NeoGeo X: New Buyer Questions

[kadrik0]

Hi,

I just bought a new NeoGeo X on ebay this morning and have some questions before it comes in.

1) If you buy a LE Gold Neo Geo X that doesn't include any additional sd cards except for the Ninja game what firmware is loaded on the system? It sounds like 337 or 370 and you get the 500 by installing the update from a separate purchased Neo Geo X Cart/Sd Card and rocket cable. Just want to confirm they aren't coming with 500 out of the box.

2) I ended up buying a modified sd card adapter online that only works on firmware 337 and 370. If I end up having firmware 500, is there a way to downgrade or with a jailbreak to make my modified sd card still work with .fba again files?

3) I never had a neo geo and only played the games via console emulation on the 360 and wii. The fighting games for the neo geo kind of made me scratch my head. Do they really only use 4 buttons and a stick? Kind of weird not having six buttons in an arcade style fighting game like king of fighters. Just wanted to double check that part on the off chance you need a separate controller or have to use the hand held for games more than 4 buttons.

4) While playing the neo geo on an hdtv with hdmi how do you toggle between 16:9 and 4:3? Can you do that from the console or do you have to set the tv to stretch for example.

Thanks for the help.

[neogenesis]

1.) Default firmware is either v337 or v370. To upgrade to v500, you'll need to get the Mega Pack or one of the Classics Volumes.

2.) I'm not sure if you can downgrade from a v500, but you'll still be able to do the jailbreak on any firmware from what I know.

3.) All Neo Geo games use 4 buttons or less. They're more than enough for the fighting games. In fact, I prefer the 4-button setup in most Neo Geo fighters over the 6-button Street Fighter setup. Don't get me wrong though, SF2 is one of my all-time favorite games. I just think the 4-button setup is more practical and easier to use.

4.) When you play on TV, all you need to do is change the aspect ratio on the TV itself. Upgrading to v500 firmware improves the HDMI output on TV.

[danthor]

Exactly what he said. Once you've jailbroken (assuming you upgrade to v500) your modified card will still work, all you need to do is change the layout of the folder on the card, and rename your extensions from .fba to either .mvs or .aes and you're good to go.

[kadrik0]

Sweet! I know it is a small bump, but that 500 update helped with screen tearing, sound, and picture over hdmi so it will be a welcome change. I'll have to look for the instructions online and buy one of the game packs so I can upgrade to firmware 500 and have access to the upgrade cable.

[danthor]

It does make a pretty big difference in the HDMI out, that's for sure. I'm running the v500 jailbreak /w modded card, myself. I was a longtime holdout from updating to v500, but I'm quite pleased with the revisions and options afforded to me now. Check this thread out for a rather large dump of info about the jailbreak;

neogeox.proboards.com/thread/148/jailbreak-compiled-information

[neogenesis]

I'm still hoping for a v500 hack soon. For now, I'm enjoying the 35 games I have for my NGX. My Ninja Masters game card is still sealed. hehe.