FAQ & known bugs
Straight answers to the questions people actually ask, each linking to the deep reference — followed by the recovered FAQ and known-bugs pages in full.
Why is my game a black screen?
BOOT.ELF in the IGR/exit chain (disable the ELF loader with stock PATCH_9.BIN), or a missing/wrong POPS file. Boot a debug build first to read the actual error.How do I force PAL, or fix 50/60 Hz?
$FORCEPAL forces the PAL patcher + Euro region; $NOPAL runs a PAL game in native NTSC. PATCH_8.BIN / PATCH_9.BIN are the binary equivalents. After $NOPAL you usually need $YPOS_## to re-center.Does it support exFAT USB?
USBEXFAT. The same BDMA Mode setting also reaches MX4SIO and MMCE — it's the device selector for everything except the internal HDD. (POPS never reads exFAT itself; BDMA presents the files to it.)My cheats do nothing — why?
CHEATS.TXT must be UPPERCASE on internal HDD/PFS or it is silently ignored, and raw GameShark codes need $SAFEMODE on the first line (named $commands do not).My USB drive isn't detected
$USBDELAY_# (or config byte $413) and confirm a FAT32/exFAT format with 32K/64K clusters. $USBDELAY patches streaming — it does not fix detection; $413 does.Saves disappear after I reboot the PS2
How do I set up a multi-disc game?
DISCS.TXT listing every disc's VCD in each disc's folder, and a VMCDIR.TXT pointing discs 2/3 at disc 1's VMC so they share one memory card.Is this legal? Where's the emulator?
What's the latest/canonical POPStarter build?
Does it support widescreen?
$WIDESCREEN (16:9), $ULTRA_WIDESCREEN, $EYEFINITY (≈3×16:9). They don't fix HUDs/fonts/2D backgrounds and don't work on every game.Recovered FAQ
📎 from the recovered FAQS wiki page · merged across snapshots, primary 20240909182922
FAQs
- Question : does POPS support mutitap player ?
Answer : Unfortunately, no. Only the 2 first controllers are recognised.
- Question : does POPS support physical memory card saving ?
Answer : No, it doesnt. There is a technical reason about it : POPS doesnt save on a single memory card block but flashes the whole VMC. Doing it on physical memory card would be very slow if possible.
Known bugs & limitations
📎 from the recovered Known Bugs wiki page · merged across snapshots, primary 20240913183110
Known bugs / limitations
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$COMPATIBILITY_0x07 mode : unfinished. Breaks the gamma.
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$WIDESCREEN command : unfinished. No render fix…
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Multi-disc support : does not work properly with all games (not working with : Final Fantasy IX, Grandia).
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POPS USB oddities : we found out that latest USBD and USBHDFSD drivers reduced performances in BOTH POPStarter and POPS – so USBD and USBHDFSD drivers embedded into POPStarter are quite old. You can use your own USB modules (named as usbd.irx & usbhdfsd.irx, case sensitive, lowercase, no file size restriction) from mc#:/POPSTARTER – but expect lower performances.
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PS1 CD mode : we found out after RIP 06 release that the HDD old launch type method (PP.PS1CD.ELF or __.PS1CD.ELF) has a bug : files from __common/POPS folder (and from __common/POPS/PS1CD) will not be loaded.
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PS3 support : POPStarter test build works in a CECHA (no controller response on POPS tho).
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IGR : not working with a DS3 controller in BT mode (working in USB mode).