Found a Neo Geo front loader that lived a life in storage

[daytonausa]

And so it begins...

Not a big deal. I'll address it. For the price I paid, and the condition I got it in, this is the last of my concerns. The pics are above btw, in case you scrolled past.

 

[daytonausa]

From furrtek's site:
"The Neo CD SD Loader could be called an ODE (Optical Drive Emulator) because the benefits are similar, but technically speaking it isn't really one. It doesn't simulate an optical drive. It provides the console with a direct interface to an SD card and patches the BIOS to load games from it instead. From an user standpoint though, the functionality is the same !"

Yep, which is why if you remove it, not only is nothing damaged on the shell, but nothing is damaged on a firmware level, either, as it doesn't rewrite over anything. Not sure why some here are so upset about me modding the system, when it's completely reversable.

 

[kernow]

Wonder how it patches the bios

 

[Neo Alec]

This thread delivers! A minty frontloader, Sega CD enlightenment, and now SD Loader education.

Yep, which is why if you remove it, not only is nothing damaged on the shell, but nothing is damaged on a firmware level, either, as it doesn't rewrite over anything. Not sure why some here are so upset about me modding the system, when it's completely reversable.

It was kinda bad to see the lifted pin and soldering done on the board, but you already recapped it too anyway. As you point out, it's reversible, and a no-cut mod, so I guess my reaction is "meh." Personally if I were doing an SD loader, I'd use a toploader. Mine already has an ugly language switch on the back, so it's a perfect candidate. Anyone wanting this on a CDZ should just get a toploader.

 

[wataru330]

Wonder how it patches the bios

Right through the controller ports if I had to guess, seeing as these are now borked

 

[daytonausa]

Right through the controller ports if I had to guess, seeing as these are now borked

Lol swing and a miss. The mod doesn't go anywhere near the controller port circuitry and well...they weren't working prior to the mod...

Addressing it tonight.

 

[madmanjock]

Did the front loaders come with arcade sticks or controller pads stock when new? I’m guessing they came with the bean style arcade sticks?

 

[daytonausa]

Did the front loaders come with arcade sticks or controller pads stock when new? I’m guessing they came with the bean style arcade sticks?

Cd control pads. Mine came with 2. Pretty sure the beans were just sold separately.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Yeah the bean controller was sold separately. Anyone knows what did they clone (sanwa/seimitsu) for the stick that goes into it?

 

[Tarma]

Been years since I'd seen that model. I wouldn't do any sort of modding to it at all.

Me neither - it's outlandish and irrelevant all at the same time, and just goes to show how bonkers SNK were.

Engineering and manufacturing 25,000 consoles (for the Japanese market) - I mean, why???

Anyway, more importantly - where the fuck have you been lately?

 

[Neo Alec]

Engineering and manufacturing 25,000 consoles (for the Japanese market) - I mean, why???

Adam Koralik, of all people, gives a fairly reasonable explanation of what happened with all the NGCD models, I think. As usual, light on any hard facts, though.

 

[Tarma]

Adam Koralik, of all people, gives a fairly reasonable explanation of what happened with all the NGCD models, I think. As usual, light on any hard facts, though.

I think I've seen that previously - think he picked his frontloader up as "junk" from Akiba iirc?

Anyway, I know SNK's rationale, there was quite a good Edge article on the system back in the day. SNK saw themselves as the "premium" gaming brand and wanted to offer something unique to celebrate the console's launch.
There's no denying that back in the day the frontloader looked impressive with it's size and motorized CD tray, and all 25,000 units sold out, but as a business decision, even from a marketing perspective, I question the wisdom of the move, especially as they knew, BEFORE launch, that the specs were compromised with the single speed CD drive.

While undoubtedly a unit with a faster drive would have cost more at retail, the fact that their core customer base were clearly not short of disposable income, I doubt that sales would have been any worse than they were.

I still lament the fact that they designed the unit without an expansion slot (also unusual for the time if you look at all of its contemporaries) as the ability to increase the RAM, like the Saturn, would have been a major boon to the system. I mean, imagine KoF '98 with a 10MB (80MEGS) RAM cart on top of the system's internal 56MEG DRAM?

 

[Neo Alec]

, I question the wisdom of the move, especially as they knew, BEFORE launch, that the specs were compromised with the single speed CD drive.

While undoubtedly a unit with a faster drive would have cost more at retail, the fact that their core customer base were clearly not short of disposable income, I doubt that sales would have been any worse than they were.

The whole point of the NGCD was to bring the cost of the Neo down. CD technology was moving very fast at the time, and the cost difference between a 1X and 2X drive in 1994 was significant. I'm sure they looked at the projected cost of a 2X speed unit around 1993 in the R&D phase and decided it was too much to bear.

Keep in mind in 1993-94 the majority of games they were offering loaded up in a single load. Games like Samurai 1 were outliers, and the loads were not too unreasonable. They may not have realized how fast game sizes would grow.

I still lament the fact that they designed the unit without an expansion slot (also unusual for the time if you look at all of its contemporaries) as the ability to increase the RAM, like the Saturn, would have been a major boon to the system. I mean, imagine KoF '98 with a 10MB (80MEGS) RAM cart on top of the system's internal 56MEG DRAM?

A ram expansion wouldn't have helped load times much. Is KOF '98 missing anything on NGCD? The main limitation was they couldn't have all six characters loaded at once like in KOF '94. Surely 2 characters wasn't a problem.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

I still find the 25,000 unit figure suspiciously low. I myself have owned two different NGCD front loaders in the past, still own the second one for now. These things aren't particularly expensive, about on par with the top loader and less than the CDZ.

By comparison of other stuff that sold around 25,000 units, like Panzer Dragoon Saga and the 64DD add-on console, those are thousands of dollars. The NGCD Front Loader is just a few hundred.

 

[Neo Alec]

I still find the 25,000 unit figure suspiciously low. I myself have owned two different NGCD front loaders in the past, still own the second one for now. These things aren't particularly expensive, about on par with the top loader and less than the CDZ.

By comparison of other stuff that sold around 25,000 units, like Panzer Dragoon Saga and the 64DD add-on console, those are thousands of dollars. The NGCD Front Loader is just a few hundred.

Yeah, I don't know why people call the front loader rare. Of course it isn't as common as the top loader, but I've never considered it rare. It doesn't seem uncommon in Japan. My local used game store had one in the 90's, so I played on it.

If the 25,000 number is to be believed, I can only guess that it seems less rare just because it's a more niche item than a Saturn game, with a smaller target market.

 

[madmanjock]

Interested how the software works and if it intercepts the bios or replaces it or something

Yes exactly this. Unibios doesn’t work with it because the Furrek device takes the systems bios and adds modifications to it. To alter Unibios would have made it more complicated, and probably been a pain as unibios was a commercial product at the time the sd loader was developed (I think unibios has now gone freeware or similar since).

I’m also suspicious of the 25,000 front loader figure. There seems to be far too many front loader NGCD consoles about.

Ironically I’m now thinking of selling my CDZ and getting a front loader to use the SD Loader. (Front loader looks less shit than the standard top loader).

 

[wyo]

How about you front load deez nuts?

 

[madmanjock]

Are your nuts like a NGCD? Takes a long time to load?

 

[wyo]

Ask your wife.

 

[Niko]

Adam Koralik, of all people, gives a fairly reasonable explanation of what happened with all the NGCD models, I think. As usual, light on any hard facts, though.

Adam Koralik is such a pompous ass, watching that video and hearing him talk about trying to haggle with a fucking Hard Off in Japan just gave me serious second hand embarrassment. I could only imagine the poor counter worker being harassed by some "Americans" over a price they have no control over.

 

[prof]

I'm sure it's an informed video, but damned if just the sight of that guy doesn't make me want to punch him in the face.

 

[kernow]

I'm sure it's an informed video, but damned if just the sight of that guy doesn't make me want to punch him in the face.

You haven't seen awbacon yet

 

[madmanjock]

I'm sure it's an informed video, but damned if just the sight of that guy doesn't make me want to punch him in the face.

I felt the same… it’s something about the fact he ‘had’ to have all 3 CD consoles… like he’s a archaeologist finding Machu Picchu for the first time.

Just buy one fagit, you aren’t even going to play on that one anyway.

 

[daytonausa]

Controller port fixed.

https://imgur.com/a/LDONDrm

 

[butthurt coconut]

I always loved how the orange power LED looked on the front loader NGCD. It is very unique. More consoles should have orange power LEDs. I once had a US black Sega Saturn with the power LED swapped for an orange one, it looked so badass.

Sega CD wasn't amazing but Snatcher and Robo Aleste definitely make it worth owning one, least for me.

Oh how I wish Snatcher in English was available on TurboGrafx-CD....