Just curious if anyone around here has tried one. Is it worth the asking price? How hard is it to install? Thanks.
I dont have it yet, but i plan to get it this year. There is a tutorial vid showing all the steps of setting it up. i suggest you watch it and decide if it is difficult or not. Its pretty straight forward. I havent heard any complaints about it, but i dont keep up with that kinda stuff. I know it loads games faster the the neo geo sd does. Some of the cps2 games can cost as much as the darksoft, so yeah, its worth it prize wise. Plus saves you time from opening up your cab to switch games
There’s a couple floating around Toronto’s ST scene, and they do perfectly fine. Basically all it does is flash a different ROM onto the CPS2 board so that you can play another title when you want to switch games. Feels like an Everdrive for CPS2.
But since the ROMs run on the real hardware there’s no emulation issues. If you’re wanting to play more than just ST, and don’t want to go board hunting, this is the way to go.
Saw one in person a few months ago. Apart from sacrificing a board, it is worth it. Seems like there is a bit of configuration/installation that needs to happen before it’s up and running. Otherwise a very cool thing to have on hand.
Just a few things to note. There was this weird reset/power off thing you need to do when you load each game. Kind of annoying if you have this set up in a cabinet. The one I played on was completely exposed and looked janky.
This probably just me, but having all those games at your finger tips definitely cheapens the experience of gaming. I already own most of the boards I would like to have in my cabinets. You give people too many choices and your gaming session turns into a cluster.
That’s what I worry about too. I honestly don’t really care about any CPS2 game seriously enough to get anything but ST, so a Darksoft would be lost on me, especially since it adds no cost effectiveness to getting ST.
But we’ve ran meetups with Darksofts in Toronto, and they’ve been fine. One benefit to having a Darksoft is you can add an ST training mode ROM (or whatever fighting game you want one in) to it and then you can practice things without having to deal with the computer character. @Atari set that up while we were at his place watching X-EST and it was actually pretty impressive to have that functionality available on CPS2 hardware.
You probably saw a really early production one or something, the reset stuff is solved now. Flash a new game and it auto resets and game appears, no extra action needed.
(Source: my personal Darksoft setup, works great.)
Are cps1 games possible too?
Not with the current hardware
Just finished my first install today. It was very easy, but then again the jumpers and pal chip was already prepared for me.
Hi, i’m also going to buy this year. would need some totorial too :o it’s like when i was searching for hgh and had to search for hgh reviews first. lol to understand it all better.