How to play any arcade title on GGPO

[steamwolf]

Okay, this will be a tutorial on how to make GGPO play ANY arcade title you desire! I have no idea if Ponder or anyone else involved in GGPO or the guys behind FBA approve of this or not. They don't seem to mind, so I'm not going to skirt the issue. Until further notice, I will not be providing a link where one can quickly download the save state, emulator, and ESPECIALLY not the roms. Roms are illegal to own and you can only "legally" own a rom if you own a physical copy of said game. With that said, here is a step-by-step instruction on how to play any arcade title using GGPO.

1. First, select a game from the list GGPO provides of its games that actually use GGPO. To see this, naturally you will need to launch ggpo.exe and log in. For the sake of this guide, I will be using Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo. I'm sorry if anyone likes this game or is a hardcore, serious puzzle fighter gamer but uh...most of us aren't.

2. Once you have the title selected that you wish to manipulate in order to play a different game, you will need to create a .zip file for this title. The catch is, it needs to be a blank .zip file, with the proper abbreviation that the roms typically use. For this title that I am using as an example, it would be: spf2t.zip. To enter any room in GGPO with the exception of the lobby, all the program needs is to see an archive named <insert name here>.zip. With that, any room is accessible. However, this is not enough to play any game.

3. Next, you will need to open up ggpofba.exe. This is what I call the offline ggpo/kaillera ggpo. Its merely Final Burn Alpha (an arcade emulator) with the GGPO logo on it. You need to launch this, and select the game you truly wish to use with GGPO instead of the game we selected from GGPO's normal list (for this case, we used SPF2T). For the sake of this part of the tutorial, we will select Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The New Comers as the game we will be replacing SPF2T with. If you have said rom (or whichever rom you decide to use) then start the game up.

4. From here, all you need to do is go to Game > Save State. The next screen will ask you to name the savestate. You MUST name the savestate the same name as the blank zip file you created. So if we want to play RB2 on GGPO, and we're replacing SPF2T with RB2, we will need to name the RB2 savestate as "spf2t_ggpo.fs". This is essential for making the game work correctly. Make sure it is saved as such. You can create the save state at any point during the gameplay of RB2, it doesn't matter when or where.

BOTH PLAYERS MUST HAVE THE EXACT SAME SAVE STATE OR THE GAME WILL DE-SYNC/NOT WORK MAKE SURE WHOEVER MAKES THE SAVE STATE SENDS THAT SAVESTATE TO THE OTHER PERSON!

5. Once this is done, close ggpofba.exe, and open up ggpo.exe again. Select Super Puzzle Fighter 2: Turbo, and (if you had a friend follow the same instructions), challenge each other. Instead of SPF2T, the game will launch RB2 for you and your friend to play with GGPO's netcode! Enjoy!


Remember, the games I used as examples in this were merely just that: examples. Here at DC, I along with a few others, are using puzzle fighter to play RB2. This is mostly because its a very lesser played game and not quite popular enough. Its not not going to distract any serious players by trying to challenge someone they can't even play. I recommend only doing this for specific games that not many people play (Like windjammers).

For anyone interested, here is a download link for the .zip and .fs files all ready made by me for RB2. Since everyone needs the exact same files, I'd rather these float around than everybody else making their own.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OKDK3QRD

[Louiscipher2501]

Okay I followed the instructions, the only thing I didn't do was create a blank zip files from scratch. What I did was take the SPF2T zip, open it in rar, delete all the files, then add a blank new folder file. I tried challenging myself and it seemed to work, but it wouldn't save my button config. 

[Xavier_Belmont]

hey excellent!!, Dude this in a way can work with UMK3? it's a long shot, but...just saying hehe

[steamwolf]

Haven't had an issue with button configurations, but I find if you open ggpofba.exe and you actually configure your buttons THERE, it will save your configuration for GGPO. So do that first, then try it again, Louis.

As for UMK3? Haven't tried yet but as long as the emulator (nFBA or FBA) is capable of running UMK3, there should be no reason this would not work. Just a heads up: All players need to have the same savestate. If they do not, the game will have desync issues.

[Louiscipher2501]

UMK3 cannot run in FBA. And very unlikely it ever will.  Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try to config the controls now.

[Dr.Faust]

i'm sorry but i'm so lost. ok i got a folder that says GGPO and it contains a file that says Launch GGPO. wich it dose, it brings me to the GGPO login screen and i log in but ever time i log in i can't play the game. I also have ggpofba_0.2.96.71. and it contains a bunch of stuff.  I have the rom for the kof2k2 and I've made a roms folder and put the rom in there but it dosen't play. I've been trying to set this up for six mounths but it just dosen't work. I just keep getting the "You need kof2002zip." screen when i try to play it in the lobby. I can't learn how to do it online becuase all the tutorals are in a forigen languish.

[PureYeti]

do you have the neogeo.zip?

[Dr.Faust]

how would i know if i have the neogeozip.

[PureYeti]

by the looks of it, you didn't download it :P It should be in your rom folder along with KOF 02

[Dr.Faust]

ok got the neogeo zip now so were do i put the roms folder do i put it in GGPO or ggpoofba and do i put neogeo in the kof folder or kof in the neogeo folder or do i just put them in one of the ggpo folders

[PureYeti]

In your GGPO folder, create a folder called "roms" and you put the all the roms in that new folder including the neogeo.zip.

Make sure your files are in zip format, don't extract them or else it won't work

[Dr.Faust]

i did that and nothing worked. i'll try a new a diffrent neogeo the one i downloaded said it was for mame

[PureYeti]

If its for mame then its ok. Also, if it still doesn't work then I will pm you the links.

[steamwolf]

Dr.Faust: Send me a message on aim and I can help you out.