Neo Geo CD modding...

So, we haven't seen this thing since...well, since the This Adapter Issue. Well, I had a reason to break it out again.

There was a post on Twitter that mentioned an SD card loader for the Neo Geo CD. It was close to release, so I put my name on the wait list.

Fast forward several months, I got the email that says I'm in line to get one...so naturally, I bought it. Two weeks after that, I get it delivered!

It's a cool piece of kit! There were 2 options: One to remove the CD drive, the other to keep the CD drive installed. I opted to keep the CD Drive in operation...dunno why, but I digress.

I got it a day before our Father's Day weekend of camping with the family (spoiler alert: it was raining, but we still had fun). Since I took the day off to get last minute things for the camping trip, I got all of those things out of the way in the morning. As soon as we had everything put away, I went to work on the Neo CD.

I forgot that I never cleaned the console since I got it, so I was surprised at how dirty it was on the inside. Regardless I cranked away and opened up the Neo CD.

The hardest thing to do was lift the pin on one of the ICs. I had a little hook pick to get that positioned. This pic is pretty much all connections soldered in place, including extended wiring for the CDDA connections on the back of the main board. The SD Loader is already clipped into place and secure on one of the ICs. I left the tape on there just to test the connections.

Here's another shot of the CDDA extensions from under the main board.

At this point, I put it loosely together to test it out. The LED on the loader blinked as it loaded the firmware. After a few seconds...

...yay!

It loaded! I tested some games that I had loaded on the SD card and they ran nicely. It also loads the game faster than the disc!

Since testing went fine, I went back in to clean up the install.

I realized that the CDDA cable that originally connects to the main board to the A/V board was way to short. I had to solder a few or wires in to connect from the SD Loader to the A/V board CDDA connector. I used some small diameter heat shrink tubing to keep the wires bundled.

I used small dabs of hot glue to keep the wires nice and tight together.

The SD card module was installed under the cover, next to the disc drive. The SD card gets inserted into one of the vents at the top of the case. *pic pending*

With that module in place, it made it a little hard to close up the case. I managed to get it to work, though. Other than that, it was done.

I haven't gone through the whole library on the SD card, but it looks like most of them work with just some problem. Since the device is still is in it's infancy, I'm sure there will be more improvements on it.