How much should I overclock to get neogeo to run at it's best?

Deltax5

I noticed when playing metal slug when there is lots of bullets on screen it starts to slow down more then it should. Still playable I guess. I am wondering if overclocking would help. Isn't fba a accuracy emulator so more cpu power would help.
I have one of those open cases with a fan on it. I find it keeps the raspberry pi very cool so it has a bit of room for overclocking if needed.
https://www.amazon.ca/Excellent-Cooling-System-Heatsink-Raspberry/dp/B072ZZ423F/ref=sr_1_41?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1505945213&sr=1-41&keywords=raspberry+pi+case

chizzer

The slowdowns are down to neo geo hardware, not your Pi. Nothing much you can do about that.

caver01

@deltax5 I have read that there are parts of metal slug that slow down even on the real arcade system. So. . . an accurate emulator would reproduce that performance lag too, right? This may or may not be what you are seeing, but I guess even the real thing had occasional slowdowns.

In any case, you should be posting a LOT MORE DETAIL about your setup. For example, you don't even share what model Raspberry Pi you are using, how it is configured, what exact emulator you are using (which FBA?), how you installed RetroPie, what version you are running, shaders? and on and on. There are so many factors, I am not sure how we are supposed to help until we know where you are starting. Basically, we know you use a cooling fan. That's it.

edmaul69

Metal slug x was created due to how bad the slowdown was in metal slug 2. There isnt much you can do to fix bad game coding and hardware.

Deltax5

IDK on pc playing it I find it to be less. It may be my imagination. Yes I am using FBA on neogeo. Ill try out metal slug x see if I get better results.

dudleydes

@deltax5 FBA focuses on speed; mame on accuracy. In lr-fbalpha, you can "overclock the CPU" from within the emulator. More info: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/lr-fbalpha/#neo-geo-overclocking.

Here's a video demonstrating this:

Doing this means that you are not overclocking the Pi itself so there shouldn't be a need for further cooling.

If you wish to overclock the CPU for Metal Slug 2 but keep it at the default 100 for the other games, then select Create game-options file at the top of the Options menu.

BobHarris

@dudleydes I've got mine at 150. Works great for Metal Slug and also for Shock Troopers, especially the sequel.

matchaman

A Pi3 with lr-fba does not need overclocking. The slowdowns you see are either:

something that also happens on real hardware when there's too much action going on - part of the charm!
CPU throttling (check the temperature) or undervoltage
some games are programmed to look like they're slowing down (drama effect), it's something bizarrely intentional