hey yall i think the problem with VDMSound is Joystick Emulation. MUGEN used to crash a lot on my winXP system, but after i unchecked Joystick Emulation, it hasn't crashed yet. i can use the keyboard just fine to play, but i don't know how it would affect joysticks. i installed VDMSound 2.0.4 and VDMSLaunchPad v1.0.0.7 (installing the new updates gave me problems, so i just stuck with those). Then I created a VDMSound Shortcut to MUGEN (don't remember how that was done). Then right-click that shortcut, click properties, click the VDMSound Tab, uncheck Joystick Emulation, click Apply, then click OK. Now it should run properly. There's also a site that has some MUGEN Utilities, but i dunno how to use em cuz all the instructions are in another language. anyway the site is http://www.mugenfury.com/article_en.php3?id_article=51
