There is any? That concers, pinouts, hardware documentation, programming information... Any information is welcome. I'm talking about the cartridge system. Thanks.
Well, cart & CD are pretty much the same system...but I'd suggest going to www.neo-geo.com There are a few people there who do in fat develop for it.
There's very little tech information at the neo-geo forums, I'm sort of in the same boat. If you want to develop for it, obviously learn 68K and how tiles/bitplanes work then look at different emulator source code and their respective development forums. If you want to know how the hardware REALLY works, not in an abstract way, you'll have to figure it out yourself because nobody else has really comprehensively documented the Neo Geo, I've looked! Pinouts are nonexistent except for a partial MVS PROG board pinout by Charles Macdonald which I can't find at the moment. I've made a pinout for the home system but it's meaningless if you don't have the logical schematics since there's a lot more to a Neo cart than ROM. In other words Neo carts cannot be expressed through a pinout like many consoles can. Example: Code: A1 GND B1 GND A2 GND B2 GND A3 p.13 D0 B3 p.9 A0 A4 p.15 D1 B4 p.8 A1 A5 p.17 D2 B5 p.7 A2 A6 p.19 D3 B6 p.6 A3 A7 p.22 D4 B7 p.5 A4 A8 p.24 D5 B8 p.4 A5 A9 p.26 D6 B9 p.3 A6 A10 p.28 D7 B10 p.2 A7 A11 p.14 D8 B11 p.40 A8 A12 p.16 D9 B12 p.39 A9 A13 p.18 D10 B13 p.38 A10 A14 p.20 D11 B14 p.37 A11 A15 p.23 D12 B15 p.36 A12 A16 p.25 D13 B16 p.35 A13 A17 p.27 D14 B17 p.34 A14 A18 p.29 D15 B18 p.33 A15 A19 nc B19 p.32 A16 A20 nc B20 p.1 A17 a18 A21 nc B21 139.3 a19? A22 nc B22 p.12 /OE /a20? A23 A24 B23 B24 A24 A23 B24 B23 A25 +5V B25 vcc A26 +5V B26 vcc A27 +5V B27 vcc A28 nc B28 jumper to vcc A29 nc B29 nc A30 nc B30 nc A31 nc B31 nc A32 nc B32 7.3, 8.3, v1x.13 D0 7.2 (v1x.23 - A10) 8.2 (v1x.12 - A0) A33 nc B33 7.4, 8.4, v1x.14 D1 7.5 (v1x.25 - A11) 8.5 (v1x.11 - A1) A34 3.3, 4.3, v2x.13 D0 3.2 (v2x.12 - A0) 4.2 (v2x.4 - A12) B34 7.6, 8.6, v1x.15 D2 7.7 (v1x.4 - A12) 8.7 (v1x.10 - A2) A35 3.4, 4.4, v2x.14 D1 3.5 (v2x.11 - A1) 4.5 (v2x.28 - A13) B35 7.11, 8.11, v1x.17 D3 7.10 (v1x.28 - A13) 8.10 (v1x.9 - A3) A36 3.6, 4.6, v2x.15 D2 3.7 (v2x.10 - A2) 4.7 (v2x.29 - A14) B36 7.13, 8.13, v1x.18 D4 7.12 (v1x.29 - A14) 8.12 (v1x.8 - A4) A37 3.11, 4.11, v2x.17 D3 3.10 (v2x.9 - A3) 4.10 (v2x.3 - A15) B37 7.14, 8.14, v1x.19 D5 7.15 (v1x.3 - A15) 8.15 (v1x.7 - A5) A38 3.13, 4.13, v2x.18 D4 3.12 (v2x.8 - A4) 4.12 (v2x.2 - A16) B38 6.3, 5.3, v1x.20 D6 5.2 (v1x.2 - A16) 6.2 (v1x.6 - A6) A39 3.14, 4.14, v2x.19 D5 3.15 (v2x.7 - A5) 4.15 (v2x.30 - A17) B39 6.4, 5.4, v1x.21 D7 5.5 (v1x.30 - A17) 6.5 (v1x.5 - A7) A40 1.14, 2.14, v2x.20 D6 2.15 (v2x.6 - A6) 1.15 (v2x.31 - A18) B40 6.11, 5.11 5.10 (v1x.31 - A18) 6.10 (v1x.27 - A8) A41 1.3, 2.3, v2x.21 D7 2.2 (v2x.5 - A7) 1.2 (139.14) B41 6.13, 5.13 5.12 (v1x.22 - /ce) 6.12 (v1x.26 - A9) A42 1.13, 2.13 2.12 (v2x.27 - A8) 1.12 (139.13) B42 nc A43 2.4 2.5 (v2x.26 - A9) B43 nc A44 2.11 2.10 (v2x.23 - A10) B44 nc A45 2.6 2.7 (v2x.25 - A11) B45 nc A46 2.9, 04.3, 3.9 (clk) B46 04.01, 6.9, 8.9 (clk) A47 139.15 /V2e B47 v1x.24 V11/12./OE A48 nc B48 nc A49 GND B49 GND A50 GND B50 GND
Well, I guess I'll get a loose home system and a cheap loose cart and look how does it work. :/ Thanks!
That's what I did, it's the only way unfortunately. If you want to RE carts, start with very early games like Nam. The very first MVS games don't have ANY custom chips, but all home carts have at least one custom chip The key is to RE early (1991) MVS, early AES and compare middle (1994) MVS and AES and only examine late MVS/AES. It's also helpful to look at bootlegs which sometimes have already figured out custom chips. The difficulty is in the character multiplexer chip in AES systems and in the bankswitching chip used in games with more than 32M graphics. If you can figure those two chips out, you can easily make any normal Neo Geo cart. Beyond that there's only special bankswitching and protection methods for specific games.
What about lapping the custom chip from a nam cart until you get to the construction? That's what they did for some ATI reverse engineering.
Yeah that's always a possibility, but then in that case you can just use official PCBs too... Using SNK chips is how all MVS->NGH converters were made until Neo Flash's, which may be why they were so expensive. I know the multiplexer chip can't be all that complex though, I think a $5 CPLD or a handful of TTL chips should be able to emulate it, same with the bankswitching. I just don't think anyone has bothered to RE it since it doesn't affect emulation in any way. If anyone has any clues about it I'd love to hear!
I'm not trying to make a clone, just 100% SNK dependent cartridges. I'd love to see some new games made for Neo Geo, I think it's one of the only consoles that stands a chance at getting new unofficial releases since the fanbase is so strong and willing to shell out. Hehe there actually are 1 slot MVS system clones! They are very recent and I think cost more than a legitimate 1 slot.
You can visit my site: http://arcadedev.emuvibes.com for some programming information. Also, if you PM me your e-mail address I can send you the NeoGeo Spex pdf file from Pa-Pa-Panic, and mvstech.txt from Charles McDonald.
Little bump... Hehe recently I got a "1.2 million gate" FPGA which can certainly fit an entire Neo Geo with plenty of room to spare! The actual cost of this chip is only ~$15, but of course you'd have to add fast RAM, a lot of large memory to store ROMs (or a lot of chips to interface with a real cartridge) and a few high quality DACs. Time for reverse engineering/rewriting emulator code for hardware is the only factor now since we have the technology
I think that interfacing with the cart would be cheaper... XD Gah, let's see when chinese stop doing famiclones and start doing Neoclones. :110:
You mean Neocloned home AES systems? Not going to happen. AES carts are expensive as fuck. The Famiclones work because NES and Famicom cartridges are cheap and abundent. As Calpis said, there are NeoGep MVS cloned PCBs now, but they cost more and they are cloned crap. Not really sure if they are crap but I'd rather official than a clone any day.
