Bug Reports
Filing A Bug Report
There are a few simple things you can do to help us deal with your bug report more effectively.
Before reporting, check the Readme to find out about unsupported chips. You should also check for any recent bug reports on the ZSNES boards, as well as on the bug tracker at the ZSNES Development Page.
First, make sure you are using the latest version of ZSNES. It isn't helpful for us to test a game that's "broken" if you are using an older version, and don't tell us that fact, because we may have fixed it in a newer release. You can always download the latest version at the official website.
Second, report whether you are using the Win32, SDL, or DOS port. Rarely is a problem port specific, but reporting the port used up front makes it much easier to get a person with the proper port to test.
Third, a detailed name of the game is helpful. It is common for a game to act differently in different regions. If possible, download NSRT and see if your ROM is a valid dump; if it is, provide the ROM info log (see the NSRT readme for more details) along with your bug report. If it is a bad dump, first get a good copy and see if the problem persists. Some bad or hacked dumps can be fixed by NSRT (Metal Combat is a good example). We will not take bug reports for bad dumps seriously.
Fourth, describe the problem in detail. Is it an emulation bug? If not, can you reproduce it? If it is an emulation bug, investigate. Does the game lock up? Or does the sound fail? Are the graphics wrong? Provide details. Toggle the backgrounds or sound channels, and see if you can find anything, such as corruption in background 3 or errors in offset-per-tile. Does the old gfx engine act the same? Is a particular sound channel sticking on?
When the game starts, does ZSNES say "OK" in the checksum field?
Finally, do other SNES emulators run the game correctly?
If you have any additional information, such as a previous version of ZSNES that ran the game properly, or if you know of another game that acts similarly, please let us know.
Thanks.
System specs are also nice, but less essential.
Before reporting, check the Readme to find out about unsupported chips. You should also check for any recent bug reports on the ZSNES boards, as well as on the bug tracker at the ZSNES Development Page.
First, make sure you are using the latest version of ZSNES. It isn't helpful for us to test a game that's "broken" if you are using an older version, and don't tell us that fact, because we may have fixed it in a newer release. You can always download the latest version at the official website.
Second, report whether you are using the Win32, SDL, or DOS port. Rarely is a problem port specific, but reporting the port used up front makes it much easier to get a person with the proper port to test.
Third, a detailed name of the game is helpful. It is common for a game to act differently in different regions. If possible, download NSRT and see if your ROM is a valid dump; if it is, provide the ROM info log (see the NSRT readme for more details) along with your bug report. If it is a bad dump, first get a good copy and see if the problem persists. Some bad or hacked dumps can be fixed by NSRT (Metal Combat is a good example). We will not take bug reports for bad dumps seriously.
Fourth, describe the problem in detail. Is it an emulation bug? If not, can you reproduce it? If it is an emulation bug, investigate. Does the game lock up? Or does the sound fail? Are the graphics wrong? Provide details. Toggle the backgrounds or sound channels, and see if you can find anything, such as corruption in background 3 or errors in offset-per-tile. Does the old gfx engine act the same? Is a particular sound channel sticking on?
When the game starts, does ZSNES say "OK" in the checksum field?
Finally, do other SNES emulators run the game correctly?
If you have any additional information, such as a previous version of ZSNES that ran the game properly, or if you know of another game that acts similarly, please let us know.
Thanks.
System specs are also nice, but less essential.
