Darksoft NG Multi is Released Feb 2018. Impressions Please.

Syn

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No one has mentioned the boards thickness so far.

I'd take it as a non issue. As the carts continue to trickle out we'll see.
 

Tacitus

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No one has mentioned the boards thickness so far.

I'd take it as a non issue. As the carts continue to trickle out we'll see.

SYN ACK
 

Kid Panda

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Crazy thread. At the moment, neither of them have interested me. But there is at least one area that perhaps this product may have gotten right, that the previous one got wrong. Are the boards the correct thickness?

Can you point to me where the NeoSD had "issues" with the board thickness? This is the first I've heard of it.
 

Tw3ek

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Can you point to me where the NeoSD had "issues" with the board thickness? This is the first I've heard of it.

Methinks he's just a tad sore about learning the importance of thickness the hard way
 

NeoTurfMasta

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:rolleyes:

Now I don't have a digital caliper, but I'm not seeing any noticeable difference between the NeoSD and an original SNK cart with my non-digital caliper.
 
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SuperGun

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Don't take my word for it. I'm not the only one who took note of the Neo SD boards being too thick whereby causing cart slots to widen. Jeff Kurtz himself noted this when he came over to my place and brought the cart with him & we used it.

It's nothing new. Almost every MVS adapter had this issue as well. Almost nobody seems to get it right. It's a nuisance is all. Over time, along with dirty carts, it causes connectivity issues with carts.
 

Kid Panda

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Don't take my word for it. I'm not the only one who took note of the Neo SD boards being too thick whereby causing cart slots to widen. Jeff Kurtz himself noted this when he came over to my place and brought the cart with him & we used it.

It's nothing new. Almost every MVS adapter had this issue as well. Almost nobody seems to get it right. It's a nuisance is all. Over time, along with dirty carts, it causes connectivity issues with carts.

This is the first I've heard of it. You made it seem like it was a well known issue that was documented in a thread somewhere.
 

BanishingFlatsAC

formerly DZ
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Don't take my word for it. I'm not the only one who took note of the Neo SD boards being too thick whereby causing cart slots to widen. Jeff Kurtz himself noted this when he came over to my place and brought the cart with him & we used it.

It's nothing new. Almost every MVS adapter had this issue as well. Almost nobody seems to get it right. It's a nuisance is all. Over time, along with dirty carts, it causes connectivity issues with carts.

I dated a girl that had a loose slot issue. If only you and Kurtz where there to stop me...
 

Syn

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No, but I saw Evel launch his rocket into her. He had premature ejection issues though.
 

NeoLucian

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Ive been reading through the thread over there and they seen to be having quite a few issues so far, I have noted below what seems to be the most common problems, its a shame that so many issues have cropped up so early, hopefully these can be worked through for the buyers.

Issues
4-Slot Boards - not working
6-Slot Boards - not working
SD Cards - This seems to be a very common problem, even people using the same brand and model cards are getting different results - possibly some are Fake cards that are causing problems but it seems a large issue at the moment.
Loading Issues - When games are loaded into the Virtual Slots they are randomly disappearing from slots and then reappearing after a power off/on.
Roms - They are saying at one point it was the ROM pack possibly causing the loading issues problems but that seems to be disproved now.
Games List - Not all games on the SD card are being listed on the menu e.g. you add 100 games to the SD Card but only 30 show up
Unibios - Some are reporting a corrupted Unibios screen and
Menu - Some of the music is corrupted and people are confused about the update procedure, having it in 2 places on the SD Card etc.
Return to menu - This appears to be broken and people are reporting they cant get back to the menu using the button combination
Pixels - Random pixel corruption on certain games and the main menu
Crashing - Reports of games randomly crashing after a few minutes of game play, its not specific games as people have had different results with different games.

Here is a few of the issues reported by one of the buyers:
- "Error - no game found on memory card" shows up randomly. Rebooting the system helps, most of the times it will boot through to the menu.
- Start + stick to the right to return to the menu doesn't always work, sometimes freezes, system needs a reboot.
- Start + stick to the right to return to the menu sometimes works within 3 seconds, sometimes it works but after about 10-12 seconds. Wants to reboot to menu but freezes at the "Please wait" screen.
- After reboot the games which are saved to the 3 slots are sometimes lost and needs a reflash.
- Sometimes after a hard reset (meaning switching PSU off and on) system freezes at "Filesystem initializing".
- Random games do not appear, yesterday I'm playing Mutation Nation, the next day (nothing has changed in the setup), the game doesn't show up anymore.
- After rebooting, the system boots to game 1, instead of the menu (while this is selected in the settings).
- Sometimes a game goes into error handling (unibios 3.1), particular game is Garou Mark of the Wolves.
- After doing a soft reset with the unibios (A+B+C+Start) some games are not loaded and some are, this appears to be random.
- Going back to the menu (Start + stick to the right) does not always work, sometimes just doesn't respond.
- Windjammers cannot be found on both SD cards (SM's beta image has been used).
 

ratson

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Seems like the real testing is done by the buyers. I read the thread at arcade-projects. Reading that, makes me not want it. Way to many issues that should've been tested before sales started.
 
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Heinz

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Fuck me.... that's a LOT of problems. Is this still in beta testing? :lolz:
 

Morden

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Reading the list of issues, I can't help but notice many are related to the stupid slot system, which I thought was unnecessary from the start, seeing as loading any game [populating a slot] is almost instantaneous. But noooo ... they had to keep the slots, because people out there just have to be able to swap between three titles at seizure-inducing speeds.

I don't think this is a ill conceived product. Do away with the slots, make it boot directly to the menu, and focus on ironing out the important issues instead of spending precious time on that slot mumbo-jumbo.

Neo Geo isn't a one flavor platform. There are plenty of MVS models out there, and people use them in a lot of different ways. Consolized, converted to a single power source ... Sometimes the PSU can make all the difference. My NeoSD experience wasn't free from errors. I got protection triggers on some games, I've had serious problems running Shock Troopers 2 [and its boot], plus some other minor stuff, but those issues got resolved, and fairly quickly.

It seems like Darksoft has a lot of troubleshooting to do, but my guess is the issues, to a degree, are multiplied by the number of configurations people are using.

I'm genuinely curious about the Darksoft cartridge, but having bought NeoSD, there is no reason for me to be buying another flash cartridge for the Neo.

Also, what's the final shell solution for the DS cartridge? Are they recycling genuine cartridge shells?
 

oliverclaude

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Reading the list of issues, I can't help but notice many are related to the stupid slot system, which I thought was unnecessary from the start, seeing as loading any game [populating a slot] is almost instantaneous. But noooo ... they had to keep the slots, because people out there just have to be able to swap between three titles at seizure-inducing speeds.

Nicely put. They just had to have a gimmick to distinguish their much too late product, to claim authenticity, show off their conceptual superiority and... there they have it.

Out there, somewhere echoes Nelson's mocking laugh.
 

Yodd

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Also, what's the final shell solution for the DS cartridge? Are they recycling genuine cartridge shells?


They are using old MVS shells. I am guessing they sacc'ed carts to do that. They then sandblast them to remove scratches/gouges from them and apply new labels to them.


Personally I think that's kinda shitty and cheap on their behalf. I can't imagine where in the world they magically conjured up hundreds and hundreds of empty and used MVS cart shells from without taking them from working carts.

It's another good reason to support the NEOSD as it uses a custom molded cart shell that doesn't involve destroying existing games.
 

donluca

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Reading the list of issues, I can't help but notice many are related to the stupid slot system

Honestly I really like their slot system. I'm the kind of guy who always plays the same 2-3 games over and over and a multi-slot solution is very nice.

I'd put something like Metal Slug 2, Blazing Star and Matrimelee and be good with it for a long long time.
 

Tacitus

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Honestly I really like their slot system. I'm the kind of guy who always plays the same 2-3 games over and over and a multi-slot solution is very nice.

I'd put something like Metal Slug 2, Blazing Star and Matrimelee and be good with it for a long long time.

That extra 1-2 minute wait must kill you.
 

NeoLucian

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They are using old MVS shells. I am guessing they sacc'ed carts to do that. They then sandblast them to remove scratches/gouges from them and apply new labels to them.


Personally I think that's kinda shitty and cheap on their behalf. I can't imagine where in the world they magically conjured up hundreds and hundreds of empty and used MVS cart shells from without taking them from working carts.

It's another good reason to support the NEOSD as it uses a custom molded cart shell that doesn't involve destroying existing games.

I had not realised thats where they were getting the shells from, thats something I cannot agree with at all and find really disappointing.
I mean why not offer to buy shells from NeoSD rather than Sac cart as an example? yes they are a competing company but they also have something they require (fresh cart shells).
I wonder how many games have now been sacc'd so far for their Multicart?
 
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