ieure Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Hmm guess so, forgot or didn't know that other existed. I knew of the early LPT linker for Neo stuff as I was into BUNG kits back then having a GBC one that used the same setup. I can't even see using a LPT connection now, wonder if you could somehow convert that. I picked up a thin client from Goodwill for $15. New enough to have USB & run Windows XP, old enough to have hardware serial/parallel ports, no WiFi, so easy to airgap. I have it running all my programmers: Data I/O 29B, GQ-4x4, and Bung flash linker. I couldn't get the Bung to work with ECP/EPP mode, so it's maybe a bit slower than it could be, but it works fine other than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattroid Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Yeah, it's not tricky from a software POV, an Arduino would do the job. The connector is actually a PCI connector you have to chop around with a hacksaw, so that's not a problem either. I think this could be a fun project, especially if the code was open source so people could build one if they wanted to but someone could also build and sell them for those that can't or don't want to bother. I wouldn't mind building some for people but I don't have the know how or time to figure out the code part of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shicky256 Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 If someone could figure out how to reflash commercially available NGPC carts, that would be neat. If anyone doesn't know, they're pretty much just flash chips hooked up to a cartridge connector, but they're write protected so you can't just overwrite the chip, and you can't replace the chip since the NGPC BIOS only accepts certain manufacturer IDs (more info: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ngpcdev/conversations/topics/732 ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDIRunner Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 My Neo Pocket SD arrived last week while I was on vacation. I finally got a chance to try it out last night and I'm super happy. I'm very pleased with both this and the Lynx SD. I can't wait for the Jag cart to be finished. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDIRunner Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Another very nice case sleeve! This one is for a Nintendo DS case -- print at 300dpi. Thanks for sharing. I made a few minor alterations to make it uniform with my other NGPC games, but most of it remained the same. Looks great in a case. I ended up using a Shadowfox Game Boy case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StopDrop&Retro Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 This thing is INCREDIBLE!! Here's my review. Enjoy! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 (edited) Yes the US only got the NGPC, not the NGP or the 'slim' NGPC either. Just a piece of constructive criticism, if you're going to review a device like that, it would be best not spending over a quarter of the video just rambling, and to also have pre-tested the product so you're familiar with it completely and can dig into all the features with some knowledge behind it instead of just being surprised and amazed repeatedly. That's not really a review but more of an instructional video on how to make the device work and how to navigate the menus on video. Given how long it takes to write a game from the SD to system storage can take anywhere from 30sec (512KB) to 4min (4MB cart) it's a lot of wasted time on video that could and should have been clipped. I agree about your non-review part talking about cost efficiency with why you'd want a kit. I'm in the same space. I've had twice a NES Powerpak, and I would never own one of those let alone a Everdrive N8 at this rate. I have over 50 NES games, and anything I'd care to play at this point is in the $10 and less club and I haven't felt a need to buy a NES game due to the stupidity in market for years now. SNES though I got a sweet deal on an everdrive v2 for that with DSP enabled, and I did a cost analysis of restoring my old SFC library I once owned couple dozen plus) and some other games I let go of because while fun the stupid prices were worth selling like Wild Guns so that is a good choice for me to have it. The NGP SD Kit fell into that realm because the stuff I'd buy yet for it outside of Biomotor Unitron and Baseball Stars are ungodly expensive stuff (Rockman, Cotton(no idea why it's common), Evolution and Faselei EU english versions.) Those 4 games alone would set me back $500 or so vs the $90 shipped for the kit. EDIT: That free space thing has annoyed the hell out of me too, I can't figure out why it does that either. I had to start pulling/re-adding stuff by size and whittled it down but it still says 1MB free and clearly it's not when I can't add a 512KB game. Edited July 25, 2017 by Tanooki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattroid Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 (edited) Someone else could explain this way better and I could, but you can "lose" memory due to how the games are flashed. Remember, this thing is broken up into two 8M flash chips, so 16M total, with 15M free for games (see first post). In other words, you're not working with 15M in full, you're working with 2x ~8M. I'm not sure how that last 1M is broken up in there for the OS. As the guide says (unless it was removed or changed prior to final printing): "Due to the way ROM images are stored on the FLASH memory, not all the storage space can always be used when installing larger games. It is advised to install larger games first." Edited July 25, 2017 by Mattroid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SainT Posted July 25, 2017 Author Share Posted July 25, 2017 Basically think fragmentation. Games must be installed to one single flash chip (or in the case of 4mb games, 2mb on each flash chip). There are 2x 8mb flash chips on the cart. What I need to do is defragment the free space when there isn't enough space on a single flash to install a particular game. This will come with later bios versions. As ever my time is split between shipping out carts, developing news ones (Jag!) and keeping existing ones up to date. As it's just me and my shed, it gets busy! Lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 As per the two posts above. I got tripped up by it early while testing the deviice, and insisted the line Mattroid quoted was added to the manual so people wouldn't blindly scratch their heads and wonder why they couldn't flash a game that appeared to be smaller than the free space quoted. Defragmenting would be good too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Things will come in time, but if a defragmenting option or automatic feature cleans up and allows more of that back end lost space to be returned or further minimized that would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kublai Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Yeah, I was playtesting Delta Warp and found the issue, as said, because all the dumps were only 512k in size. You can easily make a 512k game into 1MB by going to a command prompt and typing: COPY /B FILE1.BIN+FILE1.BIN FILE2.BIN I just received my cart today and I'm very excited. My questions are I have the GoodNGPx v3.14 set. When I extracted all the files some files are 7k, some are 512k, some are 1mbit, 4mbit,16mbit. How do I know what the actual sizes are? also is there a gui version of the trunc program to pad these ROMS? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Anything legit for NGP/PC shouldn't be under 512kb, the 7k files (I think there are 2, that's a BIOS dump.) Nothing should be over 4MB either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kublai Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Anything legit for NGP/PC shouldn't be under 512kb, the 7k files (I think there are 2, that's a BIOS dump.) Nothing should be over 4MB either. Here is an example and I'm unsure how to pad that to 1Mbit: Adventures of Gus and Rob V1, The by Mickey McMurray (PD).ngc 7KB Adventures of Gus and Rob V2, The by Mickey McMurray (PD).ngc 9KB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 Ah, homebrews. Not sure, Saint can probably answer. Would be interesting, I've just found a couple of ROMs by a mate of mine on some website, that he wrote for the NGPC a long time ago heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Oh that, I have no idea to do with homebrew. The one time I tried to throw a homebrew multicart at the thing it had a fit so I erased it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SainT Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 Here is an example and I'm unsure how to pad that to 1Mbit: Adventures of Gus and Rob V1, The by Mickey McMurray (PD).ngc 7KB Adventures of Gus and Rob V2, The by Mickey McMurray (PD).ngc 9KB Yeah, that's homebrew stuff. They work fine. I think the only thing which hasn't worked are the combined multi-cart things out together for the flashmasta. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 If something should happen where you needed tech support or notification of firmware updates, will this be done through email or in another fashion away from this forum? I don't see me checking your product page daily in case something comes up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kublai Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Yeah, that's homebrew stuff. They work fine. I think the only thing which hasn't worked are the combined multi-cart things out together for the flashmasta. 2 questions: 1. Do these homebrew files need to be in 1Mbit to work? 2. I have another file that is 16Mbit its called Super 12 in 1 [p1][!].ngc but the flashcart is not seeing it. How do you work around that? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kublai Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 If something should happen where you needed tech support or notification of firmware updates, will this be done through email or in another fashion away from this forum? I don't see me checking your product page daily in case something comes up. It would be nice to have it's own page for firmware updates and fixes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SainT Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 If something should happen where you needed tech support or notification of firmware updates, will this be done through email or in another fashion away from this forum? I don't see me checking your product page daily in case something comes up. Probably both forum and the RetroHQ website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SainT Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 2 questions: 1. Do these homebrew files need to be in 1Mbit to work? 2. I have another file that is 16Mbit its called Super 12 in 1 [p1][!].ngc but the flashcart is not seeing it. How do you work around that? Homebrew can be any size. The 12 in 1 image doesnt work afaik, I'm not sure why its not being displayed though... Also watch out for the GoodRom naming conventions -- [!] means bad dump I believe. Expect that ROM image to fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 I had asked due to some very questionable general moderation made yesterday/overnight -- not sure I'll be sticking around and would like to get support off site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SainT Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 If you register on RetroHQ you can be notified of new posts. That would cover you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 I'll do that, I think my days maybe numbered here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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