Neo Geo Consoles - Anyone got one?

[naefeart]

Specifically any of the CD versions?

If so, do you use it much and how do you connect it up to your modern LCD HDTV?

In a weak moment I bought a couple of top loaders. I've always fancied an AES but the prices have seemed ridiculous for many years, plus I don't really want to collect the carts at their current prices. I've been happy-ish with emulation up 'til now, but an opportunity came up to get some physical hardware and I do always prefer this. One of the consoles is unopened from new and the other opened only to test, so they should be in decent condition. I know the loading times are crap but I'm ok with that, plus there is an SD card loader these days which should be useful, whenever it's available again.

I'm a bit unsure of the best way to get a good picture, or what upscaler to use? I've got an OSSC (which sounds problematic), but also a new Frameister I can try out. I've got a scart cable from RGC coming, so that should help. Any suggestions welcome.

I've also got a game or two knocking about in a drawer somewhere (FF RB2 and SSIV) to start me off. Again, happy for recommendations for any decent fighters etc.

 

[naefeart]

Indeed, I was just looking for stuff I hadn't tried. I'll check out the ones you mention, thanks.

Are you just emulating or are you running hardware?

 

[naefeart]

Thanks Mike. Sadly yes I don't have a CRT to use, but I've been successful getting a good output on a 4k LCD from all my other retro consoles. Hopefully I can find the sweetspot for the Neo Geo too.

RetroRGB has been a godsend, however there doesn't appear to have been the same level of depth/modding/ingenuity in the community applied to the Neo Geo outside of consolising MVS systems. Bob (Retro RGB) details mods to the video component of the Neo Geo CD console to get CSYNC, but I don't fully understand that yet. When it turns up I'm going to try the RGC RGB scart cable to output into my Framemeister and see what that gets me. Using composite isn't idea and seems like failure...

 

[naefeart]

I've thought about this for years, but space is definitely becoming a premium now; I already have several monitors and CRTs. The RGB CRT monitor I have is only 14" and its not that enjoyable to use these days. I have a 19" CRT monitor but that doesn't support the resolutions required with retro consoles. PVMs are silly money and tbh I'm very happy with the displays I get with the OSSC and Frameister.

Years ago I had a 36" Toshiba CRT flat screen TV. Sometimes I wish I'd kept it, but it was huge and weighed like 70Kg+!

 

[naefeart]

I had a neogeo cd. There's awful loading times then there are neogeo loading times....its god awful and ruined every game I played.

I sold it and just got a mister....its smaller, cheaper, great image and excellent accuracy.

In time I may well go down the mister route, however at this stage I'm not too worried about loading times and for most games it's not too bad. If it becomes to laborious I can also modify one of the consoles with the SD Loader, when the kits become available again.

my old friend used to have a 4:3 28 inch tv. at a similar time i got a 28 inch 16:9. in general i made the better choice for TV but as a retro screen that would have been phenomenal.

I remember my dad buying a new 28" 16:9 Sony flat screen TV from Dixons and the whole family watching TV on it, thinking it was ace. My 3 year old watches her cartoons on a 65" 4k LCD and to her this is nothing special at all

 

[naefeart]

If we still had the Sony, I think I’d be using it now.

On the Neo Geo front, I’ve got it hooked up to a 58” Panasonic 902B LCD, via my Frameister and I’m really happy with the results. The loading times are actually fine for the games I have and aren’t posing any problems.

Really pleased I have a NG (or two) in my collection now, getting hooked again on the fighters I used to play way back when. Next aim is to mod one of the consoles with the SD Loader soon-ish and collate the whole library

 

[naefeart]

The AES was super expensive when I was a kid in the 90s; I had to save my birthday money and Christmas money for what seem like forever, just to buy a SNES. Even when I started working it was still just out of reach. Ironically now that I can afford to buy an AES, it's still terrible value and I can't justify the price of the games. Would still love one though.

The CD console for me, is my halfway house. The games are cheap enough and the only real downside is loading times - which are actually totally fine imo. As lakitu said, it's all part of the charm. People need to remember the Neo Geo CD came out in the early 90s, Amiga owners were swapping 16 floppy disks to play Cruise for a Corpse and as a PC gamer, I was tinkering with Autoexec.bat and Config.sys to get enough base memory to load Falcon 3.0 with the sound blaster AND mouse driver loaded! Having a game take 30-60s to load to the title screen? That's no great burden, even now

 

[naefeart]

Haven’t seen that, but sounds interesting. I’m not sure it’s just the optical drive speed that’s the issue, there are suggestions the it’s the cache size too.

There’s much talk of how to improve the drive speed on the NG forums, it goes into great depth, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. I’m surprised no-one has Jerry-rigged an optical drive from a Saturn or similarly aged console to improve matters.