Hi, The above link is to a video I just recorded demonstrating how you can get a Celadon urn & Holy crystal drop at the start of the game when using an emulator.

I don't know if there has been a full emulator run of this game (I have made one...am I the first? That's an exciting thought but I bet I'm not!), I wasn't able to find anything more than what's been mentioned on this forum so I set about doing it myself. Just in case anyone's interested, here's what I've done / learnt about running this game on an emulator:

I'll start by saying that I'm not a particularly techy guy. I don't use Linux or anything like that and I'm certainly not a programmer, and I knew nothing about RNG before starting trying to run Suikoden. I watched z3r01337's RPG Limitbreak run (and then watched a couple of his actual record runs) and thought "Imma try dat". So I set about trying to figure out anything I could about the RNG in Suikoden.

The first emulator I used was inside RetroArch using a core called PCSX ReArmed with the BIOS file SCPH1001.BIN (I'm still using that same BIOS file, as mentioned in the video).

That emulator doesn't have the tools that Bizhawk does, namely the RAM watch that allows you to see the RNG values on screen. I didn't know about any of that. I found z3r01337's Suikoden RNG Tool and using that, was able to muddle my way through the entire game, using the item drop tool, and also a lot of trial and error to work out item drop manips and having to use the RNG finder tool to work out the new value for each in-game RNG reset etc.

After a couple months I had a full run (I just copied the route of the PSTV run, just working out my own RNG manips along the way) and my best time was something like 4hrs 45mins. During this time I had looked into different emulators with a view to testing if my run worked the same in all of them, as long as I used the same BIOS file. I saw that Bizhawk had been mentioned as one that runs games at a relatively accurate speed so I tried that one. The game started on the same value and I was able to use my usual strats for Holy rune / Celadon urn, huzzah! However, when I flew to Magician's Island, I got encounters that I didn't recognize at all (note: I think on PSTV, Magician's Island reset can be 1 of 2 values...not on an emulator it seems. I tested it many times and always got the same value). I also went to Marco and, as expected, his cup game was completely different. I then tested this on a 3rd emulator (ePSXe) with the same BIOS file and got the same result. Game started on the same value, but got reset to another completely different value at each in-game RNG reset point.

So it seemed my run was specific not only to this BIOS file, but to that particular emulator as well (once an in-game RNG reset point is reached) but I thought "oh well, let's carry on anyway". And by this point I had discovered how to use the RAM Watch function in Bizhawk to watch the RNG values change and tweak stats for easier testing etc. and let me tell you, the pure jubilation I felt in that moment of discovery was magical. Even though I was running the game in a different emulator at the time, it would reduce the amount of trial-and-error grind by a ton.

I carried on trying to improve my RetroArch-PCSX ReArmed run, and one day my computer told me that it needed to update to the latest version of Windows. "Ok, sure, that shouldn't be a problem," I thought, naively.

After the Windows update, I went to run the game and the Holy rune / Celadon urn strats worked as normal, but then I flew to Magician's Island and got fights I didn't recognize. I tried again and again and each time got these same new fights and Marco's cup game was different as well. I had lost my run. I even reverted the Windows update to "restore an earlier version of Windows" but it didn't bring my familiar run back, it was still giving me these same new in-game RNG resets.

I then tried Bizhawk again and discovered that it was running the game the same as it had before the Windows update and seemed unaffected by it. And with my discovery of Bizhawk's RAM tools, I thought "Well, let's make the run again then."

So that's what I did. I had a pretty good knowledge of how the game's RNG behaves by that point and I was able to make a much more efficient run. It seems that as long as someone is running Bizhawk with the BIOS file SCPH1001.BIN, my full run should be repeatable. My best time is currently 4hrs 3mins 57secs but there's definitely still room to improve.

Not sure if all of this will be of interest to anyone really, I just thought I'd share my discoveries with whatever Suikoden Speedrun community exists. I think I might stream my full run at some point. I've never streamed anything before so I'll have to figure out how all of that works but I think that's what I'd like to do if anyone would be interested in watching. And if anyone would like to see any specific bits of my run feel free to ask, I'm happy to make more little videos like the one above (but I'll try not to ramble as much!)

All the best, 88