NG.DEV ROM Ripping for MiSTer? (Gunlord & Kraut Buster)

[Captain FPGA]

Is there a way to rip Neo Geo roms? I thought about maybe grabbing a copy of Gunlord and Kraut Buster one day then ripping and running through my Mister. The problem is I heard security measures taken for these NGDEV game types are way strict versus a normal Neo Geo roms.

Is there tech similar to the Retrode where I can place the game in the device then rip? I also remember seeing a ripping cartridge for SNES that let's you rip a game from the console! I'm aware some of these games are also on Dreamcast, I prefer to play them on Neo Geo if there's a way to rip them. It would also depend on whether the Mister can run it!

[ExCyber]

It's been a while since I've seen any details about this, but their cartridges have a microcontroller that was rumored to handle some important function for each game (e.g. collision detection or enemy behavior). For these, dumping the standard cartridge ROMs probably doesn't result in a working version of the game.

https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?ti ... reamer_1.0
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?ti ... reamer_1.5

[Captain FPGA]

It's been a while since I've seen any details about this, but their cartridges have a microcontroller that was rumored to handle some important function for each game (e.g. collision detection or enemy behavior). For these, dumping the standard cartridge ROMs probably doesn't result in a working version of the game.

https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?ti ... reamer_1.0
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?ti ... reamer_1.5

Huh, so the threshold for preserving these games a million years from now after the cartridges die of old age is damn near impossible, just as I feared.

[Kannibal]

When it comes to games like these, I firmly believe we need to start petitions or just getting in touch with these developers to sell their ROMs. Although, the efforts might not be fruitful because they do indeed re-release these games on modern consoles, but at the end of the day they will know they have a potential market they can begin tapping into.

[Nuclear3D]

I doubt we will see kraut busters i remember asking about a digital release years ago and was treated pretty harshly just for the question of it.

[Captain FPGA]

I doubt we will see kraut busters i remember asking about a digital release years ago and was treated pretty harshly just for the question of it.

They shouldn't have treated you that way. If they didn't want their rom pirated then it was dumb of them to release games like Gunlord on Dreamcast, the ultimate pirate system.

I'm fairly confident the Switch security will be defeated as well then all their games will be leaked once more. So there's no real point in keeping the game locked away on Neo Geo. All of my retro friends who buy these games always buy the game and grab the rom later. I understand there's a lot of piracy out there but I feel like the consumer here is unfairly punished for it. Other indie devs handle this situation way better. Glad they don't lockdown their games behind a wall of code.

[akeley]

Meanwhile, on ebay...

[Nuclear3D]

there probably is something like a couple of hundred people who own and played kraut busters i imagine that it took years to make i just don't understand why they didn't do a steam release or by now a switch release it seems like NG.dev is mad about piracy from the dreamcast days and are punishing people till this day.

[Dubon]

Afaik roms need to fit into mister sdram, with is 128MB or 1024mbit. I think the latest ngdev games are larger size then that so even if the games were ripped and someone created a mapper for their on-cart chip, i dont think they would fit in mister ram currently.

[Koston]

Meanwhile, on ebay...

This was their intention, create fame and prestige by being rare. Same strategy is used by many modern hip hop artists, they hype up a new LP record release, only make a small batch which is literally instantaneously sold out (in less than 5 minutes online) and absolutely never do a re-print.

It appears this strategy works well, creating a lot of discussion of the games without having almost anyone who actually played them. Then the actual profit is created by re-releasing the games on newer platforms, which people will be widely aware of without any further advertising. Most likely they are getting far more income this way, than if their mediocre games had seen wider distribution from the start on NeoGeo.

I really do not like NG:Dev.Team. Their shameless ripoffs of retro classics do not deserve the fame they have. The team even released "Japan-localized" versions of at least some carts - for those "collectors" who never actually play anything, have too much money and just think Kanji characters look good. On eBay now, for five thousand sterling pounds. They shot up to the top of AES cart prices lists already!

[MostroW]

i knew these games existed but never actually took the time to look at them, but Kraut Buster looks like a (cheap) knock off Metal Slug to me.
the same goes for Gun Lord, which looks like they copied the Turrican / Last Resort formula and tried to combine that into one game?

from my perspective as memorable as most SNK games were, these look like quite forgettable / irrelevant to me.

[J3RK]

Just thought I'd chime in. I've heard other people say that they've had a bad taste after correspondence with NG.DEV. In my case, I got a pretty friendly response when I made an inquiry a couple of years ago. I was looking to get a copy of Gunlord somehow. (didn't really want a Dreamcast version) At the time, they had no plans to make any further copies of the Neo Geo version, but said that they were working on a 3DS version. About a year later, I checked back, and while they had scrapped that version (it seems) they were just about to release it on the Switch (and possibly other consoles). (Gunlord X) Both times I emailed them though, they were quite friendly. YMMV of course.

Being the Metroid / Turrican junky that I am, I really needed Gunlord.

It would be nice if their games were available on Steam though. The Switch version of Gunlord X is great though. Fun game, and not priced badly.

[Jae099]

When a working ROM finally gets dumped nobody will feel bad due to the cost. It's gonna happen eventually. They should sell a ROM on their website. Sure, not everyone will pay. But some money is better then no money.

[Tulius]

When a working ROM finally gets dumped nobody will feel bad due to the cost. It's gonna happen eventually. They should sell a ROM on their website. Sure, not everyone will pay. But some money is better then no money.

The main problem with that is no collector is willing to loan or donate an expensive cartridge(Kruat Buster) to be dumped and additional chips to be analised. This game is doomed to be locked in the shelf of few collectors around the world forever =(

If I were rich I would buy in eBay and donate to anyone up to the task.

[Koston]

Disclaimer: This is based on hearsay rather than established fact, so take it with a grain of salt.

Ive been told these games contain custom IC logic (fpga?) which is doing some heavy lifting for the game engine. This means dumping ROMs would be just the start, all the custom logic would need to be separately reverse engineered and re-implemented.

At least I can't think of a way of doing this without a very skilled engineer spending a huge amount of time on it.