I decided to give SoulSilver one more shot after updating my copy of DeSmuME and adding in the AR codes to unlock the game. At first everything went well, with no freezes or blackouts; I even escaped back to the street after completing Sprout Tower (always a problem before). Unfoftunately, a new glitch turned up; when I emerged from the tower, half of Violet City had been replaced by uncrossable blackness. The Poké Mart had vanished, the first Gym was hanging on the edge of nowhere, and at least one NPC was hovering in unreachable space. I've attached a screenshot of the glitch, as usual.
Has anyone else had similar problems witth DeSmuME 0.9.9 and the HGSS games? Not being able to challenge the first Gym is very frustrating!