Gauging interest for a group buy for Neo Flash Cart

[HercTNT]

the xml thing is you need to download microsofts msxml sp3 parser and it will make that warning go away. as far as the error goes, i was trying to format the card as per instructions on that page. it would not format my card. the usb would time out everytime. i hope that it did not mess anything up.

[Sadler]

the xml thing is you need to download microsofts msxml sp3 parser and it will make that warning go away. as far as the error goes, i was trying to format the card as per instructions on that page. it would not format my card. the usb would time out everytime. i hope that it did not mess anything up.

Gotcha, I'll grab that msxml stuff eventually, though it doesn't seem to affect anything. I actually didn't format my card, I just added the ROMs I wanted. I'm a little hesitant to try formatting now!

[HercTNT]

Ok, i installed everything on windows xp and had zero issues with the software and drivers. I formatted the card without problems and burned roms. So far, despite setting region, i have not managed to get a single us rom to work. I did however manage to get 90% of japanese roms to work that i have tried.  this thing is definately finicky. sadler, if you dont mind, pm me on what roms you used and the setting you used. Thanks.

[Sadler]

PM sent.

[Duo_R]

quick question - can I mix regions on ROMS that I throw on this thing? So put US and JP roms on it and they will work?

[HercTNT]

no although it seems to be possible to hex edit the roms to change their region

[Sadler]

no although it seems to be possible to hex edit the roms to change their region

Alright, disclaimer: I'm really new to this and it's quite possible I'm not telling the truth here... I have both PCE and TG ROMs on my card and they both work, I think at once. I'll have to play around some more to be sure, but I haven't seen anything fail yet. Even when I mix ROMs.

[HercTNT]

its possible i imagine, but their website you can't so who knows. here is a link to an updated pce bios for the program that fixed even more problems for me.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?33168-Using-the-NeoFlash-PCE-Flash-Carts

I loaded up 10 pce games and all but 1 worked fine. I still have not got back to the us carts yet. Sadler and i are working the issue and between the two of us i imagine we will fix most problems that people might have. Thanks goes to sadler for the support

[Necromancer]

Alright, disclaimer: I'm really new to this and it's quite possible I'm not telling the truth here... I have both PCE and TG ROMs on my card and they both work, I think at once. I'll have to play around some more to be sure, but I haven't seen anything fail yet. Even when I mix ROMs.

Same here.  I've never had a problem mixing and matching ROMs, though mine's an older one using equally old flashing software.

[HercTNT]

maybe its just me then. the readme that came on the cd said mixing and matching was a no no. japanese games wont work on my us turbo and american ones wont work on my japanese duo-r.

[Duo_R]

ok i think I actually have a bad one. I only got one game to work out of about a dozen, and often the system menu freezes when i select a game. A couple times the graphics glitch out. This is on a Duo-R system.

The card wasn't formatted when I got it and followed the instructions that was posted here.

[HercTNT]

dont give up, first time i tried it i did not get a single game to work. got lots of garbage on the screen as well. put just one rom on the card, pick the correct region you want to program for before you load the rom into the program. then burn it to to the cart and try to load it up. sadler and i will be more than willing to help you out if you have any more questions.

[Duo_R]

i am using windows 7, should i just scrap that thing and use XP? Now it won't even recognize the card...

[TheOldMan]

I only got one game to work out of about a dozen

it seems to be possible to hex edit the roms to change their region

my system will still not use the card due to usb timeout.

I have the 128+save, and I've seen all these problems. And they are all fixable:

1) Check the rom in a hex editor, and see if it has a 128 byte header. If so, you have to remove it.
(the header causes the game to freeze on the menu screen)

2) If you want to run roms from a different region, you have to tell it which region the rom is from, using
the little drop down region box. If the software won't let you mix/match regions (some versions don't), you need
to bit-flip the rom image.

3) The usb timeout was the tough one: You have to make sure you have a <really> good connection at the usb port, and that the usb port does not go idle. If you are on a laptop with power-save mode, you need to tell windows -not- to let the device power down.

...........................................................
There are utils floating around to strip the header and flip the rom images. Fixing the usb problem requires changing some windows settings. I don't remember where it is, or where I saw the info. I just moved the reader to a desktop computer

And from what I remember, the 'newest' version of the software sucks. I think I went back to version 1.20 of the all-in-one stuff to make everything work.

[Sadler]

i am using windows 7, should i just scrap that thing and use XP? Now it won't even recognize the card...

Let's start from the top. Upon receiving your flash cart, what steps did you take, and what software (OS mainly) and hardware did you use?

As best I can recall, this is what I did (using Win7 64 bit on an intel core 2 quad):

0. Do not insert the disc, nor the slim loader in you system yet!
1. Download manager from HERE
2. Installed the manager. This included drivers. I did not make any effort to install the manager in a specific location.
3. Inserted flash cart into USB interface
4. Inserted USB interface ("slim loader") into system
5. Navigated to the exe, right clicked and ran as administrator
6. Clicked "Add" and added the ROMs I wanted to play (ie Magical Chase or Soldier Blade)
7. Clicked Burn
8. Removed the slim loader from my system
9. Inserted into DUO-RX with region mod set to Japan
10. Enjoyed ROMs

A few things to note from the above:

* I did not format the drive
* I did not alter the settings on the right for US/Japan (left on Japan), despite the type of ROM I added. See below:

* I did not use the alternate menu system listed on the neo forums
* I'm using an RX, I think both of you are using Duo-R's. Not sure if this matters.