Darksoft NG Multi is Released Feb 2018. Impressions Please.

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
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I really don't understand the frustration people have regarding the flash times...as if people are that impatient and can't wait a few minutes. I have a Neo SD and the load times are fine, I tend to put a game on a play it for hours so what's a couple of minutes beforehand.

I can't honestly believe that the Neo SD guys have even bothered to develop to Neosd pro just to try and negate something that's not even an issue.

it's ADHD - people want their consoles and flashcarts to be like MAME, so they can load a game and play it for 3 seconds before quitting and loading another. I think I have one game on my Neo SD AES for days at a time. If you wanna swap games so fast, just play an emulator.
 

Bskull

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yeah, but the overall controls and experience never quite feels the same...
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
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yeah, but the overall controls and experience never quite feels the same...

It's all in your head.

This is the problem with a lot of people who actually don't play the games, it has to be the REAL DEAL! nothing ELSE! but... it just sits there on the shelf, primed, photographed for all to see. Looky me!
 

phoenixdownita

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The fact of the matter is that if NeoSD team has decided to support a blazing fast RAM load mode for their up-coming flagship product, THEY can understand why one would like to swap games quite often and that is all that really matters to me.

<drivel trimmed as Rot aptly suggested below>

It's a good time to play NeoGeo with more and more options coming in.
 
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Rot

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FFS....

3f5Y3CW.jpg


xROTx
 

gamelife00

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in the arcades you expect to not have to wait (your paying money to roll up and play)...but when your sat in the comfort of your own home waiting a couple of minutes is not an issue. and like someone said above, who swaps games every few minutes anyway...if you want a quick blast on multiple games at a time get on Mame or buy a 161-1 card. it's all about banging a game on and playing for hours at a time :)

but again...who can't simply can't wait 2-3 minutes lol
 

F4U57

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it's ADHD - people want their consoles and flashcarts to be like MAME, so they can load a game and play it for 3 seconds before quitting and loading another. I think I have one game on my Neo SD AES for days at a time. If you wanna swap games so fast, just play an emulator.

QFT
 

joala

A Joala is for Life., Not Just Christmas.,
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i normally have 2-3 on rotation, hour on one, hour on the next, etc. You cant get in depth with a game if you're fleeting from one to the next. I have heaps of NG titles I've yet to experience for the first time, but i'll get to them eventually.

Currently NTM, MS2 and SS2 and has been those alone for a while.
 

Fygee

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Remember that we used to play those games in the arcades, where the only wait time we had was the coin slipping through the coin mech to get our credit. Afterwards we would just get up and go to a different machine (10-20 minutes play time? Sometimes even less) and put another coin in and we would be into the action.

I can absolutely understand people who don't want waiting times at all, we have been spoiled by the advent of CD media and modern PC-like consoles who brought long loading times when we could just slam a cart in good ol' mega drive and get our game addiction going.

I believe you have your wording wrong there. Carts spoiled us, not CDs, disks, or any other media/computing that involves loading times. Lest we forget, any gaming that involved disks, CDs, or hard drives back then took forever.

Look, here's the deal. You can't have your cake and eat it too (though you can have a slice now with the NeoSD Pro). If you want to play every game in the Neo library with 100% accuracy, and not spend the same amount of money you could use to buy a house to acquire every game, you're going to have to deal with some trade-offs. Can't deal with the loading times but still want to play the games without having to find and buy original carts? Use MAME, or any other emulator. Or buy the multitude of ports on the Wii and PS4. You have options.

Personally, I'll take a couple minutes of loading to play SSVS on original hardware with the NeoSD vs the amount of hours it would take me to earn enough money to afford that cart just so it instantly loads.
 
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phoenixdownita

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But the landscape changed. Because of DS cart running somewhat from RAM, NeoSD team made the PRO version that also runs from RAM. SO fast loading times are a feature now, no more just a vague request, products supporting it are coming to market.

If there was a RAM only NeoSD vs the current flash only NeoSD both at the same exact price I'd like to see who buys what. AES owners (like me) maybe would go with the RAM only and fast load time even if we would lose the instant play of the last flashed game, cabinet owners maybe would go for the flash only.

In a couple of weeks NeoSD should announce the price of the PRO will see, maybe they can release a notSoPRO edition in which they simply do not populate any flash chip on the PCB and that may make the price match the current NeoSD, I don't know (less chips, cheaper pickNplace manufacturing costs etc...).

The point stays though, DS cart and NeoSD PRO support much faster loading time thanks to their usage of RAM (not sure DS cart is all RAM to be fair) and the only reason to go that route is because there's obviously demand. The fact that many here claim not to be the intended audience does not make either product bad or irrelevant.
 

Rot

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But the landscape changed. Because of DS cart running somewhat from RAM, NeoSD team made the PRO version that also runs from RAM. SO fast loading times are a feature now, no more just a vague request, products supporting it are coming to market.

You are a 'tard....

If there was a RAM only NeoSD vs the current flash only NeoSD both at the same exact price I'd like to see who buys what. AES owners (like me) maybe would go with the RAM only and fast load time even if we would lose the instant play of the last flashed game, cabinet owners maybe would go for the flash only.

You are still a 'tard...

In a couple of weeks NeoSD should announce the price of the PRO will see, maybe they can release a notSoPRO edition in which they simply do not populate any flash chip on the PCB and that may make the price match the current NeoSD, I don't know (less chips, cheaper pickNplace manufacturing costs etc...).

WTF are you talking about.... STFU before I kill your account...

The point stays though, DS cart and NeoSD PRO support much faster loading time thanks to their usage of RAM (not sure DS cart is all RAM to be fair) and the only reason to go that route is because there's obviously demand. The fact that many here claim not to be the intended audience does not make either product bad or irrelevant.

Seriously... STFU...
 

Razoola

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But the landscape changed. Because of DS cart running somewhat from RAM, NeoSD team made the PRO version that also runs from RAM. SO fast loading times are a feature now, no more just a vague request, products supporting it are coming to market.

If there was a RAM only NeoSD vs the current flash only NeoSD both at the same exact price I'd like to see who buys what. AES owners (like me) maybe would go with the RAM only and fast load time even if we would lose the instant play of the last flashed game, cabinet owners maybe would go for the flash only.

In a couple of weeks NeoSD should announce the price of the PRO will see, maybe they can release a notSoPRO edition in which they simply do not populate any flash chip on the PCB and that may make the price match the current NeoSD, I don't know (less chips, cheaper pickNplace manufacturing costs etc...).

The point stays though, DS cart and NeoSD PRO support much faster loading time thanks to their usage of RAM (not sure DS cart is all RAM to be fair) and the only reason to go that route is because there's obviously demand. The fact that many here claim not to be the intended audience does not make either product bad or irrelevant.

I think you have this backwards. darksoft did a poll on this ram vs flash point and the large majority wanted Flash over RAM (over 70%) but he ignored the result and went with RAM anyway. The poll in his forum as it is now has been altered in some way, maybe forum crash affected it, I don't know.

The big thing the neoSDpro has for me in relation to RAM that the ds cart does not is the USB port. This point has been discussed many times before darksoft opened his own forum. His arguement was from a DEV prospective RAM and SDcard is all a dev needed for a perfect devcart. The neoSDteam clearly understand however that a DEV needs a host and slave machine setup, looking at the neosdpro they are thinging about DEVs, they would not have a USB connector on their upcoming cart otherwise.

I must admit that I am a little envious of yodd having one of these neosdpro carts to play with already. I would defo be messing with that USB port if I had one.
 

neosd

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I think you have this backwards. darksoft did a poll on this ram vs flash point and the large majority wanted Flash over RAM (over 70%) but he ignored the result and went with RAM anyway. The poll in his forum as it is now has been altered in some way, maybe forum crash affected it, I don't know.

The big thing the neoSDpro has for me in relation to RAM that the ds cart does not is the USB port. This point has been discussed many times before darksoft opened his own forum. His arguement was from a DEV prospective RAM and SDcard is all a dev needed for a perfect devcart. The neoSDteam clearly understand however that a DEV needs a host and slave machine setup, looking at the neosdpro they are thinging about DEVs, they would not have a USB connector on their upcoming cart otherwise.

I must admit that I am a little envious of yodd having one of these neosdpro carts to play with already. I would defo be messing with that USB port if I had one.

One thing that i am surprised that no one is talking about is that Darsof thingle is not RAM at all, its hybrid (RAM+FLASH), but instead of having independent FLASH and RAM slots as NEOSD PRO HAS, they just put C roms on RAM, and P and V roms on FLASH.

I am still waiting for someone to explain why they did that, cause it looks like a nosense to me. All i can guess is they did that to solve some tech limitation they were not able to bypass.
 
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phoenixdownita

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I think you have this backwards. darksoft did a poll on this ram vs flash point and the large majority wanted Flash over RAM (over 70%) but he ignored the result and went with RAM anyway. The poll in his forum as it is now has been altered in some way, maybe forum crash affected it, I don't know.

The big thing the neoSDpro has for me in relation to RAM that the ds cart does not is the USB port. This point has been discussed many times before darksoft opened his own forum. His arguement was from a DEV prospective RAM and SDcard is all a dev needed for a perfect devcart. The neoSDteam clearly understand however that a DEV needs a host and slave machine setup, looking at the neosdpro they are thinging about DEVs, they would not have a USB connector on their upcoming cart otherwise.

I must admit that I am a little envious of yodd having one of these neosdpro carts to play with already. I would defo be messing with that USB port if I had one.

I admit I didn't know he ignored the results of his own poll ..... thanks for that bit.
 
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Black_Tiger

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Feb 7, 2005
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in the arcades you expect to not have to wait (your paying money to roll up and play)...but when your sat in the comfort of your own home waiting a couple of minutes is not an issue. and like someone said above, who swaps games every few minutes anyway...if you want a quick blast on multiple games at a time get on Mame or buy a 161-1 card. it's all about banging a game on and playing for hours at a time :)

but again...who can't simply can't wait 2-3 minutes lol

In arcades bitd, you had to wait your turn to play anything popular and often any game at all depending on the number of cabs. Same thing today at arcades in my area.

Imagine traveling back in time and telling someone at a typical 90's arcade that in the next room they have every Neo Geo game that will ever be made, but there is a minute or so wait time to begun playing any single machine. Would they tell you to fuck off or go running in there?
 

Syn

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In arcades bitd, laserdisc games were slow yet there was always a line.
 

donluca

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I believe you have your wording wrong there. Carts spoiled us, not CDs, disks, or any other media/computing that involves loading times. Lest we forget, any gaming that involved disks, CDs, or hard drives back then took forever.

Whoops! Yeah, I worded that the opposite way. Thanks for pointing out!
 

atman

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I'm a newcomer in the NeoGeo community, been retro-playing alot, NES, PCE, Genesis etc I decided to go NeoGeo and brought an AES last year.

I wanted a flashcart and the only one on the market at the time (still) was the neoSD. I wasnt reading any forums at the time and the only insight was from youtubers or other reviews.

With that information I decided to wait for DS cart and see how that would work out, it seemed at the time that would be the better choice. Then I decided I should register forums and gather information myself and make my own opionion.
It didnt took me long to decide for the neoSD. When it became clear to me that DS cart could not instaboot the already flashed game it was a done deal. No one ever mentioned that, think that is a #1 feature. Instaboot is NeoGeos "thing".

All the problems with the DS cart did not make the decision harder. When there was a poll on what music the menu should contain I could not belive it.



Ordered my neoSD and Im sooo happy with it. Im a bit bummed that the Pro version announced a week after I ordered it. Regading flash times I have no issues at all.
I dont jump between games alot, that might be a thing the first weeks.

Thanks Terraonion for the great products, looking forward to that SSDS3 now.
 

Razoola

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I was looking over the darksoft forums on this unibios splashscreen issue a user has reported to me. It appears neither darksoft or Mitsurugi-w have a clear understanding on how the NeoGeo or their multicart works in relation to why the NeoGeo logo looks bad on the Unibios splash screen when their multi first boots. Based on the screenshots I have seen the problem is not related to what they are saying at all. It is actually related to the needed tiles being missing in the 'crom0' file in the menu dir / stored on flash, and probably the logo offset being set incorrectly in the 68k program header of their UI. Maybe neocps1 can look into this and fix it for them.
 

Montatez

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I was looking over the darksoft forums on this unibios splashscreen issue a user has reported to me. It appears neither darksoft or Mitsurugi-w have a clear understanding on how the NeoGeo or their multicart works in relation to why the NeoGeo logo looks bad on the Unibios splash screen when their multi first boots. Based on the screenshots I have seen the problem is not related to what they are saying at all. It is actually related to the needed tiles being missing in the 'crom0' file in the menu dir / stored on flash, and probably the logo offset being set incorrectly in the 68k program header of their UI. Maybe neocps1 can look into this and fix it for them.

Maybe they should just hire you.
 

atman

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I was looking over the darksoft forums on this unibios splashscreen issue a user has reported to me. It appears neither darksoft or Mitsurugi-w have a clear understanding on how the NeoGeo or their multicart works in relation to why the NeoGeo logo looks bad on the Unibios splash screen when their multi first boots. Based on the screenshots I have seen the problem is not related to what they are saying at all. It is actually related to the needed tiles being missing in the 'crom0' file in the menu dir / stored on flash, and probably the logo offset being set incorrectly in the 68k program header of their UI. Maybe neocps1 can look into this and fix it for them.

I gently asked if there was any solution to this, according to them their cart runs instant and ruins the unibios logo. There is no way to control in in code it seems since its using that bus(?) when powered on.
Asked why original carts never had any issues, it all came down to that it would awesome to have Darksoft logo instead of the unibios splash screen.

Im only a layman in this term, but I understand that the DS cart does something that the console is not expecting since original carts never had any issue regarding this.
 

Razoola

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I gently asked if there was any solution to this, according to them their cart runs instant and ruins the unibios logo. There is no way to control in in code it seems since its using that bus(?) when powered on.
Asked why original carts never had any issues, it all came down to that it would awesome to have Darksoft logo instead of the unibios splash screen.

Im only a layman in this term, but I understand that the DS cart does something that the console is not expecting since original carts never had any issue regarding this.

They could easily get the tiles in place before the unibios splash screen draws but as mentioned, the needed tiles are simply not included in their crom0 file (which I understand are also put into flash based on their UI update instructions). If their cart runs instant, they can fix it. They could also have a seperate file with just the NeoGeo logo that is always loaded from cold boot (it would be very small) and could easily populate the sprite tile region before the unibios screen draws in the worst case. I can't believe their cart does not understand when it is cold booting or soft booting to be able do that. Very simple and easy solutions to simple issues. Its a shame because like you say, they could place their own Logo into the Unibios splash screen (like NeoBitz does for example). If they are finding this simple thing to solve impossible, they are going to discover a hole other bunch of issues with AES if they use the same HW spec for their device.
 
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