Improved XML DAT files for lr-fbalpha v0.2.97.42 NEOGEO romsets

stoo

Important Note

These are XML files used for sorting and verifying romsets, not the roms themselves!

Overview

Should you want to scan or rebuild your FBA v0.2.97.42 NeoGeo ROMs with CLRMAMEPRO I have provided a couple of XML files below. These XML files exclude certain ROMs that many people won't use or care about, so they may be more appropriate than the ones in the RetroPie Wiki.

Instructions for using CLRMAMEPRO are outside the scope of this post, but there are plenty of tutorials available online, including some created by other members of this forum.

These xml files should contain all playable NeoGeo games, excluding clones.

I hope someone finds this post useful.

Downloads

You only need one XML file or the other, not both.

File 1 excludes mahjong games, japanese lanauage quiz games and homebrew roms. I expect this is what most people will want.

File 2 does not exclude the homebrew roms, so if you really, really, really want to experience the cornucopia of mediocrity that is the NeoGeo homebrew scene, use file 2.

FB Alpha v0.2.97.42 NEOGEO NOCLONES NOMAHJONG NOHOMEBREW.xml.7z

OR

FB Alpha v0.2.97.42 NEOGEO NOCLONES NOMAHJONG.xml.7z

WHICH ROMS ARE EXCLUDED?

All clones and unplayable games are excluded. They are not listed below.

Apart from clones and unplayable games, both files exclude the following ROMs (mostly mahjong or japanese quiz games):

Name	Description
4play	4 player input test [Demo, 4 player input test cartridge]
bakatono	Bakatonosama Mahjong Manyuuki (MOM-002)(MOH-002)
chibi	Chibi Marukochan Deluxe Quiz
froman2b	Idol Mahjong - final romance 2 (Neo CD Conversion) [Hack]
janshin	Jyanshin Densetsu - Quest of Jongmaster
mahretsu	Mahjong Kyo Retsuden (NGM-004)(NGH-004)
minasan	Minasanno Okagesamadesu! Daisugorokutaikai (MOM-001)(MOH-001)
moshougi	Syougi No Tatsujin - Master of Shougi
quizdais	Quiz Daisousa Sen - The Last Count Down (NGM-023)(NGH-023)
quizdai2	Quiz Meitantei Neo & Geo - Quiz Daisousa Sen part 2 (NGM-042)(NGH-042)
quizkof	Quiz King of Fighters (SAM-080)(SAH-080)
syscheck	Neo System Check (ver 1.0b) [Demo]
vliner	V-Liner (set 1)

NOHOMEBREW excludes the ROMs listed above, plus:

Name	Description
beast	Shadow of the Beast (Neo Geo demo) [Demo]
cnbe	Codename - Blut Engel (2006-01-19) [Homebrew]
cndi	Chip n Dale (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]
columnsn	Columns (Neo Geo) [Homebrew]
cphd	Crouching Poney Hidden Dragon (DEMO) [Homebrew]
diggerma	Digger Man [Homebrew]
dragonsh	Dragon's Heaven (development board)
ducki	Duck Tales (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]
dwi	DarkWing Duck (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]
ghostbi	Ghost Busters (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]
lhcdb	Last Hope CD Beta (Neo CD conversion) [Hack, Imperfect graphics]
ltorb1	Jonas Indiana and the Lost Temple of RA (20050717) [Homebrew]
neo2500	Neo 2500 Demo [Demo]
neo3ddmo	NeoGeo 3D! Demo [Homebrew]
neocdz	Neo Geo CDZ system [System - media selected seperately]
neocstlv	Neo CastleVania Demo [Homebrew]
neodemo	Chaos Demo (Neo Geo) [Demo]
neogalag	Galaga Demo (set 1) [Homebrew]
neonopon	Neo No Panepon (beta) [Homebrew]
neopong	Neo Pong (ver 1.1) [Homebrew]
neoprimo	Primo Demo [Homebrew]
neothndr	Neo Thunder [Homebrew, sebastianmihai.com]
neotet	NeoGeo 2-Player Tetris [Homebrew]
neoww2	WW2 Demo - Arcade Development Project [Homebrew]
ngem2k	NGEM2K (beta 2006-01-18) [Homebrew]
ngfrog	Frog Feast (Neo Geo) [Homebrew]
ngftdemo	NGF Transparency Demo [Homebrew, redarmor.net]
poknight	Poker Night [Homebrew]
robocopi	Robocop (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]
spidermi	Spiderman (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]
timesupd	Time's Up Demo [Homebrew]
tmnti	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Intro demo) [Demo, You must use the Universe BIOS and set region to Japan AES]

7-zipped the entire NOHOMEBREW set is 1.96GB, and slightly more if you use plain zip instead.

What was that about the NG homebrew scene being mediocre?

While I was making these XML files I was checking all the homebrew stuff to see if it actually worked, so here are some capsule reviews of the actual games in the list:

Codename - Blut Engel is a vertical shooter that verges on bullet-hell. It has very simple graphics that appear to be placeholders. The author writes that it's unfinished. It does seem to be totally playable, but there may not be many levels. I didn't stick around to find out.
Columns is... a remake of Columns. Done poorly. Without audio.
Digger Man. Well, it's playable, and it appears to be complete. It has audio of some kind, but I've forgotten it already. It feels kind like a really bad clone of the BBC Micro game Repton. I couldn't bring myself to keep playing it. It's just not fun.
Last Hope CD Beta: Want to play a glitchy, unfinished version of a game that sells for hundreds of dollars on eBay? Neither do I.
Neo No Panepon is a clone of Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack) and seems to be fully playable, albeit without audio. The graphics are basic but they do the job.
Neo Pong is a credible version of Pong with reasonable graphics and music for a homebrew, but... it's still Pong.
Neo Thunder is a playable but extremely basic side scroller with graphics that could probably have been accomplished on the NES. It also has no audio, which you could also do on the NES if you wanted to.
NeoGeo 2-Player Tetris is Tetris done unremarkably, with sound effects stolen from Windows XP (or maybe 98 I dunno).
NGEM2K: Match coloured chunky pixel shapes in rows and columns before the time runs out. The graphics could not be more basic, there is no audio, but it works and is 100% playable.
Frog Feast is a fully playable game where one or two players compete to jump a frog into the air from one lilypad to another and catch flies in midair. The player with the most flies caught when the timer runs out is the winner. It has simple music and sound effects, and the graphics are basic but the game works and, honestly, it's not the worst game in the NeoGeo catalogue!
Poker Night is a simple video poker game. It works well. It's certainly not going to win any awards for showing off the NeoGeo's features but it does what it's supposed to and looks OK doing it.
Time's Up is a playable demo of a 1 or 2 player narrow vertical shooter with suspiciously Nintendo-looking characters. I found it very difficult so I played for only about a minute. Maybe it's not that bad, especially compared to others in this list. The audio level seems very quiet.

As for the demos, I'm only going to mention a few because I'm just yelling into the void at this point:

Shadow of the Beast is a nice example of parallax scrolling with some logos moving on top. That's literally all it is, though.
NeoGeo 3D! Demo feels like a nice oldskool demo, like an early Amiga one-screen thing with a flatshaded cube rotating and zooming around over rasterbars and a nice chunky text scroller. It's even got Atari YM music. Competent demo.
All the cartoon demos (Chip n Dale, Duck Tales, etc.) are basically videos of well-known cartoon intros. I guess someone wrote a converter that takes video and renders it into tiles that the NeoGeo can display fast enough that it looks like FMV. That makes them slightly interesting if nothing else.
All the other demos suck.

There, now you don't need to play any of the homebrews.

AndersHP

This is useful, thanks.
I will be using this upon the next FBA release I think.

stoo

I'll try to update them when the next version lands. I don't expect sweeping changes to the NEOGEO set :P

FlightRisk

@stoo Looking forward to it. Great job. Exactly what I needed and so easy to validate my set with clrmamepro.