New Neogeo?

[Flibster]

SNK have just teased a new Neogeo for the 40th anniversary.

Bog all details so far, but I hope it's better than the Neogeo X thing. That was pretty disappointing tbh. Shame as the controls were lovely, just the emulation was off.

https://kotaku.com/snk-is-working-on-new-hardware-packed-with-games-1825379714

 

[Flibster]

I did like the NeoGeo X, but the emulation was just a version of FinalBurn Alpha running on a modified Dingoo A3something board. Firmware updates improved it, but it was never just right. Also the screen wasn't vibrant enough and 16x9?! There was a mapped button to reset to 4x3 which was better.

Mine was an early one with the MicroSD card glued to the motherboard. Guess how hard that was to mod?

NeoGeo does need a good mini version really. Would be very happy if what they did was recreate the joystick properly *the NGX version needed some work to make it good, spring and button change mainly* and embed the hardware inside the stick and makes a second stick available for 2 player. You can get Joystick kits for the Pi which hold the Pi inside, so it's not a complicated thing really.

A mini cabinet is possible. Although cool, would probably be too big for most people.

 

[Flibster]

Hmm..... Not sure.

Apparently has TV out as well. Depends on the screen quality (has a 3.5" screen in it ), audio quality,and most importantly.... price. It's SNK, so expect reasonably expensive.

 

[Flibster]

The X was a good concept and not totally horrendous. I don't think SNK liked it much though as they pulled it so quickly.

Hardware inside wasn't really up to it and the screen was completely the wrong aspect ratio. Build quality was excellent and the controls were great. It was basically a Dingoo handheld with a new shell.

 

[Flibster]

May have to try to get the Japanese version, then hopefully flash the european version over the top, unless they're nice and include language options. Oooh, hopefully Unibios it too. Much prefer the japanese minicab, correct colour buttons and the like. Instead of that pad, why not a replica of the AES stick again? That is a great stick.

Will still be surprised if it's sub £100.

 

[Flibster]

Well, it's surprisingly not as horrifically expensive as I was fearing.

https://www.snk-onlineshop.com/item_list.html?siborikomi_clear=1&keyword=NEOGEOmini

Console with aluminium card case *oooooohhhh* - 13'020 yen - £89
Console with 1 pad (white or black) - 15'420 yen - £106
Console with 2 pads (1 white and 1 black) - 18'420 yen - £126
Console with a backpack - 32'420 yen - £223

Base units already appearing on ebay for £150.... *sigh*

No UK preorders as of yet.

 

[Flibster]

If it's under a £100 here, I'll pick one up. If not I'll stick with my AES and Frontloader

Same here, but I've got a 2 slot unibiosed MVS board that I need to consolise. Currently just a board and parts of a wiring harness.
Did go looking for a flashcart, but the only one worth having is £400!?! I don't think so at the moment. I'll stick with some of the bootleg carts I've picked up.

 

[Flibster]

lol at that guys voice!

anyway, its a shame they didn't just make a joystick to plug into a tv, the tiny cabinet is just too gimmicky and not useful. I won't be buying.

Yup. A replica of the original AES Stick *microswitched as it should be* and a power and HDMI port. That's all that's needed. They could even do that with a Pi Zero...

 

[Flibster]

I have no idea why people don't like the Neo Geo X? Great handheld and brilliant joystick. Nice collection of games too. No problem with emulation here.

Emulation wasn't accurate. Sound had major issues. Screen tearing and really bad scaling.
Widescreen LCD on something that only has 4x3 games? Really? Also the screens resolution was pretty iffy and didn't help with the scaling issues.

But, yes, the microswitched stick on the handheld was wonderful, and the arcade stick really was superb. It was the software that really let it down.

Emulation looks good. Hooray!
Controls... Analogue-ish stick and cheap buttons? Boo!

So, kinda the opposite way round of the NeoGeo X then.

Shame the Japanese version has the correct colour buttons and the international version doesn't. But, I think I'm going to hunt down an Japanese version and also a international one and mod it.

Repaint to look like a proper neogeo arcade cab, illuminated marquee, paint the buttons to the correct colours and hopefully microswitch the stick and buttons.

 

[Flibster]

And his teardown is up.

Looks like a standard analogue thumbstick for the joystick unfortunately. Means no easy microswitching. Unless someone produces a replacement control board, which looks possible. Rest looks definitely hackable.

Didn't pull the screen so we don't know what the specs are there. I'm sure someone will at some point.

 

[Flibster]

UK preorders are up.

Yup.. it's a shafting.

Console only - £129
Black or white pad - £25

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NEOGEO-Mini-Console-International-Version/dp/B07H472N6H/

I'll pass for now.

 

[Flibster]

Ashens has his review up. Won't link as a little bit sweary (It's Ashens after all).

But essentially: Main unit good. Screen great. Controls meh. Hdmi output dreadful. Controllers terrible because not microswitched.

So close yet again SNK.... this time you've gone the other way. Emulation is great, controls are not.

Thumbsticks for joysticks.... what were they thinking!

 

[Flibster]

We might see a modding scene for these with microswitches etc?

Control panel in the unit is separate, so it's not entirely unreasonable to think that someone will create a microswitched stick and buttons for it. Hopefully they'd also create coloured buttons for it too, just like the japanese version has.

Joypad...Complete replacement board needed, so reverse engineering the lot. They'd also need to change the buttons to the correct places! *grumble*

Looks wicked. Watching that YouTube vid brought back some old memories. Love the old games I’m in.

Watch the video Ashens stuck up last night. It's not all sweetness and light. To the point that there's better ways to play Neogeo games on a TV. Just using the unit itself is good, but as there's a lot of 2 player games it's a bit of a waste.

 

[Flibster]

What a load of crap. What emulation are you comparing it to? The official Neo Geo CD used emulation, and the 161 in 1 carts. I've got a Neo Geo AES, MVS consolized, UK arcade cabinet, CDZ, top loading CD and a fair few games for all. The X is better then the 161-1 cart i use in my arcade. The handheld is solid with amazing battery life, screen, joystick, buttons and then you get a perfect(a bit lighter) AES joystick replica.

You don't know what you are talking about and just follow the rest of the mindless haters.

SNK probably pulled out because they wanted to make more money selling their own thing, this, which looks cute but I cannot see myself playing it. it just looks awkward to use unless you have a table. I'll buy one, maybe both versions to test and keep for my collection.

Fanboy much?

Alrighty then. Lets compare it to the fan made emulators for pretty much any other system over the years, PC, PSP, WII, and so on. Even the official releases on the Google Play Store and Steam are running emulation. At the moment I'm playing on a

Screen was the wrong aspect ratio and the resolution was too far off (Neogeo is 320x244 in 4x3 native, screen was 480x272 in 16x9 - Just wrong, set to 4x3 it's 362x272... Still very wrong.) Screen response time was too low. Caused scaling and tearing issues. Although the scaling was a software issue as well especially when using the HDMI output.
Emulation improved with the update, that required a special cable *sigh* but was still not good enough for an officially licensed thing. Same with the AtGames megadrive items. Internals were good enough, Dingoo A320 essentially iirc. So should have been better, as the Dingoo got virtually spot on emulation. But the audio was not emulated correctly with pitch shifts or just slow audio. Even worse, the left and right channels were swapped through the HDMI output with no way to fix it. Great job guys.... Given that it's running FBAlpha inside with known hardware, there's no way it should have been released in that state. Using the composite connection improved things, but then you just have composite video.

Not sure where you're getting amazing battery life from. 3 hours as advertised, that was not amazing. My PSP averages 5 hours and that's nearly a decade older than the NeoGeoX. Oddly the scaling issues are significantly less on a modded PSP, that's just software as the screen resolution is the same on the PSP and NeoGeoX.

On the plus side, the controls on the unit were great. Properly good job there. The stick was damn close. I replaced the spring in my stick to make it stiffer, much better. Also switched to the Unibios, which was easy in my case as I had an early one with the SD card internally.

SNK sold a licence to Tommo who got within a gnats todger of making a great device. But software let it down. Shame.

 

[Flibster]

Take a wild guess? Oooh. People criticised the NeoGeoX and any sense of humour has been lost.

You are the only person that I know of that thinks the NeoGeoX is perfect.

I would much rather get on with consolising my 2 slot MVS and spending the £400 on the decent flash cart for home play. Or stick with the PSP3000 or Vita for mobile play.

 

[Flibster]

Good luck with your 2 slot. the mvs is pretty good for collecting, look out for kits, they are brilliant if you have the room and some are really cheap compared to their AES counterparts and what they originally cost collecting history.

It's on my list of things to do. Once the shed is done it'll be pulled out of storage and converted. Already had a Unibios in it, probably way out of date by now. Has parts of a loom. But no controls or PSU. But they're both easy enough to sort out. May try to integrate the PSU and an OSSC to the unit.

The cart price difference is a very good reason for converting a MVS board. Metal Slug for instance. Still way over £2k for a good AES cart. MVS... £50ish.

 

[Flibster]

MetalJesusRocks has his NeoGeo video up too.

He's not overly impressed either.
According to SNK, making making microswitched controls.. "is very hard to make"

The change of button layout still annoys me. Why do that? Just nuts.

 

[Flibster]

And we're getting another one...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1168705273864736768

It's a NeoGeo Arcade Stick that works as a stick for the NeoGeo Mini and the PC. But also has a NeoGeo Mini built in and HDMI out and 20 built in games.

Button layout is still wrong. Let's hope it's microswitched this time.

Although there's already a perfectly serviceable design for a NeoGeo arcade stick from many years ago that was already reused for the NeoGeoX and also a USB version for the Playstation 2 (iirc)

 

[Flibster]

Worth noting as well that the neogeo core for mister got released this week and bar a few games is a brilliant bit of reverse engineering.

Looks great and It's on my list of things to get hold of. But sadly, can't talk about it here even though it's almost exactly the same system that Analogue use for the NES, SNES and Megadrive systems they produce.

Mmmm.. FPGA's....

 

[Flibster]

Why not? It uses open source software no? Like you said it isn't any different to say Analogue and their products or indeed "IBM compatible PCs" a term that isn't really used anymore but is kind of the same principle - other manufacturers started making equivalent PCs and the store that owns the very forums we're posting on likely wouldn't exist if they hadn't done so.

I might well be completely wrong here mind, but AFAIK this doesn't have much to do with IP etc..?

It's more 'emulation' issue that happens here.

It's silly as we can discuss the Analogue systems, but yeah...