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Thoughts on the BackBit Platinum cartridge?

Neo-Alec said:
On one hand I get why you're comparing instant vs 12 seconds for real world use cases, but it's worth noting you are comparing two dissimilar things, as @Sp33dFr34k pointed out
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The cart didn't even come out yet. Let's wait till it does to see how compatible it is. The other thing to be mindful of is price. The world is very volatile at the moment thanks to a lot of tariff talks in the world. By the time April comes around, I'm not sure if the $400/$500 price would still be possible. With 10-25% tariffs hitting many countries (and BackBit is probably made in China/sold from the USA) anything is possible. :(
 
leonk said:
It does not. A YT video review specifically called this out. Unlike NeoSD that retains the game after power off, the backbit needs to be reprogrammed every time.

Flash programming is slow. NeoSD uses flash. This device I assume uses SRAM to hold all the game data, which is faster than flash but doesn't hold data without power.
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12 second load times is what they're claiming. Which is quick enough that I don't mind reflashing the game. But, it would be interesting to compare it against my Darksoft Multi MVS or others.
 
Has anyone heard any news about these carts? I haven't heard anything in a hot minute.
 
A couple small updates have been posted on the Backbit forum:

On April 1st

I've gone through 2 more PCB revisions, the latest which is going out to beta testers shortly. I've been spending a lot of time improving latency and stability. Case sample should arrive within about 2 weeks. If feedback is good then I can start manufacturing.


On April 7th

The injection molded case sample has arrived and is a good fit. The surface finish is mirror black to match the aesthetic of original MVS carts. There is a vent side and a logo side -- you can see that the logo side has the arrow.

This is not the final case sample, but close to. The final sample should arrive within the next 2 weeks.

image (3).png
 
What's going to happen with the 105% tariffs? Are these things still going to ship given the trade war in the USA?
 
HornheaDD said:
So I guess current preorders are "safe."

I'm not a political person (or at least I try to keep my opinions to myself) but the orange moron sucks.
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Yeah. This is bad for our small hobby.

HDRetrovision says he'll tell the supplier to dump the next order in the ocean (I hope this is a joke) and MakeMHZ (XBOX HDMI) posted that next order is on hold. This is horrible. :(
 
I'm looking forward to this cart. I made the dumb mistake of getting rid of my 161 right before they became basically unobtainable. Now all I can find is the v2 for like $200, and v3 are nowhere to be found. I really need to learn to just not let go of things in this hobby. I need a better packrat mindset.
 
rastansaga1987 said:
I'm looking forward to this cart. I made the dumb mistake of getting rid of my 161 right before they became basically unobtainable. Now all I can find is the v2 for like $200, and v3 are nowhere to be found. I really need to learn to just not let go of things in this hobby. I need a better packrat mindset.
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I'm in the same boat, lol. I just straight up lost my 161-in-1 somewhere. When I started looking for a new one, I saw the prices and was pretty shocked.. Then I came across the back bit and thought, Screw it, I'll finally get a real multicart instead.

Shame she couldn't keep those pearl colored carts, those were pretty cool.
 
First cartridges arrive at the pre order customers i heard. Found also an unboxing video on YT.

Also first bugs came up fixed with updates

One of the bigger things seems to be that the cartridge supports a maximum of 8MB of PROM, whereas 'Eye of the Typhoon' has 9MB.
This results in graphics errors for certain selectable characters. While Evie argues that no original game had more than 8 MB of PROM, users wonder if that's true. KOF2003 certainly seems to have 9MB of PROM.
 
NeoRocker said:
First cartridges arrive at the pre order customers i heard. Found also an unboxing video on YT.

Also first bugs came up fixed with updates

One of the bigger things seems to be that the cartridge supports a maximum of 8MB of PROM, whereas 'Eye of the Typhoon' has 9MB.
This results in graphics errors for certain selectable characters. While Evie argues that no original game had more than 8 MB of PROM, users wonder if that's true. KOF2003 certainly seems to have 9MB of PROM.
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Interesting... will have to wait and see how it works when it arrives, but I agree that it sure looks like KoF2003 has over 8MB. I also worry about that limitation when running modern releases. We'll see...
1748868190393.png
 
Kujako said:
Interesting... will have to wait and see how it works when it arrives, but I agree that it sure looks like KoF2003 has over 8MB. I also worry about that limitation when running modern releases. We'll see...
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I think it depends on which version you're running.

The decrypted KOF2003 is under 8MB. The other game that has 9MB PROM with smaller decrypted version is Metal Slug 3.
 
I'm pretty sure I'm in the second batch. I should probably get my files ready. Do the standard MAME files work, or do I need to run them through some software first, like the other multicarts?

I'm excited to start playing with my cabinet again. Lol
 
Ir0n said:
I'm pretty sure I'm in the second batch. I should probably get my files ready. Do the standard MAME files work, or do I need to run them through some software first, like the other multicarts?

I'm excited to start playing with my cabinet again. Lol
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Standard files work. If you come across one that doesn't boot, just get a different one.
 
I received my cart the other day, and so far, it's pretty straightforward to set up. I like it!

If you're like me and don't have a forum account, here’s some basic info to help you get up and running.

1. Format your SD card to FAT32.
2. Make a folder on the SD card named "NeoGeo." Inside this folder, place your unzipped MAME rom folders. For example, if you have the Metal Slug MAME ROM, the path should be "NeoGeo/mslug/". Your game will show up as what ever you name the games folder, so rename it if you like from "mslug" to "Metal Slug"


For updating the firmware, head over to here https://www.backbit.io/downloads/Firmware/PlatNeoG/

1. Download the firmware and unzip it to the root of your SD card.
2. Insert the SD card into the cart and turn it on. The cart will blink a bunch of times, but don’t touch anything until it lights up solid green. If it doesn't boot just power cycle it.

I think some games need to be run through this tool https://github.com/evietron/BackBit-Convert/tree/main/NeoGeo/Release , but I'm not 100% sure since I haven't gotten that far yet.

Based on the source code, I think it's only these game.

ZUPAPA
KOF98
KOF99
GANRYU
GAROU
S1945P
PREISLE2
MSLUG3
KOF2000
BANGBEAD
NITD
SENGOKU3
KOF2001
MSLUG4
ROTD
KOF2002
MATRIM
PNYAA
MSLUG5
SVC
SAMSHO5
KOF2003
SAMSH5SP

I could be very wrong about that though!

Edit: I wasn't wrong, you need to run those games through that tool. On Linux/Mac, this can be done by unzipping the games and placing them in the same folder as Neodecode. Then, open the terminal, change the directory to where the tool is located, and type "chmod +x Neodecode" to make it executable. to decode you would for example, run "./Neodecode SENGOKU3" it'll be super quick, then you copy the folder to your NeoGeo Folder on your SD card.

Current set up.
das93j.jpg


Here is a small list of random stuff I have on there now. I've never played Looptris or Neotris before, but they're pretty fun! I figured I'd mess with homebrews and stuff I've been missing out on first. :p I own a xeno crisis cart, but now I don't need to swap.
das49j.jpg
 
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