FinalBurn Neo

The FinalBurn Neo is a specialized multi-arcade emulator forked from FinalBurn Alpha after… stuff happened. It was released in 2019.

Due to the complex nature of the situation, Batocera refers to FBNeo and FBAlpha almost interchangeably. And to add to the complexity, FBNeo shares a lot of characteristic with MAME as well. It's strongly recommended to read the arcade guide to become familiar with how arcade games in general work first.

This system scrapes metadata for the “arcade” group(s) and loads the fbneo set from the currently selected theme, if available.

  • Folders: /userdata/roms/fbneo, /userdata/roms/neogeo
  • Accepted ROM formats: .zip, .7z

FBNeo requires certain BIOS files to be placed in /userdata/roms/fbneo. These are:

  • FBNeo v1.0.0.0:
    • neogeo.zip - Neo Geo [BIOS only]
    • pgm.zip - PGM (Polygame Master) System BIOS [BIOS only]
    • skns.zip - Super Kaneko Nova System BIOS [BIOS only]
  • FBNeo v1.0.0.2:
    • bubsys.zip - Bubble System BIOS
    • cchip.zip - C-Chip Internal BIOS [Internal ROM only]
    • decocass.zip - DECO Cassette System [BIOS only]
    • isgsm.zip - ISG Selection Master Type 2006 System Bios [BIOS only]
    • midssio.zip - Midway SSIO Sound Board Internal pROM [Internal pROM only]
    • namcoc69.zip - Namco C69 (M37702) (Bios) [BIOS only]
    • namcoc70.zip - Namco C70 (M37702) (Bios) [BIOS only]
    • namcoc75.zip - Namco C75 (M37702) (Bios) [BIOS only]
    • neogeo.zip - Neo Geo [BIOS only]
    • nmk004.zip - NMK004 Internal ROM [Internal rom]
    • pgm.zip - PGM (Polygame Master) System BIOS [BIOS only]
    • skns.zip - Super Kaneko Nova System BIOS [BIOS only]
    • ym2608.zip - YM2608 Internal ROM [Internal ROM only]

FBNeo uses ROMsets in similar vein to MAME. A table of which ROMset version is being used in whatever version of Batocera can be found on the arcade guide. If you came here before reading the arcade guide, read the arcade guide.

The ROMs themselves should not be decompressed, FBNeo expects them in their provided .zip/.7z format.

Place your Final Burn Neo ROMs in /userdata/roms/fbneo. You can also place your NeoGeo games in this folder as well, but if you'd like to organize them into their own “system” you can place them in /userdata/roms/neogeo instead. This will make them appear as a dedicated system in EmulationStation.

RetroArch has its own page.

libretro: FBAlpha

a.k.a. fbalpha2012, this is an older build of FinalBurn Alpha that performs better on weaker SBCs like the RPi Zero.

Todo for this emulator: like everything.

libretro: FBNeo

A libretro port of FinalBurn Neo is a specialized multi-arcade emulator forked from Final Burn Alpha after… stuff happened. This is the most current version of FBNeo available in Batocera.

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 Overclock or underclock the emulated CPU. Can be used to fix slowdown that occurs on the real arcade machine, but introduces instability/other issues. Only supported by some drivers.
⇒ 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, at the cost of choppy motion.
⇒ 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.

Per-game dipswitch configuration can be accessed via RetroArch's Quick Menu. While in-game, press [HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES), then go to OptionsDip switch settings. For per-machine service menus, check the Dip Switches/Diagnostic Input section.

A standalone version of Final Burn Alpha, this is a specialized fork of an older build of FBAlpha that performs better on weaker SBCs like the RPi Zero.

Todo for this emulator: like everything.

It's… complicated and no paragraph long block on a random wiki can properly explain it, so take the rest of this with caution. But the general agreement between users is that FBNeo “focuses” more on speed and performance than MAME, though in practice there aren't many cases where one emulator performs better than another on the same game (with the same versioning, settings, etc.). FBNeo also has a smaller supported library, but still supports an impressively large number of games. One differentiator that may be significant is that FBNeo supports RetroAchievements and MAME does not.

When it boils down to the pragmatic differences, if you're having issues with an arcade game it's worth trying it out from sets for both MAME and FBNeo to see if one does better than the other. Some people may also prefer the simpler romset conventions that FBNeo uses.

Here are the default Final Burn Neo's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

For problems related to FBNeo itself, refer to libretro FBNeo's F.A.Q.

Most questions are answered in the generic arcade guide.

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/fbneo.txt
  • Last modified: 18 months ago
  • by atari