NeoCD RX

March 31, 2026 · View on GitHub

Check out the original project by niuus!

INTRODUCTION

NeoCD RX is a Neo Geo CD / Neo Geo CDZ emulator for the GameCube, Wii, and Wii U's Virtual Wii. It owes its existence to various other emulators: NEO-CD REDUX (Softdev), NeoGeo CD Redux (Infact), NeoCD-Wii (Wiimpathy / Jacobeian), NeoCD Redux Unofficial (megalomaniac). NEO-CD REDUX was itself based on NeoCD/SDL 0.3.1 (Foster) and NeoGeo CDZ (NJ) emulator, which are source ports of the original NeoCD emulator (Fabrice Martinez).

NeoCD RX is a "homebrew application" which means you will need a way to run unsigned code on your Nintendo Wii. The best website for getting started with Wii homebrew is WiiBrew (www.wiibrew.org).

Based/forked from:

(Under GPL License)

FEATURES

  • Z80 emulator core 3.6
  • M68000 emulator core 3.3
  • Wii Remote, Wii Remote Plus, Wii Remote+Nunchuk, and GameCube controller support
  • SD/SDHC, USB, WKF (GameCube), IDE-EXI V1, DVD support
  • UStealth USB devices support
  • Region select for uncut content and extra languages (USA / Europe / Japan)
  • Neo Geo CD Virtual Memory Card (8KiB battery-backed SRAM chip) support. Save directly to SD/USB or to your physical GameCube card for max nostalgia!
  • Sound FX / Music 3-Band equalizer
  • Super fast loading times. Original console weakness is no more!
  • Extensive options to suit every play style
  • Available in various skins/colors
  • Open Source!

GETTING STARTED

INSTALLATION AND USE

An SD card is highly recommended. To use NeoCD-RX on the GameCube, you will need to extract the .zip file to the root of your SD card. You can rename neocd-rx.dol to whatever you want and put it wherever you like, just make sure you don't rename the folders!

Finally, you need to obtain a proper dump of the Neo Geo CD/CDZ console BIOS. Copy the file inside the "\NeoCDRX\bios" directory and name it "NeoCD.bin". The emulator only works with the following:

Neo Geo CDZ BIOS (NeoCD.bin)
Size: 524.288 bytes
CRC32: DF9DE490
MD5: F39572AF7584CB5B3F70AE8CC848ABA2
SHA-1: 7BB26D1E5D1E930515219CB18BCDE5B7B23E2EDA

Neo Geo CDZ BIOS (NeoCD.bin)
Size: 524.288 bytes
CRC32: 33697892
MD5: 11526D58D4C524DAEF7D5D677DC6B004
SHA-1: B0F1C4FA8D4492A04431805F6537138B842B549F

Once you are done, you can proceed to run the emulator. Additionally, you can install the NeoCD-RX Forwarder Channel in your Wii or vWii System Menu, or the special NeoCD-RX Channel for Wii U, which reads the configuration and necessary files from your device "\NeoCDRX" folder, be it SD or USB.

PREPARING THE GAMES FOR USE WITH THE EMULATOR

Note: This is planned to change in the near future. I am planning some big changes to streamline this process, but will offer backwards compatibility to users who go through the trouble of setting it up this way.

For every game disc, you need to create a subdirectory inside the included "\NeoCDRX\games" named whatever you like, and copy all the game data files there. Inside this folder, create another subdirectory called "mp3", where you have to copy your music tracks. IMPORTANT: even if you won't use the music, the folder is needed.

The music tracks need to be encoded from the original CD's Red Book standard 44.1 kHz WAV, to MP3 format (128kbps minimum, or better), named exactly "TrackXX.mp3" where XX is a number that always starts at 02, as the data track is always 01. Free CD audio ripping software is readily available.

Examples and pictures are inside the NeoCDRX_manual.pdf https://github.com/niuus/NeoCDRX/blob/main/NeoCDRX_manual.pdf

After this, you are more than ready to start playing. Each game folder you make will be treated by the emulator as a full CD.

CONFIGURATION

To configure NeoCD-RX, press 'A' on the "Settings" box. This will bring up a screen where you can configure the following:

  • Region
    • Will allow you to change the emulated console region, to access other languages and in some cases, change or uncensor game content (fatalities, blood, difficulty, lives, title screens, etc.). Reload the game (not reset) for the setting to take effect.
  • Save Device
    • Offers two options, use "SD/USB" to save the SRAM memory (sort of a virtual memory card implemented inside the real Neo Geo CD console) directly to the media drive, or use "MEM Card" to save to a physical GameCube Memory Card, as you would on a real Neo Geo AES, to take your progress to another console, or just for the nostalgia factor.
  • Menu Toggle
    • Allows you to customize the gamepad buttons which will pause emulation and bring you back to the main menu
  • Skip BIOS
    • Skips the Neo Geo BIOS animation. Saves a lot of time loading into games, but you miss out on the nostalgia. );
  • FX / Music Equalizer
    • Allows you to raise the volume on sound FX or MP3 tracks, or raise the gain in Low / Mid / High frequencies to your liking.
  • Graphics Settings
    • Crop overscan
      • Shows or hides the left and right edges of the screen which were normally hidden by old CRTs and aren't meant to be seen. Disabling this will reveal graphical artifacts present in the original games.
    • Filter Mode
      • Lets you choose between "Bilinear" sampling and "Nearest" (nearest neighbor) sampling. Bilinear smooths things out to give them a more natural and authentic look. Nearest neighbor gives you sharp, clean, pixel perfect graphics in the highest definition.
    • Video Mode
      • Can either automatically detect the best video mode (recommended), or lets you override it to force progressive or interlaced video.

CONTROLS

SUPPORTED CONTROLLERS

NeoCD RX currently supports the following:

	• GameCube controller

	• Wii Remote (horizontal)

	• Wii Remote Plus (or Wii MotionPlus adapter)

	• Wii Remote+Nunchuk

DEFAULT MAPPINGS

GameCube Controller

		Neo Geo A = A
		Neo Geo B = B
		Neo Geo C = X
		Neo Geo D = Y
		Neo Geo Select = Z
		Neo Geo Start = START
		Neo Geo directions = D-pad or Analog Stick

Wii Remote (horizontal)

		Neo Geo A = 1
		Neo Geo B = 2
		Neo Geo C = B
		Neo Geo D = A
		Neo Geo Select = MINUS (-)
		Neo Geo Start = PLUS (+)
		Neo Geo directions = Dpad (horizontal)

Wii Remote+ Nunchuk

		Neo Geo A = A
		Neo Geo B = B
		Neo Geo C = PLUS (+)
		Neo Geo D = 1
		Neo Geo Select = MINUS (-)
		Neo Geo Start = PLUS (+)
		Neo Geo directions = Analog Stick

EMULATOR MAPPINGS

Force saving to Virtual Memory Card (while in-game, for the games that support it)

"R" button (GameCube controller)
"PLUS (+)" and "MINUS (-)" buttons together (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Navigation

D-pad or Left Analog Stick (GameCube controller)
D-pad (Horizontal Wii Remote)
D-pad or Nunchuk Analog Stick (Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Enter directory or Menu option / Change setting

"A" button (GameCube controller)
Button "2" (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Go back from any Menu

"B" button (GameCube controller)
Button "1" (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Go back from Game List

"Z" button (GameCube controller)
Button "HOME" (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Navigate one page backwards on the Game List (when you have more than 8 titles)

"L" button or d-pad left (GameCube controller)
"MINUS (-)" button (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Navigate one page forward on the Game List (when you have more than 8 titles)

"R" button or d-pad right (GameCube controller)
"PLUS (+)" button (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Mount and run a valid game directory

"A" button (GameCube controller)
Button "2" (Wii Remote / Wii Remote+Nunchuk)

Failsafe video mode (Force Menu to 480i with Component / Digital cable)

Hold "L" button right before the emulator is loading to activate

MORE INFO

RECENT CHANGELOG

[1.1.00 - Feb 22, 2026]

  • Improved hardware support
    • Added support for GCLoader & CubeODE
    • Added support for exFAT SD cards
    • Faster loading times thanks to libogc2 & libdvm upgrade
  • Improved settings
    • Added settings save/load
    • Added filtering options
      • Re-written GX pipeline gives you pixel perfect integer scaling.
      • You can use nearest neighbor filtering for ultra-sharp, perfectly-crisp graphics, or bilinear to smooth out the jaggies!
    • Added option to skip Neo Geo BIOS
    • Added "Crop Overscan" option to hide unintended graphical glitches
    • You can now set a preferred controller button combo or button to bring up the main menu
    • You can now set a default load device so you can jump into games even faster!
    • You can nowforce progressive scan or interlacing!
  • Upgraded user interface
    • Unusable buttons are now hidden
    • Improved file browser
    • Selected button stands out better (Pretty rainbowssssss!!!!!!)
  • Changed button mappings to make them more intuitive
  • Bug fixes
    • Fixed bug where a power cycle was required to re-launch NeoCDRX after closing it.
    • Fixed a bug in the file browser where a page could be empty if you scrolled it weirdly
    • Other minor bug fixes
  • The entire experience has been overhauled!
  • Huge thank you to niuus for maintaining the original. I couldn't have done it without them, or all the other amazing and talent people who built the foundation of this software. Check out the in-app credits menu!

[older update history in the NeoCDRX_manual.pdf] https://github.com/niuus/NeoCDRX/blob/main/NeoCDRX_manual.pdf

CREDITS & THANKS

• NeoCD-Wii (Wiimpathy / Jacobeian)
• NeoCD Redux Unofficial (megalomaniac)
• NeoGeo CD Redux (Infact)
• NEO-CD REDUX (softdev)
• NeoCD/SDL 0.3.1 (Foster)
• NeoGeo CDZ (NJ)
• NeoCD 0.8 (Fabrice Martinez)
• [M68000 C Core](https://github.com/kstenerud/Musashi) (Karl Stenerud)
• [MAME Z80 C Core](https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/devices/cpu/z80) (Juergen Buchmueller)
• Sound Core (MAMEDev.org)
• The EQ Cookbook (Neil C / Etanza Systems)
• The EQ Cookbook (float only version code - Shagkur)
• WKF & IDE-EXI V1 (code from [Swiss GC](https://github.com/emukidid/swiss-gc) - emu_kidid)
• libMAD (Underbit Technologies)
• libZ (zlib.org)
• TehSkeen forum (2006-2009)
• NeoCDRX emu bg - Style 1 (catar1n0)
• NeoCDRX menu design (NiuuS)
• NeoCDRX v1.1.0 revamp (TriVoxel)