Gauntlet Legends, epsxe, emulation trouble or just ignorance?

[vputz]

OK, childish game-specific question that doesn't really belong on these hallowed boards, but since I can't tell if it's an emulation problem or just ignorance, thought I'd ask.

My wife and I are playing through the PSX version of Gauntlet Legends.  Yes, I know, it's the worst possible version, I should just get a Dreamcast, etc., but since I have the epsxe emulator working on my Linux HTPC (which is also my MAME machine with CP; no room for a proper cab), we're doing the PSX version.  It's much handier than buying a DC and hacking the gamepads/connectors so that I can use my CP, after all, and it looks like the MAME version of Gauntlet Legends is a ways off.

In any case, my question is this: we seem to be unable to unlock any of the "secret characters" despite doing exactly what I've read to do, even for the PSX version (ie find an appropriate treasure room and collect coins--some sites say 50, some say "all", but in any case if we get more than 76 then "76" appears in our tally and we return to the main tower).  We've done this for the "cliffs" secret level (to unlock the minotaur) and the "ice world" secret level (to unlock the jackal) but when I select the "secret characters" option in the tower menu, all four characters still show as transparent with the word "locked" underneath them.

I feel I must be missing something terribly obvious on how to switch to the secret characters, but both she and I would like to give it a go.  Those of you who are familiar with the PSX version of Gauntlet Legends, am I missing something obvious, or is everything as it should be and somehow the emulation is preventing some byte at some obscure address from being set?

-->VPutz

[sofakng]

Did you check out www.gamefaqs.com?  They have FAQs on everything there.

You probably already did, but I figured I'd mention that anyways just in case.

I'm going to probably hookup my dreamcast to the arcade I'm building, but I'm not sure.  The whole thing about not being able to enter coins is killing me... (yes it sounds stupid I know)

Anyways, Gauntlet Legends is one of the games I really want to see working on MAME

[vputz]

Did you check out www.gamefaqs.com?  They have FAQs on everything there.

Hadn't, but it gives the same information I've seen everywhere else, such as

The secret stages involve collecting a number of coins before a time limit runs
out and are straightforward for the most part, only one of them is really hard.

The four characters that you can unlock this way are the Minotaur, Falconress,
Tigress and Jackal.

...and as mentioned, I've done that twice now on two different stages and neither received a message that anything interesting had happened nor was able to use any of the "secret characters" in the game, which makes me wonder if I'm just being a fool or if there's an emulation issue where some part of memory isn't receiving the right flag.

I personally am voting for the "fool" version (pretty common occurrence with me), but I still can't figger it out.  It doesn't look like the gamefaqs board is really active, but I may post there and see.

-->VPutz