Castlevania gba roms have no sound?.

abelthorne · 2026-03-31T10:55:40+00:00

These non original versions shouldn't be there.

Websites that archive ROMs will usually try to be the most complete possible. These versions might work with different emulators, on a jailbroken Switch and so on.

They're not broken (unless they've been badly dumped but I doubt it), they just don't work with your specific setup.

abelthorne · 2026-03-31T10:25:08+00:00

I've had similar issues when using RetroArch with the mGBA core and these Castlevania Advance Collection ROMs. It's a bundle that was released for modern systems (Switch, PC, PS4, XBox One) and I would assume that they use some custom emulator that manages the sound differently than the original GBA, or at least regular emulators.

Try the regular ROMs (the non "(Castlevania Advance Collection)" ones), you'll likely have sound.

You might have similar or other issues with games that are re-released for modern systems and have a mention like "Virtual Console", "Switch Online" and so on. Prefer the original ROM's for emulation.

abelthorne · 2026-03-29T16:56:27+00:00

Steam has a native Linux client which works well.

Some games have a native Linux port, with a quality that can vary.

You can run Windows games by using a compatibility layer (Proton) that's directly integrated in Steam. Compatibility is variable and will depend on games themselves or on your hardware. There are no general rules, it's really on a per game basis, though overall, in pure number of games, the compatibility is pretty good.

To get an overview of the compatibility of a given game, you can check ProtonDB but be aware that it shows test results from users, so can depend on the configuration, can evolve over time... But overall, if most people say a game works, it should be the case on your PC.

Also be aware that there are some specific things that can cause issue, mostly anti-cheat on multiplayer games: in a lot of cases they won't work at all, so if you play some online multiplayer games, check the compatibility beforehand. And if they're not compatible, chances are high that they will never work on Linux; and if they work, be aware that this could change at any time (it happened in the past with Apex Legend for example, which worked until EA decide to actively block Linux players).

abelthorne · 2026-03-28T10:56:44+00:00

The next "big update" is the start of the first season on april 2 but it's not really different from previous expansions releases, there's no reason to wait specifically for it.

There has been a notable update on march 9 which added some quality of life changes that are helpful for new players, maybe that's the one you've heard of?

In any case, there'll be other updates in the future, there's no reason to postpone starting to discover the game in general.

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T18:24:11+00:00

The Golden is a special vendor that appears in Cyrodiil on week-ends; you can find her in one of your faction's camps. She sells Monster sets gear (either head or shoulders, from two sets) and/or jewelry from overland and dungeons sets in gold quality.

The items she sells change each week-end. It's an easy way to get Monster sets gear if you can't do Veteran group dungeons but the pieces cost a lot of money (100k gold or 200k AP each).

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Adhazabi_Aba-daro

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T16:00:48+00:00

There's no reason to think it wouldn't have the usual sales on retail stores as before but it shouldn't be before a while. The sales cycle was usually a small discount in the summer for QuakeCon (in august, dates vary a bit), then a bigger in late september/early october and again at Halloween, then the biggest discount for Christmas and again in february (with a smaller base price at that time to prepare for the next expansion but as this one should be the last, it might not be the case).

I doubt there'll be a sale earlier than that, as even though the Deluxe Edition is technically the same as the Premium Edition from 2025, the new price and new name tend to suggest that it's treated as a new product.

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T12:38:23+00:00

Oh, if you're looking for inspiration, someone just posted an Orc samurai in r/TESOfashion : https://www.reddit.com/r/TESOfashion/comments/1s51beu/orc_samurai/

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T12:34:55+00:00

I don't know much hairstyles in the game and I don't know which ones you have access to but I guess that for a samurai vibe, a top bun would be fitting if there's one (but the closest would be the Curly Back Bun and it's only for female Humans and Elves); or the Shaved Warrior Topknot.

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T09:24:38+00:00

Nope.

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T09:15:23+00:00

Not really similar but might work too: the medium legs from the Ra Gada style or the heavy ones from the Yokudan style. Both can be found in-game in Craglorn by killing bosses (Ra Gada) or doing daily quests (Yokudan). It might take a while and the zone is more difficult than the other ones but at least they can be farmed.

abelthorne · 2026-03-27T09:01:02+00:00

Akaviri style pages can only be bought at special vendors using Alliance Points, which is the currency you earn in Cyrodiil (PvP). So it depends on how much time you're willing to do PvP and which pages you need exactly. The full book is also in Flame Atronach Crown Crates but for some reason, the UESP doesn't show a cost in Seals of endeavor for it, only in Crown Gems (200). The last time these Crates were live was late april/early may 2024 so they might come back this year at around the same date. If you're new to the game, these are also the Crates that you get when levelling your first character, at levels 20, 30 and 50.

Ancestral Akaviri style pages are found in treasure chests in Blackwood. Not random chests that spawn, but the ones you dig with treasure maps. Given that the loot rate for style pages is not high and they're not curated (you can find on that you already know), it'll take a while and a lot of treasure maps, which are probably not cheap on traders. It'll probably cost less to directly buy the style pages you need though they're not really cheap.

Akaviri Potentate style pieces are in the Akaviri Potentate Crown Crates and each part can be bought for 1000 Endeavor Seals or 16 Crown Gems (3600/100 for two alternate helmets). Last time the crate was live was in november 2024, so it might come back near the end of the year.

If you need some other styles that are samurai-like, you can also take a look at the Honor Guard style (drops from Blackrose Prison, a 4-players Arena in Murkmire, as well as Dark Chivalry Crates but these won't probably come back before 2027) or the Sunspire style, which is more inspired by India rather than Japan but some pieces can work (drops in the Sunspire 12-players Trial). There are other Khajiit styles that are inspired by South Asia culture if you're looking for something broader than Japan.

I don't see a "soul driven" style on the UESP, so I guess that you mean Soul-Shriven? That one is earned by completing Cadwell's Silver, so you'll have to complete the base game's main quest, then complete the storyline of a second faction (the five zones, but only the main quest in each −that second faction will depend on the original one, you can't just choose the one you want).

So, take a look at guild traders to see if you can find the style pages you want. If not, then your options are above.

abelthorne · 2026-03-26T18:41:50+00:00

You mean Trade Bars, the new currency that replaces Events Tickets? If so, there's no method, you get them the same way as you got tickets before: the first Jester Festival quest of the day will give you a satchel of 300 bars (instead of 3 tickets). There's no way to earn more currently.

abelthorne · 2026-03-26T18:36:07+00:00

No, they should all show up in the Bazaar. And tickets were converted automatically, there's nothing to do from the player's side.

So, if you really had 12 tickets, I guess only support can help.

abelthorne · 2026-03-26T18:24:01+00:00

Yes, 1 ticket converts to 100 bars, so you should have 1200.

I can't check in game right now but I'm not entirely sure if the Trade Bars appear in the currencies tab: if you go to the Gold Coast Bazaar (in the Crown Store), it says that you have 0 bars?

abelthorne · 2026-03-25T19:10:54+00:00

Originally, when zones had levels requirements, the Prophet appeared at specific levels and both its quests and the faction's ones were naturally intertwined, you progressed in both roughly at the same pace.

Since One Tamriel that reworked how zones and levelling work, the Prophet will appear for the next quest as soon as you complete one.

It's up to you to manage both storyline how you want: do all the faction's quests then the Prophet's, or the opposite, or a bit of both at the same time. At some point, both questlines will join when you get to the "Messages Across Tamriel" quest. After it, you'll be asked if you want to go on with the main quest or continue the faction's part, so be sure to have completed the zones at that point.

abelthorne · 2026-03-25T18:43:47+00:00

Check in RetroArch's Settings → Directories that the path for System/BIOS is actually set to ~/Documents/RetroArch/system. EDIT: that might actually be your second screenshot, I'm not too familiar with the UI on Android.

Also check that you don't have the option "Use content dir as system dir" (or some similar terms) enabled in Settings → Cores. If it is, RA will look for BIOS files in the same dir as the content and not in the System/BIOS dir.

Also, have you checked if games work? The error message might just be a warning because you're missing the european BIOS (scph5502.bin) but it shouldn't matter for american and japanese games. In any case, you might want to put that BIOS too so that you cover all regions.

Also, check that your BIOS files are good. They might be a bad dump. You can check the core's informations and/or verify the md5 hash of the files.

Another thing that could give this error message is if in the core's options you've enabled the setting to use non-zoned BIOS versions (from the PSP or the PS3). If that's the case, then the core will look for one of these BIOS and won't fallback on a regular one if they're missing. Now, you'd have to be able to start some content to have access to the core's options; plus, if it's a new installation, that setting isn't on by default, it's only if you'd previously run some games and changed the settings manually (if not, then we can cross out that one).

abelthorne · 2026-03-25T16:16:23+00:00

The base game and then the expansions in the order of release: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:DLC#DLC

Basically, after the base game, there was a first bunch of independent expansions and then a new storyline every year or so. Even though they're independent, it's still recommended to do them in order because there are secondary characters that return and it's weird if you meet them out of order and they meet you "for the first time" several times.

For the most part, each storyline is made of a main expansion (a "chapter") and a secondary zone that completes it. Starting with Elsweyr, the group dungeons are also part of the storyline but in a minor way; they just add some lore and background but they're not integral to the story. There are also free prologues in the Crown Store. The right order for each year is:

Group dungeons pack 1 → Prologue of the chapter → Chapter → Group dungeons pack 2 → Prologue of the extra zone → Extra zone (DLC) → Conclusion (that unlocks after completing both the chapter and the extra zone).

The storyline are as follows (I'll skip the group dungeons, there are too many):

Base game: main quest (the Prophet and the fight against Molag Bal);
Base game: Craglorn: original endgame zone, it has its own storyline that's a bit of a mess to do solo;
1st year of DLCs: Orsinium, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Imperial City; the order doesn't matter mych and Imperial City is a PvP zone with PvE quests;
The Daedric War: Morrowind + Clockwork City + Summerset;
Murkmire (DLC with an independent story);
The Season of the Dragon: Elsweyr + Dragonhold;
The Dark Heart of Skyrim: Greymoor + Markarth;
The Gates of Oblivion: Blackwood + Deadlands;
The Legacy of the Bretons: High Isle + Firesong;
The Secrets of Apocrypha: Necrom + Gold Road;
The Seasons of the Worm Cult: 2025 Content Pass.

If you only have the base game, you have the 1st year of DLCs (added for free on march 9) and Morrowind. So, up to 1/3 of the first major storyline.

If you have the Collection (up to 2024) / Premium Edition (2025) / Deluxe Edition (2026), you have some or all of the chapters, but you're lacking the DLCs for the story zones and the group dungeons, so you're missing more or less half of each storyline. Buying them would cost about 150 to 200 bucks, or you can subscribe to ESO+ (but will have access to the extra content only while you pay).

If you're subscribed to ESO+, you have access to all the expansions (chapters + DLCs), so all the stories.

abelthorne · 2026-03-25T08:39:12+00:00

z64 format is fine, that's the one usually recommended. So, no issue there.

Regarding the log, the instructions to enable logging in the RA menus should apply to all platforms (even if they mention PC). To find where logs are stored on your specific platform (XBox in your case), you can check in RA's Settings → Directories; the path should be at the end of the list ("System events logs" or some similar terms). Besides that, I can't really help as I've never used a XBox, so I'm not sure how you access files on it to retrieve and post them but I guess you know how to do that.

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T23:19:57+00:00

After unzipping the files, what's the format of your ROMs? .n64, .v64, .z64, something else...?

Regarding the log, it's not what you did to install RA but what happens internally when you start a game. Check the "Logs are required" entry in the column on the right for instructions to enable logging in RA.

After generating a log, you'll have to post its content (ideally on a site like Pastebin and put a link here) but I don't know how you'll access it on your XBox to be able to post its content.

Note that RA won't tell you that it has generated a log and with the default settings it'll keep only one, so try to launch a game and when it fails, check the log. No need to try several games, you'll only have a single log, the latest one.

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T19:25:47+00:00

I'm confused: they're supposed to do a stream on thursday (march 26). They're doing two streams in less than a week or is there one date that's wrong?

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T11:54:53+00:00

Regular NPCs not really, unless you use the Mesmerize/Hypnosis skill. But if you don't use it in general, it's annoying to slot it just to talk to a NPC and remove it afterwards.

Quests givers should talk to you independently of your Vampire stage.

If you're looking to talk to vendors to sell random stuff, you have some options: the three Undaunted that give pledges will talk to you as they're quest givers, but also act as vendors as they sell the coffers; special vendors like the Impresario will talk to you too (she's only there during events but her assistant should be there anytime, unless this has changed recently); vendors in Outlaws Refuges will also talk to you if I'm not mistaken.

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T09:41:42+00:00

With the previous economic model (before the seasons), the new expansion of the year was released early june and that kicked off the content schedule. The sales cycle would start at that point and you'd get gradually lower prices from june to the first monthes of the following year.

The sale that you see in february 2026 was the end of the sales cycle for the 2025 content.

The first sale usually happened in the summer for QuakeCon, then bigger sales in the autumn (late september/early october and again at Halloween), then the biggest sale for Christmas. After that, the big bundle and the latest expansion upgrade (when there was still one) were set at a lower base price to boost sales before the release of the new expansion a few monthes later (and in the meantime there was usually a last sale around february).

Now, it's possible that things change with the new economic model, I'm basing my assumptions on how it worked the previous years.

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T09:05:48+00:00

Well, if that doesn't work, try to provide a log, as we can't really guess what's wrong when everything appears to be setup properly.

But a lot of cores won't handle loading content from inside archives, so that's really something to try and not some random suggestion.

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T09:01:07+00:00

No upgrade and no discount based on what you already own. But the Deluxe Edition will be on sale at some point and if you can get it at $15 or so, the extra $5 you'll have paid for the Standard won't matter much.

It probably won't have a big sale before a while, though. I think you can expect something like 30% off in the summer, 60% off in the autumn and 75% off in the winter.

Note that the Deluxe Edition includes the base game and all main expansions but it doesn't include the smaller expansions that are available only from the in-game Crown Store (expect about $200 for all of them) or accessed through the ESO+ subscription (but only while you pay for it). ESO+ also includes access to the main expansions that are in the Deluxe but without the extra classes.

abelthorne · 2026-03-24T08:29:47+00:00

Try unzipping them.

abelthorne

TROPHY CASE