Tonight I started my new homebrew project...
- Thread starter tcdev
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Johnny16Bit
Mickey's Coach
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Deflemask now supports the Neo Geo. But if you don't want to go with tracker music, you can just rip the original tracks and play them as adpcm.
Check out Blastar's NGFX sound builder. Good luck, I'm looking forward to this!
Another quick update. Code audit is going well; 3/4 of the way through MAIN ROM now and SUB ROM shouldn't take very long either. I've fixed a few long-standing gameplay bugs in the last few days. I've just implemented high score load/save from BRAM and Memory Card. Still a couple of bugs left but getting close now. Sound still not even looked at yet on my end.
The Amiga port is progressing well. Two tilemap layers (one scrolling), 64 sprites and 128 CLUTs is a pretty tall ask for the Amiga. It has involved some palette reduction and that's still WIP, but is looking very promising. It's a little glitchy but playable. I might even have an option to use the Amiga palette in the Neo Geo version just for shits and giggles?!?
The Amiga port is progressing well. Two tilemap layers (one scrolling), 64 sprites and 128 CLUTs is a pretty tall ask for the Amiga. It has involved some palette reduction and that's still WIP, but is looking very promising. It's a little glitchy but playable. I might even have an option to use the Amiga palette in the Neo Geo version just for shits and giggles?!?
A significant day marking the completion of the transcode 'audit' and another transcode bug fixed. Only 3 more known 'bugs' - 2 of which I am yet to confirm (still) exist - and the transcode is done and dusted!
I'll probably look at releasing a beta before I add sound so I can get some feedback on any issues that I may have missed whilst I'm assisting with the Amiga port and working on sound. I will release the ROMs for MAME etc (as puzzledp) and a .neo file for the NeoSD. I'll announce that here when I do.
I'll probably look at releasing a beta before I add sound so I can get some feedback on any issues that I may have missed whilst I'm assisting with the Amiga port and working on sound. I will release the ROMs for MAME etc (as puzzledp) and a .neo file for the NeoSD. I'll announce that here when I do.
Absolutely, thanks for the reminder! My makefile builds either version, and although I'm yet to test Xevious out on the NGCD, I don't see a problem with it working (other projects have worked in the past). Maybe I'll give it a go in the next few days...
I have no idea how to generate the file(s) for the Darksoft cartridge... I would have assumed it was as simple as the process for the NeoSD?!?Please don’t forget darksofts cartridge. It is annoying as fuck to get games on it.
Well that was a fun exercise - trying to work out how to run NGCD games in MAME... never done it before!
I also haven't built an NGCD target for about 10 years! Had to go back to an old project and work out how to create the proper assets for the CD...
The good news is that Xevious loads and runs and you can play a game. The bad news is, the palette is completely wrong. I'm sure it's a simple fix, but something for another night.
I also haven't built an NGCD target for about 10 years! Had to go back to an old project and work out how to create the proper assets for the CD...
The good news is that Xevious loads and runs and you can play a game. The bad news is, the palette is completely wrong. I'm sure it's a simple fix, but something for another night.
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Just use NeoRaine for testing the NGCD. You'll definitely want to have someone try it on real hardware though.
Just let someone else do it when you're done.
Thanks for the tip; I haven't run NeoRaine for about 10 years either!
I do have an NGCD so I will try it on real hardware before release.
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Great effort! keep up the good work!
Great news - after scratching my head for a while and reading up (again) on sprite data I discovered my tool for converting sprites from cart systems to cd systems was wrong (switched - or more correctly, didn't - bitplanes)! That's surprising since I used it for Donkey Kong many years ago, although it could be that DK used less bitplanes and/or I somehow fudged the palette to account for it?!? In any case, Xevious looks and runs fine on the NGCD now! Over the weekend I'll burn a CD just to make sure...
An aside; I started Donkey Kong 10 years ago and sadly got distracted 50% of the way through the RE/transcode. I will, however, be resurrecting the project once Xevious is complete. In fact in recent weeks I took the source code and re-architectured the project somewhat to mirror that of the Xevious project in preparation for starting up again. I reversed the direction of screen rotation to match Xevious (which matches Neo XYX). It does (still) run but I will have to change parts of what I'd done in the past as I've learned a bit more now, but it will (also) be ported to the Amiga.
An aside; I started Donkey Kong 10 years ago and sadly got distracted 50% of the way through the RE/transcode. I will, however, be resurrecting the project once Xevious is complete. In fact in recent weeks I took the source code and re-architectured the project somewhat to mirror that of the Xevious project in preparation for starting up again. I reversed the direction of screen rotation to match Xevious (which matches Neo XYX). It does (still) run but I will have to change parts of what I'd done in the past as I've learned a bit more now, but it will (also) be ported to the Amiga.
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Amazing work!
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Let’s goooooo!!!
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Yeah. Sorry you didn't know. Usually ADPCM-B is used for part or all of the music track. To avoid having to make changes for the NGCD version, it shouldn't be used for voices and sfx.
I think they left out support for it on the NGCD because they didn't want to include ram for the separate data bus for it.
I've finished the sound reorganisation for the NGCD and the sound is complete. Unfortunately the 1 glaring difference between the arcade and the Neo Geo version is that the rumbling sound of the Andor Genesis mutes the Solvalou theme. This is because NGFX SoundBuilder allows only 1 background channel on ADPCM-A, and they're both 'background' sounds. It wouldn't be an issue on the cart systems with ADPCM-B, and I'm tempted to release an enhanced version. The other option is to write my own sound driver, which isn't out of the question. What I'd really like to do though is enhance NGFX SoundBuilder...
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Retail NGCD releases often had concessions, so making the cartridge version slightly better for that one thing would make sense. Provided the divergent code isn't a big issue for you.