Anyone Ever Rip Sprites from Thousand Arms?

[Michael Darkwolf]

I am interested in finding sprites from the game Thousand Arms for the PSX. I myself have tried to do it but struggled with emulation. It seems for some reason after you finish with the ice cave and return to the village to find it on fire. when I enter the blacksmiths house it crashes the game. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if this is not the proper spot for requests. Pease direct me to the appropriate location. I appreciate your help and thank you!

[Barack Obama]

Which emulator are you using? And what are your plugins for it? Have you used tools like PSicture or PSX VRAM Viewer?

Also can you upload a quicksave file right before you enter the blacksmith's house (mediafire, mega.nz, etc.)? I would like to take a look.

[Michael Darkwolf]

Which emulator are you using? And what are your plugins for it? Have you used tools like PSicture or PSX VRAM Viewer?

Also can you upload a quicksave file right before you enter the blacksmith's house (mediafire, mega.nz, etc.)? I would like to take a look.

I'd have to check my PC for it. I have a new laptop with Win 11 and for some reason I can't get any of the emulators to work on it. So there either incompatible or I don't know how to do the settings. I have autism and adhd and they effect my concentration and ability to comprehend information unless there's images to go along with it. If I can find the file I'll deffinatly share the save state.

[Barack Obama]

I have concentration issues too, therefore I start doing thing B if I realize that I can't go on with thing A or in terms of ripping, break it down to smaller steps. Just to give it a bit variety (usually I need pressure like time constraints to get things done). I also make breaks where I either do things that relax me or nothing at all. I heard some people use meds against very critical varieties of concentration issues to improve their focus, but since I don't use them, I can't say anything about it.

Personally, I prefer epsxe, this one even comes with a FAQ:
https://www.epsxe.com/download.php
Current version is v.2.05

Just checked my own epsxe settings (video, sound, BIOS) with an older version:




Rest are basic functions, you can load your file, quicksave, etc.


Selecting save slots with number keys is possible too (I guess, been a long time since I fired up epsxe).

[Michael Darkwolf]

I have concentration issues too, therefore I start doing thing B if I realize that I can't go on with thing A or in terms of ripping, break it down to smaller steps. Just to give it a bit variety (usually I need pressure like time constraints to get things done). I also make breaks where I either do things that relax me or nothing at all. I heard some people use meds against very critical varieties of concentration issues to improve their focus, but since I don't use them, I can't say anything about it.

Personally, I prefer epsxe, this one even comes with a FAQ:
https://www.epsxe.com/download.php
Current version is v.2.05

Just checked my own epsxe settings (video, sound, BIOS) with an older version:




Rest are basic functions, you can load your file, quicksave, etc.


Selecting save slots with number keys is possible too (I guess, been a long time since I fired up epsxe).

I tried to set it up. for some reason when i try to run the rom it just closes the emulator. Maybe the settings on my laptop are messing it up idk. All I know is it works on my PC. I don't get it.

[Michael Darkwolf]

OK So I found a folder that contains the Thousand Arms Save States. I unfortunately failed in being able to run any PSX emulator on my Laptop or my PC which I don't understand because I did a livestream of Skullmonkeys 4 years ago using that emulator which I madly used savestates because that game is insanely difficult. If you can let me know a good safe spot to upload my files which are from 2009 and 2016 and are 24MB total. I don't know what version of emulator I used but it was defiantly a Epsxe emulator. Sorry if I'm being a pain. this is really bugging me. Update I got it running with the game but its running to fast I'm using Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.64 I'm running the EPSXe Version 1.6.0 I'm not Shur how to slow down the frame rate. Any Help would be great. Once that is fixed I can test the save states.

[Michael Darkwolf]

Which emulator are you using? And what are your plugins for it? Have you used tools like PSicture or PSX VRAM Viewer?

Also can you upload a quicksave file right before you enter the blacksmith's house (mediafire, mega.nz, etc.)? I would like to take a look.

Ok So I finally got it to work. and my save states work but the blacksmith one isn't there. But I can get to it easily. Once done You can direct me on where to send the save state.

[Barack Obama]

You can zip the quicksave and upload it on
https://www.mediafire.com/

[Michael Darkwolf]

You can zip the quicksave and upload it on
https://www.mediafire.com/

Ok, Now the game won't let me finish the conversation between Schmitt and Jyabil, where he tells him to go to Mist Valley. The hammer icon that sapost to appear to move the dialogue isn't appearing. So I'm not sure what to do.

[Barack Obama]

I guess the dialogue is still a problem?

You can just upload any other quicksave, I'll see what I can do.

[Michael Darkwolf]

I guess the dialogue is still a problem?

You can just upload any other quicksave, I'll see what I can do.

Hope I did this correctly. It's the 1st Save State. I'm at the inn if you go to the blacksmith Schmitt will be there. At night when you spy on him talking to the Dark Acolyte Shaft it freezes. Hope that helps!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ep4xxddby...f.zip/file

[tombmonkey]

Retroarch bettlePSX core dumps sprites and textures from this game just fine, you can rip that way.

[Michael Darkwolf]

Retroarch bettlePSX core dumps sprites and textures from this game just fine, you can rip that way.

Unfortunately I am not to familiar with Retroarch bettlePSX and I'm not really program savvy. I know if I could find a program that's easy to use I could do it as I have the time. I also have autism and adhd which makes it difficult to understand things if I don't have a visuals to reference.

[Barack Obama]

Main website Libretro / Retroarch
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/home-2/

From there, you can access the downloads:

Retroarch 1.17.0 (Stable, 64Bit)
https://www.retroarch.com/?page=platforms

How to configure Beetle PSX HW of RetroArch + Examples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4trjp8_4Ow

Pretty important point from here is this:
0:36:28 In-Depth: SaveRAM

I'll try to get epsxe and ThousandArms to work this weekend, but if the game is bugged, there is not much anyone can do about it (except it's just an issue with the emulator, but we don't know that yet). In the meantime you could check out Retroarch and Beetle PSX, the video above explains it really good.

[Barack Obama]

Was about to give up, but I tried a bit more around and I think I got it now.



So what now? If I spend the night at the hotel, nothing happens. How can I spy on the guy at night?

Technical stuff:
This is epsxe 1.7.0. The newest epsxe 2.0.5 crashes non-stop, no idea why and I don't care anymore.
RetroArch 1.17.0 Stable works after you put the BIOS file scph5501.bin into the system folder and choose Beetle PSX (without HW) as a core.
The downside: It doesn't accept epsxe quicksaves. It's somehow possible to transfer the contents of the memory card (copy mcr, rename it to exact title of the game, change file extension to srm), but I didn't try that.

Test rips:
Anyway, for this rip I used PSX-VRAM (the oldest of the three variants on romhacking).
Tutorial: https://wiki.vg-resource.com/PSX-vram

Chose mode, palette and made a screenshot:


Zoomed in and put the thing on a grid as a transparent selection (other tiles which fill out the 16x16 give the grid away):


The cut out result:


Palettes in PSX-VRAM are all over the place and this one is guesswork, since I don't have any references on screen.
Btw sprites don't have grid boxes and most sfx don't have it either. It's usally the tiles and some map effects.

Anyway, getting the sprites isn't really possible with PSX-VRAM. It just shows one frame for each character, the vast majority is about the 3D textures.
I also tried PSicture, which crashes if I try to scan the ROM.