NeoGeoX Hacking and Mods

Yodd

Iori's Flame
20 Year Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2002
Posts
8,214
I already have teh romz.















































































or is it too late for that?
:kekeke:
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2012
Posts
4
Just stopping by to show my appreciation of your work, guys. I'm no tech wizard and in no way would be able to figure this out by myself. To tell the truth, I stumbled upon the system 3 days ago in my local game store, fresh in the box, no preorder or anything. I was really hoping for some community (hack) support on this, and boy am I glad to read this thread. Had to wait for this account to get approved, but here I am, and again, thanks for what you're doing (you never know with SNK, their resources are seemingly so limited at times that it leaves me to believe they might cancel the project in January for the add-on games). This is just another great reason to get the Neo Geo X (which is, if you didn't buy it, a tremendous alternative to the real thing)

Also, since I can't really understand all of which yoh are precisely talking about with the tech details, what's the strategy right now to be a le to implement as many new roms at the same time? Renaming them? Changing the files in the SD card inside the Neo Geo Station?...

-mn
 

Spoonman

Enemy Chaser
Joined
Jan 14, 2004
Posts
1,163
What I'd like to know...
Is there a way to access the INI file and set it to the correct aspect ratio and maybe turn VSYNC to ON?

Let's be honest, we all know this was coming.. I'm sure Tommo knew it would, but maybe not until January? :P

Does anyone know how much Tommo is spending per unit? I hope they are at least making a few bucks on the hardware. Many companies take a loss on hardware only to recoup in software sales.
Sure people are saying they will buy all of the games, but is this the case even if they come on cheap SDcards glued to a piece of cardboard and sell for $30 ea? I'm not sure I am.

Lastly, is everyone so sure that Tommo is stealing FBA? Perhaps Dave worked out an agreement with them... I'm definitely interested to hear the truth on this.
 

nerdstick

Crossed Swords Squire
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Posts
183
My opinion on cards is the same as if it hadn't been hacked: Up to ~$25 for full cased+manual, up to $15-20 cased, maybe $5 a piece in their current form..cardboard sleeve is unacceptable outside of a pack-in title.
 

Frank_fjs

n00b
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Posts
38
Btw, it's officially licensed, they are legally charging for the ROMs.

Sure, Blaze paid a licensing fee to SNK just as they did with Sega so in that regard they are legally charging for ROMs, but as they've decided to 'borrow' the FBA emulator they are violating its licensing agreement in a few areas, one of which prohibits the use of ROMs that are sold for money.

Anyhow, I agree with your decision to not allow ROMs to be linked here.
 

Viewpoint

Art of Typing Wiz, , ,
20 Year Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2000
Posts
6,274
I don't really think Tommo is too happy with this news. I think they were planning on making the "real money" with the game releases and not relying on the hardware, but that being said,
they really should have done things more proper.

"Nothing speeds up hacking than devices that are lacking"
Had they included a way to turn on blood, switch from MVS/AES, or utilize the full potential of the CPU to eliminate video tearing I wouldn't even bother with any of this.
That's all many of us want from it.

Also, you can't copy protect a game console in 2012 with glue, Linux, and wishes...

Regardless of whatever happens, Once someone gets this shit setup with a real unibios along with the ability to run the video the way it was meant to be doesn't mean I won't stop buying games for the system. I'll support the thing just to show my support but, they really shouldn't have made this fucker so easy to break into. Less then a week and already people figured out how to load other Neo Games onto it?

Come the fuck on Tommo!

P.S. I want a Unibios in my system also. >_>
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Posts
47
Has anyone had any luck getting a copy of the Ninja Masters SD card to load? I've tried backing it up multiple ways to a 2 GB SD card but it's never recognized correctly.

A random (but probably not all that useful) thing I've found through Googling different files: https://github.com/carlos-wong/auto_build_python/blob/master/app_rule.txt

Looks like it's part of a python tool that a developer for the Neo Geo X used to make his builds easier.
 
Last edited:

geodude

n00b
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Posts
13
Hello, I have been lurking around following this thread since it was started, and I have a few small things to say.


Well, this site does not allow linking to rom images directly, especially not on an OFFICIALLY LICENSED SNK PRODUCT DAYS AFTER RELEASE.

You and your shit attitude can come back and complain about it in 5 days.

This is the last warning. There is NO ROM LINKING ALLOWED. IS THIS FUCKING CLEAR?!?!?!

(I'm fine with the hacking, in fact, I will be participating actively in a few days when I pick up my unit and get it apart.)

I know I am new here and mean no disrespect, but dcsas wasn't defending piracy, in fact, a few posts before you can see he is against rom linking as well, but in his own sarcastic way.

fucking pirates.......

YEA! Direct links to the images on the sd cards is sooooooo legal !!!! brb getting more romz






On the topic of tinkering with the Neo, I took mine apart a few minutes ago only to see that, to my disappointment, there was NO SD card slot inside. I checked the circuit board thoroughly, front and back, but only found a samsung chip where the images dictated the memory card should be. I noticed in the first page of images the date under SU-SNK-70-KEY is 2012-09-29 and mine was 2012-11-06, so perhaps they wised up (hard to believe?) and decided to remove it in later models. Alas, It seems like for people like me the external SD would be the only way to go, unless a way is found to fully access the SD card from the USB drive. I'm hoping one of you nice guys lets me borrow a full SD card image so I can have a look around and see what I can find to aid you fellows lucky enough to have an internal SD card.

I really admire and appreciate all the work you guys are putting into this, an amazing group effort!
 

geodude

n00b
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Posts
13
Has anyone had any luck getting a copy of the Ninja Masters SD card to load? I've tried backing it up multiple ways to a 2 GB SD card but it's never recognized correctly.

A random (but probably not all that useful) thing I've found through Googling different files: https://github.com/carlos-wong/auto_build_python/blob/master/app_rule.txt

Looks like it's part of a python tool that a developer for the Neo Geo X used to make his builds easier.

I'm not too sure, but it might have to do with the MD5 check the console does on the SD card. Perhaps removing that check would allow anything to get mounted?
 

SlickDizzy

Mr. Big's Thug
Joined
Jul 20, 2004
Posts
202
On the topic of tinkering with the Neo, I took mine apart a few minutes ago only to see that, to my disappointment, there was NO SD card slot inside. I checked the circuit board thoroughly, front and back, but only found a samsung chip where the images dictated the memory card should be. I noticed in the first page of images the date under SU-SNK-70-KEY is 2012-09-29 and mine was 2012-11-06, so perhaps they wised up (hard to believe?) and decided to remove it in later models. Alas, It seems like for people like me the external SD would be the only way to go, unless a way is found to fully access the SD card from the USB drive. I'm hoping one of you nice guys lets me borrow a full SD card image so I can have a look around and see what I can find to aid you fellows lucky enough to have an internal SD card.

I really admire and appreciate all the work you guys are putting into this, an amazing group effort!

Wow, really? Maybe my hunch was correct! Out of curiosity, what is your firmware version? Maybe there is a link between SD or non-SD and the firmware version.
 

nerdstick

Crossed Swords Squire
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Posts
183
Wow, really? Maybe my hunch was correct! Out of curiosity, what is your firmware version? Maybe there is a link between SD or non-SD and the firmware version.

Mine's 337 with the microSD card, for the record. If 370 is a 'revised' model without SD, I wonder what of 357?
 

Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
Staff member
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Posts
15,120
there go any real progress on getting this system to be fully useful.

How so? By enforcing a "no ROM rule"?

How hard is it to request that you don't post SNK IP here on the forum?
 

nerdstick

Crossed Swords Squire
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Posts
183
Very happy the unibios inject trick works. :) Although pausing with R/R2 doesn't seem to work in MVS mode, Menu still works.

A (very crudely made) example on the kinds of custom art you can make:
Spoiler:
6neW2.jpg


I'd also like to make custom GUI images (mainly for the Volume Slider) but I'll need to touch up on my editing tools first. Even the boot jingle is a raw WAV file..although I'm having trouble playing it on PC. Everything is laid out nicely for a customized menu.

I'd upload a backup of the folder but Windows doesn't seem to be able to access it, guess it's Linux only until uploaded. It's in the main_themes folder.
 

werejag

Galford's Poppy Trainer
Joined
May 3, 2005
Posts
2,626
How so? By enforcing a "no ROM rule"?

How hard is it to request that you don't post SNK IP here on the forum?


its not hard to request shackles on progress. just dont expect any.

did you notice no progress happened since this was introduced into this thread? progress was halted instantly and probly went backwards.

i have not posted any links im just stating what happened no reason to get angry because of my voicing what happened.
 

geodude

n00b
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Posts
13
Very happy the unibios inject trick works. :) Although pausing with R/R2 doesn't seem to work in MVS mode, Menu still works.

A (very crudely made) example on the kinds of custom art you can make:
Spoiler:
6neW2.jpg


I'd also like to make custom GUI images (mainly for the Volume Slider) but I'll need to touch up on my editing tools first. Even the boot jingle is a raw WAV file..although I'm having trouble playing it on PC. Everything is laid out nicely for a customized menu.

I'd upload a backup of the folder but Windows doesn't seem to be able to access it, guess it's Linux only until uploaded. It's in the main_themes folder.

I am so jealous. I was hoping I would be able to replace at least one of the games I don't play... :( Gas to know everything is easily (almost) editable.
 

smasherimp

n00b
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Posts
5
Very happy the unibios inject trick works. :) Although pausing with R/R2 doesn't seem to work in MVS mode, Menu still works.

A (very crudely made) example on the kinds of custom art you can make:
Spoiler:
6neW2.jpg


I'd also like to make custom GUI images (mainly for the Volume Slider) but I'll need to touch up on my editing tools first. Even the boot jingle is a raw WAV file..although I'm having trouble playing it on PC. Everything is laid out nicely for a customized menu.

I'd upload a backup of the folder but Windows doesn't seem to be able to access it, guess it's Linux only until uploaded. It's in the main_themes folder.

That is awesome. Are those additional games or are we still at the stage where some must be replaced? And is the unibios required for what you've done?

Either way, you're a genius :D (p.s. what version do you have? 337?)
 

Jonmkl

Rasputin's Rose Gardener
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Posts
715
God bless you neo-geo.com, you're a good man, the work you do helps people.

That said, It's actually quite exciting to see that the bios is imbedded in the game files themselves, if you guys can figure out how to make recognize game cards then perhaps things such as the display resolution and the hertz can be changed (which according to the NGDEV boys would fix the crappy video output) without actually having to modify the data in the handheld itself. It's also very interesting that there are units from three different firmwares and the early ones are literally glues together, it's like they shipped out the prototypes!

Also, on the Finalburn subject, it's somewhat ridiculous to assume that launch this widespread would use a software like that and not even TRY to cover their tracks unless they had already reached some sort of license agreement with the dev team. And if they didn't? Well you can bet half the Dev team on the NGX just got fired for neglecting to mention it lol.
 

nerdstick

Crossed Swords Squire
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Posts
183
That is awesome. Are those additional games or are we still at the stage where some must be replaced? And is the unibios required for what you've done?

Either way, you're a genius :D (p.s. what version do you have? 337?)

Replaced. Adding additional games is impossible until the 1Gig partition is utilized, someone posted a theory before about linking them together to allow game modification through a standard USB connection. That, or by formatting and partitioning a higher-capacity drive to clone the 2Gig but with more space. The partition that the games are held in has a max size of exactly the original data, so all you can do for now is replace the game with same or smaller games. I suppose a third possibility would be expanding the size of that partition and shrinking the 1Gig, but that seems too risky to me. The images are all stored right in the main_themes folder, you don't need to modify the games to change them. Although you do need to swap out the bios to either AES or unibios for them to be playable, MVS isn't.

The credit belongs to burningtoys. I have version 337, yes.

It's also very interesting that there are units from three different firmwares and the early ones are literally glues together, it's like they shipped out the prototypes!

Perhaps the 337(357?) units are their original batch and the 370s are the additional units needed that resulted in the 2 week delay? Just a guess.
 
Last edited:

smasherimp

n00b
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Posts
5
Replaced. Adding additional games is impossible until the 1Gig partition is utilized, someone posted a theory before about linking them together to allow game modification through a standard USB connection. That, or by formatting and partitioning a higher-capacity drive to clone the 2Gig but with more space. The partition that the games are held in has a max size of exactly the original data, so all you can do for now is replace the game with same or smaller games. I suppose a third possibility would be expanding the size of that partition and shrinking the 1Gig, but that seems too risky to me. The images are all stored right in the main_themes folder, you don't need to modify the games to change them. Although you do need to swap out the bios to either AES or unibios for them to be playable, MVS isn't.

The credit belongs to burningtoys. I have version 337, yes.



Perhaps the 337(357?) units are their original batch and the 370s are the additional units needed that resulted in the 2 week delay? Just a guess.

Would it be possible to use a replacement microSD, and set up identical partitions except for the rom partition which can be expanded to 1.5gigs, then the rest identical for the other necessities? Could be useful to have a different microSD to test on, so the factory stuff is still there.
 

Mattroid

Edo Express Delivery Guy
15 Year Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2004
Posts
335
Perhaps the 337(357?) units are their original batch and the 370s are the additional units needed that resulted in the 2 week delay? Just a guess.
Exactly what I was thinking. Which sadly means I'll probably be getting one of the non-SD ones :( I was on the fence for so long...should have just pulled the trigger when I originally wanted to.
 
Top