NeoGeo CD w/ Mess Tutorial

[Lordmonkus]

Since the topic of NeoGeo CD emulation has come up twice in the last 2 days I figured I would write up a tutorial on how I got it up and running. I got it up and running on 2 emulators, Mess and the stand alone version of Final Burn Alpha. The FBA emulation quality seemed to be just fine but the lack of fast forward functionality which is something you really will want with NeoGeo CD. The NeoGeo CD was notoriously slow being a 1x speed cd drive. NeoRaine apparently emulates this system as well but I do not like Raine so I didn't try to get it working there.

Anyways, enough of the rambling lets get started on this.

For starters I am using Mess version 0.174 for this and the bios files I have work with this. For obvious reasons I cannot supply the bios or tell you directly where to get them but I will tell you that a google search for "mess bios" should yield results in the first couple of hits. The FBA neocd bios come in the big FBA roms pack but do not work in Mess. There are 2 zip files you will need:
neocd.zip
neocdz.zip

In these files you will see:
front-sp1.bin
top-sp1.bin
neocd.bin
000-lo.lo

Put these 2 zip files in the /roms folder in your Mess folder
/Mess/roms

Now open your mess.ini file and add your rom location folder to the rompath. Below is what I have in mine.
rompath                   "H:\Emulation\Roms\NeoGeo CD\"

If there is no mess.ini file then open up your command prompt window and go to your mess install folder where the mess64.exe is located and type the following command:
mess64.exe -cc

This will generate a mess.ini file in that folder.

Now add Mess as an emulator to Launchbox like any other emulator and in the "Edit Emulator" window, "Associated Platforms" tab, "Default Command-Line Parameters" add the command switch "neocdz -cdrm" to your NeoGeo CD platform. Image below.

Disk images that work for me are in cue + bin. Some downloaded images I noticed were in cue + iso + mp3 / wav which on their own didn't work but after converting the audio and mounting the image in daemon tools lite and regenerating a cue + bin with ImgBurn they worked fine. I only tried a couple of games since there is very few games for it that weren't released on MVS / AES like Crossed Swords 2 I didn't go out of my way to get more games to try out.

Once you are up and running pressing the tab key in game will bring up the menu where you can set up all your controls and settings. Mess also supports GLSL and HLSL shaders so if you have settings from Mame you like they are relatively easily ported over.

Here is an EmuCR link to a 0.176 version of Mess which I have tested and does work.
http://www.emucr.com/2016/08/mess-git-20160821.html

 

[angelobodetti]

This might be a dumb question, but I've never worked with MESS, so hopefully I can get a pass.... I am trying to download MESS and came across mess.org but that basically says that MESS is MAME now.

So is MESS MAME? Or should I be searching elsewhere?

[Lordmonkus]

It's a bit of a weird story but yeah basically now Mess and Mame are merged back into a single program but because it is open source people still make separate version of the program. In the main post above I have a link to an EmuCR page with a version of Mess I have tested this guide with and it works just fine. Scroll to the bottom of the page pick 32 or 64 bit based on your operating system, that will give you a bunch of link options. Pick one that suits you, I use the mega link personally.

Mess to me is a bit simpler to get set up for these oddball systems that are not arcade. You could do this stuff all through Mame if you wanted to but there is extra folder structure work involved. Also I like to keep things separate, Mame for arcade and Mess for oddball systems that have no real alternative emulator.

[latin625]

Lord Monkus!!!!!  You da man!

[latin625]

@lordmonkus I have a question about Double dragon.  I never played it on a New Geo system, but it looks like when I load it, it stops about a third of the way loading.  All my other Roms load without stopping, is that a sign of a bad rom or do I have to wait for it to start up again? Thanks!

Edited September 10, 2016 by latin625

[Lordmonkus]

Honestly I couldn't tell you. I only tried a very small selection of games and Double Dragon was not one of them so the emulation of that game could be buggy.

Did you try fast forwarding to load it faster ? I believe the Insert key is the default fast forward for Mess.

[latin625]

Yeap.  Just tried it and it stays locked in the same place?  =(  Do you have DD?

[Lordmonkus]

Not the CD Version.

I do have the arcade rom but it's not a game I care enough about. There are very few fighting games I like outside the Street Fighter series and Samurai Shodown.

[latin625]

Yeah. I have it too for MAME...  I really am impressed with the system though.  Never really played it as a kid.  Pretty cool games!

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah if you look past the glut of fighting games on the system there are a few really good hidden gems in there. Ganryu is one of my favourites, kind of a Shinobi style ninja game but more platforming. Last Resort gets a lot of flak for being an R-Type ripoff but I personally like it better.

[latin625]

I love the street Hoops and Areo fighter 2!  Looking through them this morning trying to finalize my cab. Hey, do you know how to remove the menu bar on the window?  I tried the ALt Enter thing, but it stays there.

[Lordmonkus]

Are you using the UI version of Mess ?
I know @Zombeaverhad this issue and he figured out how to hide it but I can't remember how he did it. I just use the command line version.

[latin625]

Ganryu?  I dont have that one.  Is it also called Musashi Ganryuki .  If so, Ima go see if I can find it...  SOunds like it is a winner!

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah, same game.

[latin625]

i Just tried that game n MAME!  Nice!  Starting to wonder though if I should go through all the trouble of getting a complete set in NEO GEO CD, if they are already available in MAME...

 

[Lordmonkus]

That's up to you.

Personally I wouldn't bother with a full set. There are maybe 3 or 4 exclusive games like Crossed Swords 2 and a yet to be english translated Samurai Shodown RPG. Other than that though a few games did have some minor changes.

Here is a web page with a list of games and differences.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/neogeocd/916662-neo-geo-cd/faqs/51773

[Zombeaver]

If you're using MESSUI/MAMEUI you can disable the menubar permanently in the mame.ini file via this line:

# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
menu                      1

Changing the 1 to 0 makes it stay hidden.

[InfinityFox]

Just working my way through your Tutorial and I'm just about to add my rom path. Referering to the images provided, where am I inserting the rom path?

Do I delete roms and put it there, or do I delete everything on line ten and add my rom path in it's place?

 

Great guide BTW

[Lordmonkus]

You delete the word roms if you like or you can add to it by separating it with a semi colon ;

Example:
rompath           "roms;c:\path\to\roms1\;c:\path\to\roms2\"

[InfinityFox]

Thanks lordmonkus