Neo Geo CD Conversion Project.

[Neo Alec]

Unfortunately, a controller hack is the least of the problems porting Beast Busters. It's graphics hardware is leaps and bounds more powerful than what the NeoGeo can do.

Not Second Nightmare, the original Beast Busters. It's practically the same hardware as Neo Geo.

 

[iq_132]

Not Second Nightmare, the original Beast Busters. It's practically the same hardware as Neo Geo.

Unfortunately, no. https://git.redump.net/mame/plain/src/mame/snk/bbusters.cpp
Beast Busters:
- 2x sprite chips that can draw 512 sprites EACH that can be 1-4 tiles (each tile is 16x16 pixels) wide (this would take 1-4 NeoGeo Sprites to handle each sprite as it can only handle sprites that are 1x32 (1 tile wide, 32 tall, 16x16 pixels per tile)
- 2x 128x32 (132 tiles x 32 tiles, each 16x16 pixels in size) background layers

NeoGeo
- 1x sprite chip that can draw approx 380 sprites.
- 0 background layers

 

[Neo Alec]

Unfortunately, no. https://git.redump.net/mame/plain/src/mame/snk/bbusters.cpp
Beast Busters:
- 2x sprite chips that can draw 512 sprites EACH that can be 1-4 tiles (each tile is 16x16 pixels) wide (this would take 1-4 NeoGeo Sprites to handle each sprite as it can only handle sprites that are 1x32 (1 tile wide, 32 tall, 16x16 pixels per tile)
- 2x 128x32 (132 tiles x 32 tiles, each 16x16 pixels in size) background layers

NeoGeo
- 1x sprite chip that can draw approx 380 sprites.
- 0 background layers

Good info. I appreciate the correction on this.

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Unfortunately, no. https://git.redump.net/mame/plain/src/mame/snk/bbusters.cpp
Beast Busters:
- 2x sprite chips that can draw 512 sprites EACH that can be 1-4 tiles (each tile is 16x16 pixels) wide (this would take 1-4 NeoGeo Sprites to handle each sprite as it can only handle sprites that are 1x32 (1 tile wide, 32 tall, 16x16 pixels per tile)
- 2x 128x32 (132 tiles x 32 tiles, each 16x16 pixels in size) background layers

NeoGeo
- 1x sprite chip that can draw approx 380 sprites.
- 0 background layers

This information about the NeoGeo's weak graphics chip surprised me. I'll say some crazy things: would it be possible to port games from CPS1, like Final Fight or Street Fighter, from 1989 or 1990?

 

[city41]

I have a feeling just about the entire library will end up on the CD, this rocks iq_132.

Except kof2k3 and kizuna of course, that would be an excruciating way to play

 

[iq_132]

This information about the NeoGeo's weak graphics chip surprised me. I'll say some crazy things: would it be possible to port games from CPS1, like Final Fight or Street Fighter, from 1989 or 1990?

Weak by today's standards for a game console. For a 16-bit game console at the time they were great. I imagine it was designed to be powerful, but cheap to produce in mass quantities. Games with better graphics capabilities were likely much more expensive to produce.
Someone might port those some day, but it'll likely be a rewrite of the large portions of the game. I can't even fully wrap my head around how the graphics hardware for CPS1/2 works, so it won't be done by me.

I have a feeling just about the entire library will end up on the CD, this rocks iq_132.

Except kof2k3 and kizuna of course, that would be an excruciating way to play

The smaller games are better targets for now. Anything with too large of a program ROM as of right now is excluded.
I've attached my list of targets to port that will likely work with my current methods (I've excluded Jockey GP and VLiner because yuck).

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Weak by today's standards for a game console. For a 16-bit game console at the time they were great. I imagine it was designed to be powerful, but cheap to produce in mass quantities. Games with better graphics capabilities were likely much more expensive to produce.
Someone might port those some day, but it'll likely be a rewrite of the large portions of the game. I can't even fully wrap my head around how the graphics hardware for CPS1/2 works, so it won't be done by me.


The smaller games are better targets for now. Anything with too large of a program ROM as of right now is excluded.
I've attached my list of targets to port that will likely work with my current methods (I've excluded Jockey GP and VLiner because yuck).

I wish you all the health and prosperity, my friend!!!!!!!!!!

 

[iq_132]

Here's another that I did a few months back and have lost interest in working on any further. It's not super polished, but it's playable.

Data East's Chelnov!

https://neo-source.com/stuff/chelnov%20builder.zip

Things of note:
Use the select button to coin up.
Building this takes a character rom from 2020 super baseball

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

My friend, are the parameters of your text correct? Even if I modify the files I find on the internet, when I remake the ISO, it gives an error

Hello again!
Here's one I worked on a couple of months back, I've lost interest, but I think it's good enough for release.

POW!

download link for the builder package:

https://neo-source.com/stuff/pow%20build.zip

 

[iq_132]

My friend, are the parameters of your text correct? Even if I modify the files I find on the internet, when I remake the ISO, it gives an error

I forgot to include that 030-s1.s1 from 2020bb.zip (from the MAME set) needs to be in the ROMS/ folder as well. I added a note about this to that post.

 

[lithy]

Thanks Kany Yes, better conversions from CD->AES/MVS are possible. I haven't really had anyone really express interest and I don't have good development hardware (a flash cart) to test on MVS, so it isn't a high priority.

Well, then I'll express interest for an NTM CD -> AES/MVS conversion. So when you're done with every possible cart release and porting all other possible arcade games to the NGCD you'll still have something to work on.

Awesome work, on all these conversions, I don't have a CD myself, but what a cool way to expand the library.

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Has anyone managed to get POW to work? Out of all the games, this is the one I'm having difficulty with. Could it be the ROMs? The ones I find in the MAME version have more files than the ones mentioned in the referenced TXT

 

[city41]

Could it be the ROMs?

Check the CRCs

CRC Calculator - Tool Slick

CRC Calculator is an online tool to calculate checksum of all implementations of CRC-8, CRC-10, CRC-11, CRC-12, CRC-13, CRC-14, CRC-15, CRC-16, CRC-24, CRC-31, CRC-32, CRC-40 and CRC-64

toolslick.com

you need to change input type to binary if you use that site

 

[iq_132]

Has anyone managed to get POW to work? Out of all the games, this is the one I'm having difficulty with. Could it be the ROMs? The ones I find in the MAME version have more files than the ones mentioned in the referenced TXT


View attachment 80729

When you run the .bat file, it should spit out some text. Can you copy the entirety of the text and post it here, please?

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

When you run the .bat file, it should spit out some text. Can you copy the entirety of the text and post it here, please?

-building program (PRG/P1) ROM...
--loading ROMs...
--applying patches...
--moving RAM region $40000-$43fff to $100000-$103fff.
--building look-up tables...
-building character (FIX/S1) ROM...
--loading ROMs...
Unable to open ROMS/030-s1.s1!
--reordering data...
-building sprite (SPR/C1-C2) ROM(s)...
--loading ROMs...
Unable to open ROMS/snk88026a.4d!
Unable to open ROMS/snk88022a.3d!
--Failed building sprite (SPR/C1-C2) ROM(s).

Some errors occurred!
Built ROMs likely incorrect/incomplete.
Please check output message and correct!

 

[NeoSeeD]

You can view CRC's within 7zip. Use it instead of the built-in Windows tool. Most P.O.W. ROMS online have a different naming structure so if the CRC matches, just rename it to what is expected from the read me file. Also make sure to add 030-s1.s1 from 2020bb.zip.

*Edit: The ROMS are part of the Mame 0.260 set.

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Great, everything worked out! Soon I'll be recording Disk and testing it on the NeoGeo CDZ.

 

[NeoSeeD]

This was almost done before Spin Master, but I had some trouble making things fit and work correctly. A break and a revisit and it seems to work ok.
Here's a link to the builder package. It is not extensively tested, because I am very bad at it.

https://neo-source.com/stuff/kotm%20builder.zip

*note*
The reporter/announcer is almost completely cut. There was simply not room for another 20-30 seconds of audio.

Here's a video of me getting destroyed at this game by the CPU

Just tried the conversion and it works perfectly. To be honest, I never really noticed the announcer since I'm too busy trying not to lose. Amazing work!

Hello again!
Here's one I worked on a couple of months back, I've lost interest, but I think it's good enough for release.

POW!

download link for the builder package:

https://neo-source.com/stuff/pow%20build.zip

*note*
I forgot to include that 030-s1.s1 from 2020bb.zip (from the MAME set) needs to be in the ROMS/ folder as well

POW works on Mister & the Retroarch Neo CD core but it would not boot up on my NGCD until I removed the logo_u.prg, logo_j.prg, and logo_e.prg. After rebuilding the image, it worked great and I was able to complete the game. As an SNK game, it fits in perfectly and still looks pretty good compared to their other early Neo releases. They really should have offered these themselves for extra cash back in the day.

Here's another that I did a few months back and have lost interest in working on any further. It's not super polished, but it's playable.

Data East's Chelnov!

https://neo-source.com/stuff/chelnov%20builder.zip

Things of note:
Use the select button to coin up.
Building this takes a character rom from 2020 super baseball

Chelnov works on Mister & the Retroarch Neo CD core but it would not boot up on my NGCD until I removed the logo_u.prg, logo_j.prg, and logo_e.prg. After rebuilding the iso, the game worked well. Great addition to the library since I don't think this version of the game was released on other consoles. The Genesis version was different in some ways.

Weak by today's standards for a game console. For a 16-bit game console at the time they were great. I imagine it was designed to be powerful, but cheap to produce in mass quantities. Games with better graphics capabilities were likely much more expensive to produce.
Someone might port those some day, but it'll likely be a rewrite of the large portions of the game. I can't even fully wrap my head around how the graphics hardware for CPS1/2 works, so it won't be done by me.


The smaller games are better targets for now. Anything with too large of a program ROM as of right now is excluded.
I've attached my list of targets to port that will likely work with my current methods (I've excluded Jockey GP and VLiner because yuck).

Would the original TMNT game be a good candidate for this type of conversion? Here are the specs. (I couldn't find specs for Turtles in Time which is the better game in the series):

"TMNT uses a 68000 running at 8 MHz for a CPU, along with a Z80 running at 3.58 MHz. Uses 5 different sound chips, they are 1 YM2151 running at 3.58 MHz, an 007232 chip, a uPD7759 at 0.64 MHz, analog sound samples, and a custom chip."

As weird as this sounds, would Crystalis (NES) be a candidate for conversion since it's from different but vastly weaker hardware? It would be nice to have SNK's only Action RPG playable.

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

According to my information, Spin Master is working perfectly on the NeoGeo CDZ, as well as Eight Man. I have only tested the other games on an emulator, but this weekend I plan to burn some media and test them on the NeoGeo CDZ hardware.

I’ll leave here some port suggestions: games from SNK’s older boards, such as the SNK 68000 BASED HARDWARE, like Ikari III: The Rescue and SAR: Search and Rescue (although, due to the screen style, I’m not sure if it will be easy to port these). Another interesting board is the SNK PSYCHO SOLDIER HARDWARE, with games like Psycho Soldier. One game that has specs almost identical to the MVS is Prehistoric Isle in 1930, with a main CPU of 68000 @ 12 MHz, a sound CPU of Z80 @ 4 MHz, and sound chips YM3812 @ 4 MHz and UPD7759 @ 640 kHz.

To finish, something surprising: another game that uses the 6800 CPU and has a style very similar to NeoGeo is Power Instinct.

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Hello again!
Here's one I worked on a couple of months back, I've lost interest, but I think it's good enough for release.

POW!

download link for the builder package:

https://neo-source.com/stuff/pow%20build.zip

*note*
I forgot to include that 030-s1.s1 from 2020bb.zip (from the MAME set) needs to be in the ROMS/ folder as well

I'll share my feedback on the NEOGEO CDZ version of P.O.W. Overall, the game runs well. What I’ve noticed is that sometimes there’s a slight slowdown when there are many characters on the screen, a few minor sound issues, and rarely, graphical glitches (in the elevator section). One thing I noticed differently is that when the game ends and the final credits roll, the video game restarts. The conversion is excellent, really good. This game is better than many others on the NeoGeo CD. Once again, congratulations, QI_132!!!!

 

[todosnk]

Thanks a lot for all the efforts to bring these titles to the Neo CD! It's simply awesome to play Eightman and Spin Master after so long!
I'd be nice to see some other SNK early titles converted such as Search and Rescue or Street Smart

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Here's another that I did a few months back and have lost interest in working on any further. It's not super polished, but it's playable.

Data East's Chelnov!

https://neo-source.com/stuff/chelnov%20builder.zip

Things of note:
Use the select button to coin up.
Building this takes a character rom from 2020 super baseball

Hello IQ_132, will we have any Christmas gift for the NeoGeo CD? My compliments!

 

[iq_132]

Merry Christmas,

Here's Zed Blade!

https://neo-source.com/stuff/zedblade_build.zip

I was able to use a unique method for this one, so there are no loading screens after the initial load.
Nothing has been cut.

If you're using this on an SD loader, don't touch the soft dips. For some reason, it breaks CDDA audio for this game.

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Merry Christmas,

Here's Zed Blade!

https://neo-source.com/stuff/zedblade_build.zip

I was able to use a unique method for this one, so there are no loading screens after the initial load.
Nothing has been cut.

If you're using this on an SD loader, don't touch the soft dips. For some reason, it breaks CDDA audio for this game.

Merry Christmas to you, iq_132! Thank you so much for everything you've done for the Neo CD in 2024. May 2025 be even more amazing, and may you continue to surprise the community with your incredible contributions!

 

[8bitForLife]

metal slug x would be fantastic to convert since its the best metal slug imo