Neo Geo CD Conversion Project.

[Ryokomaru]

Hi Vash32,

I’m really looking forward to trying Super Dodge Ball. When do you think you’ll have it ready to try?

Another game that I think would be amazing on Neo Geo CD is Strikers 1945 Plus. Have you ever considered making it?

As always, thank you very much for your work.

 

[vash32]

Hi Vash32,

I’m really looking forward to trying Super Dodge Ball. When do you think you’ll have it ready to try?

Another game that I think would be amazing on Neo Geo CD is Strikers 1945 Plus. Have you ever considered making it?

As always, thank you very much for your work.

Today by the looks of things. I've uploaded both to my Ko-fi now that I fixed them up a little bit more.
I think I got all the bugs and error out on this set. Loading times are the best I can get them without cutting things out.

Bang Bead: playable from start to end. DEMO Download / Full Version Download


Super Dodge Ball (v145): playable from start to end. DEMO Download / Full Version Download

Note: If you win/lose a game there is a small pause before the victory animation plays.
This is a loading screen that I made black, may be nicer for NeoSD Loader users.

UPDATE: Just my luck, Japanese mode is missing a lot of things. Right now English mode works the best.
UPDATE2: I think I fixed all the Japanese missing data and text missed from before. Uploading now.
v145 Fixes Japanese Mode and some little error only seen in that mode.

As for Strikers 1945 Plus, not sure if I can do something that big, it's a 681 Meg and best I've done so far is only 190 Meg (Super Dodge Ball)
May try looking into it at some point but right now I'm trying to go smaller before I try anything too big.
As I said before, I'm no pro like @iq_132 as I'm sure he can make all the conversions I've done so far and maybe lower the loading a little.

Right now I'm trying to see if I can get Fight Fever (WIP Download) working... not sure who will like to have this game on CD... its a little bad.

P.S. @Ryokomaru I have been able to reproduce the error you seen on Ganryu in RetroArch, it's a Japan Mode only error trying to load something not in RAM.
Working on updating it now as well as updating Super Dodge Ball as it was missing Japanese items as well.

 

[Ryokomaru]

Hi Vash32,

I can confirm that Ganryu is now working properly in two-player mode. I love this game, and I’m about to finish it without using any continues.

As for Fight Fever, I’m definitely interested. I think it has a really great soundtrack, and although the game is not very user-friendly when it comes to performing the attacks, it’s still possible to play without using them and achieve better results.

As always, thank you very much for all your work!

 

[vash32]

I'm doing a lot of testing right now but I'll like to say my next one will be "Waku Waku 7" and most likely "Fight Fever" for free.


But sadly will not be a 1:1 port as the game needs more RAM then a Neo Geo CD can give for full fighter animation.
Will be something like this but trying to add back a little more then just this:

Character	Standing	Walking both directions	Four basic standing attacks	Original sprite sheets retained
Rai	Complete	Complete	Complete	664 / 664 — 100%
Arina	Complete	Complete	Complete	679 / 909 — 74.7%
Slash	Complete	Complete	Complete	803 / 1,338 — 60.0%
Dandy-J	Complete	Complete	Complete	814 / 826 — 98.5%
Tesse	Complete	Complete	Complete	1,126 / 1,126 — 100%
Mauru	Complete	Complete	First complete; other three reduced	884 / 1,310 — 67.5%
Politank	Complete	Complete	Complete	958 / 1,601 — 59.8%
Fernandez	Complete	Complete	Complete	364 / 547 — 66.5%
Bonus-kun	Complete	Complete	Complete	322 / 322 — 100%

If anyone is very good at this game and will like to test it out to make sure things are working, let me know.
Game is ready, so I'll will be posting it like the others soon but will make a limited testers option at like a $1.
If you can play in RetroArch and send save states at or before bugs that will be very helpful.

Also got some other things I'm working on that may look like something that will never fit on a Neo Geo CD.
Right now I'll say that one has a blazingly hard gameplay that will make you see stars, sadly the intro kills the RAM and can't play at full speed.
I wonder if anyone can guess the name from that hint.

 

[Ryokomaru]

Could it be “Blazing Star”? I think this could be absolutely insane!

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Great! Thanks for the tip! Are there any fixes for Super Sidekicks 4 or SNK vs. Capcom?

 

[kernow]

Jesus

 

[NeoSeeD]

I played through the entirety of Ganryu v2.0 and finished it on my SD Loader. The only real issues that I had were:

• If I loaded a save from memory, it would sometimes stop my controller from working when attempting to use further credits requiring a reboot.
• The start + select button combo to bring up the SD Loader menu does not work.
• If I soft reboot with the button combo, the menu sometimes corrupted and my controller would stop responding.

 

[vash32]

I played through the entirety of Ganryu v2.0 and finished it on my SD Loader. The only real issues that I had were:

• If I loaded a save from memory, it would sometimes stop my controller from working when attempting to use further credits requiring a reboot.
• The start + select button combo to bring up the SD Loader menu does not work.
• If I soft reboot with the button combo, the menu sometimes corrupted and my controller would stop responding.

I'm not sure if there is anything I can do for the SD Loader errors, that may be from me using like 99% of the RAM or something.
If loaded a save from memory, you are saying a game save on the system. I can surely look into that some and see if it's something I can fix.
If you can get a save states of any bugs with RetroArch that will be great for testing as well.

So far I can't reproduced it, so if you have more info or can see if it does it from disc as well that be great.
Sadly this may end up being something that needs a Firmware update as there was Bugfixes for other games like Samurai Spirits RPG
There does look to be a conflict with the SD Loader menu from what little ways I can test it, I'll try making a fix but may not fix the problems for you.

I'll send you a DM with a link that you can test out. Looks like I can't do that yet, send me a DM here or on Ko-fi and I'll send the update.

Great! Thanks for the tip! Are there any fixes for Super Sidekicks 4 or SNK vs. Capcom?

Have not looked into Super Sidekicks 4 or SNK vs. Capcom yet so I can't say if they can be done or not but will look into at some point.

Could it be “Blazing Star”? I think this could be absolutely insane!

Maybe... have not tested it on real hardware yet but does look to be working very well.
Sadly that nice intro is too much for the Graphics RAM, the nice prerendered 3D parts are too big for it.
However gameplay looks like it's going to fit nicely and load by Stage and reuse things in RAM if the next Stage uses them as well.

P.S. Updated Fight Fever that I'll be posting on here soon, If you like to try it out before then.

 

[Valt C]

@vash32 When I thought about your conversions this last week I literally thought about Waku Waku 7 (we can use the ost/ast from Saturn) and Blazing Star (more of curiosity this one since it had a CD version planned, I think there's something about in shmuplations) and by your the pace you were already there.

While I do enjoy a lot the results, part of the fun is the worklog that you guys sometimes share (even check regularly @h0ffman livestreams to see assembly code) , and by curiosity let me ask you. Anything out of ordinary that surprised you to overcome a limitation on these ports, since the tools of today are way beyond what we had before? Like @iq_132 brought before, I never thought of the possibility of using the program Ram as storage for compressed data for the Sprite Ram later. Don't know if SNK ever did it but I remembered a bit of some stutters on the Fatal Fury 3 at the K.O. or GO! moment, maybe is not even sprite data being streamed or maybe something else, who knows? It is very interesting content overall, thanks again!

 

[Tarma]

Just downloaded Ganryu, and when I try to create the ISO image in the builder I keep getting this error message:

 

[vash32]

@vash32 When I thought about your conversions this last week I literally thought about Waku Waku 7 (we can use the ost/ast from Saturn) and Blazing Star (more of curiosity this one since it had a CD version planned, I think there's something about in shmuplations) and by your the pace you were already there.

While I do enjoy a lot the results, part of the fun is the worklog that you guys sometimes share (even check regularly @h0ffman livestreams to see assembly code) , and by curiosity let me ask you. Anything out of ordinary that surprised you to overcome a limitation on these ports, since the tools of today are way beyond what we had before? Like @iq_132 brought before, I never thought of the possibility of using the program Ram as storage for compressed data for the Sprite Ram later. Don't know if SNK ever did it but I remembered a bit of some stutters on the Fatal Fury 3 at the K.O. or GO! moment, maybe is not even sprite data being streamed or maybe something else, who knows? It is very interesting content overall, thanks again!

I don't really have logs per se that I can really show, but you are correct. There are a lot of things that had to be essentially remade, especially considering the sprite data itself for "Waku Waku 7" had to be basically completely redone to max out as much space as possible and only like 3 of them have full animation.
There also some compression for the announcer sounds, those are being loaded in quickly as they can be at the very last second so there is like a 1~2s stutter but not much I can do, sound ram is more or less full at making no compromises to it's quality. Program data is arguably completely rewritten.

Arguably, you could say that I'm essentially just remaking the game's code/data but trying to make them appear as if they're not being remade.
As for adding the sound tracks form the Sega Saturn, that is most likely doable. Most BGM will be .WAV files so it will be easy to swap out but may need timing fixes for the game end. May also need some suggestions on which frames would be best to keep/fix up for certain parts of characters.

As for Blazing Star, from what I've seen so far, the stages more or less fit in RAM with more or less no problems, been trying fix some background parts but data itself is all loaded before the stage starts and reused some data in the next stage so it's mostly just loading in backgrounds and other new things.

The only part that I'm not sure what the Devs of the will do was for that nice intro video for the game as it does not fit in RAM at all, needs like 5 loads to play at full frame rate. Maybe they remade the intro somehow to fit, not sure.

Just downloaded Ganryu, and when I try to create the ISO image in the builder I keep getting this error message:

Looks like you are just missing 252-p1.p1 rom file or it's not named the same in the .zip file.
I think I used the rom from emu-land.net if that helps any.

Also just updated the Ganryu to 2.1 but you may not need it, just fixes "start + select" button combo to bring up the SD Loader menu.

 

[Ryokomaru]

Hi Vash32, the intro of Double Dragon on Neo Geo CD is loaded in two stages. First, it loads and plays the video scenes, and then it has to load the fights. It’s not the prettiest way to do it, but it could be a solution. Alternatively, the image could stay frozen for a moment while it loads a bit more of the intro.

 

[Tarma]

Ganryu works perfectly - many thanks!

Also, Ghostlop now boots without issue

Look forward to seeing your efforts with Blazing Star... Do you think either Shock Troopers or Sengoku 3 are doable?

No doubt both will need in stage loading, but that's not the end of the world.

 

[vash32]

Hi Vash32, the intro of Double Dragon on Neo Geo CD is loaded in two stages. First, it loads and plays the video scenes, and then it has to load the fights. It’s not the prettiest way to do it, but it could be a solution. Alternatively, the image could stay frozen for a moment while it loads a bit more of the intro.

Appreciate the help and suggestions, but unfortunately, that's not the issue.
I'm doing that for the attract loop, you know the intro/title/demo gameplay, hi-score then repeat.

The main issue is that they made extremely nice pre-rendered 3D cutscenes that use a lot of frames to give off a nice 3D look and unfortunately they don't fit in RAM and needs extra loading. My attempts to downsize the video parts has resulted in it just being really blocky and ugly.

Best I got so far is just dropping frames for most of it. The game will start at the title screen and a player just needs to wait if they like to see the intro etc.
"How to Play" is also moved to the "Level Select" at the start, so you don't need to wait for it to Load in if you know how to play.

Look forward to seeing your efforts with Blazing Star... Do you think either Shock Troopers or Sengoku 3 are doable?

No doubt both will need in stage loading, but that's not the end of the world.

I got like 12 games I'm trying get working right now and did start Shock Troopers some time ago but need to restart most likely as I think I was doing things wrong but I think that game is doable but may be a little hard on how to load things in or have loading points in stages but not sure yet.

Sengoku 3 I'm unsure on at this time but most likely will needs stage loading and maybe cut down animations to fit in RAM.

I've been slowing working on one bigger game that may need a lot of time but hope I can get it working.
So far looks to be getting pass stage 1/2 but have not tested out how good things are working yet or any real hardware testing.

P.S. I was thinking I was almost ready to post "Waku Waku 7" but I may need a bit more time as need to fix some known issues before posting it.
Can't have people playing/testing it with problems I know I need to fix and all.

My 1st hardware test pointed out some problems and I'm thinking of updating how the game works a little to save players a little loading time as well as maybe get more MVS levels playable as MVS does like levels 1~8 but this game only uses 1~4 in AES mode. Also moved the "How to Play" to it's own menu item so you don't need to load into it all the time.

My plans got a little messed up, but I might have something else ready soon.

 

[Tarma]

Don't rush. You're doing a stellar job so far