Neo Geo CD Conversion Project.

[Neo Alec]

well, when you guys get some games working on the CDZ please let me know so I can grab them and play them on my CDZ console.

I would really like to see Pochi and Nyaa on NeoGeoCD.

I doubt that Pochi & Nyaa will run on a real Neo Geo CD system. I believe that tool is just to force it to work on Neo CD emulator. The game would need to stop and load several times after boot, and no one seems willing to tackle separate in-game loads at this point.

@Fakk2: JMKurtz told me about the CDZ boot protection found in the IPL.TXT. Before replying to his PM, i took a look with a Hex Editor and seems that the protection is not included. Since i don't have a CDZ, i can't garantee that it will work on a real CDZ. So onced the two games posted on my web page, would you try to burn one of them and test it out ?

I tried one of CDoty's that works fine for me in a regular CD system on the CDZ, and it wouldn't even detect the disc. The CDZ simply won't read most CDR's, it just keeps coming up "Please insert disc" so it doesn't matter what's in the boot file.

 

[Murray]

I tried the PDPR conversion I did yesterday and, while it works fine in an emulator, my top loader won't recognize the disc as a game (only as an audio cd). I guess I'm probably building the ISO wrong since the CDoty Joy Joy Kid boots just fine. Does anyone have any pointers?

 

[Neo Alec]

I tried the PDPR conversion I did yesterday and, while it works fine in an emulator, my top loader won't recognize the disc as a game (only as an audio cd). I guess I'm probably building the ISO wrong since the CDoty Joy Joy Kid boots just fine. Does anyone have any pointers?

Did you have all of the needed text files burned on your disc? You did a mixed mode just like CDoty's directions on his page say? Do the files in your boot file match the filenames on the disc?

Mine at least show up as games and boot in my system, but then they screw up after the loading screen.

 

[Murray]

It wasn't mixed mode, so it may be that. I'll add a dummy audio track and try that.

Otherwise, all the text files were there, the files were all there, and the names all matched.

 

[Neo Alec]

It wasn't mixed mode, so it may be that. I'll add a dummy audio track and try that.

Otherwise, all the text files were there, the files were all there, and the names all matched.

Yep, there's your problem. Mixed mode, dummy audio track. If you're using Nero, make sure the program files are in the top window, and the audio is in the bottom one.

 

[E=MC2]

could you list a few games that got released for mvs and aes that i could make a cd conversion of. btw i got a neo cdz, it does work on a cdz right? normally you cant play copied games on cdz unless its the patched version. do you require a patch so it works on the cdz? could you show which games can make cd conversions from my list.

magicall drop III
MOTW (i know this ones good as impossible, i wont list other large games like this)
KOF 2K0&2
Bust-A-Move Again "EX" / Puzzle Bobble 2
Blazing star (could you, pulstar is possible so i really wonder why they didnt release this one)
Matrimelee / Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku (probably not ehh)
MSX, MS3?
Neo Bomberman
Panic Bomber
Prehistoric Isle 2
Kizuna Encounter (i know its gotta load 4 characters at ones but they consist of so little amount of animation)
Sengoku 3
Shock Troopers 1 & 2
Spinmaster
Strikers 1945 Plus (if you could make this ill be one happy motherfucker man)
super dodge ball
supersidekicks 4
waku waku 7 (why didnt they release this? it shouldve been easy on cd)

i know its quite a list but if you could do this for me id be very gratefull to you. thanx in advance for the trouble.

p.s. if theres games that i didnt list which can be made into conversions you can name them if you want.

 

[Neo Alec]

could you list a few games that got released for mvs and aes that i could make a cd conversion of. btw i got a neo cdz, it does work on a cdz right? normally you cant play copied games on cdz unless its the patched version. do you require a patch so it works on the cdz? could you show which games can make cd conversions from my list.

magicall drop III
MOTW (i know this ones good as impossible, i wont list other large games like this)
KOF 2K0&2
Bust-A-Move Again "EX" / Puzzle Bobble 2
Blazing star (could you, pulstar is possible so i really wonder why they didnt release this one)
Matrimelee / Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku (probably not ehh)
MSX, MS3?
Neo Bomberman
Panic Bomber
Prehistoric Isle 2
Kizuna Encounter (i know its gotta load 4 characters at ones but they consist of so little amount of animation)
Sengoku 3
Shock Troopers 1 & 2
Spinmaster
Strikers 1945 Plus (if you could make this ill be one happy motherfucker man)
super dodge ball
supersidekicks 4
waku waku 7 (why didnt they release this? it shouldve been easy on cd)

i know its quite a list but if you could do this for me id be very gratefull to you. thanx in advance for the trouble.

p.s. if theres games that i didnt list which can be made into conversions you can name them if you want.

Don't get too excited. I'm going to say none of those, unless someone is willing to do some very major reprogramming. At this point, only very small games that require only one load at boot are being converted to CD. Look down the master list for games under about 56 megs for possible candidates. I think Puzzle Bobble 2 has too much music.

 

[Fakk2]

Yep, there's your problem. Mixed mode, dummy audio track. If you're using Nero, make sure the program files are in the top window, and the audio is in the bottom one.

I would like to know why Puzzle Bobble works on the Neo-Geo CD and CDZ and it has no audio tracks (if I recall corectly). If Puzzle Bobble works with no audio tracks then why cant you guys get the conversions to work without audio tracks?

 

[Fakk2]

I tried the PDPR conversion I did yesterday and, while it works fine in an emulator, my top loader won't recognize the disc as a game (only as an audio cd). I guess I'm probably building the ISO wrong since the CDoty Joy Joy Kid boots just fine. Does anyone have any pointers?

out of his 4 games that he did, all 4 worked on emulators but only one actually played on the CDZ and it was Andro Dunos and it has bad colors, just like on the emu.

 

[JMKurtz]

My bad -- it's the copyright.txt file that holds the CDZ booting protection code. Make sure it's not in there. I mentioned the IPL in my PM, but since it's been years since I've looked at that stuff, I said the wrong filename

Jeff

@Fakk2: JMKurtz told me about the CDZ boot protection found in the IPL.TXT. Before replying to his PM, i took a look with a Hex Editor and seems that the protection is not included. Since i don't have a CDZ, i can't garantee that it will work on a real CDZ. So onced the two games posted on my web page, would you try to burn one of them and test it out ?

 

[Neo Alec]

I've heard that perhaps even if the CDR boots on the CDZ, it might not be a good idea to use CDR's on there anyway. Since I've got both, I suppose, it makes more sense to run small single-boot games on the regular CD anyway, than waste some of those precious finite CDZ hours.

 

[JMKurtz]

Man, it's been a really long time since I've looked at these CDs. The name of the file that holds the CDZ boot check is CPY.TXT, not Copyright.txt

Jeff

My bad -- it's the copyright.txt file that holds the CDZ booting protection code. Make sure it's not in there. I mentioned the IPL in my PM, but since it's been years since I've looked at that stuff, I said the wrong filename

Jeff

 

[JMKurtz]

I'm not sure I buy that argument. What does the laser care if it's a stamped CD or CD-R? If it can read it, it can read it, right? If it couldn't read CD-R's, then they just wouldn't work at all.

I think people freak out because when the protection check does fail, it gives a generic DISK I/O ERROR message, which would scare someone into not using CD-R's.

Jeff

I've heard that perhaps even if the CDR boots on the CDZ, it might not be a good idea to use CDR's on there anyway. Since I've got both, I suppose, it makes more sense to run small single-boot games on the regular CD anyway, than waste some of those precious finite CDZ hours.

 

[E=MC2]

I'm not sure I buy that argument. What does the laser care if it's a stamped CD or CD-R? If it can read it, it can read it, right? If it couldn't read CD-R's, then they just wouldn't work at all.

I think people freak out because when the protection check does fail, it gives a generic DISK I/O ERROR message, which would scare someone into not using CD-R's.

Jeff

man i had that error since 94/95 on my toploader. it still works for the guy that bought it of my hands. cdz game me this error a few times but not nearly as many times as my old toploader. but the games that where listed if you ad more loads like between rounds would it be possible?

 

[JMKurtz]

As a couple guys have pointed out - to make the larger games work, you would have to do a lot of disassembly and reprogramming of the game. I'm not sure anyone here is up to that amount of work.

Maybe it would just be easier to hack more RAM into the CD system to allow larger loads....

but the games that where listed if you ad more loads like between rounds would it be possible?

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

As a couple guys have pointed out - to make the larger games work, you would have to do a lot of disassembly and reprogramming of the game. I'm not sure anyone here is up to that amount of work.

Maybe it would just be easier to hack more RAM into the CD system to allow larger loads....

As someone else pointed out, you could probably watch an entire movie while it was loading.

 

[Fakk2]

I've heard that perhaps even if the CDR boots on the CDZ, it might not be a good idea to use CDR's on there anyway. Since I've got both, I suppose, it makes more sense to run small single-boot games on the regular CD anyway, than waste some of those precious finite CDZ hours.

What finite hours? Ive owned a Neo CDZ since the day of its release, I used it every day for years and it still works like new to this day. I guess its how people treat thier stuff. Never have I had 1 system die on me.

 

[Razoola]

As a couple guys have pointed out - to make the larger games work, you would have to do a lot of disassembly and reprogramming of the game. I'm not sure anyone here is up to that amount of work.

Maybe it would just be easier to hack more RAM into the CD system to allow larger loads....

I think anyone willing to spend the effort doing that would rather convert games the other way around

Raz

 

[Razoola]

I just want to point out that in many cases you can't simply chop the ROMs up into smaller parts and then dissamble the code to load it in different sections. You really need to rearrange tiles in the single ROM (if needed), then chop it up then change code in ROM and tile offsets. Also you don't really want to chop it into sizes what simply fit, you more need to take tiles for one level BG in one file, 2nd Level in another. Same goes for characters, one file per character. It is a really big job and certinally harder than converting a game the opposite way around (from CD to ROM format).

Raz

 

[Neo Alec]

I'm not sure I buy that argument. What does the laser care if it's a stamped CD or CD-R? If it can read it, it can read it, right? If it couldn't read CD-R's, then they just wouldn't work at all.

I think people freak out because when the protection check does fail, it gives a generic DISK I/O ERROR message, which would scare someone into not using CD-R's.

Jeff

I agree. At any rate, mine seems to overheat within an hour or so when I play it on carpet, so I tend to heed a lot of the warnings about the CDZ. Not sure if it will inevitably completely die on me one day though.

 

[Sly DC]

I just want to point out that in many cases you can't simply chop the ROMs up into smaller parts and then dissamble the code to load it in different sections. You really need to rearrange tiles in the single ROM (if needed), then chop it up then change code in ROM and tile offsets. Also you don't really want to chop it into sizes what simply fit, you more need to take tiles for one level BG in one file, 2nd Level in another. Same goes for characters, one file per character. It is a really big job and certinally harder than converting a game the opposite way around (from CD to ROM format).

Raz

Completely agree with Razoola on this one. Small games like Gururin or Puzzle de Pon are way easy to port, but games like Eightman or Neo Mr.Do! can be done but you have to chop down the PCM.

If we wanted to have all the PCM, we need to chop the PCM to smaller size and change codes in the Z80 driver, and since i don't have any knowlegde of Z80 & 68K programming, i can't do it.

Were it get bitching are bigger games, like Nightmare in the Dark or Neo Bomberman. I tried ported both these games and because of limits, both have lost sounds and graphics issues. NITD works but have almost no sounds (and when the Z80 driver doesn't finf the sound or music, you get a very loud beeps in a real NGDC) and as for Neo Bomberman, it's unplayable since there's missing to much graphics. So bigger games means bigger headache to recode the PRG, Z80, PCM and SPR.

BTW Razoola, will you ever release a version of the Unibios for the Neo-GeoCD system ? I'm dying to get one...AARRGGHH!! Ifyou need a beta tester, i'm offering myself since i do have an eprom burner and eraser. Modifying hardware is easier than to modifying software (well...in my case...LOL!!)

--- Sly DC ---

 

[Sly DC]

Web site about MVS-to-CD ports

Hi Folks!

I have finishiung up my web site (the main part) about how to make your own MVS-to-CD ports but i have a problem. My server which my oldsite resides has gone bonkers. I can't upload anything so now i'm stuck with all the infos on my HD.

Do any kind soul here could give me about 10 megs of web space ? I have two
ISOs that waits to be burned to play on REAL Neo-Geo CD systems (JMKurtz gave me authorisation for his Columns and Poker Night games to be distributed in ISO format) and also to be tested on a CDZ (protection boot) if they work or not.

Thanks in advanced !

--- Sly DC ---

 

[Murray]

Sly: Check your PMs. I can host it for you.

 

[Sly DC]

Sly: Check your PMs. I can host it for you.

Hi Murray! PMsent!

--- Sly DC ---

 

[Sly DC]

Web site on how-to port MVS to CD

Hi Folks!

I finally finished doing a small web site to how-to make your own porting of MVS-to-CD. And i have to thanks a zillion "Murray" for hosting the web site.

So for the ones who can't wait to play new games on a REAL Neo-Geo CD system, here's the URL:

http://mvstocd.vinylfetish.net/

It's not finished but all the infos to port games is there (with tools). Oh and also many thanks to JMKurtz for giving me permission to distribute his games "Columns" and "Poker Night" in ISO format (and also Poker Night in French too).

So hope you will enjoy the how-to and games!!

--- Sly DC ---