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NEO•GEO CD

The NEO•GEO CD is a home console developed by SNK, designed to allow gamers to play their favorite arcade games from the comfort of their own home. It was released in 1994 and retailed for $399 USD. Its internals are similar to the cartridge-based NEO•GEO AES, though the CD has a lot more RAM.

This system scrapes metadata for the “neogeocd” group and loads the neogeocd set from the currently selected theme, if available.

To function NeoCD need a BIOS from a Front Loading, Top Loading or CDZ machine. The BIOS files should be installed in the /userdata/bios/neocd folder. You need at least one from the following table. If several BIOSes are available, it will be possible to choose which to run in the advanced system settings.

MD5 checksum Share file path Description
11526d58d4c524daef7d5d677dc6b004 bios/neocd/neocd_z.rom CDZ
f39572af7584cb5b3f70ae8cc848aba2 bios/neocd/neocd.bin CDZ MAME
08ca8b2dba6662e8024f9e789711c6fc bios/neocd/uni-bioscd.rom CDZ Universal 3.3
MD5 checksum Share file path Description
c733b4b7bd30fa849874d96c591c8639 bios/neocdz.zip Neo Geo CDZ System BIOS

Place your Neo-Geo CD ROMs in /userdata/roms/neogeocd.

It's recommended to use the latest MAME romset at the time of Batocera's last stable release.

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES) which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

Standardized features available to all libretro cores: neogeocd.videomode, neogeocd.ratio, neogeocd.smooth, neogeocd.shaders, neogeocd.pixel_perfect, neogeocd.decoration, neogeocd.game_translation

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
GRAPHICS BACKEND neogeocd.gfxbackend Choose your graphics rendering
⇒ OpenGL opengl, Vulkan vulkan.
AUDIO LATENCY neogeocd.audio_latency Audio latency in milliseconds, turn it up if you hear crackles
⇒ 256 256, 192 192, 128 128, 64 64, 32 32, 16 16, 8 8.
THREADED VIDEO neogeocd.video_threaded Improves performance at the cost of latency and more video stuttering. Use only if full speed cannot be obtained otherwise.
⇒ On true, Off false.

libretro: neocd

Libretro NeoCD is a contemporary NEO•GEO CD emulator. To quote its readme:

NeoCD-Libretro is a complete rewrite of NeoCD from scratch in modern C++11. It is designed with accuracy and portability in mind rather than being all about speed like the the older versions.
libretro: neocd configuration
ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all systems this core supports
CONSOLE REGION global.neocd_region Change language of some games
⇒ Japan Japan, USA USA, Europe Europe.
BIOS SELECT global.neocd_bios CD Universe Bios not include cheats
⇒ CDZ CDZ, CDZ (MAME) CDZ (MAME), Universe 3.3 Universe 3.3.
PER-GAME SAVES global.neocd_per_content_saves Use one save file per-game
⇒ Off False, On True.

libretro: fbneo

FBNeo can run a lot of things, can't it? Description needed.

libretro: fbneo configuration
ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all systems this core supports
CPU CLOCK global.fbneo-cpu-speed-adjust Can fix native system slowdowns in some games
⇒ 30% 30%, 40% 40%, 50% 50%, 60% 60%, 70% 70%, 80% 80%, 90% 90%, 100% 100%, 110% 110%, 120% 120%, 130% 130%, 140% 140%, 150% 150%, 160% 160%, 170% 170%, 180% 180%, 190% 190%, 200% 200%.
FRAMESKIP global.fbneo-frameskip Skip frames to improve performance (smoothness)
⇒ No skipping 0, Skip rendering of 1 frames out of 2 1, Skip rendering of 2 frames out of 3 2, Skip rendering of 3 frames out of 4 3, Skip rendering of 4 frames out of 5 4.
CROSSHAIR (LIGHTGUN) global.fbneo-lightgun-hide-crosshair Show crosshair if playing with a lightgun device
⇒ Off enabled, On disabled.
Settings specific to neogeo
NEOGEO MODE neogeo.fbneo-neogeo-mode-switch Load appropriate Bios depending on your choice
⇒ Console AES World AES Asia, Console AES Japan AES Japan, Arcade MVS Europe MVS Asia/Europe, Arcade MVS USA MVS USA, Arcade MVS Japan MVS Japan, Arcade Universe BIOS (Cheats) Universe BIOS.
MEMORY CARD MODE neogeo.fbneo-memcard-mode Change the behavior for the memory card
⇒ Off disabled, Shared shared, Per-game per-game.

The controller for the NEO•GEO CD had an interesting “D-pad” which was a small disc floating above a circular perimeter, with micro-switch activation allowing for precise control of inputs; a necessity for the fighting games featured on the console. It's truly something that needs to be physically felt to be understood.

Here are the default NEO•GEO CD's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/neogeocd.1653383183.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 22 months ago
  • by atari