SpongeBob: The Movie

[Scootaloo]

Well the game is still stuck in the "Menus" list meaning that it'll boot up and you can browse the menus however it'll freeze when trying to start a new game. It doesn't matter what settings you use or whether you use the stable or svn release it simply won't allow you to start a new game.

So, is there anyway for me to workaround this? if not I'm just going to file a bug report. The reason I'm even making this thread is, because the game has been in the "Menus" list for ages, and I'd love to get it working PCSX2 (but I understand that the coders/devs have others thing to do).

[Koji]

You do love your spongebob don't you?

Well, let's run down some possibilities... Is it a hard freeze? (that is, PCSX2 completely freezes and you have to force close it) or a 'soft' freeze (you can still go back into the menus and close PCSX2 properly)? Can you still hear music or see any animation while it's frozen (IE, no input effects it, but it doesn't completely "freeze")?

And of course, as always, what's the log say when it freezes?

[Scootaloo]

You do love your spongebob don't you?

Eh, I don't like every SpongeBob game I find, but a few of them are actually pretty good. Though there are a fair share of garbage ones too.

Well, let's run down some possibilities... Is it a hard freeze? (that is, PCSX2 completely freezes and you have to force close it) or a 'soft' freeze (you can still go back into the menus and close PCSX2 properly)? Can you still hear music or see any animation while it's frozen (IE, no input effects it, but it doesn't completely "freeze")?

It's a hard freeze. It'll start loading and you'll see this screen:

The buoy moves up, and down then the water also moves with it (that is the loading animation apparently). After a few moments it'll freeze the animation will freeze and the sound will stop. I can shutdown PCSX2 without doing anything special (life killing a process).

I cannot go back to the menus in-game I have to reset the game, and it always go's like that.

And of course, as always, what's the log say when it freezes?

Now this I find very strange, when it freezes the log doesn't say anything. Also I think it is important for me to note that the game does keep the saves even after having to shut down (or reset) the emulation (due to the freeze).

[Koji]

Hmm... so it's not a complete crash... I assume you've already tried playing with the clamping and rounding modes (if not, I'd try the rounding modes first). There isn't anything in the log, so it's not likely a microVU issue. I may be out of ideas on this one since I don't have the game handy to test.

[Scootaloo]

Hmm... so it's not a complete crash... I assume you've already tried playing with the clamping and rounding modes (if not, I'd try the rounding modes first). There isn't anything in the log, so it's not likely a microVU issue. I may be out of ideas on this one since I don't have the game handy to test.

Well I already messed around with all those settings and nothing seems to work. I'm not sure what else I can do, if anything.

[jesalvein]

you actually didn't post any emulog, nor mention which version you're using...

[Scootaloo]

you actually didn't post any emulog, nor mention which version you're using...

Log, and I'm using PCSX2 1.1.0.r5685 (I also tried the stable, plus the newer SVN). I got the PAL version of this game, because I thought it might work (rather than the USA version), but it turns out I wasted money on it.

[vsub]

Not that I can tell you how to fix the game but just as info...the default logging settings most of the time don't display anything useful.
From the console Source=>Enable All and again Source=>CDVD Read
This will show a lot more info in the console when you try the game again

[Scootaloo]

Not that I can tell you how to fix the game but just as info...the default logging settings most of the time don't display anything useful.
From the console Source=>Enable All and again Source=>CDVD Read
This will show a lot more info in the console when you try the game again

Thanks for the advice. Here is the log with "CDVD Read" enabled.

[Coornio]

It's a longshot, but do you have MTVU on? Some games do not work with it and while they can boot, at some point during the way they will just hang like that, similarly to what you describe.