NEO-GEO Information

Not to many people today may know exactly what a Neo-Geo is. The Neo-Geo video game system was created in 1989 by SNK of Japan. It's first incarnation was the Multi Video System (MVS). This was actually arcade hardware that used the then revolutionary idea of having a single system board and using cartridges to hold the actual games. Much like a Nintendo Entertainment System would. While this sounds like common sense, at the time most arcade games were distributed on a single PC Board. Making life for arcade operators expensive and troublesome. With the Neo Geo arcade owners could use the same cabinet, monitor, and control layout for a multitude of games, making the Neo-Geo one of the best systems at the time.

A Neo-Geo 4 Slot MVS

After a few years of rising popularity, SNK released the Neo-Geo Advanced Entertainment System (AES). This home console was also revolutionary for it's time in that it was the exact same hardware and cartridges of the MVS system. So unlike the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis, the AES would literally have "perfect" conversions of it's arcade games. However using this technology made the AES system and games extremely expensive. In fact the AES retailed for $650 or more at launch and individual game cartridges retailed for $200-$300 a piece!

The Neo-Geo AES

Despite the insane prices the AES actually enjoyed moderate success, especially in Japan. Especially after the birth of the modern "fighting game". This happened after the immense popularity of Capcom's Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior. Arguably the best fighting game of it's time, Street Fighter 2 practically created the standards for the modern 2D fighting game as we know it today. SNK, a close competitor to Capcom, was not to be left behind. It soon countered with great fighters like Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. While these games never overtook Capcom and it's Street Fighter series, they certainly gained quite a cult following. However it was in 1994 when SNK released it's award winning (and fan favorite) King of Fighters (KOF) series that things really began to kick off for the Neo-Geo.

It was also in 1994 that SNK realized that in order to break into the mainstream console market it would have to make it's unbelievable arcade games more available to the home market. And even SNK realized that at $300 a piece, AES carts would never truly hit the bigtime. Hence the Neo-Geo CD (NeoCD) was born! It retailed for almost $700 for the system, however the games could be had at a "mere" $50 a pop! Unfortunately there was a single, but fatal flaw with the NeoCD. It only had a single speed CD drive. Hence once the games broke into the higher Meg counts the loading times got horrendous. In fact you can head over to www.NeoGeoCD.com and check out a comprehensive list of the loading times for different games on the NeoCD. In fact the loading times got so bad towards then end of the NeoCD's life that one of it's final games, The Last Blade 2, was almost unplayable due to it's extreme loading times.

Finnally we come to the year 2002. And believe it or not, the NEO-GEO lives! That's right, the old workhorse for 1989 is still chugging along to this very day! Even though SNK has officially closed it's doors, it's properties have been bought up by different companies (click here for the full list). This past year we have seen the release of The King of Fighters 2001, Metal Slug 4, and Rage of the Dragons. And if the news we've heard holds true, we can look foward to not only The King of Fighters 2002, but a Neo fan's dream: SNK vs. Capcom. These titles have not only been released on the MVS platform, but thanks to Neo-Geo.com they have also been released on the AES platform as well. In fact there are ports of KOF2k, KOF2k1, and Metal Slug 3 planned for Sony's Playstation 2 and Sega's Dreamcast.

However, as good as all that is, it can not be denied that one of the most popular (if slightly immoral) way to play Neo Geo games is through Emulation (EMU). The EMU scene has grown to gigantic proportions in the last few years and it has allowed anyone with a PC or Macintosh computer to play "classic" arcade games on their computer. With today's comptuer speeds and emulation technology (not to mention TV-Out and PC Joysticks) the games play as good if not better than they did on the original hardware they were intended to run on. While the legality of emulators and ROM's (the game files downloaded off the internet) is questionable at best, it still remains as the most popular way to play Neo Geo games today.

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