ARH Hack and Playing on PSX/PS2

[Aqueous]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if anyone will be able to answer this question but I'm hoping!

I recently tried to burn my modified FFT to disc to play on an actual PSX, since I want to be able to sit in bed comfy and cozy when playing FFT! After successfully loading the game up, it's working fine all the way until it has to actually enter the "game world" as such - this would include anything such as entering a scene, a battle, etc. As an example, when I start a new game it goes through everything perfectly fine until the "Orbonne Monastery" scene where the music starts and then hangs.

I've narrowed the cause of this down to one single thing: the ARH hack.

Does anyone have any idea why this would cause such an issue that ONLY appears when playing the game on a physical PSX/PS2 and any way it could be averted?

Thanks in advance!

[Glain]

Unfortunately, emulators can't emulate the real PSX hardware perfectly, and some code that is illegal on a real PSX (and causes the game to hang) will actually work fine on an emulator.

Since most hacks are tested on emulators and not the real PSX, this leads to hacks that work on the emulators but may or may not work on the real PSX.

We've identified some of the main problems that affected a lot of hacks and corrected them, but I don't think anyone ever went through the ARH hack to try to find things like that.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Are you using ARH 1.1 or ARH 1.2?

Xifanie has tested ARH 1.1 on a physical machine back when she made it and it apparently worked fine.  If you're using Pokeytax's modified ARH 1.2, try using 1.1 instead.

[Aqueous]

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies.

I tried with ARH 1.1 as well and unfortunately have run into the same issue. Not sure why this would be if Xif got it working, maybe PSX version differences or something (my PSX is the old "phat" version) but unfortunately I've just had to skip the hack.

Thanks again though

[Aqueous]

Just an additional comment, I think some of it may be my PSX.

My version of the game has been working great, no bugs or anything, but I've just hit a point after fighting Miluda the fight time where Death Corps raid the Beoulve house - the game crashes in this scene every time.

Here's the rub, though: I tried to get past this part simply by playing the Vanilla version of the game and then saving afterwards...this scene crashes even on the VANILLA version.

So...ARH 1.1 might work and it might just be my PSX =(

[Xifanie]

Xifanie has tested ARH 1.1 on a physical machine back when she made it and it apparently worked fine.

Have I? I know I tested some hacks that fdc asked me to test on a PSX but that's it.

The version of your PSX shouldn't matter, mine's a fat SCPH-7502. I've never experience a crash from a FFT event, and I suspect some data used for that event is unreadable on your original disc, and since you probably based your new one off it, it has the same problem as the last. This is just a theory, because normally these days any CD/DVD reader lenses should be far more accurate than the crappy ones the PSX uses (I changed mine's twice).

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Have I? I know I tested some hacks that fdc asked me to test on a PSX but that's it.

That's what you told me a very long time ago, and Elric said he's used it on a physical machine too.  ARH and RAD I think?