Gauging interest for a group buy for Neo Flash Cart

[Mishran]

Let me guess, they charged you 5% of the total order just to use PayPal? I hate it when retailers do that, it's such a crock.

How much did it work out to be per person including postage? Doesn't seem like you would have saved a lot of money for the group buy.

Who chipped in for the spare cart, everyone or just you? If everyone, doesn't that mean you pretty much got it for free, which should offset the hidden surcharge?

I sent everyone a copy of the receipt I received when I made the purchase. Any one of them can do the math and tell you I paid for the extra card. The shipping charge dropped by $.20 a person as more carts were added to the list. That would be what, $4.00? Certainly not enough to buy a flash cart.

[nat]

Its a good thing you can download the drivers. I think someone jizzed on my driver disc.

The Neo Team is currently slaving away in their basement assembling your flash carts.

Complete with greasy pizza fingerprints and cigarette ash. 

I remember when I got mine, I swear it had tire marks on the back and was covered in dust and dirt. It's like when they field tested it, they actually took it out into a field.

...

[Mishran]

The final flash cart has been sent off to its new owner and my job here is done! Thanks guys for helping to make this go as smooth and painless as possible.

[Mishran]

I would like to send thanks to henrycsc for donating towards the surcharge that IC2005 slapped on our order. Wasn't expected, but definitely appreciated.

[HercTNT]

I got my gt back from steve today and tested the flash cart in it. It worked flawlessly in my gt, in my turbo, and in my duo-r.

[tggodfrey]

A lot of retailers are pulling this kind of thing with Credit cards and online payments.  As i understand it (and correct em if i am wrong) a retailer must pay a fee whenever they accept a credit card.  Rather than just deal with the fee and file it on thier taxes they charge the buyer a fee (usually 3%) and turn around and file the credit card company's fee on their taxes.....lol  We as consumers are getting screwed once again.

We are all familier with paypal fees as well, same difference.  A while back Paypal added a clause to their policies that the seller could not charge the buyer with an addional fee to cover the paypal fees but honestly I dont see how paypal has any right to make such a statement.

Either way with a couple dollar fee its still not bad.  I dont see why you quit taking pre orders after 20 people chose to buy in and then you had to wait for payment.  I am sure quite a few other people would have joined in on this and paid immediately, me included.

[Mishran]

I dont see why you quit taking pre orders after 20 people chose to buy in and then you had to wait for payment.  I am sure quite a few other people would have joined in on this and paid immediately, me included.

Ever heard of "Credit Limit"? I planned to pay with a credit card because they only took payment by card and I came close to reaching mine. Why not take the initiative to start another group buy like I did?

[xcrement5x]

Do you already have a replacement on the way for the broken card you received?

[Mishran]

The card isn't broke. It's one of those finicky carts that only work on certain systems. I figure ill toss it up on eBay when I get the time. Between renovations on my new house and my job, don't have much spare time.

[incrediblehark]

got mine in yesterday and I'm going to try it out tonight. thanks again Mishran for taking the time and putting up the funds to make this happen. I know I really appreciate it!

[Mishran]

got mine in yesterday and I'm going to try it out tonight. thanks again Mishran for taking the time and putting up the funds to make this happen. I know I really appreciate it!

Not a problem, bro. Always glad to help out the community any way I can. O:)

[thesteve]

id like to hook a scope to the finicky card and findout whats not right

[esteban]

I hope the folks who pledged to help with the surcharge follow-through and help out Mishran.

I'm going to send PayPal for my share of the surcharge.

Thanks again Mishran .

[mrhaboobi]

I already had, but I think I may have short changed him and have to send mor, for some reason I calculated it wrong, bloody head cold messing with brain

[esteban]

I already had, but I think I may have short changed him and have to send mor, for some reason I calculated it wrong, bloody head cold messing with brain

Thank you . If everyone just pitches in a few dollars, everyone can be happy.

[Duo_R]

Pitched in

[esteban]

Pitched in

[Mishran]

Another big heart felt thanks to everyone who is sending me a few bucks towards the surcharge. Again, I never expected anyone to send any more money, but it is most definitely appreciated.

Little update on the extra cart I ordered. Got the flash cart working on my TE. There can only be one of a few reasons the cart hadn't worked on it before...
   1. The little bastard is playing games with my head
   2. I accidently set the region type incorrectly prior to flashing
   3. The magical flash cart fairy came to my house and blessed the cart with his/her magical pixie powers
   4. The flasher did not burn the information to the flash cart properly the first time
   5. I am a dumbass...

While option #5 seems the most likely, that doesn't explain the carts inconsistancy. Think I may send it back and get a replacement just to play it safe.

[incrediblehark]

Just read about the surcharge, so much for the "Bulk discount" if they decide they want to just charge extra fees. Anyway enough ranting, I'll paypal you some more monies later in the week, you definitely shouldn't have to pay it all yourself.

[nat]

I wasn't involved in this, but this "surcharge" nonsense really sounds like a legitimate scam. It's like a bait-and-switch. They rope you into buying a large quantity on the premise you'll be getting a per-item discount, then they tack on a bullshit "surcharge" that essentially nullifies the discount? That's not just false advertising, it's unscrupulous.

If I had in any way been involved in this buy, I would have told them to go to straight to hell at the first mention of any "surcharge" of this magnitude. If the things ended up costing the same in the end as if you'd bought them all separately, you really got screwed because not only did they cheat you out of a discount, you had to go through the gigantic hassle of organizing a group buy, sorting, testing, and forwarding.

Hopefully you guys still got some sort of small discount after all was said and done. We need to remember this for future reference, however.

[Mishran]

I wasn't involved in this, but this "surcharge" nonsense really sounds like a legitimate scam. It's like a bait-and-switch. They rope you into buying a large quantity on the premise you'll be getting a per-item discount, then they tack on a bullshit "surcharge" that essentially nullifies the discount? That's not just false advertising, it's unscrupulous.

If I had in any way been involved in this buy, I would have told them to go to straight to hell at the first mention of any "surcharge" of this magnitude. If the things ended up costing the same in the end as if you'd bought them all separately, you really got screwed because not only did they cheat you out of a discount, you had to go through the gigantic hassle of organizing a group buy, sorting, testing, and forwarding.

Hopefully you guys still got some sort of small discount after all was said and done. We need to remember this for future reference, however.

It had nullified the discount for 2 out of the 21 carts. If I hadn't gone through all the crap of organizing, collecting money, etc. I would have said screw it and not even purchased them. I had many individuals depending on me and I wasn't gonna let them down. Perhaps that makes me more an idiot than a saint. I'll accept that because now there are 20 more people out there, myself included, that wanted and now own a flash cart. But ill tell you now, I won't ever be doing something like this again. I also never asked for anyone to send extra funds to help with the charge. I don't want anyone to think I'm the one doing the scamming. If I was going to do that, I'd have disappeared off the face of this forum after I had collected enough free cash to pay off my car.

[HercTNT]

ignore the criticism mish. no one thinks your scamming and we are greatfull you took the reigns on this.  Everybody is an armchair quarterback and could have done a better job if in your shoes....and blah blah blah. They dont know, they are just talking.  Thank you for doing it, sorry it went sour.

[xcrement5x]

I thought you were going to send the other card in for repair, but if not then I would contact PayPal about this vendor charging you extra just to use their service.  If you're lucky, PayPal will credit it back to you since this is a big no no for the vendor, or you could just mention to the vendor that you're going to bring it up to PayPal and show them your invoice. 

I've discovered a lot of vendors are happy to "return" the surcharge to you if you make a stink about it or bring it up to PayPal.  It's in their best interest to as well because they can get their account suspended if they're breaking the PayPal regulations.  I've had sellers from China pull this crap before as well and the instant I mention that I'm going to bring it up to PayPal I get and apology and a credit. 

I don't blame you if you don't want to go through the hassle, but it's just my 2c what I've done in the past.

[c0ldb33r]

ignore the criticism mish. no one thinks your scamming and we are greatfull you took the reigns on this.  Everybody is an armchair quarterback and could have done a better job if in your shoes....and blah blah blah. They dont know, they are just talking.  Thank you for doing it, sorry it went sour.

if you're refering to nat's comment - I don't think it was meant as a criticism of mish or of the bulk order process, but rather just the retailer.

[incrediblehark]

I hope you didn't take my response the wrong way! I was only complaining about the company you bought the cards from. Not being more upfront about their fees. If it only nullifies the discount on 2 cards thats a lot better than what I originally thought. And there is no reason why you should have to pay those fees all on your own, I'll be happy to chip in my share at the very least. Like I said before I really appreciate all of the work you put into making this happen.

BTW, is anyone having trouble getting games to work on this thing? I've been trying different romsets, patching, reformatting with no success so far. the most I've gotten is a scrambled Outrun title screen.

[Mishran]

I've had 99.8% success rate so far with over 200 tested games. Only one I couldn't get to work is final lap twin. Are you making sure to choose the proper region for your system? You'll also have to make sure the header is removed. Sometimes the flash cart doesn't entirely remove all the data from the previous flashing. I've had space harrier load when I chose cadash for example. Try formatting the cart before flashing.

[incrediblehark]

well i just downloaded the No-Intro pce set, and I'll start removing headers. it didn't work for my outdated romset. I've just been doing the standard format options.

[incrediblehark]

OK, so I figured out my problem - the Neo PC-E Flash Cart hates my PC Engine. Its an original white model, region modded. No matter what I try the games don't work, but the menu screen always starts up. I reformatted and flashed for USA and tried in my Turboexpress and every game played fine . Is there any modification I can do to my system to get this to work? I kinda have to use this specific system because its region modded and hooked up to rgb, so I may end up selling my cart if I can't find a solution.

[thesteve]

what region mod do you have? as i have heard of issues with some.
so far from what ive heard mine/BlueBMW's mod chips seem to work well with it

[HercTNT]

Mish, i sent you a pm, please contact me. thanks.

[incrediblehark]

what region mod do you have? as i have heard of issues with some.
so far from what ive heard mine/BlueBMW's mod chips seem to work well with it

its a D-Lite region mod board

[thesteve]

it may be time to update your mod board

[c0ldb33r]

I got mine todaay. I got it installed okay but games have serious graphics glitches or crash. Im using a nointro set but maybe still need to edit the roms. I dunno.

[tiptopjames]

I got mine todaay. I got it installed okay but games have serious graphics glitches or crash. Im using a nointro set but maybe still need to edit the roms. I dunno.

are you by chance connected to a cd unit or using a third party adapter?

[thesteve]

when it comes to region mods shorter wires and less resistance is better.
the old chip based region mod is spec'd for 50ohms Resistance.
the new chip is 4ohms. (over 10 times better)

[c0ldb33r]

are you by chance connected to a cd unit or using a third party adapter?

nope just a coregrafx with a region mod recently installed by bluebmw. i can test it with a stock tg16 or pce duo

[thesteve]

please do.
also try both regions on your CG

[Terminarcade]

This was a pain in the ass to install on Win7... but at least I think I got most of it figured out. For now all the jap games work perfect in the original white Pce, but no luck with US games. Didint have enough time to mess around with it tho... I guess I have to select JAPAN region for each US rom before burning it to the cart?

[HercTNT]

You have to select the region of the system your going to play it on, not the region of the rom your using. You can mix us and japanese roms on the card, and put them in either us or japanese systems as long as you select the region of the system before you load the roms.

[Sparky]

got mine today... fuk ya

[Terminarcade]

You have to select the region of the system your going to play it on, not the region of the rom your using. You can mix us and japanese roms on the card, and put them in either us or japanese systems as long as you select the region of the system before you load the roms.

I did set the region to japan, on the right side of the window in that manager software prog, is it all there is to it? I guess not since US games wont start up... im either stuck in the menu(need to reset manually) or some weird display or loud sounds (also need to reset manually). Im using the (no-intro) set of roms and all the japanese games work very well so far. I read somewhere that I need to edit the US roms in order to play them in my jap PCE. This shit is drivin me insane...

[Mishran]

That's odd, I used the nointro roms and had no issues with any US game other than FLT. No hacking, modding, mirroring, etc. to the roms themselves. Just set the region, burned, and played. Only played around with my TE and region modded Core though. Results may vary from system to system I suppose. Have to break out the SG and try the roms on it.

[HercTNT]

after switching to the no intro roms i get the same results as Mishran. there are no mods or special tricks. did you use the software on the cd, or did you download the latest software provided on the links a few pages back. Its my understanding that newer software is much more stable.

[Mishran]

I actually used the software supplied on the CD to test the carts. It was fast, simple and got the job done. I now use the most recent flashing software and cart BIOS when placing files on my cart. Anyone who has had their cart tested by me should format their cart using the most recent software if your planning to use a more recent BIOS in their cart. You may experience compatibility problems otherwise.

[incrediblehark]

I've been using the most recent software/reformatted, etc. you guys having problems sounds similar to me. Just curious, are your systems just console only or are they connected to any cdrom devices? Mine is hooked up to an IFU-30. but my duo works fine and turboexpress. going to dig out my coregrafx if i still have it and see if it will work.

[Mishran]

I have a PCE CD setup coming my way, thanks to Samurai Ghost. I will try my flash cart on it when it arrives and will provide some feedback. Feel bad seeing you guys having problems with your carts after the money you dished out for them. At least we know the flash carts do "work", just not is some setups.

[meka]

I've got a 128m+save version, the only problem I've had is installing the drivers, which was a pain in the arse, and some games don't work without striping the headers or doing so other modifications, the forums over at neo helped me to get most games to work fine.

[nat]

ignore the criticism mish. no one thinks your scamming and we are greatfull you took the reigns on this.  Everybody is an armchair quarterback and could have done a better job if in your shoes....and blah blah blah. They dont know, they are just talking.  Thank you for doing it, sorry it went sour.

if you're refering to nat's comment - I don't think it was meant as a criticism of mish or of the bulk order process, but rather just the retailer.

Absolutely. I'm upset that Mishran got taken advantage of by the seller, I'm not being an "armchair quarterback."

If anything, I'm saying Mishran is a bigger man than I, because I would have told them to shove it at the first hint of a bogus surcharge.

[Duo_R]

Thanks again Mish, even with the money that i donated for the paypal fee, this was still a nice discount if i had just ordered one. I missed out on a group order years ago and glad this one came together.

[Mishran]

Well I took the time to at least hook my new PCE CD system up and load up the flash cart. Still worked without problems. Played some Soldier Blade and the first two levels of Altered Beast (CD) using a System Card 1.0 image I put on the cart. AB loaded up and played flawlessly, well, in the sense that it paused and loaded from the CD 50,000 times per level as is the norm.

I've had zero hiccups with every system I loaded this cart up on. It sucks that some of you are having such a hard time with it.