The US and PAL versions behave quite differently when it comes to refusing to boot randomly. The ideal VI should be around 1500, but the closest I can get seems around 1800 for PAL and 2050 for US. US version runs faster - significantly so in certain levels. However, this could be related to the PAL conversion - although I doubt it.
This fixes the game not reliably booting with Counter Factor=1. 1500\530 gets better results with some games, such as Resident Evil 2 - but clearly not this one.
This commit. I hate it. In order to cure the game's extreme speed, I kept lowing the VI, and it's now running at 15fps. But the ingame clock seems to match 1:1 close enough for most purposes. Game needs RSP Audio Signal to boot, interestingly.
These new values are based on the ones that got very good results on Resident Evil 2 with FAT enabled - 1500\530. They mostly play nice with Azimer's, except for Gauntlet Legend. There is sometimes mild crackle with Jabo, but Azimer's tends to cure that.
Infernal Machine (U) now crackles in menus but sounds lovely ingame. Fair enough compromise, IMO. I disabled various self mod methods since they don't seem to be needed.
That Rush 2049 sure does have some lovely MusyX tracks. Turning down the overbearing SFX volume really drives home how good they are.
I also set Hydro Thunder to CF1. Game is much smoother. Timers and boat handling seem fine.
Okay, so it turns out that the (U) version of Infernal Machine *hates* the settings that provide good audio for the (E) version. (I have no clue why I didn't notice this until now.) After a lot of dicking around, I found that AI=540 provided a usable compromise, where the sound is in synch and doesn't crackle like crazy. The problem is that the main menu music is now too fast. None of the other Factor 5 games behave this way.
In an ideal world the (U) version would be placed into a refrigerator and have a small atomic device detonated next to it. Until PJ64 gets proper audio synch or Azimer does something magical, I don't see that version working properly.
This fix isn't quite satisfactory, but with 2200\875, the last 30 seconds or so of the intro have no sound effects, only music. (A bug that could affect other FMVs throughout the game in theory.) 1500\530 has a wee bit of pop and crackle, but the FMVs now work correctly.
zilmar