Turning the NeoX Dock into a full fledged PC. (Butt Pains!)

YO I've got this Idea in my head of using the Neo Geo X docking station as a case for a PC project, you could run a ton of games on it and have it fully wifi enabled (as well as bluetooth should you need a mouse and a keyboard at times) and of course it could support multiple types of arcade sticks and controllers (through the usb controller ports of course!) and output really nice high quality video (definitely need to replace the jacks).

Seems to me that has the potential to be hella sick, even just as a console for enjoying some classic gaming. How viable would you guys say this is, and where would be good place to start as far as getting the right parts to get started?

Of course, a similar functionality could be achieved through modding just the handheld once the software is sufficiently busted open, but I think a full set up would be a lot more robust.

My plans are to use a Raspberry Pi. I have an updated model coming in soon.

I was thinking of something a little beefier but those little things are super interesting, how much can they do before they sort of hit their ceiling?

NeoTurfMasta said:

My plans are to use a Raspberry Pi. I have an updated model coming in soon.

Click to expand...

It's there a newer revision of the Pi? Got one a while back but if they changed something hardware wise I would like to get it

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

So my NGX still hasn't arrived (I'm being told that I'll receive it on friday) but I've been putting a chunk of research into what kind of set ups I could cram into it. Thanks especially to Gegagro for alerting me to this SNES project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBtYiQ1mnvA (I freakin adore his custom metroid start screen btw) because it clued me in on the existance of the intel "thin" mini ITX boards.

I was originally looking at doing a AMD mini ITX set up with the A10-5700 because it's only 65w and the integrated graphics on it are far better than intel's, good enough that I could play games like skyrim with decent settings (with a bluetooth 360 gamepad) but 2 inches in height is pretty much the hard limit on space, can't make it any smaller than that, and I'm thinking even with the case hollowed out in won't have that kind of clearance.

Can anybody who has theirs already give me some insight on that? what are the measurements on this thing like?

So then comes the "Thin" Mini ITX from intel, basically the board is slightly less than an inch and uses laptop parts, Intel even makes a laptop style cooler for the cpu that extends out sideways to keep the profile low. I'd probably go for the Core i3-3225. It's a less effective system for modern games of course, but I would say it's a much more achievable goal.

I would prefer the AMD route, especially since it gives me the option of adding a discrete GPU later (at only 1080p a set up like that would likely let me run most games on the highest settings), but truth be told the most common use this would get is likely for arcade game emulation, and as long as the intel set can pump out some NullDC HD dreamcast, well I think that would be just fine.

I would use the parts from an intel nuc, but i'd wait for the intel core i5 version. Or if you want a slow system, then you could also use the guts from a zotac zbox nano.

Wow! That's actually really interesting stuff, kinda takes the DIY fun out of it, but it is definately a good solution. My only issue though would be that 1.8 isn't very fast, and it uses a mobile version of the i3, the intel board I was looking at uses laptop memory and ssd storage, but it has a full desktop processor, (I could go as high as an i7 if need be) which also affords me the option of upgrading once intel HD 5000 graphics roll around etc.

Of course, my understanding that mobile processors are considerably gimped compared to their desktop counterparts may be an antiquated one.

Seeing how the handheld runs neo games like shit currently, using the dock to make a little mame box seems like fun little project.

SSS said:

Seeing how the handheld runs neo games like shit currently, using the dock to make a little mame box seems like fun little project.

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It's humorous to me how the badness of the NGX is near memetic at this point, I mean from what I've seen reviews of it are generally favorable, but somehow it is slowly becoming the Chuck Norris of badness :-P

But I am with you, honestly I think this little thing is gonna be amazing. I'm not sure if i should spill all the beans on my plans or wait till it's done to show it off though!

So I got my unit in and had a chance to play around with it and get some measurements, and dang this is going to be a tight fit! I might have to get a bit creative with even the smallest set up that I had specced out, but I am very excited about how well this could turn out! I ordered the first pieces today, only the largest ones, and when they arrive I can figure out what I'll need to modify to make it work. My fingers are still firmly crossed that it won't require too much finagling, but If I can get these bits in then the rest is as good as built.

My first tech question is this: All the bits in the back and large chunks of the inside of the case are going to need to go bye bye, but I want to keep the original USB ports intact and just wire them into the headers on my board, problem is they're already part of a sort of USB hub. Take a look. (pictures courtesy of the NGX hacking thread)




How would you guys go about wiring or integrating this? Is there a way to bypass the hub and put the usb ports directly into the headers on my board? or should I just connect the hub to the PC and use it that way?

Got my first pieces in today, just the ones that I'll have to physically build around. Here is the Intel DH61AG Thin Mini ITX Motherboard, and the "intel cooling solution" which is a cooler that keeps the profile under one inch.



Here is the Dock with the parts laid out as they'll be once they're put inside, the picture actually makes it look like there is more room then there is, this is a really tight fit, but it fits!



The motherboard has one full and one half size mini pcie slots and supports msata solid state hard drives, so the hard drive will only be about the size of a credit card and mount directly to the board, without that this build would be pretty much impossible.



All that said, the build is going to be pretty straightforward and shouldn't really be too hard. Well except for this one thing that is.



The in out section of the board is taller then i'd hoped and I am not going to be able to keep this hinge intact in the back, which is a shame beacause now I'll have to figure out some other way to open and close the unit. Perhaps I can keep one half of the hinge in place and install some other kind of hinge on the side I have to cut out to supplement it, we'll see I guess.

I do have one major question though.

I just got this motherboard new from amazon, and it has some odd stickiness on the underside and smells like chlorine! Is this normal for a new motherboard? Because if I got a Neo board sent to me in this condition i'd think it was corrosion, and that the board had been kept somewhere dank and moist.
Anybody know what's up with that?

I also have a rasberrypi it is a very nice unit but you MUST have a proper power supply. When I started using myne I was using a phone charger I had. The rasberrypi woudl work but VERY VERY slow. I eventually replaced it with a kindle charger and WOW it speed up like crazy. Now my rasberrypi can handle XBMC with 1080p video no problem. This would make a nice powerful unit for emulation of older systems and hd video. You can clock the rasberrypi at 1Ghz and it runs fine.

usb ports

I would hack up a usb cable and solder the wires directly to the pins of the usb ports that were soldered onto that little pcb.
If your mainboard has pinhead connectors for additional usb sockets, then you could use those, too.

mainboard rear panel cover

I wouldn't use it. I'd mount (superglue and/or epoxy) whichever sockets are really needed to the back of the ngx and rewire those connections.
Hdmi, sound (3.5 mm stereo headphone jack instead of rca jacks) and maybe one or two usb connectors should be all you need.

YO! Update time.

Firstly I got my remaining essential components in the mail last week!
Firstly, this mad tiny 128gb hard drive. Gotta have toshiba chips inside a neo geo amiright?


Next 8 thematically colored gb of ram.


And in addition to stuff like a power supply I got the central and most important component!

It's got the new HD 4000 graphics set up and runs really fast at very low heat. Overkill for neo geo, but I also want to be able to run some HD nulldc, indie games, and maybe even some modern fighting games. We'll see how well it does. Nonetheless, good stuff!

So I actually had a chance to assemble some stuff this week and I plugged in the whole spiel to test it out.
Here it is fans spinning and lights whirring, it's got an external laptop power supply and an HDMI out built right into it going out to my tv.

This thing runs QUIET!


Next on the list:
- Installing OS and other software
- Modifying Neo-Geo X Dock
- Extensive testing
- Optimizing Mouseless, Keyboardless operation
- Power Wave

Very exciting man, keep us updated along the way!

Looks like something good is finally going to come out of a NG-X docking station.

Thats cool, keep us updated. So what exactly will u be able to do with this system? Well it be used just like a regular pc, and use emulation for older games.

Haven't had time to make any more major progress on this guy yet, been wrestling with a few headaches here and there mostly stemming from things that I didn't foresee due to my inexperience in case-modding and building PCs in general. Installing windows means making a bootable thumb drive since there isn't a disc drive present but thankfully I have that part covered now. However there are a few parts that I am needing and I was hoping someone here had knowledge of their whereabouts.

- a very small momentary power switch
this will be integrated into the switch that is already present on the front of the dock so that it can function as the power switch.

- a pair of usb ports that attach to the on board headers
to replace the usb hub built into the dock, it's a pain to power and I'd rather keep things simpler.

- an internal SD card slot that attaches to a header or SATA
new addition to the plans of the build, it will be on the front right of the system where the memory card slot is on it's AES big brother :-)

- motherboard spacers and screws
for firmly attaching the guts to the inside of the case.

- Possibly some very small status LEDs
for somewhere on the front, have not decided.

I know all of this stuff exists around in one form or another and I'd rather not have to buy a suitable PC enclosure and then strip it, because it's sortof a waste of money. Any ideas?

THX1138 said:

So what exactly will u be able to do with this system? Well it be used just like a regular pc, and use emulation for older games.

Click to expand...

Ah yes! The exciting part of the build! Exclusively for games actually, once it is set up it will be sort of a retro arcade console. It's going to have a largely custom hyperspin set up and feature a large library of Neo Geo and Capcom arcade games which it will be able to output in fancy, HD fashion as well as some Naomi (or their Dreamcast ports where appropriate) games which, thanks to the magic of modern emulation, can actually run native in high definition. In addition it's going to have a steam games section because I do like me some indy titles, and it will be able to run both emulators of the new KOF games, and the PC versions of games like SFxT.

It's sort of a tribute and an avenue to enjoy arcade gaming and when It's done I want it to have a very console-like user friendly plug-and-play feel.

I suppose it is also the most thematically appropriate device on which to enjoy the soon to be released PSO2 with my fantabulous ranger:

i know this is a really old thread but, Jonmkl, if you still want to finish this project, i have a great alternative! first off, i want to thank you for the idea to do this. we all know the NGX is crippled and all of us just wanted something that we could enjoy all the NEO GEO games on all in one bundle that looked cool. i am sure that even the people at Tommo wanted something like this for themselves too. well i have the answer to this problem. RASPBERRY PI! yup, i modded my base station because the battery in my NGX was total shit, i would have been happy with it even with all of its limitations, i made a modded sd card reader and was playing everything and happy, BUT, if i didn't play it every day the battery would completely drain then i would have to wait 20 min for it to have a minimum charge to start playing. ANYWAY... i recently got a raspberry pi and downloaded pimame for it, then modded it so it auto loads Final Burn Alpha upon startup, i made a custom start up movie to hide all the text bs and TADA! the NEO GEO X we all hoped for... sort of. its the NEOGEOX we hoped for if you didn't care bout it being portable... like me! check out this video i made of it in action. i go over how i did it and demo it out a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UTUV3turNE

Damn, it's been a year since the NGX came out already?

pretty expensive case for a raspPI, but good use for the NGX nice job for your application.