The FIRST NESticle video/sprite Problem I've ever had

[badmrfrosty]

I've been using NESTicle 0.42 (the DOS version that works on Windows 98) for about 4 years now in Windows 98 without ANY problem whatsoever. Then that fatefull day came......my computer got infected with a horrid virus that messed up EVERYTHING. I was forced to do a complete reformat, but NOT before I moved all my beloved NES roms & NESticle over to a 1gig drive for safe keeping.

I managed to restore my computer back to it's normal Windows 98 state (some of my jpegs and gifs were lost, but nothing major), so I simply dragged my NES stuff off the 1gig and put it back in place on my new PC.

It's never been the same since.

You see, I've gotten the sound/audio to work fine, Save State works great, but now there's video problems that never occured before. It seems as though if there's more than 2 sprites on screen at the same time, one or more of the sprites will become fuzzy and start shaking in place. This is most notable with Super Mario Brothers; if Mario is on screen with 2 Goombas, one of the Goombas will become VERY fuzzy, and start shaking in place (he dosen't move all over the screen, just the pixels in the sprite itself shake). ANOTHER NEW PROBLEM: moving from Left to Right on the screen causes the frames of animation to get choppy, and not move smoothy as it has in the past. WHY?

These 2 problems occur with EVERY rom I own, I'm just using Super Mario Bros as an example. Before I reformated my PC, I wrote down my settings for NESticle so I could restore them the next time. However, NO MATTER WHAT I DO OR TWEEK, the fuzzy sprites and choppy left-to-right animation still happens.

I'm so annoyed with this problem I'm ready to pay someone cash to get this thing fixed! It'd be different if I've had other problems before, but litterly, NESticle has run PERFECTLY for years without any problems. I just can't understand why it's happening; everthing's been set exactly the way it was!

PLEASE HELP ME!! I can give more detail about my PC or my NESticle settings if anyone needs it. Just please, help me fix my favorite emulator! -jack

[The Milkman]

I'd say try a different emulator like Jnes or something and see if you have the same problem.

[hagbard]

Time to upgrade imho .
It would be easier to get a decent NES emulator for Windows, like FCEultra, Nestopia, Nesten, NNesterJe, VirtuaNes or Jnes. Most are very fast like FCEUltra, NNesterJe, etc

[badmrfrosty]

Thank you both for responding. I downloaded Nester and gave it a shot, and not only do I dislike the interface, the video is still choppy. In fact, it's worse than NESticle! These other emulators you mentioned, do they have:

1. Easy to use Save State?

2. Absolute complete control over keyboard / button configuration (meaning I can assign ANY key on the keyboard to whatever I want, like NESticle)

3. Can I configure the game speed/frames per second?

4. Will they still emulate sound well?

5. Can they play (J), (E), and (Unl) NES roms like NESticle?

-jack

[The Milkman]

Thank you both for responding. I downloaded Nester and gave it a shot, and not only do I dislike the interface, the video is still choppy. In fact, it's worse than NESticle! These other emulators you mentioned, do they have:

1. Easy to use Save State?

2. Absolute complete control over keyboard / button configuration (meaning I can assign ANY key on the keyboard to whatever I want, like NESticle)

3. Can I configure the game speed/frames per second?

4. Will they still emulate sound well?

5. Can they play (J), (E), and (Unl) NES roms like NESticle?

-jack

I've never had any problems with Jnes, but I've never tried any others except NESticle. I like Jnes better personally...

For Jnes:
1. Very easy. Simply select the state and save/load.
2. I'm not sure about ANY key, but I believe so.
3. Not that I know of, but I've never needed it.
4. Perfectly so far.
5. Yes.

[hagbard]

For the emus I've post before:

1. Easy as The Milkman said, but it depends from the emulator.

2. At least the same as any DirectInput compatible Windows game, which are 100% since many years. Absolute control I'd say

3. Yes, again the method changes depending the emulator. VirtuaNes or NNesterJe have excellent video options.

4. Better than Nesticle.

5. Can run any Roms, but as Nesticle no emulator support every mapper, so for some rare or unlicensed games you'll need some especific emulator.

I'm sure you won't regret to upgrade

[Zach]

Try runing nesticle from DOS independant of windows (boot straight into DOS) and see if those problems still happen.

If they do its likely whatever happened to your PC screwed up either your Nesticle files, or the ROMS. If the problems are gone its likely a software problem with windows.. Could be anything from drivers to some weird setting somewhere

[Tomtaru]

I have been using Nesticle and Jnes and I like Jnes alot better

[hagbard]

Well, Nesticle was an outstanding emu but it's outdated now, only recommend if you can't run Windows nor Linux and/or your PC it's very slow. You know MS-DOS usage it's being deprecated by M$ so better use Windows software or move to Linux or even Mac.

[badmrfrosty]

JNES, eh? Well, I shall give it a try! If it works, I'll send each of you who responded to this thread a check for a million dollars

But weather or not it works, I'm just happy that people on this board are willing to help! I've been three other boards (boards specifcly for the techy computer stuff, including emulators) in search of help, and not a single one has offered advise in anyway! Thanks guys for being helpful