DREAMNEOCD vs NeoDS

DREAMNEOCD is a Sega Dreamcast emulator for Neo Geo CD games, including selfboot games. It can also be used through DreamShell with an SD card, without CDDA. The project was ported to Dreamcast in 2004 and its maker describes it as the first working Neo Geo CD emulator for the console. It is based on Foster's NeoCD/SDL; the README credits libSDL, using its sound component. To run, it needs a 512 KB system BIOS from an original Neo Geo CD console, named neocd.bin. The README warns that a smaller BIOS will not work with version 1.0 onward, and the repository cautions that the BIOS is copyrighted and users are not entitled to a copy unless they own an original Neo Geo CD console. The program is free, but the maker prohibits selling it and limits source-code and technical-knowledge reuse to noncommercial purposes. The repository lists a GPL-2.0 license. It does not support AES or MVS emulation, related SNK arcade games, netplay, or save states.

NeoDS is a Nintendo DS emulator for NeoGeo AES and MVS games. It emulates the M68000 and Z80 CPUs, graphics, ADPCM and PSG audio, as well as NeoGeo protection and encryption. NeoDSConvert converts NeoGeo ROM sets into .neo files, and the emulator uses the same ROM sets as MAME. The documented setup requires a Nintendo DS Lite and a DLDI-compatible flash card. A Slot-2 flash card with RAM is optional and can improve the speed of some games. The emulator supports button remapping, normal or scaled video, CPU underclocking, and saving configuration and SRAM to the flash card; its graphical interface is operated with a stylus. It does not emulate FM audio, raster effects or multiplayer, and some timings are not very accurate. The repository describes the project as a fork of a 2008 NeoDS release being updated to 2026 MAME sets. The emulator is free to use for non-commercial purposes; save states appear in the README’s TODO list rather than as a supported feature.