Neo Geo CPU Overclocking?

[msimplay]

Why would you ever play Metal Slug 2 when Metal Slug X exists?

Maybe people don't like the changes made in Metal Slug X as opposed to 2 people pic particular versions say Mega drive version of Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting over the Arcade could be nostalgia?

[grizzly]

You could ask as well ask this too. Why play the original Zelda when breath of the wild exits?

[BubbaErik]

Just my 2 cents...

People play games on different platforms for many reasons.

The cpu turbo on the snes core makes playing super castlevania a lot more enjoyable. It's also how the game would have run if the devs were skilled enough at the time but it was a very early release.

The point is that these features are optional. Personally I'm curious to give this neo geo hack a go because metal slug 2 is particularly terrible when it comes to slowdown, and to play this with minimal input lag through mister would be a far better experience than with runahead or some other software emulation alternative. I spent years trying to get an enjoyable, low lag experience out of retroarch and I've given up. Some games I accept will never be emulated on mister and those I am happy to play on retroarch with gorgeous crt shaders and tweak lag settings, but overall I'm tired of tinkering, every single game needs to be individually configured for latency and I'm honestly just done with it...

And I have an r9 3900x and a gtx1080, so not a slouch of a pc yet still emulating causes me headaches, particularly with audio latency and input lag.

Just my 2 cents...

[LamerDeluxe]

I agree with this. The new Lynx core has a turbo option for only the CPU and GPU, the audio frequency and music tempo stay the same. A lot of Lynx games are a bit sluggish, the Lynx was supposed to be 50% faster, but that was lowered to save battery life. IIRC the Lynx development kit also had better performance than a real Lynx.

[nizmox]

A different patch, this time with only the CPU overclocked to 24MHz.

It seems to remove some subtle visual glitches in Metal Slug 2. Not sure if this affects the performance negatively compared to the previous patch (which overclocks more components).

Wow, this thing is amazing, thanks so much for this, this makes a massive difference in Metal Slug.
Question I have for you, what is the .patch file? Is it possible to patch the newest core version?

I also would love a turbo option in the official core.

[darksakul]

Slow down in Metal Slug or Shock Troopers is from a programing issue and not a problem with the hardware.
Some Neo Geo games have just poorly optimized code. The fact that there roms hacks that improve the speed of the games in question.

[totozero]

A different patch, this time with only the CPU overclocked to 24MHz.

It seems to remove some subtle visual glitches in Metal Slug 2. Not sure if this affects the performance negatively compared to the previous patch (which overclocks more components).

Hi man, your patch still works great but there were some major improvements since then on the neogeo core (especially on the audio side).
Could you please port it to the last version and on blackwine neogeo arcade core fork as well ?

It'd we very nice of you.

I've tried to modify source files following the directions you've put in your .patch zipfile but all I achieved was compile failure.

Thanks !

[Atohmdiy]

An update would be greatly appreciate indeed. If you can update this version sometimes, for example every 6 month to catch up the latest version of the core, it would be great.

Thank you

[dmckean]

Cyril1980 hasn't been active here in over 7 months so he probably won't see this.

[Koston]

To be honest I am completely lost here... I've been running emulators since 20 years and just a short while ago I moved to FPGA only because I've been surrounded by people in my community that moved beyond emulation and started using FPGA and convincing me of its pure way of playing the good old games. Not because it is easy but because the hard work setting it up leads to the 1:1 experience I once had.
I played Metal Slug when it came out on the Neo Geo back in the day and it had slowdowns...

Now 24 years later we moved passed emulation and we're on a forum because we want the 1:1 experience and there is talk about how shitty the slowdown in Metal Slug is? Didn't you play the game back in the day? If yes, and you still want to "turbo boost" so that you're not bothered with the 1:1 expierence, please buy an 5K pc with a 3090 and an 8K monitor and run an emulator.

My 2 cents

I have modified my original Metal Slug 2 cart with a Turbo patched EEPROM and added an overclock switch to one of my NeoGeo boards for switching between 12MHz and 18MHz - just for this particular game. There is some slowdown in all Metal Slug games, but MS2 is the only one where it's far too obnoxious to enjoy the game. I use defaults with every other game.

There are a lot of people who refuse to do this, because they see slowdown removal as a violation of something holy and just. The same people also never play Metal Slug 2, because it has too much slowdown to be fun.

I suppose being nostalgic for something being shit is a thing, too.

[Phaedrus]

The patched MS2 rom and this overclocked core has made it my favorite metal slug game. 100% accuracy is great, but there are definitely some quality of life improvements that are welcome. Especially when they are optional. Best of both worlds.

[Atohmdiy]

I don't understand much why this option is not here, when it is in other core. I don't know if developers see this as an heresy or if they just don't care and don't want to spend time to implement the feature.
Maybe it would be a good idea for the interested to organize a small donation with patreon or alike. I am definitively willing to give a little something to have this option.

[Cyril1980]

Hi.

Here is the 24MHz patched neo-geo core up to date.

[totozero]

Thanks a ton man !

Been waiting for this !!!

[Atohmdiy]

You are the Man !
Thank you a lot

[coderkind]

Thanks a lot @Cyril1980!

[mattsolomon419]

Thanks so much!

[capitaineflam25]

Thanks a lot !

Which one do you prefer for Metal Slug 2 for example ? 18Mhz or 24Mhz ?

[Koston]

Thanks a lot !

Which one do you prefer for Metal Slug 2 for example ? 18Mhz or 24Mhz ?

As long as there are no adverse effects, it's personal preference. I stick with 18MHz, but only because it's the highest real NeoGeo hardware can do. Most speedrunners play on an emulator overclocked to 64MHz, which eliminates all slowdown completely.

[clarkkent]

Will there be an overclocking option in the official core?

[Dinierto]

Just saw this, I'm also curious if this option will be added officially!

[PikWik]

(posting for visibility)

i would love to see this in the main distro

[FPGA64]

I would not want to see it. the game is behaving correctly now. Its the same as real HW

[Dinierto]

I would not want to see it. the game is behaving correctly now. Its the same as real HW

It would be a toggle though, not on by default, so users could choose

[Atohmdiy]

I would not want to see it. the game is behaving correctly now. Its the same as real HW

It would be a toggle though, not on by default, so users could choose

You don't see the debate in on another thread. For an unknown reason there is some purist that don't want it. Even telling them this is an option that can be disable is too much for them apparently.

The neo geo core really need some qol options, like overclocking or a pause button (or assign the "freeze" dip switch to a button ?). And i think the only way to have it is to give something to a core dev that will do it. A little in the model of the bounty at retroarch.

[Dinierto]

I would not want to see it. the game is behaving correctly now. Its the same as real HW

It would be a toggle though, not on by default, so users could choose

You don't see the debate in on another thread. For an unknown reason there is some purist that don't want it. Even telling them this is an option that can be disable is too much for them apparently.

The neo geo core really need some qol options, like overclocking or a pause button (or assign the "freeze" dip switch to a button ?). And i think the only way to have it is to give something to a core dev that will do it. A little in the model of the bounty at retroarch.

Yeah, I agree. I remember when I brought up that the buttons were "wrong" in relation to the original Neo CD controller and it sparked a huge debate. Eventually the right person was able to add it lol

[Nickie]

You don't see the debate in on another thread. For an unknown reason there is some purist that don't want it. Even telling them this is an option that can be disable is too much for them apparently.

it's worse than that

it would be an OPTION .... that you CAN ... optionally ... ENABLE...when you want it

i dunno, if someone has an actual argument then we can discuss and counter-argue, but it seems to be only "ehm, no thanks" so.. it's moot. let's just merge the OC into the core already.

[Koston]

I've spoken with several people, who refuse to play Metal Slug 2 Turbo or overclock their MVS boards, because "it's not the original experience". But the same people also never play MS2, because without any slowdown removal it's a shit experience.

And now we're supposed to respect their opinion that removing slowdown should be forbidden from others, too?

Feels like I'm taking them crazy pills...

[Flandango]

Has anybody attempted to modify the core to allow for multiple clock options and make it changeable on the fly via the OSD menu?
I'm not talking about having separate cores for each desired clock, but one core, multiple clocks?
And make the system (including the new CD features) completely usable on all clocks?
If they have, then they should try doing a pull request and see Sorgelig will accept it.
Adding clock lines to HDL that can change on the fly can be tricky and sometimes it may not even synthesize properly, if at all, and introduce unintended timing errors in other parts of the core.
Not saying it's impossible, but can be difficult to implement and maintain when attempting to add new features (such as when adding CD support).

[Koston]

Has anybody attempted to modify the core to allow for multiple clock options and make it changeable on the fly via the OSD menu?

See https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/NeoGeo_MiSTer/pull/179

Changing the CPU clock as an option isn't very complicated, it's probably just that core devs rarely care much about features that didn't exist in original hardware.