Testing

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Build: rolling BETA-13-PLAY (BETA-13 candidate; rolling now publishes from this branch — BETA-12-PLAY is frozen/archival). Public release is still BETA-12.
This is the structured "what to test" companion to ROLLING_NOTES.md ("what's new"); for the canonical status / invariants / known-issues list see STATE.md. Regenerate when the rolling batch changes.

Devices: USB · MX4SIO (SD over SIO2) · MMCE (SD2PSX / MemCard PRO) · HDD (internal PFS). Test the ones you use; say which in every report.

How to report: ✅ pass / ❌ fail / ⚠️ odd. On a fail give: device, console model + region (e.g. SCPH-90008 PAL), how you launched POPSLoader (from which device / which launcher), exact steps, and a photo — error screens now print the real reason on line 2.

🟥 P0 — Must work on every device (boot · launch · no regressions)

[ ] Boot to menu — launch from each device. The welcome splash appears instantly (no black screen first), centered from frame one, then the carousel. Report any black screen, off-center/letterboxed splash, wrong region/res that flips mid-fade, or hang.
[ ] Normal PS1 launch — select a game on each device → X → POPStarter boots it.
[ ] MX4SIO specifically — confirm it still loads + launches. (A −48 KB optimization re-pointed MX4SIO's embedded usbd.irx; proven byte-identical by inspection but not run on hardware — the one size change worth a deliberate test.)
[ ] Preservation set — MUST still work:
[ ] HDD-resident POPSTARTER → HDD game (D-10): on an HDD install where POPSTARTER.ELF lives on the HDD, launch an HDD game. No black screen.
[ ] Launched-from-MC/USB (U-10 family): boot POPSLoader from a memory card / USB via a launcher (OSD-XMB, wLaunchELF), then open the HDD page and launch.
[ ] DKWDRV / Disc → exit to memory card: no hang on the picture.
[ ] START-held recovery — hold START during boot → boots to a safe state; with -page/-game args it suppresses auto-launch so you can recover.

🟧 P1 — New features this cycle

[x] Up/Down + analog-stick item nav — ✅ CONFIRMED (oldman63): d-pad and left analog stick up/down both land on individual items (item-by-item), and a held direction does smooth continuous scroll. (The stick now folds into the d-pad and runs the same edge + auto-repeat path — no more "flies a whole page" / "can't select individual items" #501. A non-analog/digital pad is gated out so it can't inject a phantom direction; the auto-repeat is frame-counted, ~0.6 s before the first repeat then ~5/sec.) Re-confirm on each device's list if you can.
[ ] Page-jump & top/bottom — on a big list: LEFT / RIGHT (d-pad or left stick left/right) jumps a page at a time; L1 ping-pongs top ↔ bottom. Confirm these still work after the nav rework.
[ ] R3 = reveal / hide hidden games ⭐ STILL never run on hardware. Test on each device (HDD / USB / MX4SIO / MMCE — R3 is ignored elsewhere):
1. Hide a couple of games with L3 (with Hidden games set to Visible (manage)).
2. Settings → Game List → Hidden games → Hidden (they vanish). (R3 toggles this same setting in place, so you can also just press R3.)
3. On the device list press R3 → list rebuilds, hidden games reappear dimmed + toast "Showing hidden games (dimmed) -- press L3 to unhide".
4. L3 on a dimmed game → "Game shown". (L3 is blocked while Hidden mode is ON — reveal with R3 first; otherwise it warns "[Global Hide ON] …".)
5. R3 again → hidden games vanish + "Hidden games are now hidden".
6. Reboot → the Hidden-games state persisted. (A failed save toasts "(could NOT save -- reverts on reboot)".)
Report: empty/wrong list after R3, a crash, a device failing to re-scan, or the setting not sticking.
[ ] Boot sound On/Off — Settings → Game List → Boot sound (default On) gates the splash chime. ✅ save survives reboot CONFIRMED (oldman63); still confirm Off actually silences the chime.
[ ] Per-game info text — drop <game>.txt next to a game → Settings → Game List → Game details = Left/Center/Right aligned → blurb under the cover in that alignment, line breaks kept. Off hides it.
[ ] Description scroll — long .txt scrolls with the right analog stick; Settings → Game List → Description scroll speed = Fast/Medium/Slow now actually changes the pace (default Slow, ~1 line/sec; the speed setting was previously ignored). Confirm Fast/Medium/Slow feel distinct.
[ ] Game list cache (opt-in, default OFF) — Settings → Game list cache → ON:
[ ] First entry builds; second entry / reboot loads fast (no "Building…").
[ ] ⚠️ CRITICAL: launch a game FROM the cached list on each device incl. HDD — it must still launch correctly, not just load fast.
[ ] R1 forces a rebuild.
[ ] Toggle a list-affecting setting (Multi-disc / Hidden games) → cache rebuilds, doesn't serve a stale list.
[ ] Boot Page — Settings → Startup → pick a device → after boot it lands straight in that device's list (or Carousel default).
[ ] Carousel Devices visibility — Settings → Carousel Devices → hide e.g. SMB / i.Link → they leave the wheel with no gaps, ≥1 stays, launching the others unchanged.
[ ] Multi-disc collapse — Settings → Game List, files named Game (Disc 1).VCD / Game (Disc 2).VCD → only Disc 1 shows; swap discs in-game via VMC.

🟨 P2 — Hide / settings persistence

[ ] L3 hide/unhide on every device incl. HDD (drops .hide next to the VCD; on HDD writes to the boot partition — old "add it from a PC" is now only a write-failure fallback).
[ ] Hidden games filter — Hidden filters out; Visible (manage) shows dimmed so L3 can toggle them back.
[ ] Settings save & persist — change a setting, reboot, confirm it stuck. Especially HDD installs (settings save to the HDD boot partition now — RW confirmed by provato, full flow wants more confirmation).
[ ] Unsaved-changes prompt — change a cycle setting (Game details / scroll speed / cache / Boot sound / Overscan / Boot Page) and press BACK without saving → it warns you.
[ ] POPSTARTER MC Folder toggle + BDMA interlock — toggle the mc:/POPSTARTER folder (off deletes it, with confirm). Can't disable the folder while BDMA is on, nor enable BDMA while the folder is off. (BDMA mode now in bdma_mode.txt; legacy .pldr_bdma_mode still read.)

🟦 P3 — Display / PAL (needs PAL hardware — we have none on the team)

[ ] Video Standard — Settings → Display. Auto default should match your console's region. On PAL the UI should fill the screen edge-to-edge at 640×512 (no letterbox). Report your console's actual output reading.
[ ] Display-change confirm/revert — change the mode; if you don't confirm in time it auto-reverts.
[ ] Overscan (CRT inset) ⭐ NEW — needs a CRT eyeball, not yet verified. Settings → Game List → Overscan (CRT inset) (default Off; LEFT/RIGHT steps ±5, live preview). Raise it on a CRT that crops the edges → the whole UI should shrink uniformly toward center (OPL-style render inset). Discarding the settings change restores the previous value. Report the value that just clears your bezel.

⬜ P4 — Cosmetic / polish

[ ] List a touch wider; device name (e.g. "USB") no longer overlaps the top row; "Building…" overlay calmer.
[ ] Cover placeholder art ⭐ NEW assets, needs an eyeball on NTSC + PAL. No live cover now draws a layered jewel-case placeholder (cover_default.png), with a cover_missing.png overlay only when the preview is ON but the game has no cover. (The old "Cover disabled" text label is gone.) Confirm the default cover, the missing overlay, and frame.png all register with the jewel-case window (right-anchored, no drift) on both NTSC and PAL.
[ ] Cover-art preview toggles with Square — OFF shows the plain default case (no overlay), ON shows the live cover or the missing-overlay placeholder.
[ ] Scroll position kept returning from Settings (cursor doesn't snap to row 1).

🧪 P5 — Robustness (only if you hit it)

[ ] Corrupt / oversized cover (PNG/JPEG/BMP) — must not crash the list (hardened this cycle).
[ ] Very long VCD filenames — ~73 chars practical limit; longer may fail to launch.

📦 Release zip contents

[ ] The rolling zip ships, at the root: a POPSTARTER/ folder (SMB .irx pack), POPS/PATCH_5.BIN, POPSTARTER.ELF (also copied into POPS/) — confirm they're present in your download. (POPS engine binaries are not redistributable and are NOT included; you still supply your own.)

ℹ️ Known issues — expected, please don't re-report (unless your case differs)

"Failed to load HDD" when POPSLoader is launched from a non-HDD device via a launcher (config-specific, seen by Nuno) — most setups list the HDD fine. If you hit it, post your exact boot config; it now shows the real reason on a second line. Workaround: boot from the HDD, or open the HDD page a few seconds after the menu.
PAL console still showing PAL when NTSC is selected (#495) — known, being chased; the "actual output" reading helps.
DKWDRV exit back to memory card "hangs on the pic" — known open follow-on.