Neo Geo CD Copy Protection Removal?

[Captain FPGA]

So recently I picked up Furrteks SD Loader for neo cd. A friend of mine helped me make cd rips of my games. The problem is though, they keep crashing showing disc I/O errors and security warnings. Then I found out there are about 8 or so games that implemented special copy protection for real hardware. These games are semi playable on both top and front loaders (with and without Furrteks mod) but the CDZ flatout rejects them!

I looked around online and found a set of matching rips with the copy protection stripped out. The problem is the audio files take too long to play and when they do it's incorrect. For instance Real Bout Special Mary's stage was playing Franco Bash music! Now I heard there's a work around to even this, it involves taking the copy protected game, remove the audio crap, then save it. Grab the queue sheet and wav files from a matching game then merge those with the copy removed game's bin file. At that point Furrtek's mod will run the game like normal.

I have the clean rip, plus the same game rip without security checks, in this case it's Real Bout Special Fatal Fury. What's are the names of the file extension that plays background music that I would need trash? Once I can locate all of said tracks and delete I can save the binary files (from the copy removed version) as bin or track1 then finally merge wave files from my rip.

[mdd45]

Look on Archive.org for "Neo Geo CD Copy-Protection Removed Games"

[Captain FPGA]

Look on Archive.org for "Neo Geo CD Copy-Protection Removed Games"

Yeah thanks, I was aware of this set. It took me 2 days since writing this but not only have I found all the security stripped games. But I've also managed to get Sega Cue Maker and WinISO to generate both ISO and CUE sheet. Which enables me to replace tracks in my Neo Geo games! Ask me anything about this process! I'm anxious to share.

EDIT: Forgot to mention as much as I am glad that person killed the security in those games to share them with the world, his masters are lacking. The music is heavily delayed and plays the wrong tracks. There's another set floating out there from someone else with similar patches except his music plays on time and it's in all the right places. i.e. Mary's stage is Mary's stage not Franco Bash music lol. I think the correct masters were made by someone who goes by the name of Verevet Dark. The only 2 games he never altered were Fatal Fury 3 and KOF '95. Perhaps he wasn't a fan of those 2? I fixed FF3, gonna do KOF later tonight.

Both of the gentlemen tipped me off as to what to look for, this compelled me to jettison that security! The way they left the files says it all.

[mdd45]

Can you share the link to the alternate set? - ok found it.

I haven't experienced any problems with the ones i shared but i'm not familiar with every neo geo game cd track.

I have patched myself some missing games though from this set like: Robo Army, Super Sidekicks 3, Soccer Brawl, Savage Reign and King of Fighters '99.

For more details on removing protection google NGCD_Protection_Removal_Tutorial_1.0

[Captain FPGA]

Can you share the link to the alternate set? - ok found it.

I haven't experienced any problems with the ones i shared but i'm not familiar with every neo geo game cd track.

I have patched myself some missing games though from this set like: Robo Army, Super Sidekicks 3, Soccer Brawl, Savage Reign and King of Fighters '99.

For more details on removing protection google NGCD_Protection_Removal_Tutorial_1.0

You mean the Verevet Dark set? It's on archive dot org. I know I'm getting this late and by now you found it already.

About the set that belongs to yours, are you using an SD Loader? Were you playing on the Neo CD Copy Protection Removed set? Either way if we're using the same set I have no idea why mine is reacting harshly to the same masters. Wish I found that magnet link 2 days ago would of saved me a lot of hassle lol. Guess it ain't all bad since I have some idea on how to replace the music. Imagine my surprise when I learned Sega Cue Maker also works on Neo Geo games!

Appreciate the assets bud.

[mdd45]

I use Neo sd loader and as of now latest firmware 0.8b has a known bug: CDDA tracks sometimes start playing a bit too late. Maybe that is why you have a delay on playing tracks. Another thing is the brand of SD card. Try different brands, sizes and quallity of sd cards because sd loader was known to be a little finicky with sd cards especially during updating, even though furrtek has made great improvements lately. New updates are on the way though. I have compared the track-list of Real Bout Special Fatal Fury from both archive sets and both of them have the same tracks, lengths and order on both images. Unfortunately i don't have access now to my neo geo cd/sdloader and i wont until September to thoroughly test .

[Captain FPGA]

I use Neo sd loader and as of now latest firmware 0.8b has a known bug: CDDA tracks sometimes start playing a bit too late. Maybe that is why you have a delay on playing tracks. Another thing is the brand of SD card. Try different brands, sizes and quallity of sd cards because sd loader was known to be a little finicky with sd cards especially during updating, even though furrtek has made great improvements lately. New updates are on the way though. I have compared the track-list of Real Bout Special Fatal Fury from both archive sets and both of them have the same tracks, lengths and order on both images. Unfortunately i don't have access now to my neo geo cd/sdloader and i wont until September to thoroughly test .

I removed the problem games from my SD card. If you like I can throw them back on there to see if I get the same results? I tried FF3 once and RBS twice though with music not playing where it's supposed to. Wish I knew why mine is reacting badly and yours isn't.

I'm aware of the bug in the loader, I don't think that's the issue. All of my fixed games play on time, so does the CDZ patched sets from the V man. It's when I run regular games that came bundled with my Loader is when I run into the slowdown and even then these are miniscule delays (courtesy of RetroAsia they make gr8 products! I'm not getting on the dude from RA his rips were solid, that said I see the most delays on his ISOS but again we're only talking a few games). The only time it really annoyed me was when playing Real Bout one on the character select.

[Captain FPGA]

Question, you ever get scratchy music while running a game on the SD Loader for more than 10 minutes?

[mdd45]

No, that's why i advised you to use different brands of sd cards with different sizes also.

if you use the micro sd neo sdloader keeping the cd drive maybe you should check also your soldering job on x y z and the cdda cable connection. I use the normal SD slot with no cd drive....

[Captain FPGA]

No, that's why i advised you to use different brands of sd cards with different sizes also.

if you use the micro sd neo sdloader keeping the cd drive maybe you should check also your soldering job on x y z and the cdda cable connection. I use the normal SD slot with no cd drive....

Oh great, I didn't do the mod myself Retro Asia did. He also provided the card. I'll look into grabbing another sd card and inform him of my dilemma.

[tbone3969]

Look on Archive.org for "Neo Geo CD Copy-Protection Removed Games"

Yeah thanks, I was aware of this set. It took me 2 days since writing this but not only have I found all the security stripped games. But I've also managed to get Sega Cue Maker and WinISO to generate both ISO and CUE sheet. Which enables me to replace tracks in my Neo Geo games! Ask me anything about this process! I'm anxious to share.

EDIT: Forgot to mention as much as I am glad that person killed the security in those games to share them with the world, his masters are lacking. The music is heavily delayed and plays the wrong tracks. There's another set floating out there from someone else with similar patches except his music plays on time and it's in all the right places. i.e. Mary's stage is Mary's stage not Franco Bash music lol. I think the correct masters were made by someone who goes by the name of Verevet Dark. The only 2 games he never altered were Fatal Fury 3 and KOF '95. Perhaps he wasn't a fan of those 2? I fixed FF3, gonna do KOF later tonight.

Both of the gentlemen tipped me off as to what to look for, this compelled me to jettison that security! The way they left the files says it all.

I would like to learn more about the process. Can you message me please? Thank you.