I have received a couple of queries relating to just how the available settings seen in the NeoGeo Land demo work. I guess it may be a little confusing to some. There are essentially two ways to select a game in the NeoGeo Land tech demo which I guess adds to that. Here is a quick run through of the settings seen in the video and ways they could be setup to give some quite interesting options.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU
- OPEN WITH
- USE COLOR
- AUTO EXIT
The above settings relate to the main NeoGeo Land menu only (the color setting which also controls the popup border color) and are quite straight forward. 'Open With' is the key code used to force the menu even if you are playing a game. Even with this setting disabled the key code will work once only at boot time. 'Auto Exit' is simply the time until the menu will close itself if left on the main game select page with no interaction.
I have seen many times in various places and forums people with the current xxxIn1 multicarts moan about the select menu always showing and no way to disable it. This is fully addressed in the NeoGeo Land demo.
Code:
ALLOW SELECT
- CTRL WITH
- USE POPUP
- AUTOCYCLE
- BOOT GAME
The above settings relate to how games swap outside of using the main menu method. The Neo Geo by design has a built in method for swapping games, my view is this should be used if the user wishes it. NeoGeo Land enhances this by allowing some configuration, this requires a little more explanation of the settings.
'Allow Select' acts much the same as the MVS game select cabinet SoftDip option. Options are; allow free game changing, only after a coin inserted or disabled.
'Ctrl With' relates to the buttons used to swap games up or down, cabinet owners probably want to use the select buttons while everyone else will want A+B.
'Use Popup' is an enhancement, this brings up a quick game select menu over the game when pressing one of the defined game select buttons. Can be set to show instantly, after a button is held down for a set time and of course disabled. The popup menu closes when the game select button is released, game are selected in the popup menu using the joystick while the game select button is still pressed down.
'Autocycle' controls what happens after a games attract mode sequence ends. It can be set to simply go to the next game in the list (like a standard MVS multiclot), choose a random game or be disabled.
'Boot Game' is simply the first game to boot when the system is powered on.
Ok, so that's the basic settings out of the way you see in the video. What the video does not show well is just what these settings can do and this is where some confusion lies I guess because people have asked questions like why do some game swapping settings have an option to disable, why would anyone want that? Well to answer that I am going to show some configurations of the settings (main ones only) and explain what the result would be.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU = ALWAYS
- OPEN WITH = (CD)+(START)
ALLOW SELECT = DISABLED
- CTRL WITH = any option
- USE POPUP = any option
- AUTOCYCLE = DISABLED
- BOOT GAME = REAL BOUT FFS
The above setting would work the same as the 161in1 for example. It boots, you choose a game and it starts. At any time you can go back to the main game select menu (instantly ending any playing game). No other game select method is available.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU = DISABLED
- OPEN WITH = DISABLED
ALLOW SELECT = DISABLED
- CTRL WITH = any option
- USE POPUP = any option
- AUTOCYCLE = DISABLED
- BOOT GAME = REAL BOUT FFS
The above setting would make NeoGeo land act like a single SLOT MVS with a single game only. That would be the selected boot game, in this case Real bout. You cannot change the game.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU = DISABLED
- OPEN WITH = DISABLED
ALLOW SELECT = WHEN CREDITS or INTRO/CREDITS
- CTRL WITH = SELECT(1)/(2)
- USE POPUP = DISABLED
- AUTOCYCLE = MVS MULTISLOT
- BOOT GAME = REAL BOUT FFS
The above setting would make NeoGeo land act like an original MVS multislot. The boot game would be Real Bout FFS and you can swap games up until a game starts. After that you cannot swap games until after game over.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU = DISABLED
- OPEN WITH = DISABLED
ALLOW SELECT = WHEN CREDITS or INTRO/CREDITS
- CTRL WITH = SELECT(1)/(2)
- USE POPUP = INSTANTLY
- AUTOCYCLE = MVS MULTISLOT
- BOOT GAME = REAL BOUT FFS
The above setting is like previous but the popup menu can be used to quickly select a different game. Instead of having to potentially press the game select button multiple times you use the joystick to navigate the menu until you release the game select button.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU = DISABLED
- OPEN WITH = DISABLED
ALLOW SELECT = WHEN CREDITS or INTRO/CREDITS
- CTRL WITH = SELECT(1)/(2)
- USE POPUP = INSTANTLY
- AUTOCYCLE = DISABLED
- BOOT GAME = REAL BOUT FFS
Only a slight change from the last. Set like this the selected game will never change unless the user desires it. The benefit here is you will always see the attract mode of the currently selected game until it is changed.
Code:
BOOT TO MENU = DISABLED
- OPEN WITH = (CD)+(START)
ALLOW SELECT = WHEN CREDITS or INTRO/CREDITS
- CTRL WITH = SELECT(1)/(2)
- USE POPUP = INSTANTLY
- AUTOCYCLE = DISABLED
- BOOT GAME = REAL BOUT FFS
Lastly, this setting would allow swapping like the previous method but if you wanted to change game during gameplay you could force yourself back to the main menu and forfit the game.
I hope this clears things up.
My personal view is games should never be allowed to be swapped while a game is playing and thus the ideal setting would be to have 'OPEN WITH' always disabled. Because however previous multicarts use a method to force the select menu, plus I can understand the frustration when losing your first life after scoring only 100 points. The setting is in the NeoGeo Land tech demo.
Looking forward to seeing how the project advances.
