The Official NEO-GEO Thread!

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Polygon@Polygon May 21

 

 

From early design docs to KOF15, we look at the evolution of King of Fighters over the past 27 years https://polygon.com/interviews/2021/5/21/22445984/how-king-of-fighters-has-survived-for-27-years?utm_campaign=polygon&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter…

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

稲坂浩臣（STUDIO24） @studio24inasaka

 

 

■新企画公開■ 原型師、メーカーとしての新たな一歩。制作させてもらいたいSNKキャラはたくさんいますし夢は広がるばかりですが、まずは１つずつ全力で向き合います！ 他画像や詳細の告知もありますので、まだご覧になっていない方は是非動画をご覧下さい！ https://youtu.be/ZQI04hr4TlQ

 

#餓狼伝説　#SNK

Translated from Japanese by

 

■ New project release ■ A new step as a prototype master and manufacturer. There are many SNK characters that I would like to produce, and my dreams are only expanding, but first of all, I will do my best to face each other! There are other images and details announced, so if you haven't seen it yet, please watch the video! https://youtu.be/ZQI04hr4TlQ

 

#餓狼伝説#SNK

 

 

7:52 AM · May 21, 2021·

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

STUDIO24　FiguMentary

2.72K subscribers

 

 

SUBSCRIBE

■ Contents ■ It has been 9 years since STUDIO24 was launched. "Become a singer-songwriter in the figure industry!" Modeling, coloring, mass production. Do it all yourself! Believe that there is unprecedented value! I came with that feeling! I finally reach the point I was aiming for nine years ago. But the game really starts from here. Start from here. Please stay tuned! We will do our best to deliver the best impression! ■ STUDIO 24 ■ When you know soft vinyl, you can see humans. When you can see humans, the figures become more fun. When figures become fun, life becomes fun. This is true. Click here for the HP of the figure production studio STUDIO24 ↓

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Thank you so much to AtariAge member @Villordsutch (Rod Bell) for alerting me to this article. 

 

 

Eurogamer@eurogamer May 23

 

 

It was the most powerful console the world had ever seen. Here's the story of SNK's Neo Geo.

 

 

When the arcade came home: a short oral history of the Neo Geo

eurogamer.net

 

 

When the arcade came home: a short oral history of the Neo Geo

The future is now. 

Article by Martin Robinson, Deputy Editor

  

23 May 2021

Sega and Nintendo stole the headlines in the 90s, but SNK stole the hearts of a generation with its exquisite Neo Geo machine, a console that fully delivered on the promise of arcade quality video games in your own home: it was, after all, an arcade machine you could effectively put under your own TV.

First released in its full-spec MVS arcade cabinet before the home version - dubbed the AES, or Advanced Entertainment System - followed early in 1990, the Neo Geo still stands out as a console with an allure all of its own. Maybe it's how relatively unobtainable they were to contemporary audiences - the console came in at around £500 while games would cost up to £200 a piece - or maybe it's how it arrived just before 3D gaming took hold, its 2D action titles still standing out as a high watermark for the form, but the Neo Geo's appeal hasn't dulled in all the years since.

SNK slipped into the shadows at the turn of the century, the collapse of the fighting genre which was its main trade as well as the commercial failure of the Neo Geo leading to its bankruptcy in 2001. The company changed hands over the years, and changed its strategy in the process, moving from pachinko machines to compilations and new takes on established properties, but it wasn't until 2016 that fully glory was restored, the SNK name being retained alongside that iconic tagline 'The Future is Now'.

 

 

Momentum has been gathering ever since, with key members from SNK's past returning to help forge the next chapter in the company's history. After 2019's successful Samurai Shodown reboot, a new King of the Fighters is due later this year, with a new Metal Slug and even word of an all-new console imminent. Before all that, though, we got together some of those who helped make the SNK name so revered to give us an insight into its 90s heyday, and into what made these games so special.

Joining us are vice director of SNK studio Naoto Abe, who previously worked on titles such as Three Bount Count (or Fire Suplex, as it was known in Japan), King of the Monsters and Fatal Fury; Nobuyuki Kuroki, game designer at SNK who previously worked on Garou: Mark of the Wolves before returning to help the most recent Samurai Shodown; and finally Kazuhiro Tanaka, who worked under the name Max D as one of the main artists on Metal Slug 1, 3 and X.

 

SNK was formed in 1973, going on to make its name in the arcades of the early 80s with the likes of Ikari Warriors, Athena and Alpha Mission (a period wonderfully chronicled in 2018's excellent SNK 40th Anniversary Collection that shines a light on the company's earlier work). It was with the invention of the MVS, though, that SNK entered what many see as its golden era, the modular arcade cabinet that allowed operators to swap cartridges in and out proving remarkably successful.

Naoto Abe: In the 80s, you had the bubble economy in Japan, and all industry was riding really high on that. But in the 90s, it crashed. A lot of people were suddenly out of a job, and the economy tanked. They didn't really have much money. And so a lot of people found themselves instead investing a lot more time into games, going to arcade centres. Even though Japan experienced the end of the bubble economy, the games industry was actually doing really, really well. It didn't experience that kind of implosion, like what happened with the States and the game crash in 1983.

[The games industry in Japan] didn't experience that. And so that led to this rapid expansion, especially in the fighting game scene, and arcades in general. That led to people at SNK - producers, directors - getting more ambitious and making more games because they were experiencing this big rise. There's a lot of motivation to make these big bombastic games as well.

The masterstroke would come when SNK decided to bring the arcade home with the Advanced Entertainment System. When it launched in 1990, the Neo Geo AES was several leagues ahead of the competition in terms of sheer grunt, its cutting edge visuals making some of the most iconic games of the era possible.

Nobuyuki Kuroki: Before the Neo Geo came it was never as if we were going to directly compete [with Sega and Nintendo]. We had this idea that we were going to make these arcade cabinets - but it was about bringing that entertainment home. We were in the same market as other competitors, but we had two ways of getting capital. It wasn't about going directly to beat other competitors, and more about seeing if there's room for us here.

Kazuhiro Tanaka: In terms of specifics, the Neo Geo was meant to be more powerful, stronger and faster than any other competitor out there. And so we already had this really powerful machine in place - now we've got to fill it up with detail and do what we can.

The Neo Geo was a premium piece of kit but it also came with a premium price tag, with AES cartridges costing around four times as much as their competitors, while the console itself carrying a $649 price tag when it released in the US.

Naoto Abe: It was extremely expensive for one game, and the actual system was around 50,000 yen, which was a lot of money at that time. It was a premium experience, obviously. The CEO at that time wanted the arcade quality, but in the comfort of your own home. This wasn't a kid's toy - this was kind of different. It had to be really strong, it was black so it was more premium, it has this real feel to it. There definitely was that adult quality to it at that time.

Nobuyuki Kuroki: Of course everyone's initial reaction was 'jeez that's expensive!' You know, they were really shocked and it was just ridiculous at that time. But for some players, the hardcore gamers - when you factor in how many times they go to the arcade, how many hundres of dollars you're actually putting into keep playing those games, it actually made sense to buy a Neo Geo, you'd actually save money.

At that time there were even super hardcore players that would buy the actual arcade cabinet of a game that they really wanted and actually have that at home now they would pay almost three times the price of the Neo Geo at that time, but you have these extremely devoted hardcore people that went and did that.

To the average consumer, sure it was expensive, but to a hardcore gamer and somebody actually went to the arcade and was all about that lifestyle it was pretty good. And at SNK we had employee discounts, so I was able to get a pretty nice pretty nice percentage taken off of my Neo Geo when I bought it at that time! I bought one when I joined SNK!

Naoto Abe: I was against the idea and didn't buy one! But if you're out there in the arcades - it definitely made sense to our main market.

With headquarters in Osaka - a city whose bawdy spirit puts it in contrast to the more sedate neighbouring Kyoto - SNK was a boisterous, lively place in the 90s, with that energy finding its way into the company's staggering output of games at the time.

Naoto Abe: Back then we were all very young and energetic - we had a lot of power to go! Of course there was a lot of work, and we worked a lot - and we worked until late. But it was fun! We were in our prime, so it didn't really bother us that much.

A lot of the people coming into SNK at that time, especially from different colleges and schools, were very unique. They had really unique, bombastic, interesting personalities. But of course they were also new to the game as well. You did the work you had to do - there wasn't really a slacking off mentality. What was common back then is the work that you've got, you would actually give back a lot more than what was requested of you. You can see that a lot of the games weren't cut and paste type affairs. These games, you get that a lot was put into them.

Nobuyuki Kuroki: Compared to now, whenever you want to make a fighting game or any game in general - indies aside - even when just making one character you need so many modellers and so many animators, you need people to look at the different types of industries in China and America, you need financial planners and all that stuff. But back then, as long as you got an artist, a planner, and a programmer, that was basically all you needed. You could make a game with a really small amount of people, and so as long as the people in that team had that uniqueness to themselves, and really bombastic personalities, you could crank out some really memorable titles.

It's that punky ethos that ensured that these games weren't just memorable - they were iconic. The Neo Geo hosted all-time classics such as King of Fighters '98, Last Blade 2 and the achingly beautiful swansong Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Picking any one title out for particular attention seems a bit unfair, but seeing as we're in the presence of one of the key talents behind Metal Slug, it seemed only right to dig into what made the muscular run and gun series - still a high watermark for 2D visuals, in my own opinion - so special.

Kazuhiro Tanaka: On Metal Slug, I would get something from the planner and then I'd be like 'how about this' and send it back. Of course that would require more work, but that finds itself in the final product of the game. That's why those games are so refined and unique as well.

It was tough. There was a lot of going back and forth. At the very beginning of Metal Slug, it was just going to be tanks - though we realised that was kind of boring. And so they decided to add the first two characters, Marco and Tarma. You could jump into the tank and get out and shoot and all that fun stuff - that made it a little bit more fun.

In terms of the worldview and the world design of Metal Slug, we were instructed to give it this slightly darker tone. When you play the game, it's supposed to not feel super clean, you're supposed to feel dirty and it's this dirty look to it. It's a world that's actually been lived in.

We worked really hard on that aspect and, but also the way that the tanks move. The machines in that world move aren't like the traditional ones. They're made out of metal, of course, but the metal doesn't really move that way and it's more like a living animal in the sense that those movements are more biological, which you can see if you look at the actual Metal Slug itself, it bends in ways that it shouldn't actually bend.

Of course there's that pride in your work that you want to beat other competitors. You have other people in the industry and you want to be better than them! You want to make the best product and show all the other competitors out there that you guys are top dog. So you have that aspect! We looked at our competitors and thought that's really good, and we learned from that, but we also wanted to improve and go beyond what they're able to do.

When it comes to the sprite work and the animations of the characters, you only have a limited amount of pixels. So what do you do with that limited amount? You have to really work hard on making the most of what you had. And that came in the form of making movements - how do you show that movement? The way that we were able to achieve it was by altering the gradiation variation on some of the colours.

One of the tests that we'd give to new animators and pixel artists was to make this extremely small object - like half of a pixel - show some movement, some animation. It was that kind of attention to detail, trying to fill up as much of the space that you can in those games, that really made them really pop out and made them look really good.

Nothing lasts forever, sadly, and with the fighting game boom coming to an end - and numerous other factors - SNK filed for bankruptcy in October 2001. It wasn't a full-stop as such, though the intervening years felt like a limbo period until, with the help of outside investment and a restoration of the old SNK name and slogan 'The Future is Now' in 2016, the company marked its proper return. In the years since we've seen impressive new entries in the King of Fighters series as well as Samurai Shodown, with a new Metal Slug on the horizon as well as murmurings of a new console from the company. They're not plans SNK is able to share more on at present, but as it stands it's steadily retaining its past status, with the old generation returning to help guide the new.

Kazuhiro Tanaka: Of course all three of us are creators, artists, and SNK is a place where we started. At the very heart we're creators, and here we can make what we want to make. And so a lot of people return here with their own conditions - I want to do this, I want to do that. And somebody said 'Well, sure, you know, you guys were here before, why not?' When I returned to SNK, having previously worked on Metal Slug games, I was able to return doing pixel art for the mobile games as well. It's something I really enjoy, and I find a lot of fun in it. It's worked out in everyone's favour at the end.

Nobuyuki Kuroki: The way that games are made greatly differs now. At the old SNK it was small teams, you could kind of make what you want as long as you got it done at the end of the day. There was a lot of freedom. Nowadays there's a lot more planning, and that planning needs to be with a lot stricter measures and you need a lot more people working together, so there's less room for error. But that doesn't mean it's any less fun compared to you know, older SNK. There's still a lot of enjoyment that people get out of working here. It's just the way we make the games that's different.

Buy King of Fighters XIII from Amazon [?]

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

SNKエンタテインメント公式@snk_enter

 

 

今日は保護猫の日ということで… 伝説の狼ならぬ、伝説の猫にあこがれる保護猫さんをば…( ˘ω˘ ) #SNK #KOF #餓狼伝説 #ネコ

Translated from Japanese by

 

Today is Protected Cat Day ... A protected cat who longs for a legendary cat, not a legendary wolf ... (˘ω˘) #SNK#KOF#餓狼伝説#ネコ

 

 

2:14 AM · May 25, 2021

 

Anthony.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

メタルスラッグアタック公式(MSA) @MetalSlugAttack

 

 

【MSA 更新情報】 新規ユニット「探求のオデット」を追加しました！ 6月1日まで先行獲得を実施中です！ #MSA #メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20210525_01c0bv3.html…

 

Translated from Japanese by

 

[MSA update information] A new unit "Inquiry Odette" has been added! Advance acquisition is in progress until June 1st! #MSA#メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20210525_01c0bv3.html…

 

 

 

9:00 PM · May 24, 2021

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

メタルスラッグアタック公式(MSA) @MetalSlugAttack

 

 

【MSA 更新情報】 メダルクランクを更新しました！ 「バレンタインベアトリス」が出現しやすくなるピックアップを実施中です！ #MSA #メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20210525_02p3ra0.html…

 

Translated from Japanese by

 

[MSA update information] The medal crank has been updated! We are picking up "Valentine Beatrice" to make it easier to appear! #MSA#メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20210525_02p3ra0.html…

 

 

 

1:00 AM · May 25, 2021

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

メタルスラッグアタック公式(MSA) @MetalSlugAttack

 

 

【MSA 更新情報】 新規ユニット「アイス モンストルム」を追加しました！ 6月1日まで開放されるキャンペーンボックスクランクから獲得できます！ #MSA #メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20210525_03v27zz.html…

 

Translated from Japanese by

 

[MSA update information] A new unit "Ice Monstrum" has been added! You can get it from the campaign box crank that will be open until June 1st! #MSA#メタルスラッグアタック https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug_attack/news/20210525_03v27zz.html…

 

 

 

1:05 AM · May 25, 2021·

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[Steven Pendleton]

Looks like Terraonion is out of NeoSD Pro AES carts. Stone Age Gamer still has them, so if you want one, get it there since you have no other options.

 

Damn, I forgot about the pounds -> yen exchange rate. Looks like Xeno Crisis is quite expensive, now that I checked it again. The 25% off helps, but it's still a lot of cash, especially when I already have the Dreamcast and Japanese MD versions.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[+Charlie Cat]

16 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Looks like Terraonion is out of NeoSD Pro AES carts. Stone Age Gamer still has them, so if you want one, get it there since you have no other options.

 

Damn, I forgot about the pounds -> yen exchange rate. Looks like Xeno Crisis is quite expensive, now that I checked it again. The 25% off helps, but it's still a lot of cash, especially when I already have the Dreamcast and Japanese MD versions.

Interesting to know Steve. Welp, looks like SAG helps us again for those that likes to wait. Thank you for the heads-up bro.  

 

Anthony..

 

 

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Brian Hargrove@turfmastaMay 24

 

 

Photos don’t do it justice, but@retrotink2
’s RetroTink 5X makes this thing look incredible on my TV. #NeoGeo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Brian Hargrove@turfmasta 8h

 

 

Nothing too exciting, but I won an auction for some slides from E3 '95 of Fatal Fury 3. Shows an early version with some differences in health bar and fonts/colors. #NeoGeo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthony.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Brian Hargrove@turfmasta 6h

 

 

While they aren’t the identical to the slide images, I found the same health bars in the April ‘95 issue of EGM.

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Pix’n Love Publishing@PixnLove_Store May 24

 

 

Metal Slug celebrates its 25th anniversary on NEOGEO AES !For this occasion, Pix'n Love and SNK are happy to unveil the games Metal Slug Anthology and Metal Slug XX in physical PS4 edition !See you soon for a second surprise! 

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Pix’n Love Publishing@PixnLove_Store7h

 

 

Many of you have asked for it!  Metal Slug Anthology and Metal Slug XX will also be offered in a Collector's Edition with an official NEOGEO snapcase including both games, an artbook and a CD featuring a selection of tracks!  More info soon!

 

 

 

 

Anthony..

[The Undecided]

I’ve had a hard couple of months and Anthony was very kind and bought me all the snes Neo geo ports. I am very lucky to have a friend like him! 
 

Here are the games in all their glory.

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by The Undecided

[Mikebloke]

Received my neo geo today. It was something of a relief to know everything worked XD I had two games delivered from UK sellers first, then got the replacement PSU from RetroGameSupply (still delivering to UK through ebay!). 

 

I waited out on getting a console till I felt I could get a fair price, and boxed, because my consoles not in use needs to be tetris'd when not in use (though to be fair, it'll be taking the place of the NGCD of being permanently out!). I also made sure I had a memory card with the one I bought for ease and to save me looking for another one somewhere else. 

 

So plugged it in, used my Scart cable from the CD console, turned on straight away, phew! No fires in any of the electronics, no console errors, blank screens or anything to worry about. I appreciate what others were saying about the AES controller, and perhaps I'm just in giddy mode but I don't think it's too bad, perhaps I've been playing CD-i too long. I will keep my CD controllers out ready but I'll keep with the AES one for now. Feels nice. 

 

I'll do a picture tomorrow when I can put my entire neo geo set across the AES, CD and pocket, nothing rare or exciting but pretty happy with what I got so far. 

 

Guess a consolised MVS is next right. 

[Tanooki]

11 hours ago, The Undecided said:

I’ve had a hard couple of months and Anthony was very kind and bought me all the snes Neo geo ports. I am very lucky to have a friend like him! 
 

Here are the games in all their glory.

 

Very nice, but no Bust-A-Move?  SFC had more too a bit.

[Reaperman]

I've got a (new fake)-and the next 5 days off to find out how to be 'not terrible' at the game, and probably review the game and workmanship on it. There's no confusing it for legit visually, which is nice, IMO, and for a bit more they'll include a shockbox.

 

As pictured it's $60 shipped, which seems reasonable, so if this one works out, I'll probably buy some other games I don't really like enough to pay the going rate on. I especially like the thought of a $60 crossed swords 2

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Reaperman

[Tanooki]

@Reaperman No doubt, and really in the end, there's no harm in not feeding into it as it's already gone way too far thanks to a mixture of toxic rich and toxic stupid individuals and where that kind of overlaps.  It has slammed the values up like mad in the last 18months, and in some delayed cases (like gameboy brand overall) this year alone.  Stuff has gone up like 3-4x the 2019 prices if not dramatically worse, and I'm talking even just loose carts.

 

Usually those fakes are part fakes, often you'll find people sacrificed old NeoGeo SNK boards from another game much like how NES stuff was stupidly cannibalized for years before new ones came out.  NG is catching up, it's in the middle, so I'm kind of curious which that one is.  $60 is a hell of a really good deal.  $100 seems about average shipped domestically for stuff, so when it comes to certain games that were grossly expensive (Twinkle Star Sprites) or stuff that was MVs but never made it (Ironclad) or convered NeoCD assets to MVS (Crossed Swords 2) it makes a lot of sense.  I've got those, well, had, should get Ironclad back.  I'd still like to get the 138in1 to nail down a few nasty ones like Sengoku 2 but bootleg maybe better at this rate.

[Reaperman]

Yeah, I've pretty much flipped on bootlegs over the last 15 or so years. early on they were fragile, obvious hack-jobs that often had audio/visual/gameplay glitches, and back then they cost too much for what they were. Why get a $25 KOF 98 boot, when the real deal is $35?

 

Now, the boots have (generally) gotten to be fairly polished devices with boards created for the purpose, and the price of legit carts are now considerably higher. And this one looks pretty honest as far as not passing itself off as real.  I still mark them as 'fake' with marker, just so you guys don't yell at my wife when she sells this stuff after I die.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Reaperman

[+Charlie Cat]

7 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

 

ALRIGHT!!! Excellent to know that you received your Neo-Geo AES unit Mike. We are so excited for you to be a proud owner on having one in the collection and we wish you many years of enjoyment playing on this gem of a unit. Well done my good man. We really are thrilled for you and can't wait to enjoy all the excellent titles that are available for you to play on your unit bro.  

 

Thinking of purchasing a consolized MVS next Mike? That's great to know. We can recommend some excellent builders to you to help with your interest on buying one kid sir. Plus, it would be a fantastic why to start the Summer right by owning one. 

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

18 hours ago, The Undecided said:

I’ve had a hard couple of months and Anthony was very kind and bought me all the snes Neo geo ports. I am very lucky to have a friend like him! 
 

Here are the games in all their glory.

 

 

Hey Zack,

 

Glad that the games arrived safe and sound and thank you for sharing the pic of them bro. Hope you enjoy them forever and sorry about the experiences that you faced during this couple of months bro. Hope these games will help you be entertain and forget about the problems. 

 

Also Zack, thank you for being there for me with my mother when I was facing hardships as well. Were glad to have you aboard on the Neo-Geo thread , the AtariAge forums, and having you as a friend my good man. 

 

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

NeoHomeBrew@NeoHomeBrew 9h

 

 

The Hypernoid Neo Geo AES port has now a Game Options screen. Due to the lack of internal memory Top 10 Ranking and Options can be saved to memory card. Also, Score, Stage Number & Credits can be saved and loaded. #neogeo #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

 

 

 

Anthony..

[Reaperman]

A quick vid of my 'main stick' --a later era MAS super pro stick