Over the last couple of weeks (or months actually) I've been trying to sort the mess of NEO-GEO emulation on the DC - which several scattered releases here and there, lots of games working, some of them better than others, and some games not working at all... In the end I decided, that a fresh start would be best. So, using Chui's old emulators NEO4ALL and AES4ALL, I compiled and tested all the games again myself.
Conclusion: with the right settings and sometimes omissions soundwise a respectable 143 out of 157 official games in total (not counting "The King of Fighters '96 Collection" and "Neo Geo CD Special") are actually very playable on an ODE (USB-GDROM in my case). Here is a list of the games, that don't work properly or at all. Now, I don't know, if there's anything that can be done to fix these - but I thought it might at least be worth to have this list for further reference...
1. GAMES WORKING WITH MODERATE ISSUES (i.e. still playable):
- Metal Slug 3 // Parts of the HUD missing
- Samurai Shodown RPG // takes about four and a half minutes to load
- The King Of Fighters 2000 // HUD messed up
2. GAMES WITH MAJOR ISSUES (i.e. unplayable):
- Gururin // Graphics messed up
- Minnasan No Okagesama Desu! // trying to boot this game is very much hit-and-miss
- Neo-Geo Cup '98 // Graphics messed up
- Over Top // Game freezes at the starting line right before the first race
- Riding Hero // Graphics messed up
- Super Sidekicks 2 // Graphics messed up
- Super Sidekicks 3 // Graphics messed up
- Super Sidekicks 4 (The Ultimate 11) // Graphics messed up
3. GAMES THAT DON'T BOOT AT ALL (i.e. unplayable):
- Mahjong Kyoretsuden // Black screen/crashes (Error log: Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed))
- Money Puzzle Exchanger (Money Idol Exchanger) // Boot loop
- Spinmaster // Black screen
- Super Dodge Ball // Boot loop
- The Irritating Maze // MVS only - not supported, I guess?!
- Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer // Boot loop
.