Neo Drift Out: static recompilation

Neo Drift Out: New Technology (Visco, 1996) running as a native PC program: its 68000 code is recompiled to C and runs on the neogeorecomp board model.

This repo describes the ROM set and builds the game. The toolkit does the rest, with no Drift Out-specific code in it.

No game data here. You need your own Neo Drift Out and Neo Geo system ROM dumps (MAME sets neodrift and neogeo). The recompiled C is generated from your dump on your machine, into build/. It is never committed or distributed. (Earlier history of this repo contained ROMs and generated code; it was rewritten on 2026-09-29 to remove them.)

Status

v0.2.0, alpha. It boots, runs attract mode, takes a coin, and races on recompiled code. Sound plays through the YM2610 synthesis neogeorecomp gained in #3.

• Boot through the real MVS system ROM → eyecatcher → car showcase → title → How to Play → name entry → practice and Stage 1.
• A 6-minute scripted soak runs 100% natively (0 interpreted instructions) after the profile pass, and --verify checks 46.67M recompiled blocks against the Musashi interpreter with 0 mismatches.
• This is a port to the generic toolkit. The previous version was hand-lifted code plus a runtime patched for this one game (forced palettes, forced sprite shrink, BIOS state pokes), and it never got past the title with correct graphics. All of that is gone.
• Not yet: later stages checked by script.

Screenshots

All real output from the recompiled build (--headless --screenshot):

Getting started

Installer (Windows, Linux, macOS)

1. Download Neo-Drift-Out-Installer for your system from the latest release or, between releases, from the newest run of the installer workflow (signed in to GitHub). On Linux, unpack the .tar.gz; on macOS, unzip the app.
2. Open it, choose the folder holding your neodrift.zip and neogeo.zip (MAME sets), and press Build. It downloads this repo and runs the same setup as below, installing what's missing, with a progress bar; the full output is under Show details.
3. Press Play.

The installer holds no game data and builds from your ROMs on your machine (recomp-launcher). It isn't signed: on Windows, SmartScreen asks (More info, Run anyway); on a Mac, open it once, then Open Anyway in System Settings, Privacy & Security.

Quick start (Windows)

1. Download this repo: Code → Download ZIP, then unzip it. A git clone works too.

2. Put your neodrift.zip and neogeo.zip (MAME sets) in the unzipped folder, or in Downloads. Note that driftout.zip is Taito's Drift Out, a different game.

3. Double-click Setup.cmd.

   It checks for Git, CMake, the Visual Studio C++ build tools and SDL2, and asks before installing anything that's missing (it says what and how big). It finds and checksums your ROMs, recompiles and builds the game (a few minutes), and leaves a Neo Drift Out launcher in the folder. If something fails, it stops with one sentence on what to do and keeps the details in setup.log. Running it again picks up where it stopped.

4. Double-click Neo Drift Out.

On Linux or macOS, run ./setup.sh instead, optionally with --rom-zip PATH --bios-zip PATH. It does the same steps and offers to install anything missing with apt, or with Homebrew on a Mac (which also needs Xcode's command line tools: xcode-select --install). When it finishes, run ./neodriftout.sh. macOS builds in CI, but no game has been played on a Mac yet; reports are welcome.

Keys: arrows steer, Z accelerate, X brake, 5 insert coin, 1 start, Esc quit.

Gamepad: D-pad or stick steer, A accelerate, B brake, Back coin, Start start. Two pads play as players 1 and 2; plug them in any time. The toolkit's docs/running.md has the full layout.

Step by step

These are the commands Setup.cmd runs.

Prerequisites: Git; CMake 3.21+; a C and C++ compiler (Visual Studio 2022 with Desktop development with C++ on Windows, or gcc and g++ on Linux); SDL2 for the window (optional, since headless builds need nothing). On Linux: sudo apt install git cmake gcc g++ libsdl2-dev. On macOS: xcode-select --install, then brew install cmake sdl2.

1. Clone with the toolkit submodule:

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/sp00nznet/neodriftout
   cd neodriftout
   

2. Unzip your ROMs into roms/. From neodrift.zip: 213-p1.p1 213-s1.s1 213-m1.m1 213-c1.c1 213-c2.c2 213-v1.v1 213-v2.v2. From neogeo.zip: sp-s2.sp1 sfix.sfix sm1.sm1 000-lo.lo. docs/game-notes.md lists the CRC32s.
3. Configure. On Windows, point CMake at SDL2: vcpkg's toolchain file, or -DSDL2_DIR=<SDL2-devel-VC>/cmake.

   cmake -S . -B build -DNEODRIFT_ROM_DIR=roms
   

4. Build. The generator recompiles your ROMs into build/generated first:

   cmake --build build --config Release
   

   Expected in the output:

   [m68krecomp] pointer scan: 20705 seeds
   [m68krecomp] neodrift: 405519 instructions emitted across routines
   [m68krecomp] 21014 routines, 22910 dispatch entries -> .../build/generated
   

5. Profile (optional). This plays two scripted sessions headless to find code only reached at runtime, then rebuilds with it:

   cmake --build build --config Release --target profile
   cmake --build build --config Release
   

6. Play:

   build/Release/neodriftout --rom-path roms          (Linux: build/neodriftout)
   

Trip-ups:

• error: cannot open roms/213-p1.p1: the ROMs are not in roms/, or you are running from a different folder. Pass --rom-path.
• "Submodules missing": you cloned without --recurse-submodules. Run git submodule update --init --recursive.
• python or PATH trouble: none of this needs Python. If a freshly installed tool isn't found, open a new terminal so it sees the updated PATH.
• No window, and "built without SDL2; run with --headless": CMake didn't find SDL2 (see step 3).

Usage

neodriftout --rom-path roms                                # play
neodriftout --headless --frames 5400 --input tests/coin_start.txt --record race.mp4
neodriftout --headless --verify --frames 5401 --input tests/coin_start.txt
neodriftout --headless --frames 5400 --input tests/coin_start.txt --wav race.wav   # audio to a file

The toolkit's docs/running.md covers every option and the input-script format. tests/coin_start.txt reaches the practice race, and tests/play_long.txt is the 6-minute soak.

Building from source

See Step by step above. NEODRIFT_ROM_DIR is the only game-specific option. Without it, the build is interpreter-only, which is useful for working on the toolkit without regenerating.

Documentation

• docs/game-notes.md: the ROM set and what the port showed
• neogeorecomp: the architecture and recompiler docs
• CHANGELOG.md · ROADMAP.md · CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributors

No outside contributions yet. CONTRIBUTING.md explains how to send one.

License

The code in this repo is MIT (LICENSE). Neo Drift Out is © Visco; this project contains none of its code or data and needs your own dump to do anything.