User Files for Pool Champion

MUGG's route to skip uncle, return to title screen and do the chores money glitch until getting $370, enough for the Vegas flight and its two tournaments. No pool games in the run yet but one-shot games are possible with the right shot angle and power.

Play back on this XML since the game needs both the HDD and game disc to work properly. Uses the HDD generated from this file and its XML/associated discs/floppies first.

The 8 frames appear to have been lost before Windows even starts (maybe to initialize the new SB16 device?). Not great but may not be avoidable.

Here we go again. First, follow the Windows 3.11 install instructions in its tab, and export the hard drive at the end.

Load this new XML in BizHawk (2.11), then play this movie to set up the game. Remember to export the resulting HDD at the end.

This movie does the following:

Export it as pool.hdd, and you can load this XML to play the game. (Or change the XML's path to your .hdd's filename.) It's required to load the game disc to play.

Compared to the last verification file, this has almost a minute longer sound setup, but it plays all sounds this time (which does add some lag).

Use a Windows 3.11 HDD exported after following those instructions.

Here we go again. You'll also need a Pool Champion disc that may have to match this name and these hashes.

Also SB16 driver (MD5 5abb7ea79d96703f1f82098e6d82b88d) to allow playback of 44.1KHz background music. This isn't required for a TAS but the game sounds weird without MIDI or WAV, and this installs both. You only need install.IMA for verification.

Put all three of them in the same folder, or edit this XML to give their exact filenames and paths. You only have to do this once.

MUGG's new route is the fastest yet. Skip unnecessary loads and cutscenes, then restore the mouse and forward warp to aunt's Vegas house by saving and loading a game. And the save doesn't get corrupted this time! Still no pool-playing in the run yet, but it ends by clicking the calendar long before the graphics have caught up.

Another demonstration, midway between the original and new WIPs. Starts the game with Ctrl+N instead of F4, which saves 3 frames at the bigger cost of not being able to click in rooms anymore. This leads to a slower Pool Hall load, and after loading a save made during the flight to Vegas, either a wrong warp backward to the Pool Hall tournament, or a failure to save all the necessary data during save dialog. Waiting out the cutscene and saving in aunt's Vegas house does the same thing.

Reproducing MUGG's bug. Starting an Adventure with Ctrl+N lets you enter the basement, but be unable to click anything in the room. The Game, Location, etc. menus in the window titlebar work, as does anything that looks like a Windows button ("Play a friend", "Call it a night", "OK"), so you can warp around with those menus and their keyboard shortcuts. But anywhere you warp to, you can't click on beds, doors, people, map icons, anything. Pool games work fine, but as soon as you get to your aunt's room in Las Vegas, you're softlocked. You can't skip the plane flight cutscene either, since it requires a click.

This movie starts the game, clicks the bed and door a few times to demonstrate that they don't work, then uses menus and keyboard shortcuts to advance time by warping and "calling it a day" until it's time for the Pool Hall'sl 9-Ball tournament.

MUGG has the solution for this: save your game with Ctrl+S, choose any one-character filename for speed (extension is added automatically), then F4 (not Ctrl+L, the bug will still be active then) and load your save by typing its single character.

Use a Windows 3.11 HDD exported after following those instructions.

You'll also need a Pool Champion disc that may have to match this name and these hashes.

Also FMSynth, a freeware MIDI synth, since the HDD above does not come with support for some reason. I sourced the disc's contents from here, and burned it using TASVideos' official iso_maker.

Put all three of them in the same folder, or edit this XML to give their exact filenames and paths. You only have to do this once.

Starts on MUGG's route by skipping the uncle cutscene completely, then money glitching until we have enough to fly to Las Vegas. No pool games in the run yet.

Play back on this XML since the game needs both the HDD and game disc to work properly. Uses the HDD generated from this file and its XML/associated discs first.

First, follow the Windows 3.11 install instructions in its tab, and export the hard drive at the end.

Load this XML in BizHawk, then play this movie to set up the game. Remember to export the resulting HDD at the end.

This movie does the following:

Export it as pool.hdd, and you can load this XML to play the game. (Or change the XML's path to your .hdd's filename.) It's required to load the game disc to access some files to prevent fatal errors, at least on W3.11.

Compared to the last verification file, this turns off voices to shorten cutscenes.

Gets into the game to Uncle Charlie's monologue. Play/Record it on this XML since the game needs both the HDD and disc to work properly. Uses the HDD generated from this file and its XML/associated discs first.

For MUGG.

First, follow the Windows 3.11 install instructions in its tab, and export the hard drive at the end.

Load this XML (or this one? I forget) in BizHawk, then play this movie to set up the game. Remember to export the resulting HDD at the end.

This movie does the following:

Export it as pool.hdd, and you can load this XML to play the game. (Or change the XML's path to your .hdd's filename.) It's required to load the game disc to access some files to prevent fatal errors, at least on W3.11.

The installed game needs the disc inserted to run without crashing. This XML loads the pool.hdd created by this movie for a TAS, and the game disc.

This is an old XML with switched disc order. Here's the current one.

Use a Windows 3.11 HDD exported after following those instructions.

You'll also need a Pool Champion disc that may have to match this name and these hashes.

Also FMSynth, a freeware MIDI synth, since the HDD above does not come with support for some reason. I sourced the disc's contents from here, and burned it using TASVideos' official iso_maker.

Put all three of them in the same folder, or edit this XML to give their exact filenames and paths. You only have to do this once.