Darksoft NG Multi is Released Feb 2018. Impressions Please.

Razoola

Divine Hand of the UniBIOS,
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Yes there might be lots of reasons and those kind of tests I suggested would narrow things down, just tried to help this guy out given it looked like he was getting no real help publicly from the makers and he had already seemed resigned to sending the device to a third party to check.
 
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Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
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*sigh*

Guess my purchasing decision was just made for me.
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
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I'd like to call attention to the fact that the NeoSD is made with quality components and each PCB was screened and tested rigorously.

Can you expect the same level of care and expertise from the DS team? no one would know because they're about as transparent as a fucking brick wall.
 

Morden

Somewhere in Europe.,
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How does the DS cart handle ROM loading? NeoSD needs the sets to be converted into *.neo files, but I know nothing about how this works on DS' cartridge. I'm guessing it's plain, unpacked files in the folders named like the *.zip files for corresponding games? At least that's how his other multis work, and it's probably how this one works as well, but it would be nice for someone to confirm. I'd peek into the Neo "roll-up pack" they've posted, but I'd need an archive.org account, and I can't be bothered.

Also, I know there are very few freely released homebrew productions on the Neo, especially MVS / AES, but I wonder if these work at all. A good thing to try would be the 240p Test Suite. It works on the NeoSD.
 

Razoola

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How does the DS cart handle ROM loading? NeoSD needs the sets to be converted into *.neo files, but I know nothing about how this works on DS' cartridge. I'm guessing it's plain, unpacked files in the folders named like the *.zip files for corresponding games? At least that's how his other multis work, and it's probably how this one works as well, but it would be nice for someone to confirm. I'd peek into the Neo "roll-up pack" they've posted, but I'd need an archive.org account, and I can't be bothered.

Also, I know there are very few freely released homebrew productions on the Neo, especially MVS / AES, but I wonder if these work at all. A good thing to try would be the 240p Test Suite. It works on the NeoSD.

They are in their own dirs with seperate files for each ROM region. There is a menu directory in the games folder and also an update folder in the parent directory. There was a non encrypted firmware I think in one of the packs someone uploaded. Not sure if ds wanted that to happen or not but it could leave his device open to chinese bootleggers maybe.
 

neosd

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They are in their own dirs with seperate files for each ROM region. There is a menu directory in the games folder and also an update folder in the parent directory. There was a non encrypted firmware I think in one of the packs someone uploaded. Not sure if ds wanted that to happen or not but it could leave his device open to chinese bootleggers maybe.

Well, the problem is not the chinese bootlegers at all.

It lets it open to anyone to make a firmware that can brick the device and distribute it.

What those guys are doing is a totally no sense done by people lacking of any experience at all.
 

Rot

Calvin & Hobbes, ,
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Now that cheapo chinese cmvs thread has run it's course....


xROTx
 

blakeb8111

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Beverly Hills Cop music in the background, that’s all I needed to hear to be convinced.
 

Razoola

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That video, Whats happening from 4:14?? None of the videos before had anything like that, at least the videos I saw... Is it normal?? But what ever that right there is a potential RAM corruption situation for the begging.
 
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Jon

Mr. Tater
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What was most cringe-worthy in that video was was when he showed the actual cart in the consolized MVS setup the frog had.

I have never seen such a horrible mess of cords, tangled in a giant knot, around a fucking power outlet. I imagine, in a few days, we'll probably learn the dude died in a fire of his own creation.

Jon
 

DaytimeDreamer

Southern Pounce.,
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747
I've been reading nothing but problems from the people that got this. Do we know if there is any single customer that bought this and doesn't have any issues? It really amazes me that people would pay this much for an untested beta product. Jeez.
 

RevQuixo

Rugal's Panther
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I've been reading nothing but problems from the people that got this. Do we know if there is any single customer that bought this and doesn't have any issues? It really amazes me that people would pay this much for an untested beta product. Jeez.

Not that I am defending anyone, but outside of the corruption when the games were flashing, it appears that everything was working fine in the video above. This isn't exactly damning evidence.

Edit:
However going over and reading the posts over on arcade-projects..looks like lots of people are having issues. yikes.
 
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Razoola

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I don't get why in their thread they keep on refering to the Universe Bios as if it could be related to the issues some people are having so I guess I should make a quick statment (dumbed down)...

----------------------------------------​

The Universe Bios exception handing screen simply reports when the NeoGeo CPU has stopped responding due to a game crash. To be clear, this is NOT the bios crashing in any way. It is the CPU crashing and the bios doing its job correctly and reporting information about the crash. Providing you are not using any cheats the main causes of exception errors are in this order (most likely first);

  • Dirty cart contacts.
  • Issue using one of the Universe Bios cheats.
  • Power supply issues.
  • P ROM on the cart failing.
  • P ROM Banking on the cart not working correctly.
  • Faulty RAM on the NeoGeo (this can be tested by turning all hardDIPs on and then powering on the neogeo).
  • Faulty BackupRAM on the NeoGeo (this can be tested by turning all hardDIPs on and then powering on the neogeo).

In short. If you have verified RAM on the neogeo is working, ensured the cart contacts are clean, verified the PSU is good, get no bios error at power on and finally have no Universe Bios cheats enabled, you can be 99% sure the issue is with the cart. Posting a picture to the darksoft help forums instead of simply saying you get an error would be helpful to them providing they understand what the info on the screen means.

If you get an error screen normally you can localise the situation more by using the Universe Bios game cart check to see if the NeoGeo is reading the data from the cart as verified against a known version. Under normal situations you do not want to see 'NG'.


----------------------------------------​

A personal observation that needs pointing out. You have beta testers reporting their cards are working fine in a darksoft help thread for people who bought the retail cart. Its good beta testers are trying to help and that is commendable. However, can they be sure they have the same cart setup as the retail buyers?

I only ask this because from how darksoft explained things, its the shop thats selling them who are building the carts. Did anyone stop to test and make sure the batch of retail PCBs are good before they went to the shop or is the shop testing each one before they ship? To cut the story short, have they ruled out a fault in the retail batch they produced so far?
 
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sr20det510

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I've been reading nothing but problems from the people that got this. Do we know if there is any single customer that bought this and doesn't have any issues? It really amazes me that people would pay this much for an untested beta product. Jeez.

"Clean the pins," seems to be what fixes all the problems.

Maybe they'll tell people to blow on the cart next? But,
That won't happen because it seems everything else is the problem and not the cart.
 
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Morden

Somewhere in Europe.,
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711
What was most cringe-worthy in that video was was when he showed the actual cart in the consolized MVS setup the frog had.

How is it consolized? It's a MV-1C, which doesn't appear to be modified in any way. The fact that he's using it outside of his Naomi cab is another thing, but at least video and controls go straight to the cabinet. Maybe he wanted easy access? We may never know ...

EDIT - Would still be nice to see someone test out some homebrew. Also, I wonder if Darksoft's cartridge is capable of running that sound-less Last Hope dump, which was excluded from NeoSD's supported titles list.
 
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neodev

Neosd Tech
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Nov 28, 2016
Posts
256
What was most cringe-worthy in that video was was when he showed the actual cart in the consolized MVS setup the frog had.

I have never seen such a horrible mess of cords, tangled in a giant knot, around a fucking power outlet. I imagine, in a few days, we'll probably learn the dude died in a fire of his own creation.

Jon

My guess is that one of these 2 issues might be causing that garbage:
the garbage that could appear if the S rom is updated while the S flash is outputting data. Neosd has hardware to allow seeing S tiles while programming the S flash.
Another cause could be signal cross talk when programming the C DRAMs, causing interference on the address latch signals and the S data is just latching garbage.
 

Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
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If you didn't buy one, who cares at this point? Maybe they fix it, maybe they don't. Just don't buy one until it's cleared up.

I understand the interest but this crazy "rivalry" isn't helping anyone.

If you actually care about the community (if you don't, think of your bottom line), all of these very intelligent folks should be willing to come together and figure it out.
 

Rot

Calvin & Hobbes, ,
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If you didn't buy one, who cares at this point? Maybe they fix it, maybe they don't. Just don't buy one until it's cleared up.

I understand the interest but this crazy "rivalry" isn't helping anyone.

If you actually care about the community (if you don't, think of your bottom line), all of these very intelligent folks should be willing to come together and figure it out.

SADLY... it aint gonna happen... FAR too much would need to happen before this could be considered....

Nerdz will be nerdz...

xROTx

PS. Goes back to lurking...
 

Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
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SADLY... it aint gonna happen... FAR too much would need to happen before this could be considered....

Nerdz will be nerdz...

xROTx

PS. Goes back to lurking...

True.

I appreciate the scope and scale of the history, drama etc.

These guys just look terrible right now.

I own previous stuff from them and the support was great. They have done some awesome products (I still want an ST-V multi.. *sigh*) but the way this is being handled AND received is only killing their market off.

Considering the support and technical knowledge here, they'd probably get a TON of support by posting in the technical section and researching openly with the community.

Sounds goofy, but it's true. Would also win a lot of folks back over, I'm sure.
 

Rot

Calvin & Hobbes, ,
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Considering the support and technical knowledge here, they'd probably get a TON of support by posting in the technical section and researching openly with the community.

Sounds goofy, but it's true. Would also win a lot of folks back over, I'm sure.

AND that's why I am staying out of this in the main...

I want people to come back to us... after the fubar (which i will admit I had my fair part of...)...

We will help out the people who purchased this as best we can... and if it can't be fixed... we will tell them so...

We have some VERY VERY good tech heads...

xROTx

PS. I am not interested in opening old wounds...

BUT... I am interested in this product (if not in the people who made it...)...
 

GadgetUK

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Sep 27, 2013
Posts
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The solution to those darksoft cart problems is quite simple!

1) Power down the system.
2) Remove the cart.
3) Check the cart contacts are clean.
4) Put the cart on eBay.
5) Insert a Neo SD cart - no more unibios errors or any problems what so ever.
 
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Hine62

Krauser's Shoe Shiner
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Jul 15, 2005
Posts
230
The solution to those darksoft cart problems is quite simple!

1) Power down the system.
2) Remove the cart.
3) Check the cart contacts are clean.
4) Put the cart on eBay.
5) Insert a Neo SD cart - no more unibios errors or any problems what so ever.

This solved all my problems! Thank you...
 

fille1976

Crossed Swords Squire
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Thats true gadget,but who will buy that crap on ebay??
 
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Neodogg

Dogg-Father,
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Why does he have the Proto of MoTW? He just manipulate then GUI of a pandora?
 

SuperGun

Proto Hunter
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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?
 
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