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That's the only version the Polymega semi-officially supports. They even check hashes.  I even tested with unibios for CD and CDZ, same result.  From what I've found, they use a modified version of MAME for Neo-Geo CD support.

I did have the CDZ BIOS on my SD card. Tried it with and without. Same result both ways.

I tried the CD version on a Polymega with their BIOS and one sideloaded (NeoGeo CDZ), and got a mostly white screen.  This even covers the playfield in-game. Is there something that I could've done wrong?

Check out MetroidCrime playing through the demo of Lifelike in between Sonic 1 speedrun practice.  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1106981900