SNESTICLE REVIVE v1.0.3 [PS2 MAJOR VERSION]

Notes/Credits

• Thanks to SAMUELPV for testing and approving the version, also for testing the MMCE and reporting the bugs, and for testing all 4 games! Thank you also for reporting the black screen issues and other problems; they will all be fixed soon!
• If you have any problems or want any improvements, please open an Issue, fill it out with the PS2 model and a detailed description of the problem if possible, and also include a screenshot.

Highlights

• Rebuilt the storage/SIO2 initialization path for broader Deckard slim
  compatibility (SCPH-7700x and later) and reliable IRX residency checks.
• Fixed MMCE integration for MemCard PRO 2 and SD2PSX, including real
  device probing before exposing mmce0: or mmce1:.
• Replaced the menu BGM replay path with libxmp-lite, improving tracker
  effects, instruments, pitch, timing, and loops.
• Restored ISO BGM without blocking boot or freezing the device-selection
  screen.
• Stabilized direct packed and unpacked ELF boot, including launchers which do
  not provide a usable argv[0].
• Fixed Captain Commando (USA) and the tested Mighty Morphin Power
  Rangers titles through general SNES hardware-emulation corrections rather
  than per-ROM hacks.
• Removed the verbose diagnostic instrumentation used by the test builds.

Boot, IOP, and Deckard models

• Every boot device now follows one IOP reset. The old memory-card-only second
  reset, which discarded loaded modules while leaving stale EE-side state, was
  removed.
• Boot no longer depends on rom0:EELOADCNF, reducing BIOS/model-specific
  behavior.
• SifLoadFileInit, cache state, and embedded-module runtime state are reset in
  a consistent order after the IOP reboot.
• The ELF path is copied into owned, always-valid buffers. host: is used as a
  safe fallback when a launcher supplies no executable path.
• CD/DVD starts with SCECdINoD, avoiding a mechanical disc-ready wait during
  boot, and the obsolete CDVD RPC path is no longer used.
• The changes target direct ELF, ISO, OPL, and wLaunchELF boot paths. They
  remove known BIOS assumptions, but broad real-hardware testing is still
  required before claiming every physical revision is verified.

MMCE, MX4SIO, and storage

• sio2man, mcman, mcserv, padman, mtapman, mmceman, and
  mx4sio_bd are pinned as one coherent in-tree IRX set.
• The embedded IRX loader now checks the module _start() result in addition
  to the LOADFILE module ID. MODULE_NO_RESIDENT_END is correctly treated as
  failure.
• MMCE support PINGs both physical ports and lists only slots which actually
  answer. Save-state destination selection uses the same result.
• Menu BGM now discovers .mod and .xm tracks on mmce0: and mmce1:.
  Only PING-confirmed slots are accessed, including when MMCE is enabled from
  Video Config after the initial music index has already been built.
• The internal HDD is also a BGM source. With HDD Support enabled, the
  player enumerates main APA/PFS partitions and uses the first one containing
  SNESticle/bgm or bgm.
• MMCE and MX4SIO are mutually exclusive SIO2 backends. If the opposite driver
  is already resident, the UI requests a restart and applies the change after
  the next clean IOP boot.
• USB keeps the modern multi-device BDM stack with FAT16/FAT32/exFAT and
  MBR/GPT support.
• Internal-HDD modules remain disabled by default and lazy-loaded on the first
  browser or BGM access after the user enables HDD Support.
• Essential boot/module import results remain available for failures which
  occur before the UI can appear.

Menu music and Issue #16

• Replaced the partial jar_mod/jar_xm players with the PS2 port of
  libxmp-lite in core-player mode.
• Tracker effects, timing, instruments, pattern changes, and loop points for
  .mod and .xm files are reproduced much more accurately.
• Source audio is continuously resampled to the SPU2's 48 kHz output without
  accumulating per-frame rounding drift.
• The default synthesis rate is now 24 kHz, with 16–48 kHz still available
  in Video Config.
• Per-frame synthesis is bounded to avoid CPU spikes on heavy modules while
  preserving accumulated musical timing.
• Playlist advancement follows libxmp's completed-loop state, prevents an
  unwanted fragment from the restarted loop, and inserts a clean short gap.
• Invalid tracks are removed one per frame so several bad files cannot stall
  the menu for a long time.
• Local folders are indexed immediately. CD/DVD uses a grace period and
  non-blocking readiness polls, and cdfs:/BGM is opened only after stable
  ready responses.
• BGM subfolders are scanned up to four levels and duplicate paths are ignored.
• A bgm folder beside a direct ELF is detected automatically; launcher
  cdrom0: paths are normalized to cdfs:.
• MMCE searches mmce0:/SNESticle/bgm, mmce0:/bgm,
  mmce1:/SNESticle/bgm, and mmce1:/bgm, including subfolders up to four
  levels, with one probe/scan per activation rather than per-frame polling.
• HDD playlist entries retain their complete logical
  hdd0:/PARTITION/... path and remount the correct PFS partition before each
  track load, so browsing or loading a ROM from another partition does not
  invalidate already indexed music.
• make iso ... bgm=/tracks preserves subfolders and fails clearly when the
  source contains no .mod or .xm files.

SNES core compatibility

• A hard 65C816 reset now initializes the stack pointer to $01FF. Soft
  reset retains the low byte while restoring the emulation-mode stack page.
• Reserved instruction WDM ($42) consumes its signature byte and resumes
  at the following opcode instead of falling through into STP handling.
• ROM mirroring now follows cartridge address-line behavior instead of simple
  modulo wrapping, fixing non-power-of-two images such as 12-Mbit/1.5-MiB
  LoROM cartridges.
• ROM mapping is installed per 8-KiB page, including LoROM, HiROM, and ExLoROM
  mirror paths.
• Added detection and normalization of Type-1 interleaved ROM images.
• The fixed 21-byte internal ROM title is copied into a sanitized,
  NUL-terminated buffer, preventing UI/log reads into adjacent header fields.
• CPU/APU communication ports APUIO0-3 ($2140-$2143) now mirror correctly
  through $217F for reads, writes, and queued SPC synchronization.

Confirmed games after the fixes

Game	Previous symptom	Result
Captain Commando (USA)	ROM information flashed briefly, followed by a permanent black screen	Boots and renders correctly
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie	Froze after the Bandai logo	Fixed
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers	Froze during startup	Fixed
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition	Failed to progress correctly through startup	Fixed

These are hardware-behavior fixes and may benefit other titles using the same
access patterns; no ROM-name compatibility exceptions were added.

Final release cleanup

• Disabled temporary SNDBG_LOG timing/PPU/DMA/S-DD1 instrumentation.
• Removed the CPU/APU instruction traces used to locate the Power Rangers wait
  loop.
• Removed active SuperFX GO/STOP/poll traces, diagnostic pixel counters, ROM
  chip-detection dumps, and temporary SRAM-load messages.
• Removed verbose BGM scanning, file-browser, and cover-index logging.
• PROFILE, DSP4_CAPTURE, and the debug boot screen remain off by default.
  Short operational boot/device-import reports are intentionally retained for
  failures which happen before the UI exists.

Known limitations

• The storage changes target Deckard consoles and multiple launch paths, but
  wider tests are still needed across physical consoles, MMCE revisions,
  MemCard PRO 2/SD2PSX firmware versions, and OPL configurations.
• libxmp playback is substantially more accurate, but unusual or malformed
  tracker modules may still differ.
• Save states remain limited to base SNES hardware. Games using DSP, SuperFX,
  CX4, OBC1, S-DD1, S-RTC, or Super Game Boy hardware remain blocked until
  those coprocessor states are fully serialized.

SCREENSHOTS