MagicEngine

[President Evil]

Hello, first time posting. I've had a copy of Dracula X for years and no way to play it. Anyhow, I found this emulator and downloaded the demo. The read-me was kinda brief and I can't find any real start-up instructions at the site. I'm not real experienced at using emulators, so excuse me off the bat. After messing around with the PCE.ini file a bit, I can run Dracula X by choosing "Boot CD" and then "Magic System 3", but the CD soundtrack won't play. So I'm wondering if CD sound is disabled in the demo version, and if the full version really will have it. Since there's a purchase involved, I just want to be sure to get the right thing.

[Kaminari]

Hey,

The built-in Magic System has some flaws, you'd better use a real Super System Card ROM. You can grab one via your favorite search engine by looking for "Super CD-ROM2 System V3.00 (J)". Put it in your ROM folder, modify your INI to point to the correct file, and make sure the following items are configured as below:

;
; CD-ROM audio input line
; --
; 0 -> first audio input line [default]
; 1 -> second audio input line
; ...
;
; (see the log.txt file to find out what are the line numbers)
;

cd_audio_input_line=

;
; enable debug log file
; --
; y -> enable [default]
; n -> disable
;

debug_log=y

;
; CD-ROM drive
; --
; 0 -> first CD-ROM drive [default]
; 1 -> second CD-ROM drive
; ...
;

drive=0

;
; CD-ROM drive letter
; --
; (Windows 2000/XP only)
;
; D:
; E:
; ...
;

drive_letter=

;
; system card paths
; --
;

system_card_1=
system_card_2=
system_card_3=D:\Emulation\Magic Engine\ROMs\Super CD-ROM2 System V3.00 (J).pce
system_card_4=

There you go. Hope it helps!

Edit: oh, and make sure you've got an audio cable between your CD-ROM drive and your sound board!

[President Evil]

Thanks for the quick reply! Okay, I did absolutely everything you told me, but there's still no CD music. I'm running WinXP with a DVD-RW (master) and a CD-ROM. The DVD-RW wouldn't work at all, so I've been using the CD-ROM and the game will at least start, and the sound FX work. Here's what my log says:

[BOOT CD]
test unit... ready (0ms)
reading TOC...
- OK, 22 track(s) detected
track 1 [10]: 00 02 00 ( 0, 3890)
track 2 [14]: 00 53 65 ( 3890, 14189)
track 3 [10]: 03 11 14 ( 14189, 22173)
track 4 [10]: 04 57 48 ( 22173, 26917)
track 5 [10]: 06 00 67 ( 26917, 34134)
track 6 [10]: 07 37 09 ( 34134, 40411)
track 7 [10]: 09 00 61 ( 40411, 45260)
track 8 [10]: 10 05 35 ( 45260, 58635)
track 9 [10]: 13 03 60 ( 58635, 66403)
track 10 [10]: 14 47 28 ( 66403, 78455)
track 11 [10]: 17 28 05 ( 78455, 86083)
track 12 [10]: 19 09 58 ( 86083, 97368)
track 13 [10]: 21 40 18 ( 97368, 108444)
track 14 [10]: 24 07 69 ( 108444, 124926)
track 15 [10]: 27 47 51 ( 124926, 135835)
track 16 [10]: 30 13 10 ( 135835, 150506)
track 17 [10]: 33 28 56 ( 150506, 157229)
track 18 [10]: 34 58 29 ( 157229, 164899)
track 19 [10]: 36 40 49 ( 164899, 173900)
track 20 [10]: 38 40 50 ( 173900, 192012)
track 21 [10]: 42 42 12 ( 192012, 211262)
track 22 [14]: 46 58 62 ( 211262, 221262)
read sector 3890...3891 (2)
read sector 3890searching game backup RAM in database [5B6BCCCC|072EAB00]... found
opening backup RAM data file : "D:\Archive\Games\MagicEngine\backup.dat"... OK
loading backup RAM bank 0... OK
...4017 (128)
read sector 3892...3892 (1)
read sector 3957...3986 (30)
read sector 4083...4122 (40)
read sector 4051...4082 (32)
read sector 3987...4050 (64)
read sector 4127...4158 (32)
play audio 14189...22166
pause audio... OK
searching game backup RAM in database [5B6BCCCC|072EAB00]... found
opening backup RAM data file : "D:\Archive\Games\MagicEngine\backup.dat"... OK
writing backup RAM bank 0... OK
searching game backup RAM in database [5B6BCCCC|072EAB00]... found
opening backup RAM data file : "D:\Archive\Games\MagicEngine\backup.dat"... OK
writing backup RAM bank 0... OK

Notice the line where it says "pause audio.... OK" Does that mean that CD sound is disabled in the demo version, or is there a way to unpause the sound?

[Kaminari]

No, it's a normal part of the reading process.

Chances are, either your CD-ROM drive is set to 'digital playback' (check its properties in the Device Manager) or you don't have any audio cable connected between your drive and your sound board.

Can you hear anything through a headphone plugged to the output of your CD-ROM drive? If yes, then the audio cable (or lack thereof) is the culprit. Get one and you should be fine.

[President Evil]

I tried a normal audio CD, and it autoplays and I can use headphones and everything. I disabled digital sound the way you said, and rebooted. It still doesn't play. I bet anything it's because I have a DVD-RW in the machine, which is the master CD drive. If only there was some way to get this to work on a DVD drive, I bet it would play the music.

Tell me, is Magic Engine still being worked on? I'm wondering if this could be eventuallly fixed. Anyway, I'm using WinXP with a 1.8GHz processor and 512Ram. My CD-ROM is a ASUS CD-S400/A. It might be worth registering just to be able to play again, even if it is without the music. But I'd be hopeful (and possibly annoying) that future versions of Magic Engine compensate for whatever this problem is.

I could swear I played a version of this years ago, on Win98, and that my copy of the game was playing the CD music tracks and everything. I guess a lot had to change for compliance with WinXP?

Anyhow, thanks a bunch for your time!

[Kaminari]