Does anyone have the "SNK The Best" version of KOF Nests for PS2?

[Hyacinth]

Hello!
In 2007 SNK released a PS2 game called "The King of Fighters: NESTS-hen", which contained a compilation of the NESTS games KOF'99, KOF2000 and KOF2001. This port included both the NeoGeo AES versions of the games, and the Dreamcast versions as well. This compilation is part of another compilation called "NeoGeo Online Collection", consisting of 12 titles, ports of NeoGeo games, that are finally as close as possible to their arcade counterparts(well, most of them).

Unfortunately there is a little problem about KOF Nests, and that's the fact that unlike the previous compilations, you don't have settings for the NeoGeo version anymore. In previous compilations, we had features such as button mapping, color edit, and were even able to choose between original and arrange soundtrack. However this time, all settings in the main menu affect only the Dreamcast ports for some reason, and even button mapping from the NeoGeo games has been removed from the AES settings inside the games...

Now, here is the question. Sometimes when games are re-released, they carry changes, that sometimes are important. As far as I know, at least one of the SNK games on PS2 went through this, it was KOF2003 that had a glitch that freezes the game, and it was fixed when it was re-released as a "SNK The Best" 2 years later.
You probably know where I'm getting at. It is possible that changes have been made to the "SNK The Best" version of KOF Nests(ID:SLPS-25865) released 1 year later in 2008(05/29/08), but since I don't have this version I can't confirm. If anyone here has a copy of KOF NESTS (SNK The Best), can you please confirm if at the very least button mapping affects the NeoGeo games? Default settings are Square:LP, Cross:LK, Triangle:HP, Circle:HK, so try to do something such as mapping HK to R1 and see if it works in NeoGeo mode.
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TL;DR

I want to know if the re-release for The King of Fighters Nests-hen, titled "SNK The Best", ID: SLPS-25865, released 05/29/08, allows players to use features from the main menu, such as button mapping, in NeoGeo mode. This compilation consists of AES and Dreamcast titles, but all settings from the main menu only affect the Dreamcast mode, which makes the player stuck with default settings in NeoGeo mode(and that's a problem because I use the original NeoGeo Arcade layout, but the default here is for a PS2 Controller).
If someone here has this game, can you please confirm?, also sorry about my poor English. ;_;

 

[SignOfGoob]

I don’t think any Neo Geo KOF game has color mapping or button assignments, just the ports. On an actual Neo there’s zero reason to remap anything.

 

[Hyacinth]

I don’t think any Neo Geo KOF game has color mapping or button assignments, just the ports. On an actual Neo there’s zero reason to remap anything.

So it seems, but it is possible this change has been made to the SNK The Best re-release, just like they fixed KOF2003(although it was not the same thing).
But it is also possible that this is intentional, maybe they thought most people wouldn't care and play on a PS2 controller, or maybe they were trying to give us a reason to buy a NeoGeo Stick 3 such as this one:

These are awesome, but unfortunately this button layout is incompatible with non-NeoGeo games such as KOFXI.
But still, I would still like for someone with this SNK The Best re-release to confirm, because if this change has been made then I would like to buy it. If it's not, then I won't. T_T

 

[sirlynxalot]

Maybe if you could find it for download, it would be easiest to emulate the revision and see.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

I played Gradius V with it. Bought the NeoGeo Stick 2 on release. The small shoulder buttons suck but I liked the stick. It's worth it if you own some PS2 ports.

 

[Hyacinth]

Maybe if you could find it for download, it would be easiest to emulate the revision and see.

Thank you. I tried, but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere, only the first release. T_T

I played Gradius V with it. Bought the NeoGeo Stick 2 on release. The small shoulder buttons suck but I liked the stick. It's worth it if you own some PS2 ports.

Awesome!. I didn't use it but it does look like an awesome arcade stick. The only reason why I don't consider these NeoGeo sticks is because I play games such as KOFXI and CVS2 that require more buttons.

So yeah I already play the default layout for KOF NESTS on KOFXI, I played like this before the NeoGeo style, so I can switch back when needed:
A C [E]
B D

However, since I also made an effort to learn this style and I feel more comfortable with it, I wanna use it whenever possible:
B C D
A

It was the default for NeoGeo and is optional for KOF XIII and XIV arcade, and I feel more comfortable with this style, specially since I main Ash because it makes Sans-Culotte easier for me.

 

[SignOfGoob]

I also play games that need more buttons but all my Neo sticks are four buttons only. You can build a nice four button stick yourself. Often people included all the dumb shit you don’t use for SNK stuff into smaller buttons out of the way.

When you’re as uptight as I am extra buttons are a no-no. It’s like wearing wet clothes while walking on ice or some other metaphor…

 

[roker]

Maybe if you could find it for download, it would be easiest to emulate the revision and see.

Same. If I can find an ISO online I can just throw it on the PS2 and see what's up

edit: quick search on google didn't yield any results. It does exist though:

 

[Neo Alec]

Maybe there aren't any changes, so that's why you can't find an image.

In my opinion the PS2 Neo Sticks are fine for shooters, but they got the feel of the stick all wrong, so I can't play fighters to save my life with them. The ball is bigger, and the gate (or at least the amount of travel) feels different.

 

[FredyFired]

Maybe there aren't any changes, so that's why you can't find an image.

This is very likely the case. I dug a bit deeper and looked through most archived dumps and romsets, it's always only one version which also leads me to believe there were no changes to the actual game in the rerelease.

 

[sirlynxalot]

If you're open to playing it in an emulator you could no doubt map the controls as you like by switching which buttons trigger which PS2 controller buttons in the emu settings

 

[Hyacinth]

Hey everyone, thanks so much for all your answers!!
I was trying to get this one to play on the real console with a Hori Rap 2, that's why emulation or a custom controller were not enough, although I am ok with both for other cases =).

I dug a bit deeper as well, and from what I found in Japanese websites when the game was released many years ago, I guess the SNK The Best version doesn't have such significant changes after all, because it was said everywhere that the NESTS compilation was made to have the Dreamcast version as "the main" this time, and the NeoGeo mode as a "bonus". Even the online mode uses the Dreamcast version as well.

I would like to say why I have been avoiding the Dreamcast version so much, it is because not only it has terrible audio quality, KOF99 is a different game(KOF99 Evolution), KOF2000 has changes and glitches, and KOF2001 is more or less close to the arcade for what I can see(for now, it needs more testing).
Let's talk about KOF2000, which is actually the one I play the most in this compilation. First, you can't use command normals during backdash's for some reason, so you can't use Iori's backdash 4B, or Kyo's backdash 2C for instance, some changes in hitbox make a few combos not work anymore, but the worst of all, in some stages you can crossup a opponent at the corner. I made a quick video to show these:

The combo at the end shows how K's jump CD can't crossup midscreen from ST Joe anymore. The same change has been made for other characters(Clark, Ralf, etc). Sorry about the audio and slowdown, my PC can't run DC very well

This is how the combo was supposed to look like in the arcade version:

Actually the corner glitch has been fixed in the Dreamcast version present in KOF NESTS. I read in a Japanese website that SNK did try to fix many glitches for this compilation, however the rest of the glitches above is still there. There might be even more glitches, but I didn't explore the Dreamcast version for too long.