NeoGeo starter FAQ

Processors: Motorola 68000 (12Mhz, 16-bit), Z80 (Zilog-80a 4Mhz, 8-bit)
Resolution: 304x224
Color Palette: 65,536
Maximum colors on-screen: 4,096
Maximum sprites on-screen: 380
Minimum sprite size: 1x2
Maximum sprite size: 16x512
Maximum amount of game planes: 3
Sound Channels: 4-FM synthesis, 7-Digital Internal, 3-PSG, 1 noise channel
RAM: Internal RAM: 64kb, Video RAM: 68kb, Z80 RAM: 2kb
Memory Card: 8kb or *68-pin JEIDA ver.3 spec memory
*Any 68-pin memory that fits the JEIDA ver.3 spec will work

A2: AES / MVS

MVS = MULTI-VIDEO SYSTEM
AES = home version of the MVS
Neo-Geo CD = CD based home version of the Neo-Geo hardware

A3: Rom requests

Don't ask here. Rom requests are not tolerated. You could use a search engine like Google. Also the Usenet has some nice groups like alt.binaries.emulators.misc (aka a.b.e.m.).

A4: Emulators

Mame - http://www.mame.net/[DOS / Windows / *nix / Mac]
Nebula - nebula.emulatronia.com [Windows]
Kawaks - kawaks.retrogames.com [Windows]
Calice - calice.emu-france.com[Windows]
Ace - discontinued [Windows]
NeoRageX - discontinued [Windows]

A5: Specs for the Neo-Geo emulators

Mame: PIII500+ and min 96mb RAM
Nebula: PII 300+ and min 96MB RAM
Kawaks: PII ???+ and min 96MB RAM
Calice: PII ???+ and min 96MB RAM
Ace: ??? and min 96MB RAM
NeoRageX: Pentium 166+ and min 64mb RAM (wont run under XP!)

But remember: more accurate emulation / enhancements need more power. So raster effects, blitter settings, video resolutions, sound interpolation all decrease speed more or less.

A6: Rom auditing

Auditing will help you to check the validity of your rom sets for the choosen emulator.

There are 2 good choices:

- Clrmame Pro (http://www.clrmame.com/)
- Romcenter (http://www.romcenter.com/)
Romcenter is normally easier to use, because of the more windows like interface, but Crlmame is also quite powerful with lots of great options for the advanced user and you dont need to install it.
The .dat files for use with the audit tools can be located at Logiqx homepage (http://www.logiqx.com/) or can be generated by the emulator itself (Nebula / Kawaks). Also remember, Clrmame can load RC .dat files and both programs can get new datas direct from the mame.exe...
There are also dats for NeoRageX 0.6b on http://www.logiqx.com/ (hidden in the old emulator dats).

After auditing your set, youll know what is missing and can start to 'hunt it down'.

A7: missing file(s)

If you only miss a single file, you dont need to download the whole rom again. Simply locate a valid rom and use a small tool called Iczellion's HTTP Zip Downloader (zipdl) for getting a single file inside a zip.

A8: rom wont load

1st check if your set is valid (see Q5 for that).
2nd make sure you got the NeoGeo bios files in a separate zip file (~56k), if not see Q3 for that.

A9: Raster effects

It's when you change what's being displayed as it's being drawn by the monitor, i.e. synchronized to the electron beam. That's not hard to emulate in itself, but it may require substantial changes to an emulator. Many emulators let the emulated CPU run for 1/60th of a second (one frame), and then look at the status of the graphics hardware at the end of that frame to render it, so whatever settings the last beam-synchronized interrupt changed (or, if they're not emulated, the initial settings) are applied to the entire screen.
To truly emulate raster effects, you need to emulate the CPU running as long as it takes to display single line of the display, check the registers, and render that line. Or worse, per cycle of the graphics hardware (as in good C64 emulators). That obviously takes more processing power, but if you cheat, for instance, by assuming there's only one point at which there will be changes you don't need a line-based renderer. (taken from the CPS2 FAQ)

A10: Raster effects where

Desert on start of level 1 in Metal Slug 2
burning house stage in Last Blade 2
Galaxy Fight
insert game here (dont know more now)

A11: Loading time

Loading takes some time because you dont have enough RAM, so Windows is forced to use its virtual memory. To avoid this get more RAM (~256MB will do, also 196MB was reported to work).

The reason why some games require such loads of ram is that all the newer MVS games have encrypted graphic roms and to decrypt them you need quite a lot of memory. For a full list of games with encrypted GFX roms see Q12.

A12:Encrypted / Decrypted GFX FAQ

All the newer Neo-Geo games use a encryption of the GFX roms. That leads to the need of more RAM for the loading process of the rom. There is a way to get around that by using predecrypted GFX roms. They can be generated by activating the 'save decrypted roms' option in Kawaks.
After this replace the encrypted with the decrypted roms and check with an audit tool plus the right .dat, to see if all is right. Afther that you wont need that much ram and loading is as fast as for the other Neo-Geo games without the encryption.
Games that use encrypted GFX:
- Bangbead
- Ganryu
- Garou - Mark of the wolves
- Kof'99
- Kof2000
- KoF2k1
- Metal Slug 3
- Metal Slug 4
- Nightmare in the Dark
- Prehistoric Isle 2
- Sengoku 3
- Strikers 1945+
- Zupapa

A13: Game lock of MS4 and Kof2k1 in Nebula 2.18+

ElSemi, the author of Nebula decided to not let the user play such recent released games, so they are locked out of Nebula for now. If you really need to play the games, your PC should (as you can use Nebula) be capable for Mame. So simply remove the testdriver status in the Mame source and compile your own binary with the games enabled. Than you will be able to play them. For details see the How to compile FAQ's on Mame.net
Sorry for sounding like an ass, but its my view. Thanx.

A14: Slowdowns

Slowdowns are most of the time, normal behavior of the MVS hardware. The MVS hardware is quite powerful, but sometimes the proccessor is simply outnumbered by all the things on the screen. To get around that it starts to slowdown and to flicker. To avoid that you can overclock the game.
See the manual/docs of the emulator you use; e.g. set 'cheat' to 1 in the Mame ini than cycle wtith ^ trough the options. BUT: this overclocking can lead to some strange issues in the games.

A15: convert older romdumps (MGD2 to MVS or back to MGD2)

There is a way to convert the old dumps for a few games to the correct MVS format. The tool is called redump and can be found e.g. in the utilities section of http://www.sys2064.com/
Here is a list of supportet games:
2020bbh, 3countb, alpham2, androdun, aof, bakatono, burningh, bstars, crsword, cyberlip, eightman, fatfury1, fbfrenzy, gpilots, joyjoy, kotm, lbowling, lresort, maglordh, minasan, mutnat, ncombat, ncommand, ridheroh, roboarmy, sengokh, sengoku2, socbrawl, superspy, tpgolf, trally, wh1
To convert the newer dumps (MVS) back to the old one supported by NRX use a tool called ROMBuild.

A16: Further help/ Visual Guides

If you cant get any further and this FAQ here isnt enough, Easyemu should be your next way

A17: Game Cheat / help

A good source for general help on arcade and many other systems is Gamefaqs.com.
Cheatfiles for Nebula/Kawaks can be at Jurist ADE, here or here. For Mame cheats head here: Pugsy's MAME Cheat Page.

A18: Region Change

Normally this is done through an option of the emulator.
- Nebula: Game -> NeoGeo options -> Region
- Kawaks: Game -> NeoGeo settings
- Mame: TAB -> DIP switches
...and don't forget to reset after the change! If that doesent work, try to delete all game releted files, as eeprom saves, nvram, cfg files and try again.

A19: Red Blood

This setting can be found in the Neo-Geo Bios. See your docs for the default (or your own set up) for the so called

'Service Mode / 
        Test mode'

(default F2 for Mame/Nebula; F11 for Kawaks).

When you entered the Bios and its in japanese (and you cant read that ;) than first switch the region (see Q18 for this).
Now: setting up the soft DIP -> select the slot your game is in -> Change the settings.
Than go back to the first screen by pressing Neo-Geo button C. Than go to exit. Now they should bleed right...

A20: how to do a 'correct' .cue sheet for Nebula

Simply use that example below as a guide for the renaming/creating of the .cue sheet (the names in the .cues sheet should correspond with the names of the files on your HD).

FILE "IronClad (Redump) - Track 01.iso" BINARY
  TRACK 01 MODE1/2048
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "IronClad (Redump) - Track 02.mp3" MP3
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    PREGAP 00:03:00
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "IronClad (Redump) - Track 03.mp3" MP3
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "IronClad (Redump) - Track 04.mp3" MP3
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "IronClad (Redump) - Track 05.mp3" MP3
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "IronClad (Redump) - Track 06.mp3" MP3
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
...

A21: m1 / m1d

Its like this: the m1 rom of some newer games on MVS hardware is encrypted. Mame loads it for reference so that the romaudit tools like Romcenter and Clrmame wont delete it. It will be needed at the point when the encryption is broken. Until then the unecrypted m1d is used.