Neo Geo folder - is it worth it?

MrSkyle

@thelostsoul No need to apologize, it was an interesting question! I enjoyed all your opinions and feel tempted to go with the Neo Geo-separated folder approach (duplicate the NG roms already existing in the FBA romset rather than moving them) in order to have both versions (arcade and console) of the same game.

A couple of questions though:

Would you consider the list of GnGeo-Pi roms listed here to build your separate NeoGeo romset? I'm assuming they can all be found in the most recent FBA romset... Otherwise, what other rom list would you suggest?
Where can I find more info about that AES bios and how to use it?

thelostsoul

@mrskyle I agree, this is a cool place to ask questions. :-)

I am not familiar with GnGeo-Pi, but looking at that linked page, it is nothing else than a more recent version of Mame (which is 0.138) than default lr-mame2003 (which is v0.78). The problem with newer Mame versions is that more new the Mame is, more accurate and processing hungry it gets; that means (especially on new games) the raspberry pi could have not enough power. But if you want try it out, then just look for romset of MAME 0.138, which is GnGeo-Pi using. If roms from FBA are working, I cannot say that.
And FBA is a really new emulator, which is optimized and working better with raspberry pi than a recent Mame version. So what is my recommendation? Stay with FBA, unless there is a really good reason to switch. You can just duplicate them, if you want have both versions, arcade and neo geo mode.
list itemAbout AES, I don't remember where I got the right BIOS files. I did have different versions of Neo Geo BIOS with drastically different content. The one I use contains 32 files, have a size of 1,7 MB and these are the containing files:
"
000-lo.lo
asia-s3.rom
files
japan-j3.bin
neodebug.bin
neo-epo.bin
neopen.sp1
neo-po.bin
sfix.sfix
sm1.sm1
sp1.jipan.1024
sp-1v1_3db8c.bin
sp-45.sp1
sp-e.sp1
sp-j2.sp1
sp-s2.sp1
sp-s.sp1
sp-u2.sp1
uni-bios_1_0.rom
uni-bios_1_1.rom
uni-bios_1_2o.rom
uni-bios_1_2.rom
uni-bios_1_3.rom
uni-bios_2_0.rom
uni-bios_2_1.rom
uni-bios_2_2.rom
uni-bios_2_3o.rom
uni-bios_2_3.rom
uni-bios_3_0.rom
uni-bios_3_1.rom
uni-bios_3_2.rom
v2.bin
vs-bios.rom
"
There might be bios files inside which are not for Neo Geo, but I just leave them there. Unfortunately, I am not 100% sure of each step, as I changed and tried a lot different things through whole last month installing a bunch of emulators and doing all sort of settings back and forth (had some trouble too). But I can look in my last accessed webpages about Neo Geo AES and link them here, if you are interested:
https://forums.libretro.com/t/how-to-run-neo-geo-in-aes-mode-fbalpha-libretro/8693
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/4kpzyj/need_help_activating_neo_geo_aes_home_mode/

If installed the Neo Geo Bios correctly, you can change in Retroarch menu itself the mode you want to use.
Btw, I also use the same roms from FBA (FB Alpha v0.2.97.42) romset and all of them works without any problems (so far).

MrSkyle

@thelostsoul Thanks for the prompt reply.
I was actually referring to the roms listed further down that page, as what I'm trying to do is simply filter the Neo Geo roms existing in the FB Alpha v0.2.97.42 romset and copy them to the Neo Geo folder. This is because I'll use the default emulator to run Neo Geo games (lr-fbalpha) and will therefore use the versions from the required romset for that emulator. In short, all I wanted to know is if there is a list of Neo Geo games-only from the latest FBA romset and the closest I found was that one. If there is another, more updated (read "from the 0.2.97.42 romset") I'll appreciate it.

Regarding the AES bios, could this be it?

thelostsoul

@mrskyle Oh ok, I am not aware of such a list for a specific romset now. I just look looked at webpages about Neo Geo games in general, as I was hand picking all games.

About AES bios. The Uni Bios is something different, more or less. It is something like most powerful. I am aware of 3 different bios types: MVS, AES and Uni. If you have them all, you can select in the options menu of Retroarch which to use. If selected Unibios, then you choice many options before starting the game. I dont use it, because then it required me to set AES mode for each game. Unibios means Universal I suppose and thererfore requires setting for each game what exact settings you want.

This is a bit confusing. All you need is a bios containing AES and set it once in Retroarch through AES. Then all games will use this.

MrSkyle

@thelostsoul Gotcha! Thanks for clearing that up! So AES bios is the only one I need to make the emulator (lr-fbalpha in this case) run those roms as if they were their console counterparts, correct?
And where exactly should I put the AES bios? Inside the "bios" folder or the "neogeo" rom folder, just like the "neogeo.zip" bios?

@thelostsoul said in Neo Geo folder - is it worth it?:

This is a bit confusing. All you need is a bios containing AES and set it once in Retroarch through AES. Then all games will use this.

Regarding this bit, this will only apply to all games in the "neogeo" rom folder, right? The ones in the FBA rom folder will remain untouched as arcade/MVS versions? Because that's the whole point of creating the separate Neo Geo folder for me now: leave one copy in the "fba" rom folder to run as arcade and another copy in the "neogeo" rom folder to run as console version, set to AES...

thelostsoul

Yes, you put neogeo.zip bios file in the folder with the neo geo roms. In fact neogeo bios is the only bios needed to do that. While I did not not test it out, both folders should work indipendently, so you can have both type of bios, one in FBA and one in Neo Geo. But be aware I did not test it. If I am at home, i can test it for you - but I expect it to be working anyway.

My biggest problem after finding out about all those bios things, I had trouble finding the right one. So be careful.

Edit: Ok, I tested it out and I must say, it does not work (the way we want it). I just copied the same bios file and Metal Slug rom to FBA folder and changed from AES to MVS and checked if it affects the Neo Geo folder games -- and yes, it affects it. They use same emulator with same settings.

After looking in the file structure if I can find any config file for this, I must say I am clueless what to do now. Maybe changing something in /retropie/configs/neogeo/retroarch.cfg and /retropie/configs/fba/retroarch.cfg or in the same folder the file emulators.cfg will do the trick. For now, I don't know more.

thelostsoul

Ok, I found the file where the Neo Geo mode is specified, it's /retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg and the corresponding line to this is fba-neogeo-mode = "MVS". And I have no idea how to make it separate setting for FBA and Neo Geo, as this is in all.

quicksilver

@thelostsoul if you are using Lr-fbalpha I believe you can change it through the retroarch menu. Run a game then press select+x (default). There should be an option to change the bios in there. Just remember to save the core remap when you are done.

AndersHP

I use the Arcade folder for MAME, FBA and ADVMAME as described in this thread, combined with a dedicated Neo Geo folder (all FBA).

The reason for the latter is mainly that Universal XML Scraper lets you get coverart for the Neo Geo games, so this folder looks really neat, like the console folders.

The Arcade games have no coverart, just screenshots and logos.

thelostsoul

@quicksilver Yes, I did it through the Retroarch menu before. The point here is, to have two different settings for same Lr-fbalpha emulator. If I change FBA setting through the menu, it will affect the Neo Geo games too in that different folder, because it is a global setting. Thats because I was searching for a way to change it through some command line parameters or including it in retroarch.cfg.

MrSkyle

Bummer, there goes the plan of having the roms in the "neogeo" folder automatically run as AES and the ones in the "fba" folder automatically run as MVS...

Still, I find solace in what @AndersHP said - having a separate folder for scraping purposes and game covers seems quite nice. Maybe I'll do it anyway and perhaps someday we'll have an option in lr-fbalpha that automatically uses AES settings whenever loading a rom from the "neogeo" folder.

quicksilver

@thelostsoul have you tested saving on a per game basis?

thelostsoul

@quicksilver I did and I am not sure, but I think the MVS/AES setting remains as a global one if emulator is loaded (in said file above). After inspecting the resulting file, there seems no setting saved in there which saves the MVS/AES setting. Also, because I have already a config file for each game, I am not entirely sure. And I fear I would mess up something, if I try more. For now, I just leave it as it is. Looks like an emulator limit.

mediamogul

@thelostsoul said in Neo Geo folder - is it worth it?:

I have no idea how to make it separate setting for FBA and Neo Geo

You can create a file at /opt/retropie/configs/neogeo/neogeo-core-options.cfg the has the line:

fba-neogeo-mode = "AES"

then add the following line to /opt/retropie/configs/neogeo/retroarch.cfg

core_options_path = "/opt/retropie/configs/neogeo/neogeo-core-options.cfg"

After that, whatever arcade system you launch lr-fbalpha from can use the universal MVS core setting at /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg and anything launched from the Neo Geo system will use the newly created core config file for AES.

thelostsoul

@mediamogul Thank you, I was searching for something like that (not for me, because I am happy with how it is anyway). But in this case, it means two whole different core-options. Would it be possible to just include that fba-neogeo-mode line in a cfg file and include it with #include for overwriting?

mediamogul

@thelostsoul

I've never tried it with core options, but it's worth a shot.

thelostsoul

I just tried it, #include works with core-options files, but...
still ignores the different settings and uses the retroarch-core without overwriting it on the fly. Changes aren't saved in Neo Geo I think and it half way filles that neogeo-core file. In short, its just a mess. Seems not working as expected and the only way would be having two different core options files and that is a no go to me personally. Its just too much trouble.

The last thing I can think of would be to start a script before and after launch of Neo Geo games to change the value on the fly.

mediamogul

@thelostsoul said in Neo Geo folder - is it worth it?:

the only way would be having two different core options files and that is a no go to me personally.

I don't really understand the aversion to this. The settings are thoughtfully put in place to allow the type of functionality you're looking for. Having two files seems like a small price to pay, but that's just me.