New GUI Build and Other Stuff

By 5 commentsNGPC Flash Cart, NGPC Software, NGPC USB Linker

About a week ago, Mr. Spiv released the GUI he has been working on. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve been making improvements to it. Just now, I added a newer build to the downloads page. Go check it out. I hope it addresses any problems you may have had with the previous release. If not, or if you have something else to add, please leave a comment. If you don’t speak up, we may never know there’s a problem.

In other news, you may have seen that the purchase page lists the Neo Linkmasta and Neo Pocket Flashmasta as sold out. I’m working on getting a bunch of new bundles ready. My goal is to have at least 20 full bundles all ready to go when they go back up for sale. The experimental bare and uncut options were interesting for me to know what people want, but most people just wanted the full bundle. Not only have I have been refining my process and getting some help from people like Xian Xi, Mr. Spiv, Gerry, etc., but, thanks to the orders I’ve received up to this point, I have been able to make some more bulk purchases of parts.

In my opinion, things are progressing quite well, and I am very pleased with the project as a whole. When the product is once again ready for orders, I hope to feel ahead of the game and better prepared to serve the community. I might need some help, though. If you know anybody or any forums/websites/communities that should know about this project, please let them know. If you want to wait until sales re-open, that’s understandable. I just think it’s you guys that will help grow this whole thing. The Neo Geo Pocket has a lot of owners, but most of them don’t know about the Neo Linkmasta and Neo Pocket Flashmasta. Maybe you can help change that.

5 comments on “New GUI Build and Other Stuff”

  2. Morden Reply

    I’ve noticed that in GUI, the default file extension for game images is *.ngp. I’d suggest adding *.ngc as well, so that the program lists those images right away, without the need of choosing “all files” do display the rest.

    Also, and this is for the command line tool, some games use “/” character as a part of the internal game title. Let’s say the internal title is “XXXXX C/J”. When trying to dump a save file [which works correctly only for a small number of titles, because of how saving on NGP cartridges works], the command line tool will try to create a file and place it in a non existing path: XXXX C/J*savefile name*.ngf [“XXX C” being a folder, which the tool won’t create and fail to write a file]. A routine to replace or ignore “/” within internal titles would fix this.

    • Flavor Reply

      Good catches, both of them.

      I think I could easily just change any ‘/’ in the title to a ‘-‘ or something like that.

      Otherwise, have you had problems dumping the save-game data from any official cartridges? I know that dumping from a flash cart is problematic.

  3. Morden Reply

    Not that I can remember. I’ve used the save dump feature with several games, but after they started giving me grief on the flash cartridge, I stuck with dumping complete images, just in case.

    I used dumped save data with an emulator on numerous occasions. The ability to dump savestates makes it easy to take screenshots from different points throughout the game [for reviews, etc], plus, if you want to mess with the game, you won’t risk messing up your progress.

    Speaking of saves, Cotton’s way of saving data doesn’t seem to be working correctly. The original game will save high scores and cut scenes. I’m guessing the data wants to be written to specific sectors and the way Flashmasta “fakes” generic save support doesn’t allow it. All you’ll get is an error message in Japanese.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.