What would I need to make a NG Everdrive?

Lemony Vengeance

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More money, skill and time than you will ever have.

ohsnap.gif
 

distropia

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This can be more feasible if NGDevTeam engineer would be on it
 

massimiliano

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I always believed this to be the way for homebrew/new stuff coming... CD media distribution, upload on a Everdrive cart...win-win: packaging (CD) for the collector, far from the intial cart, the rest means cheap cost and quick time to market...something like this:

UCS.jpg


I wouldn't mind even stuff like Crouching Pony in that case...
 

Yodd

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This can be more feasible if NGDevTeam engineer would be on it

LOL

What in the world makes you think that one of the few companies developing and releasing games on the Neo would be interested in developing something like a flashcart system for the system?

I always believed this to be the way for homebrew/new stuff coming... CD media distribution, upload on a Everdrive cart...win-win: packaging (CD) for the collector, far from the intial cart, the rest means cheap cost and quick time to market...something like this:


I wouldn't mind even stuff like Crouching Pony in that case...


A proper homebrew scene on the Neo would be great. But with out a reasonable flashcart system, that ain't gonna happen. Though to be honest I am kinda surprised there hasn't been more on the Neo CD.
 

SNKorSWM

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Up to now all the NGCD to ROM conversions have been without BGM. And it's certainly not because the data isn't there.
 

RabbitTroop

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Up to now all the NGCD to ROM conversions have been without BGM. And it's certainly not because the data isn't there.

No, it's because the data wasn't there. The music on the few CD games that were converted was red book.
 

SNKorSWM

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The BGM data is certainly present on the CD.
 

Rot

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Glad to see we're still having this discussion...

...I'll move forward with it at my pace... which is whenever I have time...

As for the personal attacks on my ass... I'd suggest you guys better realise it doesn't really bother me that much... I've been too busy with real life stuffs to give most people a second thought... and the fact I'm WAY to set here to even care...

Just saying...

xROTx

PS. However, it has occurred to me that people aren't staying on topic and deciding to use this thread as an Anti_Rot commentary... unsure how you guys feel about it... but with enough time and backstabbing... even I'll get annoyed...
 

Razoola

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As I discovered personally myself the CD system does not support ADPCM-B.

My own personal belief is that you all need to wait and see the unibios I plan to release for the CD system. Although the system does not have the memory to do a massive game without the need of CD loading it certinally has enough to do good homebrew games. For example BangBang busters (not homebrew) can be uploaded to the system in 14 seconds via pc2neo and then be fully played in either console or arcade mode.
 

DanAdamKOF

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Google around for Kyuusaku's postings on this subject, I don't see this coming together on its own from good intentions, it will take a shitload of effort and money. Unless y'all are FPGA gurus I guess.
 

julencin2000

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From krikzz's forums:

Re: Re: Upcomming Everdrives?
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2012, 04:09:59 AM »
I pretty sure that i will never work over NeoGeo. At least, in next 1-2 years. May be GB/GBC or NES/Famicom. I would like to use new generation of cpld chips, with low power consumption, in case if i will work over gb/gbc cart, but currently hard to buy this chips and they cost a lot

and

Re: Re: Upcomming Everdrives?
« Reply #35 on: October 07, 2012, 04:53:14 AM »
Also i must say that neogeo cart is pretty complex thing. May be i will make a toy for jag, but i pretty sure that i will never do something for neogeo

On the other hand, last year he made the gb cart when he already said that:

Re: Re: Upcomming Everdrives?
« Reply #56 on: October 16, 2012, 03:52:23 PM »
few months ago i made a prototype for gb/gbc, but total power consumption was twice more than with original cart, so i decide not touch gameboy and switch to nes. i should learn how to make power effective solutions, plus i dont really like gameboy system (:

So there's hope I guess.
 

Atro

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I'm sure someone can engineer this.
A crowd funding like kickstarter would make this possible.

I believe we ( here ) could make the thing happen.
Wouldn't be that hard at all to sell those.

If multicarts exist, this can exist too. WITHOUT chinese boots on it!
 

GadgetUK

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It's totally possible but it needs someone as smart as Krikkz to look at it. You basically need replicate the address decoding, PCM chips, and possible decryption (if you want total compatibility with original ROM images). It all needs to be configurable from a central point - perhaps a CPLD or FPGA, and you need a load of flash ROM / SRAM chips to hold the data for each bus. You basically need it to boot from a P1 image which can interface with an SD card, allowing you to select the file / folder etc. Then have it 'program' the chips on the different buses with the ROM images, and finally alter the address decoding / mapping and have it reboot. With the multicarts its much easier because all they are doing is altering address lines, with an SD type approach I don't see how you could easily 'map' to files on the SD card for the separate buses, without copying each file into some local SRAM / flash ROM etc, and you would probably need something to isolate each bus from the MVS whilst its being populated, and reconnected prior to reboot. I guess there would be an initial wait for it to copy all the data to the storage chips as well. The theory is sound, it can definitely be done but its all the differences between different games is where the complexity lies - ie. different ROM sizes and how they are each mapped to buses regards address decoding etc. I guess there's probably like 3 or 4 common methods with maybe a few unusual ones or something (just speculation). I guess the cost would be an issue as well, I could imagine something like this costing £500 easily. That said, I would buy one just to be able to start some homebrew development.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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It's not nearly that complicated. The basics of a flash cart are still relevant on Neo Geo. A BIOS-like program first loads from P1 ROM, which then allows the CLPD/FPGA control over what the end user wishes to be loaded and played. There would be separate blocks of RAM or flash for each bus, such as P, V, C, M and S ROMs. The largest would be C, which would be 512Mbits or 64MByte. Yes, you would need a chunk of memory that big to cover all games. The other ROM banks are not as massive. It might be tricky getting one giant flash chip to map out to multiple formerly discrete chip connections to the Neo Geo console, but it might be as easy as wiring the upper address lines to be controllable via FPGA. The only annoying thing is a cable would have to be attached between the PROG and CHA boards.

Seemingly all unencrypted Neo Geo games work on the same mapping, just incrementally bigger and bigger as the years went on. Encrypted ROMs could be solved by simply decrypting them first, or just download pre-decrypted versions.
 

CORY

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You forgot one thing guys, Rot is asian. It would only take one year for him to become a rocket scientist if he really wanted to...

Just sayin'
 

GadgetUK

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It's not nearly that complicated. The basics of a flash cart are still relevant on Neo Geo. A BIOS-like program first loads from P1 ROM, which then allows the CLPD/FPGA control over what the end user wishes to be loaded and played. There would be separate blocks of RAM or flash for each bus, such as P, V, C, M and S ROMs. The largest would be C, which would be 512Mbits or 64MByte. Yes, you would need a chunk of memory that big to cover all games. The other ROM banks are not as massive. It might be tricky getting one giant flash chip to map out to multiple formerly discrete chip connections to the Neo Geo console, but it might be as easy as wiring the upper address lines to be controllable via FPGA. The only annoying thing is a cable would have to be attached between the PROG and CHA boards.

Seemingly all unencrypted Neo Geo games work on the same mapping, just incrementally bigger and bigger as the years went on. Encrypted ROMs could be solved by simply decrypting them first, or just download pre-decrypted versions.

That's more or less what I was trying to say (badly). Logically its actually very simple (like multicarts are). In practice there's a lot of work to design a PCB, program FPGA / CPLDs, and bug hunt afterwards. 99% of the time will end up spent on 1% of the issues we've not thought of - timing issues, noise etc. Someone has to write a P1 image as well to link everything up. I guess there will be code examples out there to read from SD etc, that should speed things up. This is the sort of thing that needs a kickstarter so whoever goes for it can see whether there's sufficient demand. I suspect there wouldn't be enough demand. If there was a kickstarter now and it was £500 to £1000 per person, how many would pay that? I guess the number would be less than 20?

There's an interesting question as to how it would affect the prices of Neo Geo carts as well - would it be a good thing for the community or a bad thing? Ultimately I think it would pave the way for homebrew, but I imagine that not being the easiest thing to start with after looking at the architecture for the first time.
 

GohanX

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Recent history has shown that flash carts have no effect on pricing. Collectors drive pricing, and they don't give a fuck about flash carts.
 

Syn

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maybe if he quit drinking, that would already be enough.

We had all better hope that never happens...I shudder at the thought of a sobber rot perusing the forums. :keke:

Recent history has shown that flash carts have no effect on pricing. Collectors drive pricing, and they don't give a fuck about flash carts.

Exactly, there's way too many people wanting a trophy for their shelf.
 

aha2940

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I'd rather have a multicart with all the official games in it, with no bugs at all, than a multicart. That would be a lot easier to do, since the 161 already exists, and it would be much affordable.

Regards.
 

GadgetUK

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I'd rather have a multicart with all the official games in it, with no bugs at all, than a multicart. That would be a lot easier to do, since the 161 already exists, and it would be much affordable.

Regards.

If we could dump and program the Fujitsu NVPROM chips we could do this relatively easily I think. It would certainly be possible to swap out broken games for original ones etc, and with some work it would be possible to build a new menu and swap one game for another etc. I guess we need to build a rig to dump and program them. Dumping should be easy but I've not got a clue what's required to program them - I am not sure on these chips if you use some interface or whether they are programmed like standard EPROMs. I did search high and low for a datasheet last year but I couldn't find anything. I know one or two people have dumped contents of a few of the ROMs via the MVS itself, but would be better to have something where we can remove a chip, solder to rig and dump to PC. A lot of work converting one cart but it could be done. I would probably take a 161 in 1, remove the KoF games and put the remaining collection on there. Then take another 161 in 1 and have the KoF games, with anything else to fill it up. It would also be possible to have the variations of certain games, eg. Magician Lord, and Shock Troopers etc. I would also be tempted to leave the ROM images intact and not hack them to have the 'hold start for 5 seconds' stuff. I think it would still work, just you would have to power off to get back to the menu.
 
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