i'll just use one of those slowdown apps" but I can't find one thats free, supports command line usage or is any good. 

Anybody got any reccomendations?

[brian_hoffman]

Howard,
 Have you tried adjusting the V-Sync  in your videocard propertys? I've seen that corrected by doing that.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah that's the first thing I tried.

I also tried to send various messages to the window to try and slow it down, but it didn't really help. 

[headkaze]

According to those commercial apps that slow down the PC Eg. "CPUKILLER use your processor and make the resource occupancy grow enough to slow down the execution of other applications".

If you have a while(1); loop that will take up 100% of the CPU. Adding in a Sleep will give back some of that CPU. Maybe doing that along with setting the games process priority to low might work?

Here is an untested AutoHotKey script that might work

Code: [Select]

Run game.exe,,, pid
Process, wait, %pid%
Process, Priority, %pid%, Low
Loop
{
   Sleep, 1
}
If using Sleep() gives up too much CPU you may have to have a while() loop instead. To make it more accurate you could use a timer inside the while loop that will wait until a certain amount of microseconds has passed. The added benefit of doing it this way would be you could get a waiting time that will work for any CPU. I see an added problem on multi-core processors also where you will have to make sure you are running the wait code on the same CPU as the game.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah that was the first thing I thought of but it won't work because there's too much going on. 

You've got the typex_loader.exe.... it's has a low-level directinput hook in place and it steals most of the game's messages. 

On top of that you've got dxwnd.exe.... it's constantly man-handling the directx renderer, forcing it into windowed mode and somehow preventing the game from crashing (if you close dxwnd the game instantly crashes).

And then you've got my app trying to send stuff to the two fake windows hoping it will somehow be passed along to the real window, which is locked out from user input via the loader. 

Long story short I don't have access to the game process, because the typex_loader has locked me out of it.  Slowing it down doesn't seem to effect the game speed, as a matter of fact it appears to close itself after it sets up some fancy hooks.  The game process is still locked though. 

I did manage to find a couple of commercial programs that slow it down, but it pretty much ruins the game.  See the game graphics play too fast but the sound doesn't.  Any throttling of the game's speed makes the sound stutter, similar to when you try to run a mame game that your system can't handle. 

I"m pretty sure the two games in question have a pc port though, so I don't think it's worth losing sleep over. 

Hopefully someone will eventually find a solution.

[Howard_Casto]

Just an update:

The wrapper is finished (and by finished I mean I'm not messing with it anymore) at this point.  I did include support for a slowdown app that "sorta" works, but there are better options out there.

I am currently making nice icons and collecting as many "official" bezels as possible via other ports.  I will release everything late tonight when I get some time. 


So just to recap the wrapper will make Raiden III and GigaWing Generations fully rotatable and fully playable. 

The wrapper will also make Homura and Shikigami III playable via a slowdown app, but you will have to tweak it for your individual system and it may make the sound stutter a little.

Raiden IV is broken, the thing won't launch for me, but if one could get it to launch it would work on it too (I just don't have the window/class names to add to the cfg file). 

Arcada Hearts 3 should be an easy fix... the people who hacked the exe just forgot to include an escape button and to set the resolution back upon exit.  I can do that in a few minutes. 

[joeH]

Raiden IV runs for me if I set it to run in 256 color mode under properties.  Have you tried that by chance?

[Howard_Casto]

I'll try the new exes thanks, but to answer your question yes, maybe once out of 20 times it will load up.  I managed to get it running long enough to get the window handle though so I setup a cfg for it. 

Anyway, the wrappers are done... sorry I didn't post sooner but we've had some power outtages.

Click on my footer to go to my homepage where you can get the wrappers. 

Please note that these are NOT turn-key apps.  You need to install a couple of things and possibly setup cfg files first.  Read the readme.txt for details or post here if you have some questions. 

I've also included a bunch of bezels from the console ports and various other sources.  Some are kind of curddy looking but others make all the difference in the world.  So check em out!

[BadMouth]

Thanks Howard.

I have a couple issues......
Gigawing is missing from your packages.
Raiden III isn't launching (launches fine from batch file) - screen goes black for a second, but that's all that happens.  It doesn't rotate.

EDIT: With Raiden III, it was that the third line of the cfg file still had your path to DXWnd instead of ..\DXWnd\

[Corbo]

All games working for me  so far.  Strangely SF4 is too slow.  Everything runs at normal speed, the menus, intro, demo fights etc but when I start a fight the characters are moving at about half speed.  It's smooth, no frames are being dropped and the sound is normal, it's just slow.  Very strange.  PC is a Core2duo 2.66ghz with 4gb RAM and a Geforce 9300(512mb) running XP.

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks Howard.

I have a couple issues......
Gigawing is missing from your packages.
Raiden III isn't launching (launches fine from batch file) - screen goes black for a second, but that's all that happens.  It doesn't rotate.

EDIT: With Raiden III, it was that the third line of the cfg file still had your path to DXWnd instead of ..\DXWnd\

1.1 Is up, it includes gigawing and fixes the cfg file.  Sorry about that, but the power was on and off all night... I didn't get a chance to actually check the zips once I uploaded them. 


And with that I'm out for the day.  Happy independance day everyone!

[Howard_Casto]

I was taking a break and went ahead a whipped up a wrapper for Arcana Hearts 3 using the source to my old command line wrapper. 

It works in that it exits the game properly when you press the defined key and it switches the resolution back to what it should be.
I want to work on it a little more before I release it though.  The game sets itself to an awfully low resolution and while that's fine, on certain monitors it could cause havoc.  What I'll do is merge the windowed mode hackery I used on the vertical games with this wrapper and make a "windowed fullscreen" mode for the horizontal games as well. 


Then I'll see what (if anything) I can do to get sfiv and blazblue working properly. 

Also Raiden IV has a "fullscreen" option in it's ini commented out.  While uncommenting it doesn't do anything, the flag to set the game to windowed mode might still exist in the exe.  I"ll try looking for it as this game launching in windowed mode would probably fix all of it's issues.

[djvj]

You can read and get my solutions to all the games on the HS forums/FTP here, made them over 6 months ago:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127590&postcount=57

Note, you need to be a Gold Member to get them on the FTP though.

They do pretty much do the same thing HC's tool does. Mine all works in ahk, no need for new exes unless you want the game.exe's that I hacked. This is designed for Hyperspin though.

[kokoski]

For some reason the .bat files I was using in each folder to run these stopped working. They worked for every game, tried a wrapper to rotate vertical games, and since then they do not work at all. I had used each file several times, so I know getting these games work on my comp as I had loaded each more than once. Is there some reason .bat files would just stop working? I'm pretty frustrated, I'm hoping someone with some good knowledge can point out something simple. 

[Howard_Casto]

You can read and get my solutions to all the games on the HS forums/FTP here, made them over 6 months ago:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127590&postcount=57

Note, you need to be a Gold Member to get them on the FTP though.

They do pretty much do the same thing HC's tool does. Mine all works in ahk, no need for new exes unless you want the game.exe's that I hacked. This is designed for Hyperspin though.

Apparently no I can't.  It's asking for a login. 


kokoski:

The wrappers don't effect the bat files or executables in any way.  Perhaps something screwed up and it's still running?  Run taskmanager (ctrl+alt+delete) and search for stray exes. Are dxwnd or bes running?  Both man-handle anything called "game.exe"

Also something of note: 

Shikigami III and raiden IV have pc versions!  Mind you they are quite obscure and I believe japanese only, but they use the exact same files as the arcade ones and thus might be a better solution rather than using a speed limiter. 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

You can read and get my solutions to all the games on the HS forums/FTP here, made them over 6 months ago:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127590&postcount=57

Note, you need to be a Gold Member to get them on the FTP though.

They do pretty much do the same thing HC's tool does. Mine all works in ahk, no need for new exes unless you want the game.exe's that I hacked. This is designed for Hyperspin though.

May I mirror these files outside of the HS ftp for non-members?

[djvj]

I would prefer not, but if you want to just understand I cannot support them anywhere but on the UndergroundGamer HS project thread and HyperSpin forum thread. Those are the only 2 forums I frequent regularly.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I would prefer not, but if you want to just understand I cannot support them anywhere but on the UndergroundGamer HS project thread and HyperSpin forum thread. Those are the only 2 forums I frequent regularly.

Ah, sure thing.

[Howard_Casto]

I wasn't going to say anything, but thus the reason I made my own. 

[joeH]

I would prefer not, but if you want to just understand I cannot support them anywhere but on the UndergroundGamer HS project thread and HyperSpin forum thread. Those are the only 2 forums I frequent regularly.

I have an account at hyperspin set up, however the link provided keeps giving me a unauthorized access error.  I can access underground-gamer at home.  Any difference in the content at each site? 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok guys, if you go to my site, I've released a wrapper for Arcana Heart 3.  I was kind of torn on this one seeing as how it is a fairly new game, but it's a japanese game, one that is NEVER slated to be released in the west, so in this case I'm going to let it slide.

My wrapper fixes the exit issue, includes a utlity to remap keys (I found it, it isn't mine), and allows you to set coin1, coin2, exit and test mode keys. 

As always, get it at my site.

[BadMouth]

Raiden IV

The wrapper for Raiden IV isn't working for me.  I know it's glitchy to begin with and you said it might not work,
but here are my observations on that one if you want to try to tweak it.

I'm sure you've come across the batch file to launch it that has a pause in it.

Using that and the modified exe,
it works for me every time as long as I get all other open windows minimized before the game launches.
The game will still launch even if you don't press a key to continue when prompted.
Of course the screen isn't rotated using that batch file.

I haven't had to make any changes as far as compatibility settings to get it to work.
This is on Vista 64 Home Premium.

AH3

The first time (and only the first time) that I launched AH3 via your wrapper, after I exit,
my desktop icons and taskbar were missing.
The wallpaper and windows sidebar was still there.  Right clicking did nothing.  
Windows I had left open could still be brought to the front via task manager.
I checked the services and didn't see anything stopped that shouldn't have been.
explorer was still running.  I logged off and back on and all was fine.

It wouldn't be an issue on the cab and the few times I tried it since then it's worked perfect.
Just thought I would let you know in case someone else has the same issue.
(make sure they've tried it more than once!)

One more thing......
The link to the no-art wrapper package on your site is dead.

[joeH]

Howard:

Tried your 1.1 no artwork version.  I receive a black screen with Runtime error 53 message. When I clear the error and return to the desktop, my taskbar is completely gone.  Have to reboot to correct.  

My folder structure is (using raiden3 as an example):  D:\Taito\Raiden III\game.exe.  
DXWnd and BES folders are under D:\Taito.
irotate is at C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate
I've moved your .cfg an .exe from the appropriate folder into D:\Taito\Raiden III\

Am I missing a step here?


djvj:

I cannot access the Hyperspin link you posted.  I have an account on their forums, but I keep receiving an error message stating that I'm not authorized to view this thread.  Tried your link to UG, and I see your posts describing the scripts, but no links to them.  Just to the FTP site.  Are these scripts just not available, unless we're a gold member at Hyperspin?

[TheBakachan]

I got my hands on all these, as well as KoF Maximum Impact Regulation A (Which I haven't tried), and Arcana Heart 3 (Which isn't a Type-X/X2 game) on alt.binaries.emulators last week. (Yes, don't get me started on how everyone calls playing Type X/X2 games 'emulation'. ) Just thought I'd report my findings.

First of all, wow, yeah.  BBCT doesn't like ATI cards apparently.  Though I've never had any trouble with BBCS.  I downloaded Continuum Shift when it was first leaked last year, and it ran fine on a pair of 3850s, no graphical issues.  I upgraded the machine to 6870s early this year, and the game probably runs better than it does on an OEM Type-X2 machine. 

Screen rotation... Well, the trouble I ran into was that, while my LCD _does_ rotate, it rotates the wrong damned direction.  The solution was to go into the Windows display properties and set my monitor to 'Landscape (Flipped)', so that it would be in the right orientation when I turned the monitor the direction it _WILL_ go.  And that worked fine.

So far, the only game I can't get to work at all is KoF'98, but I'm not real broken up about that because I have the original MVS version in a 4-slot NEO-GEO cab about ten feet from my computer.    Though it would probably be nice to make that work.  I also had trouble with SFIV hanging on the intro movie.  But that's it.

[Howard_Casto]

Howard:

Tried your 1.1 no artwork version.  I receive a black screen with Runtime error 53 message. When I clear the error and return to the desktop, my taskbar is completely gone.  Have to reboot to correct.  

My folder structure is (using raiden3 as an example):  D:\Taito\Raiden III\game.exe.  
DXWnd and BES folders are under D:\Taito.
irotate is at C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate
I've moved your .cfg an .exe from the appropriate folder into D:\Taito\Raiden III\

Am I missing a step here?


djvj:

I cannot access the Hyperspin link you posted.  I have an account on their forums, but I keep receiving an error message stating that I'm not authorized to view this thread.  Tried your link to UG, and I see your posts describing the scripts, but no links to them.  Just to the FTP site.  Are these scripts just not available, unless we're a gold member at Hyperspin?

You have typex_loader.exe and it's need files in with the wrapper right?  Because all of these games except for ah3 require typex_loader to launch and my wapper automatically looks for it. 

[joeH]

Howard:

Tried your 1.1 no artwork version.  I receive a black screen with Runtime error 53 message. When I clear the error and return to the desktop, my taskbar is completely gone.  Have to reboot to correct.  

My folder structure is (using raiden3 as an example):  D:\Taito\Raiden III\game.exe.  
DXWnd and BES folders are under D:\Taito.
irotate is at C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate
I've moved your .cfg an .exe from the appropriate folder into D:\Taito\Raiden III\

Am I missing a step here?


djvj:

I cannot access the Hyperspin link you posted.  I have an account on their forums, but I keep receiving an error message stating that I'm not authorized to view this thread.  Tried your link to UG, and I see your posts describing the scripts, but no links to them.  Just to the FTP site.  Are these scripts just not available, unless we're a gold member at Hyperspin?

You have typex_loader.exe and it's need files in with the wrapper right?  Because all of these games except for ah3 require typex_loader to launch and my wapper automatically looks for it.  

Under D:\Taito\Raiden III\ I have:
game.exe
game.bat
typex_loader.exe
data folder
detoured.dll
game.inf
R3.sfv
typex_config.exe
typex_io.dll
type_io.log

I then copied over the .cfg file and .exe from your  Raiden III folder and placed them into D:\Taito\Raiden III\
When trying to run your .exe, I receive the runtime error 53 message window against a black screen.

[djvj]

djvj:

I cannot access the Hyperspin link you posted.  I have an account on their forums, but I keep receiving an error message stating that I'm not authorized to view this thread.  Tried your link to UG, and I see your posts describing the scripts, but no links to them.  Just to the FTP site.  Are these scripts just not available, unless we're a gold member at Hyperspin?

On UG, you only have access to the project FTP if you are a contributor to the project. It's more of an exclusive thing. On HS though, you only have to be a Gold member to gain access to the thread/FTP with all the files.

Remember, my method is all scripted for you if you use HS and requires no setup or path defining besides setting up the wheel/paths in the HyperHQ. Howard's method is similar to mine, but will work for any FE and requires a good amount of user setup.

[joeH]

djvj:

I cannot access the Hyperspin link you posted.  I have an account on their forums, but I keep receiving an error message stating that I'm not authorized to view this thread.  Tried your link to UG, and I see your posts describing the scripts, but no links to them.  Just to the FTP site.  Are these scripts just not available, unless we're a gold member at Hyperspin?

On UG, you only have access to the project FTP if you are a contributor to the project. It's more of an exclusive thing. On HS though, you only have to be a Gold member to gain access to the thread/FTP with all the files.

Remember, my method is all scripted for you if you use HS and requires no setup or path defining besides setting up the wheel/paths in the HyperHQ. Howard's method is similar to mine, but will work for any FE and requires a good amount of user setup.

Thanks for the reply.  I just  finished the process of requesting gold status at Hyperspin.  I'll hit you up there if I need any more help.

[BadMouth]

Tried the AH3 wrapper on my emulator setup that runs XP Pro and I have the same problem mentioned in my last post, but it does it every time.
I'm not real worried about it (doubt I'd play the game), but if you want to keep working on it, it is an issue.

[Stormrider]

I've had Shiki 1, 2 and 3 for PC for years, as well as Raiden III. However, I've never found Raiden IV. Are you sure it's been released for PC?

I've tried the wrappers but the games run with bad framerate here.

Raiden IV is a little tricky. It seems it needs the folder window from which you run it minimized, but another window (no matter what), active, for the game to run. I've written an Autohotkey script to launch it without problems:

#notrayicon
Gui, -caption border
Gui, Color, ffffff
WinSet, TransColor, ffffff
run, %comspec% /c typex_loader.exe launcher.exe,, min
sleep 700 ; Adjust time here if it refuses to load. If you get IO error, reset your computer and try again.
WinClose, A
gui, show
sleep 7000
gui, destroy
exitapp

As regards other games, I have problems with KOF XII and Battle Fantasia. Both run, but only if I chose low res monitor. Anyone with this problem? With KOFXIII, everything is fine except for the input lag and the fact that it doesn't fill the screen (margins up, down, left and right). I'm using a Geforce and a 1920x1080 res monitor. I've never had problems with Blazblue CS and CT before but lately I got some screen corruptions. Eventually, if I reset my computer and run them again, they look perfect.

[Stormrider]

BTW, do you think it would be possible to make Enbseries to work with KOF MIRA2? I've tried it but it takes no effect. It would be nice to improve those graphics.

[8way]

Just an update:

The wrapper is finished (and by finished I mean I'm not messing with it anymore) at this point.  I did include support for a slowdown app that "sorta" works, but there are better options out there.

I am currently making nice icons and collecting as many "official" bezels as possible via other ports.  I will release everything late tonight when I get some time. 


So just to recap the wrapper will make Raiden III and GigaWing Generations fully rotatable and fully playable. 

The wrapper will also make Homura and Shikigami III playable via a slowdown app, but you will have to tweak it for your individual system and it may make the sound stutter a little.

Raiden IV is broken, the thing won't launch for me, but if one could get it to launch it would work on it too (I just don't have the window/class names to add to the cfg file). 

Arcada Hearts 3 should be an easy fix... the people who hacked the exe just forgot to include an escape button and to set the resolution back upon exit.  I can do that in a few minutes. 

Found a fix for Raiden IV to make it run. Just edit the "game.bat" and add "pause" so it should look like this

typex_loader game.exe
pause

Don't wait to long to "hit any key" or it will lock up. Hope that helps.

[BadMouth]

As regards other games, I have problems with KOF XII and Battle Fantasia. Both run, but only if I chose low res monitor. Anyone with this problem?

They ran fine on my main pc, but won't run on my mame setup that's lower res and uses s-video out.  I will try the low res option and let you know.

never had problems with Blazblue CS and CT before but lately I got some screen corruptions. Eventually, if I reset my computer and run them again, they look perfect.

Are you running a pc game before they stop working?  I had an issue with House of the Dead for PC changing the default anti-aliasing settings and screwing up blazblue CS.