Neo Geo core considered "console" not "arcade"?

[saucier]

Is there any particular reason why the neo geo core is categorized as a "console" instead of "arcade"? I realize that it could go either way with the AES being a console, and the MVS being an arcade platform, but it seems like the core shares more in common with other arcade cores, using mame/hbmame ROMs? Are there any mra files that would allow neo geo games to be listed/work as other arcade games?

[LeftEmpty]

The Neo Geo core doesn't use MAME romsets, and you are free to organize it anywhere you please as the MiSTer allows that degree of personalization.

[lomdar67]

Are there any mra files that would allow neo geo games to be listed/work as other arcade games?

What exactly are you missing? The core acts like a multi arcade rom core, like eg the CPS1 core. But it doesn't use mame or hbmame roms and there for doesn't need any mra files!

[saucier]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I am confused, I thought the Neo Geo roms it uses are the same names/format used by name?

I understand that MiSTer can be reconfigured however one likes, I was more curious as to the why it is the way it is, rather than whether it is possible to do otherwise.

[lnielsen]

Just like the other consoles, NeoGeo uses a sub folder with the ROM files and a directory for each game. What may be unique to NeoGeo is the romset.xml file you need to have the the sub folder. I took the default file and removed the games did not install so it only shows the working games. It took me a few tries to get NeoGeo configured correctly. I am fairly new to MiSTer but I got it working in a day. The read.me file in https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/NeoGeo_MiSTer is fairly straight forward.

[Newsdee]

I consider this core to be a replication of the Neogeo AES... the fact that it can do MVS as well is accurate to the original device.

[VickiViperZabel]

Honestly NeoGeo occupies this weird space of being both, since the MVS and AES hardware as well as the games they play are functionally identical. As such, I'd imagine it'd be way more convoluted to handle it in the fashion that the other arcade cores are handled

Also *technically* it does run on "MAME" ROMs because ROMs are all the same shit anyways: each ROM chip is dumped and has its contents placed into a corresponding file and the only real distinguishing factor between MAME, Darksoft, .neo, etc is simply the arrangement of the contents

Every game consists of P ROMs for the game programming, an S ROM for interface graphics, C ROMs for the graphics content, an M1 ROM for the sound programming, and V ROMs for the sound content

MAME ROMs are just the dumped ROM files put into one place, nothing more nothing less: extremely flexible as since it's just all the individual pieces you can pick whichever ones you want interchangeably (i.e. taking Samurai Shodown V Special and replacing the P1 ROM with the loketest P1 ROM), but that also means there's a lot of moving parts involved as you need to make the romsets.xml file point specifically to each component by name as well as designate where in memory that file is processed.

Darksoft ROMs are arranged in a fashion that takes out some of the busywork required to get the raw ROM data working: the P ROMs, C ROMs, and V ROMs are each combined into corresponding files and named in a universal fashion, meaning you don't have to point to each specific file as it's named. Still requires preparing a romsets.xml file, but each game only requires a single line designating where the folder containing the game contents is so it's ez. While you can't change every individual piece due to the combined nature, Darksoft format still allows at least some degree of customization (i.e. taking Samurai Shodown V Special and replacing the combined P ROMs with the loketest combined P ROMs)

.neo files I'm not intimately familiar with as I don't have a terraonion cart, but I imagine in creating the file they handle that last little bit of busywork needed to run Darksoft ROMs as it's all a single file with no need for even a directory, let alone a romsets.xml

Hope my explanation of things is helpful

[saucier]

Thanks. I haven't looked into the differences between romsets.xml and .mra files, but it seemed to me that at least superficially they have the same purpose. Why is there a romsets.xml for one core, when .mra files seem to serve the same purpose? I was curious if there were technical reasons why .mra files wouldn't be sufficient for the neo geo core, as I prefer having a file-per-game rather than a single file for all games?

[grizzly]

romset.xml basically points to where the rom files are.
.mra files contains the info how to program the FPGA (and possibly somethings on the ARM cpu too?).
VERY,VERY big difference.

[BlackSpy]

It's one system in different presentations. They were released pretty much simultaneaously. Neither really has precedence over the other.

Personally, I'd rather see it under arcade as a platform. But the titles would be lost among everything else. It's such a big platform it's good to be able to find it by itself.