Voting is up for DarkSofts Neo Geo Multi Cart Design.

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xsq

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Terraonion
A brighter future awaits
 

donluca

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Just to be clear, we have not stopped.

We have 3 prototypes for 3 different products already built.
One of the projects began before NEOSD was released, other one began when NEOSD was released and the last one started in January.

We have also hired another engeneer this year, so we are putting more resources there. The development plan for next year is even bigger, we are working on hiring more engeneers.

Big things take big time, a rom emulator with an lcd screen takes no time but its crap, donエt expect anything that is not great for us.

So 3 projects are comming, i wont give details about what we are doing or when those are going to be released, but winter is comming for sure.


Just be patient, we want to build a perfect product for each system.

Alex,

After seeing what you've done with the NeoSD, I'm really looking forward your other products.

Again, I feel like the CPS2 multi should have max priority, but I'd love to see others as well, especially a CPS1 one and your take on the Taito F3.
 

heihachi

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After seeing what you've done with the NeoSD, I'm really looking forward your other products.

Again, I feel like the CPS2 multi should have max priority, but I'd love to see others as well, especially a CPS1 one and your take on the Taito F3.

I agree. I'd be all over a cps2 multi of similar quality to the neosd.
 

Pinball

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I bought both NeoSDs. I'll buy anything these guys produce now :-)

Perfect emus of systems like CPS1, CPS2 etc will be wonderful.
 

donluca

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Perfect emus of systems like CPS1, CPS2 etc will be wonderful.

This.

I was on the verge of buying Darksoft's Taito F3 multi, but after NeoSD said that they're working on another 3 project I decided to hold off and see what happens.
 

aoiddr

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This.

I was on the verge of buying Darksoft's Taito F3 multi, but after NeoSD said that they're working on another 3 project I decided to hold off and see what happens.

I'd been wanting an F3 multi for forever and I'm not disappointed in the Darksoft one, just like I was not disappointed by the NeoSD multi. I'm finally getting to play unreleased games like Twin Qix and Recalhorn in my cab on the actual F3 hardware. If NeoSD or someone comes out with a better product later, I'll definitely give it a shot, but what matters to me is that I'm playing these games now.
 
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Morden

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I was on the verge of buying Darksoft's Taito F3 multi, but after NeoSD said that they're working on another 3 project I decided to hold off and see what happens.

Aside from a Q Sound compatible CPS solution, I'd love to see a Naomi universal cartridge. A proper all in one, Naomi, 2 and Atomiswave. SD slot, plug in and go. Net DIMMs, zero keys and all that jazz is a bit much. Plus, net DIMMs are getting expensive. Hey, let's vote. If we have to choose three platforms, what would it be? Order doesn't matter. For me it's:

01 - IGS PGM
02 - CPS Q Sound
03 - Naomi [1, 2 & Atomis]

Naomi 2 alone would be amazing. The number of quality titles for the trio is huge, and that's what a proper flash device is all about. I know some games are GD only, but I've seen cart conversions of those, so it can certainly be done.
 

Heinz

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Aside from a Q Sound compatible CPS solution, I'd love to see a Naomi universal cartridge. A proper all in one, Naomi, 2 and Atomiswave. SD slot, plug in and go. Net DIMMs, zero keys and all that jazz is a bit much. Plus, net DIMMs are getting expensive. Hey, let's vote. If we have to choose three platforms, what would it be? Order doesn't matter. For me it's:

01 - IGS PGM
02 - CPS Q Sound
03 - Naomi [1, 2 & Atomis]

Naomi 2 alone would be amazing. The number of quality titles for the trio is huge, and that's what a proper flash device is all about. I know some games are GD only, but I've seen cart conversions of those, so it can certainly be done.

I would seriously consider buying back a Naomi 2 just for this.
 

retro

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Maybe they could clone the entire Naomi2 while they're at it, seeing as the GPU's tend to fuck up when you as much as look at them that'll soon be necessary anyway.
 
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xsq

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They should bulid a castle in the sky. I'll be really disappointed if they don't.
 

neosd

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I can confirm that we are not building a castle in the sky, if anyone is building one, we are interested on purchasing one. Or in a sample for a review .... (we get so many emails asking for review samples)

I can also confirm that our plans are to build flashcarts for each system. We have a priority list and we want to make quality plug and play products.

Patience, good things need good time.

Alex,
 

donluca

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That's FANTASTIC news I'll be following your work closely and start saving up to buy your work.

Right now, after the Neo Geo multi, I feel like the most "urgent" one is a CPS2, followed by a CPS1 and all the other arcade systems.

I'm looking at System16's website right now and there are lots of systems I'd love seeing a multi for, I don't even know where to start honestly.

One question though: there are some systems which are not made of separate ROM boards and main board, but shouldn't be too hard to clone. Toaplan Version 2 comes to mind although it has quite a share of custom chips in it: http://system16.com/hardware.php?id=967
Even without using FPGAs, some parts are still widely available like Motorola 68000 and Z80.

Is this a possibility?
 
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madman

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Right now, after the Neo Geo multi, I feel like the most "urgent" one is a CPS2, followed by a CPS1 and all the other arcade systems.
Urgent multis for 20 year old arcade hardware?

One question though: there are some systems which are not made of separate ROM boards and main board, but shouldn't be too hard to clone. Toaplan Version 2 comes to mind although it has quite a share of custom chips in it
You should get on that since it's not too hard. Surely it is worth the investment in time and resources to clone a system that plays less than 20 games.
 

neosd

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some parts are still widely available like Motorola 68000 and Z80.

I am just going to coment on that, cause its a nice subject.

You canエt find 68k stock from normal sources (chip distributors, dealers, mouser, digikey, farnell and so)
You may be able to find 68k stock from China. Aliexpress and such sites may sell you those BUT there are some issues there :

a) there is a risk you are buying empty chips (just remarked chips that may be empty or a different chip at all)
b) there is a risk you are buying faulty chips

And the most important one :

You need chips that work at the same voltage of current tech, you canエt just use a 68k from a neogeo with the arms and fpgas we are using.

We will never buy chips outside of producers circle, cause if something happens, we have a warranty, the same our customers get from us if something goes wrong. Its better to pay more and sleep well, ratter than save a 20-25% and have troubles, we donエt use cheap Chinese PCBS or chips from China for this reason.

We wonエt take the risk to buy something that may cause issues.

Alex,
 

neosd

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Urgent multis for 20 year old arcade hardware?


You should get on that since it's not too hard. Surely it is worth the investment in time and resources to clone a system that plays less than 20 games.


We only have Neo Geo numbers, so far NEOSD pays the bills, but nothing else.
NEOSD sales numbers told us that 1 year project as this one with senior engeneers may be hard to monetize. Just get the investment back may me impossible on some projects. I am not telling we havent made money with NEOSD, cause we did, but we put everything back on new projects and taxes (yes, taxes). I am still waiting to see some numbers rising on my own bank account, lets hope i will see that in 2 years, this was the initial plan ....

That means : if we have to spend 1 year of development into a system with 20 games with small user base, we are forced to sell the device at 400 euros and if we only sell 100 units, we are broke and loosing money. Goodbye to Terraonion, i can live without making money but not putting my time and my own money to pay others after 3 years, i hope you all understand that.

This dosen´t means all our products are going to be sold for 400 euros, price will depend on two factors :

How big the user base is (how many units we can sell)
How many time and resources the project took us.

So a product as NEOSD (1 year development), could be sold for 280 euros if the user base for that product would be 2x of Neo Geo userbase.
I am not telling that all our open projects are as big as NEOSD has been. As today we have a project that took more time and resources than NEOSD so far, and other projects that are still taking time (so we don´t know how much will take), but as today, seem smaller than NEOSD.

Our goal is : sell cheaper to sell more, but this is not always possible.
 

madman

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neosd, I was being sarcastic towards donluca. Of course creating a clone of that board would be a tremendous waste of your time.
 

neosd

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neosd, I was being sarcastic towards donluca. Of course creating a clone of that board would be a tremendous waste of your time.

Hi madman, yes i know, i got it :) i just wanted to give an acurated answer about why such things may not be worth the effort/time.

There is also another point on our company adventure that needs to be considered, we are arcade freaks/fans aswel and there are things we want for ourselves, so things that make no much comercial sense may be done, but not now. We need to pass death valley stage on Terraonion before that.

Alex,
 

donluca

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Urgent multis for 20 year old arcade hardware?

Hence the double quotes. :cool:

You should get on that since it's not too hard. Surely it is worth the investment in time and resources to clone a system that plays less than 20 games.

It *IS* hard and the cost and availability of the PCBs play a huge factor here.

The Toaplan version 2 springed to my mind because recently M2 has done a couple of ports to PS4, one of those was Battle Garegga. Batraider and Bakraid are other 2 highly sought after titles from shmups players, and the prices of those PCBs (not to mention Batsugun Special) are off the charts. A multi imho would easily sell for 500€.

Same goes for CAVE 1k hardware but that's way more complicated than earlier designs, but at least we have the ports on the X360.

Thanks NeoSD for the through explanation, that makes perfect sense.
 

aoiddr

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That must be the most generic shitass trance/euro crap i've heard in a long time. Was this generated automatically or what?

I believe it was one of the last major "dream trance" tracks before that sub-genre went extinct. (Honestly, I didn't even know this was considered "dream trance" until I looked it up. I just assumed it fell under the umbrella of "vocal trance"...)
 
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