FAQS For "Dummies"

Epsxe faQ

Q. I downloaded Epsxe and I tried to get it to work, but it won't. What did I do wrong?

A. Epsxe is not automatically playable when you download it. There are 2 things you MUST have before Epsxe will work: 1. You must have Playstation bios and 2. you must download the proper plug-ins.

Q. How or where do I get the Playstation bios?

A. Well, there is a difficult way and an easy way. The difficult way involves copying them directly off of your Playstation with a link and a Game Shark. The easy way involves going to www.psxbios.net and downloading the relatively small (128 kb) bios file there. If that site ever goes down, do a search using www.dogpile.com and search for SCPH 1001 bios download.

Q. I see that there are different numbers of bios (for example SCPH 1000, 1001, 7001, 7502). Which one should I use?

A. With Epsxe it is recommended that you use bios versions 1001 or 7502. I recommend that you use bios version 7502. With some amd systems using the 7502 bios will allow certain games to run that will not with bios 1001. (This has been confirmed by several Amd k62 users.)

Q. Is it legal to download the bios file?

A. It is if you own a playstation.

Q. I have the bios file, now what do I do with it?

A. First open up your Epsxe folder and look for a folder named bios. Open the bios folder and then copy and paste or drag and drop (be careful with drag and drop sometimes it just makes a shortcut and that is a problem) your bios file into the folder. You can have as many different bios files as you like stored in theis folder as you will be able to choose among them when you configure bios in Epsxe. Next, click on the controller icon in the Epsxe folder. This will open up the GUI (Graphical User Interface). In the GUI left click on config and then scroll down to bios, left click on bios and click on the select button. This will open up to your bios folder and you can choose from the bios files in you bios folder. Click on your bios of choice and then click open. Voila, your bios are now inserted into Epsxe!

Q. Bios are inserted, now what was that about plugins?

A. Epsxe uses a Plug-in system for its sound, graphics, and cdrom. You MUST have these plug-ins and configure them in order to use Epsxe. You can look for them all over the internet or download all of the newest plug-ins (updated whenever plugins are updated) in a nifty zip folder in the download section of Emusquared. Once you have downloaded the plug-in folder, unzip it and copy and paste the folder into your epsxe directory. When it asks you if you want to replace the existing plug-ing folder say yes. You need to choose which plugins to use and configure them according to your needs. (The plug-in guide for Emusquared is coming soon.) 

Q. I inserted the plug-in folder, now what do I do?

A. Go again to the controller in the Epsxe folder and double click on it. The GUI should be up. Now go again to config. In this menu you see video, sound, and cdrom. First go to video and choose the graphics plug-in you want to use from the drop down column and click ok, do the same with sound and cdrom. For video, we recommend any of Pete's graphics plug-ins or Lewpy's glide for 3dfx users. For sound the core spu for epsxe is really good, but Nulls and Petes sound plug-ins are great also. For Cdrom we recommend either TSG Mscdex Driver 1.2 or Aspi driver 1.2. To access the options of the specific plug-in click on configure and choose the settings you want from the window that opens up. (see the plug-in guide for how to optimise the plug-ins for your system).

Q. What about the MDEC section in the config menu?

A. Just do as the window says. If you are using a Square game that they mention has odd mdecs click Enable MDEC Timing, if not don't check the box becuase it could cause problems for your games that normally work.

Q. How do I configure the controller?

A. Just push the button on your controller that you want to correspond to the highlighted button on the PSX controller.

Q. The game plays but my controller won't work. What's up with that?

A. Click on options and check SIO Irq always enabled. If you are in the game just push f4 to enable the controller (on some games you just have to do this) and your controller will now work.

Q. Epsxe isn't finding my psx cd. What did I do now?

A. No biggie. Just check to make sure that in the cdrom menu you have configured your cdrom plugin and the drive letter that you assigned in the configure menu corresponds to the letter that shows up on the config cdrom screen. Also, make sure you have the cd in the right drive :-).

Q. X game won't work. What can I do to make it work?

A. Well first rule of thumb is to try another plug-in. Pete's Software Plug-in is reputed to be the most compatible of all plug-ins. Also know that this is an emulator and can't be expected to play all games. No matter how good the coders:-).

Q. What is the Epsxe iso function and are there any benefits?

A. If you have a cd burner that can read raw data (check out the link to psxcopyworld on the homepage) you can make an iso of a playstation game with nero or another burning program. Epsxe allows you to play directly from that iso and this eliminates having to use the cdrom plug-ins that aren't exactly optimized right now. Using an iso is beneficial becuase it can improve game speed slightly and eliminate speed fluctuations.

Any more questions? Ask away! Just email me at collegebound48@hotmail.com and put the word question in the subject line of your e-mail.

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