NeoDC v2.1 Clearing the crappy v2 releases out.

Post by **Quzar** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:12 pm

Sorry for the problems of the past two days. All of them are fixed and I wanted to make sure people knew it by doing a mini-release. This is basically what v2 was supposed to be, so it's a bugfix version. (after having 3 versions of v2, i figured it would be easier to keep track of problems by upping the version number)

This release has quite a few things improved from the last version (v2).
Fixed in v2.1:

CDDA is correct again, in kos.

Get the scrambled bin HERE

Get the sources HERE

New compatability chart HERE

Juan · Post by **Juan** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:23 pm

No need to apologize

You fix things so fast that I don't have time to notice anything broken

LyingWake · Post by **LyingWake** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:03 am

quzar, that binary is unscrambled.

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:07 am

LyingWake wrote:quzar, that binary is unscrambled.

scrambled it and re-uploaded. man, im on a crappy streak.

LyingWake · Post by **LyingWake** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:10 am

Hehe, that's ok. Good work - I wish I had my DC so I can try it out. The last version I tried was test2.

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:14 am

LyingWake wrote:Hehe, that's ok. Good work - I wish I had my DC so I can try it out. The last version I tried was test2.

version 9 test 2 of NeoCD? Big changes now =).

Link2k4 · Post by **Link2k4** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:13 am

lol, its cool quzar, you worked hard so of course your brain is going to be fried! I am going to burn now and play for a hour because I have to go to bed for work, its 4:06 am here in michigan so heh,I have a afternoon job so that makes me happy. Your forgiven too,quzar, infact you don't have to apoligize. we owe you a debt of gratitude. YO! EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR QUUUUUUUUUZAAAAAAAAAR! "YAY! WOO WOO *applause*

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:49 am

5am here now, and yet im still working on it =P

hopefully i can get sound working in aero fighters 2 and 3, unlike the PC version.

Arqueiro · Post by **Arqueiro** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 5:01 am

wonderfull

TseTinGFunG · Post by **TseTinGFunG** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:53 am

i need a little help guys. how do i go about burning this program when it only has the 1st_read.bin. shouldn't there be any more files like an ip.bin or can i just burn it like that with the app selfboot.

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:58 am

TseTinGFunG wrote:i need a little help guys. how do i go about burning this program when it only has the 1st_read.bin. shouldn't there be any more files like an ip.bin or can i just burn it like that with the app selfboot.

just use the ip.bin from any other dc homebrew.

TseTinGFunG · Post by **TseTinGFunG** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:40 am

Freeze · Post by **Freeze** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:21 am

I have a little questions about the NeoGeo CD in general... why do you need an extra NeoGeo BIOS file? And why don't for e.g. the Genesis or SNES? This makes it almost impossible to add the emulator on a professional pressed CD like a demo disc.

And isn't there a free BIOS file out there which doesn't use the SNK libraries?

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:01 pm

Freeze wrote:I have a little questions about the NeoGeo CD in general... why do you need an extra NeoGeo BIOS file? And why don't for e.g. the Genesis or SNES? This makes it almost impossible to add the emulator on a professional pressed CD like a demo disc.

And isn't there a free BIOS file out there which doesn't use the SNK libraries?

I'm fairly certain its because on cartridge systems they hold bios in the carts, and whatever may act like a bios inside the console is very simple to emulate.

xenon · Post by **xenon** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:06 pm

Thanks Quzar for the fix-release. I'll re-test the games tomorrow

Freeze · Post by **Freeze** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:01 pm

quzar wrote:
Freeze wrote:I have a little questions about the NeoGeo CD in general... why do you need an extra NeoGeo BIOS file? And why don't for e.g. the Genesis or SNES? This makes it almost impossible to add the emulator on a professional pressed CD like a demo disc.

And isn't there a free BIOS file out there which doesn't use the SNK libraries?
I'm fairly certain its because on cartridge systems they hold bios in the carts, and whatever may act like a bios inside the console is very simple to emulate.

But... errr... it's not cartridge system, right? So why does NeoDC and Neo4All need it anyway? Because emulators which need it are easier to program?

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:57 pm

Freeze wrote:
quzar wrote:
Freeze wrote:I have a little questions about the NeoGeo CD in general... why do you need an extra NeoGeo BIOS file? And why don't for e.g. the Genesis or SNES? This makes it almost impossible to add the emulator on a professional pressed CD like a demo disc.

And isn't there a free BIOS file out there which doesn't use the SNK libraries?
I'm fairly certain its because on cartridge systems they hold bios in the carts, and whatever may act like a bios inside the console is very simple to emulate.
But... errr... it's not cartridge system, right? So why does NeoDC and Neo4All need it anyway? Because emulators which need it are easier to program?

The way CD-Rom systems works pretty much prohibits a bios from being on the CD. In cartridge systems there is often a bios on the cartridge because it can be readeasily, whereas CDs arent fast enough to do that. It IS possible to have an HLE bios, but I certainly dont have the knowledge to write full emulation of the bios.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:52 pm

CD-based systems have a BIOS (wrong word - that's what the PC's built-in ROM is called). It's responsible for everything that happens before a game is started (like actually loading the game off a CD, for one), and on many systems it's responsible for a lot of additional functions while the game's actually running. The NeoGeo CD's ROM, for example, deals with all disc access from the game, and provides a additional stuff too. The Playstation ROM is also used heavily by most games - it provides disc access and standard library functions.

Same deal with computers. Most of them implement a large chunk of the operating system (or even all of it, for 8-bit machines) in ROM. You need a ROM to be able to do anything with these systems, and there's no way around it. If you're loading anything from secondary storage (disks, tapes, whatever) you need a ROM.

Cartridge-based systems generally don't have a built-in ROM at all. They run everything directly off the cartridge. I know of two that had a built-in ROM - the Sega Master System, and the MegaDrive 2. The ROM simply displayed a start-up logo, and checked that there was a valid cartridge inserted, then got out of the way and let the cartridge take over. The Japanese SMS and the original MegaDrive didn't have a ROM at all - they just run the game off the cartridge. No game requires the ROM (and would not be able to detect it anyway), so no emulators bother emulating it.

That said, it is possible to emulate the functions of the ROM. NeoDC does that already - instead of emulating the CD hardware, it emulates the ROM functions that access the disc, and does all the reading and writing itself. It doesn't do that with the rest of the ROM functions, and games still use those other functions. It's possible to emulate the rest of the functions, but that's quite hard to do, and generally compatibility would drop unless you can emulate everything exactly, right down to bugs and unintended features.

DCmad · Post by **DCmad** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:38 pm

Thanks for the great info BA

And now, i have a question.
I ever wondered why the loadings in NeoCD/SDL don't show the classic NeoGeoCD animations. In the real console, the loading times were stupids. And the screens served as amusement.
NeoCD/SDL doesn't need it, the loads are very improved. But they still exist.
So why NeoDC can't display those screens. I miss some of them, like the beautiful B&W portraits in KoF95, or the SD characters on Samurai Spirits 2, even that monkey playing with grenades.
NeoCD/SDL windows and linux versions both have a bitmap wich replaces the loading screens, Nebula show the right screens. Even NeoCD/SDL for DC used to show a bitmap untill IM removed it.
Maybe i can't explain, but i miss some art screens and the pogress bar itself.
It can't be done?

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:28 pm

DCmad wrote:Thanks for the great info BA
And now, i have a question.
I ever wondered why the loadings in NeoCD/SDL don't show the classic NeoGeoCD animations. In the real console, the loading times were stupids. And the screens served as amusement.
NeoCD/SDL doesn't need it, the loads are very improved. But they still exist.
So why NeoDC can't display those screens. I miss some of them, like the beautiful B&W portraits in KoF95, or the SD characters on Samurai Spirits 2, even that monkey playing with grenades.
NeoCD/SDL windows and linux versions both have a bitmap wich replaces the loading screens, Nebula show the right screens. Even NeoCD/SDL for DC used to show a bitmap untill IM removed it.
Maybe i can't explain, but i miss some art screens and the pogress bar itself.
It can't be done?

I really have no idea. Without information from nebula on how that is done, there is really nothing I can do about it. I dont have a NGCD and am not an emulator writer. I CAN put the loading screen back in, thats fairly easy, but I just didnt see much point to it.