Desperate help with NeoGeo emulation (and Atari)

First off, keep in mind I am not asking for ROMs or ISOs or anything like that. I have had the hardest damn time trying to get a Neo Geo emulator to work. I've tried all of them and none of them seem to work for me. We're talking days and weeks of downloading them all and trying everything to get them to work. I have all of the necessary files I just seem to be, I don't know... I really don't - an idiot could have got it to work by now by sheer dumb luck. One requires downloading certain files and I guess I am putting them in the wrong folder. I really don't know.

I've managed to get virtually every other emulator out there to run just fine. Neo Geo represents one of the last hurdles. So I am wondering if someone could either walk me through or send me a file with everything set up and ready to run MINUS anything that would violate the TOS of this site. Not trying to break the rules here, I can find everything I need I just... cannot get it to run. So I'm not asking for bios, ROMS or anything that usually doesn't come bundled with the emulator itself... just some help getting it to work.

I also have been having problems with the Atari 2600/5200 and 7800 emulators. I'm just trying to take some screenshots for my reviews. But the biggest problem is NeoGeo.

Some info on the specific emulators you are using would be a good jumping off point.
I use MESS for 2600/5200 and 7800 and dependent on what NeoGeo titles you are trying to emulate Mame32 is your best bet (in terms of ease of use) for older NeoGeo titles. The following all presumes you are using correct and up to date roms and bios files. If you follow the steps as detailed you should be up and running in no time.

In terms of Mame simply take the NeoGeo Bios (neogeo.zip) and leave it zipped and place it in the Mame32 'roms' folder.
Then add any game rom zips, leave them zipped and also place in the roms folder.
Start Mame32, select 'file' then 'audit all' and any games you have the correct roms and bios for should show up as playable in the games list.
If you find they don't run with the current build of Mame then try an older version (like 0.106) from HERE.

Note: You can right click a specific game in the list and click 'audit' and it will tell you if it passed rom checks. If it throws out a load of missing files instead, you need an updated rom to run with that version of Mame.

With MESS, set up a seperate folder within your MESS folder for each system you want to run and place the game roms for that system into it.
Place the system bios roms into the bios folder (leave everything zipped).
When you launch mess perform an audit all as detailed above for Mame32, then scroll down to the system you want to use (2600, 5200 etc).
Now right click the system icon and select 'properties'.
In the 'software' tab browse to the location of the rom folder you created for that system, Mess should now populate the second column with roms.
Just double click the game you want to launch.

Hope that makes sense.

If you are trying to use a dedicated NeoGeo emulator like NeoRageX, please specify which one for specific help. Note that in many cases NeoGeo roms for Mame and NeoGeo roms for other emulators are not cross compatible and you need to obtain sets for the particular emulator you are using.

Yeah so I would definitely go for MAME sets..

As soon as you tell us the specifics we can try to help you out

Thank you both for your help, especially FatTrucker for that long detailed reply. Much appreciated.

Okay well I did get the Neo-Geo to work so that's fantastic. I ended up using MAME. Originally I was trying to use a dedicated NeoGeo emulator and was using actual discs (I own an actual NeoGeo CD but I'm trying to get high quality screenshots of the games)... anyway this method ended up working just as well - if not better. Thanks!!

As for MESS, I seem to be having more trouble with it. Not sure why as it seems very similar to MAME which is very easy. What is most frustrating is it seems to be very close to working - let me describe what I did and what it says.

I unzipped the MESS folder - inside I have "artwork" - "hash" - "chdman" - "imgtool" - "mess" (help file) - "mess" (application) - "messgui" - "messlib.dll" - "sysinfo" and "wingtool"

clicking "messgui" creates a folder called "folders" which I assume I place the folders you recommend that I create. So inside "folders" I created a folder labeled "atari 5200" and inside it I placed 3 ROMs. I created another folder "bios" and inside I placed the bios. I also created a folder "atari 7800" and did the same thing. "bios" is an independent folder, not inside either Atari folder.

I ran "audit all games" and it found no games. An obvious problem... so I tried placing the folders outside of the "folders" folder - didn't work either. So I put the folders back in "folders" and followed the rest of your instructions. Right clicking Atari 7800, hitting properties and then software and locating the ROM folder does populate the list of games. I clicked on a game and got the message:

7800.rom NOT FOUND
ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot run.

The Atari 7800 and 5200 both have a red "not found?" circle on the system list. So it appears I am just a few missteps away from having it work properly. I'm going to keep troubleshooting and seeing if I can stumble across what I did wrong - in which case I will update this... but any help in the event that I cannot would be appreciated. Thanks again for the original help.:D

You're likely missing the BIOS roms for those systems. Unfortunately we can't tell you where to get those either.

Hm, well I did find and download the BIOS, I am guessing I have them in the wrong place then if you think its a BIOS related issue.

I put them in a folder I created titled "bios" inside of the folder titled "folders". I also tried just dumping the BIOS in with the ROMs like with the NeoGeo/MAME but that didn't seem to work either.

But unless the BIOS I have are faulty I believe I have them.:confused:

The bios folder should remain seperate in the main MESS folder (not within the folder called 'folders' or any other sub directory). When you run MESS go to 'options', 'directories' and scroll down to roms and give the correct path to the bios folder e.g.C:\MESS\bios
Its entirely possible your bios files have the wrong names. If you scroll to the right in the MESS systems list it will actually contain the biosname that goes with that system. If your bios is named differently then rename your bios to match it.

So for example you should have C:\MESS\bios\[biosname].zip, C:\MESS\Atari7800\[romname].zip. This is the best and least problematic way to structure it.

MESS should now recognise your (correctly named) bios files and you are away. If it doesn't recognise them or gives back a missing checksum error when you audit then you need to find an updated working bios file.

Its also worth mentioning that MESS doesn't require a bios file for Atari 2600 and that should work 'out of the box' so to speak.

As a final point remember with MESS unlike Mame32, an 'audit all' will not look for games, it looks for the correct bios roms for the systems. You then need to set up the game rom directory for each system with the 'software' tab inside 'properties' for that specific system.

Hope that helps. If you are still stuck chuck up another post or send me a PM.

MESS newest versions defaults to ROMS instead of BIOS, so if you are going to use BIOS, make sure the emulator knows where to look. The Atari 2600 bios is called "a2600.zip" btw.

Awesome, appears as though everything is running smooth now. Thanks so much for the fantastic help here!:D