RF Generation Message Board

So recently my Fiancé' began playing Chrono Cross. Needless to say I was looking forward to see what she thinks of it as its one of my favorite RPGs. Sadly she hasn't got to play much of it because sooner or later the game gets stuck loading something (usually when someone is casting a spell, the spell animation will repeat over and over again.) The game is getting a bit old and has small scratches here and there. This same problem happened with my copy of Persona, and it's virtually scratch-less. So to make a long series of thoughts short I'm not sure if I should buy a newer copy of Chrono Cross or find a different solution like finding another PS2.

So what would you guys do? ???

Might want to troubleshoot around the intarnets. If it's something you see commonly with this game, assume it is the PS3, if not; get a new copy.

Chrono Cross is a known problem title with PS3 compatibility. Remember that the list is far from perfect, even less so than the PS2 compatibility which isn't perfect either. :P

Simple, play PS3 games on PS3. Play PSone games on Psone.

Here's the known issues with Chrono Cross from Sony's site: http://www.us.playstation.com/Support/CompatibleStatus

Chrono Cross
Publisher: Square EA (Square Enix)Product No: SLUS-01041
Description: When the Chrono Cross Title screen appears, 3 horizontal bars of corruption intermittently flash on the left half of the screen for approximately 1/2 a second.

Chrono Cross
Publisher: Square EA (Square Enix)Product No: SLUS-01041
Description: Throughout gameplay, when the user's character encounters a battle, the text/menu boxes intermittently flicker from transparent to black.

So there are issues with that game.

Hmm I never thought I'd be buying another PS1 but it looks like the best solution right now. I guess its better then letting these games just sit and collect dust.

The easiet way is to use a PC emulator for playstation .Practically any pc will run original PSONE game with an emulator.

I know that works, but that just wouldn't feel "right" to me.

I'd buy a PSone if I were you. :)

True, I have a hard time playing without having the actual controller in my hand.

Use a PS1 Dual Shock controller with a USB adapter, works perfectly with ePSXe. :)

Or use your PS3 controller with the supplied USB cable. You'll need a driver to make it work on Windows, which can be found here: http://dl.qj.net/SIXAXIS-driver-for-PC-PlayStation-3/pg/12/fid/11679/catid/518

I find the mini-USB jack too easy to detach for my tastes and the shoulder buttons are terrible but to each their own I guess.  :P

You can also use an X360 controller with a $19.99 adapter making it wireless.

Well after playing around with it I might just go with the emulator. It pretty cool being able to play it with the PS3 controller. Unfortunately this means I'll have to ween her off the controller or just work on my a DS game when shes playing. :P

A couple thoughts strike me at the moment though:

1. If I'm not mistaken Chrono Cross doesn't have a save point right before changing disc like the Final Fantasy games did, I haven't read anything about it being a problem but I haven't really searched yet either.

2. I wonder if theres a way to get her saved data from the PS3 to my computer using the little memory card-usb plug in thing. Or maybe the SD card slot.

Thanks for all the ideas and help so far.  ;D

After a little research, I've found a way to get the save data from your PS3 into ePSXe. It's kind of a pain in the ass, but it works.

First, copy the save game from your PS3 to whatever external memory device you have handy. This can be a USB stick, SD card, etc. To copy it, go to the game menu, choose Memory Card Utility, open the memory card with the Chrono Cross save file on it, highlight the save and press triangle, choose copy, then select where you want it to go.

Next, plug the memory device into your computer and open it. The file the PS3 exported will be located in this directory: PS3\EXPORT\PSV. You can copy the file to your computer or leave it there, whatever you prefer. Unfortunately, this file type is not supported by ePSXe, so you have to do some conversions on it.

The first conversion is to change the file from .PSV format to .MCS. This is done using PSV Extractor (http://"http://www.ps2savetools.com/download.php?op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=87"). The link to download the file on the official site may not work, so use this one instead: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=111QVG5D

Once you have it downloaded, extract the program to wherever you want and run it. Then go to File, Open PSV file and choose the PSV file the PS3 made. When it's open, select File, extract PS1 save. Save the file in some directory and give it a name. Now it should be a .MCS file. However, ePSXe doesn't support this format, so there's one more conversion that needs to be done.

Download and install PSXMemTool (http://"http://psxmemtool.ngemu.com/PSXMemTool/index.php"). Now because the people who wrote that program are stupid, you need to download the PSXMemTool Runtime Libraries (http://"http://psxmemtool.ngemu.com/PSXMemTool/Files/PSXMemTool_Runtime.zip") and extract the zip file to C:\Program Files\PSXMemTool. Next, find that MCS file you made with PSV Extractor and double click it to open PSXMemTool and have it put the save file into a new memory card. Make sure that the save file is in the new memory card and click save. Name the file something.mcr.

Now you can open that MCR file with ePSXe as a memory card!

If you have any questions or just want me to do the conversion for you, let me know.

Thanks for the resources Tondog, eveything seems to be working fine. I played her file for a bit, casting magic every round of course, and it hasn't froze or repeated the casting animation yet. So far so good. :) Thanks a lot everyone, I just hope there isnt too many problems with the disc transition.

Not exactly user-friendly. :-\

It would be a lot easier if the makers of ePSXe included a save file converter themselves for people who want to switch over.

Your talking about an 8 year old emulator that is programmed and tested by unpaid volunteers with no time constraint for a system 14 years old. Working with the PS3 is hard enough for developers in the industry. To learn it from scratch without a dev kit and program apps for it that are compatible with multiple OS'es and versions of ePSXe that will get very little use and possible scrutiny from Sony, wouldn't really be worth their efforts in the short term.

As with many emulators, half the fun is in the process. What Tony has described in that step by step process is no different than optimizing video/CD-ROM or sound settings on the emulator and possibly less time consuming.

Oh, ok. I'm sorry about that.


I'd still prefer to buy a cheap PSone rather than having to do all that, though.

As you should if you want to truly enjoy it. I've messed around with emulators since the 90's but I'd never choose to play an emulator over the real thing. It's handy for screenshots and such but the fun of an emulator is making it work, not playing the games per se.

I'd even skip the PS1 or PSOne and go for a new PS2. They are only $100, are readily available and have plenty of accessories. Might as well have the option of PS1/PS2 on the same system along with faster loading speeds for PS1 games. My PS2 Slim is nearing 4 years old and works as good as the day I bought it. Thousands of hours between everyone who has used it, sometimes 12-14 hour marathons and has seen hundreds of games between PS1 and PS2. I love my PS1's but I can honestly say I wouldn't be as confident about the reliability of a 10-14 year old used PS1 bought from a stranger as opposed to a brand new PS2 with 8 years of bug fixes and hardware inprovements to it's credit.

yes you can get a PS2 instead of the discountinued PSone for playing ps1 games.