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NeoGeo Pocket Beta Core (Patreon)

Published:
2024-01-05 10:22:45
Imported:
2026-06

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Content

Español abajo

Just in time for reyes,  the first beta core for NeoGeo Pocket is available for MiSTer and  Analogue Pocket in the usual locations. Sadly, this core does not fit in  smaller FPGAs, like SiDi or MiST because of internal RAM size  requirements. Some notes:

Only the monochrome color is supported in this release. Do not use the color BIOS

Game compatibility is listed here

Some games save data to the cartridge. Not yet supported. Games may  hang for 2-3 minutes when they try to save data. Do not select save options in menus

NGP configuration (date and language) is not saved. You need to go through it at least once per session

Inserting and swapping cartridges requires to virtually power off and on the NGP (not the FPGA system)

Some peripherals of the Toshiba MCU are still not implemented. This could potentially impact games

The CPU is not cycle accurate for this release. This could potentially impact games

Overall, many good games work and I think the system is  ready for a first beta. We will polish it and add the remaining features  in future beta updates. Important note: the beta key changes today. Please update it manually.

MiSTer

Trigger the core from the Arcade menu using its MRA file. This may change eventually, but for now, you will need to do it so the beta key gets loaded.

Copy the new jtbeta.zip to games/mame

Put your NGP firmware in games/NGP/boot.rom

Games should go in games/NGP

Eventually, the plan is to have the core in the MiSTer's consoles folder. For now, though, we will start it as though it was an arcade system.

Pocket

Copy the new beta.bin to Assets/jtpatreon/common

Put your NGP firmware in Assets/jtngp/common/ngp.rom

Games should go in the same Assets/jtngp/common folder

By the way, the JTCPS15 core fore the Analogue Pocket is promoted to public release today.

MiSTer & Pocket

Once you start the core, it will show a settings menu. Press the coin button, and the screen will go white. Now enter the OSD menu and select the load option (Core Settings, then Load Cartridge in A. Pocket). Go through the settings menu and the game will start. If you want to swap the game, press coin again and load the new game. But this time, you will not need to go  through the settings, as the NGP remembers your previous selection.

Power off the NGP using the coin button (button to the left of (A) in Pocket)

Load the cartridge

Power on the NGP using the same button (only A. Pocket, MiSTer will do it automatically)

Repeat these steps each time you want to insert a new  cartridge. Note that you can bypass the first NeoGeo animation by  clicking button B.

Color-only games usually display a sorry screen, often in Japanese. You can check out the list of compatible games according to Wikipedia here.

For reporting issues, the prefered location is GitHub. You can check the list of previously reported NGP issues too.

Future Work

The hard part is over. Solving the list of items listed  above should not be that complicated, including adding color. However,  this will be done while progressing work on other cores. After several  weeks focused on the NGP, we turn back to arcade work for a while.

Español

Justo a tiempo para reyes, el primer núcleo beta para  NeoGeo Pocket está disponible para MiSTer y Analogue Pocket en las  ubicaciones habituales. Lamentablemente, este núcleo no cabe en FPGAs  más pequeñas, como SiDi o MiST, debido a los requisitos de tamaño de la  RAM interna. Algunas notas:

Sólo el color monocromo es compatible con esta versión. No uses la  BIOS del modelo de color. La compatibilidad de juegos se enumera aquí

Algunos juegos guardan datos en el cartucho. Esto aun no funciona.  Los juegos pueden colgarse durante 2-3 minutos cuando intentan guardar  datos. No selecciones opciones de guardado en los menús

La configuración de NGP (fecha e idioma) no se guarda. Es necesario revisarla al menos una vez por sesión

Insertar e intercambiar cartuchos requiere apagar y encender virtualmente la NGP (no el sistema FPGA)

Algunos periféricos de la MCU Toshiba aún no están implementados. Esto podría afectar a los juegos

La CPU no tiene un ciclo preciso en esta versión. Esto podría afectar a los juegos

En general, muchos buenos juegos funcionan y creo que el  sistema está listo para una primera beta. Lo puliremos y añadiremos las  características restantes en futuras actualizaciones de la beta. Nota  importante: la clave de la beta cambia hoy. Por favor, actualízala manualmente.

MiSTer

Activa el núcleo desde el menú Arcade usando su archivo  MRA. Esto puede cambiar con el tiempo, pero por ahora, tendrás que  hacerlo para que se cargue la clave beta.

Copia el nuevo jtbeta.zip en games/mame

Pon el firmware de tu NGP en games/NGP/boot.rom

Los juegos van en games/NGP

Con el tiempo, el plan es tener el núcleo en la carpeta de  consolas del MiSTer. Por ahora, sin embargo, lo iniciaremos como si  fuera un sistema arcade.

Pocket

Copia el nuevo beta.bin en Assets/jtpatreon/common

Pon el firmware de tu NGP en Assets/jtngp/common/ngp.rom

Los juegos deben ir en la misma carpeta Assets/jtngp/common

Por cierto, el núcleo JTCPS15 para el Analogue Pocket se ha lanzado hoy al público.

MiSTer y Pocket

Una vez que inicies el núcleo, se mostrará un menú de  configuración. Pulsa el botón de la moneda y la pantalla se volverá  blanca. Ahora entra en el menú OSD y selecciona la opción de carga (Core Settings, luego Load Cartridge en la A. Pocket). Entra en el menú de ajustes y el juego se iniciará.  Si quieres cambiar el juego, vuelve a pulsar coin y carga el nuevo  juego. Pero esta vez, no tendrás que pasar por los ajustes, ya que la  NGP recuerda tu selección anterior.

Apaga la NGP con el botón coin (botón situado a la izquierda de (A) en Pocket).

Carga el cartucho

Enciende la NGP usando el mismo botón (sólo A. Pocket, MiSTer lo hará automáticamente)

Repite estos pasos cada vez que quieras insertar un nuevo  cartucho. Ten en cuenta que puedes saltarte la primera animación de  NeoGeo pulsando el botón B.

Los juegos sólo en color suelen mostrar una pantalla de  disculpa, a menudo en japonés. Puedes consultar la lista de juegos  compatibles según Wikipedia aquí..

Para informar de problemas, el lugar preferido es GitHub. También puedes consultar la lista de problemas de NGP notificados anteriormente.

Trabajo futuro

La parte difícil ha terminado. Resolver la lista de  problemas enumerados anteriormente no debería ser tan complicado,  incluyendo la adición de color. Sin embargo, esto se hará mientras  avanza el trabajo en otros núcleos. Tras varias semanas centrados en la  NGP, volvemos al trabajo arcade por un tiempo.

Comments

Tony Vo

Finally 😃

Pixel Cherry Ninja

Very nice, have a nice weekend, and enjoy the NGP splash screen sound, as it's awesome 👍

Jessica Marshall

Amazing work! Thank you! My favorite handheld 😄

Mark Saunders

Fantastic, great work all that you do team JT. never used/ seen this so be an experience!

Peter

Incredible work! What a great achievement.

Tom Moretti

Thank you for the years hard work and dedication u and the team put to this amazing handheld core

Kyle Peters

Are we changing the beta key for everything and why is it constantly need replacing ? It is becoming an ass ache having to go through every file now because of that credits glitch.

JC

So often? It’s been two months. It usually gets changed when there’s a new release. What system are you on that there’s more than one file to change?

Kyle Peters

So i don’t have to change the beta file for the other games too? The ones that were giving me the credits

Owlnonymous

Super stoked about this core. I plan to check the core out for a few streams. Thanks for bringing this to FPGA

JOTEGO

It changes for everything that’s in beta on average once every three months. You only need to place the file in one folder if you are using the latest Pocket firmware. Or you can use an updater.

Vincenzo

I got an error for bubble Bobble missing or incorrect beta file. But i Place in root of my pocket the new beta and run Matt Pannella updater . What is wrong then ? 🤔

Mike Vito

I'm kinda confused here. I updated my mister and placed the new beta.zip file in the correct location. I open the Pocket core from the Arcade list and nothing happens. It just brings me back to select a core again. I'm also confused as to what the "NGP" firmware is. Is that the bios?

Dan Van der Vlugt

Ran the matt panella pocket updater after putting the new jtbeta.zip in my root folder and got the following message: Extracting JT beta key... Well, something went wrong. Sorry about that. Could not find file '/Volumes/Pocket/Platforms/jtvulgus.json'. Press any key to continue. None of my cores are showing up now.

Kyle Peters

Oh ok great ! Thanks dawg

JOTEGO

I have replied in a private message.

JOTEGO

That should work. Maybe some step was not well executed? Try asking in our Discord server, where we can have an interactive conversation

Gabriel S

For anyone having trouble with the new beta key, make sure you unzip jtbeta.zip and rename beta.bin before adding it to Assets/jtpatreon/common. All my cores and the ngp are working perfectly, thanks Jotego!

Rick S.

hello, I think the ink above to jtbeta zip file is a website link, but not a link to to download. my browser gives me an error. thanks!

Rick S.

weird, but I now see download links...thanks all!

Mike Vito

Ok. Got it working on the Pocket but the Mister is another story. As soon as I choose it from the Arcade list I get brought back to the list. I put the new beta zip file in games/mame and put the bios in games/ngp and named it boot.rom. Still getting nothing.

Tom Moretti

Dont think the updaters are updated yet

Tom Moretti

I dont think the updaters are updated yet. Just putting that out there if people are having issues with them all of them had errors so i did everything manual

Roberto García

Se pone la pantalla blanca cuando cargo el Core, ¿por cierto cuál es el NGP firmware?

Mike Vito

It seems as though it's not verifying the beta zip file since it's pretty much bringing me right back to the arcade core section screen as soon as I open Neo Geo Pocket.

Rent Optional

do games need to have the .ngc suffix? seems everything ive tried crashes at the title screen or wont boot

Big Al.

They can have be either suffix. .ngc or ngp

JOTEGO

Please check the video in the post and the instructions. It’s crucial to “power off” the NGP before inserting a cartridge

Rent Optional

Appreciate the reply. Some games on the list of compatible games work and some dont on the Pocket. Baseball Stars freezes on the title screen. BustAMove does not boot at all.

Dan Van der Vlugt

Exactly, Jotego very quick to respond and helpful.

Dan Van der Vlugt

So for NGP, get the original bios, unzip, rename it to ngp.rom and place in assets/jtngp/common. Also unzip new jtbeta.zip and place beta.bin in that folder. Also place your roms in there. For all other cores that aren't working do the same with the beta.bin file and replace the old beta.bin files. Or wait for Matt Pannella.

Big Al.

Baseball Stars Colour (usa) works for me, obviously not in colour.

Kent Pendragon

Glad you made it! Congrats! Arcade up next - couldn’t be happier to read that. Go team JT - love and appreciate the work you do!

Darren Chell

Thanks so much for all your hard work and for staying dedicated to bringing this core to fruition for us all to enjoy 🙏

Big Al.

Does Bubble bobble work ? its showing the credits now, all the others are working.

Rick S.

is this for the pocket? I don't have an assets/jtngp/common folder in my MiSTer

Gabriel S

Yeah bubble bobble works fine for me, tested all of them

Unlovedhomie

rename to what? do we not just upzip and drop in jtpatreon/common ?

Shaneus

I think I have everything working perfectly, can see the BIOS screen but cannot select the language as requested. Even after remapping the controller, I can't get past this screen. This is for MiSTer by the way

Big Al.

There's a few having this issue, not sure why, ill take another look. cheer's.

Mike Vito

Yes, he's speaking about the pocket

Tatton Partington

This is incredible! I know it's the first release and there's still lots of work to do. This is amazing so far. I'm loving the audio coming from the core. Ignoring that the speed is off, the sound is so crisp and clean. Congrats on the launch! You all have put so much time and effort into getting get core to where it is. This is the first big step in making this wonderful library of games available to a wider audience who may not have been able to play with the original hardware. It's been delightful seeing everyone in the discord sharing the screenshots of the games they are playing. Huge thank you to you and the rest of the team who have been so dedicated to making this happen! I'm looking forward to watching the core grow and evolve from here.

JOTEGO

Thank you! I was hoping someone would notice the audio filters that the core uses, which reduce the HF aliasing most cores/emulators produce. You've got a good ear!

JOTEGO

If you wait long enough, Baseball Starts actually boots. It is one of the games that try to save data in the cartridge flash at the very start. As described in the post, that does not work well yet. The game eventually gives up and just boots up.

JOTEGO

If you have the latest Pocket firmware, it is enough to have the beta.bin in Assets/jtpatreon/common. That will work for all cores. Ensure there are no other copies of the file.

David Killeffer

I'm having the same problem as Mike Vito on MiSTer - I've added the latest jtbeta.zip to games/mame, created the games/mame/NGP folder and put the BIOS (named boot.rom) in there, and when I load the NeoGeo Pocket core I'm brought right back to the list (Arcade, Computer, Console, Other, Utility). Not sure what else to try... I do have all my games being loaded over the network via the cifs_mount.sh / cifs_umount.sh scripts, but I don't have any trouble with any other cores.

Danilo Dellafrana

Same problem as above on Mister, but I got a black screen with nowhere to run except turning off the mister. the bios works great on Analogue, so I guess that's not the issue. First JT core that gives me headache so far, I guess that everything will be fixed when it will be moved on the console folder. I hope!

FiftyFive

Same for me. Everything else seems to work but bubble bobble stopped working.

Fred Jorge Silva de Souza

I don´t know, but my MiSTer crashed after the new "jtbeta" and NGP... I can't play some games because I don't make the "coin" buttom works. The beta cores has a time to work? They are unplayable now.

Philipp Storck

Also having trouble setting this up.

Philipp Storck

Can someone that did succeed setting up the core post a checksum of the bios file he used? I bet this is where things go wrong. I found three different ones online but neither worked.

JOTEGO

set "osd_timeout=30" in your mister.ini file so you can read whatever error MiSTer is producing.

JOTEGO

set "osd_timeout=30" in your mister.ini file so you can read whatever error MiSTer is producing.

Norman George

having issues running splatterhouse and i have a double for the final round for some reason

Allan Jacobi

Aliens, Splatter House, Simpsons, and TMNT went down. Reports as incorrect beta core. Tried to replace the beta files from older versions,,, nope.

AaronTasteKittens

I'm also having this exact same problem. Have you figured out how to get it working?

AaronTasteKittens

Same with me on Mister. Decided to play some Splatter House after futzing with the NGP core and the controls won't work even after I reassign the buttons.

shawBen

Pressing the selection button in the game will crash

JOTEGO

Please try updating again.

JOTEGO

If you refer to the button to the left of the Analogue button, that is the power button I am referring to in the post. Press it to power down the NGP, the insert the cartridge and press it again.

4xl

unfortunately did not help

David Rhodus

I will wait until the NGP core is in the MiSTer's consoles folder.

David Rhodus

TMNT works for me. But Aliens doesn't.

Shaneus

Okay, I've worked out the problem on my end, and that's that it's not reading the controller inputs at all. Have tried multiple controllers and remapping, but nothing responds. Even tried another core (TMNT) and the same thing. The core credits have appeared but even after remapping the controller, I cannot make them disappear or insert credits. Edit: Okay, updated jtbeta.zip again in the Games\Mame folder on my MiSTer and it's now fine.

shawBen

oh i know it…..thank you

Allan Jacobi

Had to put the new beta core back into all the ones that stopped working.. now everything works.

Kay Bien

After updating this morning, I am getting a message that tmnt and Simpsons have incorrect beta.bin, but Aliens is working. Anyone else? (On AP)

David Killeffer

Unfortunately that didn't seem to help - I actually already had "osd_timeout=30" set in my MiSTer.ini. When I select the NeoGeo Pocket core from the Arcade menu the screen flickers for a moment and then goes right back to the screen where you select from the list (Arcade, Computer, Console, Other, Utility). What should I try next? Thanks again for the help!

Steven S

Really appreciate the progress and hard work on this core. Unfortunately, I'm having a lot of issues getting it working and don't know where to begin. I've tried using the non color bios and dropping it in ngp.rom folder. Ran the updater got something that said ngpc.rom in the assets/common folder. But never got past the neo geo pocket screen It just goes white. tried deleting the bios and letting updater fetch it - now I get this error message - "Downloading ngp.rom Uh oh something went wrong. Access to the path '/Volumes/pocket/Assets/jtngp/common/ngp.rom' is denied." I just feel super frustrated at this point. I can't find any non color US region bios on google or internet archive. I've followed the instructions to the best of my ability. Please help! Thanks

Kay Bien

Nm, they work despite the updater error message

Karl (BlockABoots) Letting

Cant seem to get past te NGP system menu for selecting a Language, no pad inputs work and loading a game does nothing on the MiSTer

Dan Avedikian

installing cores on Pocket is tough, no matter how you slice it. I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. you can find the non-color BIOS in many places. I got a reliable one from Planet Emu dot net. Archive dot org has it too. once you've found it, rename the file to ngp.rom place this file in your common folder along with any roms that are listed as compatible in the link from the above post. also, JT made an update to the NGP core and it now is easier to load roms. be sure to update the core if you haven't.

Steven S

I’m using a bios that says Japan Europe that’s the only one I can find that isn’t color. I go through the settings and get to the Neo geo pocket screen after loading the cartridge and it just stays on the white screen after that. I’m really confused as to what I’m doing wrong specifically. I’ve watched the video a dozen times

Steven S

I haven’t been able to figure this out either the only bios I found that wasn’t ngp color was for Japan and Europe. Super frustrated at this point.

Tony Vo

Amazing work.... will all games work eventually?

David Massey

Emularity BIOS Collection. Put ngp.zip in games/mame folder. Ran update_all script and gamepad worked to select language and change date/time. I haven't tried games.

patrice eveno

Not working on my pockey. I have the neo geo pocket launching but when I load a game nothing happen

adolfdisney

Similar issue has happened to me, everything worked fine until I updated today. All the beta cores have credits splash screen overlay preventing me from inserting coins. I tried manually moving the beta.bin into all the cores that stopped working and, nothing. I have been using the pocket_updater.exe to update my cores.

adolfdisney

UPDATE: I just manually installed everything, works fine. Thanks again for your great work Jotego.

Waifu4Life

Happy new years mate! After you're done with the NGP core, any chances we'll get to see some X-Men and/or TMNT Turtles in time progress?

JOTEGO

Yes, I'll go back to Konami soon. I am doing maintenance work for 2-3 weeks, though.

JOTEGO

You need to cycle the virtual power as shown in the video.

Nicolas Lardeux

Same, I tried to push to the button left to analog button but nothing happend

Lee Turner

Will Vendetta make it this year? I ask mainly because the Console Arcade collection is censored.Gracias.

Fabian L

I am not tech-savvy at all. All the explanations from the README and GitHub might as well be in an alien language. I just want this to work. May I have simple step-by step dumbed down explanation? Looking at the NeoGeo Pocket and (if anyone is listening) the Game and Watch. I have the needed bios, roms and have done what I have done for every other core. These two are different.

John Hall

I always struggle to get these to work. On the Pocket, I have done everything to the tee, when the game is supposed to start ir goes to a calendar screen.

John Hall

On the mister I can't even find the core in the menu after following the instructions. Looks like it's supposed to be under the Arcade games?

The Original Drew

I can't get Simpsons or TMNT to work at all. I've deleted the roms and cores and started from scratch. I've installed the bin files into the commons. Ran the updater, still says I have an invalid beta key. I've watched the youtube videos, I followed the post step by step. Nothing. Any suggestions?

JOTEGO

Although this can be solved with the current files, there is going to be a full update for all cores tomorrow. Please try again then.

Plop Slop

Should the neo geo pocket core update via the pocket updater?

Plop Slop

i use Pocket Updater and it doesn't seem to load the Neo Geo Pocket core. How'd you get it to work?

Andrew Stott

I joined your patreon to gain access to the Neo Geo Pocket beta core. He mentioned where to put a firmware but I'm not sure if you're referring to some kind of BIOS. I also found a text file in one of the directories that seems to suggest I need to convert my .ngp files for them to work?

GrownSimba0993

Analogue Pocket user here, I put the new beta.bin in the jtpateron folder and I put the ngp.rom in the common folder along with my roms. The bios loads up and I can select a rom but then when the core tries to load up the rom the screen just goes white and stays like that. At this point I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong.

JOTEGO

You need to power on the virtual NGP. Watch the video in the post and see how we turn it off and on

Strat Mask

Hola Jotego!, quería consultarte ya instale el core tanto en mister como en la pocket, pero al momento en que sale el menu de configuración justo al abrir el core, sin importar que presione la tecla de moneda la pantalla no cambia no se pone en blanco, solo se mantiene ese menu de selección de idioma, el core de mister lo baje por UPDATE_ALL, el de Pocket usando PocketSync

Lo0twig

I wanted to try out the core on the Analogue Pocket for the first time today. However, after starting the core I don't see my ngp.rom, the folder is displayed as empty although the file is there.