NG+ (Arranged Neo Geo CD soundtracks on MiSTer)

[strygo]

Download and instructions at arcadepatches.com
Current version: 1.1 (October 9, 2026), 25 games​

When Neo Geo games came to the Neo Geo CD, many of them got new soundtracks recorded for CD audio. The CD versions paid for it, with long loads and, in some games, animation trimmed to fit the console's memory. The cartridge games never had the arranged music.

NG+ puts the two together on a MiSTer. The cartridge game runs as it did in the arcade, with nothing cut and no loading. Meanwhile, the Neo Geo CD's soundtrack plays in place of the cartridge's music, started, looped and faded by the game itself. Sound effects and voices still come from the game's own sound hardware. It's the same idea as CPS+, for SNK's games.

The games​

• Samurai Shodown: Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown III
• Fatal Fury: Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout Fatal Fury
• King of Fighters: The King of Fighters '94, The King of Fighters '95, Quiz King of Fighters
• Art of Fighting: Art of Fighting 2, Art of Fighting 3
• More fighters: Savage Reign, Kabuki Klash, Breakers
• Action and shooters: Top Hunter, Last Resort
• Sports: Super Sidekicks, Super Sidekicks 2, Super Sidekicks 3, Pleasure Goal, Baseball Stars 2, Top Player's Golf, Stakes Winner

What you get​

• The full cartridge game, with no load times and nothing cut. Only the music source changes.
• Each game starts as the US arcade release. The core's menu has an Arranged Volume setting, plus the usual console mode and BIOS choices.
• Each game keeps its own button map and settings, and its saves go to saves/NG+ on the card.
• The download is only tools. The images build from the ROMs and discs you already own, in one command.

New in 1.1​

• Twenty more games with their Neo Geo CD arranged soundtracks: Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown III, Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting 3, Savage Reign, Kabuki Klash, Breakers, Top Hunter, Last Resort, Super Sidekicks, Super Sidekicks 2 and 3, Pleasure Goal, Baseball Stars 2, Top Player's Golf, Stakes Winner and Quiz King of Fighters.
• The five games from 1.0 are unchanged, so there's no need to rebuild them.

Earlier versions are listed on the changelog.

Getting it running​

• For each game, you need its cartridge ROM set, its Neo Geo CD disc, and the Neo Geo BIOS set. The cartridge can be a MAME-named zip, a Darksoft folder or zip, or a .neo file. The disc can be a .cue with its images, a .zip holding them, or a .chd. Every game is optional, so build only the ones you have.
• Point builder/titles.toml at your files, or pass them on the command line. make_ngplus.py --list shows every game and the disc it wants.
• Run python3 builder/make_ngplus.py. You need Python 3.11+ and ffmpeg, plus chdman (from MAME) for .chd discs. It checks every ROM, disc track and finished image against a published checksum, and builds out/mister/, laid out like your SD card.
• Copy out/mister/ to your card. The games appear under Arcade > Arcade Patches > Arrangements > NG+.
• It runs on the NG+ build of the MiSTer Neo Geo core, which the kit includes. Its full GPL-3.0 source is on GitHub.

Full instructions are on the project page.

Help wanted: a few tracks never play​

NG+ plays a CD track when the cartridge game asks for that piece of music, so a track that no cartridge music command reaches never plays. Four games have several of these: The King of Fighters '95 (16 tracks), Breakers (9 short pieces), Samurai Shodown III (6) and Stakes Winner (5). If you know where the Neo Geo CD version plays one of them, please post it here.

Bug reports and suggestions are welcome in this thread too. Tell me which game you ran and what you heard.

The arranged recordings remain © SNK and are never distributed here. Fan work, unaffiliated with SNK.