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OK, so I came up with a feature I'd like. It's a bit out there though, not something I "need", more of a "if I could wish for anything". It'd just be cool, and I think it would broaden the audience for the multi-cart as well.

Basically, this idea stems from the fact that I have too many games. Steam-sales, Arcade-collecting, MAME, multi-carts... hell, even back in school, I'd hook two tape-decks together, copy a school-friend's C64-tape, then eagerly check which ones worked... and then never play them again. When I bought a game however, I fuckin' mastered that thing, regardless of quality. I sometimes try to limit myself when I get a multi-cart (hey, I even bought DarkSoft's ST-V Multi without the game-changing extension, just so it would be hard for me to flit from game to game, never alighting on one properly), but it never quite works. Don't get me wrong, I love having those games, but unless a friend comes over and asks to play a specific game... Well. So anyway, here is what I want as an extra on this Multicart (hell, all Multicarts should have this):

A cart-specific rom that sets you a task at every single game - and makes you complete one game's challenge before the next one is available.

OK, so this is how this would work: The multi-cart obviously contains all the games, and they're all available to play; BUT there is an extra Game, called eg "Darksofts Neo-Geo Challenge". When you start that up, it loads up Metal Slug. You can only play Metal Slug on this Rom. But once you beat that game's challenge (say, make it to level 5 on one credit, or level three without dying, or whatever), the Rom will then serve you up Samurai Shodown II - which you can only beat by getting a perfect. Which then leads to Blazing Star, which you have to complete on 2 continues... etc etc all the way through every single game.

The challenges should be just that; challenges. Not ultra hard-core practice-for-ten-weeks hard, just so you could do it after an evening or two with the game - but enough that you'd have to get to know the game.

Everyone who gets the cart will be drawn to this ROM. Beating it will give bragging rights (perhaps even a code at the end that you can enter here to prove you did it), pride and a sense of fulfilment - but it will also mean you will be a true NEO-GEO master, able to talk about ALL those games with expertise. You'll also find your favourites, because you'll have given equal time to both KoF98 and Garou: Mark Of The Wolves, and know why you prefer the latter.

It'll also make this multicart more unique, more desirable, more collectible, since not just completists will want it - any Neo-geo gamer will need to prove they can beat those challenges, and how fast they can do it.

So anyway, that's my two cents. No idea how hard that is to program (I certainly wouldn't know where to start), but I think it would be a very cool feature.

tl;dr: This idiot Urabutbl wants us to make a bespoke ROM that gives the player a challenge to complete for every single game on the multi-cart.
 
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thank you.
 
Weeeelllll this is about the best news I've read in a while. You still thinking you'll be able to do both AES and MVS in the same cart with the shell?

Time to start saving up cash again...
 
My main request would have been a software menu, but that looks like it's already planned :). Next for me would be support for in-game-reset with the Unibios (161-in-1 doesn't allow you to go back to the menu with a memory card in your MVS). Aside from that, maybe remember the last used ROM so you can easily load it without scrolling through a list - everdrives generally use the Start button in the menu to load last played ROM.
Really looking forward to this!

Edit: forgot to mention, I hope there is a way to save difficulty and other soft DIP settings.
 
Can't wait ... since I've heared about this project ... I hope that the release date will be within 2015 :D
 
I'd like to see "Select Game" button functionality for those of us with multislot cabs, if possible. Pushing it would jump to the next ROM, holding it down for a few seconds would bring up the menu.

Also, I think it would be pretty neat if the cart had an extra option to auto cycle through the attract modes of all the ROMs loaded on the cart
 
As I mentioned on the KLOV forums, I'd like to see these carts with the built-in jack to link up the compatible multiplayer games between 2 (or more ) carts.

Is there a 4-player Kizuna Encounter rom available?
 
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I'd love to see a menu that's easy to customize, say using bitmap images? Gif or mng support would be nice as well, for animated menus. This way, owners can make and share "skins" for the menu. Just dropping the needed bitmaps in the right place on the memory card for easy goings. Since the NEO-GEO is 99.9% horizontal games only, a nice layout should be quite easy to do. Nobody wants a Chinese multi-looking cart menu, right? Another menu feature I'd love to see is some sort of Soft Dips for it, so you set it up to your liking:

Choose between
* Basic list layout
* Full screen preview of games using the correct resolution so the preview doesn't look like shit
* Genre filter
* Support for GUI sound effects (select, enter, etc)
* GUI object layouts (having buttons on screen, only using the control panel's action buttons etc.

I'd be glad to whip up some GUI examples, based on popular MAME frontends.
 
This may be a bit extreme, but figured I'd throw it out there. Perhaps some kind of external link/port that could be used by others to do mods of some kind? My thought was having a way to output data to a digital mini marquee that could change based on what game was being played.

I wouldn't expect this to be built in functionality, but perhaps something could be implemented into the design now that would let modders work on side projects that take advantage of that design.

Then again, I don't really know what else to use something like that for and even this thought is just a big 'like to have'.
 
I'd like to share my thoughts as well...

One thing I really care about is the SoftDip-Settings. I think a game has to be flashed so that the system sees it before the user can alter these - dunno how the chinese carts handle that..
Yes, a simple menu without any crap would be very appealing, just like the built-in menus for Memory Card, Service Menu etc.
dipswitches.gif


There are System-Fonts within the Bios which could be used for that...

I think being able to go back to the menu inside a game would be cool, but not ultimately neccessary... On an AES you can hit RESET and then the Menu could be displayed - on an MVS that would only be possible with a Unibios installed (which should be the case in 99% of all users I guess)

The esthetic concept of an AES would very much benefit from a bare-pcb that can be installed in an AES-cart-housing. The MVS on the other side is bound to all the Jamma-wiring (if not consolized) and people would not care as much if the MVS-multicart had its own plastic-housing which might be different from the original.

Yes, CLONES ARE BAD, I totally agree - but it would be great to have the ability to alter roms and they're still recognized and playable. I'd love to have the ability to use the Metal Slug 2 anti-slowdown patch installed: http://blog.system11.org/?p=1442

Since all Neo Geo Roms (when pre-decrypted) have pretty much the same structure, why not make use of that and allow people to fill their SD-card with what they want and built the menu on startup from what's on the card....
I could think of a folder structure like this:

/games
-NGH0000 (NGH-Number of the game can be used for titles)
--roms (c1,c2,c3,c4...,v1,v2,v3,v4....,m1,s1,p1,p2...)

This would ultimately be a great dev-kit for programmers who want to make homebrews for the Neo.

alternatively, if a textfile (e.g. "NAMES.TXT") is present on the root of the card, custom gametitles could be managed that way.
 
Totally agree about the soft dips, having a way to save settings on the cart itself would be a welcome feature/addition.

I have an Arcade Works Omega (cMVS) and when using the Chinese X-in-One carts having the soft dip settings save is a nightmare.

I can't save PERIOD with the 161 (because the "no reset to menu if memory card inserted" feature), it sorta works with a single game on the 120... But if I load another game, then go back later, its settings are lost.
 
This may be a bit extreme, but figured I'd throw it out there. Perhaps some kind of external link/port that could be used by others to do mods of some kind? My thought was having a way to output data to a digital mini marquee that could change based on what game was being played.
I like this idea. This could be done more or less complex depending on the time and possibilities available. Even just being able to pull the current game would be great but if we could get things as high scores it could become really fun :love:

One thing I really care about is the SoftDip-Settings.
+1 on this
The MVS on the other side is bound to all the Jamma-wiring (if not consolized) and people would not care as much if the MVS-multicart had its own plastic-housing which might be different from the original.
Personally I'd prefer if the MVS version would the original carts or perhaps use the Omega shells.
This would ultimately be a great dev-kit for programmers who want to make homebrews for the Neo.
Absolutely agree on this :thumbsup: Though as usual I probably won't have time for actually doing anything :(
 
I'm afraid saving soft-dip-settings on a cart is not possible because SNK's (or ADK, who invented/designed the system) concept is different. Saving of the settings happens in the MVS, not on the cart and even if there was a RAM for that data the system couldn't make use of it.. (correct me if I'm wrong)
If there's no other way I'm fine with having to make the settings each time I change a game.
 
I'm afraid saving soft-dip-settings on a cart is not possible
I'm not a coder... I have noticed however that some of the games on the multi X-in-One carts have altered difficulty settings (default values changed from "level 4" to "level 8" in most cases) when compared with the original games/carts. IF these default values ARE stored in the game program (ROM) they CAN be patched/altered to be different either dynamically before flashing, or worse case being hand edited before placement on the SD card/storage medium...

So it would in fact be 100% possible, just not in the way you described above (SRAM saving).
 
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