Neo Turf Masters CD to Cartridge Conversion

[nuke sc]

Based on the discussion at A-P it is hinted that @h0ffman made the AES+ version

Nice to see him accidentally getting paid for his work instead of being Ching-Chonged every time. The Toaplan speculation is interesting...

 

[KGRAMR]

Nice to see him accidentally getting paid for his work instead of being Ching-Chonged every time. The Toaplan speculation is interesting...

It's because h0ffman was working on a Neo Geo conversion and he had plans to release it earlier this year IIRC. Then, radio silence... Until he alludes to his involvement with the AES+ re-release of Neo Turf Masters. Meaning that Plaion most likely saw his work with the Neo Geo conversion of Zero Wing and having contact with the IP holder of Toaplan, we will see that one in the future... But who knows. I might be just talking nonsense XD

 

[nuke sc]

Yes I read the thread. Good on him for getting paid however it happened. I'll never understand people who just expect to be given everything for free or shit on the work people do release completely free of charge. I'd never make anything free again lol.

 

[Neo Alec]

I mean, impressive work, but do I want to pay money for yet another 68K arcade conversion on the Neo Geo that I can already play elsewhere? Not particularly. I'd much rather see the unreleased stuff or original works.

 

[nuke sc]

Mystic Wand or GTFO! I’m surprised no one’s ever tracked these guys down. I guess some of these people are most likely dead by now. Maybe he was buried with it. Time to get a shovel. That would be a great video honestly lol.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

I have no doubt some unreleased game ROMs die together with the owners if they're Japanese. Motherfuckers seem alergic to dump anything.

 

[Neo Alec]

I have no doubt some unreleased game ROMs die together with the owners if they're Japanese. Motherfuckers seem alergic to dump anything.

Yeah, it's the strong anti-piracy enforcement in Japan. Culturally, they just aren't on board with the stance of the preservation movement in the West.

 

[lithy]

 

[lithy]

Ok, it always bothered me about this game that on the Japan bios it has a Big Tournament Golf title audio callout but not one for the English title. I like noisy attract modes for cycling carts on the cab. Bring on the kerncats and sweaties.

Sometime when I found out (and forgot about and more recently re-found out) about the original World Tour Golf title. So a late change and they just cut the non-matching title audio. Makes sense.

But in the last couple years when playing the CD version for Scotland I noticed the title audio for Neo Turf Masters.

So, this is hacky in every sense of the word, literally just trial and errored the V-Rom data until it sounded good, but it does work. I don't think there are any issues, but I'd like to understand a little more about the audio program and test it more before releasing it but it is way more confusing to me than the game program.

The goal of all of these things eventually is to sort of create my 'perfect' version/compilation of the cart and CD versions in ROM format.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Bring on the kerncats and sweaties.

Brother if you took the miserable posts here seriously nothing cool would ever get done. And that’s damn cool. Keep up the goob work!

 

[lithy]

Brother if you took the miserable posts here seriously nothing cool would ever get done. And that’s damn cool. Keep up the goob work!

Don't worry, I'm still far from ever taking anything that happens here too seriously.

 

[Neo Alec]

Isn't it ironic that SNK is releasing an official version of this as you work on it?

I'm looking forward to your review of the AES+ version.

 

[lithy]

Isn't it ironic that SNK is releasing an official version of this as you work on it?

I'm looking forward to your review of the AES+ version.

It will be very interesting to see if there is any NTM content in the AES+ version since they have abandoned the title in favor of BTG for all regions.

I imagine they won't strip out what is already in the rom, probably only bypass it but that means they probably also wouldn't consider adding audio from the NTM CD.

 

[Neo Alec]

It will be very interesting to see if there is any NTM content in the AES+ version since they have abandoned the title in favor of BTG for all regions.

I imagine they won't strip out what is already in the rom, probably only bypass it but that means they probably also couldn't consider adding audio from the NTM CD.

They're adding the Scotland course, so what are the chances of a full port of the CD?

 

[KGRAMR]

Mystic Wand or GTFO! I’m surprised no one’s ever tracked these guys down. I guess some of these people are most likely dead by now. Maybe he was buried with it. Time to get a shovel. That would be a great video honestly lol.

Brother if you took the miserable posts here seriously nothing cool would ever get done. And that’s damn cool. Keep up the goob work!

Same with Shinryu Senki, Mahou Juku, Block Paradise, Last Odyssey, and Dunk Star.

 

[roker]

Same with Shinryu Senki, Mahou Juku, Block Paradise, Last Odyssey, and Dunk Star.

Fascinating stuff but I bet they’re all ass. Especially Dunk Star. I’ve only ever wanted to see Last Odyssey released and some doucher in Japan is probably going to die with the roms he self dumped.

If his story is to be believed it’s all on a burnt CD and he has no plans of ever releasing it

 

[Neo Alec]

Fascinating stuff but I bet they’re all ass. Especially Dunk Star. I’ve only ever wanted to see Last Odyssey released and some doucher in Japan is probably going to die with the roms he self dumped.

If his story is to be believed it’s all on a burnt CD and he has no plans of ever releasing it

(kernow mode) I bet you're all ass.

 

[lithy]

Edit: Derp, put this in the wrong thread.

 

[lithy]

I have revised the structure of all of these to be just patch files instead of whole roms and I separated the two Grand Slam 'features' (Alternate Pins and No Wind Restrictions) so that they can be applied in whatever combinations people want. Since this creates a significant amount more possible combinations, I thought not keeping them as whole roms is probably the best idea, but any feedback in this regard is appreciated.

I have also added the patch files for the title audio from the YouTube videos a few posts up, both for the 'hidden' World Tour Golf title and for the Neo Turf Masters audio imported from the CD version.

These patches are cross compatible with v1.08 of the Scotland hack as well as the regular rom. There is a short jank readme with some notes and compatibility details.

NTM Romhacks - Google Drive

drive.google.com

I have tested them pretty extensively but it is entirely possibly I have overlooked something, please let me know if you find anything.

 

[kernow]

Psst use GitHub

 

[lithy]

Psst use GitHub

I don't really know how.

 

[kernow]

If you can learn how to do this, setting up a GitHub repo and account will be easy. Well, easier on Linux or a mac I suppose

 

[lithy]

The CD version lets you make an entry name it stores lots of info like your score averages, handicap, grand slam wins, etc.

Well, I can't build any sort of name entry system, but I can tell you where to go to just edit the entries in a hex editor if you ever wanted to add a custom name for your scorecard.

8 letter names are an easy substitution with a hex editor. Player 1 name begins at $838F2 and Player 2 name begins at $838FB. Bytes $838FA and $83903 are FE and the game reads it to know that the name is over.




Up to 12 digit custom names fit nicely but require a small change to the addressing.

$83AA0 change from FB to FF, this tells the game the new start point for the Player 2 name.

Player 1 name begins at $838F2
Player 1 name ends at $838FD
Byte $838FE must be FE to end name

Player 2 name begins at $838FF
Player 2 name ends at $8390A
Byte $8390B must be FE to end name



I'm assuming someone could build some sort of tool that could generate a patch file for you based on text you input. I'm not that person, you'll have to do it manually. Remember that Neo Geo games are byte swapped (big endianness or whatever). Don't forget to backup your file first.

 

[lithy]

Someone on the NTM discord identified that the clubs for Putt Master were not correct on the Scotland hack. It was using a duplicated table from the Veteran for the club values (not the actual club yardage when hitting a shot, only the displayed yardage in the UI).

The hack is now updated to v1.09 to include the fix.

 

[lithy]

I learned how to change the attract/demo sequences in order to fix the OB shots that happened once the holes were changed from Australia to Scotland. I tried to make it look as much like the originals but these are creations rather than an actual port of any data. The CD version does not have any attract or demo shots on Scotland holes. I also decided to mute the waterfall sfx for the how to play demo because it was distracting, which led to me finding out that Japan 4 had been accidentally overwritten and wasn't playing the waterfall sfx like it should. So that was fixed at the same time.

Hack has been updated to v1.10