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NEOGEO + AES Multigame cartridge - NEW POLL INCLUDED. PLEASE VOTE!

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Have you guys given any thought to what I mentioned earlier this year on ng.com? The ability to load several roms in to virtual slots. Hitting a slot select button will cycle to the next game, and reset the neo. I did this with my arduino and a XXX in 1 cart. It would be a great way to have a virtual multislot sitting in a cab and not have to wait to reload roms for new games. Might not function 100% like a real multislot, but close enough.
 
NeoTurfMasta said:
Have you guys given any thought to what I mentioned earlier this year on ng.com? The ability to load several roms in to virtual slots. Hitting a slot select button will cycle to the next game, and reset the neo. I did this with my arduino and a XXX in 1 cart. It would be a great way to have a virtual multislot sitting in a cab and not have to wait to reload roms for new games. Might not function 100% like a real multislot, but close enough.
Click to expand...
That's...not a bad idea, actually. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like it.
 
Hi everyone,

Just registered here following a link from the ng.com forums.

I wanted to share my view on the Neo Geo multicart here as well.

One thing to consider is that people love the "arcadey" feeling of the Neo Geo. No loading times and getting straight into the action is a big deal for a lot of us.

Using an SD Card means you have to go through a menu and then the flashing of a ROM which might be very big and take quite some time.

Another thing to consider is that multicart do exists and once fixed they work fine (apart from those games who have their ROMs corrupted or bootlegs) and with 150$ you can get both a 161-in-1 and a 138-in-1 which will give you access to almost the entire Neo Geo library but a couple dozen of them which can be had for reasonable prices in the used market.

If you intend to make a product and market it in the 300-350$, you have to find a way around loading times.

One solution (the one I proposed in the ng forums) is to go the Tototek carts way: a flashable cartridge sold with a programmer, possibly using a fast interface like USB2.0 or better. Flash memory is widely available today and you can get 32GB of memory for a fair amount of money and slam it in the multicart. This way you can dump the entire Neo Geo library at once into it (which will require an obscene amount of time of course, like 6+ hours) and just fire it up and load straight into the game.

I have no idea if this is possible, don't have enough knowledge, but that's one thing I'd love to see in a neo geo flash cart.
 
donluca said:
Another thing to consider is that multicart do exists and once fixed they work fine (apart from those games who have their ROMs corrupted or bootlegs) and with 150$ you can get both a 161-in-1 and a 138-in-1 which will give you access to almost the entire Neo Geo library but a couple dozen of them which can be had for reasonable prices in the used market.
Click to expand...
The multi-carts are full of problems and more come to light every day.

Also, those "few" missing games will easily run you past the $300 mark, and that doesn't take in to account that homebrew and hacks are going to become available in the future, like MS2 Turbo.

Missing from 138 and 161
Aggressors of Dark Kombat
Art of Fighting
Bakatonosama Mahjong Manyuki
Baseball Stars Professional
Chibi Marukochan Deluxe Quiz
Digger Man
Fatal Fury 2
Fatal Fury Special
Fatal Fury 3
Flip Shot
Galaxy Fight
Gururin
Irritating Maze
Jockey Grandprix
King of Fighters 2000
King of the Monsters 2
Mahjong Kyoretsuden
Magician Lord
Minnasano Okagesamadesu
Pochi & Nyaa
Quest of Jong Master
Quiz Daisousa Sen
Quiz King of Fighters
Quiz Meitantei Neo & Geo
Ragnagard
Real Bout Fatal Fury
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
Riding Hero
Samurai Shodown V
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos (official)
Super Sidekicks
The Super Spy
Top Players Golf
V-Liner
Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer
Windjammers
 
Art of fighting, Flip Shot and Super Sidekicks are included in one flashcart or the other.

I have both and after tinkering with them and fixing them I'm close to perfect, save for the corrupted roms which are a non-issue: if it's corrupted on one cart, it's good on the other, I still have to find a game which is corrupted in both of them.
RIght now the only issue I have is on the 138-in-1 which has some small lines appearing on the screen randomly on some games and I've already spotted the problem and I'll be fixing it in a few days.

For those who have the skill and will of fixing them, the multicarts are a real alternative, there's no point in denying this. A flashcart has to take this in consideration and not hide behind "they are faulty, they do not work as intended".
Personally, I'd never substitute my multis with a flashcart which costs me 300$+ if I have to wait for up to 2 minutes for the game to load everytime, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Firing up the machine and playing straight away for me is top priority.

By the way, I'm not bashing anything or anyone, I'm just explaining a context to broaden the view and let DarkSoft see the situation from all angles.
 
I see what you're saying, and the multis are still a great value in the world of MVS despite their flaws. I have a 161 and have applied all of the fixes. It's fine but makes the MVS feel like a bit of a dead end to me. I'm totally and irreparably spoiled by Everdrives though.
 
I feel you.

The excitement of getting a new (or used) genuine cart, putting it in your machine and playing till 3am in the night is a marvelous thing and multicarts (and flashcarts, for that matter) completely spoil the magic.

Still, if you wanna revive those glorious old times spent in the arcades without breaking the bank, you don't have much choice, sadly.

I've just discovered there's a CPS2 flashcart made by Darksoft... mmm... maybe next year :P
 
Pressing Buttons A+B+C+D+Start loads Rom 1 on the sd card.
Pressing Buttons A+B+C+D+Select loads the next Rom on the sd card.
A DIP Switch on the Module decides if on boot Rom 1 or the last one usedd will be played.

In this case we can have a fast release. Later somebody can programm a menu like gdmenu and replace it as rom1 on the sd card! This menu should have a option like last games played on sd2snes.

So when the card comes out I can place Metal Slug 1-5+X on the card and will be happy. A few months later somebody will release a menu and I place all the games on the card. I then have the option that the Game always loads Metal Slug X on startup or the menu. .....

This route gives the option for an easy first product that is extremly upgradeable ...
 
just to make sure people understands clearly what a flash cart is, you only need to wait when you change the game flashed in then cartridge. Once it's there waiting time is 0 seconds.
 
I get the feeling that we have drifted off-topic. Let's return to our regularly scheduled discussion.

For my part, my wishlist for this cart is pretty simple: I want to be able to download NEO GEO ROMs to an SD card (regular or micro makes no difference to me), choose the game I want to play from a software menu, have a relatively low load time (I don't want to be waiting long when I want to murder a bunch of dudes in Metal Slug), and I want it to be able to play all Official NEO GEO games, preferably with as few problems as possible, ideally none. An attractive presentation as far as the menu goes would be nice, but hardly necessary.

That's it, really. I'm not looking for high-tech gadgets or technical gimmicks beyond what is necessary to accomplish this task. Cool stuff should be USEFUL, and if somebody has a great idea that demonstrably improves the functionality of the device, I'll be on board with it 100%, but there's no need to slap a turbocharger on a bicycle. Myneeds are strictly utilitarian - I want it to be simple, well-designed, and functional.

If this winds up being a multicart instead of a flash cart, I can live with that as long as it has ALL the official releases, but it's not my preferred way of doing things.

I tender the floor.
 
Another thing came to my mind.

To make the experience more authentic, it would be cool to have a dipswitch on the cart.
If all the switches are on off position, you get the menu and stuff.
Otherwise, you can input a code to directly start a certain ROM (following the binary code would be cool, so that, on an 8 dipswitch, putting 00000001 starts the first one, 00001000 starts the 8th one, 00001010 the 10th and so on).
 
a flash cart for play some inedit games on real hardware would be awesome, like Metal Slug 2 Turbo, or Ironclad with color correction patch, and some other future releases. I don't consider a handicap wait some seconds to charge the rom if I can play with all that I want (hacks, patched, mods...)
 
All I care about is being able to load any quality dump from the Neo library from a menu.

If it takes 2 minutes to load I dont care. It would take me the same amount of time to go find the game off the shelf and switch it out anyways. If I have to preflash the cart with all the roms at once, I dont care. However, I think it would suck to have to reflash the whole cart just to add one game. But I'm not going to nit pick.

Also when I say "quality dump" I mean not having to use proto versions of some games or having to use a patched/hacked rom outside of normal decrypted stuff.
 
donluca said:
Another thing came to my mind.To make the experience more authentic, it would be cool to have a dipswitch on the cart.If all the switches are on off position, you get the menu and stuff.Otherwise, you can input a code to directly start a certain ROM (following the binary code would be cool, so that, on an 8 dipswitch, putting 00000001 starts the first one, 00001000 starts the 8th one, 00001010 the 10th and so on).
Click to expand...
that's actually a good idea...
 
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