The Official NEO-GEO Thread!

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Bitmap Bureau Ltd.@BitmapBureau Dec 4

 

Huge Xeno Crisis Kickstarter update here including the latest on the Neo Geo versions: https://kickstarter.com/projects/1676714319/xeno-crisis-a-new-game-for-the-sega-genesis-mega-d/posts/3041359…

 

 

 

 

 

Latest update (Dec 2020)

Bitmap BureauCreator

December 4, 2020

Hi everyone, we’re back once again with an overdue Xeno Crisis update, but as you might expect we have plenty of news to share. It’s been a difficult few months for just about everyone really but luckily our progress hasn’t been too hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic - we did of course take some time out over the summer to have some kind of holiday with our families. As we mentioned in the previous update, all Mega Drive / Genesis and Dreamcast orders should now have shipped to all backers, but please get in touch if for some reason you still haven’t received your order yet.

As our responsibilities have increased and our operations have expanded over the past couple of years, we have started working with various contractors to help us out on several fronts, and we are also now renting a nearby warehouse in which to store stock and packaging, freeing up space in the office and giving us a dedicated area for cartridge assembly. It’s also where we’ve relocated our big red 4-slot to, although we still need to finish refurbishing it as it’s a little rough around the edges:

We’ve also got Mike’s Initial D 3 cab in here too which is now up and running although we haven’t got Xeno Crisis running on it yet.

Neo Geo Latest - Physical

In the last update we spoke of some issues with the PCB we had that were causing the odd rare reset on some AES/MVS machines when it read some P ROM data incorrectly. Unfortunately the changes we made back then didn’t cure those issues totally; it actually became a bit of a needle in a haystack trying to find the issue to be able to resolve it. So we took the decision to contract a professional electrical engineer to take a look at the PCB.

We’re pleased to say we have now found the issue, we’ve been able to reproduce it consistently, we understand why it is happening and we now have a fix. We’re waiting on a sample of our revised PCB design to arrive next week. Assuming all is well and as we expect, we will then be placing the main PCB manufacturing order!

 

For those of you that would like a little more insight into what we had to track down and how we went about it, here is a brief overview of the main discoveries:

First phase; we had an issue with our Neo Geo Devkit for flashing the PCBs which was not allowing us to fully verify the P ROM when flashing but would for all other ROMs. So we couldn’t be 100% sure that all data had been written correctly, even if the PCB did generally run fine with just the odd reset and Unibios CRC failure.

This proved relatively easy to track down, there was a voltage level issue that was causing the Flash memory not to be read correctly by the devkit, fortunately write commands were being done correctly as we expected. Now that we could properly verify the P ROM is correct we could move on to attempt to find the issue with the PCB.

Second phase; an initial comparison of our signals vs an original PCB showed we needed a small tweak to the FPGA logic for the ROMOE behaviours (there was a slight signal glitch as you can see on D7). This made the PCB behaviour better but it still was reading the P ROM incorrectly at random points.

After weeks of numerous tests prodding and probing all aspects of the PCB, we realised we would have to find a way to reproduce the issue and pin-point the fault. We could prove it was a bad read by running the Unibios CRC check but the values would change and be inconsistent, and it would pass the CRC most times without any errors. So we decided to create a custom “CRC” BIOS for the NeoGeo, so we could try to control reading the P ROM in sections, detect read errors as soon as they occurred and hopefully all in a reproducible and reliable way.

In the end we read the P ROM in 128 byte chunks and compared each chunk against a known CRC state for that chunk and then repeated this through the whole ROM. We also were able to halt the moment a bad chunk was read - we could re-read this chunk to compare and see if we could spot a pattern.

This worked extremely well and we are able to capture bad reads in a reproducible and consistent manner, as you can see above a capture from a bad vs good read we’re getting some sort of interference to the signal at a 16Mhz rate. We also noticed it was always an 0xFFFF read that would randomly fail. 

From here we were able to analyse the PCB and find the issue that had been eluding us. Under the conditions of an 0xFFFF read, if the floating levels were in the wrong place the level translator was glitching and jumping between high and low states. After testing some modifications to our previous prototype, we now finally have what we believe are the necessary modifications to fix our PCB design!!!!

Obviously the PCB is just one part of the physical items we need, so we’ve been taking the time whilst it’s being fixed to prepare and ready all of the other physical items. Above are just a few of the various bits we needed that have been steadily making their way to the warehouse ready for assembly.

We’ve also decided to manufacture a US and JP style release for Neo Geo CD, as you can see in the preview above (we will contact you to confirm your preference). Also note that both NGCD versions like original games will come with spine cards. With more space in our new warehouse we have also taken the opportunity to order some more plastic shells and snap cases - we do have some excess stock at present so you can still pre-order your copy now.

 

Neo Geo Latest - Software

The last few months have seen a lot of refinement and fixes to the actual game code of Xeno Crisis, with some of the most notable points being:

The Z80 audio logic assembly code is now complete - we had to do nearly a full rewrite, but a huge thank you goes out to Blastar (https://blastar.citavia.de/) for all of his kind support.

The MVS, AES and NGCD integrations are also complete - one of the key things for us has been ensuring that our games behave and act just like original games on those platforms did. So we’re pleased to say that we’ve now implemented what we believe to be the correct behaviours when interacting with the bios in the various combinations of machine set-ups, supporting MVS/AES standard and also Unibios/NeoSD modified behaviours. This means that all of the standard features you expect like software dips, memory card support, backup memory, and book-keeping all behave as expected.

The remaining bits of software development are shrinking by the day, most focus at the moment is on Neo Geo specific polish, things like scaling sprites, extra frames, more palettes, better colour depth than the Mega Drive (like in the HQ above), more sprite details. We expect to go gold very soon, and we will let you know when we do!

We will also finally be confirming details with all collectors’ edition pre-orders, as we have to lock down hostage names to embed in the game (and serial numbers for production). Please expect an email in the next couple of weeks with details.

 

Everything Else Xeno Crisis

The game has now been physically released on the PlayStation Vita thanks to our friends at East Asia Soft, and it can also be obtained digitally through the PSN Store. If you happen to have a PSTV then you’ll be able to play Xeno Crisis in local co-op mode and it’s also a cross-buy title for anyone lucky enough to have both a PS4 and Vita. We hope you’ll agree that East Asia Soft did a great job with this release!

Many if not all backers should have either received or be about to receive their physical Switch and PlayStation 4 copies from the good people at Strictly Limited Games - we received our samples not long ago and have to say the overall package is really impressive!

And yes, we have yet another physical release to talk about, which is Xeno Crisis for the Evercade! It’s a fantastic and relatively inexpensive handheld console that was specifically produced for retro games, and it was great to see both Xeno Crisis and Matt Phillips’ Tanglewood released on the same cartridge. The Mega Drive emulation is particularly good on this device and we’ve tweaked the controls to take advantage of the Evercade’s diamond button configuration, so it’s a great way to play Xeno Crisis on the move, or even at home on an external display.

As you may know, Xeno Crisis has been available for all modern platforms since October 2019 including the Xbox One, and earlier this year we were honoured to be asked if we would like to bring Xeno Crisis to Gamepass for both the Xbox One and PC. So in case you missed it, you can now play Xeno Crisis for free if you happen to be signed up to Gamepass!

During the Kickstarter campaign we made a t-shirt exclusively available to backers which many of you snapped up, and since then we’ve been asked many times if we would release any other Xeno Crisis themed t-shirts. Well we came up with a few designs and eventually settled on these four:

These are now available to buy through our online store in a range of sizes here:

https://shop.bitmapbureau.com/products/xeno-crisis-t-shirt

Last weekend we had a Black Friday 25% discount sale on everything in the shop (apart from Neo Geo pre-orders). We’ve had a number of people that missed out so here is a special discount code for 25% that is valid until the end of Monday 7th December: HERZOG25

 

Many of you are probably familiar with the excellent “Digital Foundry” channel which covers both modern and retro games in an impressive level of detail, and it was with no hesitation that we agreed to an interview with John Linneman regarding the development of Xeno Crisis, along with fellow Mega Drive developer Matt Phillips who also talks about his experience of developing Tanglewood.

Moving on to something completely different now, and that’s to say thanks to the amazing (and generous) Morten Lassen who sent us this superb sculpture of the female marine from Xeno Crisis (Sarah Ridley):

We were blown away to receive something like that out of the blue, and it now sits proudly on the office mantle piece for all to see! If you’d like to check out more of Morten’s excellent work then you can do so here: https://www.instagram.com/fnuksculpt/

There aren’t too many gaming magazines around these days, but a recent contender is “Retro Format” magazine which was successfully Kickstarted by John Kavanagh in 2019. He was kind enough to approach us about reviewing Xeno Crisis in their launch issue, and it was very cool to feature on their front cover!

https://retro-format.com/retroformat.php

 

Battle Axe

For those of you that may have missed it, Battle Axe is the latest project that Mike is working on with the Xeno Crisis artist Henk Nieborg - it’s a fantasy themed hack ‘n’ slash arcade title along the lines of Gauntlet, Golden Axe and The Chaos Engine. It’s actually a concept that Henk came up with a few years ago and we thought it would be great to make it a reality! It’s being published physically by Numskull Games on Switch and PS4 and will of course be coming to Xbox as well as PC, Mac and Linux via Steam too.

You can find out more about Battle Axe here: http://battleaxegame.com

 

Marathon Man

Congratulations to Cameron on recently completing a marathon for charity under national lockdown! Aside from training hard for the big day, he’s been busy finishing all the artwork and printed assets for the Neo Geo release so they’re ready for when the PCBs arrive.

 

Big thanks!

A big thank you for all your continued support and kind comments! We really appreciate how patient everyone has been in waiting for the Neo Geo version, please bear with us now as we get ever closer to shipping!

 

 

Anthony...

Edited December 6, 2020 by fdurso224

[Serguei2]

On 12/4/2020 at 7:35 PM, fdurso224 said:

Hi guys,

 

 

GamingHearts1@GamingHearts1 57m

 

Could Neo Geo X have more successful during the 00’s? https://gamingheartscollection.net/2020/12/04/could-neo-geo-x-have-more-successful-during-the-00s/… via

@wordpressdotcom

#GamersUnite #gamer #gamers #gaminglife #videogames #retrogames #RETROGAMING #neogeo #SNK

 

 

Could Neo Geo X have more successful during the 00’s?

There are many people who probably don’t remember the Neo Geo X from ’12 since it was only available in retail for a short period of time. The Neo Geo X was developed by SNK Playmore an…

gamingheartscollection.net

 

GAMING HEARTS COLLECTION

 

Could Neo Geo X have more successful during the 00’s?

BY GAMING HEARTS COLLECTIONDecember 4, 2020

Leave a Commenton Could Neo Geo X have more successful during the 00’s?

There are many people who probably don’t remember the Neo Geo X from ’12 since it was only available in retail for a short period of time. The Neo Geo X was developed by SNK Playmore and was released in America for the price of $199. The cool thing about Neo Geo X is that it was a hybrid console similar to that the Nintendo Switch. The Neo Geo X also contained at least 20 built in games such as Art Of Fighting, Metal Slug, Samurai Showdown, Fatal Fury and many others. In fact, the Neo Geo X seemed like a cross between the Nintendo Switch and the SNES Classic and was way ahead of its time following its release. The SNES Classic along with the Nintendo Switch did not come out until ’17 and both game systems were huge attractions within retail following their respective releases. But considering how popular Nintendo is within the gaming world the success of the Switch and the SNES console should not come as much of a surprise to anyone. SNK on the other hand was never quite as popular as Nintendo back in the 90’s, 00’s or the 10’s decade despite have optimal quality 2D classics from the 16-bit/32-bit era.

However, it should be noted that over the past few decades Nintendo’s games along with their quality have evolved greatly since the 90’s. While the Neo Geo X looked somewhat similar to that of Nintendo Switch it did not contain any brand new games from 10’s. Instead, the Neo Geo X had the same old games from the 90’s that have been re-released for multiple game systems whether it be the PS2, Wii, PSP or the Switch console. Nintendo had developed brand new game for the Switch including Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and many others with optimal high definition 3D visuals; which ended selling millions worldwide within a few years. Even though, Neo Geo X was a flop in America back in the early 10’s some believe that it could of had more success during the 00’s decade. The concept of a hybrid console was never an idea among Sony or Nintendo executives back in 00’s and would of be considered innovative during that decade. But since Neo Geo arguably peaked in popularity back in the early to mid 90’s would be difficult to determine how successful it could of been in the 00’s. By the mid 00’s many people either owned a PS3 or Xbox 360 and were into first person shooting games; while seeing 2D video games as obsolete or boring. Its quite possible that the Neo Geo X would have been a little bit more successful during the 00’s. But sales-wise the Neo Geo X probably would have still been a flop seeing how competitive things were between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo were during the 00’s.

 

 

 

 

Anthony...

 

Honestly, I never saw or heard Neo-Geo X before.

 

Was it available on most of stores (Walmart, Toys R'US,...)?

 

If Neo-Geo X doesn't have new games to offer, I can understand it had failed.

 

 

[Zoyous]

12 minutes ago, Serguei2 said:

Honestly, I never saw or heard Neo-Geo X before.

 

Was it available on most of stores (Walmart, Toys R'US,...)?

 

If Neo-Geo X doesn't have new games to offer, I can understand it had failed.

 

I don't think the issue with it was the games. At this point the Neo Geo library is well-known and the people who appreciate it are open to re-releases in various forms and aren't necessarily expecting brand new games. The problem with the Neo Geo X was the handheld unit's screen was pretty washed out. The video output to an external monitor was also regarded as pretty poor as it was 480p, with soft focus and a lot of screen tearing. Considering the original Neo Geo was a premium product, the poor video display was a dealbreaker for many... including SNK, as it turned out. They took action against the manufacturer/licensee, Tommo, to have the sales stopped.

[+Charlie Cat]

4 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Zoyous said:

 

 

Hi Serquei

 

Yes, Zoyous has it spot on onwith the Neo Geo X. I also have to say that Tommo did a terrible job on how their units did during the updates on the Neo Geo X. I remember having a model that couldn't be updated because of a glitch in the hardware. It was very disappointing because if you wanted to play the games that were released in the bundles that they offered, you couldn't because of the error on their part. It was so bad that SNK wanted to cancel their agreement with them as well.

 

However the unit is still interesting because you can jailbreak it to play several hundreds of games to be played on it. So it's not all that bad.

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

6 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

 

 

 

 

On 12/3/2020 at 3:15 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

 

 

On 12/3/2020 at 5:11 AM, Mx5dob said:

 

 

On 12/4/2020 at 3:27 PM, Hwlngmad said:

 

 

On 12/1/2020 at 4:30 PM, Bod2019 said:

 

 

On 11/27/2020 at 7:35 PM, Mikebloke said:

 

 

On 11/28/2020 at 9:53 AM, ohfivepro said:

 

 

 

 

Hi guys,

 

For our newer members here on the Neo-Geo thread. We have a special treat for you to enjoy. Here's a promotional video from SNK in the 1990's regarding the Neo-Geo. A real gem it is, and a blast from the past. 

 

 

Anthony...

[Bod2019]

Wow gotta love VHS. That was interesting to watch.  Kinda of cool seeing within the organisation and the various departments.  Just wish I could of grabbed one of those candy cabs off the back of the delivery truck.

[+Charlie Cat]

3 hours ago, Bod2019 said:

Wow gotta love VHS. That was interesting to watch.  Kinda of cool seeing within the organisation and the various departments.  Just wish I could of grabbed one of those candy cabs off the back of the delivery truck.

I'm glad you enjoyed it Chris. When I first viewed this video, I was just stunned by it. I never seen anything liked it before and wanted to find more hidden gem videos like it. I agree bro, I wish I was there to have those MVS beauties to play and own rolling of the trucks. 

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

ausretrogamer@ausretrogamer 16h

 

The NEO•GEO AES is well protected, but what happened to being dusted?!

 

#neogeo #Retro #gamer #videogames

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Back with AtariAge member Neo Gunloc. After the recent discussion on the Neo-Geo X on the thread, here a review regarding this piece and what he feels about it. Enjoy. 

 

From the description,

"Neo-Geo X / SNK Neo-Geo / The Wicked Gamer & Collector / Neo Gunloc In this video I will be reviewing the controversial Neo-Geo X handheld that SNK comissioned Tommo to manufacture. Controversial or not, it does deliver when it comes to Neo-Geo nostalgia. NOTE: Being the idiot that I am, I stated that the manufacturer was Tommy, it's actually Tommo. NOTE: In the video I state that the game Real Bout Fatal Fury Special is based of the MVS version without the character Geese Howard. However it is based on the AES version in which Geese Howard is playable with a code, my bad people. And a big thanks to The Wicked Gamer & Collector for making this video possible."

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

Edited December 7, 2020 by fdurso224

[Tanooki]

On 12/5/2020 at 2:16 AM, fdurso224 said:

Oh right!! Battle Arena Toshinden with Takara. I completely forgot about that Tanooki. Thanks for reminding me. If you didn't mention it, it would've never remembered it. I don't have that one in the collection, so now i have to add it to the list. 

 

I had no idea with Transformers Beast Wars and Money Puzzle/Idol Exchanger for the Game Boy. That I didn't know. So reading this from you is very informative for me and the rest of the members to know. Now you gotten me curious. 

 

This really is fun with this research scavenger hunt Tanooki. Enjoyed looking at the games to search in the boxes and learning knowledgeable information from you bro. Looking forward on the next one from you. 

 

Anthony..

I'll add to your misery, there was a stupid case of some we got outright excluded from that even Europe got, King of Fighters 96 or in EU  ...'KOF The Heat of Battle' and that one is in english, and it doesn't turn up, so just a few squatters have troll bins just to show off on ebay since posting is free monthly.  Love to own that I would, but not for troll pricing.  The list you gave originally I forgot to mention, you forgot one.  You listed Fatal Fury Special, it's the good one, but there's a bad one too which is a port of Fatal Fury 2 which has broken AI and runs like garbage so Special is like the repair release.  Both those never left Japan.

 

And the one I forgot to mention since i was on a puzzle kick, Magical Drop, that got a US release on GB Color, full GBC not a hybrid b&w cart release.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

 

Koko | 狂李 @crazyli825 1h

 

Don't miss the thrilling return of the #CrazyBattleCircuit 1/10/2021 when we host RB2 on Fightcade 2! You can sign-up here: https://matcherino.com/t/2021cc01 Top 3 winners will receive payouts so use coupon code '2021cc01' to add 35 cents to the pot for free! RT's greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

メタルスラッグアタック公式(MSA) @MetalSlugAttack

 

【MSA お知らせ】 本日より12月13日まで新イベント「BLUE CHRISTMAS」を開催中！ ステージをクリアして「クリスマス・ドロマ」や「腹ペコチュウミンコンガニ」をゲット！ #MSA #メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20201207_01tt5v2.html…

Translated from Japanese by

[MSA Notice] A new event "BLUE CHRISTMAS" is being held from today to December 13th! Clear the stage and get "Christmas Doroma" and "Stomach Pekochumin Kongani"! #MSA#メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20201207_01tt5v2.html…

 

 

12:00 AM · Dec 7, 2020·

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR@playkofallstar Dec 2

 

Eileene and Dellons are here in KOF ALLSTAR! What is the best team comp for these fighters? #kofallstar #kof

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR@playkofallstar Dec 3

 

The Seven Knights Collab Pass is packed with awesome prizes! There's something for everyone! Let us know what you think! #kofallstar #kof

 

 

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

This afternoon, we are with SegaCDUniverse. Here we see him discussing about the Neo Geo X and why he enjoys his unit.. 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

SNKオンラインショップ公式 @snk_onlineshop

 

【新商品】「MVSX HOME ARCADE」の予約販売が開始！ 海外のゲームセンターで活躍していたMVSを当時の姿さながらに再現し、ハイビジョン画質など更にグレードアップしたMVSをご家庭で楽しめるゲーム機が登場！ 予約期間：2020年12月23日（水）23:59まで https://snk-onlineshop.com/item/6973468028272.html… #SNK #MVSX

Translated from Japanese by

[New product] Pre-order sales of "MVSX HOME ARCADE" have started! Introducing a game machine that reproduces the MVS that was active in overseas game centers as it was at that time, and allows you to enjoy MVS that has been further upgraded such as high-definition image quality at home! Reservation period: Until 23:59 on Wednesday, December 23, 2020 https://snk-onlineshop.com/item/6973468028272.html… #SNK#MVSX

 

 

9:43 PM · Dec 7, 2020·

 

 

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

【公式】KOF ALLSTAR@KOF_ALLSTAR

 

【ファイターの好みを当てようクイズ】 正解者の内、抽選で30名様に KOFASバトルカード 10連ガチャトークン×1個プレゼント

 

期間：12/7～12/13 23:59 参加方法：コメントにて正解の[番号]& ゲーム内の[アカウントID]を教えてください！ 当選者発表：12/15以降当選者のみDM通知 #KOFAS #セブンナイツ

Translated from Japanese by

[Let's guess the fighter's taste] Among the correct answerers, 30 people will be selected by lottery KOFAS battle card 10 consecutive gacha tokens x 1 gift

 

Period: 12 / 7-12 / 13 23:59 Participation method: Correct answer [number] & in the comment Please tell me the [Account ID] in the game! Winner announcement: DM notification only for winners after 12/15 #KOFAS#セブンナイツ

 

 

9:00 PM · Dec 6, 2020·

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

【公式】KOF ALLSTAR@KOF_ALLSTAR

 

【ファイター名並び替えクイズ:正解発表】 たくさんのご参加ありがとうございました！ 正解は[セイン]でした

 

当選者の皆さまには 12/7DMにて通知いたしますので もうしばらくお待ちください 報酬配布日時:12/11 17:00予定 #KOFAS #KOF #セブンナイツ

Translated from Japanese by

[Fighter name sorting quiz: correct answer announcement] Thank you for your participation! The correct answer was [Thegn]

 

To all the winners We will notify you by 12/7 DM, so please wait for a while. Reward distribution date: 12/11 17:00 Scheduled #KOFAS#KOF#セブンナイツ

 

 

9:30 PM · Dec 6, 2020·

 

Anthony...

[Hwlngmad]

On 12/5/2020 at 6:12 PM, fdurso224 said:

Hi guys,

 

 

Bitmap Bureau Ltd.@BitmapBureau Dec 4

 

Huge Xeno Crisis Kickstarter update here including the latest on the Neo Geo versions: https://kickstarter.com/projects/1676714319/xeno-crisis-a-new-game-for-the-sega-genesis-mega-d/posts/3041359…

 

 

 

 

 

Latest update (Dec 2020)

Bitmap BureauCreator

December 4, 2020

Hi everyone, we’re back once again with an overdue Xeno Crisis update, but as you might expect we have plenty of news to share. It’s been a difficult few months for just about everyone really but luckily our progress hasn’t been too hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic - we did of course take some time out over the summer to have some kind of holiday with our families. As we mentioned in the previous update, all Mega Drive / Genesis and Dreamcast orders should now have shipped to all backers, but please get in touch if for some reason you still haven’t received your order yet.

As our responsibilities have increased and our operations have expanded over the past couple of years, we have started working with various contractors to help us out on several fronts, and we are also now renting a nearby warehouse in which to store stock and packaging, freeing up space in the office and giving us a dedicated area for cartridge assembly. It’s also where we’ve relocated our big red 4-slot to, although we still need to finish refurbishing it as it’s a little rough around the edges:

We’ve also got Mike’s Initial D 3 cab in here too which is now up and running although we haven’t got Xeno Crisis running on it yet.

Neo Geo Latest - Physical

In the last update we spoke of some issues with the PCB we had that were causing the odd rare reset on some AES/MVS machines when it read some P ROM data incorrectly. Unfortunately the changes we made back then didn’t cure those issues totally; it actually became a bit of a needle in a haystack trying to find the issue to be able to resolve it. So we took the decision to contract a professional electrical engineer to take a look at the PCB.

We’re pleased to say we have now found the issue, we’ve been able to reproduce it consistently, we understand why it is happening and we now have a fix. We’re waiting on a sample of our revised PCB design to arrive next week. Assuming all is well and as we expect, we will then be placing the main PCB manufacturing order!

 

For those of you that would like a little more insight into what we had to track down and how we went about it, here is a brief overview of the main discoveries:

First phase; we had an issue with our Neo Geo Devkit for flashing the PCBs which was not allowing us to fully verify the P ROM when flashing but would for all other ROMs. So we couldn’t be 100% sure that all data had been written correctly, even if the PCB did generally run fine with just the odd reset and Unibios CRC failure.

This proved relatively easy to track down, there was a voltage level issue that was causing the Flash memory not to be read correctly by the devkit, fortunately write commands were being done correctly as we expected. Now that we could properly verify the P ROM is correct we could move on to attempt to find the issue with the PCB.

Second phase; an initial comparison of our signals vs an original PCB showed we needed a small tweak to the FPGA logic for the ROMOE behaviours (there was a slight signal glitch as you can see on D7). This made the PCB behaviour better but it still was reading the P ROM incorrectly at random points.

After weeks of numerous tests prodding and probing all aspects of the PCB, we realised we would have to find a way to reproduce the issue and pin-point the fault. We could prove it was a bad read by running the Unibios CRC check but the values would change and be inconsistent, and it would pass the CRC most times without any errors. So we decided to create a custom “CRC” BIOS for the NeoGeo, so we could try to control reading the P ROM in sections, detect read errors as soon as they occurred and hopefully all in a reproducible and reliable way.

In the end we read the P ROM in 128 byte chunks and compared each chunk against a known CRC state for that chunk and then repeated this through the whole ROM. We also were able to halt the moment a bad chunk was read - we could re-read this chunk to compare and see if we could spot a pattern.

This worked extremely well and we are able to capture bad reads in a reproducible and consistent manner, as you can see above a capture from a bad vs good read we’re getting some sort of interference to the signal at a 16Mhz rate. We also noticed it was always an 0xFFFF read that would randomly fail. 

From here we were able to analyse the PCB and find the issue that had been eluding us. Under the conditions of an 0xFFFF read, if the floating levels were in the wrong place the level translator was glitching and jumping between high and low states. After testing some modifications to our previous prototype, we now finally have what we believe are the necessary modifications to fix our PCB design!!!!

Obviously the PCB is just one part of the physical items we need, so we’ve been taking the time whilst it’s being fixed to prepare and ready all of the other physical items. Above are just a few of the various bits we needed that have been steadily making their way to the warehouse ready for assembly.

We’ve also decided to manufacture a US and JP style release for Neo Geo CD, as you can see in the preview above (we will contact you to confirm your preference). Also note that both NGCD versions like original games will come with spine cards. With more space in our new warehouse we have also taken the opportunity to order some more plastic shells and snap cases - we do have some excess stock at present so you can still pre-order your copy now.

 

Neo Geo Latest - Software

The last few months have seen a lot of refinement and fixes to the actual game code of Xeno Crisis, with some of the most notable points being:

The Z80 audio logic assembly code is now complete - we had to do nearly a full rewrite, but a huge thank you goes out to Blastar (https://blastar.citavia.de/) for all of his kind support.

The MVS, AES and NGCD integrations are also complete - one of the key things for us has been ensuring that our games behave and act just like original games on those platforms did. So we’re pleased to say that we’ve now implemented what we believe to be the correct behaviours when interacting with the bios in the various combinations of machine set-ups, supporting MVS/AES standard and also Unibios/NeoSD modified behaviours. This means that all of the standard features you expect like software dips, memory card support, backup memory, and book-keeping all behave as expected.

The remaining bits of software development are shrinking by the day, most focus at the moment is on Neo Geo specific polish, things like scaling sprites, extra frames, more palettes, better colour depth than the Mega Drive (like in the HQ above), more sprite details. We expect to go gold very soon, and we will let you know when we do!

We will also finally be confirming details with all collectors’ edition pre-orders, as we have to lock down hostage names to embed in the game (and serial numbers for production). Please expect an email in the next couple of weeks with details.

 

Everything Else Xeno Crisis

The game has now been physically released on the PlayStation Vita thanks to our friends at East Asia Soft, and it can also be obtained digitally through the PSN Store. If you happen to have a PSTV then you’ll be able to play Xeno Crisis in local co-op mode and it’s also a cross-buy title for anyone lucky enough to have both a PS4 and Vita. We hope you’ll agree that East Asia Soft did a great job with this release!

Many if not all backers should have either received or be about to receive their physical Switch and PlayStation 4 copies from the good people at Strictly Limited Games - we received our samples not long ago and have to say the overall package is really impressive!

And yes, we have yet another physical release to talk about, which is Xeno Crisis for the Evercade! It’s a fantastic and relatively inexpensive handheld console that was specifically produced for retro games, and it was great to see both Xeno Crisis and Matt Phillips’ Tanglewood released on the same cartridge. The Mega Drive emulation is particularly good on this device and we’ve tweaked the controls to take advantage of the Evercade’s diamond button configuration, so it’s a great way to play Xeno Crisis on the move, or even at home on an external display.

As you may know, Xeno Crisis has been available for all modern platforms since October 2019 including the Xbox One, and earlier this year we were honoured to be asked if we would like to bring Xeno Crisis to Gamepass for both the Xbox One and PC. So in case you missed it, you can now play Xeno Crisis for free if you happen to be signed up to Gamepass!

During the Kickstarter campaign we made a t-shirt exclusively available to backers which many of you snapped up, and since then we’ve been asked many times if we would release any other Xeno Crisis themed t-shirts. Well we came up with a few designs and eventually settled on these four:

These are now available to buy through our online store in a range of sizes here:

https://shop.bitmapbureau.com/products/xeno-crisis-t-shirt

Last weekend we had a Black Friday 25% discount sale on everything in the shop (apart from Neo Geo pre-orders). We’ve had a number of people that missed out so here is a special discount code for 25% that is valid until the end of Monday 7th December: HERZOG25

 

Many of you are probably familiar with the excellent “Digital Foundry” channel which covers both modern and retro games in an impressive level of detail, and it was with no hesitation that we agreed to an interview with John Linneman regarding the development of Xeno Crisis, along with fellow Mega Drive developer Matt Phillips who also talks about his experience of developing Tanglewood.

Moving on to something completely different now, and that’s to say thanks to the amazing (and generous) Morten Lassen who sent us this superb sculpture of the female marine from Xeno Crisis (Sarah Ridley):

We were blown away to receive something like that out of the blue, and it now sits proudly on the office mantle piece for all to see! If you’d like to check out more of Morten’s excellent work then you can do so here: https://www.instagram.com/fnuksculpt/

There aren’t too many gaming magazines around these days, but a recent contender is “Retro Format” magazine which was successfully Kickstarted by John Kavanagh in 2019. He was kind enough to approach us about reviewing Xeno Crisis in their launch issue, and it was very cool to feature on their front cover!

https://retro-format.com/retroformat.php

 

Battle Axe

For those of you that may have missed it, Battle Axe is the latest project that Mike is working on with the Xeno Crisis artist Henk Nieborg - it’s a fantasy themed hack ‘n’ slash arcade title along the lines of Gauntlet, Golden Axe and The Chaos Engine. It’s actually a concept that Henk came up with a few years ago and we thought it would be great to make it a reality! It’s being published physically by Numskull Games on Switch and PS4 and will of course be coming to Xbox as well as PC, Mac and Linux via Steam too.

You can find out more about Battle Axe here: http://battleaxegame.com

 

Marathon Man

Congratulations to Cameron on recently completing a marathon for charity under national lockdown! Aside from training hard for the big day, he’s been busy finishing all the artwork and printed assets for the Neo Geo release so they’re ready for when the PCBs arrive.

 

Big thanks!

A big thank you for all your continued support and kind comments! We really appreciate how patient everyone has been in waiting for the Neo Geo version, please bear with us now as we get ever closer to shipping!

 

 

Anthony...

Gotta admit that Battle Axe looks really cool.  Definitely something to look forward to for sure.

[Rick Dangerous]

Got my Shock Box order in from Southtown Homebrew today with 10 more cases plus some inserts.  Just wanted to post an updated shelfie of my collection. 

 

Each box contains one cart and one mini-marquee 

 

 

[+Charlie Cat]

8 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Gotta admit that Battle Axe looks really cool.  Definitely something to look forward to for sure.

I agree Ryan. This game  caught my attention. Like to findout more about it. 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

5 hours ago, Rick Dangerous said:

Got my Shock Box order in from Southtown Homebrew today with 10 more cases plus some inserts.  Just wanted to post an updated shelfie of my collection. 

 

Each box contains one cart and one mini-marquee 

 

 

 

Looking good Rick. Love how everything is so perfect and orderly with your collection. I'm jealous. 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Back with fellow AtariAge member Neo Gunloc. This time we see him doing a review on the Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro Enjoy. 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

SNK GLOBAL

 

@SNKPofficial

 

Anúncio: Estamos apoiando este online torneio exposição com votação por meio de nosso programa de suporte de eSports! #SNK #SAMURAISHODOWN https://twitter.com/FTNightt/status/1333772595779530753… https://forms.gle/q4W7K6RCo7NsE2MBA… https://twitch.tv/ftnight_fgc

Translated from Portuguese by

Announcement: We are supporting this online tournament exhibition with voting through our eSports support program! #SNK#SAMURAISHODOWN https://twitter.com/FTNightt/status/1333772595779530753… https://forms.gle/q4W7K6RCo7NsE2MBA… https://twitch.tv/ftnight_fgc

 

 

Quote Tweet

 

 

 

FTNight

 

@FTNightt

· Dec 1

Dia 19 de dezembro vai rolar a nossa última stream com um torneio festivo de Samurqi Shodown. Evento que não haverá mirror match , será char lock e você é quem escolhe quem foi o melhor player com cada personagem aqui no Brasil. https://forms.gle/q4W7K6RCo7NsE2MBA…

 

 

5:04 AM · Dec 8, 2020·

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

伝説のオタク | Dentaku @den_ta9

 

今日は14時から、格ゲーをやったことない方〜初心者さん〜中級者さんにオススメのキャラ紹介と解説をやります。格ゲーでシンプルに勝つためには何をすればいいかを自分なりに言語化してみます。よろしければ是非に。

Translated from Japanese by

Today, from 14:00, we will introduce and explain recommended characters for those who have never played a game-beginner-intermediate. I will try to verbalize what I should do to simply win in the case game. If you don't mind, please do.

 

 

Quote Tweet

 

 

 

PGW公式

 

@PGW_GS

· 1h

【SAMSHO】格ゲー初心者さんにお勧めのキャラ紹介・解説【伝タク】 https://youtu.be/6pGXX_UhJhc @YouTubeより

11:24 PM · Dec 8, 2020·

 

Anthony..