NeoGeoX Hacking and Mods

[SlickDizzy]

It isn't really that hard to mod a TF-SD adapter, I took two adapters to a cellphone repair shop, and it took around 20 minutes for the guy there to get the two adapters modded, both of them work well.

Unfortunately I don't know of any cellphone repair shops in my area...TBH I've never even seen one in America, otherwise I would totally do the same thing!

 

[FA-MAS]

Unfortunately I don't know of any cellphone repair shops in my area...TBH I've never even seen one in America, otherwise I would totally do the same thing!

Yeah, and there definitely aren't any that I know of that would solder.

 

[difuno]

Unfortunately I don't know of any cellphone repair shops in my area...TBH I've never even seen one in America, otherwise I would totally do the same thing!

It does not have to be the cellphone repair shops, all you need is a sharp knife, a soldering iron, thin insulated wire, carefulness and skill of course.

I have the sharp knife, the soldering iron and the insulated wire, but not the rest of them, hence I took it to the repair shop.

 

[Mattroid]

I haven't been able to find insulated wire that thin locally anywhere...anyone have any thoughts on that? I assume I could order some, but I don't need like a million feet of wire

 

[SlickDizzy]

It does not have to be the cellphone repair shops, all you need is a sharp knife, a soldering iron, thin insulated wire, carefulness and skill of course.

I have the sharp knife, the soldering iron and the insulated wire, but not the rest of them, hence I took it to the repair shop.

The problem is that you're not the only one! I am mulling over the idea of disassembling my NGX to do the internal SD slot pin swap, since THAT is within my soldering skills, but I lack the talent to do a microSD adapter. Hopefully someone starts selling them sooner than later.

 

[Daedalus]

I haven't been able to find insulated wire that thin locally anywhere...anyone have any thoughts on that? I assume I could order some, but I don't need like a million feet of wire

Get an EIDE cable and hack it up, you coul probably make 100 adapters out of 1 cable...

 

[difuno]

I haven't been able to find insulated wire that thin locally anywhere...anyone have any thoughts on that? I assume I could order some, but I don't need like a million feet of wire

Insulated wire of this size if very cheap here locally. I can get a roll of it at less than 1 USD.

 

[difuno]

The problem is that you're not the only one! I am mulling over the idea of disassembling my NGX to do the internal SD slot pin swap, since THAT is within my soldering skills, but I lack the talent to do a microSD adapter. Hopefully someone starts selling them sooner than later.

If you have the skill to solder the pins inside the NGX, you might be able to solder the wire inside the adapter, it isn't really that hard as you might imagine. You just need more carefulness and patience. My real problem is that I do not even have the skill to use a soldering iron although I have some.

 

[Mattroid]

Get an EIDE cable and hack it up, you coul probably make 100 adapters out of 1 cable...

Ha. I hadn't thought of that. I'm sure I still have one (or a dozen) of those damn things lying around that will never be used again.

 

[neogeohu]

I haven't been able to find insulated wire that thin locally anywhere...anyone have any thoughts on that? I assume I could order some, but I don't need like a million feet of wire

A multicore cable is good.
Thou shalt varnish after soldering the wires.
That's how I made ​​it.

 

[Jonny0r]

my first apdater is broken it looks likes ass hehehe.. god thanks i ordered 3 Adapters on ebay to kill them all xD

i took the wires from an old ear phone this looks good and the cabel are thin

 

[playthatbeat]

370 ueser here - hey all..

i had one of the old-school SD adaptors - a 'kingdata' - that was easy to mod in one piece, and several of the newer sandisk ones, with datecodes on the back ranging from 2009 to 2011. The sandisk's had 2 designs, both similar to the breakdown pictures in this thread - quite messy to do 'in one' so i just made pairs, popped one open and ran 30awg wire from the micro pins out to the tabs on another, crossing over as pointed out - MUCH easier, and fine if You don't want to use the device as a handheld, which i don't.

If you want a nice neat all-in one, then you really need to find the crappiest oldest adaptor You can, then be ready for some micro-surgery and precise crazy-glue and araldite action!

As far as converting files for proper use is concerned - i can see where the confusion might arise - which bios zip to use, what needs renaming inside it, the directory structure when using fbacache (or the convertxrom tool - WARNING: needs .NET framework >=4) and so on - but let me assure anyone feeling frustrated, it does all work, you CAN run Your choice of stuff on your own micro SD if you make an adaptor and do Your homework, and you can do this leaving your neogeoX unmolested, just keep at it, don't give up, and don;t loose it and crumple up the SD card adaptor, then put it in your mouth, chew it into a ball and gob it in an ashtray before dousing it in isopropal and setting it aloight in frustration - this will only delay you and make a bad smell.

 

[Lee Gray]

It isn't really that hard to mod a TF-SD adapter, I took two adapters to a cellphone repair shop, and it took around 20 minutes for the guy there to get the two adapters modded, both of them work well.

Does something have to be done inside the neo geo x handheld for those unibios cards to work or can they just plug straight into the neo geo x and work without interfering with the neo geo X itself ?

 

[playthatbeat]

Does something have to be done inside the neo geo x handheld for those unibios cards to work or can they just plug straight into the neo geo x and work without interfering with the neo geo X itself ?

No. If you can make up a sd card with the correct structure, then it will be read like an official card for the device. The .fba files are a little nearer to a gamestate then to a plain rom, and when you make one, the bios file you use during the process is merged with the rom to make the .fba file..

So, if you use an arcade rom and the neogeo.zip from MAME, you get an .fba that boots like in mame - the green screen and so on, and the game runs in arcade mode. If you use a file with universe bios, then that's how the game boots in the neogeo-x - different boot process

The utility to make .fba stuff is a pain in the ring to track down, but it's out there, and is now floating about bundled with a nice neogeo.zip with unibios in it, and a graphical front-end that can batch process - the commandline is horrible, no wildcards etc. Also: if the GUI fails, run the job at the commandline and watch the output - it will tell You which bit needs to be (ehm) renamed (cough)..

This all has nothing to do with the stuff inside the neogeo-x.

 

[Lee Gray]

 

[valgalder]

so, I tried to follow most of this thread.. but with the current SD Mod, what is the max card this will read, or is there also a limit either way on games that can be placed on the card? Thanks,

 

[neogeohu]

so, I tried to follow most of this thread.. but with the current SD Mod, what is the max card this will read, or is there also a limit either way on games that can be placed on the card? Thanks,

8GB SD card is sure to handle.
Maximum 50pcs game 1 in SD card to use.

 

[slerch666]

8GB SD card is sure to handle.
Maximum 50pcs game 1 in SD card to use.

So we could get the entire Neo collection on 3 cards. Done.

 

[neogeohu]

So we could get the entire Neo collection on 3 cards. Done.

Yes!
50 games galore fits 1x 4GB memory card. (50pcs games. = Approx. 2.5GB)

 

[MarioNintendo]

Is a soft mod where you don't need to solder SD cards in the works?

 

[neogeohu]

Is a soft mod where you don't need to solder SD cards in the works?

Not yet!

 

[TurboRotary13b]

does anyone have the ConvertX app? I tried to sign up for that french page but they aren't sending me the email confirmation.

 

[outsider0506]

I got my adapter working and I got the ConvertX ROM app. Converted some ROMs and got it working on the NGX (yeah!), but the UNIBIOS splash screen never shows up and I can't get into the UNIBIOS menus before the game starts. I tried holding down C+A+B while the game is loading, but it doesn't help. When I'm in-game, I can bring up the green in-game UNIBIOS menu though (using C+A+B+Start) so I know that ConvertX included UNIOBIOS.

I have 370 firmware.

Can anyone assist?

 

[Mattroid]

don;t loose it and crumple up the SD card adaptor, then put it in your mouth, chew it into a ball and gob it in an ashtray before dousing it in isopropal and setting it aloight in frustration - this will only delay you and make a bad smell.

Spoken like a man with personal experience

 

[xarcade]

Does the SD card hack fix the video output resolution too?