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HEY! C'MON C'MON: It's the Giga Powered Neo Geo Appreciation Thread

C

cyborgnumberblue

Member
I stand by my statement. In fact, now it's more insane to me, but that's just my opinion.

Buy a display box w/o the game in it, I guess? I don't see the need if it's entirely for display purposes for a game to be inside it, not being used.
 
S

Samuray

Member
Shinriji said:
I didn't explain properly. I won't play These games on the original hardware, but will play the games elsewhere. Actually, chances are that it will be the 4th or the 5th time buying a particular game.

It's more like "thanks for the amazing memories".
Click to expand...


I get what you're saying, but man.....I still don't like the idea. :)

Games are meant to be played. Game carts are meant to be used. It's always so sad when they're just sitting on some shelf, regardless if the same game is being played as a port at that exact in the same room. If I were said game I would find it a bit insulting. ^^

But go for it...AES is sooo awesome. Just get used to the idea you (probably, unless you're an investment banker) won't be able to afford a lot of games per year. With a laid-back approach it's a fantastic experience. But DO play them, no matter their "worth".
 
Ban Puncher

Ban Puncher

Member
Shinriji said:
NGCD games are actually cheaper than I expected. Is there counterfeit copies of NGCD games with full manual?
Click to expand...

Sure is!!

4QyDquP.gif
 
S

Shinriji

Member
Lol. Basically when I'm looking for NGCD games sales, I go for:

- A full booklet which is slightly beat up
- Silver bottomed CD

So, is there a sure fire way to identify pirate versions? If photos aren't enough to verify if the game is original or not, I will change my approach and buy the games that "looks" with the real thing and is really, really cheap. Won't pay 3x for a "mint" or "sealed" version of a counterfeit.

And thank god for the PS1 black CD's.
 
R

Roge_NES

Member
Finally got an MVS Cartridge of SVC Chaos.
Best. Intro. Ever.
fgTiiQll.jpg


The cartridge even has a Mexican seal of warranty.
Never seen one before.
plWLY6zl.jpg
 
M

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
So I recently got a japanese Neo Geo CD (which is awesome btw), but i hate that i have to use a stepdown converter on it living in Europe. So my question is this, is there another power supply i could use? Or somewhere who sell replacement psus for 240volt homes? Thanks in advance!
 
S

Shinriji

Member
Got my first 3 NGCD games, the first one is in my hands right now. Pretty cool.

I found a NGCD top loader working, 2 controllers and 4 games for about $230. Should I go for it?
 
K

KC-Slater

Member
This thread inspired me to buy a sealed copy of Samurai Showdown II for NGCD that's been sitting around for ages at used games store near my work. I don't own a NGCD (and I doubt I'll ever pull the trigger as I already have an MVS) but I thought it was a cheap, neat little oddity!
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
So I tried my rgb cable for my PC duo r on my neo geo cd and the video is crisp, but the sound is almost inaudible, and there is major hum, is the pinout different?
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
Probably, why would you assume they would have the same pin out?

Plus for the Duo R it needed to be modded for RGB, and you'd have to ask the modder how they set it up.
 
V

Vinegar Joe

Member
Roge_NES said:
Finally got an MVS Cartridge of SVC Chaos.
Best. Intro. Ever.
fgTiiQll.jpg


The cartridge even has a Mexican seal of warranty.
Never seen one before.
plWLY6zl.jpg
Click to expand...
Nice! I have a nasty-ass boot of SVC, so I'd love the real thing. One of only about two or three boots in my collection, and the only one I bought knowingly (heh, it was cheap).

It gets a lot of flak, but I find it fun as long as you don't take it too seriously. One of the few 'benefits' of the boot is that it has the bosses unlocked from the start. Athena is hilariously OP.
 
S

Shinriji

Member
Man, NGCD collecting really is different from anything else. Why AOF costs more than AOF 2 and 3 together? The same thing with SS 1 costing more than 2 and 3.
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
Traced it out and the ngcd cable is the same as the pcduo cable I am using, however my issue was grounding. Easy enough to fix. Desoldered, jumped and now I am good.
 
S

SeriuzBiznus

Member
Hey chaps! I'm looking to make my MVS cart collection look a bit prettier and have been investigating shockboxes and fan-made inserts. Southtown seems to be the no.1 place but the shipping to the UK is absolutely horrendous. I've had a look on the usual sites (eBay etc.) but either there's nothing available or the prices are ridiculous.

Anyone know of a good place in the UK to buy shockboxes or have any other creative solutions?
 
G

Gyrian

Member
I've had NeoSD for a couple of weeks now, and it is glorious. One of the best flash carts ever made, with significant effort made towards accuracy. Highly recommended, and a fantastic development for this platform that had been missing for so many years.

OkHvEvP.jpg
 
B

benjiedude

Member
I agree with the other's sentiments. After about 2 weeks with it, I can confirm its awesomeness. As for the wait times...Who cares!? We can play every NG game ever made and not go bankrupt!!!!
 
Nostalgic Nightmare

Nostalgic Nightmare

Member
Shinriji said:
Getting cold feet in buying a vanilla NGCD. Is it true that the failure ratio of the CDZ is greater than the vanilla version?
Click to expand...

No it's not true, the cdz is the best unit hands down. There have been some CDZ units that have had heat issues though, but it's down to environment details (in an entertainment center, on carpet etc) that can increase that risk. I opened my CDZ up and removed the RF shield which actually blocks the venting of the console (shit design there) and I've never had an issue in years.
 
S

Shinriji

Member
Nostalgic Nightmare said:
No it's not true, the cdz is the best unit hands down. There have been some CDZ units that have had heat issues though, but it's down to environment details (in an entertainment center, on carpet etc) that can increase that risk. I opened my CDZ up and removed the RF shield which actually blocks the venting of the console (shit design there) and I've never had an issue in years.
Click to expand...

Thanks. But the CDZ price is like 3-4 times of a normal unit...decisions, decisions.
 
Nostalgic Nightmare

Nostalgic Nightmare

Member
Ceallach said:
If price is a concern I think the top loader is a fantastic console.
Click to expand...

If price is a concern, stay away from the neo period :^)
In all seriousness, I really like the neo cd platform. It doesnt have every game you'd want, but the older titles play fine with minimal loading and the cd manuals and art are awesome.

If loading times on fighting games between rounds is going to bother you though, get the cdz or look into consolized mvs.

The neo cd platform is pretty much the last bastion of affordable neo games, otherwise go mvs and multicart.
 
S

Shinriji

Member
Nostalgic Nightmare said:
If loading times on fighting games between rounds is going to bother you though, get the cdz or look into consolized mvs.
Click to expand...

My only beef with the CDZ is that all ebay sellers with reasonable prices have some kind of problem (no power cord, no controllers, half-broken controllers, serious cosmetic damage, etc)
 
P

Peltz

Member
Gyrian said:
I've had NeoSD for a couple of weeks now, and it is glorious. One of the best flash carts ever made, with significant effort made towards accuracy. Highly recommended, and a fantastic development for this platform that had been missing for so many years.

OkHvEvP.jpg
Click to expand...
Is there an MVS version? How much does it cost?
Edit: nvm. Just googled it.

For that price, I'd probably opt to just own 2-3 more legit MVS games rather than have the whole library on flash.

It definitely seems cool though.
 
G

Gyrian

Member
Peltz said:
Is there an MVS version? How much does it cost?
Edit: nvm. Just googled it.

For that price, I'd probably opt to just own 2-3 more legit MVS games rather than have the whole library on flash.

It definitely seems cool though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the price is definitely not trivial, but personally I've found it to be well worth it. It's a cleaner solution over messing with multicarts and/or converters, and I also value quite a bit what it opens up in terms of experimentation. You can try prototypes, homebrew, hacks, etc. without resorting to a bootleg or DIY project.
 
C

cyborgnumberblue

Member
Gyrian said:
Yeah, the price is definitely not trivial, but personally I've found it to be well worth it. It's a cleaner solution over messing with multicarts and/or converters, and I also value quite a bit what it opens up in terms of experimentation. You can try prototypes, homebrew, hacks, etc. without resorting to a bootleg or DIY project.
Click to expand...

How is it "cleaner" than a multicart? It's essentially the same thing.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
Gyrian said:
I've had NeoSD for a couple of weeks now, and it is glorious. One of the best flash carts ever made, with significant effort made towards accuracy. Highly recommended, and a fantastic development for this platform that had been missing for so many years.

OkHvEvP.jpg
Click to expand...

goddamn, that's gorgeous - congrats man! waiting to hear back on my dream job later this year but i swear i'm diving in after i'm ballin outta control like that, haha. how bad are the times on it?

and yeah not sure how this is like a multicart where you're just stuck with the hacks, there's places/groups out there with solid ROM dumps
 
G

Gyrian

Member
cyborgnumberblue said:
That potential is true of any ROM you've downloaded and loaded on a multicart, too. You can put as many shitty hacked roms as you want on it, as well.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you're familiar with MVS multi-carts, given the way you're describing this. Let's clarify. These are MVS multi-carts:

Hr73GgL.gif


They have existed for many years, hacked together in China. These usually have a high ratio of hacks to official games (e.g. the 161-in-1 has 97 games and 64 hacks / bootlegs of these same 97). No multi-cart has the complete set of Neo Geo games. The official games often display issues also, as they've been hacked to work on this combo cart. Some can be outright broken, have sound issues, or other glitches. People have been working to improve upon these for years, too, but no custom versions exist where games can be added or removed.

The multi-carts are completely static. NeoSD is a true flash cart where you have full control of its contents, a first for this platform.

NeoSD is also 100% accurate in how it plays the games, as it replicates the real cart's hardware so that as far as your Neo Geo is concerned it functions identically vs. the real thing. They've even managed to deal with the encryption of the latter games without patching, a stunning feat that isn't replicated anywhere else (not even MAME).

IrishNinja said:
goddamn, that's gorgeous - congrats man! waiting to hear back on my dream job later this year but i swear i'm diving in after i'm ballin outta control like that, haha. how bad are the times on it?

and yeah not sure how this is like a multicart where you're just stuck with the hacks, there's places/groups out there with solid ROM dumps
Click to expand...

I haven't found the loading times to be an issue. After you flash the game, the behavior is as if your NeoSD has now become that Neo Geo cart. So you can power off, come back tomorrow, and when you turn on you instantly boot into the same game as if it were the real cart. If you are the type that plays for 5 minutes then changes games over and over, the loading process will probably sour you.
 
C

cyborgnumberblue

Member
I have the 161 in 1 cart and this may be a special case, but I haven't experienced any glitches, audio, video, or otherwise. Also, I'm well aware of how flash carts work, and don't think I implied anywhere that it was possible to add games to the multicart.

The only point I raised was with the word "cleaner" to describe the flashcart as opposed to multicarts.
 
G

Gyrian

Member
cyborgnumberblue said:
don't think I implied anywhere that it was possible to add games to the multicart.
Click to expand...

cyborgnumberblue said:
That potential is true of any ROM you've downloaded and loaded on a multicart, too. You can put as many shitty hacked roms as you want on it, as well.
Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying now, but I hope you can see how one might read the second quote to mean that an end user can add ROMs to a multi-cart.

The cleaner comment relates to the fact that for ROM dumps that are accurate (i.e. not a bad dump), which are the vast majority, NeoSD is 100% accurate. You can have the entire Neo Geo library in one cart that is only limited by a handful of known bad dumps.
 
C

cyborgnumberblue

Member
Gyrian said:
I understand what you're saying now, but I hope you can see how one might read the second quote to mean that an end user can add ROMs to a multi-cart.

The cleaner comment relates to the fact that for ROM dumps that are accurate (i.e. not a bad dump), which are the vast majority, NeoSD is 100% accurate. You can have the entire Neo Geo library in one cart that is only limited by a handful of known bad dumps.
Click to expand...

So if none of the actual, non-rom hacked games are accurate on the multicart, then it's as clean?
 
T

tomwhite2004

Member
cyborgnumberblue said:
So if none of the actual, non-rom hacked games are accurate on the multicart, then it's as clean?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the roms had to be hacked in order to allow the return to game selection menu when you press start for five seconds or more and that was the main reason so many inaccuracies and bugs crept in (Its also why there wasn't a cart with all the games, they couldn't get the hacks working to a playable level with particular games). So clean roms wouldn't work with those Chinese multicarts at all as its functionality depends on being able to go back to the games menu.

And yeah they have bad audio compared to the real thing as they use cheaper components. They also have bad voltage regulators in them too so sooner or later they will go pop and run the risk of ruining your mobo at the same time.
For reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a-67DIteMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwHHIpLcjdE

If nothing else those multicarts problems eventually led to much better devices like NeoDS and the Darksoft version (whenever that turns up) being called for and produced so we can be grateful for them for that if noting else.
 
C

cyborgnumberblue

Member
tomwhite2004 said:
My understanding is that the roms had to be hacked in order to allow the return to game selection menu when you press start for five seconds or more and that was the main reason so many inaccuracies and bugs crept in (Its also why there wasn't a cart with all the games, they couldn't get the hacks working to a playable level with particular games). So clean roms wouldn't work with those Chinese multicarts at all as its functionality depends on being able to go back to the games menu.
Click to expand...

With the Omega's built in memory card, you can't return to the game select screen, anyways.

Out of curiosity, is there a verifiable resource to validate the accuracy of the ROMs on multicarts versus ROMs dumped online? I'm a pretty big skeptic when it comes to claims of accuracy. Put bluntly, I don't think 99.9% of people could tell the difference between games running off the multicart, versus the flashcart, versus an original, in a blind test. I wish I could check myself, but I only own games not on the 161-in-1.

Also, do dumps of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon exist online? What's the most accurate version of that ROM, if it even exists?
 
P

Peltz

Member
cyborgnumberblue said:
I have the 161 in 1 cart and this may be a special case, but I haven't experienced any glitches, audio, video, or otherwise. Also, I'm well aware of how flash carts work, and don't think I implied anywhere that it was possible to add games to the multicart.

The only point I raised was with the word "cleaner" to describe the flashcart as opposed to multicarts.
Click to expand...

161 has tons of issues. Check out Bust A Move. Sometimes it boots with perfect sound, sometimes it doesn't.

Neo Turf Masters doesn't even boot half the time without garbled graphics.
 
T

tomwhite2004

Member
cyborgnumberblue said:
With the Omega's built in memory card, you can't return to the game select screen, anyways.

Out of curiosity, is there a verifiable resource to validate the accuracy of the ROMs on multicarts versus ROMs dumped online? I'm a pretty big skeptic when it comes to claims of accuracy. Put bluntly, I don't think 99.9% of people could tell the difference between games running off the multicart, versus the flashcart, versus an original, in a blind test. I wish I could check myself, but I only own games not on the 161-in-1.
Click to expand...

Because the multicart roms have been hacked to allow game selection (even if the omega doesn't allow it to function) there is no way of knowing what state they were in originally.

I bought both the 120-in1 and 161-in-1 without having played on original carts and I still noticed the scratchy sound and various graphics issues on many games, not to mention bugs and random resets. I do think that if you did a test versus mame that most people wouldn't notice the difference, but if you did a blind test going though every game the multicart it would clearly be the worst option, I'm very pleased that there are superior options available and that I can get rid of them.

The point is more that the flashcart will allow us to get as close as possible to a real cart, it has far better quality components that will last longer (ie not potentially destroy your mobo!) and is objectively the next best thing to owning the real carts.
 
C

cyborgnumberblue

Member
Peltz said:
161 has tons of issues. Check out Bust A Move. Sometimes it boots with perfect sound, sometimes it doesn't.

Neo Turf Masters doesn't even boot half the time without garbled graphics.
Click to expand...

I just played Neo Turf Masters yesterday for the first time. I booted it at least twice, and both times it worked fine. Bust a Move 1 and 2 are some of my most played games and I've never had an issue with sound or graphics. Again, maybe I'm a special case. Maybe I bought a different revision of the cart or maybe one that had modifications made.

I can only remember one issue, with Aero Fighters 3, where it froze on the first level boss, but I chalked that up to a compatibility thing where I was running it in AES mode, which technically doesn't exist. I'd never had an issue running it in MVS mode, and haven't had it happen again.

I've owned this cartridge for about a year now and I've played it a lot. I don't notice any audio artifacts or disparate quality as opposed to any of my authentic MVS cartridges, Real Bout Special, RBS2, and Art of Fighting 3. My Waku Waku 7 is a bootleg, but it works fine, too, comparatively to the multicart.

I do think that if you did a test versus mame that most people wouldn't notice the difference, but if you did a blind test going though every game the multicart it would clearly be the worst option
Click to expand...

You're saying that MAME, an emulator running on a computer, versus a multicart on my Omega, would be identical? That's some pretty inane hyperbole, quite honestly. I understand the point you are trying to make, but this is nonsense
 
T

tomwhite2004

Member
cyborgnumberblue said:
You're saying that MAME, an emulator running on a computer, versus a multicart on my Omega, would be identical? That's some pretty inane hyperbole, quite honestly. I understand the point you are trying to make, but this is nonsense
Click to expand...

Where did I say it would be identical? Of course it isn't, mame has nowhere near as many issues with its emulation as problems those shoddy carts introduce on real hardware. Mame has a few issues with sound (still better than the multicarts), very slight palette differences (can easily be tweaked) and wait states not being perfectly emulated but its damn close, and I stand by the fact that most wouldn't notice.

So yes I would rather play on mame than those junk chinese multicarts, even as someone who has owned then in the past I think they are a waste of real hardware, how's THAT for hyperbole! No idea why you are so vehement in defending such poor quality bootlegs honestly.
 
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