Hacking Neo Geo Pocket? Want to make a mini arcade

[rtdzign]

I wanted to do the opposite of what Ben Heckendorn does, turn the Neo Geo Pocket color into a desktop arcade. Basically I want to play NeoGeo pocket with the original hardware but with a Seimitsu stick and buttons. Emulator play has been less than satisfactory. The the only problem I will have is getting video. out I've made plenty of custom arcade sticks so the rest of the electronics work is simple. Is it even possible to get the video out of this handheld?

I'm currently looking at what people have done with the Gameboy and want to try it with a NeoGeo Pocket Color. But if anybody has links that may be of use, it would be appreciated.

I'll probably just use the original screen but would like to attempt a bigger self lit LCD.

[arfink]

I don't know if you can get a proper video out from the NGPC. You'll need to build some kind of a circuit to re-interpret the video output for that.

Other than that, I am confused why you'd want to do this, but mostly because I love the NGPC's joystick and wouldn't want to play NGPC games with anything else.

[rtdzign]

Other than that, I am confused why you'd want to do this, but mostly because I love the NGPC's joystick and wouldn't want to play NGPC games with anything else.

Thanks for the reply. For a handheld the click stick is excellent. Still, the arcade rat in me prefers to play fighters with a real arcade stick. I can't pull of moves like Geeses Pretzel Motion Desperation Move on reaction to knock someone out the air. I am wanting to beat Arcade mode on Hardest without losing but the Click stick is getting in the way of my execution. That and I totally jacked up the screen on one of my NGPC trying to get the scratches out.

[palmertech]

The "screen", or the plastic cover? Since you want this to be a mini arcade cabinet, you could use an AR layer over the LCD, a very strong LED frontlight panel, and one of those magnifier lenses. You could probably more than double/triple the screen size if you used a good lens.

As for the arcade controls... I really, really, really want a neageo pocket color stick. Not the console, just the little thumbstick. Perhaps we could work something out, and I could buy it from you? I have to go for now, but sometime tomorrow, I will post the magnifying lenses you will need.

[rtdzign]

Ha! Already ahead of you there. I decided to just get a magnafying lens for cheap and am already building the cabinet around that. Also already will be building an LED array built into the cabinet, but still am working on the cabinet.

The only other problem is have is I want to make it a four buttons setup but don't know how. I want to control the duration of button press for both A and B with two different buttons
I posted this on another electronics board but got no replys I might as well try it here.

If you want the click stick give me an email at
rich_tongol(at)yah00.c0m I used zeros instead of "o"s in that one.
I'm not going to use it. I don't know if there are selling rules here so if there is let me know.
FYI i'm not sure if you want to try to use is in another portable. The actuator relies on small microswitches soldered on to the mother board and a clip on assebly to control the pivot. It would require a lot of precision hacking.

I am in the process of making a NeoGeo Pocket Color Mini Arcade.
It was the competitor to the Gameboy Color and has a lot of great
arcade style (Street Fighter, King of Fighters) fighting games. I wanted to make it faithful to a
Neo Geo MVS cabinet.


The actual handheld has only two buttons. In the software of many of the games, tapping the A button activates a light punch, while holding it for about 1/3 of a second will activate a Heavy punch. The same goes for Button B which is Kick.

In the Mockup picture above I wanted the red button to be light punch, the Green Button to be Heavy Punch, Yellow Light Kick and Blue Heavy Kick.

I am unsure about the true timings so I will need to do a little trial and error on a bread board to get it right.

I was wondering if it was at all possible to make it so that if I press one button to close the A button circuit for a short duration per one button press.

Then a seperate push button to activate the A button circuit for a longer Duration.

What componenets would I need? Do I need to learn how to program a microcontroller?
I was looking at a 555 timer chip and am not sure if that is what I need in this case, and it looks like the timing is controlled with varying the resistance and capcitors in the circuit. I am unsure if monostable or astable modes would be apropriate for this or what they mean. I just learned those two words today.
Thank you for just reading this.

The "screen", or the plastic cover? Since you want this to be a mini arcade cabinet, you could use an AR layer over the LCD, a very strong LED frontlight panel, and one of those magnifier lenses. You could probably more than double/triple the screen size if you used a good lens.

As for the arcade controls... I really, really, really want a neageo pocket color stick. Not the console, just the little thumbstick. Perhaps we could work something out, and I could buy it from you? I have to go for now, but sometime tomorrow, I will post the magnifying lenses you will need.

[arfink]

Looks like you got it under control. I actually was looking to buy some beat up NGPC units to steal the joysticks from, but I have a different supplier so it's OK. I don't know how you'd go about making such a circuit for the buttons, but I hope it works out for you. Good luck!

[rtdzign]

Finished well almost. I have to find a proper potentiometer to work with the turbo hack since turbo for all the games require different timing. Looking for something small that I can drill to the back of the control panel.



Youtube of it in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJiX9c224g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AowPPhvdtPU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Worklog:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread. ... ost7440574" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kylechu]

OHMYGODTHATLOOKSAWESOME
For those of you that don't like words with no spaces, that's "oh my god that looks awesome"
while I still don't understand any need for this, it is awesome looking.

[paul4990]

wow thats awesome! well done to you sir!

[tom61]

Why is the unit so far from the cutout for the screen and lit so brightly?

[XCVG]

Nice! But Neo Geo PMS? Yeesh.

[ArugulaZ]

If it ever stops working, you can tell your friends that it's just that time of the month for it...

Seriously, that looks wicked cool. You should try something like this with a PSP, with the Neo-Geo emulator installed on it.