Question about NeoGeo Games and NeoGeo Emulators

[phantompower]

Hi all,

 

Been lurking here for some time and have searched desparately for some information that I cannot find for the life of me.

 

The biggest issue I have is trying to get the new, unlisted, games that I have working in any of the emulators. Now, this is not to say that I don't understand how to do it, but I have several of these files on my computer with all of the right names but I often find that they lack something:

 

* missing bin or rom files

* incorrect CRC

 

In addition to that, speaking specifically about the DATs for Nebula, there are sometimes multiple versions on this site of the DAT that should be used for each game. That to me makes this question and issue so much greater...and that is How do I know which version of the files I have are correct and how do I audit them outside of attempting to launch each one individually?

 

Last night, I must have worked for about an hour on samsho5 and finally got it to work with NebulaLoader 2.24, but it took an act of God (and some luck).

 

I have many more that I still need to work out, such as mslug5, svc(all), etc.

 

I am really wanted to avoid another 90-minute effort per game again tonight.

 

Also, for the record, I have a large number of patches downloaded that I can apply when needed which help me to resolve the issues with CRCs, but again, I am trying to know where my issues are ahead of time and know which DATs I should be using.

 

I know there is probably not an easy answer, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Agozer]

If you wan to audit your games, get a rom auditing tool such as RomCenter and the proper Neo-Geo DAT for it.

 

As for Nebula Loader ( and Loaders in general), you don't need to worry about CRCs. You can put whatever CRCs and filenames into the DAT and Nebula Loader will try to load the files (NeoRAGEx works in a very similar fashion).

 

Of course, the original FBA, Kawaks, Nebula and MAME only load certain sets because of hardcoded values. Nebula and Kawaks Loader can also work with encrypted sets to a degree, but you'd have to know the right GxfKey value for that.

 

True there are a whole lot of sets. KLR Freelance is a pretty good site because it lists the files CRCs and sizes for most of the newer sets.

 

Decrypted sets take less space, but all of the post 1999 *original* sets are encrypted because that's how they were on the real arcade PCB.

Sure, after a while, decrypted sets surfaced, because people who like more simpler emulators (like NRX) wanted to play those games too.

[phantompower]

Thanks Agozer,

 

So regarding the different versions of sets, I am aware of 4:

 

* Original Set

* Encrypted Set

* Decrypted Set

* Prototype Set

 

My preference is to be as true to form as possible. Size and CPU speed is not so much an issue. With that said, first - have I correctly listed the categories above, second, is there one type I should focus on given my preference, and third, is there any discerable different between one set and another in the end when playing through?

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

Chuck

[Robert]

Good site Agozer.

 

This link save a bit of time KLR Neogeo page

 

Click the links just under the screenshots.

 

 

 

Edit: If you want the original-in-every-way set, they will be encrypted. However NRX doesn't handle these. Nebula/Kawaks can but as Agozer said you need more information. NRX can only use decrypted.

 

Prototype may be missing certain game elements. I don't think it's worth persuing them.

[Agozer]

There are no visible differences between sets, unless you are comparing a bootleg and/or a prototype set to the original one. It's quite obvious that those have bugs and whatnot (which can be fix with patches though).

 

Of course, if we start talking about hacks, then there's a difference also. But with clones vs. the original one, there isn't any difference, or it's almost unnoticeable.

 

All I can say is... If you want your sets to be exactly like like how the data was on the original board, you go with the original, encrypted sets. Getting them to work is a pain though unless you compile you own custom emulator (since no current official emulator supports every set).

 

If you just care about the games, and only care about the fact that they are bug-free and completely playable, you might just get the decrypted sets (although most of the time they need fixing).

[phantompower]

Fantastic assistance so far. A couple questions from what I have just read:

 

Is there any DAT that someone can recommend for ROMCENTER to check the files I have? I think having this file would answer a HUGE question for me which is which versions are considered the most accurate.

 

Thanks again. Sorry for the questions - but this is the best help I have had on this subject, in the past couple years.

Edited August 12, 2005 by phantompower

[Agozer]

You can check here: http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/RomCenter.shtm. More specifically, under General Systems --> Neo Geo. The one that's dated 2005-07-12.

 

Personally, I don't audit my sets, so I don't know what data the DAT actually holds, but judging by the date, it should have most sets covered.

[phantompower]

Very cool. I will give it a try and report back here incase others are curious as well.

 

I only asked about the DAT because I wasn't sure if the DATs were specific to the emulator or specific to a game type. If specific to an emulator (as the MAME DATs usually are) then I fear it won't cover the roms not released in each of the openly available emulators.

 

Again, I will try it out this evening and also use the great site you referenced above to try to reduce the amount of work necessary to get these games to work in my arcade cabinet.

 

On a side note, here is a link to my arcade cabinet.

 

http://mamestation.com

 

Be sure to check out my MameStation I and my current cabinet, MameStation II.

 

Thanks again

Edited August 12, 2005 by phantompower

[Agozer]

There are emulator specific DATs as well, but those only have entries for supported games (meaning no SSV, SSV Special, KOF2003, MS5, SvC etc.)

[phantompower]

there are emulator specific DATs as well, but those only have entrie for supported games (meaning no SSV, SSV Special, KOF2003, MS5, SvC etc.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Exactly. I was just trying to determine if DATs existed for rom sets. I am going to check that out tonight.

 

Thanks again.

[Spiffy]

im using this Mame based emu that emulates all latest NeoGeo games it supports both encryp n decrypt. hacks. etc roms too.. btw im using nrx as well. if u wanna check it out its named "NEmo32 plus". just google it though im not sure i can post it here. >.>

[phantompower]

As for Nebula Loader ( and Loaders in general), you don't need to worry about CRCs. You can put whatever CRCs and filenames into the DAT and Nebula Loader will try to load the files (NeoRAGEx works in a very similar fashion).

 

OK...I hate to be a pest...but running Nebula 2.24 with Nebula Loader 2.24 - I am having to pay attention to the CRCs. I get messages that say "found xxxxxxxx, looking for yyyyyyyyyy"

 

What am I doing wrong.

[Gryph]

You're not being a pest, we're here to help.

 

What game are you trying to run? Did you try modifying your NEOGEO.DAT in the romdata folder to conform to the ROM set that you have?

[Agozer]

Just make sure that every CRC, size in hex, and filename maches what you have. Also, make sure you typed System: NEO.

[herbalb]

Is there a tool that automatically creates nebula-compatible dat-files out of the roms located in roms-folder or something that converts i.ex. the latest logix clrmame neogeo.dat into a nebula-dat and the same for CPS2 and the other games that nebula supports?

I know romdatamaker but that only creates dats for one single game (zip-file). Would be quite a bite of work to do this for every game that nebula supports.

 

Greetings

herbalb