Considering switching from NGCD to NG proper

[donluca]

Biggest advantage for the neo geo cd is by far the ability to just play burnt games.

Well, you could buy a 138-in-1 and a 161-in-1 multicarts for a total of ~150€ (I think it's ~180$) shipped and have 90% of the MVS games out there (not sure what's the opinion on multicarts here).
This way you can try the games out on the real thing and decide which ones you want to track down and add to your collection.

Not sure if this damage the unit over the time, maybe someone can enlighten me. And the arranged soundtracks are fucking amazing.

It depends on the laser. Some have difficulties reading CD-Rs and, as a consequence, they wear faster.
Others don't give a damn :P

 

[city41]

Biggest advantage for the neo geo cd is by far the ability to just play burnt games.

My CDZ hates burned games. I can never get it to read them. I know they are burnt correctly because they work in emulators.

The other problem is keeping 20+ year old CD systems up and running these days. They are more finicky and prone to breaking than solid state systems.

 

[donluca]

My CDZ hates burned games. I can never get it to read them. I know they are burnt correctly because they work in emulators.

The other problem is keeping 20+ year old CD systems up and running these days. They are more finicky and prone to breaking than solid state systems.

It depends also on which CD brand you used.

I don't own a Neo Geo CD, but I've heard most people use Taiyo Yuden as they're highly regarded in most CD uses.

(oh, and I agree with your signature! )

 

[cat]

It depends also on which CD brand you used.

I don't own a Neo Geo CD, but I've heard most people use Taiyo Yuden as they're highly regarded in most CD uses.

(oh, and I agree with your signature! )

Yeah i'd go along with you donluca taiyo yuden are the best in my opinion, my biggest problem is i can only get them off the internet, not one store in my area stock's them, so if i want blank's in a hurry i usually go with verbatim as i have very few problems with them as well (odd burn fail but that's about all)...

 

[donluca]

IIRC Verbatim Color CDs are rebranded Taiyo Yuden but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[GohanX]

Having a cd working in an emulator means nothing, a real system is going to be much less tolerant than a computer running a emulator. If the system doesn't like the brand of cdr or the iso you downloaded wasn't a perfect rip you're going to have issues.

 

[DragonmasterDan]

Having a cd working in an emulator means nothing, a real system is going to be much less tolerant than a computer running a emulator. If the system doesn't like the brand of cdr or the iso you downloaded wasn't a perfect rip you're going to have issues.

And in addition to the discs the speed you burn at and quality of the burner make a huge difference. Lower speeds equal more defined pits on most burners causing it to be easier to read.

 

[donluca]

Lower speeds equal more defined pits on most burners causing it to be easier to read.

This is not entirely true, it depends on how the blank CD was engineered.

The "burn at slow speed = more precise, better written CD" thing started out a dozen years ago when CD Burners started getting high speed burn capabilities and people used low quality media. This ended up with a truckload of failed CDs which brought the point of burning at low speeds.
This was also encouraged by audiophiles as the Red Book standard (the one used to burn Audio CDs) had a very poor/low error correction algorithm, so you had to burn your CDs very carefully. Data discs have much higher error rejection.

Today there's a shit-ton of different blank CDs: some of them are designed for audio and are to be burned at lower speeds while most other are designed for high speed burning. If you try to burn one of these CDs at lower speed you could end up with problems.

Do some research on the brand of CDs you use and make some tests to discover which speed works best on them. With Taiyo Yuden you can burn at your burner's max speed (assuming you have a quality CD Burner, of course) and have no problems.

 

[cat]

the whole debate on what is the best burn speed is a minefield, on another forum i frequent some posters keep an IDE burner just for the lower burn speeds, while others have no problem using the newest burners at high burn speeds.
I think the brand of media and quality of burner are two variables to consider, and gohanx makes a good point about the iso's if it ain't a perfect rip it ain't worth squat...

 

[donluca]

I took for granted we were talking about verified backup images.

If the iso is not 1:1 then there's no kind of burner or CD which can fix that.

And I agree with cat: CD brand/quality and burner brand/quality are two distinct variables.
I remember I had a burner lots of time ago who had issues with Sony blanks but would write with no issues to low cost, no brand blank CDs. Go figure.

 

[itsofrustratin]

Someone needs to come up with a USB mod for the neo geo cd, that would be bad ass. The one for the dreamcast seems to work well

 

[RAZO]

Someone needs to come up with a MVS or AES flash cart.

 

[donluca]

A USB/SD Card mod for the Neo Geo CD would be the holy grail, especially if they find a way to make the loading faster (although there will always be the RAM bottleneck, unless they somehow find a way to play around it...)

 

[madman]

A USB/SD Card mod for the Neo Geo CD would be the holy grail, especially if they find a way to make the loading faster (although there will always be the RAM bottleneck, unless they somehow find a way to play around it...)

Yep, the RAM is always going to be the problem. I assume that the bus itself is also a factor in loading times. Anyway, I suspect the NGCD is too much a niche system to warrant development on such a product though I could be wrong.

 

[ggallegos1]

Yep, the RAM is always going to be the problem. I assume that the bus itself is also a factor in loading times. Anyway, I suspect the NGCD is too much a niche system to warrant development on such a product though I could be wrong.

If people are still making games for Atari 2600 and Amiga, then there will be at some point a mutidrive/multicart. The bigger question is how much is it gonna cost?

I love my MVS, and I have never tried an NGCD but honestly, the way prices are going keep what you have and supplement games for each. NGCD games are awesome and much easier to store than MVS/AES carts.

 

[Syn]

Someone needs to come up with a MVS or AES flash cart.

Someone is planning on it once they're done with their current project.

 

[o.pwuaioc]

If people are still making games for Atari 2600 and Amiga, then there will be at some point a mutidrive/multicart. The bigger question is how much is it gonna cost?

I'd easy flop down a few hundred on a good one that could play everything. That'd be worth it for me.

 

[xsq]

Someone is planning on it once they're done with their current project.

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named...

 

[itsofrustratin]

Yep, the RAM is always going to be the problem. I assume that the bus itself is also a factor in loading times. Anyway, I suspect the NGCD is too much a niche system to warrant development on such a product though I could be wrong.

You'd be surprised they actually made a similar IDE mod for 3do and that has no where near the cult status of the neo geo. I dont even see the point of a 3do mod like this because theres few if any must place games on the 3do, but thats a debate for another thread.

Besides having access to every game at any time the other big advantage would be the console would be much more reliable since its usually the cd mechanism that tends to break. Plus as others pointed it would drastically cut down on the loading, at least in theory.

A proper everdrive for the neo geo would make this mod obsolete to an extent but the neo geo cd versions are in many ways the definitive versions of the game. The arranged soundtrack of Last blade 1 and 2 beats the cart version hands down.

 

[kuze]

the neo geo cd versions are in many ways the definitive versions of the game.

Yeah.... Right....

 

[donluca]

Yeah.... Right....

Well, those loading times let you ponder on the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
For the meditative kind of gamer is the definitive experience.

 

[xsq]

The arranged soundtrack of Last blade 1 and 2 beats the cart version hands down.

hardly. But to be honest I'm not objective, I've played the cart version way too much to get into the arranged soundtracks.

 

[Atro]

the neo geo cd versions are in many ways the definitive versions of the game

That drug is hard on you buddy.

As for the AST's on NGCD games, it's a cool thing to be "different".
They're not necessarly "better". In a lot of cases they're even worse.

Take for instance FFS and the first SamSho. Those AST's are way too much different in a bad way compared to the original ST.
Last Resort tracks are a joke compared to the AES version. Not that they're bad, but the pace/remix doesn't match with the game itself.
I could go on and on on that subject.
A lot of games do retain the original soundtracks, they're just played as redbook audio. All the Metal Slugs are like that. The older games are like that.
And mostly, the games that hold a frankly more pleasant ASTs are the ones you play the least : Fighting games.
Even so, not all are better.

 

[DragonmasterDan]

That drug is hard on you buddy.

As for the AST's on NGCD games, it's a cool thing to be "different".
They're not necessarly "better". In a lot of cases they're even worse.

The Baseball Stars 2 remixed audio drowns out the sound effects

 

[kuze]

Only Neo CD game that could be argued as "definitive" over the MVS counterpart would be Neo Turf Masters for the extra course.