the next everdrive?

[kruuth]

Frankly, as someone with a Neo Geo, $1000 for an everdrive would be, in my opinion, reasonable, seeing as how even with the multicarts you still need to amass several hundred dollars worth of games.  I say make an MVS everdrive and the AES owners can use one of the converters out there.

[TheRetromancer]

Frankly, as someone with a Neo Geo, $1000 for an everdrive would be, in my opinion, reasonable, seeing as how even with the multicarts you still need to amass several hundred dollars worth of games.  I say make an MVS everdrive and the AES owners can use one of the converters out there.

I have a consolized MVS and an AES, and while I prefer the aesthetics of the AES, my 2-slot MVS console gets much more use.  For one thing, the vast majority of the most expensive games can be found on the 161-in-1 MVS bootleg multicart for only $99 or so.  I also have the AES Daedalus MVS-to-AES converter.  It works perfectly, but the price tage of $399 is kinda steep.  Expecting someone to drop $1000 on a Neo Everdrive and then at least $250 on a decent converter is kinda douchey.

But this is all moot anyway, as Krikzz has explicitly stated that he will not be making a Neo Everdrive.  Sucks, but oh well...

[Mattroid]

But this is all moot anyway, as Krikzz has explicitly stated that he will not be making a Neo Everdrive.  Sucks, but oh well...

Agreed (though his last estimate was closer to $500). He's said the same thing about GBA yet people still push.

Next person to ask/beg for a GBA or Neo-Geo AES Everdrive should be banned haha

I prefer the aesthetics of the AES

Have you seen the Omega? I may get the shell eventually for my spare MVS 1-slot. I still prefer standing at my 4-slot cab, though

[TheRetromancer]

But this is all moot anyway, as Krikzz has explicitly stated that he will not be making a Neo Everdrive.  Sucks, but oh well...

Agreed (though his last estimate was closer to $500). He's said the same thing about GBA yet people still push.

Well, well.  I would be totally willing to pay $500 for a NEO Everdrive.  Now I'm even more annoyed that he won't be doing it.

Next person to ask/beg for a GBA or Neo-Geo AES Everdrive should be banned haha

I prefer the aesthetics of the AES

Have you seen the Omega? I may get the shell eventually for my spare MVS 1-slot. I still prefer standing at my 4-slot cab, though

I've seen the Omega, yeah, and it's a great system, but the thing that makes it unusable for me is the total lack of a card slot, which is precisely the reason why I consolised a 2-slot.  I love being able to take save data between my AES and MVS games.

[Mattroid]

I've seen the Omega, yeah, and it's a great system, but the thing that makes it unusable for me is the total lack of a card slot, which is precisely the reason why I consolised a 2-slot.  I love being able to take save data between my AES and MVS games.

Yeah, I'd been holding out hoping he'd make a new mold with a card slot since the MV-1C boards can now support a memory card thanks to NeoTurfMasta. But now that he's able to support an 'internal' virtual memory card as well, it's even more unlikely that we'll see a new Omega with a card slot. Oh well. I'll probably settle for one with a built in card at some point. It's better than not having one at all and I dig the look of the Omega vs most of the others I've seen, and I don't have the time or desire to build a CMVS myself. If I didn't have a stand up, then I might but the odds of a CMVS getting a lot of play over here is slim at this point. It'd mainly be a novelty for me to have, I think.

[TheRetromancer]

Yeah, I'd been holding out hoping he'd make a new mold with a card slot since the MV-1C boards can now support a memory card thanks to NeoTurfMasta.

Wait, what?  Links, man, LINKS!

[Mattroid]

Yeah, I'd been holding out hoping he'd make a new mold with a card slot since the MV-1C boards can now support a memory card thanks to NeoTurfMasta.

Wait, what?  Links, man, LINKS!

Looks like I'm partially incorrect. Sorry, the project is pretty old by now - I assumed NTM had finished it. He created a replacement MV-IC board to replace the card slots in multi-slot motherboards. It also supports some single slot mbs. The one for the 1C is still in development. I bought one to use in my 4-slot but I have yet to install it since I haven't found the best way to mount it yet.

The 'virtual' memory card is basically an internal memory mod that comes with the Omega, if requested. It looks like NTM doesn't sell these directly yet, so I'm not sure how Shadowkn55 has them (actually, it looks like he got some prototypes...not sure if he's making them himself now or what), but I know he's been selling them with his Omega systems for some time. It seems that one works on the 1C, but there's not an actual memory card slot mod for it - YET. At least not that I see. I used to pay attention to the NG forums way more than I do now, so I'm pretty out of the loop...

Anyway, here's a few relevant links, but I'm sure there are more - they're all over the boards over there.

• NeoTurfMasta's site with buy links (most everything is out of stock right now): http://neogeofanclub.com/
• Omega with VMC system: http://arcadeworks.net/omega-entertainment-machine-vmc.html
• Some recent comments from NTM about the 1C NeoSaveMasta: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?251890-NeoSaveMasta-Memory-Cards-GREEN&p=3729180&viewfull=1#post3729180 and http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?249001-NeoSaveMasta-reprint-and-NeoCardMasta-for-MV1C-and-MV1B&p=3737343&viewfull=1#post3737343
• Most recent NeoCardMasta run that I'm aware of: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?253245-NeoCardMasta-small-run-Sold-out-for-now
• Latest NeoSaveMasta run that I'm aware of (new Memory cards with way more space than the official ones, and with no battery, so they won't fail you - if you don't have one, you should get one next time the come around): http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?251890-NeoSaveMasta-Memory-Cards-GREEN
• And of course, while I assume you're already running UniBIOS, if not: http://unibios.free.fr/

Relevant viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtrKe-wu9Dk

[phoenixdownita]

Regarding memcards, at least for AES I tested Unibios 3.2 support for 16bit PCMCIA SRAM cards.
I happened to buy a Pretec 128KB SRAM and noticed that the NeoGeo official games [well one of them at least] had no trouble with it but Unibios 3.1 didn't quite like it.
A quick back and forth with Razoola and 3 BIOS patches later to UniBios 3.1 and it worked like a charm (with support for splash screen bypass and hiscore as well). Razoola discovered that SNK embedded support for 16bits PCMCIA SRAM cards in the original bios way back when so he found a way to "fix" Unibios to work as well.

I am not saying that all 16bit SRAM PCMCIA cards will work but it may be worth a try ... 128KB worked for me (and I have yet to reach the mem card full , and I saved HS and in game for quite some games, say 30 or 40 "unique" out of the 161-in-1). Maybe 256/512 or 1MB work as well, who knows, but make sure they are not Flash but simple SRAM cards if you want to try.

At the time the Pretec 128K was very cheap, around 30US$, now they seem much more expensive and bigger in size (not sure they work or they are worth the extra money) but on eBay I can see quite a few "reasonably priced" 256KB and 512KB ... (btw most of them do take a CR2032 as a backup battery, without the SRAM loses it's content in a few days of non usage in my experience).

Anyway just thought of putting it out here so if anyone wants to give it a try you have one case that worked, me (and it worked because Razoola made me test UniBios 3.2 until we made it to work, but he said he was in touch with some other guys to get more coverage for 16bit PCMCIA SRAM cards support).

[TheRetromancer]

Regarding memcards, at least for AES I tested Unibios 3.2 support for 16bit PCMCIA SRAM cards.

Holy SHIT.  You have literally just given me the key to the kingdom with this statement.

I recently acquired a second 2-slot MV-2F NEO GEO PCB.  It was broken, just totally fucked up.  I managed to restore it to working condition, but the card slot was destroyed - bent pins and three broken pins.  I was afraid that I'd have to buy a broken AES or something in order to repair it, because I spent WEEKS trying to source a replacement part - I had never heard of the PCMCIA format - and thanks to this post of yours, I have found what I believe to be a perfect drop-in replacement for this part:

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/IC1FA-68PD-1.27DS%2872%29/HR1195-ND/1025098

I have two coming now in order to check.  Holy crap, thank you so much!

[Mad Hatter]

A NEO GEO AES Everdrive would convince me to buy a NEO GEO AES.

[Mad Hatter]

What about a Sega Saturn Everdrive. Where we could play games from the cartridge slot and eliminate load times .

[strider1911]

What about a Sega Saturn Everdrive. Where we could play games from the cartridge slot and eliminate load times .

I think that is the most do-able suggestion here (after GBA everdrive)

[Mad Hatter]

What about a Sega Saturn Everdrive. Where we could play games from the cartridge slot and eliminate load times .

I think that is the most do-able suggestion here (after GBA everdrive)

What was kind of joking. a Saturn Everdrive seems impossible (to me).

You think a Saturn Everdrive is even possible?

[TheRetromancer]

What about a Sega Saturn Everdrive. Where we could play games from the cartridge slot and eliminate load times .

I think that is the most do-able suggestion here (after GBA everdrive)

Doable, possibly.  Worth it?  Ehhh, I dunno.  I love my Saturn, but a $30 easily installed mod-chip will let you play CD backups (with a very few games that use dual-layer encoding [Like Virtua Cop] being annoying exceptions). 

I'm also uncertain as to whether the Saturn is truly capable of accessing the cart slot in a meaningful (gameplay-wise) manner.

[KalessinDB]

What about a Sega Saturn Everdrive. Where we could play games from the cartridge slot and eliminate load times .

I think that is the most do-able suggestion here (after GBA everdrive)

What was kind of joking. a Saturn Everdrive seems impossible (to me).

You think a Saturn Everdrive is even possible?

Deunan (that makes GDEMU) is supposedly working on a Saturn ODE.  I doubt it will use the cartridge slot, but I imagine it'll be very nice.  My Saturn's got a mod chip and a region free bios, but I'd still likely buy one.  I hate burning CDs, and I hate burning coasters more, and eventually lasers do die.