MiSTer FPGA Forum

For all of the new people starting out with the MiSTer project that want to play some Neo Geo games. The format that your legally attained ROMs need to be in is the .NEO format. If you're like me and had a hard time figuring out how to get your legally attained ROMs in that format I'm here to help.

Months after I had already had a collection of ROMs in the correct format I was looking into buying a Neo Geo and a flash cart for it. That's when I came across the Stone Aged Gamer site that had a link to a program you are supposed to use to convert your Neo Geo ROMs into the .NEO format. If I had known about this program when I first got my MiSTer I would not have spent hours searching for the correct format.

The program you need is called NEOBuilder. It can currently be found at https://stoneagegamer.com/neosd-downloa ... neobuilder

If you have any desire to play Neo Geo games on your MiSTer and want to convert your ROMs to the correct .NEO format I would download it ASAP. These flash carts haven't been in stock for years and there is no telling when that web page will be taken away, along with the download link.

EDIT: I came across another site that has some instructions on how to convert Neo Geo ROMs to the .neo format. This method doesn't require you to download a .exe file from a website. It does require some use of a Python script though. I figured another option can't hurt.

New Link: https://acceptdefaults.com/2022/09/25/n ... ster-fpga/

Its an incredibly bad idea to run a random exe from any web site. You never know if its been compromised. The Neo sets is available on a certain archive site.

.Neo ROMs are not required.

jca wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:30 pm

.Neo ROMs are not required.

Thats true but they are the simplest way for the Mister. One file per game and no messing around with XML files

Using the DarkSoft romset is not a big deal, you also have one file per game. I have a few .neo roms for recent homebrew games but I find the .neo format is a pain in the neck regarding game naming. If you rename the neo file to the real name of the game MISTer recognizes it as a neo file and instead displays the name which is in the file and is not the full name of the game. If you zip it and give the full name to the zip file it shows up properly but as a directory: the zip is not loaded as with DarkSoft zips, instead it opens the "directory" where you can start the game. I find it a nuisance.

While I personally agree that using .neo files is the easiest and sometimes more reliable for new people, they are definitely not required. And as already stated, a full set of converted files have been archived. If the conversion application disappears, it won't be a terrible impact for MiSTer users.

But potentially the future holds a different opinion on .neo files. I seem to recall there was a branch off from the Neo Geo core that allowed direct launch into games like they were separate Arcade cores rather than the console behavior there is now. It wasn't something I was interested in but I seem to remember that it didn't work with the .neo format files as there was no XML organization with them. I could be wrong about that and can't seem to find it with searching so don't take that with certainty. But for a definite difference, the game Xeno Crisis only allows stereo music on either original hardware or by a separate MiSTer specific ROM file version with an XML file. According to the game's documentation, it's mono music for any other versions as they had to use a smaller VROM. So the .neo version of Xeno Crisis is slightly inferior as a result. There may not be a flood of new Neo Geo games, but issues like this could pop up more frequently so learning to use something other than the .neo files could have a definite benefit.

I know that .NEO files are not required. I just know that a lot of people that get into the MiSTer are going to be lazy or get frustrated and give up. I made this post to try and help the people that are new to the MiSTer and not the seasoned veterans that now five different ways to play Neo Geo games.

With that said, I came across a web page that helps walk people through how to convert Neo Geo ROMs to .NEO files with Python. This is another option incase someone doesn't trust using a .exe file from a retro video game sellers site.

Here is the Link: https://acceptdefaults.com/2022/09/25/n ... ster-fpga/

FPGA64 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:01 pm

Its an incredibly bad idea to run a random exe from any web site. You never know if its been compromised. The Neo sets is available on a certain archive site.

If you have a computer with any type of sensitive information on it that you don't want to be compromised then yes, don't download any file from the internet that you haven't confirmed that it doesn't pose a threat.

I use my old gaming PC for messing around with emulation, downloading ROMs, and doing other activities that I would never think about doing on my main PC that I type my passwords on. On my old gaming PC that I use for messing around with emulation I will download anything without a worry in the world. If it gets infected with a virus I'm just a few minutes away from a fresh install of Windows without any loss of sleep on my part. Hell, I have messed around with a few "people named "John Smith" who were from Microsoft Security Company. I have let them take control of my PC so they could fix my firewall that they said was hacked. Every time I just restore an image of my Windows install and I'm back up and running after making a sandwich.

I figured there was no need for me to put warnings in my post about downloading files off the internet.