NeoGeoX Hacking and Mods

[topher]

All the information gathered so far from the original NGX thread.

Hopefully I didn't miss any of the relevant posts so far.

Long time lurker, first time poster here. I took one for the team. For now I'm not digging any deeper than this, but the battery is soldered directly to the board.

Also when I plug the NGX in to my windows 7 laptop, while powered off, it comes up as a removable disk. Total capacity is .99GB (or 1 gig). and 156MB is in use.

Inside is one file, "sys_update_file". I opened it in word expecting the usual gibberish but my notepad stopped responding.

Ok, this may be of use to someone who is more familiar with Linux. If you hold the start button while plugging the handheld into a pc it comes up as a JZ4770 USB Boot Device.

It actually seems to be an Ingenic XBurst CPU as seen here http://en.ingenic.cn/product.aspx?CID=9

this might help

http://tabletrepublic.com/forum/paladin-apps-games/ingenic-usb-tool-nand-programer-1485.html

Heh, I found the same thing. INF file doesn't match the device, and the inf itself says 4740, not 4770, along with the VID/PID differences. Thanks though. Im still hunting for the 4770 DFU driver, assuming it'll work with the usbtools executables I got in the same package.

Nuts. Couldn't get that driver to work, but the other inf in the non-specific folder had 64bit compatible drivers for the 40, 50, and 60. Just not the 70.

I'm guessing with the USBTools program would allow access to the internal storage where the roms are kept. Provided working drivers are found.

Found a seemingly working 4770 driver! Maybe. It installed for me.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tijvvdmuu9jcjir/32Q53KaCnG

taken from ftp://ftp.ingenic.cn/2soc/4770/JZ4770_ds.pdf

 

[VRC-SID]

looks like if we use boot select 2 we could boot a bios from SD...assuming we had one handy.

 

[nerdstick]

I imagine getting inside the Ninja Master's SD would be the easiest method. Seems to be a 64MB card, RAW? Tried a few recovery programs and supposedly it has 4 files on it but none can get them out.

 

[SlickDizzy]

I will be following this thread closely. Really hope someone is able to hack the Neo Geo X or at least crack the SD card. If Ninja Master's is only a 64MB card, it would theoretically be possible to load up a much bigger card with multiple games and never need to swap cards. Also hoping someone can come out with a few UI tweaks, the standard one is so basic it hurts.

 

[Lectoid]

Took my NGX fully apart, pictures incoming... and a nice surprise

 

[Spoonman]

Took my NGX fully apart, pictures incoming... and a nice surprise

Hmm.. a nice surprise?
1. You figured out how to output scanlines in perfect 1080p
2. You were able to switch the country code to JPN for blood in Metal Slug
3. Secret debug menu with work memory card saves enabled
4. You were able to get every ROM to work from an SDcard?

OK.. just guessing. :P

 

[Lectoid]

First one is under the battery, nothing much to see there. But on the screen facing side...

 

[Lectoid]

So of course I have to pull the microSD card out and see what's on it. My mac and PC both showed nothing (PC wanted to format it). But I found that testdisk program someone mentioned and found this..

 

[SSS]

There's an internal SD card?! Hahaha, holy fucking awesome. I've got one on the way from best buy

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

OK, thats funny. Looking at the pcb markings underneath they could have easily put onboard memory. It's an open invitation for hacking. Thanks Tommo!

 

[Xian Xi]

Awesome work guys!!

 

[Lectoid]

Now I didn't really mess around much as I didn't want to potentially mess up my card. But I put the NGX back together and it's working fine. My "MENU" button seems a little more flush, but I can live with that.

When these systems are available at wal-mart on the shelf, maybe I'll be willing to mess around more since I can go buy a new one and take the broke one back. But hopefully it won't come to that.

I plugged in the NGX via USB to my computer and just found a 1Gig FAT32 partition. I made an image of it using that testscan. Maybe I'll pull the 2gig internal one back out and make an image so I can look around. But I know there are far smarter people than me out there who can make more sense of all this.

 

[Mai_Lover]

I noticed that the circuit board for the thumb stick has "SNK" stamped on it. Is SNKP actually lending a hand in manufacture?

 

[Lan Di]

Awesome work guys!!

I concur. My online Best Buy purchase today wasn't a waste after all.

 

[lastcallhall]

That is fantastic! It's only a matter of time, now.

 

[streetsofrage]

The bios along with the preloaded games must be stored on that internal micro sd making it easily removable, just shows us that tommo wanted us to hack the fuck out of this thing


Fucking A , and nice find man !

 

[Frank_fjs]

That CPU is already in use in other handhelds running Open Dingux. Long story short, there's already a nice Linux based OS and set of emulators ready to go, someone would just need to recompile the code to suit the LCD driver in the Neo X.

 

[GohanX]

...and OpenDingux has a Neo Geo Pocket emulator.

Buwahahahahahahaha.

 

[Frank_fjs]

Can't believe how easy this is going to be to hack. Someone will have to come up with the boot code and work out the LCD driver, but after that all one would need to do is replace the internal SD card with one that has OpenDingux installed. Heck you could probably come up with a dual boot system and get it to boot from the external SD and keep the original OS intact.

 

[NeoCverA]

Curious if it would boot up without the Micro sd card or if everything is on thy card.

 

[Lectoid]

Crap I would have tried that too. I think I put it together wrong because my thumbstick won't seat as far down as it supposed to. Guess I'll try that tomorrow. By the way, they glued the crap out of the microSD card, it wasn't easy getting it out. It sits in there pretty good, but I could see how a few drops my make it come loose, I don't think the glue was a deterrent.

 

[Viewpoint]

Wow this is fucking hilarious.

 

[Lectoid]

If I can dig up a microSD card, I'll try putting that opendingux on it and see what happens.

 

[SlickDizzy]

OK, thats funny. Looking at the pcb markings underneath they could have easily put onboard memory. It's an open invitation for hacking. Thanks Tommo!

Is anyone else thinking that this may be revised in a later build? They're talking about a wider launch in February...if this is blown open, Tommo might wise up and the next release might have a chip in place of that card slot!

 

[Lectoid]

It's probably too late for a revision now. It would cost money to change that and go through the testing when this product already works. Not saying it can't happen. Honestly I have no idea what I'm doing. I am no threat to their business model. And if I'm the only one doing this stuff, then we likely won't have a hacked portable.